Childhood misapprehensions

[Guy Barry]

When I was a child I used to think that the word "headroom" referred to a
type of bridge. Every so often in the car we'd pass under a bridge marked
"Headroom 12 feet 6 inches" (or whatever), and I'd think "Oh, we're going
under one of those headrooms again".

Anyone like to own up to anything similar?

--
Guy Barry

[Peter Young]

Not me, but I've heard of visitors to the UK being struck by the
number of signposts pointing to a place called "No Through".
Also, the number of railway stations called "Gentlemen".

Peter.

--
Peter Young, (BrE, RP), Consultant Anaesthetist, 1975-2004.
(US equivalent: Certified Anesthesiologist) (AUE Re)
Cheltenham and Gloucester, UK. Now happily retired.
http://pnyoung.orpheusweb.co.uk

[charles]

In article <2ebfb12d5...@pnyoung.ormail.co.uk>, Peter Young

<pny...@ormail.co.uk> wrote:
> On 27 Jul 2014 "Guy Barry" <guy....@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

> > When I was a child I used to think that the word "headroom" referred to
> > a type of bridge. Every so often in the car we'd pass under a bridge
> > marked "Headroom 12 feet 6 inches" (or whatever), and I'd think "Oh,
> > we're going under one of those headrooms again".

> > Anyone like to own up to anything similar?

> Not me, but I've heard of visitors to the UK being struck by the number
> of signposts pointing to a place called "No Through". Also, the number of
> railway stations called "Gentlemen".

I am reminded of the tourists to the Cotswolds. They saw Chipping Norton,
Chipping Camden and lots of places called Loose Chippings

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

[R H Draney]

Guy Barry filted:

Used to think a "freeway" was so-called because you were "free" to drive as fast
as you wanted on it....r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

I had a coworker who had been visiting part of the Irish Republic on
holiday. He had been driving around trying to find a beach. He was
frustrated because all he saw were roads signs pointing to a place he'd
never heard of. It was some some before he discovered that what he
thought was a placename, "Trá", was in fact Irish for "beach".


--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

[Steve Hayes]

I once drove through Bologna and thought there must be a United Nations
conference in town, because there were lots of arrows pointing the way to
"Senso Unico".


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Sunday, July 27, 2014 4:08:01 AM UTC-4, Guy Barry wrote:

> When I was a child I used to think that the word "headroom" referred to a
> type of bridge. Every so often in the car we'd pass under a bridge marked
> "Headroom 12 feet 6 inches" (or whatever), and I'd think "Oh, we're going
> under one of those headrooms again".

AmE "Clearance" (trucks don't have heads, do they?)

> Anyone like to own up to anything similar?

I didn't know that "ajar" means 'almost closed' until a few years ago.

[Guy Barry]

"R H Draney" wrote in message news:lr2k7...@drn.newsguy.com...

What is the reason for the name then? Wikipedia says:

"Thus, as originally conceived, a freeway is simply a strip of public land
devoted to movement to which abutting property owners do not have rights of
light, air, or access."

That doesn't sound particularly free to me.

--
Guy Barry

[Guy Barry]

"Peter Duncanson [BrE]" wrote in message
news:esm9t9li2i36hodde...@4ax.com...

>I had a coworker who had been visiting part of the Irish Republic on
>holiday. He had been driving around trying to find a beach. He was
>frustrated because all he saw were roads signs pointing to a place he'd
>never heard of. It was some some before he discovered that what he
>thought was a placename, "Trá", was in fact Irish for "beach".

Reminds me of someone I once knew who wondered why there were all those
signs in Wales pointing to "Gwasanaethau Services".

--
Guy Barry

[Charles Bishop]

In article <wr2Bv.332999$uU1.1...@fx05.am4>,

No, I don't.

However, my sister, as a young girl, was convinced to duck her head when
we went under a bridge while traveling. A similar game to picking up our
feet when traveling over railroad tracks.

There is probably something I did that was similar to yours in that I
misinterpreted a word or phrase and kept that meaning until I learned
differently, but I can't think of one now.

--
chrles

[Katy Jennison]

I've always assumed they were "free" as opposed to toll roads.

--
Katy Jennison

[Guy Barry]

"Charles Bishop" wrote in message
news:ctbishop-691E92...@news.individual.net...

>There is probably something I did that was similar to yours in that I
>misinterpreted a word or phrase and kept that meaning until I learned
>differently, but I can't think of one now.

That was the idea. The thread title was "childhood misapprehensions", but
(as often happens) everyone responding has ignored the subject header.

--
Guy Barry

[Mark Brader]

R.H. Draney:

>>> Used to think a "freeway" was so-called because you were "free" to
>>> drive as fast as you wanted on it.

Guy Barry:

>> What is the reason for the name then? Wikipedia says:
>>
>> "Thus, as originally conceived, a freeway is simply a strip of public
>> land devoted to movement to which abutting property owners do not have
>> rights of light, air, or access."

"Simply"!

Katy Jennison:

> I've always assumed they were "free" as opposed to toll roads.

A common enough misconception that many people now accept it as correct
usage. What they're actually "free" of is things that interfere
with the flow of through traffic -- that is, intersections, driveways
(which is where the "abutting property owners" comes in), pedestrians
and slow vehicles (hence "motorway" and similar terms in European
languages), and adjacent lanes for traffic in the other direction.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto Don't put all your X in one window.
m...@vex.net -- Peter Neumann

My text in this article is in the public domain.

[John Dawkins]

In article <0OCdnWYu3KkYrEjO...@vex.net>,

m...@vex.net (Mark Brader) wrote:

> R.H. Draney:
> >>> Used to think a "freeway" was so-called because you were "free" to
> >>> drive as fast as you wanted on it.
>
> Guy Barry:
> >> What is the reason for the name then? Wikipedia says:
> >>
> >> "Thus, as originally conceived, a freeway is simply a strip of public
> >> land devoted to movement to which abutting property owners do not have
> >> rights of light, air, or access."
>
> "Simply"!
>
> Katy Jennison:
> > I've always assumed they were "free" as opposed to toll roads.
>
> A common enough misconception that many people now accept it as correct
> usage. What they're actually "free" of is things that interfere
> with the flow of through traffic -- that is, intersections, driveways
> (which is where the "abutting property owners" comes in), pedestrians
> and slow vehicles (hence "motorway" and similar terms in European
> languages), and adjacent lanes for traffic in the other direction.

WIWAL, "freeway" was a California usage seen on TV. East of the
Mississippi, where I was raised, we had turnpikes and interstates. I've
now lived in CA so long that I don't know whether "freeway" is in
current usage Back East.

--
J.

[Steve Hayes]

I thought it was because they had no robots or stop streets to impede your
progressm, just stationary vehicles.

