Rogie

What is the significance of the wording in the second illustration of post #46 "Sailor, find his cutlass" ? Has one of the sailors lost his, and if so why address another sailor rather than the one who's lost his. I wonder why some sailors had pigtails? I like long hair in men myself, but on board ship it must have been a bit of a pain to keep your hair looking neat and tidy. When I see somebody with dreadlocks I cringe somewhat wondering when their scalp last saw a bottle of shampoo. Ships must have had a barber (maybe the same chap that did the amputations ) so easy enough to keep the crew's hair short and sweet-smelling I would have thought. 'z' in such words looks horroble to me, but I guess to American eyes the 's' does too. Call that a mini-quiz? I suppose it would be if all the expressions are related, but I'm not clear if they are. Wasn't Mergenthaler one of the M's in M & M's? The other guy, could he have been 'em-dash' (M-dash) or a certain Mr Mutt? I am eagerly waiting for the meaning of chicken-plucker to be explained.

Teenager's stomach removed after drinking cocktail http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/19866191

Definitely a swell destination! How about the Four Seasons FH? Would that suit you? "In the South Pacific, Bora Bora – the most famous of French Polynesia’s Leeward Islands, and recently awarded the title of “the best island in the world” by U.S. News – invites you to immerse yourself in a tropical paradise." The photos on the website are absolutely stunning. http://www.fourseasons.com/borabora/

Some more about why sailors often wore gold or silver earrings: http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/1181-why-did-pirates-wear-earrings-.html

The powder monkey was often a young lad or short sailor because it meant they were less of a target for the enemy guns, being able to keep out of sight better that a strapping 6-footer. It must have been extremely dangerous work. I don't suppose many powder monkies survived into middle or old age. Sailors often wore a gold earing but I would be surprised if any wore makeup, that wouldn't have gone down too well with His Majesties Navy or any other western country. I am not aware of Thailand having a navy back in the days naval battles were common. If they had, I expect makeup might have been used as some of the sailors would have been ladyboys (unless they were deemed unfit for service; if so that would have been a shame as they might have fulfilled other useful functions . . . )

Yes, I'm familiar with the powder monkey which was the person, often a young lad, whose job it was to get the gunpowder, from wherever it was stored, to the guns. The brass monkey expression is a good one, and if you haven't heard it before, it's pretty unlikely you'd guess it correctly. How about the expression "mind your P's and Q's"? I've come across it but don't know its origins.

Being a naturally suspicious fellow of human nature (learnt through hard experience, my natural inclination is to be far too trusting!) I am even more suspicious of anything faceless, like talking on the phone with somebody you don't know, and I am even more suspicious yet if there is no human involvement at all, such as a deal done over the 'net to buy something, especially if that deal was decided by yet another on line site purporting to get you the 'best deal'. Sorry, but buying something on one site as a result of relying on a totally different site, in which no human face or even voice is involved, has to be some kind of mad 21st Century lunacy. Such is man's eagerness to get the 'best deal'. No doubt Stone Age man was the same. Offer him a bigger wheel for his cart he'd go for it, not bothering to check what stone it was made from. First stonemason he proudly showed his new cart to has to break the news his new 'wheels' are crap.

Some revealing comments following the blog entry. http://www.towleroad.com/2012/10/ny-times-op-ed-offers-glimpse-of-being-gay-down-south.html

I'm gonna dock it in the dock, silly! I guess no amount of bravado can disguise my abject failure to suss that one out. I've definitely gone off seafaring and have resolved never to run away to sea to seek my fortune. I shall evade the pressgangs and what's more the king can keep his shilling! I need a glass of good vintage port to steady my frayed nerves. 2000 was a good year, maybe khun FH has a bottle going spare!

Not quite clear who you are apologising to! Are you equating fussy people with grammar snobs? It is true few people like snobs, except for the snobs themselves, and they probably have little inkling how much they irk others. I grant you, grammar snobs can indeed be irritating, but it depends. If you reckon a person who values precision and accuracy in the English language as a snob, simply because he does, then he is no snob in my book. People who attack snobs, or even worse, accuse people of being one when they are not, are just as bad as a dyed-in-the-wool genuine blue-rinse snob. Not clear what you mean by speed writing. If you are comparing the way people write nowadays with traditional methods then of course things have changed. Beautiful cursive script (no longer taught in many schools) has given way to ugly un-joined up writing. And that is if they can be bothered to pick up a pen or pencil. The computer keyboard and the text function on phones has already sounded the death knell of the handwritten letter, the billet-doux, etc., with perhaps just the kind you send to somebody on the occasion of a bereavement remaining. I've never been to a Morlam (let's see if Bob's Thai script in his post #4 can be copied and pasted . . .หมอลำ ), but I have heard they are popular. I am sorry to hear it got spoiled by the heavy rain.

