Never knew the origin of this phrase until just now, but maybe it is not so common so not so shocking.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_and_Gaston?wprov=sfti1
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Hitchcock/Truffaut (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 8 February 2020 01:49 (four years ago) link
From an article on old New York.
Bouwerie is Dutch for “farm”. (This, as you might guess, accounts for how the Bowery — which used to be the road to Peter Stuyvesant’s farm — got its name.)
― nickn, Saturday, 8 February 2020 04:24 (four years ago) link
Strange. Bouwen: build
― nathom, Saturday, 8 February 2020 14:58 (four years ago) link
I could see am overlap between build and grow being possible. Think it turns up in other languages too doesn't it?
― Stevolende, Saturday, 8 February 2020 15:07 (four years ago) link
Neighbour
Old English nēahgebūr, from nēah ‘nigh, near’ + gebūr ‘inhabitant, peasant, farmer’ (compare with boor).
― (includes digression on farting) (Tom D.), Saturday, 8 February 2020 15:12 (four years ago) link
The bours who say neigh
― Le Bateau Ivre, Saturday, 8 February 2020 15:17 (four years ago) link
present-day Dutch: verbouwen = grow (crops)
― breastcrawl, Saturday, 8 February 2020 17:25 (four years ago) link
Recently learned that both 'guest' and 'host' derive from the same (reconstructed) proto-Indo European word '*ghosti-' which was more of a catch-all term for hospitality.
― Sammo Hazuki's Tago Mago Cantina (Old Lunch), Saturday, 8 February 2020 17:59 (four years ago) link
Gives an extra layer to the punchline of Idris Elba’s verse in Boasty
― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Saturday, 8 February 2020 19:57 (four years ago) link
that the original recording of 'The Sun Has Got His Hat On' has these lyrics:"He's been tanning n*****s out in TimbuktuNow he's coming back to do the same to you"
― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 8 February 2020 20:13 (four years ago) link
Mr. Koch (pronounced coke)
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 13 February 2020 20:43 (four years ago) link
The Deftones are not a Brit guitar band with Paul Weller haircuts.
― fetter, Friday, 14 February 2020 15:20 (four years ago) link
that some earthworms in optimum conditions can live up to 8 years old. So if your wee nipper is in the garden eating the wirrums, tell them to have some respect for their elders!
― calzino, Friday, 14 February 2020 15:30 (four years ago) link
When I was a little kid, and I would act hyper or fidgety or just over-energetic, my mother would say that I was acting like what to my tender ears sounded like "a greeny stickumcap." I always assumed it was some quaint West Virginia-ism that she had picked up from her mother, maybe a colloquialism referring to some jumping insect or the like.
I was in my 30s before I discovered she was talking about these: Mattel(TM) Greenie Stick'em Caps, peel-and-stick caps designed to be stuck on the back of realistic looking "bullets" used in their cap pistols. I really honestly just assumed it was some made-up mom thing.
https://vintagetoycapguns.com/images/mattel-5.jpg
https://www.toytent.com/Special/pics/8714-1.jpg
― Bougy! Bougie! Bougé! (Eliza D.), Wednesday, 19 February 2020 15:37 (four years ago) link
SAFE!
― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Wednesday, 19 February 2020 15:46 (four years ago) link
huh wow, never knew that any type of cap gun existed besides the little red plastic ring of dots. the wikipedia entry is obviously written by a toy enthusiast and is kinda messy but helpful.
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 19 February 2020 15:55 (four years ago) link
There were (and surprisingly still are) also the paper rolls
https://www.tintoyarcade.com/image/cache/data/product/Images_3401_3600/TTA3511-Super-Bang-Roll-Caps-1800-Shots-1000x1000.jpg
― Sammo Hazuki's Tago Mago Cantina (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 19 February 2020 15:57 (four years ago) link
Used to love going at those things with a hammer and completely ruining our driveway.
― Sammo Hazuki's Tago Mago Cantina (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 19 February 2020 15:58 (four years ago) link
scraping a 2p coin quickly across a strip of those was always fun
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Wednesday, 19 February 2020 16:01 (four years ago) link
BRB, going to revert to age eight real quick and add this sadly-absent experience to my childhood memory bank.
― Sammo Hazuki's Tago Mago Cantina (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 19 February 2020 16:07 (four years ago) link
i can smell those right now
― joygoat, Wednesday, 19 February 2020 16:26 (four years ago) link
Srsly, Marcel's madelines ain't got nothing on a cap gun.
― Sammo Hazuki's Tago Mago Cantina (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 19 February 2020 16:28 (four years ago) link
otm, i also got a momentary wave of cap gun smell memories earlier. much clearer than any memory of the sound or the appearance of the smoke (was it a faint wisp? a legible trail? a billowing cloud?).
