In message <peji38pdkfbinetd3ig1aavl34jjg3g...@4ax.com>, Jymesion <norepl...@jymes.com> writes
>Meters is the correct spelling. You wouldn't write speedometre or >voltmetre.
There is no 'correct'. Metre and metre are spelled differently on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Use the spelling of your own country and let the publisher decide whether to change it or not. It's not a big deal.
In message <6rnj38hue0kl7kvm07tll4onv9lhrlp...@4ax.com>, Jymesion <norepl...@jymes.com> writes
>On Sat, 25 Aug 2012 22:40:27 -0700, Kay Shapero <k...@invalid.net>
>wrote:
>> I've rowed my share of 'em and called them all rowboats
>I'm sure it's universal. The phrase "not as sharp as a rowboat" was
>used on both coasts, in the Midwest, and in the deep South.
Rowboat is not universal, though it may be used throughout America. In the UK it would be 'rowing boat.' Rowboat would be understood, but it would lend an American feel to the work. If that's what you wanted to convey then rowboat is fine. If you didn't want to pin it in space and time then using a word which is _universal_ would be a better choice.
In message <pcg_r.34689$wF1.19...@fx17.am4>, Raymond Daley <raymond.da...@ntlworld.com> writes
>That old system, no clue how people understood it, there's no logic to >it at all.
Easy. You know it because you were taught it. Logic doesn't enter in to it.
4 farthings to the penny
2 ha'pennies to the penny
12 pennies to the shilling
(or 4 threepenny bits or 2 sixpences to the shilling)
2 shillings to a florin
2 shillings and 6 pennies to the half crown
2 half crowns to the crown
20 shillings to the pound
240 pennies to the pound
4 crowns to the pound
8 half crowns to the pound
10 florins to the pound
etc.
A shilling is commonly called a 'bob'
A sixpence is commonly called a 'tanner'
I pay for an item costing two shillings with a half crown. How much change do I get? A tanner.
Where's the problem?
Jacey
(20 when the money system changed to decimal so the old one is pretty well stuck in my head forever)
-- Jacey Bedford
In message <ZbidneBLueDufKTNnZ2dnUVZ8nSdn...@brightview.co.uk>, JF <jul...@oopsoopsfloodsclimbers.co.uk> writes
>Ahem. You know I spoke of living in a fantasy world? A kinsman named >Lloyd or variants therof, who ended up as Flude, rescued the Emperor of >Austria's battle banner and was awarded his own arms, the Emperor's >arms but with a silver shield instead of gold. I'd rather like to >bucket around with a double-headed eagle painted on the Midget door. >And I've found a Nicholas who ties the Norfolk Floods with the Kentish >Fludds, which takes us back to a Prince of Powys in the female line and >through him to... Old King Coel. And King Pepin 1. And the father of >Charlemagne.
Damn and all I've got is a set of coal miners on almost every line going back as far as I can trace. The rest are nailmakers. And beyond that peasants right back to 1600. Not one of them remarkable let alone famous. We didn't get out of the coal mines until my parents' generation.
> In message <ZbidneBLueDufKTNnZ2dnUVZ8nSdn...@brightview.co.uk>, JF > <jul...@oopsoopsfloodsclimbers.co.uk> writes
> >Ahem. You know I spoke of living in a fantasy world? A kinsman named > >Lloyd or variants therof, who ended up as Flude, rescued the Emperor of > >Austria's battle banner and was awarded his own arms, the Emperor's > >arms but with a silver shield instead of gold. I'd rather like to > >bucket around with a double-headed eagle painted on the Midget door. > >And I've found a Nicholas who ties the Norfolk Floods with the Kentish > >Fludds, which takes us back to a Prince of Powys in the female line and > >through him to... Old King Coel. And King Pepin 1. And the father of > >Charlemagne.
> Damn and all I've got is a set of coal miners on almost every line going > back as far as I can trace. The rest are nailmakers. And beyond that > peasants right back to 1600. Not one of them remarkable let alone > famous. We didn't get out of the coal mines until my parents' > generation.
Al Tanukhi has a story about two bedouins arguing over genealogy. Finally one of them says:
"What it comes down to is that you are the end of your genealogy, and I am the beginning of mine."