Nevertheless, I've been referring to our local ex-freeway as a tollway since
last December, and no longer use it.

[Charles Bishop]

In article <fc9Bv.432557$xk2.2...@fx16.am4>,

That sounds wrong to me. I would think it meant that there were no
signals or such to impede driving. Along with restricted access to enter
the freeway.

--
charles

[Katy Jennison]

On 27/07/2014 18:06, Mark Brader wrote:
> R.H. Draney:
>>>> Used to think a "freeway" was so-called because you were "free" to
>>>> drive as fast as you wanted on it.
>
> Guy Barry:
>>> What is the reason for the name then? Wikipedia says:
>>>
>>> "Thus, as originally conceived, a freeway is simply a strip of public
>>> land devoted to movement to which abutting property owners do not have
>>> rights of light, air, or access."
>
> "Simply"!
>
> Katy Jennison:
>> I've always assumed they were "free" as opposed to toll roads.
>
> A common enough misconception that many people now accept it as correct
> usage. What they're actually "free" of is things that interfere
> with the flow of through traffic -- that is, intersections, driveways
> (which is where the "abutting property owners" comes in), pedestrians
> and slow vehicles (hence "motorway" and similar terms in European
> languages), and adjacent lanes for traffic in the other direction.
>

Now I remember. I did know that really, honest.

--
Katy Jennison

[Charles Bishop]

In article <1qfat91ski30oej0d...@4ax.com>,
Steve Hayes <haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote:

[snip]

>
> Nevertheless, I've been referring to our local ex-freeway as a tollway since
> last December, and no longer use it.

What were the conditions for the change? Is there less traffic on it
now, which would make it desirable for some to use?

Anyhow, they recently did something similar here, BUT, there are no
tollbooths, you need to have a transponder (which identifies your car
and then money is removed (or charged to) your account for the toll.
HOWEVER, there is no restricted access and anyone can enter the freeway.
BUT, there are signs that are hard to read or understand at speed, that
say you have 48 hours to go online and pay the toll. If you don't, they
track you down, send you a traffic ticket with a fine that is more than
the toll.

OF COURSE, many, many people didn't realize either of those and were
surprised to receive the ticket and incensed that there was a fine along
with the toll cost.

It's still on-going as far as I know and I don't know what the
resolution will be.

Toll roads work perfectly well back East, don't know why they have so
much trouble here.

Charles

[R H Draney]

John Dawkins filted:

>
>> R.H. Draney:
>> >>> Used to think a "freeway" was so-called because you were "free" to
>> >>> drive as fast as you wanted on it.
>

>WIWAL, "freeway" was a California usage seen on TV. East of the
>Mississippi, where I was raised, we had turnpikes and interstates. I've
>now lived in CA so long that I don't know whether "freeway" is in
>current usage Back East.

WIWAL, IWALIC...we didn't have toll roads, and "turnpikes" was some weird thing
people in movies said, like "dungarees" and "soda"....r

[Joe Fineman]

When I first heard the line "Three cheers for the red, white and blue",
I supposed "cheers" must mean colors.

Until fairly recently I thought the "con" in "concupiscence" was a vivid
prefix & supposed that the word referred to the conspiratorial aspect of
sexual relations.
--
--- Joe Fineman jo...@verizon.net

||: Before filling your wheelbarrow, point it in the direction :||
||: you intend to go. :||

[Arcadian Rises]

For a long time I believed the pancreas was a bird.

[FromTheRafters]

Guy Barry explained :

We had a wall mounted telephone in our kitchen. It had an extra long
one of those helical cords between the hookset and the handset. My dad
once stopped me from talking because my mother was on a 'long distance'
telephone call. For a long time I thought that was what 'long distance'
calls were.

Another was when the Mickey Mouse Club went 'off the air' I felt so
sorry for the suffocating rodent until the matter was explained to me.

[Steve Hayes]

On Sun, 27 Jul 2014 11:36:18 -0700, Charles Bishop <ctbi...@earthlink.net>
wrote:

>In article <1qfat91ski30oej0d...@4ax.com>,
> Steve Hayes <haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>>
>> Nevertheless, I've been referring to our local ex-freeway as a tollway since
>> last December, and no longer use it.
>
>What were the conditions for the change? Is there less traffic on it
>now, which would make it desirable for some to use?
>
>Anyhow, they recently did something similar here, BUT, there are no
>tollbooths, you need to have a transponder (which identifies your car
>and then money is removed (or charged to) your account for the toll.
>HOWEVER, there is no restricted access and anyone can enter the freeway.
>BUT, there are signs that are hard to read or understand at speed, that
>say you have 48 hours to go online and pay the toll. If you don't, they
>track you down, send you a traffic ticket with a fine that is more than
>the toll.

Yes, that's what they have had on our ex-freeway since 3 December, and there
have been numerous protests, many boycott it by not travelling on it, others
boycott it by not buying an e-tag and waiting for them to send a bill, and
some by not paying the bill even when it is sent.

They introduced it a few months before an election, and the ruling party's
majority in this province dropped significantly in the election, so now they
are hinting at second thoughts about it, since the amount of uncollected tolls
by far exceeds their ability to collect them. .

>Toll roads work perfectly well back East, don't know why they have so
>much trouble here.

In the past all roads here were paid for be a fuel tax and licence fees, which
everyone thought was fair and worked on the "user pays" principle. Then in
1975 the government robbed the road fund to pay for the invasion of Angola,
and introduced toll roads to make up the deficit.

[Tony Cooper]

I suppose you don't want me to tell you that I thought a sandwich was
made of sand between two slices of bread.

--
Tony Cooper - Orlando FL

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Monday, July 28, 2014 12:16:53 AM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:

> I suppose you don't want me to tell you that I thought a sandwich was
> made of sand between two slices of bread.

Why does no one starve in the Sahara?

Ha! I finally remembered one! I was very concerned when my mother
brought home a boysenberry pie. I had not heard of boysenberries,
but I had heard of poisons.

[Peter Moylan]

On 28/07/14 04:06, Steve Hayes wrote:

> Nevertheless, I've been referring to our local ex-freeway as a tollway since
> last December, and no longer use it.

The freeway from Newcastle to Sydney (and vice versa) recently had its
designation changed from F3 to M1. This has made a few people nervous,
because in Sydney the "M" roads are toll roads. Nobody in officialdom
has given a reason for the name change.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org

[Peter Moylan]

On 27/07/14 21:03, Peter Duncanson [BrE] wrote:
> On Sun, 27 Jul 2014 09:08:01 +0100, "Guy Barry"
> <guy....@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> When I was a child I used to think that the word "headroom" referred to a
>> type of bridge. Every so often in the car we'd pass under a bridge marked
>> "Headroom 12 feet 6 inches" (or whatever), and I'd think "Oh, we're going
>> under one of those headrooms again".

