Here is a site worth a quick browse, giving items occurring in sets
http://www.alt-usage-english.org/ucle/ucle7.html
They left a bunch of stuff out of the threes category: the three bears, the three billy goats gruff. From the Bible we have surely, goodness and mercy; love, hope and charity. In the business world Salomon, Smith, Barney. Then we have Borders, Books and Music. There's Aber, Crombie and Fitch. The priest, the minister and the rabbi that figure in so many jokes. We talk about the ABCs of something, meaning the basics. The list is endless.
> endless
to say nothing preferably! about the father, the son, and the wholly goat ;)
Mon Dieu, the billy goats gruff...how did that go again. I have a vague memory niggling at my brain - a primary school thing - so you know it is loooooong ago
Billy Goats Gruff? Something about a troll under a bridge, I think...
troll Leave it to the Norsewoman to know about trolls!
They are a common sight in my (Norwegian) in-laws' place! (OK, not real trolls, but drawings, statues, carvings...and most recently, a photo of the in-laws themselves with a life-sized one!)
Winken,Blinken and Nod. Can't remember who they were.
The butcher, the baker, the candlestickmaker. Cast them out all three.
Here's URL to the nursery rhyme:
http://www.starstogether.tierranet.com/kids/winken.htm
winken blinken and nod, a poem by eugene field..
winken and blinken are two little eyes,
and nod is a little head..
Oh, here is the whole thing (once i knew it all by heart, but now i only remember i have a little shadow by RLS
Winken, Blinken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe --
Sailed off on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"
The old moon asked the three.
"We have come to fish for the herring fish
That live in the beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we!"
Said Winken,
Blinken,
And Nod.
The old moon laughed and sang a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe,
And the wind that sped them al night long
Ruffled the waves of dew.
The little stars were the herring fish
That lived in the beautiful sea --
"Now cast your nets wherever you wish --
Never afeard are we";
So cried the stars to the fisherman three:
Winken,
Blinken,
And Nod.
All night long their nets they threw
To the stars in the twinkling foam --
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe
Bringing the fisherman home;
'Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed
As if it could not be,
And some folks thought 'twas a dream they'd dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea --
But I shall name you the fishermen three:
Winken,
Blinken,
And Nod.
Winken and Blinken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoes that sailed the skies
Is the wee one's trundle-bed.
So shut your eyes while mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked hte fisherman three:
Winken,
Blinken,
And Nod.
Billy Goats Gruff? Something about a troll under a bridge, I think...
Trip trap, trip trap came the biggest billy goat gruff. He was the one who tossed the troll off the bridge, as he proved too big for the troll to eat.
Three blind mice?
Inchmee and Pinchmee went down to the river. Inchmee fell in. Who was left to save him?
getting my thumb and fore finger ready...
Dear musck: Inchmee and Pinchmee baffled search attempts.
When I was ten, I was puzzled by little half-dollar sized aluminum containers seen in the gutter that said on the lid: Three Merry Widows, Agnes, Mabel, and Becky.
It used to be a merry prank to put one of the Three Merry Widows over tailpipe of a parked car. When owner started motor, back pressure made it misbehave, while an obscened apparition was thrashing around until it burst, behind the automobile.
Geez, Dr. Bill, and all this time I thought you were talking about tins of chewing tobacco. [ahem]
In twos they gave Beulah's ass. Parm my beg to differmints, but wasn't that Balaam's ass?
Dear Faldage: Diligent search revealed no citations of Beulah's Ass, only Beulah Land.
I disremember Sunday School joke about the stretchiest man in the Bible, who tied his ass to a tree and walked fifty miles.
...put one of the Three Merry Widows over tailpipe of a parked car...
I ain't touchin' that with an eleven foot pole (ours go to eleven).
Dear Musick: It must have been terribly uncomfortable for her.
