have you read Seeing Words [or Voices] by Oliver Sacks?

No, I haven't, Asa. I read his first book, or at least skimmed it in the library. I'll take a look if I can. Thanks.

Yes. We did indeed. A certain Roland Hill usually takes the credit.

Sir Rowland's claim is not entirely without controversy, Richard. There is, among other claimants, an 1831 adhesive postage stamp from the Greek island of Poros, issued by govenor Glarakis. The British stamp dealer PL Pemberton wrote an article about it in 1933 in the Philatelic Journal of Great Brtiain. More info here.

I dount there's a single device, idea or invention that can be considered 100% new. It depends on how one defines invention.

Because the idea of letters is far older even than Western civilization it would be stupid to imagine that no previous form of verification of payment ever existed.

Rowland Hill's great contribution as that he made the pre-paid, flat-rate, self-adhesive stamp concept work commercially and in that sense he deserves the credit for being the inventor and the man whose invention revolutionised mass communication in a way that was not repeated until Bell invented the (practical and commercially successful) telephone

Quote, "...Funny, I had always thought Alexander Graham Bell to be American ..."

Bell was a Scotsman, born in Edinburgh. He moved to Ontario, and then to the United States, settling in Boston. He didn't invent the telphone until 1876 when he was in the USA, this is true, but he was a Briton, not an American.

He did invent the phonological transcription system as well (his wife was deaf).

Isn't it nice that he came over here and did his wonderful work?

he made the pre-paid, flat-rate, self-adhesive stamp concept work commercially and in that sense he deserves the credit for being the inventor

Now, Richard. This sounds like the kind of rationalization that Yanks put forward for Edison over Swann.

Recent intensive in-depth archeologic and genealogic research proves beyond doubt that I am a direct descendant of the inventor of the wheel. Furthermore, fragments of annotated clay tablets lying around in what remains of the world's first wheel factory show that she would have been an American if this country had existed then.

So?

So pin a rose on ME !!!

jerry.. you're a USA winner!

But, Jerry, England invented the United States.

I dount there's a single device, idea or invention that can be considered 100% new. It depends on how one defines invention.

I think, Richard, that is what a lot of us have been saying all along.

As far as Alexander Graham Bell, he may also have been American. He could have become a U.S. citizen. I think most people think of the telephone as an American invention.

You know me, I tend to believe everything all you wordcrafters tell me, and sometimes I get fooled. So....Silas Lickum was a joke? I looked him up in Google and couldn't find him. The name would have been sooo appropriate!

he may also have been American

Uusally the host country gets some of the credit. Not sure when naturalization became common in the States. Why did A G Bell leave the UK? Was he having trouble getting funding? (Addendum: He was finacned by his American father-in-law, and took out an American patent on the telephone.)

He did invent the phonological transcription system as well (his wife was deaf).

Richard, I'm pretty sure it was A G Bell's father who invented Visible Speech. He worked with the deaf, too. He left Scotland, too.

Back to the main thread . . . this is a story of my son (again) when he was about 4 yrs old, in preschool.

For some reason, this town always has trick-or-treat on a non-weekend night, so even if Halloween is on Friday or Saturday, we trick-or=treat during the week before.

When he was in preschool, Oct. 31 was on Saturday. His school party was on Friday. He understood why that was, but he was very perplexed as to why we would have Beggar's Night on Thursday. He asked me . . .

"Is Thursday the Jewish people's Halloween?"

how sweet is THAT?

quote:

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Yes. And it got Alexander Graham Bell's nationality wrong as well.

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Breaking News! Turns out he's Canadian!

Now, where does that come from?

Well, Richard does say above:

quote:

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Bell was a Scotsman, born in Edinburgh. He moved to Ontario, and then to the United States, settling in Boston.

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I suspect the Canadians were hard-pressed to find famous Canadians in enough numbers.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,

Quote "...Now, Richard. This sounds like the kind of rationalization that Yanks put forward for Edison over Swann..."

Not exactly. Swan was selling incandescent lamps commercially before Edison had even a working model. Edison's overall concept, including the provision of power stations (Swan's customers had to source their own electricity) was better and he deserves credit for that.

Before Rowland Hill the concept of flat-rate, prepaid postage, with the associated stamp to provide evidence had never been thought of. There were no competing postage systems of this type, even though post had been carried by many and various means for centuries.

Rowland Hill's system, though, meant that even the poorest could afford to post letters and, indeed, the growth in use of the system was so fast that it rapidly became highly profitable and efficient. So good was the idea that other countries soon adopted identical systems although their stamps always carried their country's name to differentiate them from British stamps.

British stamps, to this day, do not have our country's name on them - the only stamps in the world that do not.

British stamps, to this day, do not have our country's name on them - the only stamps in the world that do not.

Interesting. Is that how they know what country they are from (because they are the only stamps not to have the country name on them)? I went online and checked on a bunch of our stamps, and you are right; they all say "USA."

I just remembered this today. When my son was entering kindergarten, he met his teacher first, Mrs. Haight (pronounced "hate). When school was about to start, he seemed very reticent. I couldn't understand it because he had always loved pre-school. I asked him what the problem was. He said, "My teacher's name is Mrs. 'Hate.' I think she is going to hate me!" What a great way to learn about homonyms!

My son's current teacher is Mrs. Beard. To his credit, he's not even made a single joke about it! I have restrained myself, wanting him to keep respecting his teacher.

Reviving a thread...
I was cleaning out my oldest daughter's room this weekend in preparation for CW and her family who are going to visit us. I found a wonderful story that my daughter had written (she was about 6) about what she would do when she grew up. She said things like buy her grandchildren lots of presents and have a "cozy" home, and she was going to be "very happy." However, the funniest was this:

"I will either get married or be a widow."

