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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling outDr. Bill, they may not make sense in the literal sense of moving the stones out of the fields, but I like the sound of them in a more figurative sense. Y'know, don't build a wall between yourself and another person just because of a prejudice or a stupid fight or a perceived slight, but know what the other guy's about before building said wall. My farmer friends in Saskatchewan tell me that there are plenty of stones there, too. You have to stop the tractor and get them out of the way. Or so I hear.  Never done it, myself!
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
it's not about walls; it's an allegory. about blancmanges and Wimbledon fortnight.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
about blancmanges and Wimbledon fortnightIs this just an off the wall expression, or are you er, sketchy? 
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
Dr. Bill, I have to express my admiration for a posting which is cogent and beautifully written. In all the postings we all rush to put up it's a real treat to see the language used to its best advantage.
Now, by the way, how come you spell "plow" in the English fashion? Since this week's theme is words from Sherlock Holmes, are you letting us know that you are an imposter attempting to con all us unwitting Garridebs?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear BYB: Thank you for words kinder than I deserve. My dictionary says that the British spelling is plough. I use both without noticing until someone else points out my inconsistency. And of course, in discussing the poem, I focussed on the literal aspects from which Frost developed his allegories. I am sure the curmudgeon neighbor would have been bewildered if Frost had told him the poetic interpretation of his blunt apothegm.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
I alway heard them called "pudding stones"-- from a New Englanders complaint that the stones in his field where a large and thickly studded in his field as raisins in his good wifes pudding..-- i have them too-- there are not to much of a problem because i don't have fields to plow- but i find them all the time when i want to plant something in the garden.
though i am pretty sure the term for them is glacial erratics..
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Pudding stones are glacially rounded sedimentary stones containing various sized smaller stones rounded many years before by current in a river, for example. The rounded stones in New England were slowly tumbled over and over by the superbulldozer action of the enormously heavy ice sheet advancing and retreating every year for many many years.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
huh? re: Pudding stones are glacially rounded sedimentary stones ... The rounded stones in New England were slowly tumbled over and over by the superbulldozer action of the enormously heavy ice sheet advancing and retreating every year for many many years.
so pudding stones can be created by a river-- but NE pudding stones are created by a glacier-- and properly called glacier erratics? the very same glaciers that came to a halt here on Long Island north shore -- creating overlapping terminal morains? -- North Hills morain and Ronconkama morain form the back bone of Long Island..and fill my yard with the same pudding stones
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
So the image of walls is an ....phor?Actually an interesting proposal, mav. So the dia- or epi- of the metaphor can actually be malleable depending on interpretation. You just created a new theory!...so you need a new --phor for it! (maviphor?) And here you thought you were just kidding! I guess life is too short to grok the difference between dia- and epi- when one's time is spent in such worthwhile endeavors as constructing whole alias networks of websites and bios, etc., etc...right, mav?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
While we are at it, how about a discussion of the origin, and subsequent broadening of application of the phrase "off the wall." It sounds like it started with graffiti, but has been broadened to the point that at times it is hard to tell what it means to some of the users.
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