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#7522 10/21/00 12:59 PM
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I know that we have the bovine four stomachs; what the heck is the significance of "Five Bellies?"


#7523 10/21/00 01:05 PM
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I didn't check the website, but assumed from the url that is referred to 'Gazza' - semi-legendary English footballer and all round lager lout, woman-beater, idiot (in the informal sense), but occasional genius on the field. Full name Paul Gascoigne. The accent in question would then be the Geordie one - for those who hail from the environs of Newcastle-upon -Tyne.

In any case, famously, Gazza's best friend is a Geordie of great girth, whose appetite and size have led to his being nicknamed 'Five Bellies' by his friends. I'm not even sure if Gazza and he are friends any more, but his association with the 'great' man has led to his becoming a minor league TV celebrity in his own right...

(You had to be there...)

cheer

the sunshine warrior


#7524 10/21/00 01:09 PM
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>nicknamed 'Five Bellies'

I get it; one more than a cow!


#7525 10/21/00 01:15 PM
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Who knows? Some Geordies seem to think the height of humour is farting a beat. (I said some godammit - I am not stereotyping here.) But this is probably true of some Brummies, Lancastrians, Cockneys and Prince Phillip, amongst other groups...

cheer

the sunshine warrior


#7526 10/22/00 10:40 AM
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< farting a beat>

and now -- Le petomane (the Musical!!)


#7527 10/22/00 07:10 PM
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>that loon is a aquatic bird

Loons - was also the name given to trousers with particularly wide legs. I remember cutting a slit in the legs of a pair of jeans and inserting lurid flowery fabric in a "V" shape to make the bell bottoms as wide as possible without falling over whilst walking.


#7528 10/22/00 07:40 PM
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Hi Fish. Sorry it took so long to answer, been off up north for a bit of weekend R&R.

Choux à la crème (cream filled) or Choux à la costarde (custard filled) are the pastries. You have to be specific or else you will get the veggie (which is NOT a wonderfully rich, flavourful dessert )



#7529 10/22/00 09:13 PM
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...choux...You have to be specific or else you will get the veggie (which is NOT a wonderfully rich, flavourful dessert

To my ear "choux pastry" always suggests something as tough as old boots.

I guess there's vast potential for humorous language-based misunderstandings. I often recall my very first evening in France some 16 years ago, when my girlfriend (now wife) and I were perusing the dessert menu. She pointed to a particular item on the list and asked the waiter "Est-ce pomme de terre?", to which he responded, chuckling and pointing skywards, "Non, c'est pomme à l'air!"

[Explanation for non-French speakers: pomme de terre - literally "apple from ground" - is French for potato.]


#7530 10/23/00 05:13 AM
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Well, I vaguely remember being taken in my teens to see a one-woman show by a famous actress whose name now escapes me based on the letters of Liselotte, a German princess who married Louis XIV's brother, the Duke of Orleans. Now, whether it was the Duke himself or one of his friends I now forget, but anyway someone in that circle was described as being able to be able to fart recognisable tunes.

Bingley


Bingley
#7531 10/23/00 03:29 PM
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pomme à l'air

Brilliant!
Perhaps there's a poorly-translated biography of Isaac Newton where it's a potato that lands on his head?
That would have got him thinking.

Or concussed him.



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