In Australia the corresponding sign says "Max Headroom". I gather that a
cartoon character was given the same name.

>> Anyone like to own up to anything similar?
>
> I had a coworker who had been visiting part of the Irish Republic on
> holiday. He had been driving around trying to find a beach. He was
> frustrated because all he saw were roads signs pointing to a place he'd
> never heard of. It was some some before he discovered that what he

> thought was a placename, "Tr�", was in fact Irish for "beach".

When I visited Dublin I thought that "An L�r" meant "bus".

[Guy Barry]

"Charles Bishop" wrote in message

news:ctbishop-39E201...@news.individual.net...

>
>In article <1qfat91ski30oej0d...@4ax.com>,
> Steve Hayes <haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote:

>> Nevertheless, I've been referring to our local ex-freeway as a tollway
>> since
>> last December, and no longer use it.
>
>What were the conditions for the change? Is there less traffic on it
>now, which would make it desirable for some to use?

My apologies: I seem to have started another thread about transport. (Not
that I have any objections myself, but I generally try to keep the topics
fairly diverse if I can to minimize complaints.)

--
Guy Barry

[Peter Moylan]

My grandmother used to make meringues when we visited. I had trouble
remembering the name, and called them "boomers" for a while.

[Guy Barry]

"R H Draney" wrote in message news:lr42h...@drn.newsguy.com...

>WIWAL, IWALIC...we didn't have toll roads, and "turnpikes" was some weird
>thing
>people in movies said, like "dungarees" and "soda"....r

Turnpikes in this country were abolished in the 19th century, though many of
the roads so built still form the basis of the road network.

--
Guy Barry

[Guy Barry]

"Joe Fineman" wrote in message news:84k36yu...@verizon.net...

>Until fairly recently I thought the "con" in "concupiscence" was a vivid
>prefix & supposed that the word referred to the conspiratorial aspect of
>sexual relations.

I think I did until I read your post.

--
Guy Barry

[Guy Barry]

"Arcadian Rises" wrote in message
news:f5d7a966-bd15-402a...@googlegroups.com...

>
>For a long time I believed the pancreas was a bird.

No, it's a big railway station in London.

--
Guy Barry

[Guy Barry]

"Peter T. Daniels" wrote in message
news:8c527b93-7e7f-429d...@googlegroups.com...

Nor had I until now. "A boysenberry is a cross between a European Raspberry
(Rubus idaeus), a Common Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus), an American Dewberry
(Rubus aboriginum) and a Loganberry (Rubus � loganobaccus)." I thought a
loganberry was a hybrid itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boysenberry

--
Guy Barry

[R H Draney]

Peter Moylan filted:

Dropped it more than two octaves, innit?...r

[R H Draney]

Peter Moylan filted:

My!...didn't take long to turn this into a food thread, did it?...

Okay, one of my own in that category: one morning when my father decided to
prepare breakfast, he seemed very disappointed that I asked for oatmeal and
suggested an omelet instead...my interpretation of the word he used was that he
was simply rearranging the letters in the word "oatmeal"....r

[R H Draney]

Joe Fineman filted:

>
>When I first heard the line "Three cheers for the red, white and blue",
>I supposed "cheers" must mean colors.

http://youtu.be/gPSAu8xfmhk?t=2m34s

(We took some pictures of the native girls but they weren't developed)....r

[Guy Barry]

"Peter Moylan" wrote in message news:lr4so1$kha$1...@dont-email.me...

>In Australia the corresponding sign says "Max Headroom". I gather that a
>cartoon character was given the same name.

Not a cartoon character, but a 1980s British TV presenter billed as "the
world's first computer-generated TV host". In actual fact it was an actor
wearing make-up with some strange visual and auditory effects:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_%28character%29

--
Guy Barry

[Stan Brown]

On Sun, 27 Jul 2014 20:23:59 -0400, Joe Fineman wrote:
> "Guy Barry" <guy....@blueyonder.co.uk> writes:
> >
> > Anyone like to own up to anything similar?
>
> When I first heard the line "Three cheers for the red, white and blue",
> I supposed "cheers" must mean colors.

I was eight when I first heard /Trial by Jury/. When the defendant
sang "I'm not prepossessing, as you may be guessing", I thought he
meant he wasn't presuming anything. It was quite a few years later
that I learned he was saying he was ugly.

--
"The difference between the /almost right/ word and the /right/ word
is ... the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning."
--Mark Twain
Stan Brown, Tompkins County, NY, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com

[FromTheRafters]

It happens that Stefan Ram formulated :

> FromTheRafters <err...@nomail.afraid.org> writes:
>> We had a wall mounted telephone in our kitchen. It had an extra long
>> one of those helical cords between the hookset and the handset.
>

> Everyone knows these from the television series ￜRoseanneￜ.
>
> Many posts in this thread could be used to illustrate
> Quine's ￜinscrutability of referenceￜ.

It's fun though, probably everyone has had such an occurrence. We use
to joke about "would you crack the window" or "hit the lights, please"
as if we were taking it literally.

[Mark Brader]

Peter Moylan:

> The freeway from Newcastle to Sydney (and vice versa) recently had its
> designation changed from F3 to M1. This has made a few people nervous,
> because in Sydney the "M" roads are toll roads. Nobody in officialdom
> has given a reason for the name change.

Perhaps there is a right to privacy for transgender roads.
--
Mark Brader | Obviously an off by 1 error somewhere. You know
Toronto | the kind, where you intend to put something simple
m...@vex.net | like "while (1=0) {" and type "while (1=1) {" instead.
--Stephen Perry

[Peter Moylan]

On 28/07/14 22:18, Mark Brader wrote:
> Peter Moylan:
>> The freeway from Newcastle to Sydney (and vice versa) recently had its
>> designation changed from F3 to M1. This has made a few people nervous,
>> because in Sydney the "M" roads are toll roads. Nobody in officialdom
>> has given a reason for the name change.
>
> Perhaps there is a right to privacy for transgender roads.

Both you and Ron have given interpretations that hadn't occurred to me.
Ingenious.

It made me think of the joke about the fellow who was asked
Sex? (M/F)
on a form, and who replied "I prefer to F, but most of the time I have
to M".

[Peter Young]

<Applause>

Peter.