A couple more wild guesses: is it related to portholes? or Porters? (the guys who lug the stuff aboard). Or, anything to do with import/export?

I well remember the cold-blooded murder of more than 60 tourists in 1997 as that was only a few years after I had visited Egypt. It was a pre-planned ambush by Islamic militants as the tourists disembarked from their buses in the Valley of the Kings. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/18/world/70-die-in-attack-at-egypt-temple.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

It may seem fussy to you, but guys whose first language is English do not appreciate reading sloppy spelling mistakes and bad syntax (grammar). Same as hearing a native English speaker who punctuates every other few words with "you know" or a modern trend to inject the word "like" quite inappropriately (IMO). There's no excuse for an English-speaker to be inarticulate or use bad or foul language. I dislike the tendency for younger people to end a sentence as if they are asking a question. And I could go on and on and bore the pants off everybody! Please note I am generalising here and not addressing my comments to any individual poster. The main point I am trying to get over is that native English speakers are not fussy, they just dislike it when their beautiful language is abused. Fair enough, it shows you are a tolerant and accommodating chap. I suspect that is because you speak more slowly than a native English speaker and you probably have an accent which is an easy one for Thai people to understand - some of us native speakers talk quite quickly so anyone listening whose grasp of English isn't too great will find it hard to fully comprehend, plus some accents are harder to follow than others. They may get the drift, but not the specifics. Fountainhall in a recent post gave an example of an American woman from the southern states who was teaching English in a Thai school. The kids couldn't understand her (according to her anyway). Agreed

Let me see, if the starboard was the side the boat was steered from, then port must relate to some function that was carried out on the other side. A few guesses (and it will be obvious I am utterly flying kites as I have almost zero nautical knowledge apart from sailing on a yacht once): it is the side the anchor is dropped the side the fishing nets are hauled aboard (assuming it is a fishing boat!) the side the dinghy is lowered (or any similar kind of vessel used to transport seamen to 'port') so, following on from previous guess, 'port' could just be shorthand for 'transport' the location for the infamous plank, as in 'walk the plank' Apart from one guess I have no idea where the actual word 'port' was derived from.

That's the title of an interesting article in the New York Times (courtesy of khun Koko: as I was reading the NYT link in connection with the ebony and adobe quiz I spotted it). Has anyone come across either of those expressions: a “little light in the loafers" or has “sugar in his britches.” ? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/opinion/were-here-were-queer-yall.html?src=me&ref=general

Looks like we have tracked down the part of the world the words originated but we haven't worked out how they were formed. As ancient Egyptian uses hieroglyphs where a word is often composed of recognisable shapes like a fish or a duck and adding two or more together makes the word. I am guessing Sumerian (if that's the language of that tablet in post #7) is similar. So the word adobe will be formed by two or more component parts, ditto ebony. Both words contain the letters 'o', 'b' and 'e' next to each other, albeit reversed. If my reasoning is on the right track, the origin of adobe and ebony is similar, once we know what the 'obe' part means we're halfway there. But thereafter my pen runs dry . . .

Bob beat me to it, I was thinking Bhutan too. But, actually it might not fulfil all the criteria set by FH's travel lottery. Why? Well, I could be wrong, but I would bet there aren't any 4 Star hotels in Bhutan. Ok, even if there are, I suspect you'd have a jolly difficult job spending $1,500 in seven days. Even if there are 4 Star hotels and you blow the 1,500 nicker, it would be a real shame to go to Bhutan and be stuck in the same hotel for seven days. I'd want to see the whole country, or at least as much as is realistic in a week. I would opt for either the hotel near the Taj Mahal that Michael stayed in a while back (although that's cheating as I have been to india but not the Taj!), so if I couldn't cheat it'd have to be a new country, so I think I'd plump for Brazil and stay in Rio.

