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Post by Barry on Jun 17, 2008 14:48:26 GMT
I have a splendid squeaky-nun dog-toy I bought in Walsingham. Catholic tat is one of my favourite amusements, and there's a wealth of it to be found in shops attached to 'holy' places. A friend found the ultimate one - a plastic model of St Peter's in Rome, that took batteries and needed to be wound up. The dome revolved, lights flashed, and a small procesion of cardinals exited one door and entered another to the tinkling of Schubert's 'Ave Maria'. I have a Vatican lolly in my possession, too. Favourite overheard conversation in a second-hand shop (mostly selling holy tat) in Walsingham:
Customer: "How much is that monstrance in the window" Assistant: "Ninety-five pounds, sir" Customer: "Does it have a lunette?" Assistant: "I'm afraid not, sir; a lunette is the one thing it doesn't have"
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Post by Dave M on Jun 17, 2008 14:50:41 GMT
Oh! .... can't you just hear that being said by Stephen Fry, in his Jeeves voice!
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Post by Barry on Jun 17, 2008 14:52:20 GMT
It was rather like that.
Only in Walsingham ... ;D
It was the idea of 'the one thing it doesn't have' that tickled me - especially as he was referring to this great hideous piece of silver-gilt baroqueness.
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Post by Tone on Jun 17, 2008 20:37:13 GMT
>What a great idea! French revolutionaries - anti-religion, of course - wearing little guillotines.<
Beat me to it! (And my ancestor managed to escape from it.)
Perhaps the low-key version could be a crone with knitting needles.
Tone
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Post by Twoddle on Jun 17, 2008 21:23:02 GMT
Perhaps the low-key version could be a crone with knitting needles. Tone They were known as tricoteuses; can anyone tell me why? (And why was it known as "Madame la Guillotine" when it was invented by a man?)
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Post by Pete on Jun 17, 2008 21:27:06 GMT
They were known as tricoteuses; can anyone tell me why? I'm not sure I understand the question. As females who knitted, what else could they be called but tricoteuses?
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Post by Twoddle on Jun 17, 2008 21:35:43 GMT
They were known as tricoteuses; can anyone tell me why? I'm not sure I understand the question. As females who knitted, what else could they be called but tricoteuses? Whoops! Thanks, Pete; I didn't have my French-English dictionary to hand when I asked that, and I see now that a knitter is a tricoteuse. I'd assumed falsely that the word related specifically to Tone's crones sitting beside the guillotine.
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Post by Sue M-V on Jun 17, 2008 22:49:46 GMT
mostly what you see as the flag being used for clothing, etc., is the impression of the flag. When examined more closely, there are red and white stripes and there are white stars on a blue background, but it may not actually be the flag. Come to think of it, Dave, I'm sure you're right! By the way, I thought all countries had laws governing the uses and abuses of their flags. Aren't there any in Britain, then? I thought we had them but that they were simply ignored - rather like parking regulations. I know they're quite strict in Sweden, where lots of people have darn great flagpoles in their gardens, and where several days of the year are designated as flag days. Sue
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Post by Verbivore on Jun 18, 2008 1:38:21 GMT
[...] By the way, I thought all countries had laws governing the uses and abuses of their flags. Aren't there any in Britain, then? I thought we had them but that they were simply ignored - rather like parking regulations. I know they're quite strict in Sweden, where lots of people have darn great flagpoles in their gardens, and where several days of the year are designated as flag days. Sue In Oz, where flag waving - and especially domestic flagpoles - are not major pastimes or installations, the few people who do have flagpoles in their front yards are regarded with suspicion of red-necked nationalism or some other undesirable "nuttiness". (Australians, compared with most other nations, are not known for overt nationalistic fervour.) The only Oz flag controversy I can recall in all my life was when one was used, a few years ago, as a tablecloth at some patriotic function, and the then-president of the RSL (Returned Services League) - a right reactionary nutter of the first magnitude - got on his high horse about it. Larger storms have been discovered in shot glasses.
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Post by Vadim on Jun 18, 2008 7:25:57 GMT
Indeed they have, Verbivore. When waking up the next morning after a heavy night on the shots, I often feel as though I've been hit by a tornado, tsunami, or some such "storm".
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Post by Twoddle on Jun 18, 2008 7:44:17 GMT
Except when they're abroad, Vv!
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Post by Verbivore on Jun 18, 2008 9:37:07 GMT
Except when they're abroad, Vv! Quite possibly so, Twod - but then the same comment applies to many tourists/travelers. I suspect it's partly the insecurity related to being away from the everyday "knowns" - e.g. upside-down electrical switches, lavatory bowls with higher or lower water levels and different flushing styles; vehicles with the steering wheel on the "wrong" side ... . But I'm offering only explanations, not excuses. When I was overseas (mainly working) I tried to immerse myself in the local cultures; that way I felt less foreign and less insecure away from the "knowns" of home. I confess to having had my awareness of my Oz nationality raised a notch or two when overseas, but not (I hope) in any way that could have been interpreted as nationalistic fervour. I neither took nor wore/displayed any flag-bearing attire or paraphernalia; my accent was enough to get me all I needed - and most of what I wanted.
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Post by Sue M-V on Jun 18, 2008 11:53:52 GMT
It's odd that the Swedes are so keen on displaying their flag since I'd say they are the least nationalistic types I've so far come across.
I remember using as a discussion topic the subject:
Why are you glad that you are your own nationality, and not some other?
This works quite well in most nationality groups and is a good introduction to the whole subject of culture and traditions.
I have given up trying to get Swedes to discuss it. First they hardly know what I'm talking about, and when I manage to explain, they don't know what to say. They say things like: "It wouldn't matter to me if I were French or Chinese - I wouldn't know anything else."
Sue
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Post by Gabriel-Ernest on Jun 18, 2008 13:14:19 GMT
Twoddle, (And why was it known as "Madame la Guillotine" when it was invented by a man?) I think it is a safe bet that it was ‘invented’ by a man; but which man? In fact Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin(no ‘e’) did not invent the guillotine; and, to scotch the other myth, he didn’t die by it. He was the man tasked (by the National Assembly) to find a new, humane and more ‘equal’ means of execution. The first modern design was by Dr. Antoine Lousis; the fact that he was a surgeon was an irony not lost on the Parisians. However, there had been devices used previously in various countries. A woodcut in the British Museum, dated 1307, shows an execution in Ireland using a crude guillotine. And displayed in a museum in Halifax (and reputed to date back to the Norman invasion era) is another such device.
One assumes the use of the feminine is a term of affectation, similar to that extended to boats and other inanimate objects.
Sue M-V, I suspect your Swedes are just being very logical when they say: “I wouldn't know anything else.”. Because they wouldn’t.
G-E.
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Post by Twoddle on Jun 18, 2008 18:14:50 GMT
G-E:
It's rather similar to when I'm moaning about something (Who? I?!) and people say, "Maybe you'd have been happier if you'd never been born". What? How would that work?
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