>In message <ZbidneBLueDufKTNnZ2dnUVZ8nSdn...@brightview.co.uk>, JF ><jul...@oopsoopsfloodsclimbers.co.uk> writes
>>Ahem. You know I spoke of living in a fantasy world? A kinsman named >>Lloyd or variants therof, who ended up as Flude, rescued the Emperor of >>Austria's battle banner and was awarded his own arms, the Emperor's >>arms but with a silver shield instead of gold. I'd rather like to >>bucket around with a double-headed eagle painted on the Midget door. >>And I've found a Nicholas who ties the Norfolk Floods with the Kentish >>Fludds, which takes us back to a Prince of Powys in the female line and >>through him to... Old King Coel. And King Pepin 1. And the father of >>Charlemagne.
>Damn and all I've got is a set of coal miners on almost every line going >back as far as I can trace. The rest are nailmakers. And beyond that >peasants right back to 1600. Not one of them remarkable let alone >famous. We didn't get out of the coal mines until my parents' >generation.
Gosh.
My great-grandfather helped run the Underground Railroad, and my
grandmother *claimed* that her family were descended from
Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, but I don't believe it.
Those are the only interesting relatives I've got.
We do have Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, as a
collater relative, but (if the story is true*) he's nothing to
brag about.
_____
*The story goes -- I've never researched it so I don't know if
it's been proven or disproven -- that he hired Booth to kill
Lincoln, someone else to kill VP Johnson, and a third party to
kill Secretary of State Seward. Eliminate those three men, and
Stanton would've been President. (The rules of succession have
since been changed.) Booth killed Lincoln, the third guy wounded
Seward but he recovered, and the guy who was supposed to kill
Johnson got drunk and blabbed. So the story goes. I wonder if
it's on snopes anywhere?
-- Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the gmail edress.
Kithrup's all spammy and hotmail's been hacked.
-- Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the gmail edress.
Kithrup's all spammy and hotmail's been hacked.
>> Note
>>that in addition addition to scrolls and books, it carries
>>writing equipment: pens, vellum-scrapers, and pumice stones.
>The problem is dumping it on the reader without preamble. If they're
>not thinking about a scribe's tools (and there's no reason they should
>when starting a story), they might wonder what kind of scraper is made
>of vellum.
Oh, sure. I agree it should not appear in the story without
proper introduction. It's just an example of how Turbine's devs
and artists do their homework.
-- Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com
Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the gmail edress.
Kithrup's all spammy and hotmail's been hacked.
> In article <WT5808CfzoOQF...@parkhead.demon.co.uk>,
> Jacey Bedford <lookin...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>> In message <ZbidneBLueDufKTNnZ2dnUVZ8nSdn...@brightview.co.uk>, JF
>> <jul...@oopsoopsfloodsclimbers.co.uk> writes
>>> Ahem. You know I spoke of living in a fantasy world? A kinsman named
>>> Lloyd or variants therof, who ended up as Flude, rescued the Emperor of
>>> Austria's battle banner and was awarded his own arms, the Emperor's
>>> arms but with a silver shield instead of gold. I'd rather like to
>>> bucket around with a double-headed eagle painted on the Midget door.
>>> And I've found a Nicholas who ties the Norfolk Floods with the Kentish
>>> Fludds, which takes us back to a Prince of Powys in the female line and
>>> through him to... Old King Coel. And King Pepin 1. And the father of
>>> Charlemagne.
>> Damn and all I've got is a set of coal miners on almost every line going
>> back as far as I can trace. The rest are nailmakers. And beyond that
>> peasants right back to 1600. Not one of them remarkable let alone
>> famous. We didn't get out of the coal mines until my parents'
>> generation.
> Gosh.
> My great-grandfather helped run the Underground Railroad, and my
> grandmother *claimed* that her family were descended from
> Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, but I don't believe it.
> Those are the only interesting relatives I've got.
I was told that on my mother's side we're descended from Leif Ericson and Eric the Red. But I doubt that (A) there's any way to know (did old Leif have any children known to have survived, etc?), and (B) even if true, there'd probably be a *lot* of such descendants.
Other than that there is as far as I know not a single person of particular interest in my ancestry.
