Litercy

[J-Man]

Brings back painful memories of my latin master who was a complete tyrant. He used to keep his belt over his shoulder under his gown & one was never sure if he would choose this or some other method of humiliating us into learning the stuff. I still have a lump on my head from being dinged with a blackboard (sorry...chalkboard) rubber which then ricocheted through the window pane. Despite / or because of the brain damage something must have stuck. Hopefully he would turn a shade puce if he only new what little use his efforts had all been in the longer term! Ah... happy days! Not.

[steve_weegie]

I was put back a year because of bloody Latin.

I moved from Stockport Grammar School after my father died, to Sir John Deanes Grammar school who had compulsory Latin, whereas I had not done any, so was demoted from second year to first.

tut

Another closet Mancunian comes out the woodwork then tut? I would have been at Bramhall High, just down the road if we'd not moved up here in '86. I almost got kept back a year when I moved to a Scottish school, but my lack of latin skills had little to do with it

[tut]

Two years of it and the only thing I can remember is how to conjugate a verb.

amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant..... Thank goodness I was conjugating other things at the back of the biology lab and did not waste my education completely.

tut

[J-Man]

A new (?) word for Robin:

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
(Communicating the law of monitoring beef labeling)

Don't you just love the Germans!

[robin]

Even in Germany they cannot have made that one word, surely? I mean if somebody asked you where you worked, they would be dead (or you would be) before finishing the answer

I can only hope that you have a German language fetish rather than needing to do this type of research for a living ...

Cheers,
Robin

[J-Man]

Nah...

Work takes me to Germany and Switzerland & this came up in conversation. Allegedly it's not the longest word in German, & they have a vogue for creating new words. I had a laugh the other week in Hamburg, when a German colleague told me that he wanted an event to "be the full Monty" - without any knowledge of the origin of this term. I couldn't bring myself to explain it to him though.

[tut]

Sounds like the blueprint for my Master Jeremy, ex Wartime Commando, built like a bull mastiff, whacked you across the back of the head if you made a mistake. Those were the days as it worked and we were scared stiff of him.

I lived in Reddish, Stockport then Steve, and actually went to Stockport School on the left, which was a Grammar school, but Stockport Grammar School was the one opposite, custard caps, football school as opposed to rugby, and seemed to collect most of the wimps.

tut

[J-Man]

Drifting slightly OT, but ...

... I thought this ...



... was called a сafetière, a word that has come into usage from the French (сafetière à piston).

However when buying a replacement today, I discovered that “what Sir needs is a French Press”, a phrase that conjures up all sorts of mental images, none of which have anything to do with coffee.

Incidentally, although the сafetière originated in France, it was first patented by an Italian!

If you were asked if you would like a French Press, how would you respond?

[robin]

Depends on who's asking

Cheers,
Robin

[tut]

The English Press is bad enough, the French Press are still having a go at us for dicking them at Waterloo.

tut

[ExigeKen]

OMG now I feel old as I did 5 years of Latin

[robin]

Ken! Long time no hear - (or you've only posted on threads I haven't read ) - 5 years of latin, eh? I bet you remember every word!!!

Cheers,
Robin

[J-Man]

Here's another French Press...



And another...



and perhaps...



None of which seem to have anything to do with coffee!

[ExigeKen]

Ken! Long time no hear - (or you've only posted on threads I haven't read ) - 5 years of latin, eh? I bet you remember every word!!!

Cheers,
Robin

Hi Robin I havent been on here for a while - yeah 5 years was painful especially analysing every word of Virgil's Aeneid cheers Ken

[J-Man]

...so... back to the Press... and Litercy, with some recent headlines (NLC: No Latin Content);

Survivor of Siamese Twins Joins Parents

Iraqi Head Seeks Arms

Miners Refuse to Work after Death

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant

Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

Deaf College Opens Doors to Hearing

Steals Clock, Faces Time

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group