HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: TSOS@uni-duesseldorf.de (Detlef Lannert)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Medical word for pain after illness?
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 10:50:13 GMT
Organization: Universitaetsrechenzentrum, Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet, Duesseldorf
NNTP-Posting-Host: lannert.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de

In article <1992Nov04.223859.137680@watson.ibm.com> yozzo@watson.ibm.com (Ralph Yozzo) writes:

>Okay, I've agonized over this long enough.
>
>Does anyone know the medical word that is used to describe the condition
>of suffering after an illness or a disease has been cured? 
>
>The word is not "RELAPSE" because the suffering is not caused
>by a return of the disease, but instead it is caused by the
>weakening effect of the disease on the body.
>
>I believe the word has a Latin root, but I just can't seem to remember it.

Wasn't 'hangover' the word you were looking for? -- Hmm, wait, I'm afraid
it doesn't have an (obvious) Latin root. Must be something else ...

'Post mortem' perhaps? No? Well, it depends on your definition of 'cured'.

This was not very helpful, I know. Sorry. Maybe I can do better when I have
another Guinness. Cheers ...
--
Detlef Lannert      DC3EK      E-Mail: tsos@rz.uni-duesseldorf.de
"Gedanken sind nicht stets parat,
man schreibt auch, wenn man keine hat."             Wilhelm Busch
From: harper@oracorp.com (Douglas Harper)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: "Bilingual Education"
Date: 5 Nov 92 02:52:27 GMT
Organization: ORA Corporation, Ithaca, New York

In article <Bx3ALL.4Mn@dcs.ed.ac.uk> pdc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Paul Crowley) writes:
>In article <1992Oct30.153558.9445@oracorp.com> harper@oracorp.com (Douglas Harper) writes:
...
>>Oh, did you mean to say "aboriginal Americans"?

>You don't mean to say the vocabulary has changed *again*? 

If you mean the lexicon of English, I don't think so: "native",
"aboriginal" and "American" still mean what they used to.  If you mean
the idiomatic vocabulary: no, not if enough people defend the
barricades.  The phrase "aboriginal American" has been correct for as
long as "American" has been in the English language.  

If you mean PCspeak, don't ask me.  It's never been my ambition to be a
doublesplusgood duckspeaker.

>I was just
>getting used to "amerindians" when "native Americans" came to be the
>accepted phrase. Keep us posted when the time comes that the phrase
>"aboriginal Americans" incurs your wrath.

Are you suggesting that I'm following PC fashion?  Good laugh.

I've never been a partisan of "amerindian".  It's an ugly, unnecessary
term based as firmly as "American Indian" on the mistaken geography of
Columbus.

I have always opposed the use of the phrase "native American" to denote
aboriginal Americans because (1) it's an unnecessary, misleading
inelegant coinage and (2) I object to the political subtext.

I hardly think the use of the phrase "aboriginal Americans" to denote
aboriginal Americans will ever incur my wrath.

-- 
Douglas Harper | harper@oracorp.com | +1 (607) 277-2020
From: harper@oracorp.com (Douglas Harper)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: a good dictionary
Date: 8 Nov 92 01:12:55 GMT
Organization: ORA Corporation, Ithaca, New York

In article <HERMIT.92Nov5003605@am.ucsc.edu> hermit@cats.UCSC.EDU (William R. Ward) writes:

>The practice of following an umlauted (what is the non-German name for
>those two dots) letter by a " (or sometimes a :) is similar to the one
>for Spanish words containing an n with a ~ over it, as in "espan~ol."

The two-dot mark used to show a syllable break is the dieresis.

Here's an odd note:  the linguist who taught my German reading class in
grad school told me that its resemblance to the umlaut is completely
accidental --- the two marks have histories as different as those of
the zero and letter-oh marks.

