(shaped like sugar loaf mountain (Brazil?))

Yep, Helen. Pão de Açucar, in Rio. But you already knew that

And some operating systems are much more literary in their messages. BEOS has a web browser called NetPositive (which I suppose might be available separately) which provides normal error messages but each one is accompanied with a haiku (Japanese three-part poem normally with 17 syllables.) And there are multiple haiku (see I remembered the plural) for the same situation.
For example, for "Site not Found" you might get:

The website you seek
is beyond our perception
But others await.

or

With searching comes loss
and the presence of absence
The site is not found.

or

You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on
The site is not here.


Rod

In reply to:

---

I've always wondered how the theatrical term "going blue" originated to describe the use of profanity onstage.

---

To make the air blue: a vigorous and plentiful use of cuss words. According to Charles Funk, the origination of the meaning is a matter of guesswork, but he traces the blue/obscene association back through associations with blue devils (1616) and the plague (1742). Joseph Roppolo, of Tulane University, associates the devil/blue meaning with blue blazes = hell, and hence to obscene.

On the other hand, I recall reading someone's explanation that the smokey atmosphere of the places in which obscene entertainment was presented lead to the blue association.

A pal with a really wicked sense of humor sent me this:
How good are you on "COMMON KNOWLEDGE?"
No cheating! No looking around; no using anything on or in your desk. Can you beat 18 right? (The average.)
Write down your answers and check after completing all the questions. Remember now no cheating! It is not as easy as it seems. Answers are at the end. Good luck!

1. On a standard traffic light, is the green on the top or bottom?
2. How many states are there? (Don't laugh, some people don't know)
3. In which hand is the Statue of Liberty's torch?
4. What 6 colors are on the classic Campbell's soup label?
5. What 2 letters don't appear on the telephone dial? (No cheating!)
6. What 2 numbers on the telephone dial don't have letters by them?
7. When you walk does your left arm swing w/your right or left leg?
8. How many matches are in a standard pack?
9. On the United States flag is the top stripe red or white?
10. What is the lowest number on the FM dial?
11. Which way does water go down the drain, counter-or clockwise?
12. Which way does a "no smoking" sign's slash run?
13. How many channels on a VHF TV dial?
14. Which side of a women's blouse are the buttons on?
15. On an NY license plate, is New York on the top or bottom?
16. Which way do fans rotate?
17. Whose face is on a dime?
18. How many sides does a stop sign have?
19. Do books have even-numbered pages on the right or left side?
20. How many lug nuts are on a standard car wheel?
21. How many sides are there on a standard pencil?
22. Sleepy, Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Dopey, Doc. Who's missing?
23. How many hot dog buns are in a standard package?
25. On which playing card is the cardmaker's trademark?
26. On which side of a standard venetian blind is the cord that adjusts the opening between the slats?
27. On the back of a $1 bill, what is in the center?
28. There are 12 buttons on a touch tone phone. What 2 symbols bear no digits?
29. How many curves are there in the standard paper clip?
30. Does a merry-go-round turn counter-or clockwise?

-----------------------------------------------------------
Don't Look at answers until you complete all the questions:
-----------------------------------------------------------
Answers:
1. Bottom
2. 50 (please tell me you at least got this one!)
3. Right
4. Blue, red, white, yellow, black, and gold
5. Q, Z
6. 1, 0
7. Right
8. 20
9. Red
10. 88
11. Counter (unless you happen to be south of the equator)
12. Towards bottom right
13. 12 (no #1)
14. Left
15. Top
16. Clockwise as you look at it
17. Roosevelt (FDR)
18. 8
19. Left
20. 5
21. 6
22. Bashful
23. 8
24. Did you notice there wasn't one ?
25. Ace of spades
26. Left
27. ONE
28. *, #
29. 3
30. Counter
How did you do?
wow (23 without cheating)

Hey, wow nice quiz. I started on it before realising that there were too many US-centric questions for me to be able to score a less than humiliating mark. Then I realised that the number of US-specific questions could serve as an excuse for my low score on the ones I ought to have known, like not remembering which hand the SOL's torch is in.

I enjoyed your quiz, wow, but I must take issue with the quizmongers regarding one of the answers. As to question #11, "Which way does water go down the drain, counter-or clockwise?" the correct answer is "either, regardless of the hemisphere you are in."

As summarized in The Straight Dope,

The boring truth is that water drains every which way no matter what hemisphere you're in, for reasons which have to do mostly with the shape of the drain, the way you poured in the water in the first place, and so on.

