Your habits and quirks

Thomas wrote:

Gala wrote:
Most people in New England are not obsessive rule followers about traffic laws. I'm from new England and we are bunch of reckless, law breaking jaywalkers.

Amen to that, sister!

Gala wrote:
I recall the first time I visited California. I started to jaywalk and some cop came out of nowhere and blew his whistle so loud I was temporarily deafened-- I felt total shame and sorrow for my horrific behaviour.

Well good. You had it coming, anarchist!

I see our libertarianism only goes so far.

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That's right. I draw the line when there's blood in the streets.

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dlowan wrote:

I see our libertarianism only goes so far.

Thomas wrote:

That's right. I draw the line when there's blood in the streets.

But of course, you wouldn't understand -- Australia being a penal colony and all.

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Thomas wrote:

dlowan wrote:
I see our libertarianism only goes so far.

Thomas wrote:
That's right. I draw the line when there's blood in the streets.

But of course, you wouldn't understand -- Australia being a penal colony and all.

How is that connected?

You think not obeying laws is IN the blood on our streets?

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dlowan wrote:

Thomas wrote:
dagmaraka wrote:
So....red light. I stop, because I'm mostly an obnoxious rule follower.

I couldn't read on past this, because I just had a traumatic experience walking through Boston with three Bostonians. In all other regards, the lady and the gentlemen were perfectly sweet and cultivated. But their walking across streets was chaos and anarchy. I get goosebumps just thinking about it -- the bad kind, not the good -- and commiserate with you, my fellow traumatized European.

Don't come to Australia.

We found Americans frighteningly anal about obeying signs/lights etc when crossing roads.

Depends where you come from in the US - some like in Boston is a free for all when crossing the streets and others places like CA you get a ticket for jaywalking.

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dlowan wrote:

Oh my yes. AND what you call "trunks" we call "boots".

And just don't ASK about "fanny".

"Sidewalks" are footpaths.

Purses are things that go in handbags...which you call purses. I have no idea what you call a purse.

I had a diabolical trolley tonight. Grrrrrrrrr....

What's fanny? Because you obviously know what it means in the US. It's also a female name. I always wondered what kind of torment came to a child named Fanny--especially growing up.

I believe it's a wallet, what you refer to as a purse.

Footpath sounds so much more civilized than sidewalks. We use the word footpath too, although it more or less refers to something out in nature, no concrete. So, if I lived near a lake I might instruct someone where the footpath is to get to the lake.

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Gala wrote:

dlowan wrote:
Oh my yes. AND what you call "trunks" we call "boots".

And just don't ASK about "fanny".

"Sidewalks" are footpaths.

Purses are things that go in handbags...which you call purses. I have no idea what you call a purse.

I had a diabolical trolley tonight. Grrrrrrrrr....

What's fanny? Because you obviously know what it means in the US. It's also a female name. I always wondered what kind of torment came to a child named Fanny--especially growing up.

I believe it's a wallet, what you refer to as a purse.

Footpath sounds so much more civilized than sidewalks. We use the word footpath too, although it more or less refers to something out in nature, no concrete. So, if I lived near a lake I might instruct someone where the footpath is to get to the lake.

I believe fanny is slang for female genetalia.

(see the fanny green joke in the humor forum.)

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Coinpurses..

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McGentrix wrote:

I am also a phone cord detangler and I also avoid sidewalk joints. As an added feature, I tend to count my steps to see if the sidewalk is a 2 stepper, a 2-3-2 stepper or a 3 stepper...

What is a sidewalk joint? Is it the space where they pour the concrete?

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yeah, the seams between the slabs.

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ossobuco wrote:

Coinpurses..

Oh, I didn't really consider that change is involved. Come to think of it, the bills and change I have are in a little zip up thing.

Hey, Italian American refer to spaghetti sauce as gravy.

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McGentrix wrote:

yeah, the seams between the slabs.

Growing up there were two expressions regarding the sidewalk:

"Step on a line, break you mother's spine" or

"Step on a crack, break your mother's back."

Morbid. When I was little I avoided both out of fear. Those expressions had to have come from the 19th century.

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_Heatwave_ wrote:

I never step on sidewalk joints. No matter how long I have to walk, or how quickly - I will break my rhythm if the slabs change their size suddenly and so the joints come earlier or later. But, I won't step on the joint. The whole foot has to land before or after. Not sure why...

Here's what I found about the origin of the superstition of stepping on the joints:

Cracks
Ill-fortune is said to be the result from stepping on a crack in the pavement. Present day society usually associates the superstition behind treading on cracks to the rhyme: "Step on a crack, break your mother's back" but the superstition actually goes back to the late 19th - early 20th Century and the racism that was prevalent in this period.