-- 
Douglas Harper | harper@oracorp.com | +1 (607) 277-2020
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: joanna@unislc.uucp (Joanna Liu)
Subject: Re: mnemonics in general
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Organization: Unisys Corporation SLC
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 22:45:25 GMT

Todd Andrew Simpson (plu@math.psu.edu) wrote:
: In article <1992Nov10.122923.25536@black.ox.ac.uk> microsoc@black.ox.ac.uk (Microsoc) writes:
:    In article <1992Nov9.043447.5968@dg-rtp.dg.com> cochran@spam.rtp.dg.com (A. Jing Hippy) writes:
: 
:    >OK, I don't *think* I'm stupid, but how does one use "God, I need a drink"
:    >to remember 3.14159?
: 
:    Count the number of letters in each word....
: 
:    Again, it can't be a good mnemonic since I can't remember it, but isn't it
:    something like 
:    "God, I need a drink (alcoholic of course) after that heavy
:    lecture involving Quantum Mechanics?" 
:    (Would give 3.14159265457979... is that right, anyone?)
: 
: Must be the wrong mnemonic.  It should be 3.141592653589793...  Maybe
: `the heavy lectures' instead of `that heavy lecture'?  (That's a
: problem with this mnemonic - if you don't remember it word-for-word,
: you can't get pi right; also, if you can't spell the words, you'll get
: into trouble.... But 3.14159265457979 is close enough for most purposes,
: I should imagine.)
: 

My dad taught me how to memorize pi when I was a little kid. At 
that time I didn't know what pi meaned. He told me a story and asked
me to repeat it.. I did and he showed me the numbers related. That's
how I learned to memorize pi.. The story is about drinking wine too.
But I don't need to count .. by telling the story, I can write it down.
3.1415926535897932384626... I failed to memorize more digits..Always 
stopped at the end of the story.. 
Oh..I forgot one fact, the story is in Chinese.. Like the number 9 
is pronounced the same as 'wine' ...so 159 means 'one bottle of wine'
897 means 'end up the bottle'.. 626 means 'feel happy'..
Isn't that interesting?
Thank my dad..I can always memorize some tough numbers..

                             Joanna

Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: Tom Christiansen <tchrist@convex.COM>
Subject: Re: Various things
Originator: tchrist@pixel.convex.com
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 20:09:25 GMT
Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Organization: Convex Computer Corporation, Colorado Springs, CO
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

From the keyboard of gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener):
:b) What areas of the U.S. still call carbonated beverages "pop" and
:not "soda" ?

I always wondered why some areas still call them "soda" instead of "pop".

"Pop" is pretty common here in Colorado, especially amongst 
mountain-dwelling natives instead of city-slicker imports.  
If you go into a convenience store or restaurant, you often
see "pop" or sometimes "soda pop".  It's the same in Wisconsin.
But in Texas they just hassle you about it.  (Notice how the
soda people hassle the pop people but not vice versa? :-)

--tom

-- 
    Tom Christiansen      tchrist@convex.com      convex!tchrist


    f u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgrmmng.
From: TSOS@uni-duesseldorf.de (Detlef Lannert)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Concertize (was: Toe/tow)
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 08:06:03 GMT
Organization: Universitaetsrechenzentrum, Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet, Duesseldorf
NNTP-Posting-Host: lannert.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de

In article <1992Nov2.181808.7098@Princeton.EDU> roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig) writes:

[...]
>However, I'd look again if I were you; I'm sure the OED has a few
>British sightings somewhere.  (Not to mention the close German cognate...)

Since you did mention this before (and e-mail to your account didn't work
last time I tried) I'd like to point out that the German word you are
alluding to -- the modern spelling is "konzertieren" -- is old-fashioned
and not used any more; at least not in that part of the musical world to
which I have (frequent) access.

But if "concertize" is really such a buzz-word in the US-American scene,
we'll sure borrow it and will soon be loaded with "konzertisieren".