Persons interested in the details can find the discussion at

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_161.html

water go down the drain, counter-or clockwise
That's why the answer says :
11. Counter (unless you happen to be south of the equator)


I know the quiz is US-centric but it's got the kind of questions that surprises you about things you are sure you know!

Don't worry Max, I really had to think about the Lady Liberty torch question and then I got it wrong too.
The other one that really threw me was #28. But (looking smug while patting self on the back -e) I did NOT look at the phone sitting on my desk.
Sigh-ning off
wow

I, too, wish to take exception to the common knowedge quiz:
four of the 50 "states" are aptually® (hi, tsuwm) commonwealths, though that had nothing to do with my scoring lower than wow.

My sister-in-law just sent me the following. I make no claim as to its validity. A couple of my answers were on the mark, and a couple more were creepily off.



The Dalai Lama Personality Test

This test is very exciting. It only has four (4) questions, and you'll be surprised about the results! Please do not scroll your screens to know the results before starting.

The human mind is like an umbrella: it works better when it opens. It is fun to answer the questions, but please follow the instructions. MAKE A WISH BEFORE STARTING THE TEST.
Caution! Answer the questions step by step. This test has only four questions, but if you see the answers before finishing, your results will not be honest or accurate.

Scroll your screen slowly and write down your answers.

This is a serious questionnaire that will tell you a lot about your inner self.

First, order the following animals according to your preference: a) Cow; b)Tiger; c) Sheep; d) Horse; e) Pig.

Second, write a word that describes each of the following: a) Dog; b) Cat; c) Rat; d) Coffee; e) Ocean.

Third, think about someone (who also knows you and is important to you), that can be related to the following colors (do not repeat your answers.)

Name only one person per color: a) Yellow; b)Orange; c)Red; d) White; e)Green.

Finally, write down your favorite number, as well as your favorite weekday.

Did you finish? Verify that all your answers are accurate. Last chance to verify...
===========================================================

I shall add a bit here, to make a visual break before going down to the answers. Normally I simply delete all these things that say Pass this on and your wishes will be
granted, etc. But there seems to be some interest here in taking quizzes, so I thought I'd put this as it is a bit different. I wonder if the Dalai Lama really said any of this?
===========================================================


Now, look at the answers below


===========================================================

This will define your priorities in life: Cow: means career. Tiger: means pride. Sheep: means love. Horse: means family. Pig: means money.

Your description of Dog implies your own personality. Your description of Cat implies your spouse or couple's personality. Your description of Rat implies the personality of your enemies. Your description of Coffee is how you interpret sex. Your description of Ocean implies
your own life.

Yellow: Someone you will never forget. Orange: Someone you could consider a good friend. Red: Someone you really love. White: Your twin soul. Green: Someone you will remember all your life.

Send this message to as many persons as your favorite number, and your wish will be granted on your favorite day. This is what the Dalai Lama has said about the millennium, and it only takes a few minutes to read and think about it.

In reply to:

---

water go down the drain, counter-or clockwise
That's why the answer says :
11. Counter (unless you happen to be south of the equator)

---

Perhaps I am being dense, but the question and answer as phrased in the quiz suggest to me that the author believes that water drains in a counterclockwise direction in the northern hemisphere and a clockwise direction in the southern hemisphere. That is not true; water will drain in either direction in either hemisphere.

[Quixotic-quest-to-kill-old-wives-tales emoticon]

Sparteye sputters: As to question #11, "Which way does water go down the drain, counter-or clockwise?" the correct answer is "either, regardless of the hemisphere you are in."

And well she might. Read the link she posted if you disagree with her. Coriolois Effect only holds true for large scale phenomena. Even tornadoes will violate it. Bathroom sinks ain't got a snowball's chance of being that predictable.

Also 20 depends. Most smaller cars these days have only four

I'm going to check my NYS license plate later. I suspect it may have moved on y'all.

And the telephone on my desk (which is the one I stare at all day) has the letters QZ on the Zero button. (And on at least one mobile I have since looked at, the Q is in with PRS and the Z with WXY) So that was another two questions I got "wrong"! Does any one know why the letters Q and Z were omitted first time around? UK phones lost their letters for a while (1975-ish?) after the London exchanges lost their alphabetic designations I think, and many households still don't have them. That is one of the reasons why the 0800-BET-ON-A-HORSE type numbers have never made it big in UK. Which leads us to a new game. Since each number is shared by 3 letters (in general) you can change the letters in alphabetic telephone numbers (and what is the correct word for that??) to make another phrase. Any good examples out there?

