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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
1. go to google.com
2. enter the following into the search box (DON'T HIT ENTER WHEN DONE): "weapons of mass destruction"
3. click on "I'm feeling lucky" button
4. READ the error message
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Ah, internet humor! Mercy, the internet has changed society(in part), hasn't it? Would this (not the wmd bit, but the Google bit and what you find when you do it) have had any meaning 5 years ago?
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
I laughed like a drain at this when Jo first obviousised it. But did anyone try it a couple of days later? ~ I got some CIA factsheet crap! Now it's back to normal service is interrupted... :)
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
There's that peculiar phrase again: laughed like a drain . I found a neat site on Welsh and just wrote and asked the guy if he knows its origin, though I doubt he'll answer. Look what else the site said:
Is it really true that Welsh is spoken in South America?
Unlikely as it may seem, yes. In 1865 a shipload of Welsh pioneers sailed to Argentina to start up a Welsh-speaking colony. A few of their descendants still speak Welsh, and there is considerable interest among the young in reviving the language of their ancestors. http://www.gwybodiadur.co.uk/
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
Heh, I was quite surprised to find how little there is on the web about this phrase! It seems to be originally UKnism (anyone demur?), and I would imagine is based on the fact that a full-throated laugh causes you to open your mouth wide in a manner reminiscent of a drain-hole! Perhaps you could pass the query to MikenMelanie or Micheal Quinion….?
“xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
In spite of the pain,
She laughed like a drain,
When the surgeon inserted a stitch in her…..”
Anyone know the rest of this?!
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
Hmm, from one of the resources featured on tsuwm’s latest list offering I found this, but I don’t entirely accept their suggestion: Meaning: To laugh coarsely or loudly.
Origin: Like water going down a drain.http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/224000.html
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
The guy did answer!
"Greetings
Thanks for your mail.
I've always assumed "to laugh like a drain" was onomatopoeic, i.e. imitative of the sound of water gurgling down a drain. I don't know if it's British (perhaps British and Australian) but it's definitely not just Welsh. A search on Google might help to pin down where it's used, or you could visit Michael Quinion's site WorldWideWords.org and see if it's listed there.
Best of luck
Harry Campbell"
******************************************************
Found your limerick, Sweet One! I had an idea of the first line that turned out to be right.
There was a young lady named Kitchener,
Who slipped on the quayside at Itchenor.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
ah, thanks - I thought it must be something like Kitchener but couldn't recall anything else!
So do try submitting the query to someone - normally I'd say MQ is best bet, but he advertised he's on short rations through the next month, so Mike and Mel may be more fruitful.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
from Eric Partridge's Dict. of Forces' Slang (1948): Laugh like a drain, to chuckle ‘consumedly’; laugh loudly, especially at someone's discomfiture. (Ward-room and also Army officers’.)
if this originated in the military, we must assign it the lowest possible sense.. <eg>
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
That fake 404 message was effin' bloody brilliant.
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