This tale was in my newspaper.

A mother took her two young girls out shopping. She announced she was going to buy the elder daughter, Leah, a leotard for her dance lessons. Younger sister Sasha, aged five, not to be outdone in missing a present, piped up, "Please may I have a sashatard, Mummy?"

Ahhh, this story goes back 26 years. My 4 yr old daughter
was just getting her linguistic sense of what actually makes
a 'joke' warmed up. To this day, im pretty sure her response was unplanned for humor, but her ear was hearing rhymes.

Hubby, myself and daughter were riding in the car when he began to reminisce about his trips out west as a young teen to go hunting. "Oh i'd love to get back to Montana and hunt more elk, deer and moose!"

Our daughter, who'd barely ever seen her father even target shoot for recreation, popped out with kiddy sarcasm,
"Oh Daddy, all you'd ever bring home is milk, beer and booze!"

Im not sure which triggered the peals of laughter more, her perfect comeback or the shock that somewhere in her rather protected upbringing she had already picked up the last word.

Oh...those are funny!

From my newspaper:

A precision engineer was trying to explain to his young son what his work entailed. He explained that he often worked to tolerances of one thousandth of an inch. He then asked if his son knew how many thousandths of an inch there were in an inch. "I don't know, Dad." was the reply, "There must be millions."

Reviving a thread:

For the electronic age:

What sound does a cow make?
Moo!
What sound does a dog make?
Woof!
What sound does a sheep make?
Baa!
What sound does a mouse make?
Click!

Isn't it the truth.

I imagine we've discussed this here before, but does one consider 2 of those pointers, "mice?" It just sounds strange to me, and yet recently I had to talk about 2 of them. I think I said "mouses."

Cross-threading with another: English muscle is from Latin mūsculus 'itty-bitty mouse' from mūs + a couple of diminutive suffices.

A friend's seven-year-old is teaching his two-year old brother how to use the toilet.
Seven: Are you finished? Now get down and put the cover down.
Two: OK. Now what?
Seven: Now hit "Enter" -- I mean flush.

Funny!

When my kids were little, my babysitter still had a dial type phone. The kids had no idea what to do with it; they kept pressing the numbers.

Related to arnie's last post, my daughter related the story of new neighbors who visited her garage sale along with their one-year-old daughter.
How does a cow go?
Moo!
How does a dog go?
Woof!
How does a sheep go?
Baa!
How does Angelina Jolie go?
Like this!

Hilarious!

But a one-year-old knows Angelina Jolie? Wow.

Quote: But a one-year-old knows Angelina Jolie? Wow.

a one-year-old knows Angelina Jolie? Sigh.

Probably a hormonal abnormality.

Reviving a thread...Asa sent me this very cute email:

A class of five-year old students, are learning to read.
Yesterday one of them pointed at a picture in a zoo book and said:

"Look at this! It's a frickin' elephant!"

The teacher took a deep breath, then asked..."What did you call it?"

"It's a frickin' elephant! It says so on the picture!"



And so it does....

'A f r i c a n Elephant '

Hooked on phonics! Ain't it wonderful?

quote:

I imagine we've discussed this here before, but does one consider 2 of those pointers, "mice?" It just sounds strange to me, and yet recently I had to talk about 2 of them. I think I said "mouses."

A story made the rounds at the zoo that a curator wanted to order new exhibit animals from a supplier. The animal was a mongoose. But he didn't know what the plural was. So he sent a letter, "Dear Sirs: Please send me a mongoose. While you're at it, send me another."

BTW, I have a Japanese mouse which goes "Crick."

If you use foul language in chat rooms you should have your mouse washed out with soap.

quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:
A story made the rounds at the zoo that a curator wanted to order new exhibit animals from a supplier. The animal was a mongoose. But he didn't know what the plural was. So he sent a letter, "Dear Sirs: Please send me a mongoose. While you're at it, send me another."

I believe that's a true story, slightly altered. The original writer was Samual Goldwyn, the "G" of the movie company MGM and the author of such bulls as, "An oral contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on."

quote:

BTW, I have a Japanese mouse which goes "Crick."

Did you here that after the 2008 Bush/Gore presidential contest, the Japanese sent Florida an emergency shipment of Viagra? The had heard that Floridians were having trouble with their election.

The Viagra was useful since much of the elderly population was in nursing homes. Giving the men Viagra kept them from rolling out of bed. It also gave attendants a handle when they were changing the beds.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
I imagine we've discussed this here before, but does one consider 2 of those pointers, "mice?" It just sounds strange to me, and yet recently I had to talk about 2 of them. I think I said "mouses."

Here's one someone sent me yesterday:

SEEING DOUBLE
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim?

That is great!

Reviving an old thread ...

Seven-year-old Charlie was taken to visit his grandmother, who was in hospital recovering from an operation. He got chatting to the lady in the next bed. "I've got another grandma," he confided, "but she's in much better condition."

I was told this ny a friend. Her sister lives in Canada and the sister and her family (husband and 6-year-old daughter) came for a visit. After a long tiring journey they arrived late at night, and after the usual introductions went to bed. Not surprisingly everyone slept in and got up just in time for lunch.

The young daughter had a fine time playing with her 'new' cousins, and at 7.30 pm she was told it was bed time. She looked surprised. "Aren't the days short in England?" she asked.

I am reviving this older thread because of this article in the Chicago Tribune today , asking kids about what they will learn in school this year. Here was my favorite:

quote:

What does a manga eye look like? (Kind of like these fat rectangle things with a large line on the top and a small line on the bottom and like a bunch of white specks inside the eye, which is completely black. But different than that.)