The original rhyming verse is thought to be "Step on a crack and your mother will turn black." It was also common to think that walking on the lines in pavement would mean you would marry a ***** and have a black baby. (Apparently this superstition only applied to Caucasians and because of the rampant prejudice against black people, was considered an activity to avoid.)

Stepping on cracks also had significance for children. In the mid-20th Century it was popular to tell children that if they stepped on the cracks in the street, they would be eaten by the bears that congregate on street corners waiting for their lunch to walk by.

Also, the number of lines a person would walk on corresponded with the number of china dishes that the person would break, later in the day.

Only in the last few decades has the rhyming superstition resurfaced to be the recognized "step on a crack, break your mother's back" and in some areas, two superstitions above are melded together to include the number of lines one steps on will correspond with the number of your mother's bones that are broken.

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Thomas wrote:

dagmaraka wrote:
So....red light. I stop, because I'm mostly an obnoxious rule follower.

I couldn't read on past this, because I just had a traumatic experience walking through Boston with three Bostonians. In all other regards, the lady and the gentlemen were perfectly sweet and cultivated. But their walking across streets was chaos and anarchy. I get goosebumps just thinking about it -- the bad kind, not the good -- and commiserate with you, my fellow traumatized European.

i know, right? 8 years, you'd think i'd be used to that...but it still makes my blood curdle. or boil. or both maybe.

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<snort>!

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dagmaraka wrote:

i know, right? 8 years, you'd think i'd be used to that...but it still makes my blood curdle. or boil. or both maybe.

And it's just so out of left field -- I mean, these law-breakers could be your roommates! Disturbing thought. I feel so safe living alone now.

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Hey, when in Rome......

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dlowan wrote:

Purses are things that go in handbags...which you call purses. I have no idea what you call a purse.

Your purse would be our wallet.

Do you spray things off of your driveway with a hosepipe?

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littlek wrote:

Hey, when in Rome......

Well, you didn't feed me to the lions, I do give you that. Smile

Actually, now that I think of that walk, I remember another one of my quirks that we ran into on this occasion. Maybe you have noticed. In conversation, I sometimes fall into a mode where I'm totally anal about taking statements literally, and where I always assume people are giving me new, important information. When I'm talking shop with fellow physicists or engineers, this mode of talking can help me a lot. But when I fall into it in casual conversation, something in my head locks, and I totally freeze up.

This happened to me towards the end of our walk in the park, when we were talking about the monuments in it. I remarked how I never seem to know the people whose memory they were built to preserve. You were friendly enough to counter that I did know George Washington. Then we passed a statue of some 19th century person whose insciption called him a "prophet of liberty, campaigner against slavery" or something like that. I said, "I have no idea who this guy is, though". You replied, "I approve of him though." "You mean, you know him?" "No I don't, but I approve of him." Now it happened to me. Physicist shop-talking mode. My mind was racing: "Is Kris telling me she's anti-slavery? Is she thinking this is news to me? Does ... not ... compute. Does ... not ... compute ... does ... not .... Oh, what the hell, just say something, anything, to keep the conversation going." So I said something, don't remember what.

So, if you came away from our walk with the impression that I'm pro-slavery, this is where it came from.

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Gala wrote:

ossobuco wrote:
Coinpurses..

Oh, I didn't really consider that change is involved. Come to think of it, the bills and change I have are in a little zip up thing.

Hey, Italian American refer to spaghetti sauce as gravy.

It took me a couple of episodes to "get" the gravy thing on The Sopranos.

And they leave off lots of endings...ricotta becomes ricott etc.

Thomas wrote:

dagmaraka wrote:
i know, right? 8 years, you'd think i'd be used to that...but it still makes my blood curdle. or boil. or both maybe.

And it's just so out of left field -- I mean, these law-breakers could be your roommates! Disturbing thought. I feel so safe living alone now.

I hate to scare you...but I do wonder if you have ever shared with a person who took the tags off mattresses?

Shocked

DrewDad wrote:

dlowan wrote:
Purses are things that go in handbags...which you call purses. I have no idea what you call a purse.

Your purse would be our wallet.

Do you spray things off of your driveway with a hosepipe?

We have "hoses" not hosepipes. We tend to hose the drive...or did...permanent drought means we are not allowed to hose drives any more.

This is a purse:

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/uploads/partners/joseywales/500/red_cord_coin_purse.jpg

It goes inside a handbag:

http://www.pulitopurse.com/images/specialtylogos-photos/CoachPurseClean.jpg

This is a wallet:

http://www.tellercounty.net/images/story-wallet1.jpg

It can also go inside a handbag.

Actually, purses are disappearing. Women used to use purses, and men wallets.

Now we almost all seem to use wallets.

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