This is from wunderkind
Chris McMillan
Chris
Weird Things You Would Never Know!!
Butterflies taste with their feet.
A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than
all the world's nuclear weapons combined.
On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
On average people fear spiders more than they do death.
Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived
immigrants.
Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal
ads for dating are already married.
Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch
every year because when it was built, engineers failed to
take into account the weight of all the
books that would occupy the building.
A snail can sleep for three years.
No word in the English language rhymes with
"MONTH".
Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears
never
stop growing.
The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
All polar bears are left handed.
In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies,
including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the
letters only on one row of the keyboard.
"Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
language.
If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.
She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
--
Chris McMillan
Bernard M. Earp
<Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
> "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
> language.
"?"
--
Bernard M. Earp
Still holding the heights of Bromley Cross
Chris McMillan
<bernar...@topenworld.com> writes
>In message <GQZ9$ZYU0t...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk>, Chris McMillan
><Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
>> "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
>> language.
>
>"?"
Think as an exclamation I presume. (I just cut and pasted it - it was
probably an American list)
Sincerely, Chris
--
Chris McMillan
Rosalind Mitchell
>
> In message <GQZ9$ZYU0t...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk>, Chris McMillan
> <Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
> > "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
> > language.
>
> "?"
"!"
Rosie
--
http://www.stwerburgh.freedombird.net icq 152291404
Currently reading: ATKINSON, Kate, "Human Croquet"
"But my words like silent raindrops fell"
Bernard M. Earp
>In message <bI9OU+Cj...@btinternet.com>, Bernard M. Earp
><bernar...@topenworld.com> writes
>>In message <GQZ9$ZYU0t...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk>, Chris McMillan
>><Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
>>> "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
>>> language.
>>
>>"?"
>
>Think as an exclamation I presume. (I just cut and pasted it - it was
>probably an American list)
>
>Sincerely, Chris
Mike McMillan
<Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
>
>Chris
>
>
>Weird Things You Would Never Know!!
>
> Butterflies taste with their feet.
Sole Food
>
>
>
> A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
OYID! That's a load of quackery!
>
>
> In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than
> all the world's nuclear weapons combined.
Research sponsored by Heinz?
>
> On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
Then they should take the bl**dy pens away from 'em!
>
> On average people fear spiders more than they do death.
Incy Wincy - Undertakers to Araknophobes (sp?)
>
> Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived
>immigrants.
Researching that must have Taxed 'e.
>
> Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal
> ads for dating are already married.
And the other seventy percent are accountants.
>
> Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
But Jumbos can fly quite well.
>
>
> Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
Where is this place 'Twobillion' then.
>
> It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
Udderly stupid.
>
> Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
Blinking amazing!
>
>
> The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch
> every year because when it was built, engineers failed to
> take into account the weight of all the
> books that would occupy the building.
It will eventually become entomed.
>
> A snail can sleep for three years.
Time for bed says Brian.
>
>
> No word in the English language rhymes with
> "MONTH".
Oh donth it!
>
> Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
They should handle it more carefully.
>
> Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears
>never
> stop growing.
I suppose you think that's clever Pinnochio!
>
> The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
Shock horror!
>
> All polar bears are left handed.
Right!
>
>
> In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies,
> including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
This has been a pubic information announcement.
>
> An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
I see, but I can understand it!
>
> TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the
> letters only on one row of the keyboard.
POPPEYQOQUE!
>
>
>
>
> "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
> language.
What is the shortest _incomplete_ sentence? (G. Archer?)
>
> If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.
> She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.
There are lies, damn lies and statistics.
>
> A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
How polite!
>
> The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
Flaming clever ...
>
> Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
Do they eat whilst playing Dominoes?
Toodle Confused,
Mike
--
Mike McMillan, Mike Sounds
Digital Recording, Editing & CD Production.
Tel: 0118 9265450 Fax: 0118 9668167.
http://www.mikesounds.demon.co.uk
Bernard M. Earp
>In message <PiNfzwdH...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk>, Chris McMillan
><Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
>>In message <bI9OU+Cj...@btinternet.com>, Bernard M. Earp
>><bernar...@topenworld.com> writes
>>>In message <GQZ9$ZYU0t...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk>, Chris McMillan
>>><Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
>>>> "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
>>>> language.
>>>
>>>"?"
>>
>>Think as an exclamation I presume. (I just cut and pasted it - it was
>>probably an American list)
>>
>>Sincerely, Chris
>"!"
Martin Clark
something about...
>Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
>
>
> Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
Well, they live longer.
I don't believe any of those!
--
Martin
Stephen
<Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> noted:
>
>Weird Things You Would Never Know!!
What about snails?
> A snail can sleep for three years.
Recuperating after a particularly energetic jump, perhaps?
> No word in the English language rhymes with "MONTH".
But a jumping snail with a lisp might emit a few gruntth.
> All polar bears are left handed.
Which explains why they have such trouble with tin-openers.
> Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
The Crusaders on average carried off 18 pieces of Acre.
--
Stephen
Am I the only one seeing the solipsism here?
Alex
"Mike McMillan" <Mi...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:cw+7HcSK...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk...
> In message <GQZ9$ZYU0t...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk>, Chris McMillan
> <Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
> > Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
>
> But Jumbos can fly quite well.
> >
Serena Blanchflower
>
> What about snails?
>
>
>
I think that both slugs and snails are pretty good at jumping. It's
the only explanation I can find for some of the places they manage
to get to. They regularly devour plants which are protected with a
broad band of snail / slug repelling granules.
--
Cheers, Serena
It's never too late to be what you might have been (George Eliot)
Stephen GC Tilley
Stephen had said...
>
>With dazzling insight and wit, Chris McMillan
><Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> noted:
>>
>>Weird Things You Would Never Know!!
>
>> Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
>
>What about snails?
>
wonder about rhinos and hippos.
--
Stephen Tilley
Ste...@Tilley.net
Fax: 0870 137 2903
Martin Clark
something about...
>While multitasking somewhere in the multiverse I saw that, on Fri, 10 May 2002,
>Stephen had said...
>>
>>With dazzling insight and wit, Chris McMillan
>><Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> noted:
>>>
>>>Weird Things You Would Never Know!!
>>
>>> Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
>>
>>What about snails?
>>
>Substitute mammals for animals, then wonder about whales and dolphins. Then
>wonder about rhinos and hippos.
>
Like I said - I don't believe any of them!
--
Martin
anon...@firedrake.org
Quite right too -- giraffes are insincere.
Weevil
AttLSM, UBBBA, UNCEMPT BAG, HAHA
Gotta keep rockin' while I still can
Got a two-pack habit and a motel tan.
Martin Clark
>In message <sWt2DDDPd$28E...@auluk.freeserve.co.uk> Martin Clark wrote:
>
>>I may be imagining things, but I thought Stephen GC Tilley muttered
>>something about...
>>>While multitasking somewhere in the multiverse I saw that, on Fri, 10 May
>>>2002,
>>>Stephen had said...
>>>>With dazzling insight and wit, Chris McMillan
>>>><Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> noted:
>>>>>Weird Things You Would Never Know!!
