Replace or renew (was <Audi> Installing STEADIRIC suspension)

[JohnBoyd <john@dboyd.demon.co.uk>]

In message <3.0.3.32.19970924070953.007b25b0@swva.net> Brendan writes:

> I think this depends on where you live in part.  To me, and to most
people
> I know, 'renew' implies restoring 'newness' to something and re-using it,
> whereas 'replace' means to discard the existing part in favor of a new
one,
> or one in better condition.................

Brendan

Yes, OK, where you live, and where I live, I think it's hard to 'renew',
but quite possible to 'replace', one's wife. 

But in both places it *is* surely possible to 'renew' one's cylinder head,
*either* by refurbishing the one you've got *or* by discarding it and
buying a new one. In either case you 'replace' the 'renewed' cylinder head
on the engine. 

But if you need only to 'replace' (or, more precisely, 'renew'?? ) your
cylinder head gasket, don't  you still need to 'replace' the ( in this
case, 'unrenewed') cylinder head ??

Or, in the case of these little Osram light bulbs some List members have
recently been trying to find, isn't one 'renewing' ones instrument lighting
by 'replacing' the blown bulbs with new ones.    

The morals of this tale are, firstly, that wives aren't like Audi
components, but similar to light bulbs, which themselves are a bit like
head gaskets too; secondly that 'to replace' is a transitive verb, and,
thirdly, that I'm 'renewed' (not 'replaced')  in my opinion (which isn't a
'reused' opinion, though) that, sometimes, as some sage once said, we are
"two nations separated by a common language." 

Regards

David Boyd
Cumbria UK