Jul 5th 2012 08:10 am A Time to Bill III
I hope you had a happy and relaxing Independence Day! Kind of takes something off the occasion when it falls on a Wednesday, doesn’t it? However, it’s better than having the “Fourth of July” be the first Monday of the month.
This week was “Vacation Week” in the industrial area where I grew up. All the textile mills closed for the week of the fourth, and everyone was given a vacation at the same time. The joke we told on ourselves was that they’d have to sweep the lint off the beaches of Panama City after Vacation Week. I could never fully appreciate the humor, because vacation at our house usually meant helping my father with a major project around the house or yard.
Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J
137 Responses to “A Time to Bill III”
Galliglo in Ohio on 05 Jul 2012 at 8:23 am #
Yes, vacation was time to do things that you did not have the time or energy to do during the regular “work” year. And, in my family, there was never any extra money to go anywhere!
I was speaking with a friend a few years ago, regarding the unexpected layoff of her husband from a very good paying job in the local mines. She said that one of the hardest things about her husband’s change in work status – they no longer were able to take an annual vacation trip… huh?
Sylvia in MS on 05 Jul 2012 at 8:58 am #
I once worked in a sewing factory. Had to be the worst job of my life, at the time! Never could make production no matter how hard and fast I sewed. The only job I ever walked away from without giving notice. We were given the week of July 4th and Christmas week off as vacation. At least I got those weeks off!
Symply Fargone on 05 Jul 2012 at 9:17 am #
No bittersweet battles today! Best job in the world today! Three grandsons over for a swim….Grilled food for dinner(notice in deference to you true Bar-B-Quers out there I said grilled food!). The best treat a grandfather can have is grandchildren pay a visit. I am going to have a Symply Fargone day! Hope you do too
Bob, near Mark on 05 Jul 2012 at 9:21 am #
Panama City is too hot for a July vacation.
In September of 2010, on the way to Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport just after a vacation in Alabama, I stopped with my daughter and her husband to play miniature golf at Pirates Island in Panama City Beach. It was more than just a little warm out. I had to wash up and change clothes before I dared get on the plane.
phil in Missoula, MT on 05 Jul 2012 at 9:31 am #
I don’t know why people flock to the Destin and Panama City in the summer time. It’s too darn hot and you can blister your feet on the sand. October or November is a good time and you don’t have to look so hard over your shoulder for approaching hurricanes. And the rents they want in the summer…wow. I guess it is because that’s when people with kids can go.
Ruth on 05 Jul 2012 at 9:43 am #
Milwaukee set a new high temp of 102 record on the on the 4th. Between the excessive heat, the drought conditions, and the 4th being a Wed, it was a pretty subdued 4th. Several of the suburbs cancelled their fireworks due to the danger of fire. The people down the block, who usually set off fireworks until 2 or 3 am, didn’t set any off last night.
Mindy on 05 Jul 2012 at 10:06 am #
Yesterday was exhausting. Came online to check in here several times just to get a break from being “on holiday.” Did get some sun, did go into town with my ______ colored sundress, did have some visitors we enjoyed and some who were unwelcome. [Most unwelcome visitors, ironically, were relatives.] John pigged out, ate and ate and ate. Being the demur {spelling?} Southren Lady, I ate like a bird.
And then after the formal fireworks courtesy of local governments, John set off some homemade stuff. Under Virginia law, “explosive” fireworks that “make loud noises” and “create disorienting flashes of light” are illegal. None of John’s did that. Nah. The local police officers were on hand after handling the madding crowd to attest to that…and to ask how he created some of his toys. I wouldn’t let him launch his “October Sky” masterpiece. Homeland Security would have thought it was a SAM. Hope everyone had a great, safe holiday.
Jimmy, I can relate with the helping father on major projects. Didn’t appreciate it at the time, of course, but Lord knows I wish I could do it again with him just one more time!
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 05 Jul 2012 at 10:23 am #
After a month or two of no rain, we have had about 3-4 major storms go through. Not the slow soaking rain that is needed, but at this point, beggers can’t be choosers. My neighbor shot off some fireworks on Sunday night and parachuted flags on my roof. We don’t talk much, so I would guess that he was apprehensive, but I was a nice guy and told him that I needed to get the pine needles off my roof anyway. While I was up there, I decided to blow out all of the needles and leaves out of the eaves. I threw them all in a wheelbarrow. Being a lazy weekend, I did not put the wheelbarrow away. Last night when I got home after the latest storm, the wheelbarrow was completely full of water. I better go empty that out and dig new fence posts so that the fence doesn’t down.
Bob in Central FL on 05 Jul 2012 at 11:00 am #
Lived across the sound from Pensacola Beach for about 5 years back in the 60s. Loved it.
As for having the fourth fall mid-week, think about if we had no Independance Day to celebrate.
Yesterday was the hottest day this summer. 93 degrees. I can live with that.
phil in Missoula, MT on 05 Jul 2012 at 11:06 am #
Instead of going to the beach and blistering your feet in Florida, you could come to Montana. At the moment it is 54 deg, heading for a high in the mid 70s. The Going to the Sun Road in Glacier NP is open and can go up and freeze your feet if you choose. The eastern end of the state is on fire and burning up however. Don’t wait too long, because the western side will undoubtedly dry out and catch fire somewhere by August.
