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This question has probably been asked a million times ... but what's with the "stranger" (moi) and "Addict" e.g. Jackie, use of adjectives to describe posters?
How do they change?
Why are they there?
Just curious. Well, no, absolutely obsessed, actually!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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old hand
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Look under 'Miscellany' - the Graduation threads - updated to the new thread - "Graduation (part 2)". I'd link, but I'm too lazy.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Dear C.K.,
(For some reason, every time I look at your screen name, I want to read it as Captain Kiwi!)
These "adjectives" are actually titles. They change acc'g to how many posts you put up. When you reach 25, you will become a Newbie.
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Dear Captain ~
I didn't like being dubbed a "stranger" when I had twenty posts, had been welcomed by Jackie, had exchanged private e-mail with others, and felt like a was getting a sense of my way around the board. If it were up to me (which it ain't and never will be), the title "stranger" would attach only to one's first post and thereafter a kinder, gentler, softer title like "Immediately Post-Natal Person" would be substituted.
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>Dear Captain
well, it looks as though Jackie isn't alone on this titular monderead -- I read it as captain too the first n-teen times.
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I didn't like being dubbed a "stranger" when I had twenty posts
I like your idea a lot. Twenty-four posts as "stranger" is too many, I think. It is a very intimidating, unwelcoming designation.I can see that more than one post as "stranger" might be in order, just to establish that the person will be around for a little while. Perhaps five posts would be a good threshold for the first graduation. How do others feel? Maybe we could toss this around and come up with a consensus(ha!) on a good first graduation point, as well as suggestions for what it should be called. Then we supplicants can petition Anu/Ea for a consideration of the suggested revision.
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well, it looks as though Jackie isn't alone on this titular monderead -- I read it as captain too the first n-teen timesWhereas I automatically read it as Capital Kiwi, and assumed that the person posting lived in the southernmost national capital in the world - probably also the windiest national capital in the world! 
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That's what absolutely everybody says about Jackie and me: "Those two are just a pair of titular mondereaders."
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well, the easiest remedy (and probably the quickest software fix) would be to let 'newbie' stand for the 5 to 50 range. in an engineering environment the rookie label seems to last forever (or until the next rookie comes along).
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enthusiast
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I agree, FS, "stranger" doesn't seem right. My perception is that the longer one sticks around here, the stranger one's posts get. Perhaps we should propose a new progression: stranger, odder, weirder, curiouser (and curiouser),.... Not sure where that puts Jackie, tsuwm and Jo on the scale. 
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>Not sure where that puts Jackie, tsuwm and Jo on the scale.
I can't speak for the others, but I fear I would fall into the eldritch category.
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ugh, I remember thinking 25 posts would be so far to get to when I started out. A person who becomes a newbie at 5 will be daunted by the miles ahead to reach a new title.
How about a tourist since you are actually looking around finding new places and meeting new people?
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How about a tourist since you are actually looking around finding new places and meeting new people?As much as I like your suggestion, I shall refrain from endorsing it, as history suggests that a recommendation from me is the kiss of death.
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I can't speak for the others, but I fear I would fall into the eldritch category. I'll go with that one. 
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I shall refrain from endorsing itAwww, go on Max. I'll back you up! Though I have to say I do like Chookman's stranger, odder, weirder, curiouser (and curiouser).. and the end-point on this scale of graduation would have to be surreal.
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yes, i liked stranger too, and even as a journeyman, i still think i am stanger..
but the whole thing is meaningless. i was surprised by "graduation" and "graduation2" -- and the wholw thread about what do we call ourselves....
The only thing i think i am called here is "welcome'd" . but if we have to have names or titles, jackie should have a little pineapple icon next to her name, since she is the hospitality hostesss. Tsuwm, i picture like St Luke, a lion with a book, (authorative, but warm, and very learned) jo, our gypsy, looks like mercury with winged feet... she is a gadabout, but with quicksilver lightness!
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- probably also the windiest national capital in the world!Is that in a meterological or an oratorical sense ?
