Ned Ludd was actually a folkloric figure whose name was appropriated by the Luddite movement several decades after he (or the person/people he was based on) lived. I'd always assumed he was the leader of a social movement! Shows you how much I know about British industrial history.
― a fatal dose of irony (Matt #2), Sunday, 28 April 2024 14:38 (one month ago) link
Wow, I just realised that “cuckold” and “cuckoo” are part of the same concept. I had thought the former was just infidelity, or maybe it’s come to mean that.
― assert (matttkkkk), Tuesday, 30 April 2024 19:18 (four weeks ago) link
cuckoos notoriously leave their eggs in other birds nests for them to rear or that was the myth anyway. So I can see why it would tie in with the idea of cuckold though I thought cuckold was the passive role possibly victim. Though the understanding all seems to deny free will on the wife/female role in the situation.
― Stevo, Wednesday, 1 May 2024 10:25 (three weeks ago) link
i was thinking it must at least go back to Molière, but a quick check at wiktionary shows a quote a hundred years earlier from Rabelais. but i think you're otm about laying eggs in another's nest
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 1 May 2024 15:11 (three weeks ago) link
Basically all of Western Europe is on the same time zone. Except for Portugal and the UK, if the UK counts as "europe" and not "the hell islands".
― Kate (rushomancy), Wednesday, 1 May 2024 15:30 (three weeks ago) link
... and Ireland.
― I've left the box of soup near your shoes (Tom D.), Wednesday, 1 May 2024 15:43 (three weeks ago) link
xp European cuckoos do this. American cuckoos raise their own young.
― Christine Green Leafy Dragon Indigo, Wednesday, 1 May 2024 17:03 (three weeks ago) link
xp and Iceland
― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 1 May 2024 17:24 (three weeks ago) link
"trailblazing" has the literal meaning of marking trees to create a path. i always imagined someone running and leaving fire behind them.
― adam t. (abanana), Thursday, 2 May 2024 15:20 (three weeks ago) link
... and Ireland.― I've left the box of soup near your shoes (Tom D.)
― I've left the box of soup near your shoes (Tom D.)
your country is basically fine but tainted by proximity to The Worst Country
kind of like canada
― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, 2 May 2024 15:34 (three weeks ago) link
Cardiff has only been the capital city of Wales since 1955. Wales had never had a capital city prior to 1955(!) and Cardiff, Caernarvon and Aberystwyth were all in contention.It was never even formally announced...
On 20 December 1955, Gwilym Lloyd-George, then Minister for Welsh Affairs and Home Secretary, proclaimed that Cardiff was the capital of Wales, in a reply to a Parliamentary question from David Llewellyn. Lloyd-George said that "no formal measures are necessary to give effect to this decision"[14]
― I've left the box of soup near your shoes (Tom D.), Tuesday, 7 May 2024 14:38 (three weeks ago) link
haha wtf
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 7 May 2024 15:38 (three weeks ago) link
Americans call it "soccer" because It's a truncation of "association football"
― your mom goes to limgrave (dog latin), Saturday, 18 May 2024 21:57 (one week ago) link
having watched man u all season, i'm more into disassociation football these days
― Bernard Quidbins (NickB), Saturday, 18 May 2024 22:07 (one week ago) link
(xp) Like rugger. It's English public school speak.
― I've left the box of soup near your shoes (Tom D.), Saturday, 18 May 2024 22:25 (one week ago) link
The person on the cover of REM's Lifes Rich Pageant is Bill Berry. I always thought it was Boris Karloff or someone who looked like him.
― bored by endless ecstasy (anagram), Thursday, 23 May 2024 14:17 (five days ago) link
Ouch.