Rod

Why were Q and Z left off? just speculation, but in US (and UK-- but I don't know about rest of the world) phone numbers originally had "3 + X" format-- where the first 3 digits named the "exchange" and the next 3 or 4 digits the actual household. to make things easy, exchanges where given names, and the numbers matched. Since Q always take U-- it was a limiting factor. One reason for switching to all numbers was to increase exchanges. While 5 of the 8 button do have vowels-- it was getting harder and harder.. and some combo's just couldn't be used if you wanted to have "words" 9, 7, 5--combos .

Major cities "ran out" of numbers-- and continue to do so. NYC used to all be 212--now Manhattan has 212 (and something else i always forget) the boro's share 718, cell phones and beepers are all 917. (and didn't i read a story about every phone exchange in London being changed a few years ago? –numbers went from 6 digits to 7?)

And my phones have Q and Z on keys 7 and 9.

I seem to remember a story a few years ago about the Girl Scouts of America changing their national phone number to one that either had been owned recently by or was very similar to the number of a phone sex line. Anyone remember the details?

Flatlander

Re: More than you ever wanted to know about North American Telephone Exchanges

The whole kit and kaboodle can be found at the below url. In the meantime, did you ever think you'd get an etymology for "555?"

"It was considered difficult to form words/names easy to pronounce from the letters JKL, PRS, WXY. However, San Francisco had their KLondike exchange (55x), and in the later 1950's and early 1960's, fictitious exchange namesin radio/TV/print entertainment and advertisements used KL-5 or KLondike-5."

http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/history/exchange.names.recommended

Yeah, well the phone on my desk has the letters "OPER" next to the 0 key...

And as for alphabetic translations for phone numbers, there are several sites that I googled up, the most straightforward of which is: http://phonespell.org/ My work number ends up being "61-an-ass-pup", among other similarly surreal possibilities. Fun toy.

I think Ms O'Ftroy (a contraction of the Irish Fitzroy perhaps) is correct with her supposition. The letters were there to help with named exchanges, were dropped when they limited the expansion, and have been revived to cater for text entry for various applications.

UK has had two major changes in recent years; London and a few other places changed twice. Some of the changes helped ("08" means a reduced charge of some kind, "09" a premium rate) and new numbers are of the format 012-3456-7890. And for some obscure reason the first digit on all numbers is always "0" which is dropped when calling from abroad.

Rod

In US- most long distance (or really other "area"codes) require a 1 first -- so inside of queens, i have a seven digit #, say 123-4567. but if calling home from Manhattan, its 1-718-123-4567.

for international calls (a misnomer, since i can call Canada, parts of Caribean, and Mexico "Locally" --1 + area code and number) you first dial 011 (US internationall Access code-- might even be world standard) then the country codes (2 or 3 digit) and then the city code (area code) and the number. (and yes, if i were calling my sister inside of Japan her number requires a 1 +Area (city)code +7 digit number but when i call internationally, i drop the 1.)

The London Museum of Science and Industry has (had?) a great exhibit on an old fashioned telephone switching box-- You could dial a number and what the switches "switch". great fun!

Of course, electronic (tone switching) is infinately faster-- but the first computer were slow. the keyboard of a phone was intentional laid out opposite from a calculator-- since many professionals could punch in numbers faster that the phone system could first handle them.

US phone companies charged more for "Tone" service, even though it saved them $$$$$. to keep a phone "alive" only takes 5 volts. but to ring or generate a dial tone takes 40 volts. those 40 volts of usage are "not charged for" charges start once you "connect" so the faster you can connect, the faster phone companies start making money. Tones are faster than "pulses"-- so cheaper for phone companies to operate.

Yellow: Someone you will never forget. Orange: Someone you could consider a good friend. Red: Someone you really love.

If the Dalai Lama said this, I wonder how one says "what a load of yak's turd" in Tibetan? When I read that question, the three colours in question all brought to mind people I am not particularly fond of. Yellow and Orange both made me think of people who have a (for me) rather fulsome exuberance about them, and Red made me think of someone who has an unhappy, angrily aggressive disposition. I could not even manage to think of someone I would associate with the other two colours. Maybe it was actually the Dalai's llama who came up with this quiz?

yak's turd
Hi Max,
the results in my case were so much the opposite of what I considered true about myself up to now, that I started to wonder if it's actually one's "shadow" (subconscious) which is probed here? (random hits would be less interesting)