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Posted By: musick Post deleted by musick - 08/26/01 04:19 PM
Posted By: tsuwm why? - 08/26/01 06:48 PM
so you're suggesting that you'll change the subject for the first post in a thread; i.e., one that you've originated?
that would be pretty futile for anything that's not on the first page. and artificial if you were to make old threads current just for that. or have I misread your intent?

(and then the are the "hit and run" threads, which are probably the most likely to take wild diversions -- just because the originator never comes back to steer things aright.)
Posted By: Keiva Re: why? - 08/26/01 08:19 PM
tsuwm, musick's just trying to illustrate (or exempify) (or spoof) (or deepen) the confusion. The clue is that musick started this thread under the heading "squiffy test".

Posted By: musick Post deleted by musick - 08/26/01 08:54 PM
Posted By: Keiva Re: why? - 08/27/01 12:37 AM
Keiva [or should I say Jimmy Obvious (Ron's little brother)]
Would you be so good as to explain that reference, musick? -- Keiva

Posted By: Faldage Re: Squiffy Test - 08/27/01 06:06 PM
a good dog joke

Is there such an animal?

Posted By: tsuwm please clarify - 08/27/01 06:30 PM
a good dog joke

Is there such an animal?


a good dog?? or a good dog joke?

Posted By: Faldage Re: please clarify - 08/27/01 06:32 PM
Ambiguity is the spice of life.

Posted By: tsuwm Re: please clarify - 08/27/01 06:46 PM
>Ambiguity is the spice of life.

Ambiguity is rife.
http://www.hcrc.ed.ac.uk/AnnualReport96/Text/5.1-www.html

Posted By: wwh Re: please clarify - 08/27/01 06:48 PM
Where have all the shaggy dogs gone?

Posted By: wwh Re: please clarify - 08/27/01 06:54 PM
Variety is the spice of life: ambiguity a vice of life.

Posted By: Faldage Re: ambiguity - 08/27/01 07:01 PM
Ambiguity is but variety comingled.

A delicate blend of spices accenting a sauce of words and meaning.

Posted By: wwh Re: ambiguity - 08/27/01 07:27 PM
Ambiguity is the overwhelming amount of variety confronting us. "If you're not confused, you just don't understand the situation.

Posted By: Faldage Re: ambiguity - 08/27/01 07:42 PM
the overwhelming amount of variety confronting us

Try to get a cup of coffee at many places nowadays.

Take ya a half hour.

Posted By: francais31415 Re: a good dog joke - 08/27/01 07:52 PM
a good dog joke

Okay, so one day Bill and Jim were out walking their dogs. They came to a restaurant, and Bill said, "Hey, I'm hungry. Let's go in." When Jim pointed out that the restaurant wouldn't let them in with their dogs, Bill replied, "Sure they will. Follow my lead." He put on a pair of sunglasses and walked up to the door with his labrador.
The waiter at the door stopped him and said, "Hey, you can't bring that dog in here."
"Oh, he's my seeing eye dog," replied Bill, and the man let him in.
So Jim put on a pair of sunglasses and walked up to the door with his chihuahua. The man at the door stopped him and said, "Hey, you can't bring that dog in here."
"Oh, he's my seeing eye dog," replied Jim.
"A chihuahua is your seeing eye dog?" said the man.
"What? They gave me a chihuahua?" exclaimed Jim.


wwh, I also have a shaggy dog joke if you still want it!
Posted By: Max Quordlepleen - 08/27/01 10:48 PM
Posted By: wwh Re: a good dog joke - 08/27/01 11:36 PM
Dear French pi: Please start a shaggy dog thread. TEd must not have exhausted his repertoire. And it is to be hoped that others will fall suit. Maybe I can think of one in the meantime.

Posted By: tsuwm ratcheting the topic back: why? - 08/27/01 11:42 PM
tsuwm>that would be pretty futile for anything that's not on the first page. and artificial if you were to make old threads current just for that.
musick>It doesn't make old threads current by just editing the subject line.

just so. -ron obvious

musick>Keiva [or should I say Jimmy Obvious (Ron's little brother)] - Yet, within three posts we are still close enough to the same subject...

Keiva, does this help at all?

Posted By: consuelo I passed the squiffy test - 08/28/01 01:00 AM
I have spent the last several hours just trying to catch up on the posts I've missed. I think I must be officialy squiffy by now.

Posted By: Faldage Re: ambiguity - 08/28/01 12:32 PM
short black

Will that be caf, double caf, decaf, double decaf?

We don't have short, sir. Would you like the medium, extra medium, regular, irregular or standard?

And will that be Jamaican, Costa Rican, Nicaraguan, Portobellan or Javanese?

Organic or inorganic?

Shade grown?

French roast, Italian roast, Viennese roast or American roast?

For here or to go?

Need room?

Cup, glass or mug?

Paper or plastic?

I'm sorry sir, we're closing in 5 minutes.

