Fellow fiends and jag-o-philes:
I'm reading the Brooklands Gold Portfolio on MG cars from '29 to '30 (wow,
is that arcane or what?) and I'm noticing again terms I've seen before in
such reprints (btw: I think these collections of reprints are really
interesting: imagine reports where the writter is more than satisfied with
acceleration rates of 0-60 MPH in 75 seconds! D**n, those cars were fast!).
But I digress.
The terms in question are "near side" and "off side," meaning as best as I
can fathom the left and right hand side of the car, from an occupant's
perspective. All is fine, except I would guess that the "near" side ought
to be the driver's side (i.e. the side closest to the driver, which it
ain't) and the "off" side ought to be the passenger side (the side away from
the driver, which it ain't, either). Can anyone who speaks non-American
English as a native explain? The only way I can see this making sense is
from the perspective of a stander-by, on the curb of the road. In that
case, the near side is closest to the person and the off side is towards the
center of the road. Something tells me I'm getting a bit too clever with
this explanation, tho.
Will "Separated by a common language" Zehring
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