>>>>> Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
>>>>What about snails?
>>>Substitute mammals for animals, then wonder about whales and dolphins. Then
>>>wonder about rhinos and hippos.
>>And giraffes?
>>Like I said - I don't believe any of them!
>
>Quite right too -- giraffes are insincere.
>
--
Martin
Helen Brace
"Bernard M. Earp" <bernar...@topenworld.com> wrote in message
news:BaeogKIu...@btinternet.com...
> In message <PiNfzwdH...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk>, Chris McMillan
> <Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
> >In message <bI9OU+Cj...@btinternet.com>, Bernard M. Earp
> ><bernar...@topenworld.com> writes
> >>In message <GQZ9$ZYU0t...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk>, Chris McMillan
> >><Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
> >>> "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
> >>> language.
> >>
> >>"?"
> >
> >Think as an exclamation I presume. (I just cut and pasted it - it was
> >probably an American list)
> >
> >Sincerely, Chris
> "!"
Isn't that an ejaculation?
Helen B
Kim Andrews
<helen...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>> "!"
>
>Isn't that an ejaculation?
Are we discussing "premature" again?
--
Cheers, Kimbo
Best of umra at www.totternhoe.demon.co.uk & click on the chicken!
BT winner FAUX award 2000 & Special Distasteful Category Award 1999
GULP & PHIL - Strumpet Extraordinaire & Founding FONT
www.foca.co.uk
Siderius Nuncius
The Tidy Fairy wrote in message
>While lurking in the froup, I noticed that anon...@firedrake.org had
>written, some of, the following
>> Martin Clark wrote:
>> >And giraffes?
>> >Like I said - I don't believe any of them!
>
>>
>> Quite right too -- giraffes are insincere.
>>
Zebras are reactionaries.
(I wonder if Jazzer might be a hamster? His behaviour fits and he has no
tail......)
--
Sid
Shepherds Bush, West London
Jenny M Benson
<mar...@auluk.nospamplease.freeserve.co.uk> writes
>>>>Substitute mammals for animals, then wonder about whales and dolphins. Then
>>>>wonder about rhinos and hippos.
>>>And giraffes?
Whales and dolphins can leap up out of the water, can't they? Does that
count?
All the animals mentioned above have two knees and two hocks. Elephants
are the only 4-legged animal to have 4 knees - has this got some bearing
on jumping ability?
--
Jenny
Tony Gardner
<Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> say
>If we get stuck for conversation, you can take this lot up with her!
>
>Chris
>
>
>Weird Things You Would Never Know!!
>
<snip weird things>
> If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.
> She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.
>
So, if Barbie were life-size she would stand seven feet two inches
tall. What definition of life-size are we using here?
>
<snip other weird things>
Tony Gardner
--
LSS_UK_COITUS
Kirsten Procter
I think there's a thing in whoever wrote this originally's mind (and
that's a 'fact' I've heard several times from various sources, so have
cogitated hard on this thought), that it's *impossible* for a fully grown
woman to have a waist smaller than 23 inches.
I'm not sure why that's the cut-off point.
--
Kirsten Procter ghoti
UHB UNCEMPT UBBBA
anon...@firedrake.org
>In article <3cdd507c...@news.freeserve.net>,
>Tony Gardner <to...@gardner214.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>>So, if Barbie were life-size she would stand seven feet two inches
>>tall. What definition of life-size are we using here?
> I think there's a thing in whoever wrote this originally's mind (and
>that's a 'fact' I've heard several times from various sources, so have
>cogitated hard on this thought), that it's *impossible* for a fully grown
>woman to have a waist smaller than 23 inches.
> I'm not sure why that's the cut-off point.
Is Barbie really a grown woman, as opposed to still adolescent?
But leaving that aside, my ma had a nineteen inch waist at age twenty, and
she didn't go in for stays and lacing and such. She was five foot six
tall, so not just one of those people built out of a smaller mould than the
usual.
It's very frustrating for the JFC that at sixteen, she can't quite fit into
the one beautiful (golden-brown velvet) dress my ma had just before WWII,
which was lovingly preserved for grandchildren's use. It doesn't have
enough seam allowance to let out, and anyhow the alteration would show.
:-(
Chris McMillan
<to...@gardner214.freeserve.co.uk> writes
>While helping Lynda maximise her 'chi' , I heard Chris McMillan
><Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> say
>
>>If we get stuck for conversation, you can take this lot up with her!
>>
>>Chris
>>
>>
>>Weird Things You Would Never Know!!
>>
><snip weird things>
>
>> If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.
>> She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.
>>
>So, if Barbie were life-size she would stand seven feet two inches
>tall. What definition of life-size are we using here?
>>
Mike McMillan
<kpro...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes
Toodle Pip (Who is as svelt as ever???!!"Ł"$(){}@>?)
Kim Andrews
<Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>Don't ask me, Tony. You can ask her yourself if you want any more.
Barbie's coming to the, er, barbie? Blimey!
--
Cheers, Kimbo
Best of umra archive www.totternhoe.demon.co.uk/umra/
Where don't you want to go today? www.foca.co.uk/drearyplaces/
"May 6,000 strabismic telephone operators prance in your genitals.
oo-er, wrong newsgroup." Charles F Hankel -- Hapless FAQer on the Wirral peninsula. RIP.
Stephen GC Tilley
Chris had said...
>>>
>>So, if Barbie were life-size she would stand seven feet two inches
>>tall. What definition of life-size are we using here?
>>>
>Don't ask me, Tony. You can ask her yourself if you want any more.
Mentioning (raising?) the matter of height with a 7'2" person could be a
problem. Suggesting you want more could be dangerous.
Kirsten Procter
<anon...@firedrake.org> wrote:
>In message <mbp*pP...@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> Kirsten Procter wrote:
>
>> I think there's a thing in whoever wrote this originally's mind (and
>>that's a 'fact' I've heard several times from various sources, so have
>>cogitated hard on this thought), that it's *impossible* for a fully grown
>>woman to have a waist smaller than 23 inches.
>> I'm not sure why that's the cut-off point.
>
>Is Barbie really a grown woman, as opposed to still adolescent?
I think so, as she gets to be Bridal Barbie quite a lot, and seems to
hold several jobs, including being a vet and a doctor. Also, she's a
*good* girl, and has, in one incarnation, a tattoo - so that makes her *at
least* 18, and, I believe, probably 21, depending on which State she comes
from. (No, I don't know everything about Barbie, and no, I don't know much
about body art laws in the US.)
>But leaving that aside, my ma had a nineteen inch waist at age twenty, and
>she didn't go in for stays and lacing and such. She was five foot six
>tall, so not just one of those people built out of a smaller mould than the
>usual.
<nod> It happens, but there;s a certain mindset which doesn';t allow for
it, and is probably using Barbie (and Sindy and all the other dolls of that
ilk) as an example of how society is inducing anorexia in young girls.
Now, whether there is any truth or not in that is another matter, but
denying the existence and worth of intrinsically thin people seems to be
going a little far to me :(
Robin Fairbairns
> Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
apart from slugs and snails. dunno about puppy-dogs' tails, though.
