Home Again

11 Responses to Home Again

1. A G

   January 14, 2007 at 9:43 pm

   welcome back – sounds like you had a great trip.

   Reply
2. Adammm, yum!

   January 14, 2007 at 11:56 pm

   Is there a word that’s like welcome but you say it when you’re not in place that the other has returned to?
   Like Welgo, maybe? Which I have of course just made up…
   Wilson is dead? I suspect he will write a book about it now and we’ll all be much the wiser.

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3. j

   January 15, 2007 at 12:53 am

   Is there a word that’s like welcome but you say it when you’re not in place that the other has returned to?
   Like Welgo, maybe?
   i love it.
   you should license it for public use, really.

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4. teigan

   January 15, 2007 at 1:22 am

   That’s all very well, but what do I say?
   I keep feeling like saying “welcome back” to people, which is absurd because they haven’t gone anywhere. I could use an appropriately modified variant thereof, like “welcome back sides reversed”. But this is all wrong.
   Ideally of course everyone would intuitively recognise that I’d been away and say “welcome back” straight off the bat.
   But in practice they can’t always tell.

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5. Adam

   January 15, 2007 at 2:52 am

   If you’re talking about welcoming them back into your life then there really isn’t a problem.

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6. teigan

   January 15, 2007 at 2:59 am

   Yes there is. If I say “welcome back” meaning implicitly “welcome back into my life”, they won’t understand – because as far as they’re concerned, they haven’t gone anywhere.
   And if I say “welcome back into my life”… that sounds totally gay. In the Cartmanny sort of sense.
   Think harder, cephalopod boy.

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7. wortwut

   January 15, 2007 at 8:36 am

   welcome back. hadda be said

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8. Adam

   January 15, 2007 at 10:14 am

   No, YOU think harder!
   Save for saying “It’s good to be back.” I can’t think of any sane alternative. Anything else would be completely insane and you’d look like a right idiot.
   I’m Scottish, I will save the day.

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9. teigan

   January 15, 2007 at 11:57 am

   >No, YOU think harder!
   If I thought any harder, my head would explode.
   >Anything else would be completely insane and you’d look like a
   >right idiot.
   You see my dillemma.
   >I’m Scottish, I will save the day.
   That’s what I pay you for. Saving the day, I mean. Not being Scottish. Although that’s also of value, I suppose. Especially since you are one of those freaky Scots who doesn’t sound Scottish at all. You are a Stealth Scotsman. That’s what you are.
   Oh, and AG & WW – cheers!

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10. A G

    January 15, 2007 at 8:56 pm

    “I keep feeling like saying “welcome back” to people, which is absurd because they haven’t gone anywhere.”
    I have the same problem except it’s when I’m about to go somewhere. People say ‘have a nice trip’ and i reflexively want to say, ‘thanks, you too!’

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11. teigan

    January 15, 2007 at 9:46 pm

    But at least in that scenario, you can say something like ‘See you when I get back’, or ‘Have fun without me’, or some such.
    There is just no sensible casual greeting phrase which conveys “I have been away, and now I’ve come back”. It’s a serious gap in English phraseology. I may have to complain. Indeed, I am already.

    Reply