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Is that in a meterological or an oratorical sense ?I wouls say both, but since the dissolution of our upper house nearly 50 years ago, there hasn't been a forum for open filibustering. What intrigues me is how The Mother of Parliaments, and all her bastard children, have the ability to reduce speakers of prodigious intellect and skill to the level of insult-hurling kindergarten kids.
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Awww, go on Max. I'll back you up!Gee, such support - it's really been ayleurning experience for me. The "odd" list might perhaps include eccentric, and, for Jackie when she gets to 2000 posts (next week? ) - why not the wonderfully descriptive "barmy"? Or even, in honour of our Mumbaikar, incorrigible Bombayite that he is, "doolally"?
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Is that in a meterological or an oratorical sense ?
I wouls say both, but since the dissolution of our upper house nearly 50 years ago, there hasn't been a forum for open filibustering. What intrigues me is how The Mother of Parliaments, and all her bastard children, have the ability to reduce speakers of prodigious intellect and skill to the level of insult-hurling kindergarten kids.
Max has it right. I do, indeed live in Windy Wellington. I chose my nom-de-bonmot(OK, it's slaughtering French, but this is an English list, n'est-ce pas? because (a) capital has, and has had, so many interesting meanings, and "Kiwi" gives location - head south and turn left at Australia.
I'm rather flattered to have started a thread, when I all I really wanted was some information!
In regard to Max's comments on legislator puerility, I would agree that "kindergarten kids" is an apt description. But being in Parliament in NZ has a number of disadvantages not found elsewhere, which may be the reason for the extra special brand of drivel produced - (a) you can't get elected if you're dead. This is not true in the States; and (b) there are no convenient places such as Knightsbridge for conservative (and Conservative) MPs to nip off to when things get especially fraught for a quick whipround by jackbooted madams. Having said that, many of our MPs give a fairly convincing performance of being dead from the neck up, and we have Helen Clark as PM. So maybe things aren't so bad after all!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Desperately seeking an excuse to officially become a junkie, I did a bit of number crunching to see how the regular posters here rate in terms of ppd - posts per day. Here are those who average at least 3 ppd, calculated from their respective start dates, and rounded to the nearest tenth: 1. Fishonabike - 7.4 2. Maverick - 4.8 3. Jackie/MaxQ - 4.1 5. tsuwm/BelMarduk - 3.9 7. RhubarbCommando - 3.6 8. jmh - 3.4 When considering this post, please bear in mind that it is an utterly meaningless, totally shameless, bit of self-promotion, in the most literal sense.
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CONGRR-RR--ATULATIONS, MAX !!!!
(Feed that habit, feed that habit...)
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>jmh - 3.4
I keep working on getting my "batting average" down. I'm worried about what comes after "old hand" and would like plenty of time to think about it! Old codger?
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Having been the recipient of such sincere contrafibularities on descending to the next level of the inferno (anything resembling hope having been abandoned long ago), I feel it only proper to congratulate our judiciously posting judge, Father Steve, and BelMarduk (my high school French says, ought that not be "belle Marduk"? ) on their respective promotions. By now, both of you will realise where your good intentions have taken you!
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"The idea was to prove at every foot of the way up … that you were one of the elected and anointed ones who had the right stuff and could move higher and higher and even—ultimately, God willing, one day—that you might be able to join that special few at the very top, that elite who had the capacity to bring tears to men’s eyes, the very Brotherhood of the Right Stuff itself."
~Tom Wolfe
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Or even, in honour of our Mumbaikar, incorrigible Bombayite that he is, "doolally"?
For a truly appropriate Hindi word, perhaps deewana would suit - carrying as it does, along with the notion of madness, the connotation of addiction (to love).
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Ah but... I noticed that I was here virtually on day one (probably registered even before Jackie, though I think Jo was a few minutes earlier than me), and then spent about three months in aestivation (web wise!), so my rate since returning (about 250 in the last month or two) is frighteningly high. For goodness' sakes - I'm only about half a century away from addiction, and when I left the board earlier I had only just become a journeyperson-thingy-wossname.
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Hey Cap (or Max if you know)
Some time ago I heard that NZ was promulgating laws granting certain civil rights to chimpnazees, bonobos and perhaps the other anthropoid apes. What, if anything, came of it?