>In article <WT5808CfzoOQF...@parkhead.demon.co.uk>,
>Jacey Bedford <lookin...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>>In message <ZbidneBLueDufKTNnZ2dnUVZ8nSdn...@brightview.co.uk>, JF
>><jul...@oopsoopsfloodsclimbers.co.uk> writes
>>>Ahem. You know I spoke of living in a fantasy world? A kinsman named
>>>Lloyd or variants therof, who ended up as Flude, rescued the Emperor of
>>>Austria's battle banner and was awarded his own arms, the Emperor's
>>>arms but with a silver shield instead of gold. I'd rather like to
>>>bucket around with a double-headed eagle painted on the Midget door.
>>>And I've found a Nicholas who ties the Norfolk Floods with the Kentish
>>>Fludds, which takes us back to a Prince of Powys in the female line and
>>>through him to... Old King Coel. And King Pepin 1. And the father of
>>>Charlemagne.
>>Damn and all I've got is a set of coal miners on almost every line going
>>back as far as I can trace. The rest are nailmakers. And beyond that
>>peasants right back to 1600. Not one of them remarkable let alone
>>famous. We didn't get out of the coal mines until my parents'
>>generation.
>Gosh.
>My great-grandfather helped run the Underground Railroad, and my
>grandmother *claimed* that her family were descended from
>Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, but I don't believe it.
>Those are the only interesting relatives I've got.
>We do have Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, as a
>collater relative, but (if the story is true*) he's nothing to
>brag about.
>_____
>*The story goes -- I've never researched it so I don't know if
>it's been proven or disproven -- that he hired Booth to kill
>Lincoln, someone else to kill VP Johnson, and a third party to
>kill Secretary of State Seward. Eliminate those three men, and
>Stanton would've been President. (The rules of succession have
>since been changed.) Booth killed Lincoln, the third guy wounded
>Seward but he recovered, and the guy who was supposed to kill
>Johnson got drunk and blabbed. So the story goes. I wonder if
>it's on snopes anywhere?
It was said that my (much older) cousin-once-removed researched that side of the family (my father's mother's side) and traced them back to 16th century Cornwall and discovered that one line consisted of pirates and the other lunatics. Unfortunately she died before I could ask her about it, but when we cleared out her house there was no genealogical stuff anywhere, so phooey. Just a story.
Her grandfather (my g-g-grandfather) actually lied about coming from St Ives (Cornwall) even though it was in the family bible that he did. He actually came from New Hall, Staffordshire and was - yes, you guessed it - a coal miner.
> In article <WT5808CfzoOQF...@parkhead.demon.co.uk>,
> Jacey Bedford <lookin...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>> In message <ZbidneBLueDufKTNnZ2dnUVZ8nSdn...@brightview.co.uk>, JF
>> <jul...@oopsoopsfloodsclimbers.co.uk> writes
>>> Ahem. You know I spoke of living in a fantasy world? A kinsman named
>>> Lloyd or variants therof, who ended up as Flude, rescued the Emperor of
>>> Austria's battle banner and was awarded his own arms, the Emperor's
>>> arms but with a silver shield instead of gold. I'd rather like to
>>> bucket around with a double-headed eagle painted on the Midget door.
>>> And I've found a Nicholas who ties the Norfolk Floods with the Kentish
>>> Fludds, which takes us back to a Prince of Powys in the female line and
>>> through him to... Old King Coel. And King Pepin 1. And the father of
>>> Charlemagne.
>> Damn and all I've got is a set of coal miners on almost every line going
>> back as far as I can trace. The rest are nailmakers. And beyond that
>> peasants right back to 1600. Not one of them remarkable let alone
>> famous. We didn't get out of the coal mines until my parents'
>> generation.
> Gosh.
> My great-grandfather helped run the Underground Railroad, and my
> grandmother *claimed* that her family were descended from
> Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, but I don't believe it.
> Those are the only interesting relatives I've got.
> We do have Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, as a
> collater relative, but (if the story is true*) he's nothing to
> brag about.
> _____
> *The story goes -- I've never researched it so I don't know if
> it's been proven or disproven -- that he hired Booth to kill
> Lincoln, someone else to kill VP Johnson, and a third party to
> kill Secretary of State Seward. Eliminate those three men, and
> Stanton would've been President. (The rules of succession have
> since been changed.) Booth killed Lincoln, the third guy wounded
> Seward but he recovered, and the guy who was supposed to kill
> Johnson got drunk and blabbed. So the story goes. I wonder if
> it's on snopes anywhere?
Simply wrong. Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1792, the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives came next; cabinet officers didn't come into it at all. Furthermore, anyone after the Vice President would not become President, but Acting President, and a new election had to be held (depending on certain circumstances) the next November or the November following.