--
Peter Young, (BrE, RP), Consultant Anaesthetist, 1975-2004.
(US equivalent: Certified Anesthesiologist) (AUE Re)
Cheltenham and Gloucester, UK. Now happily retired.
http://pnyoung.orpheusweb.co.uk

[Wayne Brown]

On Sun, 27 Jul 2014 03:08:01 in article <wr2Bv.332999$uU1.1...@fx05.am4> Guy Barry <guy....@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> When I was a child I used to think that the word "headroom" referred to a
> type of bridge. Every so often in the car we'd pass under a bridge marked
> "Headroom 12 feet 6 inches" (or whatever), and I'd think "Oh, we're going
> under one of those headrooms again".
>

> Anyone like to own up to anything similar?

I read a lot from an early age and often encountered words in print
before hearing them in speech, so that sometimes I didn't recognize them
when I heard them spoken aloud. For years I didn't know that "mislead"
and "misled" were forms of the same word. I thought that "mislead" was
both the present and past tense, as with the word "read." On the other
hand, I thought that "misled" was pronounced "MY-zuld" and was the past
tense of a word "misle" (pronounced "MY-zull"), meaning "to deceive."
It wasn't until sometime in my teens that I was reading and saw the word
"mislead" and for some reason the truth suddenly became clear to me.
I was very embarrassed and wondered whether I had ever referred out
loud to someone "misling" (MY-zul-ling) someone else. If so, no one
ever drew it to my attention.

When my oldest son was very young he was helping me fix a squeaky fan belt
on our car. We sprayed some "belt dressing" on it. A few days later we
were driving somewhere when we passed another car with a squealing belt.
Philip noticed and said, "Daddy, that man needs some belt salad!"

--
F. Wayne Brown <fwb...@bellsouth.net>

Þæs ofereode, ðisses swa mæg. ("That passed away, this also can.")
from "Deor," in the Exeter Book (folios 100r-100v)

[Bart Dinnissen]

On 28 Jul 2014 01:46:04 -0700, in alt.usage.english R H Draney

<dado...@spamcop.net> wrote:

>Joe Fineman filted:
>>
>>When I first heard the line "Three cheers for the red, white and blue",
>>I supposed "cheers" must mean colors.
>
> http://youtu.be/gPSAu8xfmhk?t=2m34s
>
>(We took some pictures of the native girls but they weren't developed)....r

Maybe somone could fix that.

--
Bart Dinnissen

"I hate mysteries. They bug me. They need to be solved."
- Felicity Smoak

[Dr Nick]

Excellent! Never heard that one before, but it won't stop me telling
it.

[Joe Fineman]

Wayne Brown <fwb...@bellsouth.net> writes:

> I read a lot from an early age and often encountered words in print
> before hearing them in speech, so that sometimes I didn't recognize
> them when I heard them spoken aloud. For years I didn't know that
> "mislead" and "misled" were forms of the same word. I thought that
> "mislead" was both the present and past tense, as with the word
> "read." On the other hand, I thought that "misled" was pronounced
> "MY-zuld" and was the past tense of a word "misle" (pronounced
> "MY-zull"), meaning "to deceive."

Me too. That is extremely common, and some groups use "misle" jocularly
among themselves. W. V. O. Quine's _Quiddities_ even has an article
headed "Misling".

Likewise, as a boy, I supposed that infraring was something you could do
to light.
--
--- Joe Fineman jo...@verizon.net

||: In pene paritas. :||

[Robert Bannister]

On 28/07/2014 7:38 am, R H Draney wrote:
> John Dawkins filted:
>>
>>> R.H. Draney:
>>>>>> Used to think a "freeway" was so-called because you were "free" to
>>>>>> drive as fast as you wanted on it.
>>
>> WIWAL, "freeway" was a California usage seen on TV. East of the
>> Mississippi, where I was raised, we had turnpikes and interstates. I've
>> now lived in CA so long that I don't know whether "freeway" is in
>> current usage Back East.

>
> WIWAL, IWALIC...we didn't have toll roads, and "turnpikes" was some weird thing
> people in movies said, like "dungarees" and "soda"....r
>
>

Those were the Good Old Days. Our state government has recently been
muttering "toll roads", mainly because they have spent so much money
that the cupboard's bare.

--
Robert Bannister - 1940-71 SE England
1972-now W Australia

[Robert Bannister]

On 28/07/2014 4:27 pm, Guy Barry wrote:
> "Peter T. Daniels" wrote in message
> news:8c527b93-7e7f-429d...@googlegroups.com...
>>
>> On Monday, July 28, 2014 12:16:53 AM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:
>>
>>> I suppose you don't want me to tell you that I thought a sandwich was
>>> made of sand between two slices of bread.
>>
>> Why does no one starve in the Sahara?
>>
>> Ha! I finally remembered one! I was very concerned when my mother
>> brought home a boysenberry pie. I had not heard of boysenberries,
>> but I had heard of poisons.
>
> Nor had I until now. "A boysenberry is a cross between a European
> Raspberry (Rubus idaeus), a Common Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus),

They've been around for long enough. I am surprised you haven't come
across them.

[Robert Bannister]

On 28/07/2014 4:46 pm, R H Draney wrote:
> Joe Fineman filted:
>>
>> When I first heard the line "Three cheers for the red, white and blue",
>> I supposed "cheers" must mean colors.
>
> http://youtu.be/gPSAu8xfmhk?t=2m34s
>
> (We took some pictures of the native girls but they weren't developed)....r
>
>

Please send photos of your honeymoon, preferably not mounted.

[Robert Bannister]

For a long time, I refused to believe there could be a saint with such a
silly name.

[R H Draney]

FromTheRafters filted:

>
>It happens that Stefan Ram formulated :
>> FromTheRafters <err...@nomail.afraid.org> writes:
>>> We had a wall mounted telephone in our kitchen. It had an extra long
>>> one of those helical cords between the hookset and the handset.
>>

>> Everyone knows these from the television series �Roseanne�.

>>
>> Many posts in this thread could be used to illustrate

>> Quine's �inscrutability of reference�.

>
>It's fun though, probably everyone has had such an occurrence. We use
>to joke about "would you crack the window" or "hit the lights, please"
>as if we were taking it literally.

Flashback to the dinner table:

My brother: "Would you please pass the salt?"
My stepfather: "Spiral, or end-over-end?"

[John Dawkins]

In article <lr42h...@drn.newsguy.com>,

R H Draney <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote:

> John Dawkins filted:
> >
> >> R.H. Draney:
> >> >>> Used to think a "freeway" was so-called because you were "free" to
> >> >>> drive as fast as you wanted on it.
> >
> >WIWAL, "freeway" was a California usage seen on TV. East of the
> >Mississippi, where I was raised, we had turnpikes and interstates. I've
> >now lived in CA so long that I don't know whether "freeway" is in
> >current usage Back East.
>
> WIWAL, IWALIC...we didn't have toll roads, and "turnpikes" was some weird
> thing
> people in movies said, like "dungarees" and "soda"....r

We had no dungarees, but we did drink "soda pop" when the opportunity
presented itself.
--
J.

