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I just sent a PM to a friend, responding to a statement that this person and other new people have at times felt like they're intruding on a family. I thought I would share what I wrote, and add my thanks for the compliment.
"I can certainly see where you and other new people might feel a little hesitant to "break in", as it were. That troubles me, but I don't quite know how to make it easier, either. I suppose it could be treated as though you were in a new job; all the others know each other, yet you have every right to be there. Some people may reach out to you, but no one is actually obligated to. You may need to find your own way. Yes, there are some inside jokes; there are pretty well bound to be, in an established group; but you'll learn many of them in time, and become part of others, yourself."
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that's very well written, Jackie.
formerly known as etaoin...
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 You are so sweet!
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When I was but a mere sprout, my family moved to a new neighborhood in Chicago. There was a whole bunch of kids on the block who were my age and I always assumed that Mike Santori was one of the oldtimers (insofar as one can be an oldtimer in kindergarten). It was years later that I discovered that the Santoris had moved in to the neighborhood only several months before my family had.
For any of you who have been looking in very recently here is a short, and by no means comprehensive, list of newcomers who have recently moved right in and become family members:
etaoin
Coffeebean
RubyRed
maahey
bonzaialsatian
birdfeed
JohnHawaii
johnjohn
rav
vika
immigrantus
Zed
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journeyman
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One of the reasons I finally decided to post was that "emotionally" I was beginning to feel connected to the AWAD crowd, simply from having read so many posts (and looking into a few of the in-jokes). Another was that I'd seen how welcoming many of you were to newcomers. Although still a little shy, I do feel now that if I have something to say, it won't be shot down just because I'm new. No, it'll be because I "mantled" someone, or YARTed in public, or didn't add the "R in a circle" to harumph...
What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy? -Ursula K. Le Guin, author (1929- )
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I have wondered for a long time why we have so few members posting, when over
3000members are registered. The more who participate, the more fun for everybody.
We need all the talent we can get.
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Pooh-Bah
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I really appreciated the "welcomes" I got when I first arrived. I tried to send a couple of PM welcomes but apparently screwed up and sent them to myself which missed the whole point.
To anyone who's wondering, Come on in the water's fine and I haven't seen a shark yet.
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Dear Jackie, Faldage and Dr.Bill, Thanks for the kind words and the welcome. This is a great place to wake up to and you are wonderful folk. Thanks for the welcome, for all that I have learnt from you and, for the GREAT camp 2 atmosphere. And for everyone else on this board too, a big thanks for making it such an enjoyable place. Here's to words, more words and some more words!!! [clink] 
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Pooh-Bah
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-- and a warm welcome to your echo, maahey - be assured that it (he? she? do echoes have gender/sex?) is really welcome, as will everyone else out there who is reading this and isn't sure whether to come in through the door or not. Come on in, pull up an ochlonym and make yourself at home - here - have a toasted nit-pick! (Courtesy of Faldage, of course  )
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In reply to:
pull up an ochlonym
~RC
Second cousin of the mobnym?
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we have some rather saucy dips for those roasted nit-picks, too!
formerly known as etaoin...
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addict
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fading echo Thanks Rhuby! Some days I am especially absent minded! eta, 
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saucy dips Takes one to know one, eta!  YARTed in public Oh, horrors! What the heck is an ochlonym? Or a mobnym, for that matter?
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old hand
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In reply to:
What the heck is an ochlonym?
Nothing like a chocklonym, I hope.....
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Hi, I'm the Grasshopper...and I get the nits that Faldo misses (toasted or not!). And I also extend a hearty welcome to all the new yous I may have missed...there's been quite a few lately! Hard to keep up! I was scared to death to post, myself, after a few months of lurking...finally, I did...and after getting thoroughly creamed and shellacked on my "bogart" and "Neanderthal" threads, I felt right at home!  Well...almost... I did wonder in public on the next thread if one of the kindest, gentlest posters here was giving me a sort of fraternity hazing for being new! hi insel! So all I can say to any lurkers is take that polar bear plunge into the pool of cold water...and you get used to it right away! 'Cause, you know, you gotta!....
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Mob rule! Or put more nicely : rule by the populace or government dominated by the populace.
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Pooh-Bah
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Second cousin of the mobnym?Sort of, Dub-dub. The meaning ascribed to it about a year ago on a thread that I'm far to idle to LU was name for a collection of things - a collective noun, no less. As in "a crochet of hookers", for instance
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Pooh-Bah
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In reply to:
rule by the populace or government dominated by the populace.
Well - strictly speaking that would be "ochlocracy", wow.