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 19 February 2020 18:29 (four years ago) link
blue wisp
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Wednesday, 19 February 2020 22:01 (four years ago) link
Just been pointed out to me that all of Portugal coast is Atlantic while a lot of Spain is Mediterranean. & the Portuguese guy who was saying that said the sea temperature difference was pretty significant and reflected in the way people behaved accordingly.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 19 February 2020 22:58 (four years ago) link
Spain's Atlantic coast is longer but then Spain is a lot bigger.
― Load up your rubber wallets (Tom D.), Wednesday, 19 February 2020 23:05 (four years ago) link
Actually, wiki says Portugal's is longer but, looking at a map, I don't see how that's possible - damn Mercator crap.
― Load up your rubber wallets (Tom D.), Wednesday, 19 February 2020 23:09 (four years ago) link
Maybe if you included Brazil.
― pplains, Thursday, 20 February 2020 01:02 (four years ago) link
i think you are only looking at Spain's mediterranean coastline and not all its coastlines?
― Yerac, Thursday, 20 February 2020 01:14 (four years ago) link
oh wait you are talking only about the atlantic.
― Yerac, Thursday, 20 February 2020 01:15 (four years ago) link
North coast of Spain on Bay of Biscay, plus the coastline west of Gibraltar prior to Portugal border. All on the Atlantic.
― A is for (Aimless), Thursday, 20 February 2020 01:35 (four years ago) link
But not as long as Portugal's coastline, which is all Atlantic.
― frederik b. godt (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 20 February 2020 02:00 (four years ago) link
So Maine has a longer coast than California.
And Chimborazo is the highest mountain in the world, yeah yeah yeah.
― pplains, Thursday, 20 February 2020 02:32 (four years ago) link
Coastline measurement is a notoriously difficult definitional problem.
― Natalie Wouldn't (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 20 February 2020 03:04 (four years ago) link
^ Was going to say.
― A is for (Aimless), Thursday, 20 February 2020 03:06 (four years ago) link
Mauna loa is the highest mountain in the world!
If you measure from the sea floor
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 20 February 2020 03:06 (four years ago) link
Tallest don't mean highest though!
― pplains, Thursday, 20 February 2020 03:22 (four years ago) link
― Natalie Wouldn't (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, February 19, 2020 7:04 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
Nah man you just walk along the beach with one of those sticks with a wheel on the end
― frederik b. godt (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 20 February 2020 06:44 (four years ago) link
One thing I remember from James Gleick's book Chaos is that coastlines are kind of like Mandelbrot sets: the closer you look, the more intricate they become. Measuring them accurately is close to impossible.
― Ngolo Cantwell (Chinaski), Thursday, 20 February 2020 11:19 (four years ago) link
My embarrassing geography-related example is that Denmark isn't, and has never been, an island. I can't even really remember why I thought it.
― Ngolo Cantwell (Chinaski), Thursday, 20 February 2020 11:21 (four years ago) link
Looking at a map, Spain's Atlantic coastline does seem longer than Portugal's (and not even counting the Canarias).
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 20 February 2020 12:49 (four years ago) link
For whatever reason, I have a serious block in my brain when it comes to geography. Like I may have read multiple books about the history of a particular region, all festooned with maps I've pored over extensively, and I will still find myself regularly surprised to (re-)learn, oh, that place is next to that place! Huh!
I mean I have difficulty visualizing the layout of even just the states that circle my own. It's kinda ridiculous.
― Hot, Now, and Oh-So-Very Wow! (Old Lunch), Thursday, 20 February 2020 13:03 (four years ago) link
I'd've done all right generalizing the location of Ukraine, though, fwiw.
― Hot, Now, and Oh-So-Very Wow! (Old Lunch), Thursday, 20 February 2020 13:04 (four years ago) link
Once I had a friendWho had the knack of tossingHis mind around geographyBoy, you think, you have problems
― Ngolo Cantwell (Chinaski), Thursday, 20 February 2020 13:13 (four years ago) link
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 20 February 2020 12:49 (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
mandelbrot: LOOK CLOSER LOL
― mark s, Thursday, 20 February 2020 13:21 (four years ago) link
Eheh, I4ve just "measured" VERY roughly with a tape measure on a map and Spain's Atlantic coastline IS longer than Portugal's !
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 20 February 2020 13:49 (four years ago) link
(my method may make a geographer want to die, though)
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 20 February 2020 13:51 (four years ago) link
Joke for science nerds:
In the name Benoit B. Mandelbrot, what does the 'B' stand for?
Benoit B. Mandelbrot
― Hideous Lump, Thursday, 20 February 2020 13:52 (four years ago) link
XpIs some of it technically in the Bay of Biscay or something like that?
― calzino, Thursday, 20 February 2020 13:52 (four years ago) link
Oh it's the old mercantor projecter thingy again.
― calzino, Thursday, 20 February 2020 13:56 (four years ago) link