what I have learned today.

[CarlF]

It's a very long way from Balmoral to Auld Reekie.

Especially if you start off by going fifty miles in the wrong direction

[robgul]

It's a very long way from Balmoral to Auld Reekie.

It's only about 103 miles direct but the way they went via Aberdeen made it closer to 160 - and at hearse speed took a loooong time

[ElyDave]

That there are two versions of the Royal Standard - one for Scotland and one for the rest of the UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Standard_of_the_United_Kingdom

Once again, Wales' presence on a flag is absent...

I assume that's 'cause Wales is a principality whereas Scotland is/was a kingdom in its own right?

[phantasmagoriana]

That there are two versions of the Royal Standard - one for Scotland and one for the rest of the UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Standard_of_the_United_Kingdom

Once again, Wales' presence on a flag is absent...

I assume that's 'cause Wales is a principality whereas Scotland is/was a kingdom in its own right?

Apparently so (https://www.royal.uk/royal-standard). I still think it's wrong that England* gets two bits of flag whilst Wales gets none!

*Or Scotland, depending on which version of said flag is used.

[Kim]

This royalty stuff isn't half complicated.  I suppose it's what they used to do before they invented computers or the financial services industry.

[Basil]

The word Catafalque.

[Mrs Pingu]

Psychopomp. I like that word.

[ian]

Psychopomp. I like that word.

In actuality, glorified bus conductors.

[fimm]

The origin of “to wait one’s turn” dates from waiting to have your grain milled.

cf. Welsh expression 'Y cyntaf i'r felin caiff falu'
first to the mill gets ground/milled first

(approx 'early bird catches the worm.')

Similarly in German "Wer zuerst kommt mahlt zuerst" (I think I've got that right) - "who comes first grinds (their corn) first" - meaning "First come, first served".

[rafletcher]

That Bemondsey has a beach. Or, more likley, a stretch of rubble strewn mud called the beach.

Oh, and what Milo is, although that was technically yesterday's nugget.

[T42]

The origin of “to wait one’s turn” dates from waiting to have your grain milled.

cf. Welsh expression 'Y cyntaf i'r felin caiff falu'
first to the mill gets ground/milled first

(approx 'early bird catches the worm.')

Similarly in German "Wer zuerst kommt mahlt zuerst" (I think I've got that right) - "who comes first grinds (their corn) first" - meaning "First come, first served".

And in French there's an expression "entrer comme dans un moulin" or "go in [somewhere] as if it's a mill", implying that anyone could walk into a mill any time.

[MattH]

That the Native American style chant at the start of Quantum Jump's The Lone Ranger from 1976/1979 is actually the Maori name for a hill in New Zealand.

[campagman]

that ancient Oaks are over 400 yrs old.

[ian]

The oldest yews are more than 2000 years old. We’d chop them down in minute to make room for another parking space.

[Tim Hall]

The oldest yews are more than 2000 years old. We’d chop them down in minute to make room for another parking space.

Parking spaces at the Tree Museum car park are in short supply.

[Mr Larrington]

The oldest yews are more than 2000 years old. We’d chop them down in minute to make room for another parking space.

There’s a few bristlecone pines over thataway //// that are more than 4000 years old, though since even the living ones look dead I'm not sure how they tell.

[mark]

The oldest yews are more than 2000 years old. We’d chop them down in minute to make room for another parking space.

There’s a few bristlecone pines over thataway //// that are more than 4000 years old, though since even the living ones look dead I'm not sure how they tell.

Someone took a core sample of the oldest one in 1957. I bicycled up to the Schulman Grove of bristlecone pines a few times in the late '80s/early '90s from the town of Big Pine.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The oldest yews are more than 2000 years old. We’d chop them down in minute to make room for another parking space.

Parking spaces at the Tree Museum car park are in short supply.

But the apples in the cafeteria are so glossy.

[JennyB]

The oldest yews are more than 2000 years old. We’d chop them down in minute to make room for another parking space.

Parking spaces at the Tree Museum car park are in short supply.

What do you expect for a dollar and a half?

[Mr Larrington]

The oldest yews are more than 2000 years old. We’d chop them down in minute to make room for another parking space.

There’s a few bristlecone pines over thataway //// that are more than 4000 years old, though since even the living ones look dead I'm not sure how they tell.

Someone took a core sample of the oldest one in 1957. I bicycled up to the Schulman Grove of bristlecone pines a few times in the late '80s/early '90s from the town of Big Pine.

Only went there once.  It snowed…

[Legs]

That 90s Aussie songstress Tina Arena's real name is, sadly, not Tina Arena.  It's even better than that.

[The French Tandem]

The origin of “to wait one’s turn” dates from waiting to have your grain milled.

cf. Welsh expression 'Y cyntaf i'r felin caiff falu'
first to the mill gets ground/milled first

(approx 'early bird catches the worm.')

Similarly in German "Wer zuerst kommt mahlt zuerst" (I think I've got that right) - "who comes first grinds (their corn) first" - meaning "First come, first served".

And in French there's an expression "entrer comme dans un moulin" or "go in [somewhere] as if it's a mill", implying that anyone could walk into a mill any time.

That's because the Frenchs won't queue politely before the mill the way the Brits or Germans will do 

[Kim]

That hogeheg quills glow under UV light.

[TheLurker]

That's because the Frenchs won't queue politely before the mill the way the Brits or Germans will do 

Ahem.

"The French initiated the line-of-people meaning in the 1790s, and the first uses noted by the OED either italicized it as a foreign word or used it in a Gallic context, as in this quote from Thomas Carlyle’s The French Revolution (1837): 'That talent … of spontaneously standing in queue, distinguishes … the French People.'"

See https://notoneoffbritishisms.com/2022/09/20/the-queue/

[ElyDave]

That's because the Frenchs won't queue politely before the mill the way the Brits or Germans will do 

Ahem.

"The French initiated the line-of-people meaning in the 1790s, and the first uses noted by the OED either italicized it as a foreign word or used it in a Gallic context, as in this quote from Thomas Carlyle’s The French Revolution (1837): 'That talent … of spontaneously standing in queue, distinguishes … the French People.'"

See https://notoneoffbritishisms.com/2022/09/20/the-queue/

Not in my experience!

Same with the Italians, look all nice and sedate until the gate is called, then its more elbows than a convention of octopodes