Bob in Central FL on 05 Jul 2012 at 11:11 am #
Me again. Never had a “worst” job. During the last part of WW II I worked in a cannery with German POWs. We got thrown together in the same crews whether in the plant or in the fields harvesting. The POWs had a hot lunch brought to them. I brought my lunch box and they were always asking to find out what I had brought. They generally worked an eight hour shift, while I might put in a sixteen hour day. All for fifty cents an hour. I had no complaints tho. Enjoyed working with them and learning a little foreign language.
John in Virginia on 05 Jul 2012 at 11:37 am #
Took me a minute, Bob in Central FL, to understand. Must have did a Mindy or something?
I’ll probably get in trouble for this but….The POWs worked 8 hours and had lunch provided, you worked 16 hours and had to furnish your own food. Why is it that we always seem to treat others, even hostile combatants, better than we treat our own people? I see elderly people in the store, people who have worked hard and constantly all their lives, debating whether to spend money on food, medicine or utilities. I see those same people living on pinto beans and potatoes while others, who have never worked a lick in their lives, who are too lazy to swat a fly, and who are third or fourth generation professionals at doing nothing taking home steak and all sorts of frozen and/or pre-cooked/pre-prepared meals…ah, sorry, I apologize and promise, no more politics for at least six months.
Sit, John! Sit!
Nancy in Bucks County on 05 Jul 2012 at 11:54 am #
Had the pleasure of camping at Grayton Beach State Park, Florida a couple of years ago. $16 a night and a beautiful beach. We rode bikes to the high rent district nearby and enjoyed the gelati. One of our best vacations.
Introduced the grandkids (2 and 4 yrs old) to a Slip and Slide yesterday. My daughter (30) showed them how to make it work. Hilarious! Keep cool everyone!
Boise Ed on 05 Jul 2012 at 1:24 pm #
Bob near Mark, I’ll bet you then got to sit next to someone who hadn’t done that. And who was flying home to Nome and dressed for it.
John in Virginia, I’ve wondered that every time I hear about an imprisoned murderer getting an expensive organ transplant, while the state is firing teachers, police, and firemen.
Ghost Rider 6 on 05 Jul 2012 at 2:32 pm #
But John! Don’t you know? The food stamp program is GREAT for the economy. Just ask our elected officials in Washington. We need MORE people enrolled and we’re in fact ADVERTISING for them to sign up. All you have to do is to ignore (as some of these officials apparently do) where the money comes from to pay for these programs. I often wonder what planet they’re from. I have no problem with people, especially children, receiving aid they truly need, but come on….well-dressed individuals driving Escalades? And that’s not something I heard on Fox News, it’s something I’ve seen firsthand. OK, I’m through now, too.
Sorry I missed your fireworks. I saw a local commercially-sponsored show Tuesday night. But as someone said the other day, it was a lot like sex…when it was all over, I wondered where I’d left my car keys.
And tell Mandy if she didn’t wear a yellow sundress yesterday after she said she would, it’s OK. I’ll probably get over it in a few years.
Bob, near Mark on 05 Jul 2012 at 2:39 pm #
Boise Ed, I don’t remember who I sat next to, but I’ll bet they were glad I washed up and changed.
Pirate’s Island, the mini-golf course we played, had had Pres. & Mrs. Obama and the girls for customers a couple of weeks earlier. My daughter frequented the place, so the owner was showing us a bunch of photos of the First Family’s visit.
I don’t know if Pres. Obama had to wash up and change before he got on board Air Force One.
Mary in Ohio on 05 Jul 2012 at 3:46 pm #
Ghost – are you hallucinating Mandy now? There was a full page ad about that in the paper today (advertising an upcoming concert.)
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 05 Jul 2012 at 4:17 pm #
Oh Mandy, Well you came and you gave without taking…
sandcastler on 05 Jul 2012 at 4:46 pm #
Bob, near Mark – The President has a shower for his private use on Air Force One.
CW in 617 on 05 Jul 2012 at 4:58 pm #
If I could back up to the unconventional hair coloring –
Blinky, in my day we called it the “Green Mungies.” Copper in the water would make much sense.
Being at a high risk for melanoma, I have to wear long-sleeved shirts in the hot sun. However, in my neighborhood there is no such thing as weird-looking, despite my best efforts.
Ghost Rider 6 on 05 Jul 2012 at 5:01 pm #
I’ll use the lawyer’s defense. I didn’t actually type “Mandy.” I don’t even know a Mandy. And if I did, I wouldn’t be typing her name, anyway.
As far as me hallucinating, it’s never entirely outside the realm of possibility.
And I guess the really important thing is that JOHN doesn’t know Mandy.
Mark in TTown on 05 Jul 2012 at 5:29 pm #
GR6, or barring that, that Mindy doesn’t know about Mandy!
Mandy on 05 Jul 2012 at 5:37 pm #
GR6, you told me you would never forget me. Now I feel like a cheap one night stand.