I'm still waiting for a clever politician to come up with the idea of a
tax on ugly and unnecessary words. They could at the same time lower the
income tax (and still make a profit) -- and I could buy a lot more
(ugly and unnecessary) things...
--
Detlef Lannert      DC3EK      E-Mail: tsos@rz.uni-duesseldorf.de
"Gedanken sind nicht stets parat,
man schreibt auch, wenn man keine hat."             Wilhelm Busch
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener)
Subject: Re: pop &c.
Reply-To: gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 20:20:10 GMT

In article <Bxnx3p.3w1@news.cso.uiuc.edu> tdlg9831@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Tracey Dianne Layng) writes:
>Yes, Coke is a trademark, but people will say it anyway. It's just like
>kleenex. Kleenex is a trademark, but I never hear people say "Give me a facial
>tissue." 

You don't watch enough television then:

	"Gee mom, what's for dessert?"
	"We're having Jell-o brand Gelatin."

	"Would you like some coffee, ma'am?"
	"Yes, thank you.  I'll have Sanka brand decaffeinated coffee."


--
Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ.     "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings 
gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu       to be seriously considered as a means of 
N2GPZ in ham radio circles        communication. The device is inherently of
72355,1226 on CI$                 no value to us." -Western Union memo, 1877
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: mcoffin@IASTATE.EDU (Marie Coffin)
Subject: Re: quite unique
Reply-To: mcoffin@IASTATE.EDU (Marie Coffin)
Organization: Iowa State University
Distribution: alt
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 23:18:11 GMT

In article <28154@castle.ed.ac.uk>, benha@castle.ed.ac.uk (Ben Hambidge)
writes:
> Hi everyone!
> 	I've been having an argument with a friend about the
> words "quite unique".
> 	Is this a valid combination? He says that unique is
> ultimate - you can't have degrees of it. I say there is a
> meaning of unique ('ganz' in German rather than 'ziemlich')
> that would be permissible, meaning 'completely'. But he
> says that even this indicates degree, so therefore is
> incorrect. Who's right??????
> 
> Ben Hambidge             <benha@castle.ed.ac.uk>


*groan*   Here we go again.  Where are the Mark Israel's of yesteryear, and
why don't they post the FAQ?

(Please don't take offense, Ben.  This is a slam, but not at you.)


Marie Coffin
From: shakib.otaqui@almac.co.uk
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: floating and sinking
Date: 8 Nov 92 12:05:02 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: ALMAC BBS Ltd

DT>   Also, has anyone ever gotten a long shrift?

  No, and I'm far from gruntled about it.

  Shakib


---
 ~ PQ 2.15 189 ~ Twisted mind? No, just bent in several strategic places.
--
ALMAC BBS Ltd. 0324-665371
Dos based USENET access,  call for details!
Organisation: Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet, Muenster, Germany
Date: Friday, 13 Nov 1992 11:00:02 MEZ
From: <WESTBRO@DMSWWU1A.UNI-MUENSTER.DE>
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Pronunciation of weird (was:I before E rule)
 <1992Nov8.214004.1@cc.newcastle.edu.au>

Hi there,
sorry, but I think "weird" has *NO* "ee"-sound as it can be found
in "bel*ie*ve". In phonetic transcription the "ee" sound is written
as i:, which is *NOT* a diphtong. b@li:v
But "weird" has to be pronounced as w i@ d (Note the r is mute.)
The "@" is the phonetic Schwa, which can be formed out of any vowel
which is not stressed. For further information see the rules of English
pronunciation released by the IPA (International Phonetic Association).
So long, Markus. (Signature - don't talk to me about signature!)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: mcwg9235@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Marsha Woodbury )
Subject: Re: "that throws light on the bank"
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 19:43:21 GMT

I think you might have the answer--another person suggest
riverbank as well.  Forgive my ignorance of banks and
rivers--Champaign-Urbana, bless its heart, not only
has no hills...it's largest body of water is Boneyard
Creek.
-- 
Marsha Woodbury   marsha-w@uiuc.edu
A simile is like a metaphor.
University of Illinois, Middle of Nowhere
From: thayes@desire.wright.edu
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Toe v. Tow
Date: 4 Nov 92 22:24:52 EST
Distribution: all
Organization:  Wright State University 




DDS> Wasn't "cutting across his own tow line" one of Queeg's sins 
> in _The Caine Mutiny_?

