#70235
05/19/2002 1:07 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 |
One if by land, two if by sea.
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#70236
05/19/2002 1:27 PM
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
Umm, lessee, Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Snorri, Doc, Happy and Lumpy?For those who can't remember:  Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Doc, Happy, Bashful and Dopey! 
Now lets all sing: Hi, Ho! Hi, Ho! It's off to work we go!
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#70237
05/19/2002 1:42 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 |
Ancient riddle: What can the Seven Dwarfs do, that seven fairies can't?
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#70238
05/21/2002 7:59 AM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 148
member
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member
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 148 |
I saw a bumper sticker once that said "I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go..."
Other numbers:
Six-pack Said of an employee, "Has the full 6-pack but lacks the plastic thingy to hold it all together"
Dirty Dozen
Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai [such fabulous movies!]
alexis
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#70239
05/21/2002 10:50 AM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
One for sorrow, two for mirth,
Three for a wedding, four for a birth,
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret not to be told.
Eight for heaven, nine for hell,
And ten for the devil's own sel'.
Anyone remember what they were?
dxb
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#70240
05/21/2002 1:59 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 96
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 96 |
magpies!!!!!!
the strutting nightclub- bouncer of a bird
the Duncster
the Duncster
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#70241
05/21/2002 3:45 PM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Yeah, handsome, noisy, avaricious and vicious! Magpies.
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#70242
05/21/2002 11:27 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 |
Yeah, handsome, noisy, avaricious and vicious! Magpies.Hey, buddy--you talkin' about me??
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#70243
05/21/2002 11:53 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 |
Certainly not you, Jackie. La gaza ladra.
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#70244
05/22/2002 1:23 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 96
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 96 |
I SAW THAT MAGPIE
An intiguing creature
with a human weakness
a strange love
of baubles, trinkets
things that sparkle
yet have no use
strange, a bird
should feel this pull,
wings, nuzzled
by friendly zephyrs,
fat worms writhing
in the good green sod
primal instincts-
food, love
surpassed
by the dancing of light
through splintered glass
I ssaw that magpie
infamous
flinty-eyed
hatchet-faced
B-movie thug of a bird
mean-gaited
black switchblade wings
cocky
I saw that magpie
survivor
lover,
of food that wriggles
of light that prisms
little napoleon
tiny bohemian
he eyed me quizzically
he left haughtily
there was something he just had to see.
the Duncster
the Duncster
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#70245
05/22/2002 3:18 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
One for sorrow, two for mirth,
Three for a wedding, four for a birth,
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret not to be told.
Eight for heaven, nine for hell,
And ten for the devil's own sel'.
--- Anyone remember what they were?
I was taught by my Irish Grandmother it was a saying about RAVENS which then morphed into crows then any time you see birds - even in a picture or the like.
But I was taught :
One (bird) for sorrow, two for joy,
Three to marry, four to die.
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.
I knew there were two more lines but couldn't remember them.... given some of the superstitions about ravens the devil part could fit!
That's my contribution. Any help?
Edit Could it have been magpies originally then become ravens? Are there magpies in US? Ravens?
Any birders in this flock?
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#70246
05/22/2002 4:01 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 |
Are there magpies in US? Ravens?
No birder I but.
Ravens we got but not all over. There sposed to be some here in NYS but not that I've seen. They were common as swamp water coffee in Flagstaff back when I lived there ('70s). By magpie are we talking pica pica?
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#70247
05/22/2002 4:09 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 96
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 96 |
I dont know about Pica Pica, but they are black and white ,they kinda look like they are wearing a dinner suit, they have a reputation for thievery, but in reality it is just a strange fascination for things that shine or sparkle, hence the stories about them stealing jewellery from opened windows. I think there may be an opera called the "thieving Magpie" but im not sure
the Duncster
the Duncster
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#70248
05/22/2002 6:39 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
Are there magpies in US? Ravens? Indeed, we got both. In fact, last weekend I was camping with my kids at Pinnacles National Monument (lovely place - oodles of wildflowers in the springtime) and at the campground there was a gorgeous yellow-billed magpie (only found in California, but worth the trip). He had a couple of campsites he had staked out and he'd strut around in the dry grass, daring us to approach. Here's a pic: http://www.buteo.com/ptreyes/magpie.htmlAs to ravens, I've seen them in the Southwest, same as Faldaje - on a two-week raft trip in southern Utah a couple of years ago they would regularly cruise the canyons above us, and then try to sneak off with any unguarded food - one monster of a raven flew away with half a package of Fig Newtons clutched in its beak. [/birder ramblings]
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#70250
05/22/2002 7:15 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 |
Dear AR: just looking for a chance to bug you, I checked. Poe's adoptive family took him to England at about age six, and returned with him in 1820. Incidentally there was a famous pathology meeting at Johns Hopkins, in which an previously obscure pathologist became famous for presenting convincing arguments that Poe died of unrecognized rabies. Rabies is notorious for causing "furious" behaviour in animals. But there is a less publicised "dumb" rabies . There have been human deaths from rabies, with diagnosis made only long after death. There have been a couple cases of persons dying from rabies following tissue transplants taken from people who had rabies that had been misdiagnosed. Racoons should never be made pets, as they can have transmissible rabies with no warning symptoms.
