HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ewadams@netcom.com (Ernest Adams)
Subject: Re: seperate hot and cold water taps in th
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 07:21:05 GMT

Well, the "infection paranoia" explanation is the first time I've heard
those attic tanks explained. Now explain this: why in the hell don't
you make 'em so mice can't get in 'em?!

In the US we have to have a device called a "vacuum breaker" built into
urinals and pressurized flush toilets, but not tank toilets. This device
detects negative pressure (a vacuum in the line) and prevents any
water from flowing backwards. I gather the design of a tank toilet
makes it unnecessary in that case.

That's about all the worrying we do about it. Funny how one single event
(like Albert's death) can change life for everyone... in the U.S. we
put tall fences around all our junkyards because Mrs. Lyndon Johnson
complained about them.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: colin@cwsoft.demon.co.uk (Colin Wilson)
Subject: Re: Robert Burns Dinners 
Distribution: world
Organization: CW Software Ltd
Reply-To: colin@cwsoft.demon.co.uk
X-Mailer: Simple NEWS 1.90 (ka9q DIS 1.19)
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 21:32:10 +0000

In article <1993Jan25.115314.5337@gssec.bt.co.uk> cwilson@gssec.bt.co.uk
[NEVER HEARD OF THE MAN] writes:

>In article <727738627snz@cwsoft.demon.co.uk>, colin@cwsoft.demon.co.uk (Colin
> Wilson) writes:
>|> 
>|> Although haggis, neeps and tatties (turnip/swede and potatoes) is now
>|> traditionally associated with Burns it is unlikely that Burns ever saw or
>|> tasted "neeps".  The turnip or swede was only introduced into Scotland
>|> in the early 18th century. 
>
>As Burns was born in 1759, it's very likely that he saw them, even if he
>and other people weren't yet in the habit of eating them.
> 

You're possibly right, Burns may have seen turnip.  He was after all a
farmer and a well travelled man.

My source was "A Caledonian Feast" by Annette Hope, a history of
Scottish gastronomy.  I can recommend this book.  It has a great deal
of extremely interesting and authoritative information.  It also ends
each chapter with recipes, old and new, many of which I hope to try
soon. (email me if you want the ISBN number).

Annette Hope certainly suggests that it is unlikely that Burns saw a
"neep".  It's likely this is just a guess on her part though I have
scoured my complete edition of Burns and find no "Address To A Neep"...

>What are you doing stealing my name?   (noises of indignation)
>

Who is stealing names?  There may be a case of precedent here...

-- 
+--------------------------+
| Colin Wilson             |
| CW Software Ltd          |
| colin@cwsoft.demon.co.uk |
| Voice: +44 (606) 871453  |
+--------------------------+
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,alt.usage.english
From: jac54@cas.org ()
Subject: Re: Back from the UK
Organization: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 17:06:33 GMT

In article <CAH.93Jan21145806@fat-controller.cs.bham.ac.uk> cah@cs.bham.ac.uk (Ceri Hopkins) writes:
>
>To start another thread. How anyone can put up with the impersonal
>"Have a nice day" without screaming back "Go f*ck yourself"/"Do you
>know me?"/"Do you really care?", I'll never know.  How can there be
>any sincerity wrapped up in this throwaway expression? Answers
>required to (i) how prevalent this is, (ii) what net-people think
>of the practice? (iii) examples from Britain.

	With great difficulty, especially after a friend of mine
	was questioned by the Athens (Georgia) police with a
	shotgun in his ribs.  After the minor misunderstanding
	(he was not the murderer) had been cleared up, the officers
	climbed back into the cruiser with a farewell of "Y'all
	have a nice day now."

	Alec
>
>Ceri (*)
>
>(*) I am a "choir-singing coal miner, who shags sheep" (age old
>stereotype of the Welsh).

	As long as you are happy and it's a stable relationship, why should
	I object?
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:19637 soc.culture.usa:10275
From: chorley@vms.ocom.okstate.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.usa
Subject: Re: this favorite lie: a factoid
Date: 27 Jan 93 21:44:22 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.usa
Organization: OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine

In article <C1ItK5.H8x@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk>, jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) writes:
> Some new data on this.  From the Guardian, 26/1/93:
> 
> -=*)]![(*=--=*)]![(*=--=*)]![(*=--=*)]![(*=--=*)]![(*=--=*)]![(*=--=*)]![(*=-
> 
Stuff from jack Campin deleted to highlight an interestin point
 
> The survey, co-ordinated by the Dutch justice ministry in the Hague, was
> compiled from interviews in 1991 and 1988 with about 2,000 people in 20
> industrialised countries.  