And this grouping that follows would never appear on anybody's list 'cept mine, but I do think of this triad:
alacrity, celerity, legerity
That is truly fascinating. Thanks for coming up with that.
our minister always referred to the Father, the Son and the holy Spigot
Daddy-O, Junior, and Spook
And on the more general subject of triads:
the three Furies: Tisiphone (avenger of murder), Megaera (the jealous one), and Alecto (unceasing in anger).
the three judges of the Underworld: Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus.
the three witches of Macbeth
the Olympic motto: Citius, altius, fortius ("faster, higher, stronger")
TEd, you have committed the "widening the window" crime. I've done it, most of us have. Here's all you need (courtesy of tsuwm, who taught me):
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=5108edit: oops, redone so it works
I ain't touchin' that with an eleven foot pole (ours go to eleven).
Designed by Spinal Tap, were they?
CapK - Of course!
Four Score - How much?
Pieces of Eight - Where does this come from?
> And on the more general subject of triads:
An extract from a poem I wrote to my wife, years ago, on our first Valentine's Day as parents:
Our wedding: one and one makes one;
Our baby: one and one makes three.
fourscore = 80 Gettysburg address
This problem was critical as it adversely affected local commerce and forced
the colonists to turn to foreign coins, primarily Spanish American silver produced
in Mexico and Peru. The most widely used coin in the colonies was the eight reales
(piece of eight), primarily clipped underweight examples that had made their way
north from Mexico through the Bahamas. The eight reales
was the highes unit of Spanish silver in the New World, similar in size and weight
to the thalers of the various German states, the French écu, the Portuguese
cruzado and the ducatoon of Holland; colonists called the eight reales coin
a "dollar," from the Dutch"daalder" (a derivative of the German thaler).
and the eight reales was sometimes clipped at Dr. Bill points out..it was also quartered, and today, some US's will still call a a quarter "two bits". left over slang, put to new purpose.
Cool, Helen and Bill!
Reales and bits. I'll bet that shave and a haircut--two bits jingle has troubled many a mind for its deep hidden meaning, huh?
not to mention the phrase
two-bit whore. [
-- but word-related]
not to mention the phrase two-bit whore.
Does this refer to the woman on the home fix-up show on PBS who has a drill in each hand, and sells her services?
Eight reindeer. I know, I know...Rudolph makes nine....but he's not a part of the original myth.
Rudolph ... he's not a part of the original myth.
Created as an advertising icon for Montgomery Ward's, I believe.
Depending upon source:
Dasher
Dancer
Prancer
Vixen
Comet
Cupid
Donner
Blitzen
Or the same list except Donner is Donder.
Depends upon whether you're singing the song or reciting the poem.
Just for the record...
Have we all forgotten Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young?
And the Tolkien fan that I am, I think of the 13 dwarves... let me try this without help... Thorin Oakenshield, Fili and Kili, Dori, Nori, and Ori, Bifur, Bofur and Bombur, Oin and Gloin, Dwalin and Balin [yay! i did it!]
We had two little fish once names Fili and Kili. We also had a mexican fighting fish names Smaug. One morning, there was no Fili or Kili...
alexis
> One morning, there was no Fili or Kili...
awww! turned into fillet and killit...
now jist howd'we pernunce that fill-ay word agin...?
I think of the 13 dwarves
There were thirteen of them? I thought there were only seven.
Umm, lessee, Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Snorri, Doc, Happy
and Lumpy?
Snorri and Lumpy?
Wasn't there a Lumpy on Leave It to Beaver? Maybe he was a dwarf and I never realized it. Live and learn again...
Lumpy?No, Faldage...I think that last elf was Nitty-Picky.
One if by land, two if by sea.
Umm, lessee, Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Snorri, Doc, Happy and Lumpy?For those who can't remember:
Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Doc, Happy, Bashful and Dopey!
Now lets all sing: Hi, Ho! Hi, Ho! It's off to work we go!
Ancient riddle: What can the Seven Dwarfs do, that seven fairies can't?
I saw a bumper sticker once that said "I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go..."
Other numbers:
Six-pack Said of an employee, "Has the full 6-pack but lacks the plastic thingy to hold it all together"
Dirty Dozen
Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai [such fabulous movies!]
alexis
One for sorrow, two for mirth,
Three for a wedding, four for a birth,
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret not to be told.