John in Virginia on 05 Jul 2012 at 5:41 pm #
Unfortunately, Ghost, I DO know Mandy…and your comment about NOT knowing Mandy…well…let’s say fertile female imaginations…since Mindy knows Mandy…and does not like the woman…Don’t misunderstand me, I’m NOT condemning either Food Stamps or unemployment! Those program are worth their weight in Rubidium, which is worth more than gold @ $75,000/gram. What I do object to is the “professional” social service recipients, the fourth and fifth generation types, who sometimes work, always off the books, but rarely, who do buy the steaks and the other high-end stuff leaving actual workers to root-hog it. [Mindy's phrase.]
Oh, did six months pass that quickly? Sorry. Now I’ll have Mindy and Mandy griping at me for climbing on the soapbox and preaching again. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Lost in A**2 on 05 Jul 2012 at 5:42 pm #
(The POWs were ‘guests’ of the US Gov’t. Their care and feeding came out of the Federal coffers. Bob was working on his own. I wonder if anyone was paid for their labour: them or the Feds. I suspect they were, else it would be ‘slave labour’ under the relevant treaties in force at the time.)
Craig T on 05 Jul 2012 at 7:23 pm #
I don’t know if the Callaway mills were on the same schedule as the West Point Pepperell, but my father worked at one or the other most of my early years, and we always went to Jekyll or St. Pete or PCB at around the same time each other.
Bob, near Mark on 05 Jul 2012 at 7:57 pm #
Sandcastler, I bet they let Mrs Obama use it, too.
sandcastler on 05 Jul 2012 at 8:06 pm #
Bob, near Mark – only the Secret Service knows who showers with the President and they seldom talk.
Mindy on 05 Jul 2012 at 8:30 pm #
Is that really how they “launder” money?
Mark in TTown on 05 Jul 2012 at 8:36 pm #
The twist in the conversation about professional recipients makes me think of my favorite Don Henley song:”Get Over It”. For someone who has been in the California scene for years,(Henley, that is) I was surprised to hear the sentiments he put into it. I agree with them, just surprised to hear them from him.
sandcastler on 05 Jul 2012 at 8:40 pm #
Mindy, I use the pass thru method to launder money but, that is a story for a day in the very distant future.
Jerry in Fl on 05 Jul 2012 at 8:48 pm #
Shocking fire pictures:
http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2012/6/27/colorado-
wildfires-waldo-canyon-fire-colorado–springs/5732/
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 05 Jul 2012 at 9:17 pm #
Mark in TTown:
Henley grew up in Texas, but his Eagles’ partner Glenn Frey grew up in Royal Oak, MI. The rumor was that he frequented the house accross the street from my first house in Royal Oak to buy drugs. He left Royal Oak years before I moved there. As a matter of fact I saw the Eagles in concert (with Joe Walsh) when I was going to school at Purdue.
Mark in TTown on 05 Jul 2012 at 11:06 pm #
Steve from Royal Oak, MI. Interesting. I have never seen them live. My younger brother is the real Eagles fan in our family. I am three years older and got hooked on Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Moody Blues, etc. I saw Pink Floyd on their last tour when they played Legion Field in Birmingham and have never seen any show I enjoyed more. I have also seen The Moody Blues twice in smaller amphitheater settings with symphony accompaniment, and these were excellent also.
Lynn from Memphis on 05 Jul 2012 at 11:29 pm #
Watching fireworks explode over the Mississippi river while sitting on a downtown rooftop….. Doesn’t get much better!
Jean from Dahlonega Ga aka Trapper Jean on 06 Jul 2012 at 7:36 am #
My Dad was in the Army when I was born, and since my Mom refused to be moved “from pillar to post” as she put it, she and I stayed in one place. Therefore, vacations were when Dad got leave and came home. His vacation consisted of doing all the stuff he wasn’t home to do any other time. Once he retired and took a job driving a truck delivering ice cream to grocery stores we still didn’t get to take vacations-not enough money-but we did have all the ice cream we wanted. Hey, just because the sell-by date is up doesn’t mean ice cream has gone bad, but the store will throw it away anyhow. We just allowed it to reach it’s intended destiny.
phil in Missoula, MT on 06 Jul 2012 at 8:11 am #
Thanks for the fire photo collection Jerry. Terrifying to be near those things and heartbreaking to see the results.
There are two major fires in SE Montana right now totaling almost 500 square miles and some smaller ones. There is a big one (160 sq miles) east of Delta, UT, which I think is where TruckerRon may make his abode. Haven’t heard from Ron for a while. You got your ears on there, Bud?
Mindy on 06 Jul 2012 at 8:47 am #
John is all upset. He saw video of the San Diego fireworks display and had to admit that it was far more pyrotechnical than his. It’s a shame that all that money was spent and the crowd got only 15 seconds of display! Wonder what went wrong?
Ghost Rider 6 on 06 Jul 2012 at 10:32 am #
Computer glitch. Someone probably typed a wrong letter.
Sorry about the name spelling error, Mindy.
Mindy on 06 Jul 2012 at 11:46 am #
My keyboard can’t speel either, Ghost!
sandcastler on 06 Jul 2012 at 11:54 am #
Mindy, if your keyboard is unable to spell either just never use either.
Ghost Rider 6 on 06 Jul 2012 at 12:36 pm #
Mindy, if you’d like, you can call me “Goose Rider 6” (one time only, please), and we’ll call it even.