― Poets Win Prizes (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 May 2024 14:24 (five days ago) link
all of Western Europe is on the same time zone. Except for Portugal and the UK
Lots of "how are you getting on with the time difference" jokes when I moved.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 23 May 2024 14:29 (five days ago) link
hms resolute was one of quite of lot of ships dispatched to find the lost franklin expedition. franklin's two ships had become trapped in the ice (from which fate no one returned). resolute was one of at least three three further ships that that also became trapped in the ice!
luckily everyone got off them ok, since there were by so many other ships also searching nearby that ((unlike with the franklin crews) rescue was possible
― mark s, Thursday, 23 May 2024 15:20 (five days ago) link
jesus imagine if i was a professional proofing editor or something
― mark s, Thursday, 23 May 2024 15:25 (five days ago) link
that the US military didn't ban smoking on its fleet of nuclear-powered submarines until 2010
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Thursday, 23 May 2024 15:37 (five days ago) link
Formica was a mica substitute and the name is from 'for mica'.
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 23 May 2024 15:39 (five days ago) link
xp I think if I was a mile underwater with a nuclear reactor I could probably use a cigarette now and then
― assert (matttkkkk), Thursday, 23 May 2024 18:45 (five days ago) link
Just step outside, if you hafta.
― pplains, Thursday, 23 May 2024 19:11 (five days ago) link
the designated smoking areas were called "smoke pits". I just never knew this happened on modern submarines loaded with nuclear warhead armed ballistic missiles. But yeah I can imagine the appeal of a pensive smoke before the end of human civilisation, but it does seem very much like a remnant of 1950's H+S protocols.
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Thursday, 23 May 2024 19:14 (five days ago) link
TIL this is a saluting emoji:🫡
It’s mystified me for years. I could never figure out what that appendage was.
― just1n3, Thursday, 23 May 2024 21:10 (five days ago) link
Dave and Ansell Collins, who recorded the great reggae single “Double Barrel,” are not related. Dave’s surname is Barker, actually born David Crooks.
― Overly dramatic elevator music (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 23 May 2024 21:23 (five days ago) link
you could add to that the davis sisters and james & bobby purify (actually cousins)
― budo jeru, Thursday, 23 May 2024 22:31 (five days ago) link
Very much hoping James Purefoy has a cousin called Robert.
― Poets Win Prizes (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 May 2024 22:35 (five days ago) link
I don't think it's Dave Collins & Ansell Collins - more like 'Dave, and Ansell Collins'. How confusing.
― h.p. lovecraft's backing singers (Matt #2), Thursday, 23 May 2024 22:49 (five days ago) link
Ansell Collins and Dave would have been more sensible.
― Poets Win Prizes (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 May 2024 22:51 (five days ago) link
Which reminds me, when I was very young Tony Orlando & Dawn were always on TV and the name confused me because I couldn’t figure out which of the two ladies was Dawn. I finally got it at the shockingly old age of 8 or so.
― Josefa, Thursday, 23 May 2024 23:11 (five days ago) link
I never knew Dick Van Dyke played the old banker in Mary Poppins until a rewatch with my kids some 20+ years later.
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Saturday, 25 May 2024 08:14 (three days ago) link
deferred interest
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Saturday, 25 May 2024 08:32 (three days ago) link
pull the other one, it's called Smith
― kinder, Saturday, 25 May 2024 15:32 (three days ago) link
As this is in the news, thought I’d look into its history. Anyway….
During the 1950s there was a prohibition on serving members of the armed forces standing for election to Parliament. A few National Servicemen stood for election in the 1951 and 1955 general elections in order to be dismissed from service.
― Dan Worsley, Sunday, 26 May 2024 21:16 (two days ago) link
Diana Ross has got a daughter called Chudney
― Bernard Quidbins (NickB), Monday, 27 May 2024 19:39 (yesterday) link
The icon you see when a page or graphic is loading, usually a spinning ball or wheel, is called a Throbber.
― nate woolls, Monday, 27 May 2024 21:28 (yesterday) link
medieval estonia was inhabited by a tribe called the chuds
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOlgpWcXEAAoxUN?format=jpg&name=medium
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 28 May 2024 02:15 (twelve hours ago) link