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#46575 11/03/01 04:15 AM
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the 'trix are for kids' subthread has inspired(?) me with an idea for another word challenge. this one is for furriners only (and emanates from the US).

you think you are fairly conversant with US cultural icons and idioms? here then is today's Iconic & Idiomatic challenge.

(this particular instance comes from some World Serious coverage, but that's as may be. many of these will probably come from sport/entertainment, but then these do produce colorful language.)

And as Tino rounded first base -- his right arm raised, the Yankee fans hopping up and down, the Stadium hitting 11 out of 10 on Nigel Tufnel's decibel scale -- I was sitting there thinking to myself, "Now that is why I didn't go to bed."

what then is Nigel Tufnel's decibel scale?


#46576 11/03/01 05:44 AM
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Sex, drugs 'n rock'n'roll. If you can't have 'em all, settle for the drugs. Eventually, you'll need a spinal tap...



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#46577 11/03/01 07:26 AM
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Nigel Tufnel's decibel scale

I believe that on a scale of one to ten it hits eleven.


#46578 11/03/01 05:43 PM
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No, I'm not entering! Just throwing out that I've never heard of it. Though I'm pretty sure the Yankees are in New York...

Man, talk about...what was that term, Bingley? Terms of art? I never heard that phrase, either--thank you.


#46579 11/03/01 06:52 PM
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>>the Stadium hitting 11 out of 10 on Nigel Tufnel's decibel scale

>I believe that on a scale of one to ten [Nigel Tufnel's decibel scale] hits eleven.

jo, you've just hit 11 on the Simpson D'ohmeter.
-ron o.

...and windward, nice attempt to efisc and wrest my sacred question.

#46580 11/03/01 07:55 PM
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How'bout...

...prolly not an exact quote, but:

Actor X - Surely, you jest?

Actor N - I am not joking, and stop calling me Shirley!

[edit] Who is being called Shirley?Help is appreciated if there is misleading info in the "quote'.


#46581 11/03/01 09:06 PM
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jo, you've just hit 11 on the Simpson D'ohmeter.
-ron o.

It's a fair cop. "Candidates are advised to read the question first."

But I do have the answer

PS: And I did have the answer but I was so busy trying to agree with Cap K without giving too much away that I (as pointed out by tsuwm) ended up re-stating the question - d-e-r

#46582 11/03/01 10:32 PM
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It's from Airplane:

"Surely you can't be serious."
"I am serious, and don't call me Shirley"

Used a number of times during the movie.
Also contains the immortal:

"There's a problem in the cabin"
"The cabin? What is it?"
"It's that room at the front of the plane, but that's not important right now."



#46583 11/03/01 10:34 PM
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It just refers to a standard volume control going up to 10. Nigel Tufnell's apparently went to 11. (The Tap were so loud! - Just look at the number of pickups on his guitar)


#46584 11/03/01 10:39 PM
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#46585 11/03/01 10:53 PM
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WW - That would make it your an attorney to come up with an obscure US'n thing-a-ma-tsuwm...



#46586 11/03/01 11:01 PM
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#46587 11/04/01 01:00 AM
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in Rob Reiner's marvelous rockumentary spoof "This is Spinal Tap" (Spinal Tap is England's loudest rock band), lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) shows Rob the band's top-of-the-line electronic gear, and after explaining that the best amplifiers have settings that top out at ten, exclaims "This goes to eleven!"

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/scott_pearson/new_page_1.htm


#46588 11/04/01 01:15 AM
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thing-a-ma-tsuwms are my favorite things
Me too, Double-dub! See? [music note icon]

When the word bites,
When the theme stings,
When I'm feeling bad,
I simply remember my tsuwm-ish things,
And then I don't feel so sa-a-ad.



#46589 11/04/01 09:08 AM
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(The Tap were so loud! - Just look at the number of pickups on his guitar)

You weren't allowed to look at his guitar it was so special ... and besides, the number of pickups is irrelevant to volume. My first electric guitar had four, but they were so weak I couldn't generate feedback even if I stuck the guitar inside the speaker box. But not in the film.

Here's a much better url than tsuwm's for explaining what the hell this thread is all about ...

http://www.popmatters.com/film/reviews/t/this-is-spinal-tap.html

For those of us aging rapidly (anyone over, say, 30), getting hold of this mockumentary is a must. You'll roll about laughing. And the music was ... well, it was music, kinda, using a very loose definition of the word. Keven might be able to help you here if he's got his head together.





