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#82036 09/28/02 03:59 PM
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not playing up to the capabilities of your hand!

Yeah, so I still don't understand what sandbags got to do with it. You're pretending that, rather than two kings in the hole those thangs are actively sandbags, beatable by a deuce high kangaroo straight?


#82037 09/28/02 04:38 PM
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Actually, ModGod had it partly right.

A motorway (the M1, M5, M6, etc.) is usually three lanes (triple carriageway) although some motorways, e.g. the M11 and the northern half of the M42, are only dual carriageway (i.e., two lanes each way). Motorway rules in Britain are pretty much the same as freeway/interstate rules in the States. The speed limit isn't really enforced on most of the motorways and people tend to travel on them at between 70 and 100 mph. If you're caught doing the ton, however, it's instance loss-of-licence territory. As Jo implied, you are not supposed to travel faster than the traffic in the lane to your right, i.e. no undertaking in the left-hand lanes. Yeah, right.

Then you get the "A" roads which have motorway regulations, for instance the A1M. Confused? You betcha.

"A" roads can be single carriageway or dual carriageway and even triple carriageway in some cases. I use the A14 from Kettering to the M1 every morning, which is dual carriageway. I use the A509 to get from Wellybro to the A14 at Kettering, and it's single carriageway (and a bastard of a road due to the fact that there are a lot of people using it who believe that the speed limit is between 30 mph and 40 mph rather than 60 mph ... I do wish I had James Bond's Aston Martin sometimes, I really do.

"B" roads are everything that aren't "A" roads or motorways. Some are not bad, but some are "Z" roads in my book - really bad. Brits are pretty bad drivers on the whole and travel on narrow country lanes as if they owned the road. I don't know how many times I've had to react quickly to avoid some twat in a Jag doing 80mph on a sunken lane or hedged lane with absolutely nowhere to go.

The Brits talk about the M1 or the A14. If you said "I take A14 to M1", you'd get some pretty strange looks ...



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#82038 09/28/02 08:56 PM
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and the nitpicker goes on: so I still don't understand what sandbags got to do with it...

http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=82424


#82039 09/28/02 09:31 PM
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what sandbags got to do with it

Aha! I was right! Sandbagging should refer to the act of performing up to capabilities not the act of laying back in preparation.

Thank you for finally answering the question.


#82040 09/28/02 09:35 PM
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Now, folks. Time to head to dreamland for a little station break.

Maestro?

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream (bung, bung, bung, bung)
Make him the cutest that I’ve ever seen (bung, bung, bung, bung)
Give him two lips like roses and clover (bung, bung, bung, bung)
Then tell him that his lonesome nights are over.
Sandman, I’m so alone
Don’t have nobody to call my own
Please turn on your magic beam
Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream.

(scat "bung, bung, bung, bung".)

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream
Make him the cutest that I’ve ever seen
Give him the word that I’m not a rover
Then tell him that his lonesome nights are over.
Sandman, I’m so alone
Don’t have nobody to call my own
Please turn on your magic beam
Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream.

(scat "bung, bung, bung, bung")

Mr. Sandman (male voice: "Yesss?") bring us a dream
Give him a pair of eyes with a "come-hither" gleam
Give him a lonely heart like Pagliacci
And lots of wavy hair like Liberace
Mr Sandman, someone to hold (someone to hold)
Would be so peachy before we’re too old
So please turn on your magic beam
Mr Sandman, bring us, please, please, please
Mr Sandman, bring us a dream.

(scat "bung, bung, bung, bung".)



#82041 09/29/02 10:12 PM
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jmh Offline
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> motorway (the M1, M5, M6, etc.) is usually three lanes (triple carriageway)

ahem ... and sometimes four lanes in each direction.. but that is the M25, more often used as a large car park for London.


#82042 09/30/02 12:07 PM
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Sorry, Jo, forgot to mention the M25. Largest parking lot in Europe. It's the exception to every rule ... lots of motorways are four-lane for short distances. Only on the M25 does each lane have carspace markings for rush hour parking ...



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#82043 09/30/02 01:53 PM
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Also on some stretches of the M25, such as Reigate Hill just clockwise of Junction 7, the practice of undertaking, which has an ominous ring to it I always think, is more common than on any other road in the UK.


#82044 09/30/02 02:00 PM
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I feel I need to clarify some of mg's statements about the Trans Canada Highway. Having driven the 7000+ km from one end of the country to the other on the Trans Canada Highway (with a cat in the back seat for the better part of it) I feel I know a little more of it than just "the 401" (which refers to the southern-Ontario section of the highway.

The Trans Canada Highway takes many numbers/names throughout its length, first of all. From the Victoria to the Ontario border it's labelled (and known as) Highway #1. Once you get into Ontario it's Highway 17. You wouldn't drive down to Toronto if you actually wanted to get anywhere in a sensible amount of time - it's actually quite a detour to go that far south. The sensible route goes Sault Ste. Marie - Ottawa - Montreal and onward. I don't remember the designation in Quebec and the Maritimes but it has no number at all here in Newfoundland! It's just called "the TCH".

Anyway, name or no name, it's not as great as it sounds. Substantial portions of it are a single lane in each direction, no median between the lanes. The traffic is very heavy, since it is the main route across the country, and you're often trapped in heavy traffic behind semi-trailers limited to 90 km/h, waiting for the slightest opportunity to pass. Through the Rockies the driving is both scary and breathtaking at the same time. There are still about 400-500 km of undivided highway in Saskatchewan/Manitoba, and a whole bunch of the section in Ontario is undivided. Quebecers drive like maniacs on their (thankfully divided and well-maintained) portion of the highway. Portions of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are still two-lane, undivided, and the better part of the 1000 km of Newfoundland Trans-Canada highway is also two-lane, undivided. And in Newfoundland there's the added bonus of having to watch out for the island's 200,000 moose, lest one should take the roof of your car (and your head) off by wandering out onto the road at the wrong time.

You really can't appreciate the astounding size of this country unless you've driven it end-to-end. It's ridiculous.


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Jackie says: Interesting, though, that the expression for striking another vehicle broadside does not refer to the steak of the same sobriquet (er, can that expression apply to an object?), but to the shape created by the collision.

So why is a T-bone steak so called then? We don't seem to have them in the UK (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) and I don't recall eating one over in the US of A either, so I don't think I have ever actually seen one.



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