Posted By: wwh Re: ambiguity - 08/28/01 01:21 PM
Dear Faldage: That's what you get for being such a snob that you insist on going to the Coffee Institute bar

http://www.coffeeresearch.org/defaultflash.htm

Posted By: Faldage Re: ambiguity - 08/28/01 01:50 PM
Coffee Institute bar

Wull, sometimes I want something a little better than 8 O'clock® coffee.

Posted By: wwh Re: ambiguity - 08/28/01 03:05 PM
8 O'clock coffee? I'll have Consuelo wash your mouth out for uttering such an obscenity!

Posted By: Faldage Re: ambiguity - 08/28/01 03:26 PM
8 O'clock coffee? I'll have Consuelo wash your mouth out for uttering such an obscenity!

I'll meet you at the Coffee Institute bar.

Posted By: wwh Re: ambiguity - 08/28/01 04:09 PM
Dear Faldage: Did you read their specifications for espresso? The Institute must hire only pharmacists licensed prior to WWII, when pharmacists had to be capable of compounding prescriptions from such starting materials as leaves of aloes, gathered in the full of the moon, by virgins only.

Posted By: Faldage Continuing the civilized discourse - 08/28/01 04:17 PM
their specifications for espresso

These people take their coffee seriously, Dr. Bill.

Posted By: wwh Re: Continuing the civilized discourse - 08/28/01 05:20 PM
I take my coffee seriously, but not that seriously. Over three screens full of specifications just for the preliminaries. Just as there are wine snobs, there are coffee snobs I got a chuckle out of a story on the Internet about a year ago, about a crook who labelled some cheap Brazilian junk "Kona" and sold 24 million dollars worth of the stuff. Not a word was said to indicate the snobs knew the difference. Incidentally, in Roughing It, Mark Twain mentions Kona coffee in his chapter on his visit to Hawaii. I also saw a thing on Internet about the Kona people now using satellite photographs to tell them the optimum time for harvesting the crop.

Posted By: Faldage Re: Continuing the civilized discourse - 08/28/01 05:56 PM
I just want to say that a Netscape crash and a timely email from AnnaS (who is madly in love with her new job) saved y'all from what would have been a definite turn for the worse in this thread. She is slowly civilizing me. Be patient.

Posted By: wwh Re: Continuing the civilized discourse - 08/28/01 06:34 PM
In a turn of the previous century phrase, you have the advantage of me, Sir.

Posted By: Faldage Re: Continuing the civilized discourse - 08/28/01 06:39 PM
In a turn of my own phrase, it's better left unsaid, my dear Dr. Bill.

Posted By: consuelo Re: ambiguity - 08/28/01 07:25 PM
I just bought two brand new bars of soap today, so, C'MON!

Posted By: wwh Re: ambiguity - 08/28/01 08:23 PM
I don't dare open my mouth.

Posted By: wwh Re: Continuing the civilized discourse - 08/28/01 08:28 PM
Sounds like one of the old Alphonse and Gaston cartoons. After you, my dear Faldage.,,,

Posted By: Capital Kiwi Re: Continuing the civilized discourse - 08/28/01 09:29 PM
I dunno about coffee recipes, but there damn well oughta be a minimum training period for people who make coffee in the US, believe me!

Posted By: Marianna Re: Continuing the civilized discourse - 08/29/01 07:32 AM
Hear hear... then again, beware of those espressos that Italians sometimes make. I've drunk some that were guaranteed to burn a hole in your stomach. Indeed, I once shared a house with an Italian who would brew coffee in one of those metal cafetières you boil on the hob, would then pour the coffee into a cup, empty the cafetière and refill the coffee bit with fresh ground coffee, refill the water part with the freshly-brewed one, and brew the whole thing again. She called it "double coffee" and it was like an electric shock, that coffee was...


Posted By: Faldage Re: Continuing the civilized discourse - 08/29/01 12:23 PM
oughta be a minimum training period for people who make coffee in the US

But then you never *did get one of those short bigs at Juna's. *did you, Cap.

Posted By: Capital Kiwi Re: Continuing the civilized discourse - 08/29/01 09:14 PM
But then you never *did get one of those short bigs at Juna's. *did you, Cap.

Exceptions and rules, Big F, exceptions and rules ...

Posted By: Bobyoungbalt Strong coffee - 08/30/01 01:44 AM
I've often tried espresso made with one of those caffetieres, in fact I have one, but have never had a decent cup of coffee from one.

The real champion for strong coffee was what my father and grandfather called "cabin track special". They both were railroad men (my grandfather was actually a brakeman back before WWI when brakemen ran along the tops of cars to apply the brakes). This was what the crews made in the caboose for their own refreshment. You took a 5-gal. dining car coffee pot, which was made of heavy-guage aluminum, filled with water, put it on the stove, and when it boiled, added a half pound or so of freshly ground coffee. You let it boil for 5 minutes or so, took it off the stove and added a couple eggshells, waited a minute or so for the grounds to settle, and poured it out. When that pot was all, you shook it over the garbage container but did nothing further to it and started over again. You always had some residue of old grounds left to start the next pot. A coffee pot would last maybe 2 months before the bottom fell out. Anyone who wanted a little extra jolt could stir his with a tarred rope end.

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