#51053
01/14/2002 4:23 PM
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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 Sparteye: I am mildly surprised you didn't mention that footballs and presumably basketballs are made from pigskin. And sportscaster used to frequently refer to the football as "the pigskin".
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#51054
01/14/2002 5:04 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
footballs ... are made from pigskin
Right. And violin strings are made of cat intestines.
And the moon...
Wanna buy a bridge?
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#51055
01/14/2002 6:52 PM
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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 Faldage: Wanna buy a football made from alligator hide?
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#51056
01/14/2002 6:56 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
Hog Run probably refers to when out west they would herd the hogs from an area to a marketing yard next to the railroads.
Hogs are a difficult animal to "run". They have short legs: mean that when walked any great distance, they lose a relatively high percent of their (marketable) body weight. They are not docile: some are so ornery that their eyes would be sewed shut for the run, lest they bolt and lead other hogs after them.
Because hog runs were difficult, hog were often slaughtered near where they were raised. They would be carried log-distance to martket as preserved pork (usually salt pork), not as a live pig. End-consumers thus became used to buying pork that had been slaughtered long previously, and so, when railroad technology became available for long distance transport, such "dressed" pork did not face market resistance.
Beef marketing, however, was quite different. Since cattle can more practically be walked long distances, it was typically delivered to the ultimate market "on the hoof". Even in a city far from the cattle's range, the retail buyer got beef which had been slaughtered only days before.
When railroads came, it became more economic to ship beef after slaughter rather than as part of a live cow. (Why pay to ship the non-meat parts of the cow, which total about half of a cow's weight?) But it took great marketing effort to overcome customer distaste for "non-fresh beef". There were also major battles over freight rates as the eastern beef industry, to protect its business, lobbied hard to have a high shipping charge-per-pound set for dressed beef coming in from the west.
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#51057
01/14/2002 7:48 PM
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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 Keiva: I wonder in what year adequate refrigeration became available to ship meat from Texas to point of sale?
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#51058
01/14/2002 9:54 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Just for the record, footballs are made from pigskin, aren't they? Or are there other skins from which they are made, not that I care a lick about football, but just for the record...
DubDub
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#51059
01/14/2002 10:02 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
And I know about violin strings not being made from catgut, the gut of cats, that is.
But I've bought several bridges--violin and viola ones, that is. A tangential thought here--why not?--if you look at that bridge, you'll see a man in it with a heart in his center--kind of like those little cartooney-people-fencers tsuwm, if you're reading this, I'm sure you really like the phrase "cartooney-people-fencers" who have hearts on their fencing costumes, whatever you call a fencing costume. What's the word here? But the man, though he has a body and a heart in the string bridge, doesn't have a head. There's a world of meaning in that if you really think about it and music and emotion and all that jazz. (And a bass bridge is a sight to behold!! Wonder how much a high quality bass bridge could cost you? A high quality violin bridge can run $75.00, for the record.)
Best regards,
DubDub
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#51060
01/14/2002 10:06 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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#51061
01/14/2002 10:33 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
about a ship called DunedinIt was a huge commercial risk at the time. The Otago company which funded it couldn't get an insurer for the cargo, since the refrigeration technology was literally in its infancy and no one apart from the backers (and maybe not even them) believed that it would succeed. Most people were convinced that the ship would arrive in London with a hold full of stinking semi-liquid detritus. But they went ahead anyway, and it was a success. And that set the scene for nearly 80 years of uninterrupted export of whole carcases, nearly all sheep and frozen solid, to Britain. The entire NZ economy came to revolve around them thar dead sheep, to our national detriment in the long run. Then, of course, Britain joined the ECC. Woe, woe! I still have a picture of the Dunedin on my wall, in full sail, with a smokestack belching fumes from the boiler which drove the refrigeration engine befouling the entire ship ... 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#51062
01/14/2002 11:15 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
At one time pigskin was the preferred leather used. My dictionary gives "football" as the third definition under "pigskin". I don't know what regulations now call for. Perhaps cowhide is now used. But I have a hunch the pebbled surface of pigskin might still make it desirable, as easier to hold onto.
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#51063
01/14/2002 11:49 PM
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
I had this one rooting around in the back of my mind. No one brought it up so I looked it up in my trusty Merriam-Webster. Yup. I wasn't imagining it.
shoat n. [ME shote; akin to Flem schote shoat]
(15c): a young hog usu. less than one year old.
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#51064
01/15/2002 1:11 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
To compensate for my envy at your remembering a word I should have remembered, I must ask you what you have in the back of your mind on which a shoat would root? Incidentally, I have wondered how much help pigs must have been to the early settlers. I made a garden out of what had been a grove of small oaks, but could not plow it until I had penned the pigs in the area for a summer. They ripped out stumps that had defeated the plow, and exposed rocks so I could put chain on them.
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#51065
01/15/2002 1:20 AM
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
Why, truffles, of course! 
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#51066
01/15/2002 2:49 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I still have a picture of the Dunedin on my wall, in full sail
Wow, that's really cool (double meaning intended). Thanks for sharing, you-all.
Now--can you remember the name of the first submarine? <eg>
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#51067
01/15/2002 3:33 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Are you thinking of the CSS Hunley?
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#51069
01/15/2002 11:05 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
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#51070
01/15/2002 12:22 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Yes, I was thinking of the Hunley. I had not heard of the Turtle. Thank you, Faldage. One of these days, I'll have to check back and see whether I am mis-remembering what Clive Cussler said, or if he mis-stated the facts. Still can't believe that's his real name...
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#51071
01/15/2002 3:08 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Hey, Faldage, now tell us why WWI German submarines were called pigboats.
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#51072
01/15/2002 3:32 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
German, Schmerman, Dr. Bill. Onliest thang I could find was this: http://www.battlebelow.com/glossary.htm#Pwhich says it's a WWII term for (particularly) S class boats. And gives a reason for the term. This is post #99 in this thread. All further postings should go to a new thread.
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#51073
01/15/2002 3:41 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
And ths little piggy goes .... 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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