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

Wasn't the original Q a plea for elucidation of the dog's b******s,K? (she already knew what a British bum was)
Rich as________ ?Is there a modern Britsh equivalent of Lady Docker or Gulbenkian or are all rich people American?()

To some extent, the seasons can be delayed in temperate maritime climates, since the sea does warm more slowly than the land - peak summer in England does seem later than in continental Europe - but the presence of the sea also moderates the winters, so spring can be earlier where the climate is milder, and late frosts are rare, which I presume is the case in Gulf Stream-assisted Ireland.

Once upon a time, it might have been 'Rich as Maxwell', but that might not be funny any more.

How about 'Rich as the Duke of Westminster', 'Rich as the Duchess of Devonshire' or, maybe, 'Rich as Elton John'. Anyone have a copy of te Sunday Times article about the richest people? Any of them British?

Shouldn't that be "as rich as Elton John's former accountant"?

Right at the very beginning - almost in prehistory - I innocently enquired about the difference between "It's a ***!" and "It's the ***'s" (tail-waggily animal removed by internal moderation). It turned out that references to, er, cobblers (new to me) was implied but not explicit.

How about "As rich as the Church of England", as I gather no British individual or institution has more wealth?

You have been working hard. Can I just hark back to a couple of postings which appeared while I was having lunch ... Mustapha's summary in Post 1049 is so good I shall use it as the opening paragraph for the elusive "Index"

And WS's comments even further back (although not that far in time, I was just finishing the post ready to go off after this morning's work!!) about anything being a noun if it wanted reminds me of a favourite quote an American once made on a radio interview. When questioned on the subject of the American use of the language to introduce words like "to parent" or "to box" things, he agreed

"Yes, well, we do tend to verb our nouns!"

(Can't think of any better examples, they appear in everyday speech and don't really get remembered because it's obvious what they are supposed to mean.)

Is there any difference between a heathen and a pagan? They are obviously both similar in origin. I always imagined a heathen to be someone who didn't practice any form of religion, while a pagan carried out non-Christian rites, such as midsummer night mating dances or black masses. Perhaps they are interchangeable.

Isn't it a case of heathens being followers of non-European ancient religions (i.e. Victorian missionaries went to Africa to convert the heathen) whilst pagans are Europeans/Wiccan types (Druidic rituals, Wicker men etc. are often refered to as pagan)

Verbing nouns or nouning verbs is quite common in British English, as well - (I think this came up in the original conversation).
You can swing a hammer, hammer a nail, nail a board, board a ship, ship a load, load a truck...

(old use of "without" there, as in "There is a green hill far away without a city wall" and
"My lord a lady stands without"
"Without what?"
"Without food or clothing"
"Well, give her some food and send her in")
Pagans worshipped more than one god(dess) / spirit. Heathens were, as you say, non-Christian()

Keep on truckin!

Que? Both uses look like the same thing to me:

You may kiss my hand but not my nose.
I may eat my dinner tomorrow, but I may skip it.

The sentences mean different things. May is an Auxilliary verb (I think that means it modifies the meaning of other words)....

as in "You kiss my hand" could be an order or a comment - "You May kiss my hand" means it is permissable that you kiss my hand or you are able to .....

I may eat -- I am able to eat, or It is permissable that I eat, or I might eat.....

OH WTH do I know - just babbling......

Afaik the 21 start dat to the seasons is NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO with the myth of 42 (but it did just get me thinking....).

The 21 start is due to the longest day of the year falling on June 21st (in Northern Hemisphere) and shortest day falling on 21 Dec..... I always thought this was an odd time for the seasons to START - surely they should be in the middle of the seasons.....

(Private Message)
K, have a on me. Oh, and one from G, who seems to have gone off somewhere.
(/Private Message)

Have a drink on me
Have a drink off me
Have a drink with me
Have a drink for me
Have a drink in memory of me
Drink it up or drink it down Sip, slurp,quaff or drain I'm off home now for a malt()

Malt what - whiskey, malted milk, erm.....

What an odd race we are - the Brits - so many things to say in so many ways.....

Has anybody else noticed that you can tell who an E-mail is from from its phrasing without seeing the from line?

I find that people I know well phrase their E-mails, and use a rhythm, in a similar way to the way they talk... Is this just me?

Malted barley?
Which leads on to the question of why partialy germinated grains are malt? Is the term malting derived from the name malt as the final product or the other way round?

I agree about the emails Argon0. I certainly tend to do it as I find email much more of a conversational medium than writing a pen and paper letter.

Aha - I knew I wasn't going SANE!!

Now there's a good one -

Do the words Sanity(as in mental state) and Sanitise (as in clean) share a common root? I suspect so but the story behind it could be interesting...

Sane comes from the Latin (sanus) for clean, so I would think they share the same root.

Yes, the 'insane' are 'unclean'.

*licks paws, scrubs behind ears, stretches out in the sun, makes note to lick other bits at a later time*

Ow! Stop it! Enough with the gerund (again) already!

The English language is a bit like a computer: I'm happy to use it all day, but I don't want to know everything that's going on inside it