[Charles Bishop]

In article <c3o2bo...@mid.individual.net>,

Travelers have paid for the Golden Gate Bridge several times over, and
the amount collected is more than enough to cover maintenance.

There is some public transit associated with the bridge, buses and
ferries.

--
charles

[Jerry Friedman]

On 7/27/14 11:46 AM, John Dawkins wrote:
> In article <0OCdnWYu3KkYrEjO...@vex.net>,

> m...@vex.net (Mark Brader) wrote:
>
>> R.H. Draney:
>>>>> Used to think a "freeway" was so-called because you were "free" to
>>>>> drive as fast as you wanted on it.
>>

>> Guy Barry:
>>>> What is the reason for the name then? Wikipedia says:
>>>>
>>>> "Thus, as originally conceived, a freeway is simply a strip of public
>>>> land devoted to movement to which abutting property owners do not have
>>>> rights of light, air, or access."
>>
>> "Simply"!
>>
>> Katy Jennison:
>>> I've always assumed they were "free" as opposed to toll roads.
>>
>> A common enough misconception

Which I had as a child.

>> that many people now accept it as correct
>> usage. What they're actually "free" of is things that interfere
>> with the flow of through traffic -- that is, intersections, driveways
>> (which is where the "abutting property owners" comes in), pedestrians
>> and slow vehicles (hence "motorway" and similar terms in European
>> languages), and adjacent lanes for traffic in the other direction.

>
> WIWAL, "freeway" was a California usage seen on TV. East of the
> Mississippi, where I was raised, we had turnpikes and interstates. I've
> now lived in CA so long that I don't know whether "freeway" is in
> current usage Back East.

It was current usage back in the '60s in the Cleveland area.

--
Jerry Friedman

[Jerry Friedman]

On 7/27/14 5:38 PM, R H Draney wrote:
> John Dawkins filted:
>>

>>> R.H. Draney:
>>>>>> Used to think a "freeway" was so-called because you were "free" to
>>>>>> drive as fast as you wanted on it.
>>

>> WIWAL, "freeway" was a California usage seen on TV. East of the
>> Mississippi, where I was raised, we had turnpikes and interstates. I've
>> now lived in CA so long that I don't know whether "freeway" is in
>> current usage Back East.
>

> WIWAL, IWALIC...we didn't have toll roads, and "turnpikes" was some weird thing
> people in movies said, like "dungarees" and "soda"....r

We sometimes took two turnpikes to visit Grandma and Grandpa, but "soda"
was half the name of a powder that foamed when mixed with vinegar. I'm
not sure I've ever heard anyone say "dungarees", even in a movie.


--
Jerry Friedman

[Jerry Friedman]

The "x" or "cross" in the name of the loganberry indicates that it is
indeed a hybrid.

--
Jerry Friedman

[Jerry Friedman]

On 7/28/14 11:37 AM, Bart Dinnissen wrote:
> On 28 Jul 2014 01:46:04 -0700, in alt.usage.english R H Draney
> <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote:
>
>> Joe Fineman filted:
>>>
>>> When I first heard the line "Three cheers for the red, white and blue",
>>> I supposed "cheers" must mean colors.
>>
>> http://youtu.be/gPSAu8xfmhk?t=2m34s
>>
>> (We took some pictures of the native girls but they weren't developed)....r
>
> Maybe somone could fix that.

Oh, stop.

--
Jerry Friedman

[Tony Cooper]

http://www.lyricskid.com/lyrics/jerry-lee-lewis-lyrics/jack-daniel-old-no.-7-lyrics.html

A woman wrings her hands and cries, "I've lost my man"
You should-a seen him, tote that diesel 'cross the land
Now you'll find him upon Lynchburg, Tennessee
Collecting bottles in his old dungarees

You can hear Jerry Lee Lewis singing it at the above.

In Indiana, dungarees were like jeans, but made a soft blue material
and cut loose. If you rode a horse, you wanted something tight and
sturdy that would be comfortable in the saddle and wouldn't chafe.
Cowboys wore jeans. If you rode a tractor, you wanted soft and loose.
Farmers wore dungarees. Dungarees were either the bib overall style
or the waist-high style like Levis.
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando FL

[Peter Moylan]

On 29/07/14 14:33, Tony Cooper wrote:

> In Indiana, dungarees were like jeans, but made a soft blue material
> and cut loose. If you rode a horse, you wanted something tight and
> sturdy that would be comfortable in the saddle and wouldn't chafe.
> Cowboys wore jeans. If you rode a tractor, you wanted soft and loose.
> Farmers wore dungarees. Dungarees were either the bib overall style
> or the waist-high style like Levis.

One thing I learnt, the painful way, is that if you ride a horse you
must not have a seam down the inside leg. That's what makes jodhpurs
better than jeans.

[Peter Moylan]

We've had discussions on this group before on whether "misled" should be
pronounced MY-z'ld or mizzled. We reached agreement on just one thing:
that only a minority of the regulars here pronounce it with
second-syllable stress.

I too thought that you could infrar light, although I didn't know how. I
also thought that a "barroom piano" was a very loud piano, the sort that
went ba-RROOOM.

[Steve Hayes]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2014 21:40:01 -0600, Jerry Friedman <jerry_f...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

Back in the 1970s "freeway" was used in Durban, "motorway" in Johannesburg,
and I think that in Cape Town they used "expressway".


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

[Steve Hayes]

+1

Though it might not be considered gendered and nuanced enough by some.

[Steve Hayes]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2014 17:05:33 +1000, Peter Moylan <pe...@pmoylan.org> wrote:

>On 27/07/14 21:03, Peter Duncanson [BrE] wrote:
>> On Sun, 27 Jul 2014 09:08:01 +0100, "Guy Barry"

>> <guy....@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> When I was a child I used to think that the word "headroom" referred to a
>>> type of bridge. Every so often in the car we'd pass under a bridge marked
>>> "Headroom 12 feet 6 inches" (or whatever), and I'd think "Oh, we're going
>>> under one of those headrooms again".
>

>In Australia the corresponding sign says "Max Headroom". I gather that a
>cartoon character was given the same name.

Doonesbury?

I thought it was an oblique reference to Ronald Reagan.

[Guy Barry]

"Joe Fineman" wrote in message news:84k36xu...@verizon.net...

["misled"]

>Me too. That is extremely common, and some groups use "misle" jocularly
>among themselves. W. V. O. Quine's _Quiddities_ even has an article
>headed "Misling".
>
>Likewise, as a boy, I supposed that infraring was something you could do
>to light.