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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The great apes legislation has taken a back seat to economic woes for the present - the Right, having lost the last General Election, has mamaged to persuade many here that the End is not so much Nigh as Now. Perhaps, Capital Kiwi will be able to provide more detail, living as he does where our elected naked apes hang out.
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In reply to:
For a truly appropriate Hindi word, perhaps deewana would suit - carrying as it does, along with the notion of madness, the connotation of addiction (to love).
Sounds good - pity it doesn't carry the implication of inappropriately clinging to a colonial bastardisation of an "Indian" word.
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For the sake of posterity here are the arrival times at this board of some of the people who joined in the early days and are still around at the moment: (apologies to anyone I've missed)
AnnaStrophic: Wed Mar 15 13:19
Jackie: Wed Mar 15 21:38
Emanuela: Thu Mar 16 01:32*
Shanks: Thu Mar 16 04:44
JMH: Wed Mar 22
Tsuwm: Mon Apr 3
Looks like I was after you Shanks but Anna and Jackie beat us to it!
[*See, I knew I'd miss someone!
Emanuela - looks like you pipped Shanks & I to the post,
Anu was, of course, (thanks Jazz) first of all]
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But Jo, look who beat even them:
wordsmith: Sun Mar 12 16:22:07 2000
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... be doolali if you want.
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... be doolali if you want.Mais non! deewana is both aesthetically pleasing and very apt. I would be honoured to be so called. Make me some fresh jilebis and it's a done deal.
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Make me some fresh jilebis and it's a done deal.
Max
My culinary skills, on a scale of 1 to 10, run into the negative numbers, but come to London and we shall trawl Southall for the most exotic, yet authentic, of Indian delights - stuff yourself on jalebis, halwas, laddoos, barfis and all other fattenings, ghee-filled sweets to your heart's content.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Non vale! (Our way to say : there is something wrong , against me)
I registered in Thu Mar 16 01:32:09 2000,
but tried several times the day before, but there was still something not working... otherwise I would be the first!
I feel like Lucy in Charlie Brown ... Ahhhhhhhhhh!
Emanuela
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the very Brotherhood of the Right Stuff itselfExactly so, Father. I just knew I had the most noble and honourable of goals, and that I wasn't just chattering like a chimp, increasing my status whilst adding no real value to this glorious establishment. I almost put down 'chattering like a cheetah'. Then I remembered that in the TV series Tarzan there was indeed a chimp called Cheetah.
How weird is that??
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come to London and we shall trawl Southall
Yum! Can I come?
Purely on Board business, naturally.. sorting out the "eccentric" graduations and so on.
Oo doolali, oo doolali
Golly what a day
(we could really do with some musical note icons)
(e-noticons??)
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I am more than willing to explore Southall with any all denizens of this Board who make it to the Big Smoke. One condition, though - you have to sit through a Hindi film with me, and clap and cheer and hoot and whistle when nudged. If dancing breaks out in the aisles, it is mandatory to join in. (Any of you any good at chewing paan and making really bright red spit?)
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If I am not mistaken, this will be the 300th post within 'Information and Announcements'. Q&A rocketed through the 4000 mark last week. Do these forums get titles too? Or colours? Or are we simply supposed to gauge their popularity by reading the numbers? I like to think, somewhere, that 'Information and Announcements' can be reified enough to become an 'addict' in its own right...
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clap and cheer and hoot and whistle
Well, my sea-lion impression is legendary, shanks!
I usually reserve it for bad jokes (especially for appalling puns) but I'm sure I could make an exception.
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Tom Wolfe is a most egocentric and occasionally outlandish fellow. How DARE he call John Irving, Norman Mailer and John Updike "the Three Stooges" in his recent "Hooking Up"? On the other hand, "The Right Stuff" is a significant book and Wolfe's description of the alcoholic reporter waking up with a hangover in "Bonfire of the Vanities" is one of the great scenes in all of English literature.
This goes to demonstrate, I think, that a fellow can be flaming brilliant and extraordinarily skilled with words yet still succumb to pomposity and appear an ass.
