Forum menu
advertised as ‘roasted’ are actually deep-fried
In the west of Scotland 'roasted' has a broader definition - so cheese on toast is 'roasted cheese' and deep fried food can be described 'roasted' too. A 'roaster' though is something different - an 'absolute roaster' shares common traits with a 'total rocket'.
In the west of Scotland ‘roasted’ has a broader definition – so cheese on toast is ‘roasted cheese’
No it's not! Ever!
and deep fried food can be described ‘roasted’ too.
Whit?!? Away down the Blue Lagoon, ask for a roasted fish and see what they say.
Nobody on the west coast says that, sounds more like the sort of nonsense that comes from the land of salt and sauce.
The last execution by guillotine in France was the same year as The first Star wars film.
Cleopatra lived closer to the invention of the Ipad than she did to the building of the pyramids.
Two I heard a couple of days ago, had heard the first one before but tbh not sure how true either are!
No one in Scotland ever says roasted cheese, ever. Unless they're an English.
Also no Scotspersin will ever, ever say 'I brought a new (insert item)'
It's bought you cretins.
Nobody on the west coast
Its possible you've haven't been to all of the west of Scotland yet 🙂
Shane McGowan is 65
A (possibly true) factoid about my home town of Stony Stratford...
The phrase "a Cock and bull story" originates from the two pubs that are more or less next to each other (the cock and the Bull) where apparently a tale would be told in one and by the time it was retold in the other it was embellished.
If you were born in 1970, you were as close (in time) then to the First World War as you were to 2022.
A brass monkey is a brass plate with indentations to store cannon balls on.
When cold enough the metal shrinkage caused the balls to roll off.
Hence the phrase 'cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey’.
No one in Scotland ever says roasted cheese, ever.
I say it. A lot.
I love roasted cheese.
The company that manufactures the most number of tires worldwide each year is… Lego.
If you were born in 1970, you were as close (in time) then to the First World War as you were to 2022.
Born in '69 😱
The surface roughness of a billiard ball as a proportion of its radius is greater than the surface roughness of the earth as a proportion of earth's radius.
Earth is smoother than a billiard ball.
(ignoring that earth isn't a sphere)
On productive grassland the mass of earthworms below ground is equal to or greater than the mass of cattle or sheep grazing above.
Recursive.
If you want a laugh, google "recursion."
The origin of the word ‘orientate’ is that some of the first maps were made by Islamic cartographers, so they put Mecca at the top. Maps of Western Europe therefore had East at the top, hence Orient-ate.
Orientation means to face East. I'm less convinced about the maps story. Got a citation for that?
Neither is brown. It’s a hue of orange.
And orange is a hue of red. The word didn't exist as a distinct colour until we had oranges the fruit. Hence why we have Robin Red-Breast despite it being orange, that word didn't exist when we named the bird.
Tri-color cats are female only.
Is this true, or mostly true? For years I held that calico / tortie cats were always female and ginger cats were always male. Right up until getting a ginger kitten a year and a half ago who turned out to be female (one of two in that litter).
A brass monkey is a brass plate with indentations to store cannon balls on.
Nope, this is another urban myth.
Stevie Nicks’ dad was president of Greyhound (the big ol’ bus company).
Wasn't it originally 'a norange' as in the Spanish naranja and it evolved into 'an orange'. Might be wrong, always possible.
Payment on demand...on the nail is derived from (corn/grain) merchants in Bristol making their payments on the pedestals - referred to as nails - on Exchange Street.
To the best of my knowledge, they're still there.
Not all woods float; some are so dense that they sink - ebony and greenheart are two examples; there are others. Don't make a canoe from either of those woods.
Kangaroo - apocryphal story...Captain Cook lands in Australia, sees marsupial and asks aboriginal native 'what's that'; response is 'gangaru' meaning...I don't know and is heard as yes, you've guessed it - Kangaroo!
Great story but I don't believe a word of it.
The surface roughness of a billiard ball as a proportion of its radius is greater than the surface roughness of the earth as a proportion of earth’s radius.
Mind.
Blown.
Magnetoreception (also magnetoception) is a sense which allows an organism to detect a magnetic field to perceive direction, altitude or location. This sensory modality is used by a range of animals for orientation and navigation, and as a method for animals to develop regional maps.
In navigation, like in bird migration, magnetoreception deals with the detection of the Earth's magnetic field.
Magnetoreception is present in bacteria, arthropods, molluscs, and members of all major taxonomic groups of vertebrates.
Humans are not thought to have a magnetic sense, but there is a protein (a cryptochrome) in the eye which could serve this function.
... and asks aboriginal native ‘what’s that’
Many of the world's rivers are, for exactly the same reason, called River River.
The best dictionary definition of all time is the Chambers definition for litotes - affirmation by negation of the contrary.
Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than women.
Men are six times more likely to go wandering around outside in a storm looking up at the sky and going "See, i told you it was sa..."
In 1898, anthropologist Walter Roth wrote to the editors of The Australasian to set the record straight: “kangaroo,” he said, is clearly derived from “gangurru,” meaning “black kangaroo” in the language of the Guugu Yimidhirr people of north Queensland. It’s their name for the eastern grey kangaroo
Not all woods float; some are so dense that they sink – ebony and greenheart are two examples; there are others.