> It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
the second part is also true of next-door's cat. it went upstairs of
its own accord.
> A snail can sleep for three years.
and yet when it wakes up, it _still_ can't jump.
> Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
how long is a baseball pitch? (we all know cricket pitches are 22
yards ... or have they been metrified?)
> Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears
>never
> stop growing.
itym the hair in the nose and ears. eyes don't have hair.
> All polar bears are left handed.
so they're southpaws. which means they must always face west.
> If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.
> She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.
a curious definition of "life".
> Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
where are the pizza parlours that produce them that big?
(it's a wonder they stay as slim as they do. i only eat one a month
(or so) and still have weight problems.)
--
Robin Fairbairns, Cambridge -- rf10 at cam dot ac dot uk
Robert Carnegie
> If we get stuck for conversation, you can take this lot up with her!
>
> Chris
>
>
> Weird Things You Would Never Know!!
>
http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/articlearchives/bugs/butterflies.htm
appears to confirm.
The first Google hit, mind, was "Butterflies Taste Good!"
According to the writer's/artist's cat, anyway.
> A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
Because they aren't allowed in the gallery at St Paul's.
Actually I'd guess that a quack involves a range of sound
frequencies all at once and the frequencies echo differently
and get mixed up so that you do get back something but it isn't
a recognisable quack, but your household would know better about
such stuff than yours truly. Regardless, in the right
circumstances I'd guess that they _do_ echo.
> In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than
> all the world's nuclear weapons combined.
We may have bigger nuclear weapons now than when this was written...
"releases" how? Transfers kinetic energy to objects on the ground?
> On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
I bought these cheap pens which don't clip onto most pockets very
well. I inwardly cheered when the BBC IQ show picked out the
very confident student who had a bunch of pens clipped in his
shirt pocket, because at that moment so did I.
I notice that all cheap ball pens seem to have breathe-easy caps now,
that is, the cap protects the point but is open to let air in/out
around the point end. I presume that this is so that you can chew
your pen, swallow the cap, get it lodged in your airway, and survive.
So I wonder if the factoid still applies.
> On average people fear spiders more than they do death.
Good evolutionary reasons...there's a difference? :-)
> Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived
> immigrants.
Define "recently"? It is indeed an entry profession, but ninety
per cent seems rather high. And it presumes that almost all the
recent immigrants do manage to give it up for other work before
they no longer qualify as "recent".
> Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal
> ads for dating are already married.
Does that account for them never writing back :-(
> Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
Well, and Professor Stephen Hawking, or a baby.
> Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
That allows three of us, but the odds are shortening every year.
> It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
Wasn't that donkeys or something...Google...no, it does seem
to be cows. I'm not in a position to experiment. But I wonder
what the agricultural story editor would have to say about
the disposition of the terrace at Home Farm, i.e. is it
terraced, and in that case how did Baby Spice both get on to
it _and_ get off it _and_ then on again.
> Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
They like it more.
Also, maybe fluttering eyelashes are sexy in women, and hard
stares are sexy in men? Does it depend if you fancy the lab
technician?
One could experiment with a video camera or maybe some kind
of electronic counter - paint a bar code on your eyelid -
> The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch
> every year because when it was built, engineers failed to
> take into account the weight of all the
> books that would occupy the building.
Amusing. http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/ doesn't seem to mention
the fact and I'm a little shy to ask (if it's true then they
must be fed up with it), but I notice it has one floor lower
than "floor 1" (U.S. buildings number the "ground floor" as 1)
and it would be interesting to check if that intended as a
basement area in the original plans, or just wound up that way...
All new buildings settle, anyway.
> A snail can sleep for three years.
Google. "Source: something I heard."
http://www.goscience.com.au/link_referrer.asp?casid=600
breathlessly corroborates; www.kiddyhouse.com/snails/
I can't see from here.
http://members.tripod.com/the-best-jokes/jokefiles/amazing_facts.htm
states both this and that "A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes",
but they don't say whether that's boars or sows or both. Eric!...
I mean, that's more than twice as long as an episode...
> No word in the English language rhymes with
> "MONTH".
http://rec-puzzles.org/new/sol.pl/language/english/pronunciation/rhyme
offers "oneth" and specifically "(n+1)th" ;-) Not good...
My notice wandered at the tenth
Faux-rhymeless word, like "month";
The prize you win for rhyming th' (n)th
Is but the (n+1)th.
Having said that, "fourth" isn't on that list, so what rhymes with it?
Not "north"?
> Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
Does this include it being knocked into the crowd and not returned?
How about international test-match cricket balls?
> Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose
> and ears never stop growing.
...hair.
What about premature birth...
After all, the eye is supposed to be a precise optical instrument!
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s398097.htm
and other resources bear out that long-sightedness in old age
is due to the eye's lenses stiffening and not particularly to
the eyeball shrinking. OTOH, newborn babies don't focus well...
but then they don't walk or handle machinery too good either.
I think you teach yourself muscle control by a sort of positive
feedback process, and that probably goes for the eye focussing
muscle(s) too.
> The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
Apparently so. http://www.crimelibrary.com/classics4/electric/3.htm ;
Alfred Southwick, of Buffalo, N.Y., in the 1880s.
http://www.woodberry.org/acad/hist/FRWEB/TRIAL/details/hisofguil.htm
challenges whether the guillotine was really invented by the doctor
for whom it is named.
Let's not wonder whether lethal injection was invented by
a seamstress. It probably wasn't.
> All polar bears are left handed.
Wait a minute, polar bears don't even _have_ hands.
Well, http://www.wholeearthmag.com/ArticleBin/338.html
nearly cites research indicating that at least most polar
bears are left-handed, although the article is more interested
in whether they're gay, transsexual, or cross-dressing.
> In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies,
> including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
(1) Why? (2) I would expect other words after "including" and not
only nose and ear, I am crossing my legs and shifting uncomfortably
in my seat. (3) And I'd imagine they plucked hair from each other's
bodies, or got slaves to do it - there are some very difficult parts
to reach. (4) How often? Just for special occasions?
> An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
So is an American's in an All-You-Can-Eat restaurant. :-)
> TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the
> letters only on one row of the keyboard.
http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words8.html
Also REPERTOIRE, PEPPERWORT, and SHAKALSHAS (plural of Shakalsha ;-)
> "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
> language.
"Oh." And who says so? "I." :-)
> If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.
> She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.
You're sure she _could_ stand? :-)
The paradox was already noted;
http://www.interlog.com/~jarvisci/jargonline/myth.html
explains that Barbie has an unusually long neck, for one thing,
and I suppose the legs are something else to consider.
So on the size of the torso and perhaps particularly the
pelvis (or perhaps not the pelvis) - and her eyeballs -
Be very careful which links you click if _you_ Google
"life-size" "Barbie" ...
> A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
It doesn't need to. It has the last laugh anyway.