Steve from Royal Oak, Mi on 06 Jul 2012 at 4:00 pm #
Mindy: …the crowd only got 15 seconds…blamed on a computer glitch. Is that going to be our excuse now? There is a joke in there somewhere.
Power just went out & it is 97 degrees. We think they turned off half the town on order to work on other folks who have been without power. It has been an hour & a half. May have to eat out. I spent the day sealing the driveway, so thank God for my gas water heater.
Mindy on 06 Jul 2012 at 6:20 pm #
Steve from Royal Oak, Mi I will NOT tought that computer glitch and 15 second line with a very large bamboo stalk. I refuse to yield to temptation. Good idea, sandcastler, but I always prefur to leave a choice and either is vital. As for Gross Rider, itsa deel.
Mindy on 06 Jul 2012 at 6:21 pm #
Actually, Theodore Roosevelt once proposed that American English spelling be changed to what is not unlike what has preceded this. That was before speel check, howsomever. Just thought I’d throw that in.
Steve from Royal Oak, Mi on 06 Jul 2012 at 6:37 pm #
Mindy: Glad you caught the joke.
sandcastler on 06 Jul 2012 at 6:51 pm #
And had Herr B. Franklin’s view of a national language prevailed we would alles dieser ziet Dutche sprechen.
Bob, near Mark on 06 Jul 2012 at 7:05 pm #
And if B. Franklin’s views had prevailed, the National Bird would be a turkey.
As far as the Gerglish language goes (don’t remember where this came from):
The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been
reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European
communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British government has conceded that
English spelling has some room for improvement and has accepted a
five-year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for
short).
In the first year, “s” will be used instead of the soft “c”.
Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard
“c” will be replaced with “k”. Not only will this klear up konfusion, but
typewriters kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the
troublesome “ph” will be replaced by “f”. This will make words like
“fotograf” 20 per sent shorter.
In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be
expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always
ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes
of silent “e’s” in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.
By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing
“th” by “z” and “w” by ” v”.
During ze fifz year, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords
kontaining “ou”, and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer
kombinations of leters.
After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be
no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand
echozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru.
Bob, near Mark on 06 Jul 2012 at 7:06 pm #
Spell-check went nuts with that last post.
Ghost Rider 6 on 06 Jul 2012 at 7:36 pm #
I’m not sure I’m ready for a world in which there are correct misspellings and incorrect misspellings.
Dear Mindy, you win. (Bet you’ve never heard that before. Ha!)
Mindy on 06 Jul 2012 at 7:51 pm #
Ghost, yes, but those are stories for yet another day!
I once read that English is the language of diplomacy, French the language of the bedroom and German the language of the stable. An Englishman wrote that, of course. As for the French part [you know to whom I am speaking], don’t even go there!
Ghost Rider 6 on 06 Jul 2012 at 8:04 pm #
Yeah, I saw where the San Diego fireworks show reached a “point culminant prématurée.” Quelle dommage, encore une fois.
You know, things do sound sexier in French.
Mindy from Indy on 06 Jul 2012 at 9:02 pm #
Bob, near Mark, I’ve read that one before, but it always amazes me how you can still read everything as you progress with relative ease, but if you try to read the last few sentences on their own, they become much more difficult to comprehend. I love punctuation/grammar humor.
Ghost Rider 6 on 06 Jul 2012 at 9:14 pm #
Lady Mindy, I enjoyed your hirsute tale. (I wouldn’t dare let spell check get aholt of that.) Somehow, I think the term “free spirit” may not nearly do you justice. I’ve been thinking that most of the regulars here remind me of people I know. (Even Dear Mindy. You see, I have this friend and co-worker who has ADD, and sometimes when she forgets to take her meds…well, that’s a tale for yet another day.) But I’m pretty sure you don’t remind me of anyone I know. Which is not a bad thing.
I really don’t know what the etiquette is for this, so let me know if I’m out of line, but…got any interesting tatts?
Mindy on 06 Jul 2012 at 9:14 pm #
Morticia Addams went ballistic when Gomez spoke French, if you recall, Ghost. But if you ask nicely, I’ll tell you the legend on the John and Mindy coat of arms which is Latin. Noto bene that I listed John first as is only correct.
Lost in A**2 on 06 Jul 2012 at 9:48 pm #
As Andrew Jackson said, “‘Tis a poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word.”
The ‘silent e’ isn’t so silent: “hop” and “ho-pe”. Somewhen along the line, I heard about “closed” and “open” syllables: CVC and CV. Closed syllables have short vowels, and open syllables have long vowels. That final e was, once upon a time, pronounced.
Pronouncing “draughts” and “drafts” alike is fun.
Bob, near Mark on 06 Jul 2012 at 9:55 pm #
Mindy from Indy,
I don’t know who wrote it, but I copied that version of Gerglish (on a typewriter!) some time in the early ’70s. There was a slightly rewritten version around when Arnold was governor of California.
Ghost Rider 6 on 06 Jul 2012 at 9:58 pm #
Amazingly, I was thinking just the other day, “I’ll bet John and Mindy have a coat of arms, which undoubtedly has a legend, which I’ll wager is Latin. I wonder what it is?”
Please tell me.
Bob, near Mark on 06 Jul 2012 at 10:34 pm #
GR6,
It’s probably “Mortem ad Bamboo. Vivat herba”.