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Oooo, I'll go, I'll go. Sounds exactly like a movie I'd love to see/participate it. You will have to direct me as to where The Big Smoke is. I do not have a clue WHERE you are talking about.
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bel, I'd not heard this formulation before either; but having nearly asphyxiated in London one spring, I'd wager that's the place to which shanks refers.
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Indeed it is London. In a feeble attempt to ape the Big Apple, but finding nothing more salubrious than smoke to speak of... (and, no, it isn't my formulation either.)
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My father always calls London "The Smoke". Edinburgh is known as "Auld Reekie" for, I assume, the same reason.
Tsuwm, you must have been in your pram if you made it to London before the Clean Air Act of 1970.
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>Tsuwm, you must have been in your pram if you made it to London before the Clean Air Act of 1970.
'twas in the mid 70s -- must have been just another Act.
besides, the Big Diesel Fumes just doesn't have the same...
je ne sais quois.
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On the other hand, "The Right Stuff" is a significant book and Wolfe's description of the alcoholic reporter waking up with a hangover in "Bonfire of the Vanities" is one of the great scenes in all of English literature.
Tom Wolfe, Ooh, don't get me started. Too late.
I only vaguely remember the scene to which you refer, and unfortunately, I don't actually have the book on hand to look it up. Regardless of any "great scene in English literature" that you might remember, Tom Wolfe infuriates me. That was the first of many books I have read on the American space program. When I read it I enjoyed it immensely for all its vivid imagery and exciting depiction of fighter jocks.
What irkes me now is that Tom Wolfe intentionally depicted these fellows as idiots. During his descriptions of the Mercury flights, he talked constantly about their ultimate goal of not 'screwing the pooch.' He very intentionally portrayed Gus Grissim (one of my personal heroes) as having completely "screwed the pooch." Now, there was some question about how that hatch blew prematurely. For a while Gus was assumed to be the culprit, but as NASA later learned, Gus was not at fault. Tom apparently didn't see that as a good story so he conveniently forgot to mention that after careful examination it was learned that a malfunction in the hardware, and not Gus's mistake, caused the loss of the spacecraft. I thought for a long time that Gus Grissim panicked and blew the hatch.
I'm sure that if I had a copy of the book, I could make my point more precisely. I could also cite a number of other passages in the book that are coloured to make a good story rather than present an accurate account of the history. I can't find the reference at the moment, but I know that one of those guys mentioned in his biography that Wolfe's portrayal of the events is full of exaggerations for dramatic effect.
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Dearest Xara ~
I apologize to you and your entire circulatory system for providing an occasion for hypertension on the subject of author Tom Wolfe (who looks really, really good in a white suit, which is not easy to do). Perhaps his ignorance about the space program, coupled with his expertise about waking up hung-over, may lead one to the conclusion that he has much more experience getting drunk than flying in space capsules. The mentor's maxim is "write about what you know."
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Isn't 'The Big Smoke' a widespread expression for the local big city, then? That's certainly the usage I'm familiar with here in Australia. I imagine it was used initially by people living in the country, referring to their state's capital, and thence by the city dwellers referring to their own city.
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Hmmm. I wonder why we have no nicknames for the cities in Canada. The closest we get to a nickname is when talking about Toronto; same people shorten it to T-O. There is really nothing remotely cute or representative about it.
The Big Smoke, The Big Apple, The City of Angels. Quite distinct, and most people know exactly where they are.
Does anyone have any more out there?
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Does anyone have anymore out there?
Well, Cincinnati has two rather contradictory nicknames: the Queen City and the Flying Pig City.
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All right, I'm nearly afraid to ask...Flying Pig City????
I can't even imagine what would bring about such a nickname. I do remember a tv sitcom called WKRP in Cincinnati, in which turkeys were thrown out of a helicopter on Thanksgiving (the owner thought they could fly). I am really hoping this is not what brought about the Flying Pig nickname. Porcine parachuting?
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Does anyone have any more out there?
NZ's largest City Auckland (Tamaki Makarau) is widely known as The City of Sails
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>The Big Apple
minneapolis (when it's not clumped as the twin cities) is somewhat derisively referred to as the minnie apple.
