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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
hoc genus omne
Is that Latin for "Beers all round!" ?
No, that would be "HIC genus omne"
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
This news just in from last week's Time magazine:
"In your note on my new and happy marital partnership with David Bale, you credit me with the witticism 'A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.' In fact, Irina Dunn, a distinguished Australian educator, journalist and politician, coined the phrase back in 1970 when she was a student at the University of Sydney. She paraphrased the philosopher who said, "Man needs God like fish needs a bicycle." Dunn deserves credit for creating such a popular and durable spoof of the old idea that women need men more than vice versa." -Gloria Steinem
It seems the board's most quoted feminist did not coin our favorite saying, but there is a plus to this! We now know that the phrase has a connection to the board's favorite country down under.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
We now know that the phrase has a connection to the board's favorite country down under.May I just say that I find my passionate supranationalism sorely tested by that statement? 
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
I've got to reply to this one, Shanks -
"not even the rain...."
must be e.e.cummings, no?
He came out with many such goodies.
Love the rolled up pavements too.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
Welcome, Adam, and may I say that I love your comment "now I have even less"? You would seem to be the perfect person to answer Marty's challenge - what is the collective noun for a group of fish on bicycles?
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
Wa hey!
I've been trying to get a definite suss on this for ages.
Thanks, Jazz.
Now I just need to find out who "the philosopher" was!
Must have been post Victorian to be talking about bicycles, I suppose.
Which narrows down the field about 2%.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
Hi Max - aren't you another HGTTG character? Now, Douglas Adams would be able to answer all our questions!
Can't find Marty's challenge, but give me time.
Anyway. Hmmmm, tricky one.
Contrary to popular belief, the collective noun for fish on bikes is NOT a "shoal". And indeed, a group of fish on bikes does not behave like a shoal, which has something of the qualities of a single organism (if you see what i mean). The same, as I like to call it, "negatively-gestalt" quality actually applies to any group of creatures placed on bikes, however socially-orientated they were beforehand.
Many experiments by maladjusted animal behaviourists have firmly established this fact.
I have to answer this with another question - what do you call a collection of wheeled vehicles containg drivers?
Let me rephrase that, before you reply "a jam".
What do you call a collection of cyclists?
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
Marty, those are great!
I laughed like a drain.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>What do you call a collection of cyclists?
a mass? a rally? a peloton?
(hope you won't think I spoke out of turn...)
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Over at the fish thread I voted for "pool" (a combination of Marty's "pack" + "school"). Fishman, I'm gonna give you fair warning. There's a member here, an old hand , in fact, who cannot abide the word "orientate." Forewarned is forearmed... or forefinned, in your case.
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