-- John W Kennedy
"Those in the seat of power oft forget their failings and seek only the obeisance of others! Thus is bad government born! Hold in your heart that you and the people are one, human beings all, and good government shall arise of its own accord! Such is the path of virtue!"
-- Kazuo Koike. "Lone Wolf and Cub: Thirteen Strings" (tr. Dana Lewis)
> Damn and all I've got is a set of coal miners on almost every
> line going back as far as I can trace. The rest are nailmakers.
> And beyond that peasants right back to 1600. Not one of them
> remarkable let alone famous. We didn't get out of the coal mines
> until my parents' generation.
Nothing wrong with peasants: on my mother's side it's peasants all the way down. Kinge, a good peasant name.
Actually, dividing your currency unit into 240 pieces makes is more
logical than 100. How often you had to divide ₤10 into thirds?
(60 or 360 are another possibilities, both well known in our reckoning)
The advantage of switching to the base-12 system and all...
-- -----------------------------------------------------------
| Radovan Garabík http://kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk/~garabik/ |
| __..--^^^--..__ garabik @ kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk |
-----------------------------------------------------------
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Hi! I'm a signature virus! Copy me into your signature file to help me spread!
Raymond Daley <raymond.da...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> I'm glad we didn't take up the Euro, it's hard enough to learn new weights > and measurements without having to relearn all your money too.
GBP and EUR face values are quite compatible in purchasing power. There
was even time when the exchange rate was close to 1. So it will be
mostly a matter of learning new banknote and coin design. Though I
wonder what would Scottish and NI banks do - funny if they'd negotiate
the right to continue issuing their own pounds.
ObSF: Rule 34 by Charles Stross.
-- -----------------------------------------------------------
| Radovan Garabík http://kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk/~garabik/ |
| __..--^^^--..__ garabik @ kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk |
-----------------------------------------------------------
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Jymesion <norepl...@jymes.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Aug 2012 20:45:18 GMT, djhe...@kithrup.com (Dorothy J
> Heydt) wrote:
>> Note
>> that in addition addition to scrolls and books, it carries
>> writing equipment: pens, vellum-scrapers, and pumice stones.
> The problem is dumping it on the reader without preamble. If they're
> not thinking about a scribe's tools (and there's no reason they should
> when starting a story), they might wonder what kind of scraper is made
> of vellum.
Not if it's spelled with a hyphen and the readers are reasonably literate.
On 27 Aug 2012 13:09:27 GMT, John W Kennedy <jwke...@attglobal.neg>
wrote:
>Jymesion <norepl...@jymes.com> wrote:
>> The problem is dumping it on the reader without preamble. If they're
>> not thinking about a scribe's tools (and there's no reason they should
>> when starting a story), they might wonder what kind of scraper is made
>> of vellum.
>Not if it's spelled with a hyphen and the readers are reasonably literate.
I've learned to never underestimate what a speed-reader might miss.
> On 27 Aug 2012 13:09:27 GMT, John W Kennedy <jwke...@attglobal.neg>
> wrote:
>>Jymesion <norepl...@jymes.com> wrote:
>>> The problem is dumping it on the reader without preamble. If they're
>>> not thinking about a scribe's tools (and there's no reason they should
>>> when starting a story), they might wonder what kind of scraper is made
>>> of vellum.
>>Not if it's spelled with a hyphen and the readers are reasonably literate.
> I've learned to never underestimate what a speed-reader might miss.
I read the words vellum scraper, my brain filled in "pen". So I totally got that wrong ;-)
Googled it for images, best match looked more like a weapon than anything to do with writing.
On Mon, 27 Aug 2012 23:28:20 -0800, Bill Swears <wswe...@gci.net>
wrote:
>I'm coming in late,
In the original text, the protag has exited a tunnel, and:
Text:
The room beyond the hole had been carved out of solid rock, and it was
barely tall enough for him to stand upright. . . .
A rowboat sat in the middle of the floor. End Text.
It is the suggestion of some that I change it to:
Text:
The room beyond the hole had been carved out of solid rock, and it was
barely tall enough for him to stand upright. . . .
In the room was a boat.
It was devoid of the internal structures necessary to support a mast
on which a sail could be attached, as well as missing a mast itself,
and there was no sail, or anything which might have been used as a
sail, within view.