TruckerRon on 06 Jul 2012 at 10:39 pm #
Yep, phil in Missoula, MT, I’m alive and well, just a bit too busy to read as many posts as I usually do. On the 4th I spent the morning playing my clarinet next to the parade route with some other old fogies to entertain the crowd until the marching bands showed up. It’s a nice gig since it gets us seats on the shady side of the street.
That evening I got to sit with our most handicapped daughter while the eldest worked at the local movie house and my wife and youngest girl went to Provo’s Stadium of Fire (Beach Boys performed).
Yesterday and today were catch-up days at Habitat for Humanity where I ironed out a database problem. Heck, I haven’t read any of today’s comics yet!
Bob, near Mark on 06 Jul 2012 at 10:48 pm #
Or, “Gallico locutus hic.”?
Ghost Rider 6 on 06 Jul 2012 at 11:13 pm #
“Etiamnunc alius dies,” perhaps?
Ghost Rider 6 on 07 Jul 2012 at 12:12 am #
“Gustatus similis pullus”?
Mindy on 07 Jul 2012 at 1:12 am #
Bob’s suggestion is so much better than my own that I’m reluctant to share ours now.
Ghost Rider 6 on 07 Jul 2012 at 9:01 am #
So what were mine, chopped liver?
Mandy on 07 Jul 2012 at 9:03 am #
Poor, poor, GR6. Now you know how I feel.
Mindy on 07 Jul 2012 at 9:10 am #
Hi, Mandy!
Ghost Rider 6 on 07 Jul 2012 at 9:30 am #
Hey, I already told you you won.
I don’t why I so desperately seek your approval…I’ll have to bring that up in my next session.
Mindy on 07 Jul 2012 at 11:15 am #
Wait…Ghost has friend…ADD…and that reminds him of me? I think I’ll go fix something cold for lunch.
Jerry in Fl on 07 Jul 2012 at 11:21 am #
Carpe Bamboo.
Boise Ed on 07 Jul 2012 at 11:30 am #
I curse the semiliterate software engineer who created the term “spell check” instead of “spelling checker.” I still say a “spell check” is something Harry Potter does.
Mindy on 07 Jul 2012 at 11:57 am #
What I hate worse is the grammar check, Boise Ed. I’ve turned that gizmo off. Now if only I could figure out how to stop it from screaming if I use the same word twice, such as in, “He said that that would not work and grammar check made his motor go putt putt.”
Ghost Rider 6 on 07 Jul 2012 at 12:44 pm #
Or as in, “Hey, I already told you you won.”
Just kidding about the ADD. My friend has been known to say, “I have AD, oo, shiny!” How would that possibly remind me of you?
Mindy on 07 Jul 2012 at 1:03 pm #
It’s just that I suspected you’d been talking to John, Ghost…about whatever it was we were talking about…ooooh! A black and orange butterfly!
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 07 Jul 2012 at 3:35 pm #
For a while there I thought that I stumbled on a Seminarian website. One day before church, my wife was trying to put in her new contacts. Usually they are marked left or right but this time they only said O.D. and O.S. I did not take Latin but I remembered that left was sinister but I googled it, anyway. I just “Ah that’s right” and my wife asked “WELL!!!” I told her to ask Father Gerry, but I quickly told her which one was left and right…or else I might have gotten a right!
The power just came back on. It was 86 on the main floor but 69 in the basement. However my hip was bothering me from the yardwork that I did before the power outage and trying to sleep on a futon and without my CPAC meant a very restless night.
Mary in Ohio on 07 Jul 2012 at 4:33 pm #
“Semper gere sub gere.” A valuable lesson from high school Latin class.
Mindy on 07 Jul 2012 at 5:56 pm #
“Bear always in style?” Mary?
I won’t touch “gustatus similus pullus.”
Ghost’s “etiamnunc alius dies” works out okay as “yet another day.” I wonder what another day, though…
My head hurts. Thinking is too tiring in this heat and tempus is fugiting.
John in Virginia on 07 Jul 2012 at 6:12 pm #
Mindy, “paulo doctrina est periculosum.” I think.
Mindy from Indy on 07 Jul 2012 at 6:13 pm #
GR6, Were you asking me about tattoos? I don’t have any, but I do have a few (albeit very tiny) scars from gravy. Yes, gravy. I’ve been told I shouldn’t brag about something so ridiculous, but I think it takes real talent to get scars from something that is liquid 99.97% of the time. Not opposed to tattoos, just too indecisive for permanence at the moment.
Mindy on 07 Jul 2012 at 6:49 pm #
Gravy? [If he won't bite, I will!]
Bob, near Mark on 07 Jul 2012 at 7:36 pm #
John in Virginia,
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
Mindy on 07 Jul 2012 at 8:30 pm #
Bob, near Mark, John says, “Ain’t that the truth?” He’s just too lazy to use his account and type it. As always I’m his scullery maid, drudge and slave.
Bob, near Mark on 07 Jul 2012 at 8:49 pm #
Mindy,
Adding surrogate blogger to your resume, eh?
Ghost Rider 6 on 07 Jul 2012 at 8:50 pm #
Slave, huh? Tell us more.
Mary: If the students had to be reminded, you must have been part of a much more interesting group than I.
