Very quiet here in October!

Are we readers over sixty, like grizzlies, preparing for winter? Awfully quiet in here!

I’m in the midst of a couple of big projects. I sold my ridgetop property, so I’m emptying the cabin and shed and digging some of the perennials to move to my town lot.
Second, I’m taking a college class that fits me to a T - Appalachian Plants and People. There is a lot of prep reading, a long and strenuous Friday lab, and a final project to work on.
I ignored those priorities yesterday and worked to organize my basement. Well, it kinda relates, as I’m moving furniture and stuff down there and also clearing a corner for my winter greenhouse.
Mostly listening to books nowadays.

>1 Tess_W: Getting dark ... stayed fattened up from last year ... too much rain ... already started hibernating.... 🤫

I'm also involved in some big projects - or at least they seem big to an old chap like me.

We've started building a new guest cottage. The foundation was laid seven years ago but we didn't have the money then to continue it. Now we've started again and we're doing it in stages little by little as cash becomes available, with us supervising the work ourselves. We've just finished the walls. Next step will be the concrete beam on top of the wall. I fell off the pick up truck while unloading heavy building stones. Painful but fortunately not serious, but it has slowed me down a bit. I got a telling off from my better half about what was I doing unloading heavy blocks when there were six young chaps on site who should have been doing all the heavy work! Today I was installing an overflow pipe in the new dam that we dug last month in the hope of a decent rainy season before the end of the year, and also repairing the plastic liner in the old dam. And I'm currently writing two books, with a third in the pipeline. Following orders from the boss not to do too much heavy physical work again for a while (and anyway it still hurts) I've spent more time at the computer and have managed more than 25,000 words in the last three days.

>4 John5918: 25,000+? Wow! Go John!

>4 John5918: Wow!

>4 John5918: John, please take care of yourself!

>4 John5918: John- Lots of words, good ror you. Do you do NaNoWriMo in November?

>8 mnleona:

I have no idea what that is, so I suppose the simple answer is no, I don't!

>9 John5918:
National Novel Writing Month!
https://nanowrimo.org/national-novel-writing-month

>10 nrmay:

Ah, thanks! No, I write non-fiction for a specialist niche market. My first three were about the church in Sudan and South Sudan, the two in the pipeline are another about South Sudan and the biography of a Ugandan archbishop, and after that I might be branching out a bit to write the biography of a former foreign minister of another African state, who happens to be a Muslim. They'll never be best sellers, but it keeps me occupied in my retirement, and it is important to tell some of the positive stories about Africa and its indigenous leaders in an international climate which often views the continent very negatively.

>7 Crypto-Willobie:

Thanks, mate! I suppose our age group all has to face the moment when you realise you can't do all the things you used to and you have to let younger folk do it, but it's still very difficult to stand around when others are working without trying to lend a hand. But this was a painful reminder!

Winter plans -

Looking forward to a month in California over the holidays. Spending Christmas with our son and his family.
And my nephew is moving to Santa Cruz in Dec. so we can see his family then too.
Want to visit a CA National Park that I haven't seen yet. I still hope to visit all 63 Nat. Parks some day!
Seriously thinking of moving after the first of the year, to be closer to my sister and experience new surroundings. We have been in Charlotte NC for 23 years. Time to move on!

Besides the usual reading I'm just waiting for the fall colors to get going (so far they have been very dull) and for Ma Nature to offer up a good day with a mix of clouds and sunshine so I can go out and do some fall color photography. The only other thing I've been doing is performing a lot of plastic surgery on a number of plastic figures in order to convert their poses. I did fairly radical surgery on a boy on roller skates and turned him into an energetic walker. A garage mechanic became a bag carrying passenger, a 50's lady was converted into an Asian woman wearing and Ao Dai dress, a paper boy became a waiting passenger and a 50's girl had her bobby sox removed, hairdo upgraded, books ground off of her back and her arm repositioned to give her the look of a casual walker.

Once they were done it was off to the paint shop where I lavished the best colors and paints I had in the paint drawer on them.