Eight for heaven, nine for hell,
And ten for the devil's own sel'.
Anyone remember what they were?
dxb
magpies!!!!!!
the strutting nightclub- bouncer of a bird
the Duncster
Yeah, handsome, noisy, avaricious and vicious! Magpies.
Yeah, handsome, noisy, avaricious and vicious! Magpies.Hey, buddy--you talkin' about
me??
Certainly not you, Jackie. La gaza ladra.
I SAW THAT MAGPIE
An intiguing creature
with a human weakness
a strange love
of baubles, trinkets
things that sparkle
yet have no use
strange, a bird
should feel this pull,
wings, nuzzled
by friendly zephyrs,
fat worms writhing
in the good green sod
primal instincts-
food, love
surpassed
by the dancing of light
through splintered glass
I ssaw that magpie
infamous
flinty-eyed
hatchet-faced
B-movie thug of a bird
mean-gaited
black switchblade wings
cocky
I saw that magpie
survivor
lover,
of food that wriggles
of light that prisms
little napoleon
tiny bohemian
he eyed me quizzically
he left haughtily
there was something he just had to see.
the Duncster
One for sorrow, two for mirth,
Three for a wedding, four for a birth,
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret not to be told.
Eight for heaven, nine for hell,
And ten for the devil's own sel'.
--- Anyone remember what they were?
I was taught by my Irish Grandmother it was a saying about RAVENS which then morphed into crows then any time you see birds - even in a picture or the like.
But I was taught :
One (bird) for sorrow, two for joy,
Three to marry, four to die.
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.
I knew there were two more lines but couldn't remember them.... given some of the superstitions about ravens the devil part could fit!
That's my contribution. Any help?
Edit Could it have been magpies originally then become ravens? Are there magpies in US? Ravens?
Any birders in this flock?
Are there magpies in US? Ravens?
No birder I but.
Ravens we got but not all over. There sposed to be some here in NYS but not that I've seen. They were common as swamp water coffee in Flagstaff back when I lived there ('70s). By magpie are we talking pica pica?
I dont know about Pica Pica, but they are black and white ,they kinda look like they are wearing a dinner suit, they have a reputation for thievery, but in reality it is just a strange fascination for things that shine or sparkle, hence the stories about them stealing jewellery from opened windows. I think there may be an opera called the "thieving Magpie" but im not sure
the Duncster
Are there magpies in US? Ravens? Indeed, we got both. In fact, last weekend I was camping with my kids at Pinnacles National Monument (lovely place - oodles of wildflowers in the springtime) and at the campground there was a gorgeous yellow-billed magpie (only found in California, but worth the trip). He had a couple of campsites he had staked out and he'd strut around in the dry grass, daring us to approach.
Here's a pic:
http://www.buteo.com/ptreyes/magpie.htmlAs to ravens, I've seen them in the Southwest, same as Faldaje - on a two-week raft trip in southern Utah a couple of years ago they would regularly cruise the canyons above us, and then try to sneak off with any unguarded food - one monster of a raven flew away with half a package of Fig Newtons™ clutched in its beak.
[/birder ramblings]
Are there [ravens] in the US?Yes. North American distribution map at
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/htm96/map617/ra4860.htmlEdgar Allan Poe lived his entire life in the US, I believe.
Are there magpies in the US?Yes; map at
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/htm96/map617/ra4750.html
Dear AR: just looking for a chance to bug you, I checked. Poe's adoptive family took him to England at about age six, and returned with him in 1820. Incidentally there was a famous pathology meeting at Johns Hopkins, in which an previously obscure pathologist became famous for presenting convincing arguments that Poe died of unrecognized rabies. Rabies is notorious for causing "furious" behaviour in animals. But there is a less publicised "dumb" rabies . There have been human deaths from rabies, with diagnosis made only long after death. There have been a couple cases of persons dying from rabies following tissue transplants taken from people who had rabies that had been misdiagnosed. Racoons should never be made pets, as they can have transmissible rabies with no warning symptoms.