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Does anyone have any more out there?
A few that would be reasonably well recognized within Australia, but probably not outside it(?) are:
Sydney - The Harbour City
Adelaide - The City of Churches
Alice Springs - The Alice
Broken Hill, New South Wales - The Silver City (probably one of several around the world)
More universally perhaps (but not in Australia!):
Motown
Tinseltown (although I guess strictly it's just referring to one part of a larger city, and the predominant industry therein)
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Carpal Tunnel
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side note, side note...
>Adelaide - The City of Churches
I wonder how it compares to Québec. Québec is the bastion of Catholicism in Canada. You can`t spit without hitting a church.
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Pooh-Bah
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I claim "The Big Smoke (or just "The Smoke") for London - it was so known during at least the late C19 - I'd have to trawl through some of my deeply buried notes, but I think I have a reference from the 1880s. In the C18 and early C19, Cobbett, (that wonderfully irascible reporter who thought that potatoes were fit only for pigs and Irishmen - though perhaps a little too good for the latter!) invariably refered to Londonas "The Great Wen" - but that was before the Industrial Revoution had made London really smoky. I have a feeling that Edinbuurgh had its soubriquet of "Auld Reekie" long before that - am I right, Jo? Maybe the inhabitants could afford bigger and better fires than the Londoners - or maybe it's because Edinburgh is a damned cold place!
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old hand
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All right, I'm nearly afraid to ask...Flying Pig City????
I can't even imagine what would bring about such a nickname
If I remember correctly, the nickname comes from the days when Cincinnati was a major pork producing city. I assume it refers to the little piggies' souls going up to heaven.
Somewhat morbid? Yes, but I didn't make it up.
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In reply to:
Max Quordlepleen wrote: "NZ's largest City Auckland (Tamaki Makarau) is widely known as The City of Sails"
Max is, of course, using the marketing term for Auckland. To the rest of NZ, it is almost universally referred to (or at least thought of) as Jafaland. This is thought of, in polite circles, as a reference to "Jaffas", a small, spheroid, orange-flavoured sweet (candy) which children used to throw at the movie screen or roll down the wooden floors of picture theatres.
The truth is less prosaic. "Jafa", in this instance, is a polite acronym for "Just Another F---g Aucklander". Jafaland is the natural extension of the adjective to a place name. As you do. In the vernacular, of course.
There is an endearing and enduring popular belief that Auckland, our largest city, exists solely as a repository for all the crazed, demented souls in Godzone who regard "Shortland Street" as the acme or sine qua non of New Zealand culture.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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The truth is less prosaic. "Jafa", in this instance, is a polite acronym for "Just Another F---g Aucklander".Now, now, CK - you're just just getting bitter. After all you and I need to remember that since we live South of the Bombay Hills, we don't actually exist in the extremely Platonic worldview shared by all Jafas.
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Now, now, CK - you're just just getting bitter. After all you and I need to remember that since we live South of the Bombay Hills, we don't actually exist in the extremely Platonic worldview shared by all Jafas.
No, Max, not bitter. Just delighted to know that (a) I'm not one, and (b) that to them I have an existence somewhat similar to Heidinger's cat ... I may exist, then again I may not. And - in an extension of quantum physics well-understood and much loved by Jafas, the corollary is "who cares - if you don't live in Auckland you may as well not exist"!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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For a poetic city title, how about Oxford: The City of the Dreaming Spires?
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In reply to:
that to them I have an existence somewhat similar to Heidinger's cat...
Cap, it's always nice to have a bit of quantum mechanics thrown in to the mix, but I believe the cat was Shroedinger's (or not, as the case may be... 8^)
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I believe the cat was Shroedinger'sHa! Cats don't belong to anybody - they just make slightly more use of one particular human's furniture and food supplies. Actually I've just independently resolved the question "is Shroedinger's cat dead or alive?" The cat would have to be dead for it to be possible to get it into the box in the first place. 
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...not necessarily; it's just slightly more difficult than, but done along the same lines as, getting a ship into a bottle.
