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Back in August 24-26:
tinman: I've never before heard bellybutton lint called "dingleberries". Rather, I learned that dingleberries came from a different orifice!
shufitz: I'm pretty sure that Novobatzky and Shea have another word for this, Tinman, but I can't locate it at the moment.

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Got it!

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A striking feature of Pennsylvania German [a/k/a Pennsylvania Dutch] is its wealth of curiously specific terms. Notions and situations that other languages require long clauses to convey can often be expressed with a single word. For example:
...
aarschgnoddle--the globules of dung found on hair in the vicinity of the anus (and, no, I cannot think why they might need such a word)
---- Bill Bryson, Made in America

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We call them winnits in my neck of the woods.

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Originally posted by shufitz:
Kalleh mentioned "a Texas law I read about last week: owning 6 dildos is a felony!"

You can't "promote" -- that is, sell -- even one of them. Sale is a felony if at wholesale, §43.23(a), (b), and a misdemeanor if at retail, §43.23(c)(1)&2, (d).

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It's been nearly three months since we last talked about dildos! A Texas woman got busted for selling a vibrator to a pair of undercover narc cops. I guess they don't have enough drug problems to occupy their time. And Alabama banned the sale of vibrators last summer. Six women are suing the state, saying the law violates their right to privacy.

At least 14 states, including Texas and Alabama, ban the sale of "sexual devices", but it's legal to buy them in China. I guess China is more enlightened than Texas or Alabama (at least in this regard).

Tinman

Well, Tinman, thanks for that enlightenment! I think I may live in a dildo-friendly state, though I may have to have Shufitz check those laws.

It always amazes me what police can busy themselves with. Perhaps the taxpayers need to reduce the size of their police force, giving the money to needy or sick children. And, for heaven's sake, those states need to get a grip on what belongs in the laws and what belongs in the home. I think it is so funny that this kind of legislation is often brought on by the political conservatives, the same group that calls for government to get out of people's private business.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
I think it is so funny that this kind of legislation is often brought on by the political conservatives, the same group that calls for government to get out of people's private business.

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Two notes.

Ref conservatives: I don't know how much coverage this received on the other side of the Atlantic but it was recently revealed that the late (and very white) Strom Thurmond, racist politician and ardent segregationist first elected to the U.S. Senate just after the Civil War (an exaggeration, but not by much) had fathered a daughter by his family's maid who was 16 years old at the time and, yes, was black. The PC term today, of course, is "African-American" while back then "colored person" was perfectly acceptable and much worse was heard on a regular basis. No political viewpoint has a monopoly on hypocrisy but it does seem at times that the conservatives and/or Repulicans come close.

Ref dildoes: I had a friend, a middle-aged woman, who launched a fairly successful career as a stand-up comedian a few years back basing most of her material on true life experiences. One story she told was of a dildo that she saw at, of all places, a yard sale! A young child had picked it up and was walking around singing into it. My friend's comment: "Talk about your Kodak moments!"

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I have to post about a synonym for dildo that I found while reading "Lysistrata": godemiche. Now, that is a more sophisticated word, isn't it? It even sounds a bit regal!

I am reviewing old threads for words to add to our dictionary. In verifing Kalleh's word I came across a further synonym: olisbos.

As most Master Bakers already know,
To make proper Pickle Bread,
Start with a dill dough.

Thanks for bringing this thread up, Wordcrafter. It is always fun to read some of these old ones. Did you see, though, that we never did identify the word for navel lint...and, yet, I am sure there is one. Instead, we got onto the subject of dildoes.

I've had great fun re-reading this thread, too. Seems like we either veer off into discussions of beer, the differences between UK folks and Amerrkins, or sex . . .

Has anyone ever done a study of how our discussions change?

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discussions of beer, the differences between UK folks and Amerrkins, or sex . . .

What else is there worth discussing?

I hesitated to post this, for fear of not being believed, but it's TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, so here goes...