		[Not Brit. Govt. data]

> Other findings in the survey showed that the percentage of the popualtion
> which had been the victim of a crime in the previous 12 months was highest
> in New Zealand, with Netherlands, Canada, Australia, the United States,
> Poland, England and Wales below them.
> 
> Those with the least experience of crime were the Japanese followed by the
> Northern Irish, Swiss and Scots.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> England and Wales lead the field in car crime, experienced by 2.8 per cent
> of the population in the previous 12 months.
>       [rest of Jack Campin's stuff deleted]

Just the point that the oppressed masses in Northern Ireland/Ulster/Six
counties seem to enjoy a fairly low crime rate despite the Provos and the UVF

DNC
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: gdb15@grebe.cl.cam.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
Subject: Re: The parochialism of "British" institutions
Reply-To: gdb15@cl.cam.ac.uk
Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 20:50:00 GMT

In article <1993Jan28.140236.23832@gssec.bt.co.uk> fbowles@gssec.bt.co.uk (Frank K Bowles) writes:
>
>Simply put, the importance of events diminishes in proportion to
>distance from London.  Also massively frustrating is the refusal to
>distinguish issues which only apply to England or Englandandwales from
>those which apply to Great Britain or the UK as a whole (e.g. Patten's
>education reforms,  shopping on Sunday, miscarriages of English
>justice).  

Actually in news bulletins the BBC is usually careful to talk about
"education reforms in England and Wales" (or whatever).  However, the
lack of a separate station for England means that specifically English
issues can only be discussed in depth on the UK-wide media, while
specifically Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish issues can receive
detailed discussion on the regional stations serving their own countries.

>This isn't just a problem about information flow between
>Southern England and Scotland, it applies to information flow between
>the non-English bits of the UK as well.  If you use the BBC you'd be
>forgiven for believing that all that happened in Northern Ireland was
>sectarian killing.  It was only recently I discovered that NI had no
>poll tax, still had the 11+ and grammar schools and performed no
>abortions.  Hardly given headline prominence on the BBC was it?

Well, to be fair, you can hardly expect the absence of something to
make news.  It only dawned on me that there were no abortions in
Northern Ireland when I heard all the stories about pregnant Irish
women coming to England for abortions and thought "why can't they just
nip over the border?".

--
Guy Barry, University of Cambridge | Phone: +44 (0)223 334757 
Computer Laboratory                | Fax: +44 (0)223 334678
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street  | JANET: Guy.Barry@uk.ac.cam.cl 
Cambridge CB2 3QG, England, UK     | Internet: Guy.Barry@cl.cam.ac.uk
From: ray@philmtl.philips.ca (Ray Dunn)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: london, england
Date: 21 Jan 93 00:48:05 GMT
Distribution: soc
Organization: Not Philips.

In refd article, aledm@grant.ncd.com (Aled Morris) writes:
>...
>Hmmm....
>
>	Me:		How much does it cost to call England
>	AT&T sales rep:	Our United Kingdom rate is 60 cents a minute
>
>Ahhh....

I'm not sure I understand your point, are you saying there's something wrong
with this?
-- 
Ray Dunn at home        |  Beaconsfield, Quebec  |  Phone: (514) 630 3749
ray@philmtl.philips.ca  |  ray@cam.org           |  uunet!sobeco!philmtl!ray
From: dam@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (David Morning)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Philips (was Re: British phones in France)
Date: 26 Jan 93 16:05:33 GMT
Organization: Glasgow University Computing Science Dept.

In article <1993Jan22.140657.23075@gssec.bt.co.uk> fbowles@gssec.bt.co.uk (Frank K Bowles) writes:
>In article <1993Jan18.151755.22209@pixel.kodak.com>, dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com (Dave Jones) writes:
>|> 
>|> I think you mean 'the buroo', Glaswegian (and Geordie) for 'the dole'.  
>|> Seven months on brew would tend to reduce your chances of ever working 
>|> again....  
>|> 
>The word is brew.  Even in Glasgow we don't actually write in phonetics...
>

My goodness Frank, Gall (of Gall's Grin) and Rab C. Nesbitt would be having
a fit if they saw this...and you in Glasgow too!!

