anyone past 50 on here?

[Cobie]

22 minutes ago, ryn2 said:

I always figured it was somehow scandalous... product of an affair or something... 

Hm, yes, that’s a good guess, lots of movies made about that. And the head injury because the husband found out and tried to kill the child? Oh dear, that’s even more awful than strangers trying to kill her. And seizures can’t have been easy to live with.

 

Quote

... My family skipped a generation ... 

 I don’t know what that means. Your grandmother was there, then your mother was there, then you were there. Everybody is a link in the chain of life. Ha, no link can be skipped, that’s biology. You mean something else, but what?

[ryn2]

3 minutes ago, Thea2 said:

Hm, yes, that’s a good guess, lots of movies made about that. And the head injury because the husband found out and tried to kill the child? Oh dear, that’s even more awful than strangers trying to kill her. And seizures can’t have been easy to live with.

Maybe he pushed the wife down the stairs and she dropped the baby!

 

The exact way my mother put it was “they wouldn’t share the story until her adoptive parents had died, to avoid hurting them.”  Maybe the jilted husband was a family member of the adoptive parents and had made up some tragic story to hide his role.

 

The possibilities are endless; the truth is probably far more pedestrian.

 

4 minutes ago, Thea2 said:

I don’t know what that means. Your grandmother was there, then your mother was there, then you were there. Everybody is a link in the chain of life. Ha, no link can be skipped, that’s biology. You mean something else, but what?

Hah, yes, everyone was there that way.  I meant that - at a time when it was unusual and not trendy - several of my relatives had their kid(s) quite late in life.  The net result is that my parents were close in age to most of my peers’ grandparents.  Where many families had four generations from the 1880’s to the 1960’s, mine had only three.  The net result was that my last survivng grandparent died when I was 18 and my parents were both dead by the time I was in my mid-30’s.

[Cobie]

2 hours ago, Semisweet said:

... the old Dutch word "kill" also means river (or other body of water). So, for instance, the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania actually means "Hidden River River."

That’s very interesting. The word ‘kill’ was only ever used in the names of places (toponym), some still in existence here too e.g Sluiskill). ‘Schuyl’ is still used in that meaning but modern Dutch has replaced the ‘y’ with an ‘i’ ( as in in most of the words with a ‘y’). 

[Cobie]

26 minutes ago, ryn2 said:

Maybe he pushed the wife down the stairs and she dropped the baby!

Horrible, but yes, lots of movies on that too. 

 

26 minutes ago, ryn2 said:

... The possibilities are endless; the truth is probably far more pedestrian.

True, and hopefully something far more innocent.

 

26 minutes ago, ryn2 said:

... several of my relatives had their kid(s) quite late in life ...

Ah, that makes perfect sense. Thank you very much for explaining that. 

[Spotastic]

Because there is such a jumble of misinformation about where my mom's family comes from, I always forget the specifics. So I just asked her what she knows. Her dad was Yugoslavian. Her mom has German, British, and Dutch ancestry. There have been rumors of Romanian in there somewhere. My dad is Puertorican with African, Spanish, and Taino Indian (the natives of PR). 

 

Last year I ticked every box on the racial census except Asian. 

[will123]

1 hour ago, Spotastic said:

Because there is such a jumble of misinformation about where my mom's family comes from, I always forget the specifics. So I just asked her what she knows. Her dad was Yugoslavian. Her mom has German, British, and Dutch ancestry. There have been rumors of Romanian in there somewhere. My dad is Puertorican with African, Spanish, and Taino Indian (the natives of PR). 

 

Last year I ticked every box on the racial census except Asian. 

At one point there was an emphasis on hyphenated Canadians. I even though the connection was tenuous I was expected to identify as German-Canadian on the census. There was an unofficial campaign to write in Canadian as your ancestry (which I did). The powers to be weren't impressed  . I don't identify with or celebrate any of the cultures in my background. That doesn't fit the multicultural narrative that the government is so apt to remind us of.

[Semisweet]

2 hours ago, ryn2 said:

This I did know, as I lived for a while in the Dutch-settled NYS Mid-Hudson Valley (Peekskill, Spackenkill, Plattekill, and a gazillion others).  My non-Dutch ex thought it was so morbid.  

A notoriously outdated/overcrowded expressway that parallels the Schuylkill River is also named the Schuylkill, but its morbid local nickname is the "Sure-Kill" Expressway. 

[Skycaptain]

Roadkill must cause confusion then 

[ryn2]

9 minutes ago, Semisweet said:

A notoriously outdated/overcrowded expressway that parallels the Schuylkill River is also named the Schuylkill, but its morbid local nickname is the "Sure-Kill" Expressway. 

My ex would have felt vindicated by that.

[ryn2]

26 minutes ago, Spotastic said:

My dad is Puertorican with African, Spanish, and Taino Indian (the natives of PR). 

