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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 53
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 53 |
Where did the word jaywalk originate? In the dictionary it says a jay is an inexperienced person. Is a jay too inexperienced to know where they should cross the street??
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
Bingley
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Boston used to be the jaywalking capital of the world. Particularly at lunch time back in the thirties I have seen Washington Street in the business center covered with hundreds of people criss-crossing in every direction so that cars could not move. The police in Atlanta must have had a lot of trouble with Bostonians, if an experience I had there was typical. The first day I was in Atlanta back 1943, I stepped off the curb waiting for a chance to cross, A police cruiser with public address horn on the roof almost a hundred yards downstreet blared out:"Hey, you from Boston, get back on the curb!" My face must have shown my bewilderment wondering how the cop could have known I was from Boston, the way the crowd laughed.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Dear Dr. Bill,
Nothing's changed!
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
Unlike Chicago, where the streets run along latitude and longitude lines (with a few exceptions), the old cow paths that the streets of Boston were carved out of (so I was told) made me want to walk in other than straight lines for a couple of years.  I can't imagine a "society" being arrogant enough to control the veritable mayhem of jaywalking... safety - shmafety!  Now spitting on the sidewalk... that's another issue... could you imagine public spitoons?  Both are ticketable offenses here!
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
<<Now spitting on the sidewalk>>
Do that in Chicago and you'll be spitting into the wind. ;)
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Now spitting on the sidewalk... that's another issue... could you imagine public spitoons?
Oh yes indeedy the Old Lady mutters in my day, there were brass spitoons alongside the stamp windows at Post Offices. They all disappeared during the World War II metal drives as did twice-a-day mail deliveries ... never to reappear! I sure don't miss the spitoons but mail twice a day was nice!
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Speaking of twice-a-day mail, do y'all Brits still enjoy this convenience? Does anyone anywhere else in the world?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 87
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 87 |
Spitoons.. reminds me of a ditty my father taught me, to the famous tune from Carmen -
Toreeador-a, don't spit on the floor-a
Use the cuspidora, that's what it's for-a.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427
addict
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addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427 |
We get two post deliveries in Madrid, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It's wonderful! Where I live in London the first post is delivered at around 9 am, and the second at around 12. It always makes me think, how can it be more convenient to deliver twice in a space of three hours than to save it all up for a midday delivery? 
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