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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Oh- I thought it was from the game of marbles-- you win others marbles-- and if you win big-- you walk away with all the marbles-- something like a poker game.
In marbles, your shooter (the best was an aggie--one made from agate--not glass) aimed towards other and you tried to knock them out of the ring--The object was to get the other guys marbles out-- and keep yours in.
Now- i just collect marbles because they are so pretty-- I never buy them-- I find them-- some times in the gutters (on the streets of NY)--or in gardens-- I am always looking for them-- and as a consequence-- often see them! I have found about 35 to 40.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 96 |
 >n US we have an expression when we win -- we walk away with "all the marbles." Any connection? ...comments? Well, also in the US people sometimes say "He seems to have lost his marbles" in reference to not being very smart or when one has done something stupid. And if it is a combo of half stupid/half smart it is "He seems to be missing half his marbles" SO could it mean that when you win "you walk away with all the marbles" means that perhaps "you've got what it takes to win whatever----"???? enthusiast
enthusiast
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
I'm always being accused of having lost all of my marbles ... 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Aug 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
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wow asked In US we have an expression when we win -- we walk away with "all the marbles."
Any connection? ...comments?Nope. As a "colonial", I simply couldn't resist the opening that presented itself. Mother Britannia always knows best, that's why she didn't give those spivvy Greeks their marbles back, because, as greasy furriners, they can't be trusted to take proper care of them. That still seems to be the official line, though couched in a slightly more diplomatic turn of phrase. In the bad old days of Empire, what Britain, or Britons, wanted, she, or they, simply took. It was just last year that some highly prized mokomokai were returned to New Zealand. I was amused and horrified to learn at least some of the mokomokai were apparently made to order for cerain early settlers. I'm not sure how successful that business venture would be today! LIU
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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sir, but what is a "mokomokai?"
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journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 87 |
>In US we have an expression when we win -- we walk away with "all the marbles."
Bully on the block always does. (emoticon of some sort, I really am hampered not having access to those thingies)
>I hear Elgin pronounced with a hard g in the BBC programs that are received here ... Prior to the proliferation of BBC programs received I had always heard it pronounced EL-jin.
I was thoroughly corrected by my veddy British (Cambridge man) uncle when I pronounced the name El-jinn. I find El-Ginn a bit pompous, so I just call those lovely, lovely treasures the Parthenon Marbles. Which they are. And, BTW, thank god the Brits did lift them when they did! May have saved them from a worse fate than being blown up. And, now the Marbles should definitely be given back.
As to those collectibles? I've always had a quabble with "-tibles." Gullectibles suits fine. I will adopt the term post haste.
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Joined: Sep 2000
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 347 |
The Elgin Marbles and mokomokai are examples of what is a very thorny problem, with international and cross-cultural implications. A few years ago, an Australian Aboriginal elder successfully petitioned the British government to return the remains of one of his forebears, although I can't recall the circumstances of the original removal in that case. Whilst most people would regard it as improper to remove, or retain, human remains from just a few generations ago, not all cases are so black and white (scuse the pun). For instance is it improper to remove artefacts of ancient civilizations - you might say yes to those buried in a tomb, say, but what about an axe-head or knife-blade (apparently discarded) in an open area? What is the difference between "stolen" and "found", especially given that some cultures have quite different concepts of "ownership" anyway. And should different rules apply to things "belonging" to Nature, e.g. Should fossils be treated differently to rock paintings? Is it improper to chisel them out of rocks and take them away? But then where would science be if we didn't? Then there's shipwrecks.... And then there's....
I don't pretend to have the answers, just an appreciation of the complexity of the issues.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
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>Ok, I hear Elgin pronounced with a hard g in the BBC programs that are received here ... Prior to the proliferation of BBC programs received I had always heard it pronounced EL-jin
Yes, Elgin has the same "g" here as Elgar, keep the other "g" for the gin that goes so well with the music (Motz-art, for preference). If the gin gives you a cough then try a Van Gogh (it rhymes). There's no such unanimity on where you put your car on a starry night - a gar-a-szh or a gar-idg. Funny things g's!
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journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 87 |
In reply to:
If the gin gives you a cough then try a Van Gogh (it rhymes).
Wee-el. Only if one pronounces cough as "Kawg" or "Ko." In these parts, and I'm willing to admit that we A-murricans do things differently, we say "Koff" and "Van GO" (which is what the vehicle does if the brake's not set  .
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