RobH Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 4 minutes ago, John Morrison said: True, especially in the days of Empire, P.O.S.H. Was written on the ticket, hence the term. John. No, unfortunately not John. The Etymology dictionary says: posh (adj.) by 1914 (1903 as push), of uncertain origin; no evidence for the common derivation from an acronym of port outward, starboard home, supposedly the shipboard accommodations of wealthy British traveling to India on the P & O Lines (to keep their cabins out of the sun); as per OED, see objections outlined in G. Chowdharay-Best, "Mariner's Mirror," Jan. 1971. The acronym story dates from 1955. More likely from slang posh "a dandy" (1890), from thieves' slang meaning "money" (1830), originally "coin of small value, halfpenny," possibly from Romany posh "half" [Barnhart]. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stillp Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 (edited) 13 hours ago, Crawfie said: Heard this the other day..... Not sure if it's pukka but I thought it was interesting. In the old days of printing , the letter stamps ( is that right?) were placed in a cabinet for easy storage . The capital letters were in the top of the cabinet . The others letters in the bottom. Hence UPPER CASE and LOWER CASE. The cabinet was called a fount, pronounced font. If you dropped your fount, it was said to be pied. When you'd picked it all up you had to sort all the type pieces into their correct compartments in the fount. Because the type pieces are a mirror image of the character they print, it's particularly difficult to sort lower case b from d, or p from q. Hence the expression "to mind your p's and q's". I don't know why we don't mind our b's and d's. Pete (a craft printer in the 1960s) Edited March 28, 2020 by stillp Quote Link to post Share on other sites
John Morrison Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 I stand corrected sir, though I would have liked my description to have been correct. John. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
john.r.davies Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 13 hours ago, Crawfie said: Heard this the other day..... Not sure if it's pukka but I thought it was interesting. In the old days of printing , the letter stamps ( is that right?) were placed in a cabinet for easy storage . The capital letters were in the top of the cabinet . The others letters in the bottom. Hence UPPER CASE and LOWER CASE. More a wooden eggbox than a cabinet, as we usually think of it. Capitals, being less used, were stored in the case furthest away, the Upper Case. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
peejay4A Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 If the answer is "9W", what is the question? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
john.r.davies Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 All the attributions of "Cock and Bull" to competing pubs are conjecture. There seems to me to be another origin. "A load of old cock" is used to describe 'fake news', and while that is attributed to "Cock and Bull", more likely it comes from "Poppycock" with the same meaning, which is derived from the Dutch "pappekak" for, er, a soft bowel motion. And "bull" or "bulling" is the military term for both devoted attention to detail in the polishing and cleaning of uniform, and to obsessive and unnecessary ritual in military procedures. So in line with "stuff and nonsense", "cock and bull" is another binomial phrase that is used to denigrate something. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
john.r.davies Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 9W - the illuminatory power of a small diode lamp. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tony_C Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 M6 inverted? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
john.r.davies Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 Now, there's a challenge! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RogerH Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 (edited) wicked witches walk west with withering wrinkles whereupon wallop - the answer That was easy Woger Edited March 28, 2020 by RogerH spelling Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobH Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Tony_C said: M6 inverted? 1 hour ago, john.r.davies said: Now, there's a challenge! Edited March 28, 2020 by RobH Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Forey Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 9W - the IATA code for Jet Airways in India, now bankrupt. Mick Quote Link to post Share on other sites
peejay4A Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 Nowhere near right yet. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cvtrian Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 20 minutes ago, peejay4A said: Nowhere near right yet. Pete - I'm not surprised having googled the answer Ian Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Crawfie Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 This thread is turning out to be very interesting. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobH Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 (edited) "Route 9W is a north–south U.S. Highway in the states of New Jersey and New York. It begins in Fort Lee, New Jersey, as Fletcher Avenue crosses the US 1–9, US 46, and the Interstate 95 approaches to the George Washington Bridge, and heads north up the west side of the Hudson River to US 9 in Albany, New York." Edited March 28, 2020 by RobH Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Deggers Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 5 hours ago, peejay4A said: If the answer is "9W", what is the question? "Oh, so "Wagner" isn't spelt with a "V"?" Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Paul Hogan Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 (edited) 23 hours ago, wjgco said: Not many prople realise that Holland is not a country. As you both well know, the country is 'The Netherlands'. Holland is a region in the West of The Netherlands. Schiphol, means Main Port. The area on which the airport is built used to be a port Not a lot of people know that I did !!! The airport there also claim to have the tallest ATC tower but as its foundations are below sea level it isn't. By the way surely the Queen is the most travelled person. she was globe trotting even before she became queen and a long time before boaty mc boatface attenborough started his trecks around the globe. Hoges Edited March 28, 2020 by Paul Hogan corraction Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobH Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 5 minutes ago, Paul Hogan said: The airport there also claim to have the tallest ATC tower but as its foundations are below sea level it isn't. Ooh that sounds contentious. When did height of buildings have to take into account distance above sea level? That would make everything in Tibet the tallest as they start 16000 feet up before you put one brick upon another. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Paul Hogan Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 Hi Rob, Its what the director there told me. I forget what the actual height of the tower is but if it was just compared to other ATC towers then he assured me that it would be the tallest tower. in Europe if not the world. Now we wait for people to google ATC towers! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
john.r.davies Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 5 hours ago, RobH said: I was thinking more of what something like this might do, between Preston and Manchester: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
peejay4A Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 3 hours ago, Deggers said: "Oh, so "Wagner" isn't spelt with a "V"?" As near as makes no difference. The actual question is: “Mr Wagner, do you spell your name with a V?” . Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tony_C Posted March 28, 2020 Report Share Posted March 28, 2020 Interesting and or useful................... ? Yep, suppose it works on all fronts.......................... .......................(Wouldn’t have said that a week ago though!!!!!!) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
peejay4A Posted March 29, 2020 Report Share Posted March 29, 2020 (edited) The theoretical number of settings on the German wartime Lorenz cipher machine is approximately the number of atoms in the visible universe, squared. Edited March 29, 2020 by peejay4A Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JohnG Posted March 29, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2020 36 minutes ago, peejay4A said: The theoretical number of settings on the German wartime Lorenz cipher machine is approximately the number of atoms in the visible universe, squared. Didn't know that I guess it's quite a big number, anyone care to offer the number of noughts involved? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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