([Aside to all newcomers:] This is a practical demonstration of "Nit-Picking for Beginners". The Advanced course is run by Faldage and WO'N)
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From ancient post by NicholasW, would he were stith us still:
I thought about this when it first appeared and couldn't come up with anything, not that that means
much given my brain raddled with port and age: the term in linguistics is collective noun.
However, if we want an onym (an onymonym?) for it, let's go for ochlonym, from ochlos 'crowd'.
(Already present in another fun word, ochlocracy = mob-rule.)
As a nitpick, it mixes Greek and Latin.
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>As a nitpick, it mixes Greek and Latin. stick a feather in your hat and call it macaronic. http://www.bartleby.com/61/27/M0002700.html
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it mixes Greek and Latin
Huh?
okhlos Greek
-onumon Greek
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Pooh-Bah
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I think the plucking of lice-ova was concerned with the "-cracy" bit, Faldage, dear boy.
-cracy derives from Latin cratia meaning something like "power" (possibly "strength?")
Although I think that the Romans derived the word from the Greek, originally.
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Pooh-Bah
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Dear Bill! many thanks for tracking it down. I know I was impressed by the word at the time, so much so that I wrote it down and stuck it to the side of my computer with a bit of blu-tak!
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strictly speaking that would be "ochlocracy"
And here I thought "ochlochracy" means "where time considerations govern your every action"...
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the Romans derived the word from the Greek
Quite right, old chap.
Latin -cratia < Greek -kratia from kratos, power.
So my original question stands:
Huh?
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Re: with a bit of blu-tak
a blue comment in white!
commonly called Smurf come--
i presume you are familier with smurfs, blue, elfin cartoon creatures, 99.9 male, with only one Miss Smurf, who was always chaste! which made the blu-tak a common enough
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Pooh-Bah
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i presume you are familier with smurfs, I am aware of who (or what?) they are, but have never been so familiar with them as to experience,[ahem] "smurf-come"
If blu-tak is an analagous substance, I don't wonder that Miss Smurf remains chaste!
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strictly speaking that would be "ochlocracy", wow.
([Aside to all newcomers:] This is a practical demonstration of "Nit-Picking for Beginners". The Advanced course is run by Faldage and WO'N)Sigh One does the best one can at the time ... Meanwhile Here's a theme song for Faldage and WO'N: (Chaucer, Rabelais and Balzac Forever!!!) From "The Music Man" by Meredith Wilson. Pick A Little, Talk A Little Everyone Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more. Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more. Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more Maud: Professor, her kind of woman doesn't belong on any committee. Of course, I shouldn't tell you this but she advocates dirty books. Harold: Dirty books! Alma:Chaucer! Ethel:Rabelais! Eulalie: Balzac! Maud: And the worst thing Of course, I shouldn't tell you this but- Alma: I'll tell. Ethel: The man lived on my street, let me tell. Eulalie: Stop! I'll tell. She made brazen overtures to a man who never had a friend in this town till she came here. Alma: Oh, yes That woman made brazen overtures With a gild-edge guarantee. She had a golden glint in her eye. And a silver voice with a counterfeit ring. Just melt her down and you'll reveal A lump of lead as cold as steel. Here!, where a woman's heart should be! Eulalie, Alma, Maud, Ethel, and Mrs Squires:He left River City the Library building - But he left all the books to her ! Alma: Chaucer! Ethel: Rabelais! Eulalie: Balzac! Everyone: Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, Cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep Cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep Cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep Pick a little, talk a little, Cheep! P.S. http://www.clipper.net/~nancyw/The_Music_Man.html is a page of slang from early 1900s used in the musical! Very interesting and some definitions have illusrations! Fun way to spend a few minutes!! Enjoy.
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Captain Billy's Whiz-Bang!!
formerly known as etaoin...
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I have my house pretty much torn apart, doing things to increase it's market attractiveness, so all I had for sound yesterday was the music channel on the satellite. My favorites are show tunes, but it causes a problem when I'm painting or something because I am constantly trying to identify obscure songs from obscure musicals, not that The Mucus Man is obscure.
I was listening to Trouble in River City and an odd thing occurred to me. When my father first started working, he bought art illustrations for a magazine called Captain Billy's Whizz Bang, and later, during the Depression he earned extra money by writing dime novels, which he could churn out in two or three days and for which he was paid $20 or $25. A publishing house in the Twin Cities put them out under a variety of author's names, none of which were my father's, unfortunately, so I have no way of finding any of them.
But, so far as I know, he never ran a boys' band.
TEd
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Pooh-Bah
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And if he churned out the puns like you, it's probably just as well!
