Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)’s Comments (group member since Sep 20, 2013)

Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)’s comments from the Net Work Book Club group.

mrbooks wrote: "Ori you are not rotten"

Thank you dear boy. I've been feeling like an illegitimate child at a family reunion just lately, so that's nice to know. ;)

This is the chat thread for last year. Check for the 2019 chat thread, Gary, we make one a year.

And everything else. I may be a rotten person, but when I remember the power teachers had over kids in my little town (7000 people then, and it was the county seat!)...then I realise that if they're still around they are very elderly indeed...and I wonder if their kids/grandkids treat them the way they treated us, now. Like their semi-retarded and living on sufferance. "Be quiet, child, don't you hear me speak?"

mrbooks wrote: "I don't think the teachers would have any say in the child's name that is all down to the parents. It doesn't matter what the kids think later on or what the teachers think."

I have a clear memory of about 1969, at the beginning of the schoolyear, the (near retirement) teacher insisting that my classmate Julie's "real name" was Julia, and she "didn't like nicknames in her class." I suppose Julie's parents informed her that the kid's name was Julie, not Julia or Juliet, because after the first week we heard no more Julia.

Egg-zactly! Turns out BJ's parents' names were Bee Hunnicutt and Jay Hunnicutt, so his name was BJ!

Back in my little Midwestern town, I'm not sure that teachers would have "allowed" a name like that, though in highschool I did have a classmate everyone called H. P. Found out why on graduation day, when the superintendent, who handed out the diplomas, read in rolling tones,

"Hjalmar Petronius Sandberg the Third!"

And HP stood up and said, "I'll kill him!"

Love it! Welcome back, Tui!!

Remember the episode of MASH where Hawkeye tries to find out what BJ stands for? LOL

I remember Milly Vanilly and wondered why it was such a scandal when it all came out. Not like they were the first "invented" group; remember The Archies? Granted the Monkees did their own singing but definitely with instrumental playback, if you look at their fingers in the musical bits of the show.

Later of course when the karaoke machine hit the market, everyone was faking it.

Gotta love those labels! This is meant to be serious, but it cracked me up. On the card that came with some stainless steel measuring spoons:

"Driven carefully refined life. From the hands of Masters, this exquisite workmanship is more to reflect the passion and the elegant demeanour is soluble in technology and design.

"Please use detergent wash, and then rinse clean before use. Do not use a wire brush, sharp and rigid instruments, such as shaving brush or hammer."

Because you know, everyone uses a hammer to clean their measuring spoons, and a shaving brush is a sharp and rigid instrument! But never mind, the elegant demeanour is soluble in technology.

I have been averaging 8-9 hrs a night since Palm Sunday. The night before that, I went to bed at 9 PM and woke up at 9,30 AM! Glorious. Even with tinnitus!

I hated my baptismal name (still do, still never use it--go by my middle name) but hey it could have been worse. I could have been stuck with Fuchs.

A girl in my dorm was named Fuchs and insisted it was pronounced Fuse, but every new professor pronounced it the way it looked.

I almost had a conniption in the supermarket this morning. I was wandering around our local Aldi when I saw a chocolate drink powder on sale, called "Shovit."

I kid you not. I almost fell over! It gave me severe giggles, which wouldn't have been so bad if one of the employees (fortunately a young woman) hadn't been stocking shelves about a yard to my right. I finally told her what was so funny. She first froze, gave me an "I don't believe it" stare, and then we were both off, laughing like fools.

I'm sure they meant "Choco-Vitamin" drink or some such, as in German chocolate is Schokolade, but still.

mrbooks wrote: "Here is a thought for you how certain are you an unmade road is one that isn't paved? Could it not be like an unmade bed, a mess that needs tidying up?"

Now that I think about it, most of the roads in New England would qualify! LOL

Just read in an Australian novel from 1940 of an "unmade road." I think he meant a dirt road, since even though it's not paved, any road is made by those that travel on it, otherwise it's not a road, is it?

Why did the California chicken cross the road?
For the egg-sperience!

Old accountants never die, they just lose their balance.

If the big guys would do their own fighting that would be one thing Patty but they stay back in their cosy little offices with tea and whisky on tap, while sending the young and inexperienced to do the shooting.

Patriciaenola wrote: "Indeed so - Poor Wretch is now "Poor little Soul"one of my own favourite expressions I think might have elements of Saki in it - instead of the usual for B/S I say Bovine Excreta"

Rather like American Southerners, when they say "Bless his/her/your heart" they're actually saying "you poor idiot, not a clue, right dear?"

for B/S I usually mention Organic Fertilizer, or as my-sister-the-nurse used to say, "That's absolute feces!"

Oh and BTW, in the 17th century "poor wretch" was a term of endearment. Pepys used it when referring to his wife or other close women friends/relations. Even his mom!!

Just discovered something interesting. I grew up reading Peanuts and watching the cartoons, and for us from the 1960s on, "Rats!" was used to express frustration or disgust at something that didn't go the way you wanted. Reading some of Saki's short stories, I find that in the 1920s etc, "Rats" was used as a way of saying, "Nonsense!" or "I don't believe a word of it." One of the characters in his short story "Tobermory" goes so far as to say, "Beyond-rats!" and the narrator speaks of "invoking those rodents of disbelief."

Well I thought it was interesting! LOL