Poseur alert

I would think that Brad (who just bought a 60 million dollar estate in France) could now quit a his day job and devote himself to his passion full-time. I see BP's commitment to living a green life (and green architecture) does not preclude him from jetting around the world constantly with his ever expanding family so that Angie can give birth in various different countries. Sorry but I'm not impressed with hypocritical Hollywood celebrities. Fine, you're obscenely rich, do whatever you want and spend your money as you see fit, but don't lecture the rest of the world on how to live. They need to get over their self-important egos and be the freaks of nature eye candy that they are.

Whilst I think Brad Pitt is hot.... wait? What were we talking about?

I'm waiting for him to use betwixt.

Brad Pitt's passion is architecture?

Gosh, I'm sure that I.M. Pei will be sweating at the thought of this hot new competitor and that Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson and the other greats will be watching anxiously from above to learn if their legacies are threatened.

To paraphrase the classic line, I say to BP: "Shut up and act already."

I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I think he's using the word incorrectly anyway. "Whilst" is used in place of "while" when actually discussing events occuring at the same time, not when "while" is being used in place of "although".

Of course, architecture being his passion doesn't necessarily mean he plans on being an architect. Some love art as a passion, and that means they surround themselves with it, not that they create it themselves.

He did buy, not build, that house. Maybe he's going to get into restoration. (Though using 'whilst' is ridiculous. Though given I hang around a lot of those KJV 1611 types, not as ridiculous as some things I've heard.)

Finally found the article. Looks like he's going to be helping design hotels in Dubai. (I think anyone can apparently do anything in Dubai, as long as they have enough money.)

Well, hopefully, he's got at least the technical skills. Unlike paint on a canvas, a building has to actually meet some safety standards and such.

So, why are we whining about some actor who likes architecture? Seriously, who freakin' cares?

Ooops, sorry, Roland. My mother spoke Latin with a Slavic accent. ;-)

(Actually, hoi polloi means "the many"; hoi laoi would mean "the people".)

Since we're being pedantic about Latin and Greek, actually hoi laoi would generally mean "the peoples, plural. Laos in Greek, like demos in Greek and populus and gens in Latin (and gente in Spanish, etc.) is a noun generally used in the singular to refer to a collective population as a singular entity, e.g. "The American people". As my Spanish teacher used to say, and as I pass on to my Latin and Greek students, this is the "people" as an "it", not "people" as a "they", and it takes a singular verb.

So hoi laoi, like populi in Latin, would generally mean "the peoples", as in "the French, British, and American peoples".

Art Vandelay?

David J. White: Since we're being pedantic about Latin and Greek ...

I don't entirely disagree with your point but given the long history of the Greek language, it is inevitable that words will change their meaning with time. Classically, and in Homer (particularly the Odyssey), laoi means men, soldiers, sailors, people, as does laos in certain writers. The sense you describe is probably a Koine (more precisely biblical, cf. laoi, ethnê, oxloi) usage, when the dialects had coalesced and the best Attic and Ionic was of interest to scholars and pedants.

Actually too, there is a difference in the British and American use of such collective nouns; the committee vote vs votes.

Max, I don't think shouting insults at the bus about its mother will get it to stop. ;-)

This has to be the most surreal CC thread ever.

What guilest!

Sorry for writing in crayon, Franklin. They don't let me use pencils in here.

But where does the bus come in? And is the graffiti on it done in crayon?

I agree there's the chance Mr Pitt was being facetious using whilst that way without caring about getting it right.

It's properly used for actions happening at the same time to show a contrast: Whilst I was doing open-heart surgery I put a kettle on.

So yes, using it for although sounds wrong.

The contrast aspect is also the difference between among and amongst: Blessed art thou amongst women contrasts Mary to other women.

Regarding hoi polloi IIRC even Gilbert and Sullivan got it wrong in one of their songs (in Iolanthe) as 'the hoi polloi'. I've always heard it with the.

aconservativesiteforpeace.info

It's unfair to accuse Brad of being some architectural poseur. Construction and design is central to his life...why, even his wife is built like the proverbial brick ....house. :)

Cap'n Crunch and Frankenberry have the same birthday as mine.

MM, safe trip to Wyoming. Just one question: why, oh why, oh Wyoming?

Hah! Sounds like something others can sink their teeth into.

This week's Time Magazine quotes Pitt as saying "WHILE acting is my career, etc."