> The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
Apparently not.
http://wildcat.arizona.edu/papers/95/66/01.html
The cigar lighter was patented in the U.S. in 1871.
http://www.discover.com/apr_01/breakinvented.html
Matches were first sold in 1827; safety matches in
1855; book matches in 1899.
http://www.zigzag.com/about_History.htm,
http://memory.loc.gov/pp/ftncnwhtml/ftncnwback.html :
the cigarette was invented during the siege of
Sevastopol, 1854-55. Before that, pipes were
smoked. It is unclear how they were lit.
The invention of the cigar may not be recorded...?
Anyway, it seems that the cigarette lighter was invented
more than 15 years after the cigarette. As Paul Merton
likes to say, that could confuse a stupid person.
> Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
Let's see; 200 million Americans, an acre is 4047 square
metres, each American averagely eats 3.6423 square
centimetres of pizza a day, or one "7 inch" (diameter) pizza every
10 days or so. That's downright moderate, there must
be a lot of Americans who never eat pizza at all to balance
out the figures...I suppose I'm counting babies and toothless
grandmothers...
How about the total length of an average serving of spaghetti?
Or say one tinful...sort the strands into order of size,
measure, average, add up and compute -
(Or just take spaghetti hoops and count them; easier.)
I've come back to edit; please excuse a rather puerile
tone in some examples in the next paragraph. (And _after_
playing with my food, too - )
You see, the trouble with these statements is that they're
a good deal easier to make up from pure imagination than to
check. Suppose I were to claim that the human being is the
smallest mammal which can't lick its own private parts, or
that the human body waste left behind on the moon from the
Apollo space missions weighs more than the moon rock brought
back, or that the fur of a bumblebee is longest and heaviest
proportional to its weight of all animals, or that in original
editions of his plays Shakespeare never used the letter K (and
the musical should have been called _Ciss Me Cate_, and another
character Jacque Cade), and Jane Austen never wrote a double O
but always used the letter U, e.g. "chuse".
I have little idea myself which of these are true or false.
You can get away with it. That's what I'm saying.
We could, however, have an enjoyable game, inventing more.
Fenny
I heard Chris McMillan say...
> Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
>
--
Fenny - C-COITUS (co)
"The Man's obviously got a blockage in his frivolous region."
Truly of the Yard
Martin Clark
about...
>Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer ^W^W^W^W uk.media.radio.archers,
>I heard Chris McMillan say...
>> Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
>>
>And they wonder why they are overweight.
Is that 18 acres each? Golly.
--
Martin
anon...@firedrake.org
>In article <20020512143846....@firedrake.org>,
> <anon...@firedrake.org> wrote:
>>Is Barbie really a grown woman, as opposed to still adolescent?
> I think so, as she gets to be Bridal Barbie quite a lot, and seems to
>hold several jobs, including being a vet and a doctor. Also, she's a
>*good* girl, and has, in one incarnation, a tattoo - so that makes her *at
>least* 18, and, I believe, probably 21, depending on which State she comes
>from. (No, I don't know everything about Barbie, and no, I don't know much
>about body art laws in the US.)
I know very little about Barbie, because I have only ever seen them in
shops and that without paying much attention to them, so I'm interested to
learn that she is meant to be a grown-up with degrees and stuff.
>>But leaving that aside, my ma had a nineteen inch waist at age twenty, and
>>she didn't go in for stays and lacing and such. She was five foot six
>>tall, so not just one of those people built out of a smaller mould than the
>>usual.
> <nod> It happens, but there;s a certain mindset which doesn';t allow for
>it, and is probably using Barbie (and Sindy and all the other dolls of that
>ilk) as an example of how society is inducing anorexia in young girls.
Oh, eeek, argh. Yes, and all the female characters in supercostumes in the
comics, as well, I expect. Nobody ever seems to credit that children may
be able to tell fiction from reality when it's that obvious. If they
blamed anorexic models, that might be more reasonable, because they are
obviously factual, not someone's imagination.
How do these people cope with the social pressure there used to be on girls
to have eighteen-inch waists, when that didn't apparently lead to
self-starvation, though I am told there were cases involving the surgical
removal of ribs to attain the ideal? (Sounds very risky indeed to me, back
then with medicine how it was.)
> Now, whether there is any truth or not in that is another matter, but
>denying the existence and worth of intrinsically thin people seems to be
>going a little far to me :(
There's room here for someone to say "Some of my best friends are thin!" in
an accusing yet somehow defensive manner, isn't there? :-) How silly it
sounds to attack people for the shape and metabolic type they were born
with, though: just as bad if they are thin as if they are fat, or too short
to suit the "norm", or too tall, or whatever else.
Liz Jarman
> Quite right too -- giraffes are insincere.
>
> Weevil
--
Liz, dipping in and defintely unable to be at the BBQ this year - will miss
you all....
Chris McMillan
<liz3...@skate-fan.fsnet.co.uk> writes
Robert Carnegie
> Chris McMillan <Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:<GQZ9$ZYU0t...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk>...
> > Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
>
> Let's see; 200 million Americans, an acre is 4047 square
> metres, each American averagely eats 3.6423 square
> centimetres of pizza a day, or one "7 inch" (diameter) pizza every
> 10 days or so. That's downright moderate -
And, to follow myself up, _wrong_; I calculated a 7 _cm_ diameter
pizza, which is...a biscuit, really. Instead, it's a 7 inch pizza
every 68 days. Which is outright _abstemious_. Someone check
my working, please?
Perhaps it's specifically the national rate of consumption of
Pizza Hut pizzas, or some other retail or pret-a-manger sales
brand...
Fenny
> In message <GQZ9$ZYU0t...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk>, Chris McMillan
> <Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
> > language.
>
>
Personally, I would have said it was "I"
Fenny
> > Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
>
>
I've seen a house fly
Kirsten Procter
<anon...@firedrake.org> wrote:
>In message <sWt2DDDPd$28E...@auluk.freeserve.co.uk> Martin Clark wrote:
>>I may be imagining things, but I thought Stephen GC Tilley muttered
>>something about...
>>>>With dazzling insight and wit, Chris McMillan
>>>><Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> noted:
>>>>>Weird Things You Would Never Know!!
>>>>> Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
>>>Substitute mammals for animals, then wonder about whales and dolphins. Then
>>>wonder about rhinos and hippos.
>>And giraffes?
>>Like I said - I don't believe any of them!
>
>Quite right too -- giraffes are insincere.
>
'Giraffe dance, giraffe sing, la la la' as Benedict would say.
Or, in the words of Purple Ronnie; '[Gerald the Giraffe] threw his arms
out sideways and he flung the everywhere, then he did a backwards
sumersault and leapt up in the air' from 'Giraffes Can't Dance'
Kirsten Procter
<anon...@firedrake.org> wrote:
>In message <Zlh*k7...@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> Kirsten Procter wrote:
>>>But leaving that aside, my ma had a nineteen inch waist at age twenty, and
>>>she didn't go in for stays and lacing and such. She was five foot six
>>>tall, so not just one of those people built out of a smaller mould than the
>>>usual.