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Flying Pig City... I assume it refers to the little piggies' souls going up to heaven.JazzO, does talk of flying pigs have connotations of total impossibility over your side of the Pond? Here we'd talk about completing a project with an unrealistic timescale "at the same time as building a runway for the flying pigs". Or someone says "Yes, I'm sure we can do that" and somebody else points out of the window and says "Look! A flying pig!" Interesting that fish on a bike isn't used in the same way, as on the face of it there's some kind of relationship. Which I would, of course, strenuously deny.
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...pears in liqueurs, perhaps they're just grown in there.
Of course, given the uncertainty of quantum physics, perhaps you don't even have to know whether or not there's a cat in there - even that would collapse some wave function. (Speaking of which, if a quantum physicist went to observe the beaches in Hawaii, would the breakers all become swells?)
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Here, it is usually said "oh ya, when pigs fly" with a bit of a smarmy sneer and a roll of the eyes.
So if it’s o.k. with you guys, I prefer to think of The Flying Pig City as a place where the impossible can happen than - not where all those slaughtered little piglet souls are flying about.
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I make my average since I started posting about 1.8 per day, which means I should become an addict just in time for Christmas. So, what should I ask Father Christmas for to celebrate?
Bingley
Bingley
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[greenI should become an addict just in time for Christmas. So, what should I ask Father Christmas for to celebrate? Pity perhaps, Bingley? Alternatively a fine selection of distilled alcoholic beverages has appeared here: http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Board=words&Number=8783Whilst you're at it, could you ask Santa if he knows anywhere I can get a Thunderbird 2 for Crimble? For my son, of course...
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Pooh-Bah
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Bingley, I presume the most appropriate gift for you would be cold turkey?
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Pooh-Bah
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you don't even have to know whether or not there's a cat in thereMaybe not - but I can assure you that no one could be near a cat in a box and not know about it. The soundproofing has yet to be invented that could drown out that noise! I believe that even profound deafness would not be proof against the sound of an incarcerated moggy. As to getting the animal in there in the first place, every cat has its price. For one of mine, it is cucumber - of which she is inordinately fond. But for all three, cheese would do the trick - two will attempt fratricide in order to get at any sort of cheese (except Parmesan) whilst the third will use any sort of confidence trick for the chance to get even a nibble of the stuff. (That's the female one, of course ) Their best trick, of course, is to eat plenty of cheese and then sit by a mousehole with bated breath.
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Their best trick, of course, is to eat plenty of cheese and then sit by a mousehole with bated breath.
I suppose it would have been too obvious to say baited breath...
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Pooh-Bah
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been too obvious to say baited breath...which is why I didn't
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In reply to:
the most appropriate gift for you would be cold turkey
sandwiches, salad, ...
Bingley
Bingley
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Carpal Tunnel
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the most appropriate gift for you would be cold turkey
-----------------------------------------------------------
sandwiches, salad, ...
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--noodle soup, a la king...
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So if it’s o.k. with you guys, I prefer to think of The Flying Pig City as a place where the impossible can happen than - not where all those slaughtered little piglet souls are flying about.
Well, Jerry Springer was the mayor of Porkopolis in the late '70s.
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Pooh-Bah
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>Does anyone have any more out there?
I think that Chicago is know as the Windy City, a title sometimes borrowed by Edinburgh.
