I like the circular map! When BGB and I visited Glasgow we took the subway. It's circular, and ingenious. An early one, too, since I think it was the third subway in the world. Just think, Rebecca: You'd never get lost on a circular subway. You just stay in your seat, and you'd be transported to the place you departed from!
Until 2009 the Circle line on the Tube was circular, but now there's a branch off it which goes to Hammersmith. I used to wonder if people ever just stayed on it all day!
This might be an urban myth, but I remember reading somewhere about a couple driving on the M25 motorway (also known as the London Orbital) for the first time who'd been on it for many, many hours. They'd missed their junction, and instead of simply coming off at the next junction decided that they'd just go 'all the way round', as if it were a roundabout. It's 117 miles long, and one of the UK's busiest roads! 🤣
Lots of fun this morning, Rebecca! I especially loved the clarinet with insects. How novel! Also I immediately thought of Hercule Poirot and his difficulty with English idiomatic expressions. Inspector Japp said, " Poirot! You are pulling my leg! Poirot matter-of-factly assures him, " No no! Poirot does not pool zee leg! ( Hilarious, but maybe you had to be there...)
LOL, Sharron! I love it when we take things literally in languages that aren't our own...! I remember telling my German exchange family when I was 15 about my mum's hobby of spinning and weaving, and had started doing that because we kept sheep. 'Our house is warm in winter because our roof is full of fleeces', I told them. 'Why?' I was asked. 'Because my mother spins'. I had no idea why they dissolved into hysterical laughter.
'Meine Mutter spinnt' *does* literally mean 'my mother spins' - but idiomatically, over there, it also means 'my mother is crazy'. 🤪 Ooops. It was then explained to me that to avoid any such future misunderstanding I should have said 'Meine Mutter spinnt Wolle' - my mother spins wool.
'Du SPINNNNNNST!!!!' is something my au pair kids would scream at each other all the time!
I love this! We make so many funny mistakes when we are learning a second language. I may write a post about some of my major gaffes. Once, in Spanish, I meant to say "I am a little embarrassed." So I said "Estoy un poco embarazada." Which really means " I am a little bit pregnant." It did not quite fit the setting.
I remember reading a letter to the editor in the paper recently about just that sort of thing - a British tourist in Spain getting mixed up between the French he knew and the Spanish he didn't. French 'beurre' he assumed was Spanish 'burro'. The waiter had to explain that you can't actually spread donkey onto toast!
Yes! Like that! So funny. I once ordered the ham and onion soup in a Mexican restaurant ( sopa de jamón y cebollas) But the words that came out of my mouth were sopa de jabón y caballos - a soup of soap and horses.
The map itself isn't circular, but the Tube lines are shown as intersecting circles! Clever, but baffling!
LOL - yes, the cartoon was brilliant - and sums up pretty much all the available terrestrial viewing around here - and our struggles over what to watch - at the moment. 🤣
I think the advertising campaign which produced it was a light-hearted one. Mind you, I think it IS supposed to represent the Tube map, so I’m assuming all the right stations are arranged in the right order on all the right lines. Huge geographical liberties were taken with Harry Beck’s original London Tube map, but to be honest, as long as one can see the order in which the stations appear AND the places at which all the lines intersect, I guess it should work.
Hey, I could give it a go and write about it - although I’m not sure there’s a pocket-sized version of the huge poster available.
I think I have the answer to the crossword clue, and have emailed you to tell you wot I think it is. If I am correct, or even if I'm not, it's a horribly difficult clue, but I shall be avenged <snigger>
A lipogram in 'e'? Pffft! The rest of my comment is a Lipogram in the whole alphabet:
🤣🤣🤣
I like the circular map! When BGB and I visited Glasgow we took the subway. It's circular, and ingenious. An early one, too, since I think it was the third subway in the world. Just think, Rebecca: You'd never get lost on a circular subway. You just stay in your seat, and you'd be transported to the place you departed from!
Until 2009 the Circle line on the Tube was circular, but now there's a branch off it which goes to Hammersmith. I used to wonder if people ever just stayed on it all day!
This might be an urban myth, but I remember reading somewhere about a couple driving on the M25 motorway (also known as the London Orbital) for the first time who'd been on it for many, many hours. They'd missed their junction, and instead of simply coming off at the next junction decided that they'd just go 'all the way round', as if it were a roundabout. It's 117 miles long, and one of the UK's busiest roads! 🤣
I've always thought of it as the UK’S biggest car park.
