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

<(Those of us who are ambidextrous synaesthetes supposedly sort of look inwards in an unfocused sort of way).>

- don't you go cross-eyed?

Here's a third theory: I once heard that if you were thinking about the future you looked upwards and to the right, if you were thinking about the past you looked upwards and to the left (or vice versa)

But I have noticed pretty actresses doing it to look to their advantage in interviews. (Looking up makes their eyes look bigger)



And to round off the Sk- Sh- topic - one can presumably deduce that the "skipper" is from "Schiffer" - which is anyone who mucks about on boats professionally in German, i.e. bargees etc. Hmmmm - so why is it just applied to the captain of a ship in English then?

For our musical readers, one of the colloquial names in German for an accordeon is "Schifferklavier". (Seaman's piano.)

Ducks and drakes.
Didn't the fleet, in the time of cannons etc., find a way to bounce cannon balls off the surface of the sea to increase range and hit opposing ships round the water line? Would this have any connection?

Have a good weekend all.

"rum begger"

Can anyone tell me what this phrase means or what it refers to? Its used in a theatrical produciton of "Angel Street" aka "Gaslight" that I'm working on.

only gueesing could be refering to(victorian) unemployed seaman , begging while waiting for new ship?

hit or taped pad at wrong time then lost connection was going to say general use now it to describe odd fellow , not so much a weirdo but more slightly escentric if that helps i was going to use (jwf) as example but i wont

'rum beggar'. 'Rum' is a rather dated colloquial label for someone strange, peculiar or possibly unsavoury, but certainly untrustworthy; 'dodgy' is probably a reasonable modern translation - but I don't know if that translates into American... . 'Beggar' in this context is just a mildly disparaging term for a person, usually a male person.

In Australian, I'd translate 'rum beggar' as 'dodgy b*stard'. I don't know if that helps - in fact it probably doesn't. Never mind, I'm sure somebody more competent than me will be along soon...

Ivan.

i would not go as far to say us untrustworthy or unsavory its to freindly a term in my eyes, but we both simlu posted at same time , the phrase is obviously 100 years plus in usage ,being universal stateside and downside so to speak.

Yes, we did a good simulpost there.

'Rum' does have shades of meaning... I was thinking of how it's used in Agatha Christie's books and others of that vintage. The context of a detective novel probably skews my perceptions - anyone described as 'rum' in one of those books usually is untrustworthy; it goes with the genre.

I can imagine the Famous Five talking about a 'rum' fellow too.

I've only used it as a mild, friendly term for an eccentric or unpredictable but likeable person. (It has also been applied to me, I trust in a similar context.)
"Rum" can be used as "odd" or "singular" as in "The new Williams' Formula 1 car looks a bit rum."
The OED shows rum to have been used as a term of approval in the 16thC. as "good or great" and in the 19thC. as "to cheat".

The "begger" I have always assumed to be a bowdlerism i.e. the first "e" replacing a "u" allowing the word to be used in reasonably polite company.

Oy plaguesville - I wur gonna say that!

The English spoken by our family tended to be rather old-fashioned (colonial doncha know Old Bean) and they certainly used rum to mean an odd chap (and beggar as P describes).

TC, it's been over a decade but I seem to remember him making us remember visual things (during which most people looked up) and tactile memories (stroking a cat was one) - during which people tended to look down. My paretners asked for help 'cos I wasn't doing the expected and he ended up using me as a demonstration. Having not seen for myself I have to go with his description which was inward looking and unfocused. He was probably too polite too say "cross-eyed"

>> ..inward looking and unfocused. <<

The further suggestion of cross-eyed leaves me wondering if there is also a puckering of the lips and a sucking in of cheecks as unfocused (crossed) eyes scan the floor under furrowed brows.

If so, the entire face is doing one of those postures that muscle-builders do with their whole bodies when everything is tightened up and focused around the central abdomenals. In the case of the face it is focused around the central area of the hippo campus, ostensibly to bring the left and right hemispheres into a momentary balance allowing the brain to re-assign neural activity to a specific memory search.

Decision making also often involves much puckering and tapping the lips with fingers or pencils, but the eyes are wide and usually turned optimistically upwards.


~jwf~

Thank you all. This is very helpful.

Glad to be of service!

George Melly, controversially, gave the second line of the sailor's saying about life on shore being all 'wine, women and song'. On board it was 'Rum, b*m and concertina!' In this example rum was the alcoholic beverage which in the Royal Navy was issued to sailors on a daily basis and was sometimes referred to as the grog ration.

Somewhat surprised that none of the grammatical heavy-weights and pedants have lept in yet to mention 'rhum'.

'Rhum' being the root word from which "I" understand most of these colourful idiomatic expressions, especially those with any negative-taste connotations, spring sprang sprung. This 'rhum' also being the root of rhumbago, rhumba-toed arthur-write-us, and the rhumba.


~jwf~

'Rum, Sodomy and the Lash' was Winston Churchill's take on naval tradition (it then became the title of an album by the Pogues)

Often given as "Rum, buggery and the lash" . . . have we come full circle?

Ooer! It does have a more poetic ring to it.

Rhymes with "skullduggery" - which is probably also worth discussing. Does it mean digging up skulls?