> Dian

I remember that, yes.  Of course Queeg's cutting across his own TOE line would
have made him *sans* in _The Caine Mutiny_ too.

(ObSmly here)

-----ted hayes
From: wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: I before E rule
Date: 10 Nov 92 18:33:52 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAX 6620

In article <1dkpvkINNft9@uwm.edu>, jgd@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (John G Dobnick) writes:
> 
> Weird does have the "ee" sound, to my ears at least.  In fact, I've never
> heard it pronounced otherwise.
Try the Briticism wee-@d, where the @ is the ubiquitous ASCII schwa. It comes
close.

-- 

Stephen Wilcox             |   For Sale: Posts in British Government. Suit
wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk    |   outgoing American. Highest bids accepted.
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: ewald@math.lsa.umich.edu (Brian Ewald)
Subject: Re: "Bilingual Education"
Organization: University of Michigan, Mathematics Department, Ann Arbor
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 03:40:10 GMT

In article <640.18.uupcb@pcs.sj.ca.us> paul.burnett@pcs.sj.ca.us (Paul Burnett)  writes:
>Oh, my - are you not aware of the _original_ mistake made in the late
>1400's by Columbus _et al_ who were _so_ lost and _so_ ignorant of
>geography they didn't know the American continents were even there and
>they thought they were in India (that _is_ where they were intending to
>go, after all), and therefore all these folks they found must be
>"Indians". That's the _only_ reason North/South/Central American
>aborigines are called "Indians."
>
Actually, Columbus thought he was in the Indies, not in India.  If
you're going to be sarcastic, at least be right.

-- 
Brian Ewald
ewald@math.lsa.umich.edu
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: ewald@math.lsa.umich.edu (Brian Ewald)
Subject: Re: Various things
Organization: University of Michigan, Mathematics Department, Ann Arbor
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 03:56:04 GMT

In article <1992Nov8.042646.10166@news.columbia.edu> gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener) writes:
>b) What areas of the U.S. still call carbonated beverages "pop" and
>not "soda" ?

Well, where I'm from in Alabama, the generic word for such drinks is
"coke".  As in:
  "What would you like to drink?"
  "Coke."
  "What kind of coke?"
  "Er...do you have root beer?"
That sort of thing.

-- 
Brian Ewald
ewald@math.lsa.umich.edu
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: meyer@sfi.santafe.edu (Thomas P. Meyer)
Subject: vowelless syllables
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 92 23:07:22 GMT
Organization: Santa Fe Institute
Distribution: usa

How about cwm and crwth of Welsh origin?  Also any word
that ends in -ism.  `Rhythm' also comes to mind.  Any
others?
From: rbrown@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Rich Brown -- Neither)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: What is wrong with "rule of thumb" ?
Date: 13 Nov 92 16:28:53 GMT
Organization: Nat'l Ctr for Supercomp App (NCSA) @ University of Illinois
Originator: rbrown@troon.ncsa.uiuc.edu

In article <1992Nov13.111525.1@wombat.newcastle.edu.au> eepjm@wombat.newcastle.edu.au (Peter Moylan) writes:
>The phrase "rule of thumb" carries connotations like "This is not
>quite as accurate as a formal analysis, but it's a quick way to get
>an approximate answer".  None of the substitutes I can think of
>carry this (useful) shade of meaning.
>

When I want to sound stuffy, I say "heuristic."

>The wife-beating story is irrelevant.  Today we use that phrase
>as if it referred to making rough measurements with our thumbs instead
>of using a graduated ruler.  (And I rather suspect that that
>interpretation predates the use of a rule of thumb to limit the
>size of an instrument of torture.)
>

Yes.  The wife-beating story is a spurious etymology.  See the OED or Funk's
_A_Hog_on_Ice_.