Lady Mindy: Let me get right back to you on that.
Ghost Rider 6 on 07 Jul 2012 at 8:57 pm #
Gustatus similus pullus (in English) was used in a recent A&J cartoon, wasn’t it? Did you think I was implying something else, Dear Mindy?
Mark in Boston on 07 Jul 2012 at 9:26 pm #
Someone up there said that “spell check” sounds like something from Harry Potter. That conjures up visions. Remember Clippy, the Microsoft Word paper clip?
“It looks like you are getting ready to cast a spell! Want help with that? Is this a business spell or a personal spell?”
Ghost Rider 6 on 07 Jul 2012 at 9:50 pm #
Lady Mindy: I’m beginning to wonder about your place of employment, hon. A liquid spill requiring a rapid two-thirds removal of a garment. Burn scars. Except for the element of food involvement, I’d be thinking “foundry.”
I hope you didn’t think I was stereotyping you in any way when I asked about tatts. It’s just that I’ve noticed that people liberated enough to take liberties with their hair color seem to be more likely to have a tattoo or two. Although I have none (attributable, I’m sure, to growing up in an era when that “just wasn’t done,” unless maybe you were a sailor), I have no problem with the custom. I do, however, wonder a bit about those whose inked skin areas begin to be measured by the square foot rather than the square inch.
Ghost Rider 6 on 07 Jul 2012 at 10:05 pm #
Dear Mindy: I wanted to assure you that I was exceedingly careful with my typing when I asked Lady Mindy if she had any “interesting tatts.” I have no desire to be the first to be banned from this blog for a typographical error.
On a somewhat related subject, does anyone know what the “dot” over the letter “i” is called?
Bob, near Mark on 07 Jul 2012 at 10:08 pm #
For abbreviations for square foot and for square inch, instead of sq. ft. and sq. in., I much prefer squoot and squinch.
However, Mr. Potter’s spell check doesn’t like them at all.
Mindy on 07 Jul 2012 at 10:23 pm #
Ghost, I’ve gotten used to you and don’t take offense at what you say even if it sounds weird because I sense that you mean no harm nor offense. I rarely get perturbed at anyone in here, truth be told. Not a good analogy for a number of reasons I won’t go into but the people here are more like brothers and sisters. Even John, as protective as he is, even if that doesn’t seem to be the case at times, feels the same way.
Bob, near Mark, you keep referring to Master Potter and I keep thinking of a joke I was told that I will not, even on another day, relate here, but use your imagination; “Harry” was reduced to “Hairy” and “Potter”…well, let’s not go there. [Other than to add that I snorted chocolate milk when I saw the writing; the joke was told in written form, BTW.]
I do like squoot and squinch and will attempt to use the words as often as possible. Thankfully, I’m no longer taking any of the college level English courses. In the math courses the instructors would simply have shaken their heads and muttered something about “just another day in Mindy-ville…”
Mindy from Indy on 07 Jul 2012 at 10:49 pm #
GR6 – The dot is a tittle. As for the hot liquid and actual cut scars (not burn) from gravy, those happened a long time ago at my first job as a short order cook at a bar. Rest assured, I can cause chaos anywhere I work. I’m in retail now, and my customer base is “color-full” to say the least.
Mindy – Ever see gravy sitting in a steam table at a buffet? People dip out gravy, the level drops and sits for a while – forming a ring, then gets used again. Those rings get REALLY hard by the end of the day. I always hated waiting for those to soften (getting done meant going home). I would always grab a scrubbie and use my nails trying to get it off. It did not always end well.
Mindy on 07 Jul 2012 at 11:49 pm #
Ich verstehe, Mindy.
Ghost Rider 6 on 08 Jul 2012 at 12:17 am #
Lady Mindy: Glad to hear your present work does not involve (I’m guessing) being around hot liquids and sharp objects. Worked in a couple of bars many years ago, had to relieve a few customers of sharp objects. No scars to show for that, thankfully.
Dear Mindy: Dankeschön. I think I understood that. So I should be less weird?
Mindy on 08 Jul 2012 at 12:45 am #
Sei du selbst, Ghost. Einfach selbst zu sein.
Or words to the effect.
Ghost Rider 6 on 08 Jul 2012 at 1:53 am #
Ich werde versuchen, Mindy. Und ich werde nie beleidigen. Dankeschön.
sandcastler on 08 Jul 2012 at 8:55 am #
Tento blog je stále dos? divné, len anglicky, ok?
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 08 Jul 2012 at 8:57 am #
GR6: Where did you get the umlaut? Is there a way to do that while typing in this box, or do you type in Word and paste here?
All: Wife could have translated all or most of the Latin and German for me, but I am linguistically deprived. I could revert to Latin names for species we’ve discussed here, some of which some of you would recognize but others not. About the only linguistic Latin I know [and it may be wrong] is De gustibus non disputandam est, or whatever. Oh, and Ave Maria, Et tu Brute, and such. I wonder what happens if you copy Greek letters into this box. They probably get moderated.
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 08 Jul 2012 at 8:58 am #
Let’s try these: ? ? ? ? ? .
