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#8215 10/25/00 11:24 AM
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this board is about language, not comparative religion, or history

I agree, shanks - but oftimes these matters (and much more) are nigh on impossible to separate. Meaning is defined by context at least as much as content.
"Suffice it to say"s like yours are meat and drink, as far as I'm concerned!

The word - or name, or finger pointing at the Moon - in this case was, of course, "God"; and its meaning went through an almost complete enantiodroma (any excuse!) in the time between the Old and the New Testaments.

I always liked Alan Watts' suggestion that "God" should be seen as an exclamation rather than a name.



#8216 10/25/00 08:28 PM
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Be prepared for the brilliant language of propaganda in all things related to India. My favourite is this: in 1857, as is well known, there was a great deal of armed conflict all over India, primarily between native Indians, and their White/British 'overlords'.

In the UK, this conflict has always been called The Great Indian Mutiny.

In Indian history textbooks, it is only ever referred to as The First War of Indian Independence.


Here's another name for the same event - The Sepoy Mutiny. The insurrection (neutral enough?) is of considerable interest to me, as it started in Meerut, the same city, where, 76 years later, my father was born. His grandfather came out with the British Army in 1859, so he may well have been part of a deployment in response to the "incident". I can't get away from the Raj, as the town where I live, Hastings, was settled around that time, and there are many street and town names redolent of that era - Simla (my Dad's father was fond of saying that in summer, a cigarette paper separated Simla from Hell), Lucknow, Warren, Clive, etc. With the passage of time, I have come to believe that my father's duskiness(the word seems to have a lovely Kiplingesque quality about it), and physiognomy cast grave doubt on his assertion that he has no ethnic ties to the Indian subcontinent - I suspect that all was not pukka in his family tree!




#8217 10/25/00 09:13 PM
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Wow, reading about Carrom made me think of skully, a street gave in NY (sadly, like ringalevio, no longer played)

The playing field was chalked into a concrete slab of sidewalk, (about 4' x 4') and it had target areas (9 total), at each corner, center side edge, and final in dead center. Often the targets where subdivided. Each was numbered, and 1 was diagonally opposite 2, 3 in another corner, 4 opposite that. The target area was about 2 inches square.

It was played with bottle caps, preferable made heaver by melting in a wax crayon--which also made it easer to keep track of who belongs to which game piece. Adding washer or lead before melting the wax made your "man" heavier, and harder to knock out of bounds, but it also made it harder to control.

You scored by landing your game piece inside a target area in strict order--but you improved your odd at wining if, along the way you managed to knock your opponents markers out of bounds... since marker put out of bounds had to start over again.


#8218 10/25/00 09:47 PM
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I've never played carrom or skully, but carrom reminded me of a very simple game that we used to play at school - "push-penny". Two or more players had a coin each (same denomination for fairness) and the object was to push other players' coins off the edge of the table by flicking your own at it. A sliding form of marbles, if you like. Was/is this a common game, and does anyone know if it originated from carrom?


#8219 10/25/00 10:07 PM
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I suspect that all was not pukka in his family tree!

Funny that. I've always suspected that my family swung the 'other' way - too many hazel eyed cousins, etc! My own skin being too light to be properly Dravidian. Who were my grandmothers seeing on the side - that's what I want to know!


#8220 10/25/00 10:08 PM
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Push-penny = Shove ha'penny?

Anybody know?


#8221 10/26/00 01:23 AM
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I've always suspected that my family swung the 'other' way

Oooo shanks. You don't want to say that here. Here, if your family had "swung the other way" you would not have made any babies at all. An important phrase to avoid if you ever come on a visit and you don't want to lead any gentlemen on.


#8222 10/26/00 01:45 AM
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Who were my grandmothers seeing on the side

I am part Cherokee Indian (sorry, but it just sounds too silly to me to say "Cherokee native American")--definitely
Caucasian in appearance, but somewhat in the darker skin range of this group. My son is really dark.

About grandmothers--my husband explains this part of my
heritage by saying that one of my ancestors couldn't
run fast enough!


#8223 10/26/00 04:41 AM
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Carrom is also played here in Indonesia, where it's known as karombol . I've never played it but I've seen sets in shops. I'm told it's very popular among students and the underemployed.

Bingley


Bingley
#8224 10/26/00 07:25 AM
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>underemployed

Potential awadeers then!


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