h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Lastly, I use a spatula to flip my biscuits."

How prosaic! You might think about flipping them with an extended finger as part of your training regimen.

Just kidding ... really! Peace?? I'm a cyclist, too, so am sympathetic to the indignities perpetrated by motorists. Had one intentionally run me off the road and into a deep ditch once. He even had the gall to admit it when I later caught up with him and confronted him face to face. Nevertheless, I still don't recommend initiating or perpetuating exchanges of obscene gestures. As I said, why tempt fate? But whatever floats your boat. (Now you can say water floats your boat, or whatever. )

I've never known anyone who didn't use a spatula to flip biscuits.

And I've never understood that 'whatever floats your boat' comment ... surely it's gotta be water? Or have I missed something?

Why do people say that? Are they referring to a specific sort of water? Or are they just repeating something they've heard a million times that is actually rather meaningless?

Just wondering ... as I am wont to do.

az

"Whatever floats your boat" is a colloquial figure of speech meaning basically "whatever turns you on." Hope that helps!

I always thought boats floated on water, and it was the displacement of water by the hull which "floated my boat". So I guess "displacement" floats my boat.

<>

I'm with JNCSmith here. I used to be the queen of the finger, an unabashed user of obscenity. But as I see the world getting more and more crowded, I keep thinking of the overcrowded rats in the lab that started going crazy and killing each other.

I read a science fiction story (Ithink it was by Robert A. Heinlein) where all the populace went armed and it was perfectly okay to take umbrage at someone's rudeness to the point of shooting them. That is, as long as they were enfranchised. People who were considered irresponsible or not capable of being responsible were equipped with brassards that made them safe from being held accountable for their actions. Of course, if you shot someone for some transgression, you were then in danger from the heirs and assignees and friends of the person you shot, so people didn't just automatically kill each other. The book had a very polite society as a result.

I started thinking about that story, and the lesson it held in being responsible for our actions. I have become a much more polite person as a result. I also had to learn to police my language because I had plenty of clients who were very offended by words as simple as damn or hell. In the interests of my own income, I found it expedient to find other ways to express myself.

This is not to say I do not get very impatient or even enraged with people who are needlessly idiotic when driving. But I don't flip them off any more. I find that a sincere smile and an extended index finger gun with the thumb hammer fall makes people feel less offended and more apologetic when I have narrowly missed creaming their vehicle.

I don't flip my biscuits. I bake them in the oven and take them off the baking sheet with a spatula.

"I don't flip my biscuits. I bake them in the oven and take them off the baking sheet with a spatula."

Whatever floats your boat!

Maybe it does have something to do with age or life experience or something of the sort. I used to be a bit more brash also. As I've aged, however, I've also mellowed a bit. Have become a believer, for example, in the saying, "there are old bikers and there are bold bikers, but there are very few old, bold bikers." Recognizing, of course, that there are exceptions to almost everything.

>A cyclist was riding on the inside next to the curb and a parked car opened its doors - the woman went flying over her bike and broke her jaw.

That happened in Ireland a while ago as well - except it was the minister for transport opeining his limo door.

>I find that a sincere smile and an extended index finger gun with the thumb hammer fall makes people feel less offended and more apologetic when I have narrowly missed creaming their vehicle.

I'll use that in future when someone doesn't indicate.

Oh, and I use a fiahslice to flip my biscuits. Mercury, I hear, is very effective at making boats float.

"fiahslice"

Say what? Even google came up empty on that one!

I think it was meant to be 'fishslice'...


az

Aha! Sounds reasonable! I can be incredibly dense with almost no effort!

I still use the fishslice I made in woodwork class 27 years ago

Not that that has got much to do with the matter at hand, but I thought I'd throw it in anyway

Believe it or not, I'd never before seen or heard the term "fishslice" before! And I'm no kid! Had to look it up. Now I know! I even own one and had always just called it a spatula. Just illustrates the old adage about learning something new every day.

I'd never heard of a fish slice (the correct spelling, apparently) before either, but it seemed a good guess from what looked like a typo to me (fiahslice). And then I looked it up.

http://images.google.com/images?q=fish%20slice&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=N&tab=wi

It seems they call lots of different things fish slices. Some I saw are what I'd call spatulas and others I'd call fish servers.



az

I don't own anything that looks like those images (all silver?) but if I ever have the chance I'll use it to flip a biscuit. And then I'll duck tape several together and see if I can get them to float.

We call them fish slices. This page indicates that a spatula is something different: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.deliaonline.com/images/width150/fish-slice-19309.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.deliaonline.com/cookery-school/equipment/slices-spatulas-and-tongs,78,AR.html&h=150&w=150&sz=4&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=32MvCI-KPB5A_M:&tbnh=96&tbnw=96&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfish%2Bslice%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

TRiG.

Oh no It looks like it was a spatula I made, quelle horror I'm going to have to change my cv now. Do you think I should confess that I lied to my boss or hope he never notices? Is giving false information on a cv a criminal offence? Will I get an ASBO (Anti-Spatula-Blaspheming-Offender) ?

Topic drift? What topic drift? Maybe fish slices would work well for signaling turns or for scraping squashed pedestrians and/or cyclists off the road?

"Do you think I should confess that I lied to my boss or hope he never notices? Is giving false information on a cv a criminal offence?"

I'm afraid that feigning ignorance can't save you now. That ruse has been tried so many times that the folks at Interpol are well onto it. People claiming to have made a fish slice in woodwork class when in fact all they really made was a common spatula. Any dolt can make a spatula! It takes an uncommon craftman to fashion a true fish slice. I certainly hope you don't have spawn and spouse at home depending on your income for their survival.

Your deceit no is doubt the talk of h2g2 by now. And what would you suppose are the chances that at least one researcher won't be severly tempted to rat you out for the reward money? And how will you be able to sleep at night with this on your conscience? What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

Ohmigod I'm ruined, ruined I say

As the saying goes, you made your bed; now you have to lie in it. A sad case. Man with so much potential, too. All down the drain now I'm afraid.