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

As one who spent my teenage years in such a trap (though it was slightly bigger than 6x6, more like 10x6 ) I enjoyed the freedom of having my own room more than the lack of space. Even after moving out to go to uni I swapped from a shared room to a much smaller room of my own.

These 'box' rooms are euphemistically called "the third bedroom" by estate agents. They frequently only just have room for a standard single bed. I spent some years in one where there was only one place the bed could go because of the narrowness of the room, and the need to be able to get the door open again.

I think estate agents should be categoriesed and named by the types of property they sell - few sell whole estates anymore.

In the US (and other associated places) they sell 'real estate' - the first backlash in history against the yet-to-be-invented 'virtual reality'. Anyone hazard a guess as to what un-real estate is ?

Wouldn't that be virtual realty?

I've seen 'third bedrooms' in show houses where it would not be possible to fit even a standard single bed into it. On being thoroughly interrogated, the estate agent admitted that you would have to use a camp bed.

The same houses had toilets (the room rather than the bowl) so small that a normal swing door could not be used. A concertina-type folding door was used in instead.

Estate agents redefine such words as 'spacious' and 'convenient'. A large house was knocked down on our road and replaced with 22 spacious town houses.


Spacious = occupying space ?

Alt: spacious = unfurnished

or "Healthy growing up" and 129 other phrases have been trademarked by MacDonalds. I am breaching their copyright in telling you this. So I'll probably be moderated any minute. I can't bear to go to their website, so I don't know if they've got a lien on "Have a nice day"

Eh!?!?!!? My flabber is well and truly gasted!! I'm off to check out their website, on the offchance it explains.

Has anyone snapped up "pre-digested coronary-inducing slop" yet?

Yeah, all the animals that went on to develop f&m.

I like to think that the word "nice" in "Have a nice day" is used in one of its obsolete forms - meaning wanton, profligate or even inconsequential.

From the French city of the same name no doubt.

~jwf~

Nice - wanton? That shows the Nice biscuit in a whole new light, I may well eat more of them now.

Indeed - one of the football teams we played against last summer had several players from Nancy - they were not pleased to know that, techniquely, this made them Nancy boys

Oh wouldn't that be the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew ?

*apologies for reference to what may now be obscure and forgotten works by little known Canadian authour who once had world wide sales in the multimillions with these teen detectives through the fifties, sixties and seventies - at least two dozen titles for each - there were subsequent efforts at TV and film versions... no eh, never heard of them, right ..well like I say ..sorry ..but twenty years from now the world will wonder who Harry Potter was. I have a head start on that one already and I'm going to keep my lead.*
~jwf~

It's all right, jwf - you don't need the second "u" in "author" - or are the Canadians super-English on that one?

Somewhere back there I posted a comment on Kaeori's use of the word "estate agent" and can't find it today. Hmmm

Anyway the point I made, which has since been made in a sort of way, is that you can't really expect an estate agent to explain words. They bend them to suit their purposes anyway, so if ever there was a difference between "loft" and "attic", an estate agent is the last person who would know which was which or why.

Who's going to send me a packet of Nice biscuits now? For some reason I have suddently developed a craving for them! Do you dunk yours, too, Munchkin?

Lots of trademarks. You can find ALL their old slogans here, as well as some other stuff. Follow link 3, and scroll to the bottom.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A583058

Those are presumably the American ones. Several spring to mind from German advertising campaigns which aren't included in that list. Not to mention all the German slogans....

I haven't dunked a Nice biscuit in ages, what with not realising I was being degenerate, but now that I know, I think I'll try and get a packet when next food shopping.

I've always thought Nice biscuits were inappropriately named - when ever I read a reference to "ships biscuits" (which I understand were so bad that was the last think you ate when shipwrecked), I always think of 'nice' biscuits - ugghhh!

Biscuits have peculiar names ...
- rich tea (is there any tea in them ?)
- digestive (aid the digestion ?)
- jammy dodgers (where on earth did the dodger bit come from ?)
- bourbon (weren't they French kings ?)
- cream cracker (?)

From the offishul CDN edition of 'how 2 rightly spel werds and tipe good 2':

Awther: a guy who writes stuff (see also - awtheress)


~jwf~