Dear dr. bill:
Dang!
My hat is off to the master googler.
[signed] an Ar-rant Knave
What are the big, carrion eating birds we used to have here in NYC? where they ravens? or crows? ore ravens and crows the same?
what ever bird, they were the indicator species for West Nile Virus, and the population is way down.
i had noticed a month or so before the new became public that there were fewer of them around. (it is even more evident now, with lots of road kill remaining on the roads, instead of disappearing.) Many of NYC's highways are parkways-- they have large green sides, sometimes abut parks, or sometimes transverse parks. and for a city, we have lots of parks, and lots of wildlife. i see raccoons and possum pretty regularly in my neighborhood. squirrels by the million, even manhattans vest pocket parks have resident voles..
Are there magpies in US? Ravens?
The US part of the question has been answered but I thought I'd throw in some Canadian information. We used to live in Ft. McMurray, Alberta, which is in "northern" Alberta (I put this in quotes because it's only halfway "up" the province). The ravens there were awful, they would eat garbage, so if you didn't use a garbage can for your bags on garbage day things could get quite messy. They were huge - much larger than any "sensible" bird should be. The running joke was that they could carry off small children, if left unattended.
There have been ravens in every place I've lived (until now), and they are annoying as all hell. And ugly! A group of them lived outside my old apartment window, and they'd wake me up on summer mornings with their incessant screaming/cawing. Really hideous beasts.
Bean, at one point I was chatting with a fellow from Alberta who used "north Alberta" to mean "backcountry", regardless of actual compass direction.
Is that usage standard there? Elsewhere?
Could it have been magpies originally then become ravens?
Dear wow,
Just returned from a trip away and looked at this thread – astonished at first by the interest in the corvus family, but then people have always found crows fascinating.
I think your suggestion above is more likely to be true than that the rhyme originally applied to ravens if, as I suppose, it came from Britain – I guess it may not have - could have been translated from German. But although I admit I haven’t done the research, I believe the bird has been rare here for probably three hundred years or more (sticking my neck well out! Someone will probably chop my head off.) except perhaps for parts of Scotland and Wales. The likelihood of seeing several together would be remote, but with magpies it would have been possible occasionally. In fact the magpie which has been on the protected list for some time (I think it may have been removed recently ) is now pretty common. I think they thrive on road-kill!!!
There is a collection of ravens hopping around at the Tower of London (something about the fate of the kingdom depending on their survival, like the apes on Gibraltar) they are cared for by the Beefeaters I believe. That is the only place I have seen a raven outside an aviary.
Two mules for Sister Sarah
The Seven-Ups
How about the "Seven Faces of Eve"? (Wasn't there a note at the end of the movie about the possibility of her actually having thirteen different personalities? I seem to remember something about they others couldn't be actually catagorized as they never spoke (too young) but the actions were listed as separate individuals)
Wasn't that "Three Faces..."? And there was another one made famous but
we can't remember
the "Seven Faces of Eve"
Or either the Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, one.
Seven
Six
Five
Four
Three
Two
OneZero
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0291577
Houston, we have ignition.
OK, an aside about ravens. When my hubby and I went to Yellowstone Park in February, we were forewarned not to leave any food items or wrappers in our snowmobiles. My understanding is they have a tremendous sense of smell. We witnessed the ravens opening the locked trunks and pulling items out. We saw the destruction the birds caused to one machine, when it could not get the lock open, it tunnelled its way through the seat to trunk to get food out. Nasty birds!
Hi Silky - pleasedta meetja.
Hang on, isn't a "silky" a dodgy Irish fairy creature?
You out there oftroy? Best make you Muse if so.
a seemingly "nonsensical" song which probably was encrypted to save livesNow, I don't want to dampen any squibs here, but for reasons I couldn't quite put my fin on, I felt uncomfortable with this interpretation. Had I perhaps ended up burning my fins on something similar?