Symply Fargone on 08 Jul 2012 at 9:03 am #
Wow polyglots for the day! First my old fave Latinus, then some Francais and a bit of Deutsch to finish….I am so impressed at us! Love it….I took intensive German my senior yr. at UMASS in order to figure out what my father was saying about me to my grandmother…never got good enough to get it down, but close enough to figure out why they were not speaking English(or French) which I understood. With that I am off to the lake for a Fargone type of day…..
Symply Fargone on 08 Jul 2012 at 9:05 am #
@EMB,
This should be of aid in all the Symple punctuation/special characters you need! http://www.howtotype.net/
Lost in A**2 on 08 Jul 2012 at 9:24 am #
OK, it looks like my interpretation of ‘semper gere . . .” was more or less correct. I’ve seen it as “semper ubi sub ubi.” From the way son-chan looked at when I asked him about it, I’d guess it’s a word-for-word substitution, without attention to cases and declensions.
sandcastler on 08 Jul 2012 at 9:48 am #
Finnish?
Bob, near Mark on 08 Jul 2012 at 9:56 am #
eMb,
Holding down the “alt” key and typing 0246 on the number keypad will give you an ö.
My younger daughter lives on Bavaria, and my brother works for a company headquartered in Germany, so Deutsch occurs at times in our communications. My daughter said that she went to the Black Forest last week and had some of that dangerously delicious Black Forest Cake.
As for my Latin homework, canis meus id comedit!
Bob, near Mark on 08 Jul 2012 at 9:59 am #
Sorry, my younger daughter lives “in” Bavaria. Well I guess she does live “on” it, too. “On” is only one slip of the finger away from “in” on my keyboard.
Bob, near Mark on 08 Jul 2012 at 10:01 am #
sandcastler,
Suomi?
Ghost Rider 6 on 08 Jul 2012 at 10:11 am #
Bob, near Mark: “Slip of the finger” was what I was pleading with Mindy. But she can be a hard sell.
SF: Mercy buttercups.
Anyone been able to get into gocomics this morning. It seems to have overslept.
Ghost Rider 6 on 08 Jul 2012 at 10:14 am #
Never mind. gocomics seems to have recovered from its coma.
Bob, near Mark on 08 Jul 2012 at 10:30 am #
Just thought I’d browse the web for a minute and found that the BBC has a website of handy phrases in about 40 different languages. And, yes, sandcastler, they have a Finnish page,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/quickfix/
Mindy on 08 Jul 2012 at 11:55 am #
? ??? ????????? ?? ?????? ??????? ? ???? ????????????, Ghost.
Oh, wow, that hurt! No more non-native languages for me, not even French.
Mindy on 08 Jul 2012 at 11:56 am #
Drat. Cyrillic will not copy and paste here. Disregard.
Bob, near Mark on 08 Jul 2012 at 12:17 pm #
Mindy,
THAT was the actor who played Captain Hook in the Mary Martin TV & Broadway versions of “Peter Pan”… Cyrillic Ritchard!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0728509/bio
Mindy on 08 Jul 2012 at 12:26 pm #
And there’s one who was with Helen Mirren in “Calendar Girls” and one of the “Prime Suspect” episodes, Cyrillic Hinds. Arlo says it’s Dog Days. I begin to think it’s the Silly Season!
Mindy on 08 Jul 2012 at 12:27 pm #
di?s canicul?r?s
Mindy on 08 Jul 2012 at 12:27 pm #
never mind.
Bob, near Mark on 08 Jul 2012 at 12:29 pm #
Silly Season passes by too soon! Once it’s gone, one ages rather too quickly.
curmudgeonly ex-professor on 08 Jul 2012 at 1:10 pm #
Love these linguistic references and the very approximate translations thereof! More!
As I see it, the “gustatus similus pullus” item, with no regard for endings, is “tastes like chicken”. Am I close?
Mindy from Indy on 08 Jul 2012 at 1:22 pm #
Sandcastler, “Tento blog je stále dos? divné, len anglicky, ok”? No comprendo a mi amigo. I’m guessing (hoping) you are asking to switch back to English.
sandcastler on 08 Jul 2012 at 1:40 pm #
Mindy from Indy, you would be correct. Just lived thru three weeks of Slovak, Czech, Polish, and German, plain American English is a relief to me ear. Although I admit one Slovak lady captured me with her English dialect; was part Slovak accented with a Scottish lilt from her time in school in Scotland.
Bob, near Mark on 08 Jul 2012 at 1:55 pm #
c ex-p,
Omnia sapit pullum, item crocodilus. I really enjoy a bit of fried alligator when I’m on the Gulf Coast.
Don’t know how to spell alligator in Latin, so we’ll have some crocodile. Makes me think that Captain Hook’s take on the Chick-fil-A restaurant ad campaign would be, “Eat mor Krokodile!”
phil in Missoula, MT on 08 Jul 2012 at 2:22 pm #
Here’s a handy site for producing those other-language characters.
http://www.howtotype.net/
some of them like õ require an alt-key and 0245 on the keypad, and they mean the keypad. The numbers across the top won’t work, at least on my machine.
Ghost Rider 6 on 08 Jul 2012 at 2:40 pm #
c ex-p: You got it…in dog Latin, anyway.
Mindy, essayer de parler français. Je voudrais savoir ce que vous avez essayé de dire en russe.