Cool!  My city has the largest per capita concentration of Puerto Ricans outside of PR, which is kind of funny in that we have a most un-PR-like climate.  Much grumbling ensues, 3/4 of the year.

[Kazbe]

10 hours ago, Midland Tyke said:

Nope. It was very simple. All the 'goodies' were downtrodden minorities. All the 'baddies' were cardboard monsters.

Well, it was a simple fairytale / monster movie - just done more artistically than most. It's cinematic qualities and the simple romantic storyline were what made it different to so similar movies. I'm a huge fan of magic realism and this one was by far one of the best on film. I have to admit I haven't liked a lot of films I've seen this year - the worst by far was "The Greatest Showman". Talk about cardboard characters and sentimental dross dressed up as something meaningful.

 

3 hours ago, Semisweet said:

Somewhat similarly, the old Dutch word "kill" also means river (or other body of water). So, for instance, the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania actually means "Hidden River River." Trying to get people to just say "the Schuylkill" is probably as much of a lost cause as getting people to just say "the Avon."

Same with the Sahara Desert. Sahara is derived from the Arabic word for "the desert" so people are saying the "the desert desert".

 

3 hours ago, Midland Tyke said:

If you ever get the chance to tour Wales you will notice the large number of castles there, particularly in the North.

Another trip on my never-likely-to-be-realised bucket list. I'd also like to visit my family's ancestral home, although I'm a few generations and a name change away from the current Marquess. My family married into the Paget family, and they were unusual in that inheritance of the title was passed down through both male and female lines. One of my ancestor's married the only daughter a couple of hundred years ago, and changed his surname to Paget. My 'family' home is also the Paget family home.  Maybe I should ask for it back. 

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/plas-newydd-country-house-and-gardens

[ryn2]

54 minutes ago, Kazbe said:

My 'family' home is also the Paget family home.  Maybe I should ask for it back.

After looking at the link, yes, absolutely!

 

You could set up the home for aging ace hermits we were discussing in other threads.

[Tja]

1 hour ago, Semisweet said:

A notoriously outdated/overcrowded expressway that parallels the Schuylkill River is also named the Schuylkill, but its morbid local nickname is the "Sure-Kill" Expressway. 

I was just driving on this, this afternoon.

[pickles.]

On 4/19/2018 at 6:15 AM, Autumn Sunrise said:

The three of us went down to Sydney on Tuesday to see "The Book of Mormon".

I know the conversation has moved on by leaps and bounds since all of two days ago, but I wanted to mention that I was raised Mormon, and I have often wondered if I would like this show. It's quite expensive to go to here in the States, and I imagine in Oz as well.

[Cobie]

14 hours ago, Midland Tyke said:

If you ever get the chance to tour ...

@Midland Tyke You quoted me in that post, so I want to add - see my signature. I do not want to ‘tour’ at all, ever. I am an Atourual . 

[Cobie]

Ha, ha, I am a psychenaut. Psyche- + -naut from Greek psyche-, “breath, soul, mind”, and -nautes, “sailor”.

 

[daveb]

We left Christchurch this morning, coach took us through Sheffield and Springfield, to Arthur's Pass, over the mountains and down the west coast, to finally deposit us near Franz Josef Glacier. Tomorrow we go for a walk up to the glacier (or as far as you can get). Then we're off again for Queenstown.

 

The scenery was fantastic. And we saw a couple of keas at 2 stops in the mountains. Keas are large mountain parrots. 

 

There were a few spots where traffic was delayed a little for road work and one spot where traffic was delayed due to an accident.

[Tanwen]

Going back to languages - I started learning Welsh when my brother and his wife had a smallholding in Halkyn (N Wales). I'd go into a shop and everyone was talking in English but as soon as they realised I was English, they'd start talking in Welsh...so I learned enough to convince them I understood what they were talking about...guess what, they didn't speak in Welsh afterwards. The word for 'window' in Latin is 'Fenestram', in French it's 'Fenetre' and in Welsh 'Ffenstr' so very similar. I heard that the reason the English have different words for animal and some meats is because only the rich (Norman) could eat the meat whereas the English peasants farmed them so 'cows' when eaten become 'beef' (boeuf) - there were others but I've forgotten.

My mother is of Manx and Irish descent - grandfather was Irish Catholic, grandmother Manx protestant so how the dickens they ever married is a mystery. It was not a happy marriage but they managed to produce three children. My dad's family alternated between England and Scotland - one generation left Scotland to go to England, the next went the other way. Only place they didn't go was Wales and I have a burial lot in Bolton (I have apiece of paper that says so) 

[Tyke]

2 hours ago, Thea2 said:

@Midland Tyke You quoted me in that post, so I want to add - see my signature. I do not want to ‘tour’ at all, ever. I am an Atourual . 

