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#82026 09/27/02 10:37 PM
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Thanks for the explanation, tsuwm, about sandbagging.

In my usual ignorance about all things related to all sports, I had thought maybe sandbagging meant (get ready to roll your eyes) that the car in question appeared to be running slowly because sandbags had been attached to it. Then voila! Suddenly the car speeds ahead and you realize the driver was sandbagging--driving as though weighted down with sandbags.

Very nice to know the truth of the situation now.


#82027 09/27/02 10:39 PM
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And since we're talking cars here, I always liked it when the race announcers said a car was getting squirrely--or zigzagging suddenly on the track.


#82028 09/27/02 11:10 PM
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Thanks, tsuwm, for the explanation about slingshotting. (I knew I should double the t, but wondered if our non-native speakers of English would know what I meant if I did.) I was thinking it was different from threading the needle. Now, Jo, I've had a good lesson in British road systems, such as, that for your-all's biggest roads, the M stands for motorway. None of your motorways have more than two lanes in one direction?


#82029 09/27/02 11:18 PM
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since we're talking cars here
In racing, T-boning often occurs when a driver loses it "in the marbles" but, as often as not, the base of the "T" is a wall, not another vehicle.

"In the marbles" is the area of the track near the top of the high oval where bits of distressed tires, having the appearance of marbles, tend to accumulate to the peril of drivers entering this zone. As you might expect, it is hard to maintain control when you are skidding on rubber beads.
[Come to think of it, truck drivers worry about ending up "in the rhubarb" when they fall asleep at the wheel ... but that is certainly better than being T-boned.]

When we lose control of our mental faculties, people say we have "lost our marbles". Obviously, this has nothing to do with car racing. Where does this expression come from - losing one's marbles - I wonder?


#82030 09/27/02 11:31 PM
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I googled till I felt I was losing my own marbles, and all I could find indicated that the expression came from the game of playing marbles. To lose one's marbles was a terrible thing. There was one site that traced the game of playing games of marbles to the Ice Age (when was that exactly?)...


#82031 09/28/02 12:50 AM
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M stands for motorway

Hey Jackie, hope you don't mind my answering your question (hope Jo doesn't mind either!) - but I just got back from a trip to the UK so can assure you, the motorways there are like our freeways here - double and sometimes triple lanes in each direction. But Jo is right - the outer lane (in their case, the right-most, in ours, the left-most) is used strictly for passing. (Let me tell you, I was well impressed - here in Canada, at least the bits of it I drive, people are bluddy rude about hanging about in the fast lane instead of passing and getting out of the way.)

What they (across the pond) call an "A road" is a single carriageway.

In fact, come to think of it, I'm not so sure we use the term "freeway" in Canada - just "highway." More frequently, "401" (our principal cross-country route), as in:

"I took the 401 to Brockville today."

Our major motorways all seem to start with the number 4 - makes sense that the 401 is the 401, since it's the first and longest (it's aka the trans-Canada highway). If you go on a smaller road, you generally refer to it by number or, if it doesn't have one (rare), by name:

"I prefer to take Highway 2 and then the Parkway if I'm going to Brockville. If I'm going to Ottawa, I'll take Highway 15, then the 417."

I'm sure y'all were just scintillated by this!
(bet you're wishing Jo had got in with an answer before me!)

If you can't see the bright side, polish the dull side.

#82032 09/28/02 01:52 AM
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I'm not so sure we use the term "freeway" in Canada - just "highway."

Though I'm familiar with both terms, I don't think I'd use either unless referring to one in the general sense. I would more specifically say "I took 71 to Columbus" or "275 (the humungous Cinci interstate loop) into Kentucky." And this marks a regional difference that I'm sure we've discussed before, I would never say the 275. Though it deserves a distinguishing article, being so big. (From what I can tell, it's the largest continuous metropolitan freeway loop in the nation.) as if you care . . .


#82033 09/28/02 10:42 AM
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The specific "hang back" or "slack off" sense of "sandbag" ... comes from poker

Well, OK. It comes from poker. This would be because the player hides behind a pile of sandbags whilst doing it? This would seem to be the very sort of dead giveaway that having a poker face is supposed to hide. Or is sandbagging used metaphorically to describe the act of clobbering the opponent, as though with a sandbag, when the mask of poor playing is stripped away? And if so, why isn't sandbagging used to refer to the process of playing up to capabilities in the latter phase rather than playing under them in the earlier? Inquiring nitpickers need to know.


#82034 09/28/02 01:37 PM
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No, modgod, I don't mind at all; thank you.
Here's a good old thread, wherein musick 'splains how he lost his marbles...
http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=15668


#82035 09/28/02 01:45 PM
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a nitpicker inquires/enquires: why isn't sandbagging used to refer to the process of playing up to capabilities in the latter phase rather than playing under them in the earlier?

Am I to understand that you don't play poker then? Sandbagging in poker is: not playing up to the capabilities of your hand! Let's suppose that you're playing 7-card stud, in which you receive your first three cards en masse, two face down and 1 up, and then the betting ensues. Let's further suppose that your three cards are Kings (don't want to get too carried away here). You certainly wouldn't want to lose your poker face here by showing your true excitement, but you also (usually) wouldn't want to bet your hand to its full worth by raising the limit, as everyone with Q-10-6 will immediately drop out, thus robbing you of some of your just rewards. So you sandbag, merely matching someone else's bet (there's probably an Ace showing) or making some minimal bet whilst opining, "Hey, are we here to play poker or just to drink beer?!"


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