=SDC= Q19: You should know this by heart

[Jerry Friedman]

What do the words congress, purple, wind, kitplane, rainbarrel, pickle
and morcilla have in common?

--
Jerry Friedman, T. O. Panelist

[abc]

"Congress was in session and the wind was howling overhead when suddenly
a purple kitplane crashed into a rainbarrel full of morcilla pickle"
abc

[R H Draney]

Jerry Friedman filted:

>
>What do the words congress, purple, wind, kitplane, rainbarrel, pickle
>and morcilla have in common?

Expanding upon Bismarck, nobody who loves any of them should ever watch them
being made....r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

[Harrison Hill]

On Sep 2, 10:28 am, R H Draney <dadoc...@spamcop.net> wrote:
> Jerry Friedman filted:
>
>
>
> >What do the words congress, purple, wind, kitplane, rainbarrel, pickle
> >and morcilla have in common?
>
> Expanding upon Bismarck, nobody who loves any of them should ever watch them
> being made....r

Mark Twain surely.

[Jerry Friedman]

<smile>

> Mark Twain surely.

I'd like to see a citation for either. Sources at Google Books say
"attributed" to both.

--
Jerry Friedman

[Robin Bignall]

That must be worth a large, elderly and obstreperous ram, Jerry.
--
Robin Bignall
(BrE)
Herts, England

[James Hogg]

I don't understand why he hasn't preceded EVERY question with "This
one's a toughie".

--
James

[Jerry Friedman]

On Sep 2, 10:21 am, James Hogg <Jas.H...@gOUTmail.com> wrote:
> Robin Bignall wrote:
> > On Sun, 02 Sep 2012 10:08:40 +0200, abc <a...@abc.net> wrote:
>
> >> Jerry Friedman wrote:

> >>> What do the words congress, purple, wind,kitplane, rainbarrel, pickle

> >>> and morcilla have in common?
>
> >>> --
> >>> Jerry Friedman, T. O. Panelist
> >> "Congress was in session and the wind was howling overhead when suddenly
> >> a purple kitplane crashed into a rainbarrel full of morcilla pickle"
> >> abc
> > That must be worth a large, elderly and obstreperous ram, Jerry.
>
> I don't understand why he hasn't preceded EVERY question with "This
> one's a toughie".

*clears throat meaningly in direction of person who generously
supplied many of the questions*

Anyway, maybe it will help if I say that only aueistas--only certain
ones, in fact--should have memorized this.

--
Jerry Friedman, T. O. hinter

[Vinny Burgoo]

In alt.usage.english, Jerry Friedman wrote:
>> >> Jerry Friedman wrote:

>> >>> What do the words congress, purple, wind,kitplane, rainbarrel, pickle
>> >>> and morcilla have in common?

>Anyway, maybe it will help if I say that only aueistas--only certain
>ones, in fact--should have memorized this.

It's glasnost time. They are the codenames of people sitting on a
certain committee. You know who you are.

--
VB

[Morcilla]

On Wed, 5 Sep 2012 23:52:02 +0100, Vinny Burgoo <hlu...@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

THERE IS NO COMMITTEE, DAMMIT!

[msh210]

On Sep 3d, Jerry Friedman Totally Officially hinted:

> > What do the words congress, purple, wind,kitplane, rainbarrel, pickle
> > and morcilla have in common?

<snip>

> Anyway, maybe it will help if I say that only aueistas--only certain
> ones, in fact--should have memorized this.

Or, at least, that was Peter Moylan's advice.

Michael Hamm
TO Hinter

[Guy Barry]

On Sep 2, 5:08 am, Jerry Friedman <je...@totally-official.com> wrote:
> What do the words congress, purple, wind, kitplane, rainbarrel, pickle
> and morcilla have in common?

Is it significant that they all have an even number of letters?

--
Guy Barry

[Jerry Friedman]

Remarkable, but not significant.

--
Jerry Friedman, T. O. unhinter

[mrucb...@att.net]

These words apparently represent a mnemonic for something such as memorization of pi digits, as discussed by Mr Moylan in years past, but while intriguing that people can do that, and spout off dozens of digits, it was unclear, then, what they were talking about to non-savants, and no more intelligible now. "ltnmrsbvhg=0123456789" was the key then, which was no help to me short of a lengthy pencil and paper routine I had no interest in completing. May be off base anyway.

[Guy Barry]

mrucbeadco wrote in message
news:61eab66a-2e36-4b3b...@googlegroups.com...

> These words apparently represent a mnemonic for something such as
> memorization of pi digits,
> as discussed by Mr Moylan in years past, but while intriguing that people
> can do that, and spout off dozens of digits,
> it was unclear, then, what they were talking about to non-savants, and no
> more intelligible now. "ltnmrsbvhg=0123456789"
> was the key then, which was no help to me short of a lengthy pencil and
> paper routine I had no interest in completing.
> May be off base anyway.

This sounds to me like the Major system:

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

The mapping between digits and letters is slightly different from yours, but
it seems the same basic idea. I've never used it.

Applying either system to the words in the question doesn't seem to give any
particularly significant numbers.

--
Guy Barry

[mrucb...@att.net]

Well, thanks for providing a cogent description of the method for that, anyway. I suppose you'd get used to the quick substitutions and then, the word imagery works to signal the sequence, but I don't think my brain works that way. I'd be better off with a plastic laminated wallet card.

[Vinny Burgoo]

A taxonomy of computer coding errors?

Morcilla --> black sausage --> BS --> bullshit.

Congress --> fucked.

Purple --> overcomplicated?

Wind --> filler?

Kitplane --> falls apart.

Rainbarrel --> ?

Pickle --> ?

OK. As you were.

--
VB

[Jerry Friedman]

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.usage.english/msg/29b6824aa737f802

--
Jerry Friedman, T. O. reminder

[James Hogg]

Jerry Friedman wrote:
> On Sep 1, 10:08 pm, Jerry Friedman <je...@totally-official.com> wrote:
>> What do the words congress, purple, wind, kitplane, rainbarrel, pickle
>> and morcilla have in common?
>>
>> --
>> Jerry Friedman, T. O. Panelist
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.usage.english/msg/29b6824aa737f802

Devious. And to think I set that one up...

--
James