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#44772 10/16/01 09:15 PM
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Oh, and Keiva, I much prefer Van de Graff generators, or rubbing a cat's fur with an amber rod! It's the one and only use I can imagine for a cat.
How did I get involved in "cats"? About which I would not dare to express an opinion, lest I be struck like a lightning rod! I'll stick to hippopotami!


#44773 10/16/01 10:35 PM
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Oh, and Keiva, I much prefer Van de Graff generators, or rubbing a cat's fur with an amber rod! It's the one and only use I can imagine for a cat.

Oh no, Geoff, you're dead wrong. Take a cat plus chicken tikka masala and some white shag pile carpet, and you have the world's first monorail system based on antigravity ...



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#44774 10/17/01 02:17 AM
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Oh no, Geoff, you're dead wrong. Take a cat plus chicken tikka masala and some white shag pile carpet, and you have the world's first monorail system based on antigravity ...

Well, yes, of course you're right, but I was referring to a cat alone, not one with a dead bird stuck to its back. Besides, we DO need a lighting source for your levitated monorail, now don't we?

Keiva, my regrets - it was TSUWM to whom I meant to address my remark. Were I female, I'd claim my confusion was due to the stressful effects of CATamenia, but that would be CATachresis.


#44775 10/17/01 09:01 AM
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#44776 10/17/01 12:49 PM
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yeahbut.®

a much more serious linguistic offence, namely, the battery upon the word "assault". Strictly speaking, an "assault" is an attempt to commit a "battery", or the threat of a "battery", not a "battery" itself. (my emphasis)

I was responding to a post that seemed to be saying my ordinary use of mangulage was an assault or battery that would land me in the cells! The day I take linguistic lessons from the lawyers is the day I'll let my cat feed the birds

Rules? we don't...




#44777 10/17/01 01:17 PM
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are amber rods made out of amber?

Some ancient Greek geek discovered that when one rubs amber on fur (Prob'ly a sheep, not a puddy tat in his or her case) it would produce static electricity. Thus the word, "elektron." I know you'll get a charge out of knowing that.


#44778 10/17/01 01:18 PM
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The day I take linguistic lessons from the lawyers...

Really! Have you ever heard them pronounce Latin?

Sigh knee dye, indeed (Harrumph{® Anastrophic Enterprises, used with permission})!


#44779 10/17/01 02:12 PM
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there are places, (the baltic, and Santa Domingo come to mind) where there are vast deposits of amber. it can be mined, since it lies in seams inches to feet deep. these deposits are from forest of amber producing trees that were once common to the area. other sites have amber, but not in thick seams. many places in the world, you can find smaller deposits of amber, sometimes in chunks, or petrified globs. (nowday, amber with a insect is more valuable than clear amber, in the not so distant past, the opposite was true. )

In any case, when amber is 2 or 3 feet thick, it is possible to mine and shape it into any thing--including a rod. I have no idea why rod shapes where first made, but soon after they were, the properties of the same were discovered.

one of the russian czars had a whole room made of amber.. (the walls, the floor, all the furniture, were cover in, or made directly of amber. (it was in the hermatige i think) Rather shocking i think, especially if you dressed in fur!


#44780 10/17/01 02:25 PM
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mav, I largely agree with your point, "I was responding to a post that seemed to be saying my ordinary use of mangulage was an assault or battery that would land me in the cells! The day I take linguistic lessons from the lawyers is the day I'll let my cat feed the birds.

Your usage is quite correct. In some area more precisely-honed definitions are necessary (and law is one such area, for upon the precise definition of "assault" can turn the rather important question of whether an individual is sent to jail), but that in no way limits the scope of proper usage outside those areas.


#44781 10/17/01 04:59 PM
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I know I am going to regret this, because it comes back to creating another thread about sports. But I cannot help myself because there exists another meaning of battery that is probably not in current use. At one time battery referred to the duo on defense who pitched and caught in baseball. Back in the 20s and 30s, the newspapers would have a box about the games to be played and would list the batteries for each team. This was probably stopped when wholesale pitching changes became common.



TEd
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