>> <nod> It happens, but there;s a certain mindset which doesn';t allow for
>>it, and is probably using Barbie (and Sindy and all the other dolls of that
>>ilk) as an example of how society is inducing anorexia in young girls.
>
>Oh, eeek, argh. Yes, and all the female characters in supercostumes in the
>comics, as well, I expect. Nobody ever seems to credit that children may
>be able to tell fiction from reality when it's that obvious. If they
>blamed anorexic models, that might be more reasonable, because they are
>obviously factual, not someone's imagination.
Oh, it's their fault too. Not the cartoon characters, I've not heard them
blamed, but supermodels get blamed a lot.
Also the web. (Well, more specifically those bits of it which make up
pro-anorexia sites)
Fenny
> > Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
>
>
Ma & I were discussing this the other day when they were going on about
how much average life expectancy had increased over the last 100 years.
I want to know whether they took into account all the people who died in
the 2 WWs. Given how many people died in a single day in some of the
WWI battles, the average life span must have dropped considerably
between 1914 and 1919 (allowing for the flu epidemic, too). Unless
death rates have been normalised to take these things into account, I
would have thought it was fairly obvious that people are living longer
these days. Also, men being killed in wars is another reason why women
live longer than men.
Fenny
> > <nod> It happens, but there;s a certain mindset which doesn';t allow for
> >it, and is probably using Barbie (and Sindy and all the other dolls of that
> >ilk) as an example of how society is inducing anorexia in young girls.
>
> Oh, eeek, argh. Yes, and all the female characters in supercostumes in the
> comics, as well, I expect. Nobody ever seems to credit that children may
> be able to tell fiction from reality when it's that obvious. If they
> blamed anorexic models, that might be more reasonable, because they are
> obviously factual, not someone's imagination.
>
> How do these people cope with the social pressure there used to be on girls
> to have eighteen-inch waists, when that didn't apparently lead to
> self-starvation, though I am told there were cases involving the surgical
> removal of ribs to attain the ideal? (Sounds very risky indeed to me, back
> then with medicine how it was.)
>
> > Now, whether there is any truth or not in that is another matter, but
> >denying the existence and worth of intrinsically thin people seems to be
> >going a little far to me :(
>
> There's room here for someone to say "Some of my best friends are thin!" in
> an accusing yet somehow defensive manner, isn't there? :-) How silly it
> sounds to attack people for the shape and metabolic type they were born
> with, though: just as bad if they are thin as if they are fat, or too short
> to suit the "norm", or too tall, or whatever else.
>
these preconceptions. It's quite amazing to see how my Left Pondian
colleagues' kids go from being what *I* would consider normally shaped
youngsters at anywhere between 11-16 to being on the verge of obese in a
couple of years. I'm really not trying to be streotypical or knock the
Merkans, but when a normally proprotioned kid who has played in her
school volleyball team for 6 years suddenly gains something like 3 stone
on graduating high school and going to college and nobody bats an
eyelid, you have to wonder.
gill spaul
news:97x*6v...@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk...
that they love." My favourit bit is the Lions' tango - elegant and bold.
--
Gill
Toby: "Can you explain it to me using small words and visual aids?"
Martin Clark
about...
>Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer ^W^W^W^W uk.media.radio.archers,
>I heard Mike McMillan say...
>> > Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
>>
>> But Jumbos can fly quite well.
>>
>I've seen a house fly
I've seen a school run
--
Martin
Stephen GC Tilley
Fenny had said...
>
>I don't think that many USian teenagers are particularly influenced by
>these preconceptions. It's quite amazing to see how my Left Pondian
>colleagues' kids go from being what *I* would consider normally shaped
>youngsters at anywhere between 11-16 to being on the verge of obese in a
>couple of years. I'm really not trying to be streotypical or knock the
>Merkans, but when a normally proprotioned kid who has played in her
>school volleyball team for 6 years suddenly gains something like 3 stone
>on graduating high school and going to college and nobody bats an
>eyelid, you have to wonder.
It's the "nobody bats an eyelid" syndrome that's most worrying on all forms of
behavour that distinguishes Merkans from USians. Several of us were deafened in
the lift this morning [1] when a Merkan female was having a bellowed
conversation with an unfortunate colleague from the international law firm with
whom we share this office.
No, neither were deaf - just she was shouting. And presumably has been for years
without her "best friend" ever telling her.
[1] no exaggeration, my ears were ringing for a good ten minutes afterwards.
Rosalind Mitchell
I've seen a man turn into a pub
Rosie
--
http://www.stwerburgh.freedombird.net icq 152291404
Currently reading: NAIPAUL, V S, "A House for Mr Biswas"
"But my words like silent raindrops fell"
Mike McMillan
Mitchell <dev...@stwerburgh.mersinet.co.uk> writes
>Martin Clark wrote:
>>
>> I may be imagining things, but I thought Fenny muttered something
>> about...
>> >Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer ^W^W^W^W uk.media.radio.archers,
>> >I heard Mike McMillan say...
>> >> > Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
>> >>
>> >> But Jumbos can fly quite well.
>> >>
>> >I've seen a house fly
>>
>> I've seen a school run
>
>I've seen a man turn into a pub
>
>Rosie
>
Toodle Pip,
Niles
|Ma & I were discussing this the other day when they were going on about
|how much average life expectancy had increased over the last 100 years.
|I want to know whether they took into account all the people who died in
|the 2 WWs. Given how many people died in a single day in some of the
|WWI battles, the average life span must have dropped considerably
|between 1914 and 1919 (allowing for the flu epidemic, too). Unless
|death rates have been normalised to take these things into account, I
|would have thought it was fairly obvious that people are living longer
|these days. Also, men being killed in wars is another reason why women
|live longer than men.
I have this niggling feeling we've talked about life expectancy before on
this group -- isn't it one of That Nice Mr Tilley's expertises?
I wanted to say life expectancy -- an average -- is different from "age at
death". Isn't it true that most women have a higher age at death as well as
a longer life expectancy?
--
Niles, Nottingham |
ICQ UIN 12724766 | Don't give me songs
outpages.com/nilex | Give me something to sing about!
www.niles.org.uk |
anon...@firedrake.org
>Can Weevils jump?
eeeek1
<scramble>
Yes, Liz, they can.
Excuse me whilst I just climb back into my skin.
Siderius Nuncius
Rosalind Mitchell wrote in message
<3CE1433C...@stwerburgh.mersinet.co.uk>...
>Martin Clark wrote:
>>
>> I may be imagining things, but I thought Fenny muttered something
>> about...
>> >Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer ^W^W^W^W uk.media.radio.archers,
>> >I heard Mike McMillan say...
>> >> > Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
>> >>
>> >> But Jumbos can fly quite well.
>> >>
>> >I've seen a house fly
>>
>> I've seen a school run
>
>I've seen a man turn into a pub
I've seen Lambeth walk.