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member
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>>What the heck is an ochlonym? >Nothing like a chocklonym, I hope..... 
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Ochlonym is a fairly recent coinage, alleged to me "mob name" or pseudonym used by a criminal.
The earliest use of a fictitious name I can think of is Odysseus telling the Cyclops his name was
"Nemo". So authors have noms de plume, warriors noms de querre, radio amateurs "handles"
CB'ers ditto. Just the other day, I was instructed to provide a "screen name" for a new e-mail
account. I prefer to use my own name, but had to add some numbers.
But crooks want to make it harder for cops to identify them, ao the use aliases, and now
oschlonyms, if they yet know the word.
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I registered in 2002 but I read only your posts. I'd love it, because in this way I learn English. I can to learn about your live. It is fine.
Krzysztof from Poland
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Welcome Krzysztof ! I may be the first but will certainly not be the last to extend greetings to you. Whatever you can learn from our postings is good, and we will be happy to hear more from you any time you like!
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Welcome Krzysztof ! Stay with us and comment often - we love to hear differing opinions - even if it is just because it gives us a chance to express *our wonderful - and of course correct - opinions! How's the weather in Poland? Spring arrived yet? Aloha and Blessings.
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>How's the weather in Poland? Spring arrived yet?
Aloha and Blessings.
oh yes.. aloha is the word that makes me smile.. spring arrived for a while and run for the hills yesterday :( we have such untranslatable nicely proverb which main sense is that the weather in poland is in april very very changeable :(
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Welcome Krzysztof!! and rav, I think everywhere has a saying about changeable weather!! like, "don't like the weather? wait five minutes, it'll be different!"
formerly known as etaoin...
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Dear Krzysztof: Please continue to post here. The more posts we get, the more fun.
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Pooh-Bah
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Hello, Krzysztof, welcome aBoard. Please keep on reading AND posting - don't worry if you don't always get the grammar or spelling spot-on right, because none of us do (except tsuwm and Faldage, of course! ) We all look forward to hearing more from you.
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Krzysztof: welcome back, my friend. I wondered whether you were gone for good, or not. Please do stay and post, this time, won't you?
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Thank you for your interseted in my person. I'm going to write post but It's very difficulty to conqure one's fears (in particular when I'm posting with masters
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You'll find, krzysztof, that we are more interested in ideas than in form. Although we may jump on little typos you'll note that we do so only on those of people who should know better or when it leads to some great wordplay.
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Master? HUH! it is an accident of birth that i have "mastered" english.. and since i know zero, zip, nada in Polish, you have it over me by a long shot!
idiom you have it over me by a long shot!translated--You are more skillful than i am, (because you know both Polish and some english, and i know nothing in Polish..)
please contine to post-- fresh eyes will help us focus on idioms and words in a new way..
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Krysztof, I always enjoyed reading your posts, and look forward to many more of them. Please continue posting! I was wondering where you went off to.
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What does "nada in Polish" mean? (czy to jest po rosyjsku)
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Nada is Spanish for "nothing". It's in common use by USns.
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zero can mean nothing.. so can zip, and as faldage points out,nada is the spanish for nothing..
some language double words to intensifiy them --goody-goody is one English example... goody-goody is very good, or gleefully good.. and while there are other examples, this is not the most common way to intensify.
usually we add er or est (fat, fatter, fastest, slow, slower slowest) with er being a comparative term, and est being the superlative term.
but we will sometimes use 2 or 3 words different words with the similar meanings to intensify a statement.
zero, zip, nada-- (three ways of saying i know nothing)--in Polish!
drunkness is a characterist that often is intensified by using several words or idioms..
Lord, he was drunk--three sheets to the wind, blotto, totally soused!
any one of those terms, (three sheets to the wind, blotto, totally soused, means drunk. strung together, they intensify the simple statement "he was drunk", and describe someone who is extremely drunk.
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I'm very sorry but If you be think up a new words continuous I never learn to English.
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What does USns mean. I have never met "ns" abbreviation.
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On this board USns means people from the USA. It's not something you're going to find commonly used in other places.
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Why in American of English you apply so great deal abbreviations. It's obvious that conversation is pleasure but conversation with abbreviations is alike to conversation two robots and it is incomprehensible for the foreigns.