It's 'the buroo' although the 'u' isn't that prominent making it sound like
the word you've 'spelt'


Dave
-- 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,alt.usage.english
From: baron@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Dennis Baron)
Subject: Re: Back from the UK
Organization: University of Illinois
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 16:03:04 GMT

Have a nice day.
Hi, how are you?

Give me a break.  These are greetings--that's a technical term,
of course.  As greetings they occur frequently, formulaicly.
And we all know, don't we, that information theory has it that
frequency of occurrence is inversely proportional to information
content.  Which is the nontechnical way of saying that the more
something is heard on the rialto, the less it means.  Greetings
are about as close as anything linguistic to statements without
semantic content.  Which is not to say they are without function.
"Hi, how are you?" more and more often prompts the response, "Hi, how
are you?"  (note, there is no answer, just another question, which
in turn will not be answered.)

If you respond to "Hi, how are you" with a detailed description
of your angst, your aches and pains, news of your dead cat or
recent mugging [in which you were the muggee], like as not you'll
find your interlocutor squirming to get out of the conversation and
on with his or her life.

Now here's the catch: when a medical person asks, upon walking into
the examination room, "Hi, how are you?", are you violating politeness
conventions if you don't say "Fine, how are you?" but launch right into
your symptoms ("Dr., it hurts me here.")  Or is it a violation to
be polite, which is wasting the doc's valuable time (he/she could be
seeing more patients if they talked less, playing more golf, calling
more brokers).  The medics have us over a barrel when it comes to
greetings, which is also not news, since much medical communication is
based on putting the patient in an inferior or uncomfortable role.

--
Dennis


debaron@uiuc.edu               (\                   217-333-2392
                               \'\             fax: 217-333-4321
Dennis Baron                    \'\           __________
Department of English           / '|         ()_________)
Univ. of Illinois               \ '/          \ ~~~~~~~~ \
608 S. Wright St.                 \             \ ~~~~~~   \
Urbana IL 61801                   ==).            \__________\
                                 (__)             ()__________)
From: yan-dicky@cs.yale.edu (Dicky Yan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Live in the UK for 2 years? (Re: CYMRAEG)
Date: 24 Jan 1993 22:35:36 -0500
Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept., New Haven, CT 06520-2158
NNTP-Posting-Host: salmon.zoo2.cs.yale.edu

In article <1junadINNh24@bigboote.WPI.EDU> rosemary@wpi.WPI.EDU (Rosemary Irene Braun) writes:
>
>Hello!
>
>I am an American physics student who is fascinated with the Welsh
>language. Unfortunately, the institutions here do not offer courses,
>and I find it extremely difficult to pick up languages on my own.
>Are there any Welsh speakers reading this who would not mind answering
>a few of my endless questions? If so, I would be extremely grateful
>if you would contact me by email.
>
>
>Many thanks in advance!
>
>   *-------------------*------------------*------------------------*
>   |  drawroF gnikooL  |  Rosemary Braun  |  rosemary@wpi.wpi.edu  |
>   *-------------------*------------------*------------------------*

This information may be useful to people under 27 who are not UK
residents but are interested in going there for 1 or 2 years.  

When I lived in London, I was told that there is a kind of visa
available to non-Uk residents. They are valid for 2 years and are 
non-renewable and only for people below 27. I believe the purpose
of the visa is to allowed foreigners who are interested in the
British culture to stay and work in the UK in an unrestricted way
(I mean you do not need to apply for a work permit or anything again.)
for up to 2 years. I do not have details about the visa, so if you 
are interested, consult your nearest consulate.

I think the country where you come from, matters. (I mean if you have
strong proof of economic and family ties to your homeland, they will feel there
is a smaller chance of you going to the UK and stay there.)

Rosemary, I presume you can go to Wales to live for a while if you have got such
a visa!!

Dicky.
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:19363 alt.usage.english:11021
From: library@comlab.ox.ac.uk (Gordon Riddell)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Back from the UK
Date: 25 Jan 93 16:40:42 GMT
Organization: Oxford University Computing Laboratory, UK
Originator: library@merlin.comlab