About 30 km. southwest of my home in Carbonear, Newfoundland, is situated the town of Dildo. (If you don't believe me, get out your atlas. ) It has been called that for hundreds of years, and the gentle Dildoians have resisted all suggestions to change the name. They DON'T CARE if people laugh. If you ask one of them about it, s/he is likely to refer to the millions of people who live in CONDOMiniums without being hassled so why should they be ridiculed. (Good point, maybe!) The name has beconme something of an asset to the town. Plenty of tourists visit there just so they can mail home postcards with a Dildo postmark. Last summer Meg Ryan and Carrie Fisher made a special trip and bought up a pile of trinkets labelled "Souvenir of Dildo" to take home for Christmas presents for their friends. I kid you not. This is all true.

Bear with me......here's another interesting Newfoundland place-name story.....
Many years ago, there was a branch of the Newfoundland government called The Nomenclature Board, the sole function of which was to change the names of communities. There were, for instance, three Fox Harbours, dozens of Seal Coves and scores of Broad Coves. Her Majesty's Postal Service was at its wits' end trying to deliver the mail...thus the Nomenclature Board.
Other reasons also sufficed. The pious residents of Devil's Cove successfully petitioned the Board and changed their name to Adam's Cove. One tiny village on the north coast had its name changed (from something I can't remember) to Gayside. For years it was O.K. Times changed. Words changed. Suddenly, the kids were embarassed. T.V. reporters came to town and did interviews. One old man-in-the-street said (and I heard it) "The kids all go away to school and won't tell anyone where they're from. They think it's queer."
Incidentally, I've often wondered how the Nomenclature Board overlooked Dildo!

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What else is there worth discussing?

Well, silly place names (great post, Duncan!) and navel lint, for starters!

Like this place name, for example?

http://www.beer-devon.co.uk/

And this . . . and this . . . and this.

Duncan, the folks from Dildo should go here for a pint: http://www.thecocktavernongar.co.uk/

Or they could go to the place I posted about some time ago, Wankers Corners, right here in Oregon.

Duncan, that is hilarious! I can't imagine that there would be a Nomenclature Board.

And, Dale, who'd ever think there'd be a scientific discussion of navel lint. I must be wrong about it having a name, or it would have been there.

According to BITE http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/results.shtml?n=cock there are 163 pubs in England called "The Cock". It's a far from unusual name, and possibly its origin in some cases is the cock-fighting that was so popular in Victorian times before it was banned.

Placenames? How about "Crackpot" in Yorkshire? Or "Pity Me" or "No Place"- good real ale pub there Richard- the "Beamish Inn"! in Co.Durham or "Once Brewed" and "Twice Brewed" in Northumberland. Or even one of my favourites- "Burton Coggles"- just nicely silly!
I occasionally think of writing a murder story just using English placenames. The hero would be Milton Keynes, the butler- who of course did it- would be Newton Aycliffe, the gardener the aforementioned Burton Coggles. The heroine of course would be Saffron Walden!

Anent placenames, the Pac NW -- as Asa well knows -- is chockfulla nutty names, most of them of Indian-language origin.

You've all heard of Walla Walla Wash., but probably not of Hamma Hamma -- or Duckabush, Humptulips, Dosewallips, Skookumchuck, Coos Bay ... Just look in your Rand-McNally Road Atlas under "Washington" & "Oregon" for an entertaining half-hour or so.

Then there's Rooster Rock State Park, on the banks of the Columbia; it is -- or was, I've been away a long time now -- a popular male gay nude beach, which is singularly apt, since the original name for the extremely phallic stone protrusion was Cock Rock, named in ruder, cruder times. Later on, when Webfooters got more respectable, they pretended that cock had been a synonym for rooster all along, and renamed it to remove any possible misinterpretation -- assiduously ignoring, of course, that the shaft did not even faintly resemble any conceivable barnyard fowl.

David

Sure 'nuff! I'd mentioned Rooster Rock and Wanker's Corners here somewhere previously, but I can't find them now. And what about Piscataway, NJ? What a lousy way to get rid of Tabby!

The road sign outside Biggar, Saskatchewan reads...

"New York is big,
But this is Biggar".

Funny! Odd that they'd pick New York, though.

Kalleh--No need to apologize, it was a perfectly legitimate post, and I was duly beholden for some of the followups

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Odd that they'd pick New York, though.

Would it be because NYC is the Big Apple?