--
Sid
Shepherds Bush, West London
Mike McMillan
<siderius...@tesco.net> writes
(Licks finger and chalks up a score over all the rabble below!)
anon...@firedrake.org
>> There's room here for someone to say "Some of my best friends are thin!" in
>> an accusing yet somehow defensive manner, isn't there? :-) How silly it
>> sounds to attack people for the shape and metabolic type they were born
>> with, though: just as bad if they are thin as if they are fat, or too short
>> to suit the "norm", or too tall, or whatever else.
>these preconceptions. It's quite amazing to see how my Left Pondian
>colleagues' kids go from being what *I* would consider normally shaped
>youngsters at anywhere between 11-16 to being on the verge of obese in a
>couple of years. I'm really not trying to be streotypical or knock the
>Merkans, but when a normally proprotioned kid who has played in her
>school volleyball team for 6 years suddenly gains something like 3 stone
>on graduating high school and going to college and nobody bats an
>eyelid, you have to wonder.
I haven't a large enough sample of Americans to get a very accurate
picture, as it were, but I get the distinct impression from SF fandom that
being a podgy teenager can be hell, there as here, because of peer-group
mockery. I hadn't realised that the increase in size happened so abruptly,
though. is there any explanation ever given for this? I'd always rather
assumed that the cause of the extra adipose tissue was grazing from the
well-stocked fridge from infancy on up, but if it doesn't hit until late
teens, that can't be the reason.
I've had a globose American explain to me, seriously, that he had been a
footballer at college and when he stopped playing his shoulders and chest
just sorta slid below the waist. Another attributes her girth to
comfort-eating after she escaped from a domineering mother, and a third to
her German ancestry. But I can't see any of these as being very
wide-spread conditions, really. If it were heredity, for example, then
surely the Germans ought to be in the same boat? and they don't seem to
be, or not anything like as much.
Still-Puzzled Weevil
Fenny
> I wanted to say life expectancy -- an average -- is different from "age at
> death". Isn't it true that most women have a higher age at death as well as
> a longer life expectancy?
>
blokes doing lots of hard work down the pit while the little woman just
stayed at home and looked after the house, or something?
Robert Carnegie
> Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer ^W^W^W^W uk.media.radio.archers,
> I heard Bernard M. Earp say...
> > In message <GQZ9$ZYU0t...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk>, Chris McMillan
> > <Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
> > > "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
> > > language.
> >
> > "?"
> >
> Personally, I would have said it was "I"
No verb no sentence...
Stephen GC Tilley
>
>tut tut!, Whatever happened to the "nobody talks in the lift rule"
Never heard of it.
Seriously. Could it be regional?
Our office lift contains international lawyers, international bankers,
commodities and futures traders, pensions managers, personal investment
managers, UK stockbrokers, East Asian stockbrokers, mergers and acquisitions
specialists, plus all their support staff except IT - who are quarantined on the
mezzanine so walk up and down the stairs. Imposing a "nobody talks" rule on that
lot would be a miracle.
Stephen GC Tilley
>
>allspamwil...@rickmansworth.mersinet.co.uk (Fenny) wrote:
>
>|Ma & I were discussing this the other day when they were going on about
>|how much average life expectancy had increased over the last 100 years.
>|I want to know whether they took into account all the people who died in
>|the 2 WWs. Given how many people died in a single day in some of the
>|WWI battles, the average life span must have dropped considerably
>|between 1914 and 1919 (allowing for the flu epidemic, too). Unless
>|death rates have been normalised to take these things into account, I
>|would have thought it was fairly obvious that people are living longer
>|these days. Also, men being killed in wars is another reason why women
>|live longer than men.
>
>I have this niggling feeling we've talked about life expectancy before on
>this group -- isn't it one of That Nice Mr Tilley's expertises?
Used to be. Often discussed in the genealogy ngs and frequently inspired by the
question "How long is a generation?".
>I wanted to say life expectancy -- an average -- is different from "age at
>death". Isn't it true that most women have a higher age at death as well as
>a longer life expectancy?
Your life expectancy is the difference between your current age and your
anticipated age at death. I think BICBAM that in the UK it is still longer when
one is 12 months old than when one is one day old.
Mike Ruddock
allspamwil...@rickmansworth.mersinet.co.uk (Fenny) wrote:
>Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer ^W^W^W^W uk.media.radio.archers,
>I heard Bernard M. Earp say...
>> In message <GQZ9$ZYU0t...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk>, Chris McMillan
>> <Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
>> > "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
>> > language.
>>
>> "?"
>>
>Personally, I would have said it was "I"
Sorry, but "I" can't count as a sentence since it doesn't
contain a verb.
Mike Ruddock
Tim Hall
Carnegie) wrote:
>rja.ca...@excite.com (Robert Carnegie) wrote in message news:<f3f18bc0.02051...@posting.google.com>...
>> Chris McMillan <Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:<GQZ9$ZYU0t...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk>...
>
>> > Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
>>
>> Let's see; 200 million Americans, an acre is 4047 square
>> metres, each American averagely eats 3.6423 square
>> centimetres of pizza a day, or one "7 inch" (diameter) pizza every
>> 10 days or so. That's downright moderate -
>
>And, to follow myself up, _wrong_; I calculated a 7 _cm_ diameter
>pizza, which is...a biscuit, really. Instead, it's a 7 inch pizza
>every 68 days. Which is outright _abstemious_. Someone check
>my working, please?
1 acre is 1 furlong x 1 chain = 2024 yd^2.
18 acres of pizza = 2024*18 yd^2
In inches^2 thats 2024 * 18 * 36 * 36
Or 4.72 E^6 inch^2
I thought there were 250 E^6 USAnians, but going with 200 E^6, that's
4.72/200 inch ^2 per day
= 0.23 inch^2 per day
In 68 days that's 0.23 * 68 = 15.64 inch^2
Or a pizza of diameter 4.46 inches.
Tim
--
I understand very little of what's being discussed
but for some reason it's fascinating.
(Jon Thompson, urs)
Nick Leverton
Stephen GC Tilley
The Tidy Fairy had said...
>
><Ste...@Tilley.Net> had written, some of, the following
>>While multitasking somewhere in the multiverse I saw that, on Tue, 14 May 2002,
>> The Tidy Fairy had said...
>> >
>> >tut tut!, Whatever happened to the "nobody talks in the lift rule"
>>
>> Never heard of it.
>>
>> Seriously. Could it be regional?
>>
>how to behave when visiting UK. (It was a joke booklet BTW)
>had such gems as:
>Say hello and shake hands with every one when you get in a lift.
>It is good manners to stare at any young women sitting opposite on the
>tube.
>It is expected to barter with taxi drivers over the fare for a
>journey.
>
>There were many more but I can't bring them to mind.
The number of yellow lines in the gutter show how many rows of cars may legally
be parked there.
Colin Blackburn
siderius...@tesco.net says...
>
> Rosalind Mitchell wrote in message
> <3CE1433C...@stwerburgh.mersinet.co.uk>...
> >Martin Clark wrote:
> >>
> >> I may be imagining things, but I thought Fenny muttered something
> >> about...
> >>
> >> I've seen a school run
> >
> >I've seen a man turn into a pub
>
> I've seen Lambeth walk.