>14 alco261:

Well done, mate! HO scale, I presume? I've only done very minor human surgery on my model railway figures so far. Replacing heads, eg a cricket player and a steam locomotive driver have become Sikhs using heads from a set of Indian soldiers, some African warriors have become peaceful chaps by cutting off their weapons, and a few people have received heads with pith helmets or bush hats, again from sets of old military figures. I've done more radical surgery on two-humped Asian camels to convert them into single-humped African camels, and I'm pondering converting some European cattle into African zebu cattle by adding humps. Modelling putty is a great resource! Today's task is to try to repair a narrow gauge steam locomotive which appears to have a loose electrical contact somewhere inside it.

I've been playing (guitar) and singing (I'm told) at at least three Open Mic Nights (OMN) each week for a few months now. Due to contractual obligations, I am introduced as Mike, the Song Butcher. I do covers; don't have time to write my own stuff, but maybe one will jump itself out and write itself down someday.

I've been especially busy these past two weeks because for the first time in four years, I'm having a house guest - very special house guest - the first girl who ever spoke to me in high school. (A long story, but she's also my ex-wife's ex-best-friend. For the record, there's no cause-and-effect relationship in that. My guitar-playing style, however, was the catalyst for the latter.) She's doing a long-distance road trip, and my place is a ten-hour drive from hers, so she's spending the night in one of my spare bedrooms. And because the following evening is one of the OMNs, she's going to stay an extra day and night just to hear me play. She might even join me in a tune, as she is a renowned banjo player. So, my beloved and infinitely compatible late wife died five years ago in early November. Guess what I've neglected in all that time. You would be absolutely spot on if you thought basic household chore. I've rarely dusted; vacuumed the carpet in two rooms twice (maybe); stacks of papers everywhere.
I collected all the papers and junk and put them in a large box, then hired a cleaning service to help with the rest. Two days! It should have been better, but the difference is pretty damn good. Still, I'm going to have a couple of very busy days before my friend arrives.

>15 John5918: No. O scale - the figures are between 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" high.

>15 John5918: Those poor camels! I cringe!

>18 2wonderY:

The Hereford cattle were luckier - they became Cape buffaloes with nowt but a coat of paint!

>16 WholeHouseLibrary:

Brings back memories of my younger days when I used to play the guitar and sing Irish folk songs in pubs from time to time with various groups of friends. St Patrick's night in an Irish bar in Spokane WA thirty years ago springs to mind, as does a Sunday lunchtime after mass in Kilburn, north London, more than forty years ago when we had to leave the pub quickly after a couple of hard men with strong Northern Irish accents enquired menacingly whether we were taking the piss. But enjoy the meeting with your old friend. I'm still in contact with the girl who sat next to me in primary school from the age of 4 to 11 - we were forced to sit according to our educational ability (as judged by the teachers according to some arcane methodology) and Kate and I seemed to be a perfect educational match right through our primary school career!

>20 John5918: Huh! Learned a new phrase today - "taking the piss." It took a bit of search through google, wikipedia and quora before I found a definition that would fit the context you described. Would "jerking my chain" come close as a substitute for your earthy phrase? It's always nice to be armed for adverse situations, but I can't imagine where I'd ever get a chance to use it, nowadays.

>21 TempleCat:

Thanks. A very common phrase in British English. I think "jerking my chain" might be right, or "taking the mickey".

Edited to add: In the modern form of Cockney rhyming slang it might be, "Are you 'aving a Turkish?", with "Turkish" being short for "Turkish Bath", where "th" is pronounced "f" by Cockneys*, thus rhyming with "laugh": "Are you 'aving a laugh?"

* Hence the example often given, "Firty faasand fevvers on a frush's froat" - "Thirty thousand feathers on a thrush's throat" - although the standalone "t" in "thirty" and "throat" would be dropped and pronounced as a sort of glottal stop.

>22 John5918: Fabulous! I really enjoy regionalisms, especially when I don't understand them.

I remember attending a comedy show at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. The audience was half Scots and half definitely non-Scots. The comics were evenly split between Scots and English or American. As each performer ran their schtick only half the audience laughed, depending; the other half sort of politely smiled and scratched their heads. The audience was more entertaining than the comics!

My mom had her own schtick; where she acquired it, I'll never know. "Deh was toidy poiple boids, sittin' on a coib, choipin' and boipin' and eatin' doity woims. Along came Goit, walkin' wit Boit. Goit woiks in a shoit factory in Joisey. Goit saw de toidy poiple boids, sittin' on a coib, choipin' and boipin' and eatin' doity woims, and boy! was she petoibed!"