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#70251
05/22/2002 7:21 PM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200 |
Dear dr. bill: Dang! My hat is off to the master googler. [signed] an Ar-rant Knave
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#70252
05/22/2002 10:46 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
What are the big, carrion eating birds we used to have here in NYC? where they ravens? or crows? ore ravens and crows the same?
what ever bird, they were the indicator species for West Nile Virus, and the population is way down.
i had noticed a month or so before the new became public that there were fewer of them around. (it is even more evident now, with lots of road kill remaining on the roads, instead of disappearing.) Many of NYC's highways are parkways-- they have large green sides, sometimes abut parks, or sometimes transverse parks. and for a city, we have lots of parks, and lots of wildlife. i see raccoons and possum pretty regularly in my neighborhood. squirrels by the million, even manhattans vest pocket parks have resident voles..
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#70253
05/23/2002 11:16 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Are there magpies in US? Ravens?
The US part of the question has been answered but I thought I'd throw in some Canadian information. We used to live in Ft. McMurray, Alberta, which is in "northern" Alberta (I put this in quotes because it's only halfway "up" the province). The ravens there were awful, they would eat garbage, so if you didn't use a garbage can for your bags on garbage day things could get quite messy. They were huge - much larger than any "sensible" bird should be. The running joke was that they could carry off small children, if left unattended.
There have been ravens in every place I've lived (until now), and they are annoying as all hell. And ugly! A group of them lived outside my old apartment window, and they'd wake me up on summer mornings with their incessant screaming/cawing. Really hideous beasts.
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#70254
05/23/2002 11:30 AM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200 |
Bean, at one point I was chatting with a fellow from Alberta who used "north Alberta" to mean "backcountry", regardless of actual compass direction.
Is that usage standard there? Elsewhere?
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#70255
05/23/2002 4:24 PM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Could it have been magpies originally then become ravens?
Dear wow,
Just returned from a trip away and looked at this thread astonished at first by the interest in the corvus family, but then people have always found crows fascinating.
I think your suggestion above is more likely to be true than that the rhyme originally applied to ravens if, as I suppose, it came from Britain I guess it may not have - could have been translated from German. But although I admit I havent done the research, I believe the bird has been rare here for probably three hundred years or more (sticking my neck well out! Someone will probably chop my head off.) except perhaps for parts of Scotland and Wales. The likelihood of seeing several together would be remote, but with magpies it would have been possible occasionally. In fact the magpie which has been on the protected list for some time (I think it may have been removed recently ) is now pretty common. I think they thrive on road-kill!!!
There is a collection of ravens hopping around at the Tower of London (something about the fate of the kingdom depending on their survival, like the apes on Gibraltar) they are cared for by the Beefeaters I believe. That is the only place I have seen a raven outside an aviary.
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#70256
05/27/2002 2:36 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
Two mules for Sister Sarah
The Seven-Ups
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#70257
05/28/2002 3:18 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 107
member
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member
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 107 |
How about the "Seven Faces of Eve"? (Wasn't there a note at the end of the movie about the possibility of her actually having thirteen different personalities? I seem to remember something about they others couldn't be actually catagorized as they never spoke (too young) but the actions were listed as separate individuals)
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#70258
05/28/2002 3:45 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Wasn't that "Three Faces..."? And there was another one made famous but we can't remember
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#70259
05/28/2002 4:18 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 |
the "Seven Faces of Eve"
Or either the Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, one.
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#70260
05/28/2002 4:22 PM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 170
member
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member
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 170 |
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#70262
05/29/2002 12:13 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 |
Houston, we have ignition.
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#70263
05/29/2002 10:36 PM
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
OK, an aside about ravens. When my hubby and I went to Yellowstone Park in February, we were forewarned not to leave any food items or wrappers in our snowmobiles. My understanding is they have a tremendous sense of smell. We witnessed the ravens opening the locked trunks and pulling items out. We saw the destruction the birds caused to one machine, when it could not get the lock open, it tunnelled its way through the seat to trunk to get food out. Nasty birds!