I’ve heard it called ‘The Magic Roundabout’, although in my opinion it’s not a patch on the original.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3DcChXNyYQ
Not apocryphal, but true: on August 19, 1982, famous baseball player Pascual Perez missed his start for the Atlanta Braves when he got lost on I-285, the highway which circles Atlanta (known as "the perimeter"), while trying to find Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. He drove some 150 miles, circling the city more than 2.5 times. https://www.ajc.com/sports/the-night-pascual-perez-got-lost-and-found-spot-braves-history/9kYEQZobWRdepdVuJsXxRJ/
Oh gosh, sounds like he was having a really bad day! Thanks so much for sharing this, Deborah!
Lots of fun this morning, Rebecca! I especially loved the clarinet with insects. How novel! Also I immediately thought of Hercule Poirot and his difficulty with English idiomatic expressions. Inspector Japp said, " Poirot! You are pulling my leg! Poirot matter-of-factly assures him, " No no! Poirot does not pool zee leg! ( Hilarious, but maybe you had to be there...)
🤣
LOL, Sharron! I love it when we take things literally in languages that aren't our own...! I remember telling my German exchange family when I was 15 about my mum's hobby of spinning and weaving, and had started doing that because we kept sheep. 'Our house is warm in winter because our roof is full of fleeces', I told them. 'Why?' I was asked. 'Because my mother spins'. I had no idea why they dissolved into hysterical laughter.
'Meine Mutter spinnt' *does* literally mean 'my mother spins' - but idiomatically, over there, it also means 'my mother is crazy'. 🤪 Ooops. It was then explained to me that to avoid any such future misunderstanding I should have said 'Meine Mutter spinnt Wolle' - my mother spins wool.
'Du SPINNNNNNST!!!!' is something my au pair kids would scream at each other all the time!
I love this! We make so many funny mistakes when we are learning a second language. I may write a post about some of my major gaffes. Once, in Spanish, I meant to say "I am a little embarrassed." So I said "Estoy un poco embarazada." Which really means " I am a little bit pregnant." It did not quite fit the setting.
Oh, that's hilarious - I love that, Sharron!
I remember reading a letter to the editor in the paper recently about just that sort of thing - a British tourist in Spain getting mixed up between the French he knew and the Spanish he didn't. French 'beurre' he assumed was Spanish 'burro'. The waiter had to explain that you can't actually spread donkey onto toast!
Yes! Like that! So funny. I once ordered the ham and onion soup in a Mexican restaurant ( sopa de jamón y cebollas) But the words that came out of my mouth were sopa de jabón y caballos - a soup of soap and horses.
Sharron, that's ANOTHER cup of tea I've spilt - you have SO made me laugh!!!!
A circular map?? Did I understand that correctly? That's so insensitive!
The final line of your letter, I can picture well even without the cartoon. Too funny!
The map itself isn't circular, but the Tube lines are shown as intersecting circles! Clever, but baffling!
LOL - yes, the cartoon was brilliant - and sums up pretty much all the available terrestrial viewing around here - and our struggles over what to watch - at the moment. 🤣
That map sounds... [insert puzzled face]...like someone's idea of a joke. 😅
I think the advertising campaign which produced it was a light-hearted one. Mind you, I think it IS supposed to represent the Tube map, so I’m assuming all the right stations are arranged in the right order on all the right lines. Huge geographical liberties were taken with Harry Beck’s original London Tube map, but to be honest, as long as one can see the order in which the stations appear AND the places at which all the lines intersect, I guess it should work.
Hey, I could give it a go and write about it - although I’m not sure there’s a pocket-sized version of the huge poster available.
Is this it?
https://transitmap.net/circle-tube-roberts/#jp-carousel-4160
Oooh, that’s really interesting - thanks so much! I didn’t know there’d been a circular version in 2013 - the one in Samsung’s advert is along those lines (if you’ll pardon the pun!). Here’s the one I’d linked to - https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/five-tube-stations-have-new-circular-tube-maps-69881/
Oh, see -- I'm just making thing more complicated, just like I do when I read maps! 😂
I think I have the answer to the crossword clue, and have emailed you to tell you wot I think it is. If I am correct, or even if I'm not, it's a horribly difficult clue, but I shall be avenged <snigger>
E-mail received loud and clear, and I am duly impressed with the result of your efforts, Terry!
🏆
Thanks
What a fun newsletter!!!! Thank you!!!
Awww, thanks for reading, Sue! Terry and I have such fun writing our letters to each other! 🤣