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The weather in Poland is very nice now. In Poland winter entirely finished although Polish proverb says April "plecieñ (in Polish in English it's means a word alike to alternate)" because alternate a little winter a little summer
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A lot of these abbreviations come from chat rooms where you have to type as fast as you can just to stay in one place. USns is a play on a substandard English version of the first person plural pronoun. The word us is the first person plural accusative and dative pronoun. Using it as the first person plural nominative is a sort of self depricating play on the notion that we USA people are ignorant yokels. We used to say merkin in a similar manner (short for American) but some of the non-USns couldn't shake the notion of the female pubic wig and their giggling was a little annoying, so we quit that.
You might want to PM Emanuela about her difficulties in keeping up with us, difficulties that she overcame to a large degree by coming to last summer's symposium we had in central Michigan.
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Krzysztof, Faldage has given you an excellent explanation of one reason why USn is used here. There is another. I use it in preference to "American" simply because American literally means someone from the Americas, and that covers anybody from Juneau to Tierra del Fuego. USn appeals to the precisian in me.
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Because I don't know precisely geography US, I would like you to say me where are situated Juneau and Tierra del Fuego
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thanks sjm, your explanation appeals to the precisian (nice word) in me; and I couldn't figure out how to agreeably disagree with F. <g>
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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USn appeals to the precisian in me
It is also a pun, a play on words, because it has two almost-appropriate meanings at the same time, and puns are greatly appreciated on AWAD (no matter how much we proclaim we condemn them).
USns is "us" meaning second-person-plural-accusative pronoun, and simultaneously it is US meaning United States [of America].
Then it is combined with the -n ending, meaning [sometimes] coming from, as in "America -> American;" and also a double meaning as an abbreviation of "one:" a "young one" becomes a "young'un" and then gets to be made plural and used (colloquially) in "we'uns" and "they'uns" and further mis-used as "us'ns." The apostrophe and the letter u are dropped, as unnecessary, in USns.
And finally it sounds informal, so there is the pretense of ignorance as justification for the substandard phrasing.
Who would have thought there could be so much involved in three or four innocent-looking little letters! :-)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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where are situated Juneau and Tierra del Fuego
got a map? Juneau, Alaska Tierra Del Fuego-southern tip of South America http://www.mapquest.com/maps/
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Juneau is in Alaska, Krzysztof, and Tierra del Fuego is an island off the coast of Argentina at the extreme Southern end of South America.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Juneau is a city in Alaska, one of the most northern most cities on North America (but not the most!) because it is a port city, it is generally well know.
Tierra del Fuego is an area (not sure if it is a state, county, island, (group of islands?) at the southern most tip of south America, close to the the straights of Magellin.(part of Chile, i think)
smj could have said "St John's" which is a town in Newfoundland on the East coast of North America--and spanned the continents from east to west as well as north to south!
we have a canadian friend from there, (Hi Bean!)but to my mind, Newfoundland is not nearly as cold -and so i don't think of it as being as northern as any place in alaska-- as for actual latitude, i don't know!
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member
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panie krzysztofie, usns to po prostu skrót na oznaczenie mieszkañców stanów zjednoczonych. z tej prostej przyczyny, ¿e u¿ywany przez nas zwrot amerykanie nie odpowiada dok³adnie rzeczywistoœci, bo okreœla wszystkich mieszkañców ameryk - pó³nocnej, po³udniowej i œrodkowej. ale na polski tego siê raczej nie da przet³umaczyæ :). pozdrawiam
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Wot rav said........(I think!)
I'm fluent in Spanish but Polish is beyond me.
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and i'm fluent in polish but spanish is beyond me ;P
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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If you admit to being lacking in polish, consuelo amigo, then wy not go to finishing school? 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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wy not go to finishing school?
But Polish and Finnish aren't even close to each other, linguistically.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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No hablo Español, but isn't Consuelo our amiga, whose polished nails might avenge insult?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Now stop it you guys! You'll have poor krzysztofie's head spinning. They've gone off on a tangent, krzysztofie, something that often happens around here. polish means to bring a shine to as in : "Here is a cloth, polish the table." whereas Polish (capital P) is a language. polish can also mean to refine behaviour. Finishing can mean to bring to best conclusion, and can mean a school young women could attend to learn the nicities of etiquette thereby "finishing" the education a lady needed to take her place in society. The schools were private and required a fairly sizeable outlay of money for tuition - so the young ladies who aspired to be finished were generally "well off" financuially. It is an old fashioned idea mostly tied to the days when women hoped for marriage, motherhood, running a home, managing servants, socializing to promote the husband career and/or ambitions. Thankfully, more careers than housewife, schoolteacher or skivvy are open to women today! No longer have to marry to gain a place in "society." Talk about tangents ! Whew ... I may have just set a record!
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Carpal Tunnel
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What's a skivvy?
I've heard it used in the plural to mean underwear... any connection?