Noted. I must admit to an element of guilt about the carbon footstep of traveling. I argue, maybe falsely, that human interaction between locations is a good thing which brings benefits. I suspect that's a bit specious, though.

[Tyke]

44 minutes ago, daveb said:

Tomorrow we go for a walk up to the glacier (or as far as you can get). Then we're off again for Queenstown.

 

Bruce Bay is on your route then! If you don't stop there it will be a 'blink and you miss it' experience.

[ryn2]

5 hours ago, pickles mcgee said:

I know the conversation has moved on by leaps and bounds since all of two days ago, but I wanted to mention that I was raised Mormon, and I have often wondered if I would like this show. It's quite expensive to go to here in the States, and I imagine in Oz as well.

That would likely depend on your current relationship to your childhood religion.  If you’re in a place where you’re able to enjoy very irreverant fun being poked at it, sure... but otherwise you might come away triggered and/or offended (and that’s not a fun use of money!).

[Cobie]

1 hour ago, ryn2 said:

That would likely depend on your current relationship to your childhood religion.  If you’re in a place where you’re able to enjoy very irreverant fun being poked at it, sure... but otherwise you might come away triggered and/or offended (and that’s not a fun use of money!).

This. (That’s what I thought, but I got a bit tangled up in my head trying to put it into words and gave up. )

[Cobie]

2 hours ago, Tanwen said:

... The word for 'window' in Latin is 'Fenestram', in French it's 'Fenetre' and in Welsh 'Ffenstr' so very similar...

That’s so interesting the way all these languages connect. In Dutch it’s ‘venster’, in German ‘Fenster’.   We have a second word for window that’s used more often ‘raam’, German ‘Rahmen’; Google: probably from Proto-Indo-European *rem(w)- (“to rest, prop up; a support, base”). 

 

 

Quote

My mother is of Manx ...

    Right, that can’t be the famous cat, so Googled. Manx are people originating in the Isle of Man, in the Irish Sea in between UK and Ireland. 

[Tyke]

7 minutes ago, Thea2 said:

 

 

    Right, that can’t be the famous cat, so Googled. Manx are people originating in the Isle of Man, in the Irish Sea in between UK and Ireland. 

but that is where the famous cat comes from...

[Cobie]

1 minute ago, Midland Tyke said:

but that is where the famous cat comes from...

Ha, ha, yes, you’re right, I saw it when I Googled it. 

[Cobie]

12 hours ago, Midland Tyke said:

... the carbon footstep of traveling ...

If you don’t want to stop traveling, then you can use carbon offset e.g. compensate by eating only locally-produced and organic food.  😊 

[EarthMama]

The weather is cooperating today...I got to hoof it in to work.  

One of my coworkers saw me trudging up the lawn to the door and told me I'm better than a robin for predicting the dread 'S' word, though, so I'm certain we'll be cold and white again soon.

 

 

Other than that...not much happened this weekend...it was a lazy one.  I left the house once during the entire weekend, and that was to get the grocery shopping done.

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

Well, I had a very productive weekend, all the garden was finished, I saw 'The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society' which was very good and had lots of fun kitty time.

 

@Midland Tyke, i'd like to travel as widely as you have, I think it's a great thing for experiencing new ideas. We usually stay in hostels because it's cheaper and we always end up meeting interesting people. This year, I'd like to do a few little trips- Iceland in May, Gibraltar in September, but I've a week in June and another in October , so I'm working on a couple of easy destinations like Copenhagen, Vienna, Lake Como, Venice....the list could be endless!

 

All but one of my ancestors were Scots, apart from the great (x10) grandfather on my mother's side who originated from Yorkshire and whose surname was Pullar. Evidently that surname is now synonymous with Perth! The earliest records of my father's clan , Hay, was in Aberdeenshire in 925 AD when they fought a battle with Viking raiders. So, I'm plain boring Scots , mostly. My daughter, however, is half Scots, quarter Marathi, eighth, Welsh and eighth Irish!

 

Hope you all had great weekends, and see you later.

[Spotastic]

@Semisweet I'm from New Jersey, right across the bridge from Philly. I've heard many people complain about needing to go on the Schuylkill for any possible reason. It's almost as bad as the NJ Turnpike. I didn't drive back then, so it didn't matter to me, but lots and lots of complaints from others...

 

@ryn2 There are actually more Puertoricans in mainland US than there are on the island now. Where I'm from (Camden, NJ) there are whole sections of the city that are pretty much just Puertoricans, others that are just African-Americans, one place referred to as 'Pollock Town', and then a small part called 'White Camden'. Needless to say, racial tension is high.

[Emjay537]

As far back as I can tell I'm all British/Irish but the DNA apparently includes several other areas of Europe & even a bit of Asia. Them Viking raiders probably got a lot to answer for!