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#97232 - 02/28/03 08:43 AM saboteurs
of troy Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 10/17/00
Posts: 5400
Loc: rego park
In NYC the dutch influence remains, in a sad way. aside from place names, and an orange in the city flag, (city flag colors are a sort of turquoise blue, white and orange) the memory of New Amsterdam in NY is reduced to occasionally finding a pair of wooden clog shoes as tourist junk.

wooden clog shoes--more properly called sabots-- and saboteurs are people who clog up the machines of industry, and bind up the works by throwing in there wooden shoes.

saboteurs started out like 'luddite's' or 'jethro tull's'--as peasants fighting industrialization with what ever tools they had at hand.

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#97233 - 03/06/03 06:34 AM Re: saboteurs
dxb Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 03/06/02
Posts: 1692
Loc: UK
We still use the expression "clogging up the works".

I found this in the AHD, which accounts for the unusual spelling of calibre:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
sa·bot ( P ) Pronunciation Key (s-b, sb)
n.
2)A lightweight carrier in which a projectile of a smaller caliber is centered so as to permit firing the projectile within a larger-caliber weapon. The carrier fills the bore of the weapon from which the projectile is fired; it is normally discarded a short distance from the muzzle.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, where did that come from I wonder.

ED.: Is that OK now?





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#97234 - 03/06/03 06:43 AM Re: Cut and paste quotes
Faldage Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 12/01/00
Posts: 13653
Geez, dixby, can you stick some CRs in there?


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#97235 - 03/06/03 07:18 AM Re: Cut and paste quotes
dxb Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 03/06/02
Posts: 1692
Loc: UK
CRs? Credit ratings?


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#97236 - 03/06/03 07:51 AM Re: Cut and paste quotes
Buffalo Shrdlu Online shocked
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 06/24/02
Posts: 7184
Loc: Vermont
Carriage Returns! you've sent the page widesy!

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#97237 - 03/06/03 08:50 AM Re: Cut and paste quotes
dxb Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 03/06/02
Posts: 1692
Loc: UK
Oh! It was OK on my screen. Thanks for telling me, I'll avoid using it.


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#97238 - 03/06/03 09:05 AM Re: Cut and paste quotes
Faldage Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 12/01/00
Posts: 13653
It looked OK on my PC here at work; it was just on the Mac it went widesy.


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#97239 - 03/06/03 09:57 AM Re: Cut and paste quotes
dxb Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 03/06/02
Posts: 1692
Loc: UK
I see. the Wonderful World of Simplicity and Perfection!



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#97240 - 03/06/03 01:34 PM Re: Cut and paste quotes
Buffalo Shrdlu Online shocked
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 06/24/02
Posts: 7184
Loc: Vermont
ouch!

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#97241 - 03/06/03 01:51 PM Re: sabots
wwh Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 01/18/01
Posts: 13858
In looking the word up in my dictionary, the etymology mentioned "savate" which I have
not heard for a long time.
savate
n.
5Fr, orig., old shoe: see SABOT6 a form of boxing in which stiff-legged kicks as well as punches
may be used

WWI doughboys got some "kicks" out of French gendarmes, quite literally.
They came home with a little ditty: "The French they are a funny race, The fight with their feet,
and fxxx with their face." Much later many Americans adopted view "40 Million Frenchmen
can't be wrong."


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