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skivvy= lowly female servant that's what my dictionary says
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Carpal Tunnel
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Why in American of English you apply so great deal abbreviations. It's obvious that conversation is pleasure but conversation with abbreviations is alike to conversation two robots and it is incomprehensible for the foreigns.Since nobody actually® bothered answering Krzysztof's request for comprehension... y'all asked for *it... Some would disagree with the notion that conversation is an "obvious pleasure" and I, for one, do whatever is necessary to make it not obvious (the pleasure part that is )... and your analogy with robots, however understandable, would be more appropriately describing what would happen if we all spoke the same language (IMHO). Does this make things incomprehesible for the foreigns... I suppose so, and I would apologize first and then take time to explain. However, I wouldn't give the *native English/American speaker that same courtesy... they're gonna have to LIU or ask for an explaination, but rarely do (ask, that is). Some say it's not worth asking about and I say it's not worth making comprehensible in the first place, which, of course, explains the disparity between our views about conversation being an "obvious pleasure" but says nothing about an intent for understanding. The words people use and what those words mean to them are just as (if not ocasionally more so) intrinsic to commmunication as the information imbedded within them... which shows up nicely in your original inquiry. Now, as to the *real answer... http://ad-free-message-board.com/abbreviations.html
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Carpal Tunnel
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skivvy= lowly female servant
that's what my dictionary says Thanks, Rav!!
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old hand
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old hand
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>skivvy
I had never heard the female servant definition before. Up here, it's normally used to refer to a sweatshirt-type garment thingy.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Both, actually, sjm. My mother used to inform us kids that she wasn't our skivvy. We, um, disagreed!
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Carpal Tunnel
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I collect cartoons about writing and about puns. Somewhere around i have a BC strip from years ago. Clam A says to Clam B, "B, what did the car wax say to the furniture wax?" B replies, "Now stop that, you know we can't do polish jokes here."
TEd
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Ha! I loved the "pillar of truth" series in BC, myself. "Whitey will prevail!". ZOT!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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what did the car wax say to the furniture wax?" ... "Now stop that, you know we can't do polish jokes here."
Reminds me of the comic set in a newsroom... man says into phone "He's not here, he's out waxing poetic." The next frame shows a man polishing a car and the license tag reads "Poetic."
Skivvy :[ according to OED - "(noun and verb) a female domestic servant; a person whose job is regarded menial or poorly paid; (noun) underwear comprising vest and underpants; an undershirt or vest; a thin, high-necked pullover."
In my youth the word skivvy implied that the person (male or fenmale) was uneducated - perhaps only able to write their name - if that - and more probably unable to read or write, often an immigrant who barely spoke English. The skivvy was often taken advantage of by mean employers.
And I mean "mean" in the meanest way!!!!
In some ways, times haven't changed much have they?
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journeyman
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journeyman
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"don't like the weather? wait five minutes, it'll be different!"
I've heard that for Texas. Is it used for other places too?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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used for other places too
I've lived in Chicago, Boston, Flagstaff, Southern California and Upstate New York. I think Southern California is the only one of those where it wasn't used.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In Michigan we say "Don't like the weather? Wait a minute."
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>In Michigan we say "Don't like the weather? Wait a minute."
Shirley, you stole that from Minnesota, The Theater of Seasons.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Don't call me Shirley . Heck, I don't know where we got it from, I just know that's what we say
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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In the Orkneys I used to hear, "Don't like the weather? Turn and look the other way."
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Carpal Tunnel
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Y'all with the predisposition could LIU. But my feeling is this was from Mark Twain characterizing the weather in New England.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear AS: I also remember Mark Twain saying it about New England. But no assurance it was
original with him, nor original in New England. A lot of oldtime Yankees thought east wind
likely to bring cold and rain. One in my home town believed it so firmly he stayed in bed a week
when some kids hitched a string to his weathervane to keep it pointing East.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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The weather forecast in Dunedin, New Zealand, used to go something like "if you can see Mt Cargill it's going to rain. If you can't, well, that's because it's raining."
It was pretty accurate, too.
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newbie
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newbie
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I appreciated reading this. In the flush of excitement at discovering a web forum where I might actually belong, I PM'd several online folks and included a request to chat on ICQ. Now I feel sort of embarrassed, since it's true that most chatrooms rival the court of Caligula in sheer depravity. Yet that is only the [majority] CONTENT, not the FORM of netconferencing. Anyway, if y'all get to know me, you'll see that I am a websafe person (thus the nick, a play on the term "websafe palette"). Cheers!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Once again, welcome, websafe. Have fun here.
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