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#70264
05/30/2002 12:40 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
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#70265
05/30/2002 10:38 AM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
Hi Silky - pleasedta meetja. Hang on, isn't a "silky" a dodgy Irish fairy creature? You out there oftroy? Best make you Muse if so. a seemingly "nonsensical" song which probably was encrypted to save livesNow, I don't want to dampen any squibs here, but for reasons I couldn't quite put my fin on, I felt uncomfortable with this interpretation. Had I perhaps ended up burning my fins on something similar? Then I found an article that gave some substance to my vague doubts: http://www.snopes2.com/holidays/christmas/12days.aspI have to say that I find the cons compelling, but maybe I'm just a killjoy. heh heh heh, if only they knew...[rubs hands gleefully, despite their lack of physical existence]On a lighter note, I also discovered the undoubtedly genuine [honest & deadpan face] story of someone who actually gave his true love the gifts as "recommended" and of her responses to them: http://www.cvc.org/christmas/12days.htm
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#70266
05/30/2002 10:47 AM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
One morning, there was no Fili or Kili...
So Smaug Kili an' 'e Fili 'isself up, eh?
Tasteless Fisk
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#70267
05/30/2002 10:53 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
someone who actually gave his true love the gifts as "recommended"I know the humorous story of which you speak. However, I heard an interview on CBC Radio a couple of years ago with a couple who had actually been "victims" of the gifts of the Twelve Days of Christmas for a number of years, one gift each year. The worst of it was that they didn't know who was giving them the gifts. All their family was mystified each year as these elaborate gifts kept arriving. In the last year, it was revealed that it was their brother and sister-in-law. Here, I found a link to the radio interview, you'll find it on this page: http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/basic_black/past_shows/dec_23.html
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#70268
05/30/2002 12:35 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
Hiya o wise one - oh, and greetings fellow Sussex man (dxb)! One for sorrow, two for joy,
Three to marry, four to die.
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.Back in the 70s ( I hear he hastily adds ) there used to be a children's TV show called Magpie. The theme song was almost exactly like wow's rhyme, and similarly only went up to seven, with the one difference that the second line was: Three for a girl and four for a boy - which at least makes for a rhyme (as did dxb's original, albeit with different words). Oh, and it had a chorus "Ma-ah-ah-ag-pieeee" of course. Dunno which is the original rhyme, though. dxb's feels older. I usually see at least a few magpies as I cycle into work, but I've never seen more than four or so at a single site, even for a dead fox. I suggest a modern-day version of the rhyme should be something like: One for a vole and two for a frog Three for a fox and four for a dog Five for a sheep and six for a goat Seven a dead cow in the middle of the road   Fisk
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#70269
05/30/2002 1:01 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
So anybody know what is it about the number twelve that makes it so special? At school I was taught multiplication ("times") tables up to 12, and there it ended. Maybe because it is/was a commonly occurring number? [thinks] 12 months in a year, 12 hours on a clock (analogue of course), a dozen eggs ummmm - ah, imperial measurements: 12 inches in a foot, 12 (old) pence in a shilling... Hmm, maybe not that common. So why not stick with decimal systems? After all, most people have ten fingers and toes. I must be missing something blindingly obvious. 
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#70270
05/30/2002 1:06 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
At school I was taught multiplication ("times") tables up to 12, and there it ended. Maybe because it is/was a commonly occurring number?It occurs commonly in the Imperial system, for sure. But I was brought up in the age of metric, and we were only taught the times tables up to 10 in school (but I learned the next few anyway, because I just love the times tables). Coincidence? I think not! So why not stick with decimal systems?Ah, the age-old question we ask ourselves, every time we read a USn first-year physics textbook, which inevitably has a few problems written in Imperial units! Like, who wants to convert miles per hour to metres per second? Honestly! Or square feet to square metres? Yeeeech!
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#70271
05/30/2002 1:47 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
actually been "victims" of the gifts of the Twelve Days of Christmas for a number of yearsHello old Bean (the "old" of course being nothing to do with age), Yeah, the above episode sounds truly appalling. You can choose your friends, you can't choose your relatives, but what about the in-laws, eh?
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#70272
05/30/2002 7:11 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
I learned the multiplication table to twelve also.
As to metric/imperial system...don't you find that we are still a bit wishy-washy on this in Canada Bean?
While going through school we are inundated with the metric system yet once we get out, unless you are in a technical field, we don't use is entirely.
Nobody I know knows their weight in metric. People still use pounds and ounces. Even the younger folks.
Very few people still talk about miles, only kilimeters YET smaller sizes are measured in feet and inches. I do not even know how tall I am in metric, I am 5 foot 3 inches tall.
Temperature is also a mélange: Outside temperature in metric (yes, it's hot at 30 degrees Celsius) but people invariably get confused if you try to tell them their body temperature in Celsius. Typically you get this reaction...is 38 a fever - what is that in Fahrenheit? Yet you say 102 F and you know it's a fever.
We still buy a pound of butter but we buy gas by the litre.
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