Now, you'll have to excuse me. It's wicked hahd to find space around heah, so I'll have to pahk my cah ova in Hahvad Yahd.

If you're interested in hearing more Cockney, there's a nice clip from comedian Ronnie Barker, Rhyming Slang Sermon. Another one worth looking at is Cockney Star Trek.

I hesitate to recommend Insults, Threats and Cockney Rhyming Slang from the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, as it is very vulgar, obscene and offensive, but if you've got a strong stomach it is nevertheless very funny (as indeed is the whole film).

Terms commonly used when I was growing up in East London include tea leaf, Hampstead Heath, half inch, plates of meat, apples and pears, Bristol City, north and south, Hackney Wick, Brahms and Liszt, mince pies, trouble and strife, rub a dub, butcher's hook, boat race, dog and bone, loaf of bread, bees and honey, Alan Whickers, Farmer Giles (or Nobby Styles), Joanna, Lady Godiva, Barnet fair, battlecruiser, bird lime, bottle and glass, brass tacks, bricks and mortar, daisy roots, dicky bird, jam jar, Jimmy Riddle, Ruby Murray, pork pie, Sweeney Todd, two and eight. In many (but not all) cases only the first word of the pair would be used.

>24 John5918: "Terms commonly used when I was growing up ...." Wow, totally opaque! I haven't a clue how any of those terms could be used in any way other than their direct, straight-forward semantics. Slang and verbal play are often a whole other language! Am I right to assume the terms you mentioned are like the repartee found in 'playing the dozens' or 'talking about yo mama' American verbal games?

>23 TempleCat: Nice one, John! Myself, I have a crick running through my property and I never forget that George Warshington was our first president!;) I have also changed many a didy in my day!

>25 TempleCat: totally opaque! I haven't a clue how any of those terms could be used in any way other than their direct, straight-forward semantics

Yes, I think that was the whole point. The upper classes, law enforcement, and people from outside the community couldn't understand what was being said. Similar perhaps to the development of Polari as a language for sailors, fairground and theatre workers, and later gays.

the repartee found in 'playing the dozens' or 'talking about yo mama' American verbal games

I have no idea what they are, but Cockney isn't a game, it's a living dialect, still developing and changing although it's lost its original raison d'etre, and many British dialects are gradually either fading or just becoming quaint curiosities. When I say they were commonly used I mean you would hear them every day in ordinary conversations. A few translations from what I can remember:

Tea leaf - thief.
Hampstead Heath - teeth.
Half inch - pinch, ie steal.
Plates of meat - feet.
Apples and pears - stairs.
Bristol City - titty, ie breast, usually used in the plural, Bristols.
North and south (pronounced norf and souf, of course) - mouth (see What a mouth).
Hackney Wick - sick.
Brahms and Liszt - pissed, ie drunk.
Mince pies - eyes.
Trouble and strife - wife.
Rub a dub - pub.
Butcher's hook - look, usually just the first word, eg "'Ave a butcher's at that!"
Boat race - face.
Dog and bone - phone.
Loaf of bread - head, usually just the first word, eg "Use yer loaf!"
Bees and honey - money.
Alan Whickers - knickers, ie panties.
Farmer Giles (or Nobby Styles) - piles, ie haemorrhoids.
Joanna - piano.
Lady Godiva - fiver, ie a five pound note.
Barnet fair - hair, usually just the first word, Barnet.
Battlecruiser - boozer, ie pub.
Bird lime - prison, rhyming with doing time (in prison), usually just the first word, "'E's doing bird".
Bottle and glass - arse (US ass).
Brass tacks - facts, eg "Let's get down to brass tacks".
Bricks and mortar - daughter.
Daisy roots - boots (see My ol' man's a dustman!)
Dicky bird - word, eg "'Aven't 'eard a dicky bird from 'im!"
Jam jar - car (interestingly a police car was a jam sandwich {US jelly}, white with a streak of red in the middle!).
Jimmy Riddle - piddle.
Ruby Murray - curry.
Pork pie - lie, often porkies, eg "She's telling porkies!".
Two and eight - state, eg "'She was in a right two and eight".
Sweeney Todd - Flying Squad (an elite, violent and corrupt London police unit), usually just the Sweeney, immortalised in the name of a popular 1970s TV series, The Sweeney.

