Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

vivatifosi

Pyxis wrote: »

Talking of jelly reminds me of when I was a child, watching American kids' programmes, and hearing them talking about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I couldn't understand how the jelly didn't just slide out of the sandwich.

(Plus, it sounded revolting! )

'Twas my first experience of the great English divide.



(Mind you, peanut butter and jam sounds pretty revolting, too).

It's not just a language divide Pyxis, but a food divide too.

Not only is jam jelly, but rocket is aragula, coriander is cilantro, and cuts of meat are often different or have different names.

Then you have foods that are popular there but which just wouldn't get a look in here (and to be fair, vice versa). Most people here think pumpkins are for carving, not making pie out of; that grits are something that belong on a road, not the breakfast table, and as for eating bacon with sweet things... Well. Americans can't understand why we buy soft drinks in bottles that we then add water to. So we have different tastes.

The thing I find most fascinating though, is that because of the timing of settlement of the USA, which was contemporary to the increasingly widespread use of cutlery, we have different etiquette norms for eating. We use our knives and forks Russian style, whereas Americans hold theirs French style. The French, confusingly, like us, hold theirs Russian style.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2013/06/fork_and_knife_use_americans_need_to_stop_cutting_and_switching.html

silvercar

GDB2222 wrote: »

You are right, once again! I Got as far as thinking that, with only 9 counters to start with on a 10x10 board, there's bound to be an empty row somewhere, but that's not a proof.

That is accepted in a branch of maths called combinatorics; memory is hazy but I studied it 30+ years ago.

All based on the pigeonhole theory.

Pyxis

silvercar wrote: »

That is accepted in a branch of maths called combinatorics; memory is hazy but I studied it 30+ years ago.

All based on the pigeonhole theory.

In mathematics, the pigeonhole principle states that if n items are put into m containers, with n > m, then at least one container must contain more than one item

Phew! I understood that!
Perhaps I'm good at Maths after all?

chris_m

I think I've kicked off a trend today.

I felt that the shaggy meadow that purported to be my back lawn was finally dry enough about which to do something this afternoon - so I dug out the mower and attended to it.

Since then I've heard at least three other mowers running on the estate

michaels

chris_m wrote: »

I think I've kicked off a trend today.

I felt that the shaggy meadow that purported to be my back lawn was finally dry enough about which to do something this afternoon - so I dug out the mower and attended to it.

Since then I've heard at least three other mowers running on the estate

My fingers are in my ears and I am singing loudly so I can't hear you.

vivatifosi

FMP having a free week to search Irish records if anyone has any connections they would like to have a dig around (ends Friday)

vivatifosi

I have one known Irish ancestor in all of my trees (plus of course their ancestors), so I'm not as Irish as I thought. So far, I've found the FMP stuff interesting, in that they have the newspapers too, but not as good as that you can get for free from the Irish national archives.

I am in awe of the daughter of my Irish GGG grandmother. She was abandoned by her husband, had to go live in the workhouse for a while and do this while bringing up her family which included 3 blind children. In spite of their issues and being from a very poor family, she fought to ensure that the children all learned a trade and went onto have meaningful lives. I have said before that the word awesome is overused and the awe bar is set very low these days, but I really find her amazing.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

..... children all learned a trade ....

It'd be awesome if the same opportunities were available to all these days! So many trades that could be learnt by so many willing people these days, but no route for them to do so.

Past generations "had more" then than we seem to have now. So much reliance on people having a bit of paper and a keyboard to be able to succeed in life, but nobody's learning how to make a set of drawers or build a wall.

Percy1983

Remember me?

Was a regular poster and then my Son was born and I just got swept into being a father and pretty much disapeared. As it is there is so problem, I am a happy dad with a great son (currently teething hence my time of posting).

In other news I have quit the day job and am now self employed, got a bit less money but so much more time with my son which is worth so much more.

Hope everybody here is happy and healthy.

I will be checking back with on a more frequent basis again.

vivatifosi

Hey Percy, greetings blast from the past! Glad you are well and have achieved a great work/life balance.

Crikey, if mewbie, cleaver and a few other old timers turned up we could have a virtual reunion.