I like that one - nothing like as well-known as "misling". I used to read
"infrared" that way as well, but as a deliberate joke.

--
Guy Barry

[Steve Hayes]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2014 17:34:19 -0400, Joe Fineman <jo...@verizon.net> wrote:

>Wayne Brown <fwb...@bellsouth.net> writes:
>
>> I read a lot from an early age and often encountered words in print
>> before hearing them in speech, so that sometimes I didn't recognize
>> them when I heard them spoken aloud. For years I didn't know that
>> "mislead" and "misled" were forms of the same word. I thought that
>> "mislead" was both the present and past tense, as with the word
>> "read." On the other hand, I thought that "misled" was pronounced
>> "MY-zuld" and was the past tense of a word "misle" (pronounced
>> "MY-zull"), meaning "to deceive."
>
>Me too. That is extremely common, and some groups use "misle" jocularly
>among themselves. W. V. O. Quine's _Quiddities_ even has an article
>headed "Misling".

Misle used to be common in aue a few years ago.

My daughter (when aged about 2 or 3) once asked my wife "What are crims?"

When asked where she had heard of crims, she said it was in a people that we
had read to her, which read

he has gone to fish for his Aunt Jobiska's
runcible cat with crimson whiskers.

That's a misle -- thinking that crims are something one attaches to whiskers.

[Dr Nick]

We picked some silvanberries last week. I'd never heard of them so did
some research and they are a cross between a marion blackberry and an
unnamed cross between a Pacific blackberry and a boysenberry.

So at this level they are 3/4 blackberry and 1/4 boysenberry.

A boysenberry appears to be made up of equal amounts of raspberry,
blackberry, dewberry and loganberry.

And a loganberry is a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry.

I think that makes our silvanberry 27/32 blackberry, 3/32 blackberry and
1/16 dewberry.

Certainly they seem to be a very nice blackberry.

[Guy Barry]

"Robert Bannister" wrote in message
news:c3o340...@mid.individual.net...

Not in this country as far as I'm aware. The Encyclopedia Britannica says
"grown chiefly in New Zealand and the United States, particularly on the
Pacific coast from southern California to Oregon".

--
Guy Barry

[Guy Barry]

"Jerry Friedman" wrote in message news:lr75bl$6es$4...@news.albasani.net...

Ah, thanks - I missed that.

--
Guy Barry

[Guy Barry]

"Lewis" wrote in message news:slrnlte9us....@amelia.local...

>When I was a kid there was an ad on TV (back when you couldn't skip ads)
>advertising the "Playtex 18 hour bra" so I grew up thinking that bras
>were disposable.

The advertisements here were for the "18 hour girdle" as I remember. Here's
one from 1974 ("you could forget you have it on!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8qDxk4IJtA

>I was... older than I care to admit when I figured it out. I remember
>seeing my girlfriend's bras often enough that one time I was thinking,
>"Say, I'm pretty sure she's worn this one at least twice before, it has
>this tricky front clasp."

All right, so why *was* it called an "18-hour girdle" then? I can only
assume that women were supposed to put it on when they got dressed in the
morning and took it off around 18 hours later when they went to bed - but
that's just like all their other clothes.

--
Guy Barry

[charles]

In article <zyIBv.237392$hL6.1...@fx24.am4>,

I believe that earlier girdle were so uncomfortable that they couldn't be
worn for more than a few hours at a time.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

[Ross]

I think they were first developed in California. My grandfather used to grow
some (and some loganberries) 60+ years ago in B.C.

In this country they're apparently mostly in the Nelson region (northern
South Island). I now recall that the folks down there used to make a boysenberry wine which was very pleasant, if you like that sort of thing.

[FromTheRafters]

Joe Fineman wrote :

> Wayne Brown <fwb...@bellsouth.net> writes:
>
>> I read a lot from an early age and often encountered words in print
>> before hearing them in speech, so that sometimes I didn't recognize
>> them when I heard them spoken aloud. For years I didn't know that
>> "mislead" and "misled" were forms of the same word. I thought that
>> "mislead" was both the present and past tense, as with the word
>> "read." On the other hand, I thought that "misled" was pronounced
>> "MY-zuld" and was the past tense of a word "misle" (pronounced
>> "MY-zull"), meaning "to deceive."
>
> Me too. That is extremely common, and some groups use "misle" jocularly
> among themselves. W. V. O. Quine's _Quiddities_ even has an article
> headed "Misling".
>

> Likewise, as a boy, I supposed that infraring was something you could do
> to light.

I had a toy communications device, something like a 'walkie-talkie'
except it used infrared light and you had to aim it at the other party
to make it work. It had an infrared light and a flexible mirror which
vibrated when you spoke into it. The receiver portion received that
signal and converted it to audio. Having heard the word infrared so
many times as a child I was quite surprised when I first saw it spelt
out. My thought was 'that can't be right'. I guess in my mind it was
always infra-red.

[R H Draney]

Lewis filted:

>
>When I was a kid there was an ad on TV (back when you couldn't skip ads)
>advertising the "Playtex 18 hour bra" so I grew up thinking that bras
>were disposable.

On the flip side, there were "Five-Day Deodorant Pads"...George Carlin, on one
of his albums, asks the audience how many thought you were supposed to wear
them....r

[LFS]

On 29/07/2014 00:02, Robert Bannister wrote:
> On 28/07/2014 4:27 pm, Guy Barry wrote:

>> "Peter T. Daniels" wrote in message
>> news:8c527b93-7e7f-429d...@googlegroups.com...
>>>
>>> On Monday, July 28, 2014 12:16:53 AM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:
>>>
>>>> I suppose you don't want me to tell you that I thought a sandwich was
>>>> made of sand between two slices of bread.
>>>
>>> Why does no one starve in the Sahara?
>>>
>>> Ha! I finally remembered one! I was very concerned when my mother
>>> brought home a boysenberry pie. I had not heard of boysenberries,
>>> but I had heard of poisons.
>>

>> Nor had I until now. "A boysenberry is a cross between a European
>> Raspberry (Rubus idaeus), a Common Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus),
>
> They've been around for long enough. I am surprised you haven't come
> across them.

An American friend gave me a jar of Knott's Berry Farm boysenberry jam
many years ago. It is my favourite jam but I have only been able to eat
it when visiting the US or when US visitors have brought me some. Now I
see that a different variety is available on Amazon (at a price), as are
boysenberry plants.

--
Laura (emulate St George for email)

[John Dawkins]

In article <uiget91uagr17av3u...@4ax.com>,

"Expressway" was used in Chicagoland (probably still is), I am now
reminded. So who was Dan Ryan and did they ever fix his expressway?

--
J.

