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Morticia
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« Reply #3075 on: 16:57:43, 23-09-2007 » |
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All of the above has reminded me of a game we used to play at my prep school called "In and out the dusty bluebells" (the game not the school!  ) I don`t think that I can explain it clearly, so I won`t  But if anyone else is familiar with it ........ |
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Jonathan
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« Reply #3076 on: 16:58:53, 23-09-2007 » |
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When I was at school, we had hours of fun at playtime sticking Goosegrass to one another! Horrible stuff!
Squirrel Grass was fiendishly good too for that sort of game particularly as you could throw it like a dart. A direct bunker-busting hit inside someone else's wellie boot so that it worked its way into their socks was an especial triumph. You could then follow it up with Goosegrass in a close quarters hit and run attack.  You can tur We used to call that "Flea darts" as it always seemed to have tiny flies in the threads. The other stuff someone mentioned was really quite useful as a projectile weapon if you folded the stem round it and pulled it back. (This is really hard to explain!) I really was a horrible child!! I've never heard that called squirrel grass. We called it wild barley. If you put it in your sleeve it creeps up your arm in a tickly fashion. You can shoot the heads off plantains (plantango lanceolata), though I can't quite remember how, and aim them at your friends if you are feeling a bit Grumpy with them - except that nobody minds. |
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Best regards,
Jonathan
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"as the housefly of destiny collides with the windscreen of fate..."
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Jonathan
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« Reply #3077 on: 17:00:51, 23-09-2007 » |
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How come that post got so muddled up?
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Best regards,
Jonathan
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"as the housefly of destiny collides with the windscreen of fate..."
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #3078 on: 17:15:28, 23-09-2007 » |
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You must have deleted some vital brackets or something. "Flea darts" is a good name! And Mort - we used to play "In and out the dusty bluebells" too, though why they were dusty I never discovered. http://www.playgroundfun.org.uk/GameRules.aspx?gameID=61This is becoming the Not Very Grumpy Reminiscences Thread. |
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« Last Edit: 17:18:31, 23-09-2007 by Mary Chambers »
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #3079 on: 17:41:40, 23-09-2007 » |
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Grumpy Old Plant Room, by the looks of it.
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Morticia
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« Reply #3080 on: 18:03:11, 23-09-2007 » |
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MabelJane
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« Reply #3081 on: 20:33:37, 23-09-2007 » |
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And not at all grumpy thanks from me too Mary - I've copied it to remind me to teach it to the children at playtime. There are some rather suspect clapping songs they sing about girlfriends and boyfriends - no actual rude words but not as innocent as the 6 year olds imagine them to be! I don't think the little ones quite understand what they're singing about - at least I hope not! They'll love the dusty bluebells as it's easy to learn - kids love simple repetition.
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Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.
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increpatio
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« Reply #3082 on: 20:45:18, 23-09-2007 » |
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When did a "station" become a "train station"? I had an English teacher at school who always insisted 'train station' was wrong, and should be 'railway station'. I never asked her what she thought a bus stop should be called. (A 'road stop', maybe?) Why is train station wrong? We have bus stations here in dublin. A faculty member calls what I would call a plane a jet-plane; he is aware I guess (owing to his advancing years) of the crucial difference that the invention of the jet engine made when it comes to making flight something that the masses can affordably "do". I still find the distinction to be quite odd, however. |
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Bryn
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« Reply #3083 on: 20:52:18, 23-09-2007 » |
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Why is train station wrong?
Well, for a start ... |
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« Last Edit: 20:53:59, 23-09-2007 by Bryn »
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eruanto
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« Reply #3084 on: 20:54:01, 23-09-2007 » |
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Doesn't the term 'bus station' imply a major meeting-place of buses, where the numbers of routes involved are too large to conceivably work if they served a single stop?
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #3085 on: 21:00:03, 23-09-2007 » |
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Bus stations need to be defined because there are fewer of them than there are railway stations, and I'd imagine railway stations came first, anyway. I don't think "train station" is wrong exactly, but it's an unnecessary innovation/borrowing, and it irritates me. A "station" means trains, a "bus station" means buses!
It occurred to me that the word "gotten" is used in English (English/British English) in the expression "ill-gotten gains".
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #3086 on: 21:02:11, 23-09-2007 » |
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"Misbegotten", too, Mary.
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increpatio
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« Reply #3087 on: 21:55:35, 23-09-2007 » |
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Doesn't the term 'bus station' imply a major meeting-place of buses, where the numbers of routes involved are too large to conceivably work if they served a single stop?
We have "DART stations" (inner-city & commuter trains), "luas stations"(tram), "train stations", and "bus stations" (one major one and several depots that could be called stations if pushed to it) all in Dublin I'm afraid. If one names the station ("Killester Station", for instance) there's no ambiguity, but "station" in and of itself to us folks here could mean ANYTHING. |
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Bryn
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« Reply #3088 on: 21:59:38, 23-09-2007 » |
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Well I am sitting at my computer station right now.
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thompson1780
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« Reply #3089 on: 23:50:04, 23-09-2007 » |
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This doesn't make me grumpy, but technically, isn't the thing at the front the engine and the train the stuff behind the engine? I get annoyed at my own lack of precision when I call a steam engine a steam train.  Tommo |
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Made by Thompson & son, at the Violin & c. the West end of St. Paul's Churchyard, LONDON
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