The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#46590 11/04/01 04:25 PM
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the number of pickups is irrelevant to volume

Aye, I know. That was meant to be an extra aside to illustrate the Tap's mega-rockosity, rather than a follow-on to the previous comment. Didn't come over like it, I know. (I could be pedantic and mention the extra oomph you can get from humbuckers over single coils, but I won't .)


#46591 11/04/01 04:35 PM
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Ok, can someone tell me why it's 17 (or so) posts later and we are still on the same *puzzle... when CapK gave (albeit imbedded) the answer with his first post and jo couldn't be more direct (except with an explanitory link, I guess).

All of a sudden I feel "Coo-coo for Coa-Coa Puffs".


#46592 11/04/01 04:59 PM
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gosh, mu, I can see why you're puzzlepated and bewilderbeast by all of this. let's see if I can help you out the door. CK did give a colonel clue and jo gave a wonderful recapitulation of the question, but then we had some minorly obfuscatory digressions until Yoda came along with actually the answer, which I, ab intra, glossed. as to why we're on the same *puzzle, that's 'cuz I haven't deigned to post another. and maybe i won't. :û


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... at what point is *direct defined as actually® being so?


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mu, since you seem to feel that I have somehow slighted jo, I can only at this point in time quote her own words to you:

It's a fair cop. "Candididates are advised to read the question first." But I do have the answer.



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...somehow slighted... Way too much emotional context goin on there! ...but then again, it's all my *fault as I interpreted But I do have the answer as "I gave the answer, didn't I?"

C'mon, just give them another puzzle and I'll promise to stay out for.. say.. oh.. a baker's dozen of d'ohnuts.




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>C'mon, just give them another puzzle and I'll promise to stay out for.. say.. oh.. a baker's dozen of d'ohnuts.

Me too

G'worn!
Pretty please!


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Maybe he'll do it if I promise to stay out...what tsay, tsu?[heart e]


#46598 11/05/01 03:10 PM
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The new puzzle is embedded in the old:

Who coined the phrase "World Serious"?


#46599 11/05/01 03:27 PM
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The assertion that something has reached 11 out of 10 on the Nigel Tufnel decibel scale reflects a lack of understanding of the original joke. All the way up is all the way up*. All Mr. Tufnel did was to redefine all the way up as 11 rather than 10. A better metaphor would have been to relate it to an 11 out of 10 on the George Webber Beauty scale except that would lose the reference to noise.

*There's good technical reasons for this that some of you may already understand but which I could go into in boring detail for anyone who would care to ask by PM.


#46600 11/05/01 03:35 PM
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>Who coined the phrase "World Serious"?

which is, of course, an entire different (and more difficult) bit of trivia than Who made it famous?


#46601 11/05/01 04:06 PM
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an entire different (and more difficult) bit of trivia

You got that right.


#46602 11/05/01 09:26 PM
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Hey, Boo-Boo, let's go find us a pickinick basket.


#46603 11/05/01 09:57 PM
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Teacher, teacher! I know!

Many years ago The World Series was played obscurely; no one knew what teams were playing and no one cared. That all changed when Millard Fillmore Famey entered the National League. This guy was better than Cy Young, but Cy got the ward named after him because he was the first super-pitcher in the major leagues. Famey pitched for 31 years, ending up in a minor league where he was in the bullpen, an ingnominious finish to a sterling career.

So far had he fallen that he retreated into the bottle, the beer bottle anyway. He was sitting one day in the bullpen, pulling on his last beer, when the phone rang. "You're on, Famey," said the coach.

"Coach," replied Famey, "I been dozin' a bit. What's the score and who'm I pitchin agin?"

Turns out it was the bottom of the ninth there were two men on base, and the home team was down by two runs. And Famey was pitching to the top three hitters in the league. Famey knew he was in trouble, so he stuck the last beer in his hip pocket so he could take it directly to the shower with him.

Sure enough, his pessimism was accurate. On seventeen pitches he walked home three runs. As he trudged disconsolately toward the locker room, an opponent noticed the beer bottle.

"My God," he said, "is a that a beer in his pocket?"

The opposing coach said, "Son, not only is it a beer, it's the beer that made Mil Famey walk us."





TEd
#46604 11/07/01 12:53 AM
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And...

"Sir, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure Timmy. What is it?"
"It's an interrogative statement, used to test knowledge, but that's not important right now."


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