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

Eden Project: Well, I have spoken to people who were there (i.e. my sister, who is a keen gardener and florist) and (*polishing nails on lapel*) I edited the entry here in the Guide on it ( ), from which I learnt quite a bit. And all seem to be very impressed. Especially at the good organisation, so even if you are disappointed, you certainly shouldn't waste any time while there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A545447

For the record:

Monday night followed an extremely hot summery day. Nikki and Bald Bloke were propping up the bar when I arrived a few minutes after 6. We took our drinks outside, as it was rather loud and stuffy, and were joined by Phil and Potholer. As the temperature outside cooled down, we moved back in and found a table upstairs, where we were joined by Munchkin and Manolan. "A good time was had by all."

Surprisingly the discussion did not focus on the very recent loss of DNA, as there were so many other common topics. All of them seemingly related to this thread, the original thread and the "other one out there". We discussed a lot of the other, absent, regular BET's (British English Threadposters? A TLA! Just thought it up) - details on request!

And the rumours are true. I do have a printout of the first 2800 postings of the original thread, which I occasionally attempted to quote, but due to the fact that it is 37 pages of small print, it wasn't easy to find the place and keep up with the scintillating conversation.

Word for the day: Where does the expression "on your/my/his/her tod" come from. Could be rhyming slang, and it may have already been discussed, but I haven't ploughed through the entire old thread yet!

And if we are "BET"s - who are our BETTERs?

According to a guy called Ian Marks on a book discussion group I just found, 'On my tod' is rhyming slang, and refers to a jockey called Todd Sloan, who was either very good, or very bad, and hence spent most of his time away from all the other riders, so "on my Todd Sloan" = "on my own".

So maybe you can enlighten me where "not on your Nelly" comes from (meaning Not a chance of)..

Hey - I've just had this really hoopy idea !! (TC might not like it, though)

If the first 2,800 postings exist on paper, they could be posted back in to a new version of the original thread ! I know the originators won't be able to post, but if they are all put in from a generic ID with acknowledgement to the original poster.

And it would mean the moderators would have to deal with them immediately (rather than when they get round to it).

Mind you, there is then the question of the missing 1,000 posts (2801 to approx 3800).

Actually, this sounds typically BBC (the original British TLA ?), because they are always loosing things in the archives, reusing tape and taping over bits of series etc. etc.

The closest meaningful phrase is 'not on your life

The consesnus seems to be that it's ryming slang again.
Nelly Duff (or Ruff) = puff, meaning breath of life.

Ok then, the term "living Daylights" as in "It'll scare the living daylights out of you"??

BTW - I was told that Daylight Robbery came from when King George the (??) imposed a Window Tax and people boarded up windows to avoid paying the Tax.... Mind you I was told this DOwn Under by a Tourist Guide whoi was explaining why some buildings didn't have windows where you expected them to be...

Living daylights :
One tenuous theory relates to 18th century boxing slang, where 'daylights' meant eyes, and the usage was "*knock/beat* the living dalights out of..", in the sense of hitting someone until their eyes were closed.

Another theory (mentioned on sevarl different websites) relies on bucther's slang where 'lights' means lungs. The phrase 'lungs and lights' was (and in some places still is) a butcher's term for offal, so "knock the living daylights out of" equates to "kick the guts out of".

Greetings to the Wellingtonians....

"Lights" is a very good word for crosswords. It gets a mention in my entry on solving the Times crossword: GetCliveValuation = "Invalid Date". Anyway, it _does_ mean both "lungs" and "windows". Also, there _was_ a window tax. (BTW, it also means "answer to crossword clue".)

No idea whether either of those explain the expression, but happy to be able to confirm some of the other points.

OK, I'll try that link again: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A540316

That's better.

Thanks for the link to Eden TC and for a more comprehensive review of your meet. Previous details were sketchy at best ..now I really wish I coulda been there.
Full points to those who, like Munchkin, 'traverse afar'.

The original English TLA woulda been HRH wouldn't it?
Or HMS perhaps.

well, you weren't far from our thoughts, jwf!

According to William S Haubrich, 'lungs' may derive from the Sanskrit 'laghu', meaning 'light' (in the not-heavy sense of the word), since lungs are much less dense than other body tissue.
Supposedly, in many languages, the word for lungs is related to that for lightness.

TC - who was it sitting on your left upstairs in the pub?

Pictures...? Where!

Pictures??

Oh - if you mean pictures of the Monday meet, there aren't any - I was there.

Sorry I didn't introduce you. It was a school friend of mine who lives in London and with whom I was staying. She really enjoyed herself, too, and will, as a result, no doubt join us shortly, when she can get at the computer for long enough, having a husband and two kids to share it with.

In fact, she introduced me to the Hitchhiker books back in the 70s, so it was the least I could do!

There was a comment on daylight robbery earlier. I thought it was just that, robbery (the taking of money or goods with the use of force or menaces) in daylight.

Ref: on my tod ...
I feel much less like that now, sitting here at the computer, than I did *before* Monday.

Always been curious about the "alight" in "do not alight from he train until it has come to a complete stand" - it's not linked to the other lights, is it ?

It strikes me the 'toffs' "alight from their train", while all those travelling "standard class" (that used to be "second class", and "third class" before that) get off / bundle out / de-train even.

The next burning issue (sorry ), we "light a fire" and "set things alight", "set it on fire", "set fire to", say something is "on fire", "fire" something in the "cook" sense - are we a nation / racial grouping / sharers of a common langusge who are all pyromaniacs ?

There are, of course, other words to do with fires and lighting things which come from different roots, such as burn and arson.

Why isn't an arsonist someone who sits on their bum all day ?

"Daylight robberey" suggests a boldness of thievery, unlike the "thief in the night"

Why do we "steal though the night", "steal onself aginst something (happening)" ?

Am I making this up ? Needle, nardle, noo.