This takes me back. My boss at York a few years ago was looking into the
way people read these ambiguous sentences using eye-tracking equipment.
Don't know if he knows yet.
Colin
Ben Blaney
>Our office lift contains international lawyers, international bankers,
>commodities and futures traders, pensions managers, personal investment
>managers, UK stockbrokers, East Asian stockbrokers, mergers and acquisitions
>specialists, plus all their support staff
I'm sure it only used to take one person to press the buttons.
--
Ben Blaney
There's no justice, there just is.
Robert Hardwick
Bob H
Niles
|I think it probably is. But again, in the past was this not due to
|blokes doing lots of hard work down the pit while the little woman just
|stayed at home and looked after the house, or something?
Maybe so -- but in the past wasn't it more than compensated for by all those
pore unfortunates who died in childbirth?
BrritSki
>
"Go!"
Nick Leverton
Robert Hardwick <robert....@btinternet.com> wrote:
>In article <abt60...@drn.newsguy.com>, Ste...@Tilley.Net says...
>> While multitasking somewhere in the multiverse I saw that, on Wed, 15
>May 2002,
>> The Tidy Fairy had said...
>> >journey.
>>
>may legally
>> be parked there.
>>
>Be sure to try out the famous echo in the British Library reading room.
All British brothels display a blue lamp outside ;-)
Nick
Anne Coulon
> > be parked there.
> >
> >
> Be sure to try out the famous echo in the British Library reading room.
My cue to offer some more of Hoffnung's Useful Information given to
tourists during Festival of Britain:
You will oblige your chambermaid by hanging your mattress out of the
window every morning.
All London brothels display a blue lamp.
Ignore all left and right signs, these are merely political slogans.
Zebra parking places provided everywhere.
Have you tried the famous echo in the reading room of the British
Museum?
On entering a railway compartment, make sure to shake hands with all
the passengers.
All the best,
Anne, Gumrat
Stephen GC Tilley
Anne had said...
>
>Robert Hardwick wrote:
>>
>> Be sure to try out the famous echo in the British Library reading room.
>
>Museum?
An example of the famous umra echo??
Tony Gardner
<Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes
"Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
language.
I have heard that the shortest letter ever written was penned in reply
to an eviction notice. It read, in full:
Dear Sir,
I Remain.
Your Obedient Servant...
Tony Gardner
--
LSS_UK_COITUS
Tony Gardner
<simpl...@freesurf.ch> say
and...
Britain's vice laws have driven prostitutes from the streets. On some
days, however, they appear in force, and indicate their trade by
offering for sale small paper flags or stickers.
Tony Gardner
--
LSS_UK_COITUS
Chris J Dixon
> Chris McMillan <Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes:
>> If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.
>> She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.
>
>a curious definition of "life".
>
Reminds me of an occasion when a German firm sent us a set of
polaroids of some equipment they were supplying to us. Each
shot included a gnome. When we asked why, we were told that they
were there to indicate scale.
Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham
'48/52/24 M B+ G+ A L(-) I S-- CH-(--) Ar++ T+ H0 ?Q Sh+
chris...@easynet.co.uk
Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.
Chris J Dixon
>I notice that all cheap ball pens seem to have breathe-easy caps now,
>that is, the cap protects the point but is open to let air in/out
>around the point end. I presume that this is so that you can chew
>your pen, swallow the cap, get it lodged in your airway, and survive.
>So I wonder if the factoid still applies.
I presume regulations require it. I know somebody whose student
placement job was to measure the pressure drop when pen tops of
assorted designs were lodged in various cadaver airways.
Chris J Dixon
>You see, the trouble with these statements is that they're
>a good deal easier to make up from pure imagination than to
>check.
>I have little idea myself which of these are true or false.
>You can get away with it. That's what I'm saying.
>
>We could, however, have an enjoyable game, inventing more.
I have always been impressed by, though never checked, the claim
that more horses than men were killed in WW1, and the tonnage of
fodder shipped to the front was similar to that of munitions,
which, considering the relative density, is quite something.
Andy Taylor
<chris...@easynet.co.uk> writes
>Robin Fairbairns wrote:
>
>> Chris McMillan <Ch...@mikesounds.demon.co.uk> writes:
>
>>> If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.
>>> She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.
>>
>>a curious definition of "life".
>>
>Reminds me of an occasion when a German firm sent us a set of
>polaroids of some equipment they were supplying to us. Each
>shot included a gnome. When we asked why, we were told that they
>were there to indicate scale.
>
For more polaroids featuring gnomes, watch "Amelie".
--
Andy Taylor, FAQing about in Westfield, East Sussex
Witty quote removed by popular demand
Chris J Dixon
>For more polaroids featuring gnomes, watch "Amelie".
Seen it, at the Bradford Film & TV museum, enjoyed it very much.
Then went round the corner for a curry at a place which prided
themselves on the size of their nan bread; it could have served
as a tablecloth!
Andy Taylor
<chris...@easynet.co.uk> writes
>Andy Taylor wrote:
>
>>For more polaroids featuring gnomes, watch "Amelie".
>
>Seen it, at the Bradford Film & TV museum, enjoyed it very much.
>Then went round the corner for a curry at a place which prided
>themselves on the size of their nan bread; it could have served
>as a tablecloth!
I'd rate it as one of the best films I have seen.
K Richard W
with the following opinion of recent events:
>Each
>shot included a gnome.
Eddie does a nice line in gnomes I understand.
--
Kosmo Richard W
LSS super-numerary
K Richard W
>Be sure to try out the famous echo in the British Library reading room.
Is it still the famous British Library Reading Room? When we got a new
British Library didn't something happen to the previously famous reading
room (where Marx wrote etc) - I just cannot remember what?
Does the new Reading Room have a famous echo as well?
Andy Taylor
e...@whitbread.freeuk.com> writes
>>Be sure to try out the famous echo in the British Library reading room.
>
>Is it still the famous British Library Reading Room? When we got a new
>British Library didn't something happen to the previously famous reading
>room (where Marx wrote etc) - I just cannot remember what?
You can now go and look at it (free) as it is in the middle of the
covered bit of the British museum - where the new stone arch that
doesn't match the old stuff is.
>
>Does the new Reading Room have a famous echo as well?
No
Tim Hall
Carnegie) wrote:
>
>Going by Biggles' adventures, the RFC ate well!
>(But not horse.) Once, I think Biggles stole a
>German turkey for Christmas...
Flew behind enemy lines, clouted (or shot) the bird, stuffed it into
the cockpit of his Camel and took off, no doubt as grey clad troops
poured over the hedge. As he fled for the safety of lines, a German
plane spotted him and gave chase. The previously stunned turkey
workup, nearly flinging our hero out of the cockpit. "The fellow must
think I've got St Vitus dance" mused Biggles. Some daring aerobatics
later and a spot of tophole marksmanship sees Biggles gain the
upperhand in the dogfight. The turkey co-operates by not wriggling.
On landing Biggles discovers the reason - it has stopped a bullet
destined for him. Biggles on The Western Front or Biggles Flies West,
I think.
