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S/He obvious needs us a lot more than we need them [sic]. I sure would need company if I spoke the only non Finno/Ugric language in the Baltic region.

Just a comment down here, so as not to distract what's going on above the "fold."

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yes, I was shocked, I tell you - amazed even, when I saw the yellow plus sign.

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dunno if it was the context but I read that initially as "the yellow puss sign"... (and no, not the cat type)

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Quote:

yes, I was shocked, I tell you - amazed even, when I saw the yellow plus sign.




I like to keep you on your toes, tsuwm, what with the diminution of the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices and all.

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Good gracious, I haven't been down here below the fold in...prolly years; since 2000, acc'g. to my main page, but I know that's not right.

Anyway, to get to the topic: I simply cannot understand why anyone would feel so free to be so rude, esp. when it is unprovoked. I saw an episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation where Wesley Crusher describes a certain alien race as considering courtesy a sign of weakness; all I can figure is that he must be like them.

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The assumption, chums, that a troll's personality fits within the range of normal psychology is a likely error, from which amazement then flows. If one starts with a different assumption -- that of a mental flaw or defect -- then the behaviour is less shocking in that it is somewhat expected.

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Actually, there are a couple of non-Finno-Ugric languages spoken in the Baltic: e.g., Russian (still a largish minoritiy language in Estonia and Lithuania, and spoken officially in Kaliningrad ex Koenigsburg), Latvian (quite distinct from Lithuanian), Baltic Romani, etc.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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oh sure, jim, try to make it a word post...



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Hmm. I didn't know Kaliningrad was an exclave of Russia. Is Alaska an exclave of the U.S.?

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Is Alaska an exclave of the U.S.?

Seems likely to me. At least until the US gummint annexes Canadia.


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I mean, Alaska's so damn big, Canada could be an *enclave of the U.S.

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When I was a wee lad, Canada was 2nd biggest country after the Soviet Union. Now that various bits have been hived off the Soviet Union is Canada still No. 2 or did it get promoted?


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That might depend upon the legal status of the recent territorial concessions to the Native Americans, I suppose?

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Being Canucks we don't try to annex territory to get promoted we just wait politely for others to implode.
I'm not sure Russia lost enough to be demoted.
Jeeves says no, Russia is still well in the lead.

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I've probably asked before, but where does "Canucks" come from?

#153940 01/27/06 12:19 PM
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where does "Canucks" come from?

Quebec. But seriously, from Canada.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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But what's "ucks"?

#153942 01/27/06 12:37 PM
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Quote:

But what's "ucks"?




Same as the "ees" in "Yankees"?

#153943 01/27/06 02:01 PM
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From the OED2:

colloq.
Also Kanuck, etc. [App. f. the first syllable of Canada.]
1. A Canadian; spec. a French Canadian.
2. A Canadian horse or pony.
3. The French-Canadian patois. B. adj. Of or pertaining to Canada or its inhabitants.
In U.S. usage, gen. derogatory.
1835 H. C. Todd Notes upon Canada 92 Jonathan distinguishes a Dutch or French Canadian, by the term Kanuk.


Same source:

Yankee
Also Yankey, Yanky, pl. Yankies. [Source unascertained.
The two earliest statements as to its origin were published in 1789: Thomas Anburey, a British officer who served under Burgoyne in the War of Independence, in his Travels II. 50 derives Yankee from Cherokee eankke slave, coward, which he says was applied to the inhabitants of New England by the Virginians for not assisiting them in a war with the Cherokees; William Gordon in Hist. Amer. War states that it was a favourite word with farmer Jonathan Hastings of Cambridge, Mass., c 1713, who used it in the sense of ‘excellent’. Appearing next in order of date (1822) is the statement which has been most widely accepted, viz. that the word has been evolved from North American Indian corruptions of the word English through Yengees to Yankees (Heckewelder, Indian Nations iii. ed. 1876, p. 77); cf. Yengees.
Perhaps the most plausible conjecture is that it comes from Du. Janke, dim. of Jan John, applied as a derisive nickname by either Dutch or English in the New England states (J. N. A. Thierry, 1838, in Life of Ticknor, 1876, II. vii. 124).

Hence "Yankee v. (rare—1), trans. to deal cunningly with like a Yankee, to cheat […]
1837 Fraser's Mag. XVI. 683 [They] are considered capable of ‘*Yankeeing’ the more simple-minded Canadians.



Not that I’d want to stir up old wars or anything but

#153944 01/27/06 11:34 PM
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Go ahead, stir.

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Did I miss something? How did these come to be connected to this thread? The last reference to Wesley Crusher was nine days and umpteen posts ago, and he was even on a different ST series!

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