The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[jsabine]

I don't know - is your khazi upstairs in my house? Should I check?

Maybe it's a gateway to another universe.

It's a gateway to some prototype of the Feminist Republic of Juliana.

You've got me really worried now: not just a gateway to another world, but one that seems to take cues from both Bernard Manning

"When a man has to live in his mother-in-law's house, it tends to make him a little quiet," Pariat says.

and from Monty Python

A men's rights movement did emerge in the early 1960s but petered out after hundreds of Khasi women turned up at one of their meetings, armed with knives.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I have to confess I didn't read the article.    It was just the first handy thing that came up linked to the Khasi. There were a couple of Khasi in a place I used to work (and some Garu, another tribe from the same state - it was evident that tribal divisions overran state loyalties) and remembered their matrilineal surname system. The OED online says about khazi "Origin: 1960s: from Italian casa 'house' "

[clarion]

I thought the Khasi was from Kalabar.

[Bledlow]

The OED online says about khazi "Origin: 1960s: from Italian casa 'house' "

I doubt that. The OED is notoriously conservative on first recorded usage, with a strong tendency to go for the most recent possible origin. Eric Partridge derives it from carsey, a Cockney word for privy from the late C19, which may have derived from casa, via being used to mean a brothel. Seems much more likely to me.

The OED has a few odd etymologies, e.g. shop. Blindingly obvious to anyone except a certain type of English lexicographer, which prefers complicated, obscure, & IMO unlikely derivations.

[Wowbagger]

The OED online says about khazi "Origin: 1960s: from Italian casa 'house' "

I doubt that. The OED is notoriously conservative on first recorded usage, with a strong tendency to go for the most recent possible origin. Eric Partridge derives it from carsey, a Cockney word for privy from the late C19, which may have derived from casa, via being used to mean a brothel. Seems much more likely to me.

The OED has a few odd etymologies, e.g. shop. Blindingly obvious to anyone except a certain type of English lexicographer, which prefers complicated, obscure, & IMO unlikely derivations.

I can categorically state that the OED is wrong in that case. Where we lived in 1958 there was a small residential road named "Carsey Close"*. It caused considerable hilarity amongst my brothers and me, even then, although at the tender age of 4 I had to have the joke explained to me. I found it so hilarious that I had to rush off and use one.

*It is still there, despite some residents' attempts to get its name changed, eg to Shit-house Terrace

[Bledlow]

Excellent information. Thanks.

I'm not quite old enough to refute the OED etymology from personal experience, but I recall that kazi (under whatever spelling) was universally understood among people of all ages in my 1960s childhood, which made me suspect that the OED was wrong.

[clarion]

I'm pretty sure Milligan mentions Khazis in his 'autobiographies', which is well before the 60s (though the book was about 1970).  I see it as one of those sorts of words which were brought back and popularised by ex-servicemen after WWII

[Bledlow]

I suspect that the armed forces may have spread a cockney word (see Eric Partridge) to the country as a whole.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Clearly by 1968 it had reached Hollywood. Well, Pinewood anyway.

Anyway, I'd much prefer it come from Italian brothels than a tribe of people!

[Wowbagger]

I am planning a ride tomorrow, it being many weeks since I rode for pleasure in Essex, having been concentrating on Wales, Guernsey and Yorkshire. Having a valid return part of a ticket from Marks Tey to Southend, I thought I would ride out there. But bugger! There is a bus disservice operating between Billericay and Rayleigh which will be knackering at a time when I will already be knackered. This is almost certain to be in the rain as well. Bugger. And thrice bugger!

[Cudzoziemiec]

That would be a Rayleigh bus.

<swift exit>

[Chris S]

Weather forecaster.

"So, it looks like Autumn is here to stay, at least for now."

Really?

 

[Basil]

Rich Tea?  RICH TEA?  Who’s put a pack of Rice Tea biscuits in our biscuit box?
Rich Tea are only one step away from Cream Crackers. 
Go and buy some dark chocolate digestives, if it is your turn.  And proper ones too.  Not supermarket own brand.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I like Rich Tea.

[clarion]

Good dunkers.

[Kim]

Digestive system: Just make your bloody mind up already.   

[Vince]

Digestives are good dunkers too.

Did you see what I did there?

[andrewc]

Last night I sliced my left thumb while cutting tomatoes. This morning I burnt my right thumb on the Trangia........ :-(

Don't think I'd be suited to a job in catering....

[Andrij]

Last night I sliced my left thumb while cutting tomatoes. This morning I burnt my right thumb on the Trangia........ :-(

Don't think I'd be suited to a job in catering....

I disagree!  My brother is a chef - you should see what his hands look like. 

[fuzzy]

Last night I sliced my left thumb while cutting tomatoes. This morning I burnt my right thumb on the Trangia........ :-(

Don't think I'd be suited to a job in catering....

No No No No No! You have got it all wrong.

What you are supposed to do is slice your thumb (right or left, it matters not) after which you then burn the same thumb on the trangia, cauterising the wound.

HTH.

[Mrs Pingu]

So, Mr Doomandgloom, thanks very much for telling me that I'm almost certain to be squishified on the new commute next week which I'm already dreading.
Thanks a bunch.

[Tim Hall]

So, Mr Doomandgloom, thanks very much for telling me that I'm almost certain to be squishified on the new commute next week which I'm already dreading.
Thanks a bunch.

Well nuts to him.  I haven't met you, but you come across as a confident and capable person.  Those two things alone are a big big help, as you no doubt know, in having a safe and pleasant commute.  And that's before we factor in stuff like road sense and cycling experience.  He's talking through his hat.

[Mrs Pingu]

Tim, thank you for your kind words
I know, I wouldn't ordinarily pay much heed, but he takes a particular glee in that sort of thing and I'm not feeling all that confident about it which doesn't help (am going from a 7km 'walk in the park' to twice as long incl. 40mph lorry infested dual cabbageway).  I shall see what happens Monday.

[Vince]

Hmm... The USS (Under the Stairs Server) Server has gone very quiet. No sign of life at all. No response to the ON switch. Will have to remove all the food stacked around it and extract from the cupboard tonight to investigate. I only replaced the PSU recently.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Tim, thank you for your kind words
I know, I wouldn't ordinarily pay much heed, but he takes a particular glee in that sort of thing and I'm not feeling all that confident about it which doesn't help (am going from a 7km 'walk in the park' to twice as long incl. 40mph lorry infested dual cabbageway).  I shall see what happens Monday.

I've ridden through and out of Aberdeen on the dual carriageways (A596 by any chance?) a few times.

Nice wide shoulders (if a little strewn with debris in some bits). Quite a few roundabouts.

Nothing that an experienced rider like yourself should have any issue with at all.