Thanks. I had a similar idea and copied onto my Yahoo notepad, and from there pasted into a post. That was fine if youi leave it at that, but if for any reason you wish to edit the post, after you have edited the problem surfaces. The problem as i see it is the editing function. (see the thread in the Beer Bar re Britishisms, posts #17 and 19)

Ok, sorry about post # 17. This time I just copied and pasted and clicked 'post'. I did not go back to use the edit. Let's see if it works ok this time! Prof Yagoda has found regular, genuine examples of expressions that only six years ago – when I lived in New York – would have sounded preposterous in an American mouth. I never heard a single New Yorker say “fingers crossed”, but now it is used regularly in Delaware. The professor has found shops that advertise their “opening hours”, where once they would have listed just “hours”.

Here is part of the quote in post #14 that got mangled. The first one I added by copy and paste and as you can see it is fine. The second one was added in the same way but I then went back into my post and edited it. This caused the problem! It is something to do with the editing software (or whatever the correct technical exp<b></b>ressi&#111;n is). Later: Ha, that word we cannot use that begins with 'e' has been mangled even in a non-cut and paste comment. Bob had that happen to him a while ago in another thread I seem to recall. Please see post #19 and ignore my first paragraph above. _________________________________________________________________ Prof Yagoda has found regular, genuine examples of exp<b></b>ressi&#111;ns that only six years ago – when I lived in New York – would have sounded preposterous in an American mouth. I never heard a single New Yorker say “fingers crossed”, but now it is used regularly in Delaware. The professor has found shops that advertise their “opening hours”, where once they would have listed just “hours”. Prof Yagoda has found regular, genuine examples of exp<b></b>ressi&amp;amp;#111;ns that only six years ago – when I lived in New York – would have sounded preposterous in an American mouth. I never heard a single New Yorker say “fingers crossed”, but now it is used regularly in Delaware. The professor has found shops that advertise their “opening hours”, where once they would have listed just “hours”.

There's nowt like a good quiz to tantalise us cheeky Brits, but, finger's crossed, we're dab hands at inventing things. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/9581982/Crossed-fingers-and-dab-hands-how-English-is-invading-America-again.html

No idea as to origins. Just to state the obvious, Adobe is some kind of brick, so one might come across the description 'adobe hut' for example. Ebony is a kind of black wood (sometimes contrasted with ivory).

Occasionally someone will get caught out like that, especially now the number of sports commentators has mushroomed in recent years. At one time if you wanted to know about the result of a sports game you either had to go to the game yourself, listen to the live commentary on the radio, read about it in the newspaper the next day, or if you were very lucky it'd be on TV later that evening. In Britain we had Match of the Day (Football = soccer) but that only featured one game as TV cameras were not present at the majority of games. Before 'Match of the Day' unless you were present yourself at a football match, the only time it was shown live on TV was the Cup Final, or once every four years, the World Cup. Golf was on British TV and the BBC had a wonderful commentator, Henry Longhurst, but in general sport coverage on British TV was very patchy. Newpapers and on-line sites are now full of journalists of all shapes and sizes who write what I call column-fillers, they just spout their opinions about all and sundry, so many of them are really just pseudo-journalists IMO. But most sports journalists who write for the traditional press by and large know what they are writing about and don't take silly risks. Not so the on-line sites. This Gene guy took a silly risk, one he'd calculated was a small one. Unfortunately he allowed his journalistic instincts to be overrun by hyperbole of the worst kind, with nasty cynical turns of phrase. That Everest comment, and others he made were just plain puerile. You can get away with those kinds of fancy phrases on message boards like this, read by hundreds at the most, but not on a dedicated sports website read by how many? hundreds of thousands? millions even? There is now so much money in sport, and so many TV channels, on-line sites etc all clammouring for you to sign up in order to feed their ever-increasing greed (to be fair it's not just sport). There are now so many wannabe sports commentators all wanting a slice of the sports action pie, inevitably most will struggle to make a name for themselves. Hence some will take risks. Some will be idiosyncratic, ultra-opinated, others will be sober and only write or say things in the manner of a true professional. Or, to use the example quoted as a metaphor - some may dress conservatively, and some may wear T-shirts, cargo shorts and flip-flops. .

Here's a fascinating account of a screwball idea: Stephen Hough, writing in the Telegraph, says: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/stephenhough/100066715/curing-homosexuality-and-the-canadian-fruit-machine/