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Joined: Jan 2001
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wwh Offline
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Dear CK: What has changed? They now have janitors, and pay them better than the teachers.


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What are these, please? "replevins, distraints"


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Pooh-Bah
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replevin - an action to recover the possession of personal property from one who has wrongfully taken or retained possession of it.

distraint - the seizure of property to enforce a right, usually by holding the property until the owner pays an amount owed.


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stranger
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"If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
Me, "The Old Curiosity Shop," 1841


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wow Offline
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Welcome Dickens.

BTW what about those phrases using your name ? Have you any thoughts on why your name was appropriated in this fashion? Such as :
"what the dickens are you doing?"
"I got home late and Father gave me the dickens."

Suppose I could look it up but why bother when I can go direct to the source!


#54653 02/04/02 02:46 AM
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Pooh-Bah
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"Dickens" has been a synonym for "devil" and "hell" since the 1500s. Hence the "what the dickens..." and "give me the dickens...." usages.

........~~ The Source


#54654 02/04/02 02:55 AM
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stranger
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wow, it's just like you said: my "Father gave me the Dickens," and his father gave him the Dickens.


#54655 02/04/02 06:54 AM
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"Dicken" or "Dickon" or "Diccon" was a synonym for Richard originally, wasn't it? At least, it was around the time of Chaucer and Henry V. I remember reading a legal writ in English(!) from that period that specifically said "Richard of ____, called Diccon", although I wouldn't swear to the spelling. We have, of course, shortened that to "Dick".



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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old hand
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I have spent many a lunch hour (when AWAD was slow) looking through the Urban Legends Reference Pages. You can find that email (or a close relative) there:

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1872rule.htm

Once you've surfed that site a bit, you realize there's no point in believing much of what comes in your inbox. Anyway, Barbara Mikkelson, who writes most of the articles there, always has interesting analyses of why particular bits of urban lore are so well-loved. This one falls into the "Aren't we feeling smug at how far we've come" category, according to her analysis.


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That's a nifty link, Bean! Cost me an hour ... but good time.


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