[Guy Barry]

"charles" wrote in message
news:542ebc20...@charleshope.demon.co.uk...

>
>In article <zyIBv.237392$hL6.1...@fx24.am4>,
> Guy Barry <guy....@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>> "Lewis" wrote in message news:slrnlte9us....@amelia.local...

>> >I was... older than I care to admit when I figured it out. I remember
>> >seeing my girlfriend's bras often enough that one time I was thinking,
>> >"Say, I'm pretty sure she's worn this one at least twice before, it has
>> >this tricky front clasp."
>
>> All right, so why *was* it called an "18-hour girdle" then? I can only
>> assume that women were supposed to put it on when they got dressed in the
>> morning and took it off around 18 hours later when they went to bed - but
>> that's just like all their other clothes.
>
>I believe that earlier girdle were so uncomfortable that they couldn't be
>worn for more than a few hours at a time.

Ah, that makes sense. Did that apply to bras as well though? I find it
hard to believe that there were no comfortable bras before the 1970s.

--
Guy Barry

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Tuesday, July 29, 2014 3:06:52 AM UTC-4, Steve Hayes wrote:

> My daughter (when aged about 2 or 3) once asked my wife "What are crims?"
> When asked where she had heard of crims, she said it was in a people that we
> had read to her, which read
> he has gone to fish for his Aunt Jobiska's
> runcible cat with crimson whiskers.
> That's a misle -- thinking that crims are something one attaches to whiskers.

Unless you have a _very_ peculiar pronunciation of "crimson," she
was asking about a cat that had crims AND whiskers.

Not to mention a curious conception of "people."

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Tuesday, July 29, 2014 9:15:55 AM UTC-4, John Dawkins wrote:

> "Expressway" was used in Chicagoland (probably still is), I am now
> reminded. So who was Dan Ryan and did they ever fix his expressway?

Don't ask. And, no.

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Tuesday, July 29, 2014 7:37:02 AM UTC-4, LFS wrote:

> An American friend gave me a jar of Knott's Berry Farm boysenberry jam
> many years ago. It is my favourite jam but I have only been able to eat
> it when visiting the US or when US visitors have brought me some. Now I
> see that a different variety is available on Amazon (at a price), as are
> boysenberry plants.

Does the notion of "eating jam" seem odd to anyone else? It suggests
plunging a spoon into the jar and ingesting a large lump of it all at
once.

[charles]

In article <84169354-0bc5-4dca...@googlegroups.com>, Peter

Lovely

[Mark Brader]

Steve Hayes:

> My daughter (when aged about 2 or 3) once asked my wife "What are crims?"
>
> When asked where she had heard of crims, she said it was in a people that we
> had read to her, which read
>
> he has gone to fish for his Aunt Jobiska's
> runcible cat with crimson whiskers.
>
> That's a misle -- thinking that crims are something one attaches to whiskers.

And what was "people"?
--
Mark Brader | "After that, he spent a long time just reading netnews.
m...@vex.net | Sorry, I mean of course that he was debugging his
Toronto | terminal emulation code..." --Lars Wirzenius

[Cheryl]

There's that old saying (usually given in French) to the effect that it
is necessary to suffer in order to be beautiful. I think it applies to a
lot of female fashion, particularly earlier versions of girdles and bras.

--
Cheryl

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

No bread is harmed when eating jam like that.

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

[James Silverton]

On 7/29/2014 9:36 AM, Mark Brader wrote:
> Steve Hayes:
>> My daughter (when aged about 2 or 3) once asked my wife "What are crims?"
>>
>> When asked where she had heard of crims, she said it was in a people that we
>> had read to her, which read
>>
>> he has gone to fish for his Aunt Jobiska's
>> runcible cat with crimson whiskers.
>>
>> That's a misle -- thinking that crims are something one attaches to whiskers.
>
> And what was "people"?
>

I was about 10 years old when I first said "misled" in a school class. I
was embarrassed to find it was not pronounced "my zild"; [maIzld] or
perhaps [maIz@ld].

--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.

[Katy Jennison]

Let me guess: Steve meant to type "poem", mis-typed it as "peom", and
auto-correct did the rest.

--
Katy Jennison

[Charles Bishop]

In article <84169354-0bc5-4dca...@googlegroups.com>,
"Peter T. Daniels" <gram...@verizon.net> wrote:

Not odd to me, especially in LFS' context. I would assume toast or a
bagel over here, and something similar over there, perhaps including a
jam tart, which I haven't seen over here, unless that might include a
donut.

--
charles

[Charles Bishop]

In article <58b702cd-8b28-4e68...@googlegroups.com>,

Ross <benl...@ihug.co.nz> wrote:

> On Tuesday, July 29, 2014 7:19:06 PM UTC+12, Guy Barry wrote:
> > "Robert Bannister" wrote in message
> > news:c3o340...@mid.individual.net...
> > >On 28/07/2014 4:27 pm, Guy Barry wrote:
> > >> Nor had I until now. "A boysenberry is a cross between a European
> > >> Raspberry (Rubus idaeus), a Common Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus),
> > >They've been around for long enough. I am surprised you haven't come
> > >across
> > >them.
> >
> > Not in this country as far as I'm aware. The Encyclopedia Britannica says
> > "grown chiefly in New Zealand and the United States, particularly on the
> > Pacific coast from southern California to Oregon".
>
> I think they were first developed in California. My grandfather used to grow
> some (and some loganberries) 60+ years ago in B.C.

From Wiki (I thought I remembered that Mr. Boysen was involved)

The exact origins of the boysenberry are unclear but the most definite
records trace the plant as it's known today back to grower Rudolph
Boysen, who may have gotten the dewberry/loganberry parent from the farm
of a man by the name of John Lubben (who called it a "lubbenberry"), who
in turn may have gotten it from Luther Burbank.

<end quote>

Luther Burbank did a lot of work in California with grafting and crosses
in fruit. Burbank, known from the tv show "Laugh In" as "beautiful
downtown Burbank" was not named for Luther Burbank.

> In this country they're apparently mostly in the Nelson region (northern
> South Island). I now recall that the folks down there used to make a
> boysenberry wine which was very pleasant, if you like that sort of thing.

