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#97232 02/28/03 01:43 PM
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of troy Offline OP
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In NYC the dutch influence remains, in a sad way. aside from place names, and an orange in the city flag, (city flag colors are a sort of turquoise blue, white and orange) the memory of New Amsterdam in NY is reduced to occasionally finding a pair of wooden clog shoes as tourist junk.

wooden clog shoes--more properly called sabots-- and saboteurs are people who clog up the machines of industry, and bind up the works by throwing in there wooden shoes.

saboteurs started out like 'luddite's' or 'jethro tull's'--as peasants fighting industrialization with what ever tools they had at hand.


#97233 03/06/03 11:34 AM
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dxb Offline
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We still use the expression "clogging up the works".

I found this in the AHD, which accounts for the unusual spelling of calibre:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
sa·bot ( P ) Pronunciation Key (s-b, sb)
n.
2)A lightweight carrier in which a projectile of a smaller caliber is centered so as to permit firing the projectile within a larger-caliber weapon. The carrier fills the bore of the weapon from which the projectile is fired; it is normally discarded a short distance from the muzzle.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, where did that come from I wonder.

ED.: Is that OK now?





#97234 03/06/03 11:43 AM
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Geez, dixby, can you stick some CRs in there?


#97235 03/06/03 12:18 PM
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dxb Offline
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CRs? Credit ratings?


#97236 03/06/03 12:51 PM
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Carriage Returns! you've sent the page widesy!



formerly known as etaoin...
#97237 03/06/03 01:50 PM
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dxb Offline
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Oh! It was OK on my screen. Thanks for telling me, I'll avoid using it.


#97238 03/06/03 02:05 PM
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It looked OK on my PC here at work; it was just on the Mac it went widesy.


#97239 03/06/03 02:57 PM
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dxb Offline
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I see. the Wonderful World of Simplicity and Perfection!



#97240 03/06/03 06:34 PM
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ouch!



formerly known as etaoin...
#97241 03/06/03 06:51 PM
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wwh Offline
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In looking the word up in my dictionary, the etymology mentioned "savate" which I have
not heard for a long time.
savate
n.
5Fr, orig., old shoe: see SABOT6 a form of boxing in which stiff-legged kicks as well as punches
may be used

WWI doughboys got some "kicks" out of French gendarmes, quite literally.
They came home with a little ditty: "The French they are a funny race, The fight with their feet,
and fxxx with their face." Much later many Americans adopted view "40 Million Frenchmen
can't be wrong."



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