Yes, back in the old homestead.

I had a very nice time staying with the in-laws, thank-you. Lovely weather. I went to two bird sanctuaries. Were there any birds in them? No, there were not.

And haven't you been busy little posters this week .... slagging off T*m H*lt, traducing Jasper's wardrobe, and oooh, look at all these new merkins who've been meeting Jasper all over the USA ..... gnash teeth, jealous, fume. Good job I'm on broadband now and I can keep up with you all.

* innocent expression* Whatever Next isn't out yet, is it?



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

You know how there weren't any birds?



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Welcome back! Glad you had a good time, but sorry about the birds. At least there are plenty here, even if they do mostly go "plock" or in one case "hic".



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

nope, no 'Whatever Next' yet...<subtle hint> still waiting on a CERTAIN EDITOR to send even unfinished stuff to us so we can work on it! </subtle hint>

Should we change the title to "whenever next"?

PROBABLY! lol

btw, WELCOME BACK JON!!



(I'm in shouting mode today!)

Hi, I'm back too, well, sort of, as I'm home ill... still... spend the easter weekend in bed...

I took the 'Years of rice and salt' to read at my gran's but I only read the first 3 or 4 chapters (I mean, until they started with the re-encarnation business...) ... I gave up
That was DEAD boring!
Specially as I'm not interested at all in asian or eastern history anyway, give me europe anytime....

I want WOLP :(
(I'm allowed to moan, as I'm ill ;))

Merkin you say - hm I think the definition I have of this is different to yours...
( a pubic-hear wig or is that what you were intending to call people?)

I was wondering about that myself. I've never been called a merkin before, and that's the meaning I was aware of too.

Aha ... this is what is known as a pun or play on words ...'a merkin' being approximately how the average (i.e. dumb) Brit pronounces the word 'American'. Sorry about that. Shan't do it again.

(Slightly amazed anyone knew the meaning of the word ... incidentally why on earth would anybody ever need one?)



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Well, it was used as a 'who can tell what this word means' quiz on another board I frequent (for parrot owners). The person who guessed it first (a woman from Maine), claimed to have learned it from reading a science fiction novel, in which the aliens looked humanoid, except for one not usually obvious discrepancy, and thus had to wear them.

Oddly enough, shortly thereafter she was telling her insignificant other (her term for her then boyfriend) about this, and laughed so hard she caught her high heeled boots in the cobblestone street and broke her ankle.

The other person who knew what it meant, was from Wales, and didn't offer an explanation of where he'd heard the term, although he professed to be embarassed to admit he knew it.
No editorial comments about the Welsh implied.

In any case, you have to remember that most of the folks here read a lot, and are therefore likely to have rather odd vocabularies relative to the general population.



--------------
&quot;I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around.&quot;
--Ross Smith

BTW, I'm currently trying to dedide whether being referred to as a merkin by a Brit is better or worse than being called a Seppo by an Aussie.

(Yes, I do know what the original rhyming slang origin of the term "Seppo" was.)

I agree on the Years of Rice and Salt - tried the proof and the real thing and both were awful! Well, I thought they were anyway - there were some rave reviews - but then some people like Charlotte Bingham books!

Ah, well, I liked Rice & Salt. I agree that it needed perseverance, though; it took me a while to get what was going on, but once I did I loved it.



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

i think i have talked about it already, i read it to the end because it gets better as you get into it, but i sort of skimmed some of the bits in the bardo

Cecil Adams has a straight dope column titled. "What is a Merkin?" at
[www.straightdope.com]

Merkins featured in the magazine for the Indy a couple of years ago, which is how I knew the term. I would, really, wouldn't I?



Post Edited (04-21-03 23:32)

PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

I saw a very educational documentary about them on, guess where?, channel 5.

There was a chap who would fashion you a merkin in the style of your choice. The rather attractive young lady he was fitting one to had chosen an RAF red, white and blue circle design. Or it could have been a punk thing.

I love television.

I picked up "merkin" on the Pratchett newsgroup - I think it's in the FAQ, actually. Both meanings.

I haven't really encountered any merkins (original meaning) anywhere, not even on the telly. I'm sure someone was talking about them a couple of weeks ago, but I can't think why they would have been.

Note on picking stuff up from books/ reading fantasy - my parents, both well educated and well read, had never encountered the word sigil (and didn't believe it was a word. Thanks to my reading habits, I had been under the impression it was a perfectly normal and oft-used word....