Mary in Ohio on 08 Jul 2012 at 2:56 pm #
Actually, us trying to get the translation and then comparing notes was more interesting.
Mindy on 08 Jul 2012 at 4:20 pm #
I can’t remember now, Ghost! It’s been over 2-1/2 minutes!
Ghost Rider 6 on 08 Jul 2012 at 4:54 pm #
Uh huh…
Jerry in Fl on 08 Jul 2012 at 6:46 pm #
RIP Ernest B. I think that leaves Mickey Rooney from the silver screen. Anyone else?
Jerry in Fl on 08 Jul 2012 at 6:47 pm #
Oh yes-Olivia Dehaviland. (sp?)
TruckerRon on 08 Jul 2012 at 7:55 pm #
That would be Olivia Mary de Havilland who was born in Tokyo. She’s 96 and living in Paris. Her younger sister is Joan Fontaine; sadly they have never been close emotionally and haven’t spoken since the death of their mother in 1975.
So… dareka koko ni Nihongo o hanasemasu ka? (And I hope that doesn’t land me in the Pit of Moderation!)
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 08 Jul 2012 at 9:52 pm #
Thanks to all for various sites and typing techniques. I’ve added the sites to “favorites”. As I’ve mentioned before, and partly reproduced here, what I’ve done for incorporating non-keyboard symbols in my own typing is extract the ones I need from Word’s “symbol” file, plus one from Word Perfect’s file from a transferred document, and assembled them as a 4 or 5 line block that I simply insert at the bottom of a draft document and then enter into my text as needed, and then delete before I send or publish. The one lifted from WP is the astrological [that is not a typo] symbol for the planet Earth. I don’t remember if WP had other astrological symobols or not. Sky & Telescope used to use those for various planets and maybe even signs of the zodiac, but stopped maybe > 2 decades ago, probably to erase any connection between the science of astronomy and the practice of astrology. Word has some, because the symbols for male and female are the same as those for Mars and Venus, and they have a circle with a dot in it, the symbol for Sol, and something that is much like the symbol for Saturn. I don’t know how these are used outside of astrology.
If I simply insert Greek letters and also some of the oddball symbols into the text as I type, that puts whatever I type next into the same set. E.g., if I want to write about the second brightest star in Perseus, which is beta Perseii, and enter the lower case beta, the next letter I type will be a capital Pi, not a P. So I skip until I’ve typed Perseii, and then insert the Greek beta. Easy to deal with once you know. Is there a way to spellcheck when typing here?
Mark in TTown on 08 Jul 2012 at 10:11 pm #
So what’s next? Norse, Icelandic, or something really exotic like Maori?
That’s it. I’m pau! Aloha.
#
30
Bob, near Mark on 08 Jul 2012 at 10:17 pm #
eMb, I use the Firefox browser and the United States English Spellchecker add-on for it. It underlines words that it “thinks” are misspelled as I type. The odd thing is that the name of the add-on is “United States English Spellchecker 6.0″, but it doesn’t like the word “spellchecker” in its own name.
Whatever you use for a browser may have an add-on you can install.
Jerry in Fl on 08 Jul 2012 at 10:18 pm #
Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall.
Bob, near Mark on 08 Jul 2012 at 10:27 pm #
Mark yn TTref,
Nesaf? Efallai rhywbeth ysgrifenedig yn y Gymraeg?
Bob, ger Mark
Jerry in Fl on 08 Jul 2012 at 11:40 pm #
Hope everyone had a good “it was just a weather balloon” day.
Mark in TTown on 09 Jul 2012 at 6:30 am #
Bob, near Mark. So it’s Welsh, is it? Hadn’t expected that. I can’t read it but I can recognize it.
Arlo’s right too, about the cool water. Best way to cool off is with lots of water. Pool, lake or whatever is available!
John in Richmond Texas on 09 Jul 2012 at 8:15 am #
The gravy talk above reminds me that anyone who ate french fries at the Whataburger next to Sharpstown Mall (southwest Houston) may have gotten a lot of my arm hair with them. (and don’t get me started on the cockroaches in the shake machine) but that was 35 years ago
Dan in SWMo on 09 Jul 2012 at 11:52 am #
Regarding the tittle, the dot on the i is certainly that, but strictly speaking, the crossing of the t should also be referred to as a tittle. The expression “jot and tittle” comes from the yod that was the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet and the small stroke that was the distinguishing mark between very similar letters, such as resh and daleth or he and cheth (or het, if you prefer that transliteration). I won’t try to add the actual Hebrew letters to this post due to the complexities of that, especially with different computer platforms.
Which leads to the related topic raised above of how to do an umlauted letter. Alt+[numeric code on number keypad] is the procedure on a Windows machine. On a Mac, ö is typed using opt-u to specify the umlaut and then the letter o that the umlaut is to be placed on. Similarly for the circumflex (opt-i), acute accent (opt-e), and grave accent (opt-`). I won’t go into the full list of special character shortcuts here.
Meryl A on 11 Jul 2012 at 12:46 am #
A number of industries close the first week or 2 weeks of July. I found this out when I started in very small business accounting. Jewelry, fabrics (as you said), lighting, etc. Also I believe in the old days the car manufacturers used to close for retooling and give vacation the beginning of July also.