>27 John5918: Ah! I get it! I knew the term "thieves' Cant" and had heard of the Romani spoken by carnival folk, but your mention of Polari was the first time I had heard that word. So, a quick trip to wikipedia made it all clear.

I guess I just didn't grow up in the right neighborhoods because, for me, that manner of speech was something exotic that I just read about in books. What you're talking about isn't just the slang that everybody uses, but a particular way of employing special slang, specific to a culture, meant to obfuscate for non-members.

Humans are such an interesting species!

Cockney and Queen’s English have all but disappeared among young people – here’s what’s replaced them (The Conversation)

Cockney and received pronunciation (Queen’s English) were once spoken by people of all ages, but they are no longer commonly spoken among young people in the south-east of England... We identified three main accents:standard southern British English, multicultural London English and estuary English... Cockney, the working-class, London accent of Barbara Windsor or Michael Caine, and received pronunciation, which some call Queen’s English (or perhaps now King’s English), did not appear in our analysis. That’s not to say that there aren’t any young people in our sample who might have spoken these accents, but if so, they were too few and far between for the algorithm to identify... Attempting to prevent accents from changing is like sweeping back an incoming tide with a broom – fruitless and defying nature. Instead, we should embrace linguistic diversity, work to combat accentism (discrimination based on a person’s accent), and accept that accents will always continue to change.

I can't disagree with that last paragraph, but still find it a bit sad that the Cockney dialect and accent which was so commonplace just sixty years ago is apparently disappearing.

>29 John5918:

I find it interesting to hear the shifts in the King's/Queen's English accents by listening to recordings of, say, the Christmas Broadcast over the past century. George V, George VI, and Elizabeth each had a distinct accent that, to my ears, became more extreme with each generation. The scraps I've heard of George V are not that different from the accent I grew up hearing in Toronto, while the late Queen spoke in a way that was easily parodied because it was so 'uncommon'.

There was a single recording made of Queen Victoria; it's a pity that it has disappeared.

>2 2wonderY: I was having difficulty finding a storage unit to rent for some of my tools and treasures. One place (my first choice for a variety of reasons) said they had several units that needed emptied, having been abandoned. I offered to clear one in exchange for free rent. We agreed on 4 months credit, and they gave me the toughest one. It took me three days and serendipity. Many trips to Goodwill for drop off and some evenings sorting contents. Bins and bags. Bags and bins!

The really cool connection is with a new nonprofit offering services to the homeless. I gave them stuff from the cabin and they happened to want a sofa for their storefront. There was a sofa under all that other stuff. Jack came by this morning and loaded it into his truck all by himself.
I had loaded the matching recliner yesterday, so I knew how heavy.

Now I can resume the original project clearing out the cabin.

>10 nrmay: Thank you. I should have written the name.

>32 mnleona:
So are you gearing up to write a novel in Nov?! Have you done it before?

>34 John5918: Blimey, mate, this chitty chitty is a piddle! You've got to be Brahms to get it, but it is Easter bunny! I guessed correctly a monkey's cousin of 'em, but for the others, I didn't have a Scooby!

My goodness, friend, this slang (chitty chitty bang bang) is a riddle! You've got to be drunk (pissed - Brahms and Liszt) to get it, but it is funny! I guessed correctly a dozen of 'em, but for the others, I didn't have a clue (Scooby Doo)!

>33 nrmay: Sorry, I have not checked messages.
I have done NaNoWriMo twice and did manage to write the 50,000 words both times. This November I was on a family cruise so did not do it.
I did it so I could prove to myself I could. Both times about a small museum and members going to the ruins of Mexcio and another to the pyramids of Egypt. They say write what you know.

>36 mnleona: I did NaNoWriMo a few years ago, when I was still working. I made a decent start on a mystery novel, concept-wise; of the 50K+ words that I spewed out, I imagine several dozen would make it into the next draft. It's still in the virtual drawer, i.e., on the hard drive, but I have no idea whether I'll ever return to it. Not this week.

>37 Jim53: I may do something on mine this year. We went back to Egypt again this year and saw some other areas we did not see last time.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

It has been warm in Minnesota and my lake is open water where there was ice a few weeks ago. People have been ice fishing but not now.

One of my plans for 2024 is to read books I have on my shelves.