Then I found an article that gave some substance to my vague doubts:
http://www.snopes2.com/holidays/christmas/12days.aspI have to say that I find the cons compelling, but maybe I'm just a killjoy.
heh heh heh, if only they knew...[rubs hands gleefully, despite their lack of physical existence]On a lighter note, I also discovered the undoubtedly genuine [honest & deadpan face] story of someone who actually gave his true love the gifts as "recommended" and of her responses to them:
http://www.cvc.org/christmas/12days.htm
One morning, there was no Fili or Kili...
So Smaug Kili an' 'e Fili 'isself up, eh?
Tasteless Fisk
someone who actually gave his true love the gifts as "recommended"I know the humorous story of which you speak. However, I heard an interview on CBC Radio a couple of years ago with a couple who had actually been "victims" of the gifts of the Twelve Days of Christmas for a number of years, one gift each year. The worst of it was that they didn't know who was giving them the gifts. All their family was mystified each year as these elaborate gifts kept arriving. In the last year, it was revealed that it was their brother and sister-in-law.
Here, I found a link to the radio interview, you'll find it on this page:
http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/basic_black/past_shows/dec_23.html
Hiya o wise one - oh, and greetings fellow Sussex man (dxb)!
One for sorrow, two for joy,
Three to marry, four to die.
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.Back in the 70s (
I hear he hastily adds ) there used to be a children's TV show called
Magpie. The theme song was almost exactly like wow's rhyme, and similarly only went up to seven, with the one difference that the second line was:
Three for a girl and four for a boy
- which at least makes for a rhyme (as did dxb's original, albeit with different words). Oh, and it had a chorus "Ma-ah-ah-ag-pieeee" of course. Dunno which is the original rhyme, though. dxb's
feels older.
I usually see at least a few magpies as I cycle into work, but I've never seen more than four or so at a single site, even for a dead fox.
I suggest a modern-day version of the rhyme should be something like:
One for a vole and two for a frog
Three for a fox and four for a dog
Five for a sheep and six for a goat
Seven a dead cow in the middle of the road
Fisk
So anybody know what is it about the number twelve that makes it so special?
At school I was taught multiplication ("times") tables up to 12, and there it ended. Maybe because it is/was a commonly occurring number?
[thinks]
12 months in a year, 12 hours on a clock (analogue of course), a dozen eggs ummmm - ah, imperial measurements: 12 inches in a foot, 12 (old) pence in a shilling... Hmm, maybe not
that common.
So why not stick with decimal systems? After all, most people have ten fingers and toes.
I must be missing something blindingly obvious.
At school I was taught multiplication ("times") tables up to 12, and there it ended. Maybe because it is/was a commonly occurring number?It occurs commonly in the Imperial system, for sure. But I was brought up in the age of metric, and we were only taught the times tables up to 10 in school (but I learned the next few anyway, because I just love the times tables). Coincidence? I think not!
So why not stick with decimal systems?Ah, the age-old question we ask ourselves, every time we read a USn first-year physics textbook, which inevitably has a few problems written in Imperial units! Like, who wants to convert miles per hour to metres per second? Honestly! Or square feet to square metres? Yeeeech!
actually been "victims" of the gifts of the Twelve Days of Christmas for a number of yearsHello old Bean (the "old" of course being nothing to do with age),
Yeah, the above episode sounds truly appalling. You can choose your friends, you can't choose your relatives, but what about the in-laws, eh?
I learned the multiplication table to twelve also.
As to metric/imperial system...don't you find that we are still a bit wishy-washy on this in Canada Bean?
While going through school we are inundated with the metric system yet once we get out, unless you are in a technical field, we don't use is entirely.
Nobody I know knows their weight in metric. People still use pounds and ounces. Even the younger folks.
Very few people still talk about miles, only kilimeters YET smaller sizes are measured in feet and inches. I do not even know how tall I am in metric, I am 5 foot 3 inches tall.
Temperature is also a mélange: Outside temperature in metric (yes, it's hot at 30 degrees Celsius) but people invariably get confused if you try to tell them their body temperature in Celsius. Typically you get this reaction...is 38 a fever - what is that in Fahrenheit? Yet you say 102 F and you know it's a fever.
We still buy a pound of butter but we buy gas by the litre.