The vessel had neither motor (electric, fossil-fueled, or sfnal) nor
any of the reinforcements on the stern typically used for the
attachment of a mechanical means of propulsion. It also lacked a
compartment or bracing for the secure containment of a battery or fuel
tank so often seen in motorized craft.
Most telling was the absence of a rudder, tiller, or other means of
directing its course, a fixture usually considered essential when a
craft's motive force is supplied by any means other than the muscles
of the person employing it, in which case, and at those times, a
desired change of heading being implemented by varying the amount of
movement of one propelling unit (commonly called an "oar") or the
other so as to provide greater impulse on one side of the craft, and
the usual laws of physics and hydrodynamics dictating a resulting
change in orientation of the long axis of the craft.
Overall, the boat's size, design, and configuration denoted its
potential means of propulsion was limited to a single set of oars
manned by a lone individual.
When he noticed it, the word "rowboat" flitted through his mind, but
he quickly quelled the thought, such a word being fit only for
guttersnipes and 'mericans.
End Text.
In article <UQZM00XZjOPQF...@parkhead.demon.co.uk>,
lookin...@nospam.invalid says...
> In message <aMidnQseZrkDiqbNnZ2dnUVZ8sqdn...@brightview.co.uk>, JF
> <jul...@oopsoopsfloodsclimbers.co.uk> writes
> > n 27/08/2012 00:12, Jacey Bedford wrote:
> >> t one line consisted of pirates and the other lunatics.
> > othing to be ashamed of. [gloomily] One of mine was an MP...
> > F
> Oh dear, my lot never stooped so low. (Even when working a three foot
> seam.)
> : )
Y' think that's bad - one of mine took a batch of fellow bastards,
younger sons and whatnot across the channel and stole England from its
inhabitants. Talk about grand larceny...
--
Kay Shapero Address munged, try my first name at kayshapero dot net.
In message <GcKdneDG8IGXl6DNnZ2dnUVZ8qudn...@brightview.co.uk>, JF <jul...@oopsoopsfloodsclimbers.co.uk> writes
>On 28/08/2012 16:50, Jacey Bedford wrote:
>> Oh dear, my lot never stooped so low. (Even when working a three
>> foot seam.)
>Three foot? Looxury...
>(SWMBO's family had miners. Her uncle, who looked after the pit ponies, >died in a mining accident.
>JF
It happened a lot.
In 1898 my g-g-uncle and g-g-grandfather were working side by side when a shear dropped a few tons of roof onto g-g-uncle. G-g-grandfather, standing next to him, was uninjured but I have the newspaper report where he was called to give evidence in the enquiry.
Also Brian's g-g-grandfather - aged 40 - and his two eldest sons - aged 19 and 17 were all killed together in the Oakes Colliery disaster of 1866 (Barnsley). Still the 10th biggest coalmining disaster ever in terms of deaths with over 300 killed in the initial and secondary explosions. The secondary explosions caught the rescue teams that went in to get survivors from the first blast.
But of course it wasn't just the accidents. My maternal grandfather survived his working life in the pits, but my step g-father died of pneumoconiosis in his 50s. Also Brian's g-father died of (supposedly) pneumonia at the age of 61 but it was mining related. His lungs were shot.
He was absolutely determined that no child (or grandchild) of his was going down the pit even though her was a strong union man.
My grandfather also looked after pit ponies for a time. It was one of the jobs that youngsters did before they'd developed enough muscle for the coalface. We still have the biscuit barrel (odd thing, I know) that he was presented with for kindness to pit ponies. I wish I knew the story behind it, but even my mum doesn't know.
>> In message <aMidnQseZrkDiqbNnZ2dnUVZ8sqdn...@brightview.co.uk>, JF
>> <jul...@oopsoopsfloodsclimbers.co.uk> writes
>> > n 27/08/2012 00:12, Jacey Bedford wrote:
>> >> t one line consisted of pirates and the other lunatics.
>> > othing to be ashamed of. [gloomily] One of mine was an MP...
>> > F
>> Oh dear, my lot never stooped so low. (Even when working a three foot
>> seam.)
>> : )
>Y' think that's bad - one of mine took a batch of fellow bastards,
>younger sons and whatnot across the channel and stole England from its
>inhabitants. Talk about grand larceny...
If you're going to do it, you might as well do it properly.
