The Nativity

I'll be interested to see The Nativity, a drama about the birth of Christ, Mon 20th - Thurs 23rd Dec, 7-7:30pm, BBC1. Let's hope it gets people talking about Jesus.

The World's Strictest Parents

I thought the Bible-believing Christians from Alabama did a great job of having 2 unruly British teenagers stay with them for a week for The World's Strictest Parents (which was on BBC 1 tonight).

The teenage boy described himself as gay and the family seemed to cope with that!

Both kids left having found some things hard, and there was plenty of cursing along the way, but in the end they were sorry to leave the family and very thankful to them for the experience. They went home wanting so say "thank you" to their parents and show them more respect, help out at home etc. having discovered that they'd been rather selfish and self-absorbed prior to this programme was made. The boy said he wanted to get back to the happy smiley person he'd been before he became negative with his parents etc.

The family aimed to show unconditional love in an atmosphere of fun and respect with clear boundaries. The Christian guy lost his cool a bit at one point, but he and the girl seemed to apologise and make up the next day. It was very clear the family were on the kids' side and wanted the best for them.

The girl spoke of the man's sincerity and how she found she could talk to him and so on.

The family's own 3 kids seemed happy and well adjusted and the man spoke movingly about his own relationship with his father and previous problems with alcohol dependency etc.

Very highly recommended.

Interesting, disputed or wrong?

Whatever is the world coming to and I never thought I'd hear the like and how times change, and so on.

I was interested - not to say shocked and distressed - just now to hear "disinterest" used on a BBC Radio 4 trailer as if it meant "uninterest", which to my mind it clearly does not.

The choice was no doubt influenced by the sequence of "disgust" and "dis- I forget what" in the phrase and I can understand that a tired presenter might make such a slip, but to me it seems unforgivable in a pre-planned trailer. One would think that someone in the BBC would have noticed it before broadcast and that the phones would have been red-hot since.

The "dis"/ "un" interested distinction is just the kind that we need to preserve as it allows the convenient and economical distinguishing of two related ideas.

However, I was surprised to see that the Concise OED on my desk allows:

Disinterest, noun, 1. disputed, lack of interest, unconcern; 2. impartiality

The usage note says:

The use of disinterested in sense 1 to mean 'lack of interest' is sometimes objected to, but it is in this sense that it is most commonly found and the alternative uninterest is rare. The phrase lack of interest avaoids both ambiguity and accusations of incorrect usage.

Even a lack of interest need not be unambiguos, as in the phrase, "he lacked (an / any) interest in Sky Television": does he not wish to watch it or does he not own shares in it?

Clearly usage determines meaning but this is a usage up with which we should not put.