Tim
--
I left my other sig at work.
Robert Carnegie
> Chris J Dixon posted on Thu, 16 May 2002
> with the following opinion of recent events:
>
> >Each
> >shot included a gnome.
>
> Eddie does a nice line in gnomes I understand.
Clarrie doesn't think they're very nice!
Is the business with gnomes in _Amelie_ anything
like the episode of _Fawlty Towers_ -
hannah d.
> Seen it, at the Bradford Film & TV museum, enjoyed it very much.
> Then went round the corner for a curry at a place which prided
> themselves on the size of their nan bread; it could have served
> as a tablecloth!
Omars!
h.
Martin Clark
about...
>Biggles on The Western Front or Biggles Flies West,
>I think.
Not as good as Biggles Flies Undone in my opinion.
--
Martin
Stephen GC Tilley
Andy had said...
>
>You can now go and look at it (free) as it is in the middle of the
>covered bit of the British museum - where the new stone arch that
>doesn't match the old stuff is.
Portland stone, which the builders supplied, not being the same as Stone from
Portland which the museum wanted and expected but didn't get because they didn't
specify it.
Stephen GC Tilley
hannah had said...
>
>Omars!
Do they sell Obars?
Rosalind Mitchell
Or Biggles Holds His Own?
Rosie
--
http://www.stwerburgh.freedombird.net icq 152291404
SMARMY BASTARD, MAME, Curator of Umbeasts
Currently reading: NAIPAUL, V S, "A House for Mr Biswas"
"Witches very often disguise themselves as elders" [Kate Atkinson]
K Richard W
>Portland stone, which the builders supplied, not being the same as Stone from
>Portland which the museum wanted and expected but didn't get because they didn't
>specify it.
At least Stilton cheese has to come from Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire or
Leicestershire. Stilton is actually in Cambridgeshire I believe.
Linda Fox
>
> Does the new Reading Room have a famous echo as well?
Did the old one have one, then? I thought that line was just one of
Hoffnung's scurrilous and misleading suggestions: that yer forrin
toarist should try shouting "hellooooo" loudly in a
ssssssshhhhhhhh-room.
--
Linda ff
Rosemary Miskin
<richard....@whitbread.freeuk.com> wrote:
> At least Stilton cheese has to come from Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire or
> Leicestershire. Stilton is actually in Cambridgeshire I believe.
That's the place it was first sold, not first made - in the village pub,
which was on the Great North Road.
Rosemary
--
Rosemary Miskin ZFC LV mis...@argonet.co.uk
Loughborough, UK http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/miskin
Mike Ruddock
I have never been in the BM RR, but the Central Reference
Library in Manchester was built with a ceiling made of an almost
perfectly hemispherical dome of (what looks like) marble. When working
in there you would hear footsteps (the floor was also smooth and hard)
coming past your chair and look up to see that there was no-one
walking anywhere near you. If you scraped your chair when getting up
the noise echoed around horrendously. I assume the architect knew what
he was doing? <IS>
Mike Ruddock
Stephen GC Tilley
Mike Ruddock had said...
Certainrats may be familiar with the dome of the County Fire Office in
Piccadilly Circus in darkest Westminster. This has the oddest acoustics of any
place I've ever been. You can't hear what someone sitting next to you is saying
but those 20 yards away are perfectly cleer.
Niles
|
|Certainrats may be familiar with the dome of the County Fire Office in
|Piccadilly Circus in darkest Westminster. This has the oddest acoustics of any
|place I've ever been. You can't hear what someone sitting next to you is saying
|but those 20 yards away are perfectly cleer.
This is also true of the room Norwich cathedral choir practice in. Which
makes for a very interesting experience in practices -- you don't need to
move to stand next to people who aren't singing your part. Kind of.
--
Niles, Nottingham |
ICQ UIN 12724766 | Don't give me songs
outpages.com/nilex | Give me something to sing about!
www.niles.org.uk |
Robin Fairbairns
>K decameron W <richard....@whitbread.freeuk.com> wrote:
>> At least Stilton cheese has to come from Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire or
>> Leicestershire. Stilton is actually in Cambridgeshire I believe.
>
>That's the place it was first sold, not first made - in the village pub,
>which was on the Great North Road.
and i don't think it's in cambridgeshire proper, either. i would have
guessed huntingdonshire or the soke of peterborough (or whatever it
was called).
all these counties that are no more...
--
Robin Fairbairns, Cambridge -- rf10 at cam dot ac dot uk
Jeremy Fry
<r...@cl.cam.ac.uk> writes
Not according to the Huntingdonshire Society.
--
Jeremy Fry
just south of slepe
BrritSki
Late News:
I came across a Biggles website today in the course of some research
(Ginger and Lacy) and found a couple of genuine titles that are almost
as bad as the made-up ones: "The Camels are coming" and "Biggles Flies
Again".
M...@mygaff0.demon.co.uk
writes
You will find that name is spelt Lacey - and if you are serious on the
conjunction, I may be able to help! :-)
--
Min
You say laughter
I say Luftwaffe
BrritSki
(allegedly).
I was a great fan of Biggles as a kid and am well aware that the Hon.
Algernon took an e. Thanks for the offer though - how were you proposing
to help - are you related to Algy ? :)
M...@mygaff0.demon.co.uk
writes
>> >Late News:
>> >
>> >I came across a Biggles website today in the course of some research
>> >(Ginger and Lacy) and found a couple of genuine titles that are almost
>> >as bad as the made-up ones: "The Camels are coming" and "Biggles Flies
>> >Again".
>> BrritSki-
>> You will find that name is spelt Lacey - and if you are serious on the
>> conjunction, I may be able to help! :-)
>>
>No, the construction was entirely for the purposes of humour
>(allegedly).
>
>I was a great fan of Biggles as a kid and am well aware that the Hon.
>Algernon took an e. Thanks for the offer though - how were you proposing
>to help - are you related to Algy ? :)
BrritSki
Related to the Grp. Capt. himself ? tell us more (if you haven't
already).
Siderius Nuncius
BrritSki wrote in message
>
>I was a great fan of Biggles as a kid and am well aware that the Hon.
>Algernon took an e.
So was I, but I didn't realise Algy used recreational drugs, in my
innocence. Mind you, I didn't realise for ages either that in every
full-length story the Intrepid Three would get split up, one would be in
peril, von Stalhein would Be Behind It, the missing one would be rescued and
vS's evil plan would be thwarted but he would get away so he could Be Behind
It again in the next book. And poor old Wilks, eh? SE5s then Hurricanes -
no wonder Biggles always outdid him.
I rather liked Gimlet, Trapper, ....er....the bluff cockney cove whose name
I've forgotten and Cub, too.
--
Sid
Shepherds Bush, West London
an...@nildram.co.uk
<siderius...@tesco.net> wrote:
>
>I rather liked Gimlet, Trapper, ....er....the bluff cockney cove whose name
>I've forgotten and Cub, too.
>--
Copper ISTR
--
Regards
Andy Minter
(Whose dog is named 'Biggles' )