Author Topic: what I have learned today. (Read 860425 times)

Basil · « **Reply #3875 on:** 19 November, 2019, 08:43:47 pm »

Quote from: pcolbeck on 16 November, 2019, 07:40:32 pm

I'm currently listening to a very long podcast series on the origins and development of English.

I'd be interested in this. Where do I find it?

ian · « **Reply #3876 on:** 19 November, 2019, 09:13:23 pm »

Quote from: Canardly on 19 November, 2019, 06:43:01 pm

That whilst making 1,000 of his UK staff redundant, Jamie Oliver paid himself £5.2 million in dividends last year.

To be fair, he didn't 'pay himself.'

I don't get the Jamie Oliver hate tbh, he seems a reasonable bloke who tries to do the right thing. His restaurant business (and not really his, he was just the name) failed along with lots of others. That is unfortunate but hardly I think Jamie Oliver's fault.

Canardly · « **Reply #3877 on:** 19 November, 2019, 09:17:28 pm »

I don't hate him at all, he is a really nice guy.

ian · « **Reply #3878 on:** 19 November, 2019, 09:19:26 pm »

Not you, more the generic stick he seems to get.

Pingu · « **Reply #3879 on:** 19 November, 2019, 09:22:27 pm »

Classic B-Ark material.

Ham · « **Reply #3880 on:** 20 November, 2019, 07:57:08 am »

I have learned, ok 'twas yesterday, that your ( fcvo "you" obv) lower hanging testicle is normally on the side opposite to your handed-ness, eg left for a right hander.

Guy · « **Reply #3881 on:** 20 November, 2019, 09:37:52 am »

Quote from: Basil on 19 November, 2019, 08:43:47 pm

Quote from: pcolbeck on 16 November, 2019, 07:40:32 pm

I'm currently listening to a very long podcast series on the origins and development of English.

I'd be interested in this. Where do I find it?

I don't know what pcolbeck is listening to, but I have a box set of CDs titled "Journeys in English" by Bill Bryson, about the origins and evolution of the English language,which was broadcast on R4 back in the 90s.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Journeys-English-Bill-Bryson/dp/0563496266

It is very Reithian in that it's both informative and entertaining.

T42 · « **Reply #3882 on:** 20 November, 2019, 01:44:11 pm »

The gas in a champagne bottle's pop breaks the sound barrier. Photographed at 12,000 frames/min it shows Mach discs.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #3883 on:** 21 November, 2019, 05:28:49 pm »

Quote from: Basil on 19 November, 2019, 08:43:47 pm

Quote from: pcolbeck on 16 November, 2019, 07:40:32 pm

I'm currently listening to a very long podcast series on the origins and development of English.

I'd be interested in this. Where do I find it?

http://historyofenglishpodcast.com

130 episodes sò far!

Canardly · « **Reply #3884 on:** 21 November, 2019, 05:44:38 pm »

I have a vague recollection of an OU broadcast sometime in the early '80s relating Glaswegian dialect to old english. When I in turn, reported this to a Scottish colleague from Greenock, he was not amused.

Kim · « **Reply #3885 on:** 21 November, 2019, 09:22:50 pm »

That the windscreen wiper blade thingy at the bottom of glass shower screens slides out and replacements can be obtained by the metre.

I was completely un-shocked to discover that The Great Thing About Standards applies...

Tim Hall · « **Reply #3886 on:** 21 November, 2019, 11:26:02 pm »

Ed Farrimond, close friend* of Ed Grundy off of The Archers, has a ~~knot~~ hitch named after him.

* On UMRA , a newsgroup for the sort of people who might listen to The Archers, this translates as "the actor who plays".

TheLurker · « **Reply #3887 on:** 22 November, 2019, 10:58:16 pm »

How the Minimoa got its name.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #3888 on:** 22 November, 2019, 11:12:10 pm »

I learned something today which I found quite startling.

But I've already forgotten what it was.

I'll be back when I'ver remembered.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #3889 on:** 22 November, 2019, 11:14:46 pm »

Oh, I know what! And it was yesterday ad not today.

According to my younger daughter, who lives in Melbourne, more Australians die from cold than from heat. This, it seems, is down to the Aussies' poor building regulations.

hellymedic · « **Reply #3890 on:** 23 November, 2019, 01:56:05 pm »

The melody for The Seekers hit 'The Carnival is Over' is a Russian song called 'Volga, Volga' from the late 19th Century.

T42 · « **Reply #3891 on:** 23 November, 2019, 02:35:24 pm »

Years ago - 60s, probably - I heard a member of the Soviet Army Ensemble singing it, with the Seekers' words.

hellymedic · « **Reply #3892 on:** 23 November, 2019, 03:05:29 pm »

It's a very sweet (almost syrupy?) melody that tugs on the heartstrings wired for nostalgia; looking at the Seekers YouTube vid comments, it seems a favourite for funerals...

T42 · « **Reply #3893 on:** 23 November, 2019, 03:08:17 pm »

I quite like it but I don't want to hear it at mine.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #3894 on:** 23 November, 2019, 11:04:50 pm »

There's a whole film called Volga-Volga, from 1938. It's described as a musical comedy so probably it features the song:
https://youtu.be/BoG9hajDtNs

There's also this song, but it doesn't sound the same to me:
https://youtu.be/44wzqWQxHpQ

Moleman76 · « **Reply #3895 on:** 23 November, 2019, 11:08:45 pm »

this may only interest fellow USAnians: according to the "scam alert" posted at the checkstand, Home Depot gift cards cannot be used to pay bail bonds.

hellymedic · « **Reply #3896 on:** 23 November, 2019, 11:20:45 pm »

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 23 November, 2019, 11:04:50 pm

There's also this song, but it doesn't sound the same to me:
https://youtu.be/44wzqWQxHpQ

That one does sound much the same to me, if half the tempo.

It was a Polish friend who Facebooked her piano version of Wolga Wolga that got me started...

CAMRAMan · « **Reply #3897 on:** 24 November, 2019, 07:15:01 pm »

Unless I wither whilst dying, I am too heavy to donate my body for medical research. 80Kg is the limit Leicester University set for their donors.

Basil · « **Reply #3898 on:** 24 November, 2019, 07:30:03 pm »

With the size some people get to I wouldn't be surprised if cremation started to add a premium for super huge bodies.

Basil · « **Reply #3899 on:** 24 November, 2019, 07:57:42 pm »

That the equals sign (=) was a Welsh invention.