-- 
Rich Brown (Neither)
rbrown@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english,connect.audit
From: tlc@nevada.edu (THOMAS L CLARK)
Subject: Re: "Pass the buck"
Keywords: buck, pass
Organization: University of Nevada System Computing Services
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 01:24:09 GMT

Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
From: mcoffin@IASTATE.EDU (Marie Coffin)
Subject: Re: Have X, will trav
Reply-To: mcoffin@IASTATE.EDU (Marie Coffin)
Organization: Iowa State University
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 23:50:29 GMT

In article <651.18.uupcb@pcs.sj.ca.us>, paul.burnett@pcs.sj.ca.us (Paul Burnett)
writes:
> TO: greg.grainger@rose.com (greg grainger)
> 
> 
> GG>There was a television program from the late fifties called 'Palladin', in
>   >which the protagonist (who was a kind of good-guy gunfighter) had a
>   >business card which read 'Have gun. Will travel.'
> 
> And if you look up "paladin", it comes from a chivalrous knight of the
> Middle Ages, who in turn is based on a Roman palace guard - folks who
> "had sword, would travel."  It's not exactly from the 1950's; it's over
> 2,000 years old.
> ---
>  . QMPro 1.0 07-2042 . ...from San Jose, CA
>                                                                               

Paul, what is your point here?  The word "paladin" may have roots 
going back 2000 years, but that tells us nothing about the phrase 
"have X, will travel", which I believe is an artifact of the 20th 
century.

Incidentally, Robert Heinlein wrote a novel in 1957 entitled _Have
Spacesuit, Will Travel_.  This would seem to indicate that the phrase
was common parlance at the time.  


Marie Coffin
From: bl2m+@andrew.cmu.edu (Benjamin D. Lukoff)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Various things
Date: 8 Nov 92 07:31:14 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Excerpts from netnews.alt.usage.english: 8-Nov-92 Re: Various things by
Seth L. Blumberg@cunixb. 
>  
> gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener) writes:
> [part (a) deleted]
> >
> >b) What areas of the U.S. still call carbonated beverages "pop" and
> >not "soda" ?
The entire west coast! And here in Seattle the words have fused into
'soda pop' which I assume is *not* peculiar just to the Emerald City.
From: cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Homonymic idioms. Was: toe the line(r)
Date: 6 Nov 92 13:41:21 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: Edinburgh University

In article <630.720968591.kbss.bt.co.uk> raph@kbss.bt.co.uk (Raphael Mankin) writes:
>eliot.gelwan@channel1.com (eliot gelwan) writes:

>> I've noticed a similar thing with "taking a certain tack" vs
>> "taking a certain tact".

>Also, "doing something off one's own bat" is becoming "off one's own
>back". What the  modified form is supposed to mean, ....

These are a form of spelling mistake which arises from misunderstood
colloquialisms in an educational culture where only a minority read
how things are spelt as opposed to reading how the spelling sounds.
The mistake then becomes a new colloquialism with a life of its own.

My favourite example is "bog standard", the almost universal mistaking
of "box standard", i.e., no mods, just as it comes straight out of the
box.

Another one is "one off" for a single item, derived from a mistaken
interpretation of spoken military inventories, e.g, "dictionary, book
listing the spellings and meanings of words, soldier for the use of,
one of."

-- 
Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.aifh          +44 (0)31 650 3085
Department of Artificial Intelligence,    Edinburgh University
5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK                DoD #205
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english,alt.sex
From: twpierce@unix.amherst.edu (Tim Pierce)
Subject: Re: A gender neutral pronoun
Organization: Elitist Usenet Administrators, Stuff & Nonsense Division
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 02:34:49 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.200400.2865@fcom.cc.utah.edu> freier@mail.physics.utah.edu (rodney james freier) writes:

>I have noticed that I use the word "they" as a singular, gender unspecified
>pronoun.  Example:
>
>      I saw someone the other day.  I was to far away to see what
>they looked like, but something was familiar about them.
>
>  I know that most people cringe hearing the strange mix of number in
>this sentence. I say things like this often, though, and my roommate
>seems to have become accustomed to it.    