In article <1993Jan24.160530.14919@news.columbia.edu> gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener) writes:
>In article <1993Jan22.071041.1654@netcom.com> sue@netcom.com (Sue Miller) writes:
>>>>Why? If you gotta go, then you gotta go, and if someone else is having a 
>>>>long leisurely soak in the tub it's handy to have the loo in a separate 
>>>>room.
>>>
>>>Yes, but where do you wash your hands when you're done if someone is
>>>having a long leisurely soak in the tub?
>>>
>>C'mon Gabe, in the kitchen!!
>
>But what if someone's scrubbing pots in the kitchen sink?
>
>
Who washes their hands after being in the cludgey?
From: mcsavaney_d@apollo.hp.com (#David McSavaney)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Americanisms (was Re: Back from the UK)
Date: 26 Jan 93 17:44:06 GMT
Article-I.D.: apollo.C1H2LI.4KD
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA

In article <1993Jan25.162801.17540@dcs.qmw.ac.uk> mmh@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach) writes:
[deleted]
>>Let's go out for a tooner sandwich...  etc."  It sounds ***terrible*** to me.
>
>This is a feature of some British accents, in particular those of East 
>Anglia. It's heard all the time in Norwich, but sometimes reaches as far
>as Cockney (it's one of the distinguishing features of Cockney, as 
>opposed to, say a south London accent).
>
>I've heard it said that a good part of the American accent can be 
>traced back to the fact that East Anglia was the heartland of
>English puritanism, and thus supplied many of the early American
>settlers, thus American English has several features of East Anglian
>English.
>
>Matthew Huntbach
>
         
I've never heard my work chums round here say "he's a young old boy" in a 
heavy Cambs. accent...
(nostalgic memories of Fenstanton, Autumn mists, real pubs and the screeching  
whine of USAF Phantoms coming in low - ahh)

Dave McSavaney
MP Workstations
HP

Not an official statement of HP
From: smackie@regal.cisco.com (Scott Mackie)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: US as No. 1 (3 data books)
Date: 26 Jan 1993 01:08:32 GMT
Organization: cisco Systems
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: regal.cisco.com

In article <rdavis.728007557@connie.de.convex.com>, you write:
|> 
|> Pfffft.. Do you have any farging idea how much it costs to rent
|> a small apartment in any major European metropolis?  

Er, actually I do. I moved out here from the UK a while back.

|> You could
|> have a reasonable place in Marin for the same or less.  And to
|> compound the problem, it is often most impossible to find something
|> you're willing to even live in.

Well, my apartment in Menlo Park costs around the same to rent as an
apartment in Central London. And it's pretty flimsy (compounded by
the fact my neighbors have the squeekiest bed known to man ;-).

Mind you, you get spoiled by living in buildings that are more than
30 years old...

;-)

|> Visiting doesn't count - you have to live there for a few years
|> to get an objective impression.

Hmmm. I wouldn't put it as long as a few years but I agree that living
somewhere sharpens your impression. 

However, the point was that taking your cues on European and World
culture and standards of living from the US media is fairly misleading. 

I guess I'm just suffering from "Jingoism Overload"...

Scott...

---
Scott Mackie, Engineering      Email   : smackie@cisco.com
Cisco Systems Inc,             Paper   : (415) 688 8282
Menlo Park, CA94025            Voice   : (415) 688 4642
"Life's a photo opportunity and you've just run out of film..."
From: fbowles@gssec.bt.co.uk (Frank K Bowles)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Philips (was Re: British phones in France)
Date: 22 Jan 93 14:06:57 GMT
Organization: BT

In article <1993Jan18.151755.22209@pixel.kodak.com>, dj@ekcolor.ssd.kodak.com (Dave Jones) writes:
|> Ray Dunn (ray@philmtl.philips.ca) wrote:
|> > 
|> > [No, although I connect through a Philips site, I don't work for Philips.
|> > Like thousands of others though, I _used_ to work for Philips.  After seven
|> > months on the brew, I recently started working again]
|> 
|> I think you mean 'the buroo', Glaswegian (and Geordie) for 'the dole'.  
|> Seven months on brew would tend to reduce your chances of ever working 
|> again....  
|> 


The word is brew.  Even in Glasgow we don't actually write in phonetics...

Frank

(I'm not sure of the origin - perhaps it was because unemployed people
once spent a lot of time in the pub?  Enlightenment anyone?)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Frank K Bowles, BT Glasgow Systems & Software Engineering Centre,
West TEC, 7 Caledon Street, Glasgow G12 9BY, Scotland. 
Tel: +44 41 220 5338     Email: fbowles@gssec.bt.co.uk
Fax: +44 41 220 2438     [GM4KAV]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: jac54@cas.org ()
Subject: Re: Graham Gooch vs. Joe Montana ??
Organization: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 11:35:22 GMT

In article <1993Jan24.203117.18277@ncsu.edu> jgszursz@eos.ncsu.edu (JOSEPH G SZURSZEWSKI) writes:
>
>       It's that time of year when we Americans become obsessed
>with the Super Bowl, and I'm curious about the popularity of American
>football in the UK, namely why and how?  Judging from the amount of space
>given over in The Times and The Observer to stories about and color
>(sorry, colour) photos of the recent playoffs, one could get the impression
>that American football was almost as popular in the UK as cricket or rugby.
>Can this possibly be true?  Does anyone have an explanation for this
>popularity?


