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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
On wet brick flooring outside the dairy, we used to turn fancy donuts...!Ah, yes--circle work!  (Hi, stales!)
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460
addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460 |
Hi Wordwind: I agree, Mike Mulligan (by Virginia Lee Burton) is a fascinating book and was also one of the first films produced by Weston Woods Studios (in 1957) who specialised in transferring children's picture books into short films.
I have a copy of the film in my collection and it's still popular with young children who come to visit.
Incidentally, I was also taken by the word 'selectmen' (used in the book); we use the term 'councillors' for elected local government officers. Is 'selectmen' still in common use?
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
In reply to:
Is 'selectmen' still in common use?
it is in Vermont.
Mike Mulligan was one of my favorite stories as a child(still is! and my boys' too), and I remember the film being shown on Captain Kangaroo on a regular basis. What I got from it was the idea that you can improvise a solution and adapt to any situation. and that has served me well!
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Is 'selectmen' still in common use?
Not here, lovely paulb. [blowing kiss e] We have aldermen now, but our city and county governments are in the process of merging. Next year we'll have what are now being called councilmen. I hope they change it to councilors.
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 387
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 387 |
For me, a tractor is the type of thing a farmer or someone would use. My dad has a fifteen year old tractor he uses to pull trees to a place where we can cut them, and to plough our driveway in the winter. The snow gets pushed into piles next to the driveway, and when I was little, my brothers and I would dig little caves in them.
What most people call a tractor trailer, I call a big truck, (emphasis on big) because everyone at Southern Tier Express, where my uncle works, calls them that, and that's what they work with all the time.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
I notice that no-one's given a Britlish perspective, so here you have one - I'd probably call a "tractor-trailer" an articulated lorry or "artic". The front bit would certainly never be called a "tractor". more likely a "cab", I think. BobCats I'm unsure about - but the tendency is for brand names to be adopted for (to us ignorami  ) novel hardware. As an example, a local farm kindly lets us use a "grabber" to build our November bonfires - we all call this grabber a Matro (brand name). The John Deere picture is definitely near as dammit what I'd call a tractor, but it's a bit swish for my liking! Tractors are chunky, clunky, basic but fantastically efficient and well-suited to their work. They're like the farm equivalent of Land Rovers. a wagon is always pulled by a horse or a team of horses. a van is almost definitely white, and a Ford Transit  a truck is a small lorry, usually functional rather than goods-carrying (e.g. a tow-truck). a lorry I think I've defined already - but always bigger than a van, and usually geared up for carrying goods . a car is that 4 wheeled thingy that blights our lives and destroys the planet - very very occasionally it'll be a train carriage. a minivan is ...errr.. a small van. a pick up is a a van that's open at the back rather than contained - a van with a built-in open trailer, fixed position. Brits wouldn't have a clue what a panel truck was. coupes are sporty little cars, 2-seaters, usually open or soft-topped. sedans are a type of furniture, a bit like settees. What's an SUV?? RVs I identified fairly recently, but we'd possibly call them 4-wheel drives or off-roaders here. Hmmm   Nice one Helen. A rich area indeed!
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
In reply to:
What's an SUV??
http://www.ford.com/en/ourVehicles/allVehicles/fordExplorer.htm
just got an older one of these; good for the hilly dirt roads where we live, and the copious snow in the winter-time...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
I'd probably call a "tractor-trailer" an articulated lorry or "artic". The front bit would certainly never be called a "tractor". more likely a "cab", I think.Not quite true, shona - among professional truckers (a USn name which has become common over here in the last 20 years) the term "tractor-unit" is fairly common, and this is sometimes abbrev'ed to "tractor." It's also called the "prime mover." But "artic" is the usual - indeed, almost the only - term for the whole contraption. a wagon is always pulled by a horse or a team of horses. or a railway locomotive. (But increasingly the term is being used, in the USn sense, for a lorry  ) a minivan is ...errr.. a small van. the name originally springing from the commercial version of the Morris Mini-Minor, that wondeful invention of Alec Issigonis. But now, as shona rightly says, applied to almost anything with a capacity of ½ ton or less. Brits wouldn't have a clue what a panel truck was. now, I have to disagree with that one, except that we say panel van, rather than truck (a truck is more likely to mean a hand cart with four wheels over here, BTW) Again, the term has only come into vogue in the last ten - fifteen years, but they are advertised as such in the press. I suppose that, like the use of "tractor" for the front bit of an artic, "panel van" is better known among commercial drivers and operators than the gen.pub., but the term is definitely in general use here. SUV - doesn't that stand for "Sports Utility Vehicle"? (to me, a contradiction in terms, but I travelled for many comfortable miles with Jackie in one this summer, so what's in a name?.)
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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 travelled for many comfortable miles with Jackie in one this summer, so what's in a name?.) And a funtastic trip it was, too! Since it is this particular thread, I'll mention that we stopped at the Auburn-Cord-Duesenburg museum in Indiana. Holy cow--some of those old beauties had hoods/bonnets as long as my entire vehicle, I think! And oh my gosh, the workmanship! The detail! Amazing.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
-- and boots/trunks as big as the whole interior of your SUV
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