One other is the iron tree. The wood from the this is apparently also bullet-proof (caveat, Mario, who told me this, has a very small gun)
Here I am planting one with the mayor of Costa Rica, Mato Grosso du Sol, Brazil.
.
Useless fact, the customs staff at Sao Paulo Airport do not know that there is a town called Costa Rica in their country and will try to get you to get on the wrong plane, to the other more famous Costa Rica.
.
The leader of the third expedition to reach the South Pole was Sir Edmund Hillary, over 40 years after Admundsen and Scott.
.
Only twelve people have ever walked on the moon.
Only four of them are still alive.
.
HM Quenn Elizabeth II is the most senior living heir to Charlamane, through the Saxa-Coburg-Gotha line.
Useless fact, the customs staff at Sao Paulo Airport do not know that there is a town called Costa Rica in their country and will try to get you to get on the wrong plane, to the other more famous Costa Rica.
That's confusing!
Lots of 'sinkers' in Australia. Tallowwood for one.
Here's part of a 40m one we had to fell at the weekend.
[img] 
[/img]
i had no idea that potatoes can kill you until just now watching this
Chickens use their wings to create downforce when running to increase grip.
Wasn’t it originally ‘a norange’ as in the Spanish naranja and it evolved into ‘an orange’. Might be wrong, always possible.
Quite true. Many other 'an' words when through the same process, a napron, a nowl, etc...
Chickens use their wings to create downforce when running to increase grip.
on a similar note.
The fastest flying (As in sustained flappy flappy flight) bird in the uk is a duck (eider), it also has the smallest wing area:weight ratio (so it has to fly fast to generate lift.)
Payment on demand…on the nail is derived from (corn/grain) merchants in Bristol making their payments on the pedestals – referred to as nails – on Exchange Street.
To the best of my knowledge, they’re still there.
They sure are. They are outside the Corn Exchange, which has a clock on it with two minute hands. It shows London and Bristol time. Needed when high speed rail travel came.
If you were born in 1970, you were as close (in time) then to the First World War as you were to 2022.
I love these ones. When Top Gun was made, F-14s were closer to the end of active service Spitfires than they are to the production of F-35s now.
Chas and Dave play on "My Name is..." by Eminem
The phrase to pool some money comes from an old French game where people threw stones at chickens/poulet.
The English word for sky is derived from a Norse word for cloud.
Orientation means to face East. I’m less convinced about the maps story. Got a citation for that?
Think you're right. I'm sure I had citations for it when I first heard it, but can't find them now, and it seems Islamic maps mostly had South at the top. It looks more likely that the general use of orientate (ie, establish bearings, not specifically to East) might be from churches being built with the altar at the East end.
Quite true. Many other ‘an’ words when through the same process, a napron, a nowl, etc…
Hate to go all Buzz Killington on this one, but while metanalysis has happened (mostly before dictionaries, printing etc), this is a bit of folk etymology for which, amongst others, QI needs to hold its hand up. It didn’t happen with orange as the word made it to us by coming through France rather than directly from Spanish. I think oranges were originally known as pommes d’orenge and later just as orange in French. Now, newt, on the other hand has had it happen, just the other way round. 😀
It’s a hue of orange.
Sir Hugh of Orange was the only French knight on King Arthur's round table... possibly.
If take all the oxygen molecules contained in the average person and spread them evenly around the world in a layer 100km up - they'd still only be 0.3mm apart.
For plenty of mind blowing facts and concepts about humans i can definitely recommend The Self Delusion by Tom Oliver.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/18/the-self-delusion-tom-oliver-review
It didn’t happen with orange as the word made it to us by coming through France rather than directly from Spanish
Yeah Lots of these about. Also new and novel things were often attributed to far off places that were being discovered at the time Turkey (the Bird) is called that in the UK because Turkey (the country) was all the rage at the time. The French for Turkey is Dinde, which is a version of D'Inde - from the Indies...because that was fashionable at the time.
Robin Red Breast (the bird with the obviously orange chest) is one of the last birds commonly referred to it by it's medieval name. They were fond of giving animals just regulars names. Jack, Jenny, Robin, etc.
Every day someone unwittingly does the longest poo in the world for that day.
Not strictly correct. On an average day I'm pretty sure loads of people do the longest poo for that day.
If you replaced every atom in 12g of carbon with a ping pong ball the ping pong balls would cover the USA to a depth of many 10s of miles. Over 40 I think
In the dialect of the North East asking to go home is identical to asking to go home in Danish
Many of the world’s rivers are, for exactly the same reason, called River River.
Really? You sure? Sounds like bollocks to me as with most of these totally made up origins of phrases. Someone invents it, it's funny, smart arses repeat and so it goes on.
If you replaced every atom in 12g of carbon with a ping pong ball the ping pong balls would cover the USA to a depth of many 10s of miles. Over 40 I think
Talk about making a mountain out of a mole-hill…
The best dictionary definition of all time is the Chambers definition for litotes – affirmation by negation of the contrary.
So it's not just "understatement" then?
I love these ones.
Since its removal, the Berlin wall has now been down for longer than it'd been up. (As of about four years ago.)