	I just happen to have a copy of "The Economist" with me that
	carries an article describing the decline in popularity of
	the gridiron game in the U.K.

	Interest peaked in 1986 with a Super Bowl audience of 3.5 million
	and an average weekly audience of about 3.2 million.
	Since then, viewing figures have declined steadily to an average
	weekly figure of about 750,000.  This puts it at about the
	same level as 1983 when the audience was smaller than that for
	"One Man and His Dog."

	Alec Chambers
From: mmh@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Northen Ireland again (was Re: Britain and HK)
Date: 22 Jan 93 11:17:28 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK.

In article <1jm98hINNpas@grapevine.EBay.Sun.COM> smckinty@sunicnc.France.Sun.COM (Steve McKinty - Sun ICNC) writes:
>Didn't Lawrence Kennedy get 15,000 votes or so in the general election?
>Had the Conservatives still been at their popularity peak of the immediate
>post-Falklands period he would have stood a good chance of taking the seat.
>Jim Kilfedder holds that seat strongly on his own popularity, when he
>retires (which can't be too far off) it has a fair chance of becoming
>NI's first Conservative seat at Westminster.

Ironic, given that Kilfedder's voting record seems to be almost
solidly with the Tories.

>The two big hurdles faced by the tories in NI are:
>a) People in NI invariable vote on party lines, irrespective of the
>   candidate or the issue (or rather the Unionist/Nationalist issue
>   overshadows everything else, even in local elections). That doesn't
>   make for sensibly-chosen representatives.

Yes, that was my point. If they should choose to vote this way
rather than on more sensible grounds, they're the ones to blame
for all the troubles they've brought on themselves.

>b) In constituencies where the Unionist/Nationalist votes are not too
>   widely different people won't vote for a new party in case it lets
>   the 'other side' in.

Now this is a true point, related to the one I brought up
myself earlier about the difficulty the Libems face in breaking
through the two-party system in England.

>Alliance does quite well in local elections, but in general elections
>the old fear of the 'other side' winning hits them as hard as it does
>the LibDems on the mainland.
>
Yes, yes, point taken, but look at the Euro-elections, where in
NI the transferrable vote is used so the "don't split the vote"
argument doesn't hold. Who tops the poll? Ian Paisley. I don't
think we should take very seriously a province which puts such
a buffoon top of the poll every time.

As for the point that NI is excluded from the policy making
process, well firstly by choosing not to vote for
Tory/Labour/LibDem politicians, they have excluded themselves.
Secondly, in fact they are rather firmly at the heart of the
policy making process when there's a narrow majority or a
minority government. The NI MPs make all the difference in
close votes, and they play it for all it's worth. Remember the
fun at the end of the Callaghan government, when everything
depended on Frank Maguire actually turning up only to "abstain
in person"?

Matthew Huntbach
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,alt.usage.english
From: hugh@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Hugh Graham)
Subject: Re: Back from the UK
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 23:51:29 GMT
Organization: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO  80523

(Graham Toal) writes:
> (Ralph Yozzo) writes:
>:(or the British "How do you do?") 
>
>I trust our American readers are aware that the correct response to 'how do
>you do.' is another 'how do you you do.'  It's not a question, and anyone
>who answers 'very well thank you' is immediately marked as beyond the pale.
>

Goodbye derives from "God be with you". Have a nice day could eventually
contract to, er, something else.  Imagine if someone kept suggesting
that God should be with you.  Yeeeech.  Give me "have a nice day" anytime.
And "How do you do" is often "How d'you do" which calls for no reply other than
to repeat the phrase.  Maybe the American "How's it going" or "What's up"
or any other such slightly annoying greeting should be used in the same manner.
That's what I do.

Ecoutez et repetez.

"Hey, what's up dude?"
"Hey, what's up yourself?"

Lovely n'est pas?

Hugh
hugh@lamar.colostate.edu
Free at last! Free at last!