--
Charles

[Charles Bishop]

In article <871tt44...@temporary-address.org.uk>,

Dr Nick <nosp...@temporary-address.org.uk> wrote:

> Robert Bannister <rob...@clubtelco.com> writes:
>
> > On 28/07/2014 4:27 pm, Guy Barry wrote:
> >> "Peter T. Daniels" wrote in message
> >> news:8c527b93-7e7f-429d...@googlegroups.com...
> >>>
> >>> On Monday, July 28, 2014 12:16:53 AM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> I suppose you don't want me to tell you that I thought a sandwich was
> >>>> made of sand between two slices of bread.
> >>>
> >>> Why does no one starve in the Sahara?
> >>>
> >>> Ha! I finally remembered one! I was very concerned when my mother
> >>> brought home a boysenberry pie. I had not heard of boysenberries,
> >>> but I had heard of poisons.
> >>
> >> Nor had I until now. "A boysenberry is a cross between a European
> >> Raspberry (Rubus idaeus), a Common Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus),
> >
> > They've been around for long enough. I am surprised you haven't come
> > across them.
>
> We picked some silvanberries last week. I'd never heard of them so did
> some research and they are a cross between a marion blackberry and an
> unnamed cross between a Pacific blackberry and a boysenberry.

I picked some blackberries (3) yesterday, but I wait for them to be
ripe. The birds aren't as picky so they get most of them. Rather than
try to make jam (or preserves-have we discussed the difference?) I just
ate mine. I also have raspberries, but it's been hot and I don't think
they got enough water because the fruit is still small and green.

I don't begrudge the birds the fruit, they are entertaining, hanging on
the wire fence upside down to get at the berries.

[snip]

--
charles

[Charles Bishop]

In article <lr8bvp$pv5$1...@news.albasani.net>,

I just read (Pratchett?) that "peom" is a type of poetry. The Urban
Dictionary gives a definition as

A poem, but written horribly and often found as a venting for teen
angst.

That wasn't the meaning I got from whatever it was that I read. Anyone
else?

--
charles

[Guy Barry]

"Charles Bishop" wrote in message
news:ctbishop-72E1D4...@news.individual.net...

>
>I just read (Pratchett?) that "peom" is a type of poetry.

It's a Molesworth-ism, surely.

--
Guy Barry

[Steve Hayes]

One cheer for genetically-modified foods.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

[Steve Hayes]

On Tue, 29 Jul 2014 09:02:39 +0100, "Guy Barry" <guy....@blueyonder.co.uk>
wrote:

With other models (Buzzword=brands) they would take it off with a sigh of
relief when they got home from work, and let it all hang out. The epithet
implies that they can keep it on till bed time and still be comfortable.

[Steve Hayes]

On Tue, 29 Jul 2014 15:38:22 +1000, Peter Moylan <pe...@pmoylan.org> wrote:

>On 29/07/14 07:34, Joe Fineman wrote:
>> Wayne Brown <fwb...@bellsouth.net> writes:
>>
>>> I read a lot from an early age and often encountered words in print
>>> before hearing them in speech, so that sometimes I didn't recognize
>>> them when I heard them spoken aloud. For years I didn't know that
>>> "mislead" and "misled" were forms of the same word. I thought that
>>> "mislead" was both the present and past tense, as with the word
>>> "read." On the other hand, I thought that "misled" was pronounced
>>> "MY-zuld" and was the past tense of a word "misle" (pronounced
>>> "MY-zull"), meaning "to deceive."
>>
>> Me too. That is extremely common, and some groups use "misle" jocularly
>> among themselves. W. V. O. Quine's _Quiddities_ even has an article
>> headed "Misling".
>>
>> Likewise, as a boy, I supposed that infraring was something you could do
>> to light.
>

>We've had discussions on this group before on whether "misled" should be
>pronounced MY-z'ld or mizzled. We reached agreement on just one thing:
>that only a minority of the regulars here pronounce it with
>second-syllable stress.

I've always pronounced it like the first part of "mistletoe".

[Mack A. Damia]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2014 17:34:19 -0400, Joe Fineman <jo...@verizon.net>

wrote:

>Wayne Brown <fwb...@bellsouth.net> writes:
>
>> I read a lot from an early age and often encountered words in print
>> before hearing them in speech, so that sometimes I didn't recognize
>> them when I heard them spoken aloud. For years I didn't know that
>> "mislead" and "misled" were forms of the same word. I thought that
>> "mislead" was both the present and past tense, as with the word
>> "read." On the other hand, I thought that "misled" was pronounced
>> "MY-zuld" and was the past tense of a word "misle" (pronounced
>> "MY-zull"), meaning "to deceive."
>
>Me too. That is extremely common, and some groups use "misle" jocularly
>among themselves. W. V. O. Quine's _Quiddities_ even has an article
>headed "Misling".
>
>Likewise, as a boy, I supposed that infraring was something you could do
>to light.

When we first emigrated to the U.S when I was seven years old, I had
trouble with the brand name, "7UP". I guess I had little exposure to
numbers and letters written together.

I pronounced it, "ZUP", for a while.

--

[Dr Nick]

Dr Nick <nosp...@temporary-address.org.uk> writes:

> Robert Bannister <rob...@clubtelco.com> writes:
>
>> On 28/07/2014 4:27 pm, Guy Barry wrote:
>>> "Peter T. Daniels" wrote in message
>>> news:8c527b93-7e7f-429d...@googlegroups.com...
>>>>
>>>> On Monday, July 28, 2014 12:16:53 AM UTC-4, Tony Cooper wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I suppose you don't want me to tell you that I thought a sandwich was
>>>>> made of sand between two slices of bread.
>>>>
>>>> Why does no one starve in the Sahara?
>>>>
>>>> Ha! I finally remembered one! I was very concerned when my mother
>>>> brought home a boysenberry pie. I had not heard of boysenberries,
>>>> but I had heard of poisons.
>>>
>>> Nor had I until now. "A boysenberry is a cross between a European
>>> Raspberry (Rubus idaeus), a Common Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus),
>>
>> They've been around for long enough. I am surprised you haven't come
>> across them.
>
> We picked some silvanberries last week. I'd never heard of them so did
> some research and they are a cross between a marion blackberry and an
> unnamed cross between a Pacific blackberry and a boysenberry.
>
> So at this level they are 3/4 blackberry and 1/4 boysenberry.
>
> A boysenberry appears to be made up of equal amounts of raspberry,
> blackberry, dewberry and loganberry.
>
> And a loganberry is a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry.
>
> I think that makes our silvanberry 27/32 blackberry, 3/32 blackberry

^ raspberry
but you could work that out

[Mark Brader]

>>> (We took some pictures of the native girls but they weren't developed).
>>
>> Maybe somone could fix that.
>
> Oh, stop.

Did you have to use he F word?
--
Mark Brader | "And remember, my friends, future events such as
Toronto | these will affect you, in the future."
m...@vex.net | -- Ed Wood, Plan 9 from Outer Space

[Peter T. Daniels]

And everyone is just letting "runcible" go by? _Spoons_ are runcible.
But cats?

[Peter T. Daniels]

At best, it's a pretentious foodie usage -- "I ate some wonderful mustard
at that unpretentious hot dog truck yesterday!"