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Pooh-Bah
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>I have a feeling that Edinbuurgh had its soubriquet of "Auld Reekie" long before that - am I right, Jo? Maybe the inhabitants could afford bigger and better fires than the Londoners - or maybe it's because Edinburgh is a damned cold place! Edinbuurgh or Edinbrrrrrgh? Actually the sun is shining on this lovely autumn day. It looks like Burns used the term in the 1780s and there are plenty of references to Edinburgh's 10,000 chimneys. see http://members.home.net/iowascot/Scottish Bits/edinburgh.htmTo Miss Ferrier Enclosing the Elegy on Sir J. H. Blair. (Burns - 1787) Nae heathen name shall I prefix, Frae Pindus or Parnassus; Auld Reekie dings them a' to sticks, For rhyme-inspiring lasses. Jove's tunefu' dochters three times three Made Homer deep their debtor; But, gien the body half an e'e, Nine Ferriers wad done better! Last day my mind was in a bog, Down George's Street I stoited; A creeping cauld prosaic fog My very sense doited. Do what I dought to set her free, My saul lay in the mire; Ye turned a neuk-I saw your e'e- She took the wing like fire! The mournfu' sang I here enclose, In gratitude I send you, And pray, in rhyme as weel as prose, A' gude things may attend you! but I found an earlier reference: As we know, Edinburgh people didn't actually walk down streets - they just went through the motions. From: "An Edinburgh Day" (An extract from the long poem "Auld Reekie" by Robert Fergusson, 1750-74) On stair wi' tub, or pat in hand The barefoot housemaids looe to stand, That antrin fock may ken how snell Auld Reikie will at morning smell: Then, with an inundation big as The burn that 'neath the nore loch brig is, They kindly shower Edina's Roses*,
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enthusiast
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I think that Chicago is know as the Windy City, a title sometimes borrowed by Edinburgh.
...and also by Wellington NZ, I believe. Or is it just 'Windy Wellington'? Are you there, Capital Kiwi?
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Or is it just 'Windy Wellington'? Absolutely, postively. Living as I do in a small provincial city of around 50, 000, Windy Wellington is my favourite among NZ's larger cities. It is still the cultural hub of the country, and has the feel of being a wonderfully cosmopolitan overgrown village. One hasn't truly lived until one has crossed Cook Strait at night in a gale - now that's entertainment, at least for those of us born with total immunity to motion sickness. 
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In reply to:
Max wrote, from Balmy Palmy,
Absolutely, postively. Living as I do in a small provincial city of around 50, 000, Windy Wellington is my favourite among NZ's larger cities. It is still the cultural hub of the country, and has the feel of being a wonderfully cosmopolitan overgrown village. One hasn't truly lived until one has crossed Cook Strait at night in a gale - now that's entertainment, at least for those of us born with total immunity to motion sickness.
Hmmm. You may be interested to know (if you didn't already) that Peter Jackson, the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies which are being made in NZ at some ridiculously large cost, referred to Wellington as "a village with skyscrapers".
Right now there are sixty kmh wind gusts battering my house. As the locals say, you can't beat Wellington on a good day. And you learn to appreciate them because they are few and far between!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Max wrote, from Balmy Palmy,
Not bloody likely, chum! Palmerston has the wind of Wellington without the redeeming natural beauty - a flat, featureless blot on the landscape. I'm in Hastings, home of Wein, Weib, und Gesang, or at least in my home, my weib would would whine if I (ge)sang! BTW, thanks for the Jackson quote, confirms my view - formed largely through visits to my sister, who's lived in Whanganui a Tara for the last 16 years, most of them in Karori.
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Max wrote: Not bloody likely, chum! Palmerston has the wind of Wellington without the redeeming natural beauty - a flat, featureless blot on the landscape
No arguments there ...
And, I'm in Hastings, home of Wein, Weib, und Gesang, or at least in my home, my weib would would whine if I (ge)sang!
Oh, that place hanging off the bottom of Napier on the map? Renowned as a last stop for intending alcoholics ... at least that why my uncle went there. He couldn't wait for the wine to mature, thought he better go to the source.
Sorry chum, I thought it was Balmy Palmy!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Pooh-Bah
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[greenOh, that place hanging off the bottom of Napier
! ! ! ! ! !
I wonder what that revered General thinks of this!
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I wonder what that revered General thinks of this!
I wonder what he would think of the fact that the city named after him doesn't want his statue. Apparently the current owners of the staue offered it to Napier City, who said, "no thanks."
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In reply to:
I should become an addict just in time for Christmas
Well here I am, a registered addict two weeks ahead of schedule. Presumably I need a bigger and bigger fix as time goes by and I continue the spiral down into hopeless degradation.
Bingley
Bingley
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continue the spiral...I am never sure whether to offer congratulations - or commiserations! But long may you continue to share your wisdom here, Mr B
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