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.

Emma wrote: "Is a weed-whacker the same as a lawnmower, or is it a strimmer? (Not very up on the gardening implement lingo.)
."

It's a strimmer.

Groovy wrote: "Because of people getting hurt on them, or by them, they just banned those in the city until they can come up with some rules that will work.

I have a very curious question. It came to me while I ..."

I'm glad someone had the sense to ban them!! I find it ironic that the inventor of the Segway fell to his death over a cliff while riding one of those stupid things.

In Spanish a weed eater is a desmalezadora. I know that's not the word you wanted. ;) They hurt hedgehogs, drat them. More than one hedgehog has been blinded, killed or maimed by them.

mrbooks wrote: "What is a penguin's favorite dessert ?

Baked Alaska."

Nun of that, now! Nun of that!

What cracks me up is these electric scooter things. Forget riding a bike, they zip along (on the sidewalk, of cuss) very fast, hotdogging around pedestrians. No helmets, no bell or horn to tell you they're coming, no nothing.

The newspapers have been full over here of young kids who refuse to eat anything that requires chewing!! They want fruit juice or compote, not fresh fruit. Burgers or meatballs, not steak. Nothing that requires chewing. I asked my friends with kids and they say it's true. Some kids even have to be spoon-fed by a teacher at school to get them to finish their lunch. And I'm talking kids seven and eight years old. How lazy have people become, that they don't even want to chew their food!

Hey, Angel!! Good to see you back!

How do you tell which end of the worm is the head???

You just have to tickle the middle and see which end giggles.

I'm a bit annoyed...for years I've played Shockwave's "hidden object" games on their website. Since the so-called data protection law came into force, I am blocked. Guess Shockwave only cares about their American public. I made a very good friend there, at least we are still in touch.

Anyway, it'll save me some time every day. I won't be staring at the monitor so much!

Repeat after me, guys: "He's two."
Because people like that have the mentality of a toddler who screams with indignation when it doesn't get what it wants or people don't jump through its personal hoops.
Some people seem to think that if they can control a corner of the Internet, they're in control of their lives.

On the subject of "kind" insults...it's kind of like when someone (usually a woman, unfortunately) from church comes and tells you, "I'm sharing this so you can pray about it." Get ready for some heavy dissing and gossip of the nasty, backbiting sort about someone else. It's almost as bad as when someone says, "You know, the Bible says we are to "share the truth in love." Well, I think you should know..." and they tell you what's wrong with you.

When someone uses the phrase "and I mean this in the kindest possible way", get ready for the most gratuitous insult you've ever come across.

I don't know how many Youtube videos I've seen just in the past couple of days, all labelled "What I wish I knew before I did X."
No, dear.
What I wish I had known before I did X. Past perfect. Two actions, both in the past, one happened before the other. The previous action is past perfect.

What are they teaching kids in school, anyway? It's certainly not how to read and write English.

Trouble with that Korean series is that the theme music has Velcro on it!! I find myself humming it during the day after watching an episode and DH teases me about it.

Why shouldn't you go into the jungle at night? Because elephants are practicing parachute jumping. Why are crocodiles flat? Because they insist on going into the jungle at night.

DH and I have been discovering Korean TV thanks to KBS putting English subs to most of their programmes. We watched the very short second season of "Queen of Mystery" and enjoyed it mightily--divorced hausfrau turns police officer, with overtones of Monk's ability to pick up on vibes and details. Now we're into "Sunny Again Tomorrow" which is almost-not-quite a soap opera, but very, very funny. We keep waiting to see if the other will blink first--in the sense that it's 130 episodes, and we're up to episode 16 or something. As long as it keeps being amusing we'll keep watching. They made even the good old "lost daughter with amnesia" thread hysterically funny--though whether that's intentional or we just see it that way, I'm not sure. I am beginning to hear some Korean, which is good.

One of my former students is a professor of botany. He told me that the scientific definition of "a weed" is "a plant growing in a place where man doesn't want it" or "a plant man hasn't found a use for yet."

Yes, Pimm's is a liqueur, used as a mixer for fruit cups (ie punch type drinks). I see online it's 25% alcohol. Apparently it has a gin base. I've never tried it myself.

She's in Michigan or Ohio or somewhere, though, so that's not it.

I just tripped over another pet peeve. People who speak of electricity or power as "the electric." I just saw it in a blogpost by someone who is supposedly well-read, that a tree came down in a storm and they "lost electric to the barn."

My favourite memory of a small kid's book is Happy Birthday to You!. Don't worry, Ginny--these days with someone trying to get royalties everytime the song is sung, they'd probably accuse Seuss of plagiarism for the title!