Actually, I suspect that most people employ this construct, even those
who'd like not to have to admit it.  Just about everyone I know uses
this technique unconsciously.  As far as I'm concerned, that's proof
positive that we need and have a gender-neutral pronoun.

-- 
____ Tim Pierce                / 
\  / twpierce@unix.amherst.edu / I use antlers in all of my decorating.
 \/ (BITnet: TWPIERCE@AMHERST) /
From: hermit@cats.UCSC.EDU (William R. Ward)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: a good dictionary
Date: 5 Nov 92 08:36:05 GMT
	<7398@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM>
Organization: Computing and Telecommunications Services, UCSC
NNTP-Posting-Host: am.ucsc.edu
In-reply-to: briand@tekig5.pen.tek.com's message of 27 Oct 92 23:50:03 GMT

In article <7398@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM>, briand@tekig5.pen.tek.com (Brian D Diehm) writes:
)>>IA>Now for our zoo"logy lesson ... last I saw a grasshopper, its knees
)>>IA>(the ones of the third, largest pair of legs) were the most highly
)>>IA>located part of its body.

) That's really zo"ology, as in zoe-AW-luh-gee. As Daniel Harrington Elster
) so carefully pointed out in his book on pronunciations, "There's No Zoo
) in Zoology." Besides, if there *was* a "zoo" in the word, it would be
) pronounced in three syllables: ZOO-luh-gee. Or was this the inconsistency
) being pointed out by the original poster?

) This is just the sort of word evolution that is caused by dropping hyphens
) in previously hyphenated compounds.

You seem to have misunderstood the purpose of the " mark.  When "IA"
writes zoo"logy, they mean that the second `o' should have two dots
over it, like the German umlaut.  I think this is mostly a Britishism,
but could be wrong.  When two of the same vowel occur in a row, but
are to be pronounced separately (like zoology), the second one is
sometimes printed with two dots over it.  Examples include noone,
preeminent, zoology, coordinate, &c.

The practice of following an umlauted (what is the non-German name for
those two dots) letter by a " (or sometimes a :) is similar to the one
for Spanish words containing an n with a ~ over it, as in "espan~ol."
--
William R Ward                         __o   Bay View Software
VoiceMail: +1 (408) 479-4072         _ \<,_  Internet:  hermit@cats.ucsc.edu
SnailMail: 1803 Mission St. #339    (_)/ (_) BITNet:    hermit@cats.bitnet
           Santa Cruz CA 95060 USA
From: casseres@apple.com (David Casseres)
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: Toe the Line. Do you mean "tow the line?"
Date: 11 Nov 92 19:13:58 GMT
Followup-To: alt.usage.english
Distribution: all
Organization: Apple Computer Inc.

In article <1d71e4INN3cc@gap.caltech.edu>, dian@arpeggio.gg.caltech.edu
(Dian  De Sha) wrote:
> 
> In <casseres-301092112820@missmolly.apple.com> casseres@apple.com (David Casseres) writes:
> 
> >Towing a line used to be a regular operation on sailing vessels, and is
> >still prescribed as the ultimate way of getting all the kinks out of it. 
> >It means exactly what it says, one end of the line is made fast to the
> >vessel and the line is then thrown overboard, where it is towed through the
> >water for a good long while.
> 
> Wasn't "cutting across his own tow line" one of Queeg's sins 
> in _The Caine Mutiny_?

I believe so; but a tow line is not a towed line -- it's a line used for
towing something else, such as another vessel.  In The Caine Mutiny, wasn't
it one of those things a minesweeper tows?

--

David Casseres
Exclaimer: Wow!
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english