Subject:
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Re: Brickish Museum of Natural History (BMNH)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.pirates
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Date:
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Thu, 24 Feb 2000 22:32:13 GMT
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Viewed:
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1173 times
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In lugnet.pirates, Tony Priestman writes:
> This is so funny I don't know where to start. I laughed out loud a lot.
I almost fell over right here in the Department lab. It
was sort of like MUDding (not that I ever did that, nudge
nudge, say no more)...
> On Thu, 24 Feb 2000, Richard Parsons (<FqEtwJ.FB@lugnet.com>) wrote at
> 01:09:55
>
> > In lugnet.pirates, Tony Priestman writes:
> > > And I deeply resemble the nasturtium that the soggy chip is one of the
> > > best things to come out of Brickain ;-)
> >
> > Bogus frat!
> >
> > (now that there is an expletive from Trek - if I cop any flack over it, any
> > flack at all, I swear I'm going to start thumping people.)
>
> You could just go and let off a few broadsides. Wonderful for relieving
> that pent up aggression.
Else, you could keel-haul someone. (not me)
> > Not only have caused Tony deep resemblement, I've committed a nasturtium!
> > <<rummage, rummage, finds dictionary, rummage rummage>> Its a plant! Holy
> > cow! I've turned Tony into a plant! With bright yellow, orange or red
> > flowers!
> >
> > Much apologising and obsequiesness!
> >
> > Can I get you anything - a glass of water? Fertiliser?
>
> Fertiliser's good. As long as I'm not *in* the fertiliser.
I think we know who's getting keel-hauled. ;)
> > "deeply resemble the nasturtium" I love it ;-)
> >
> > On the potatoe timing thing - I hadn't thought of that <<slaps wrists>>. I
> > guess Soggy Chip de la Tour is out then.
>
> Well, it could get renamed in the nineteenth century :-)
This is why I'm answering the message (besides the loud
guffawing above). It can still be called "Chip," it's
just that "Chip" denotes something else--and in fact it
denotes something related to shipbuilding.
Y'see, when wooden ships were built in the 16th-19th
centuries, one of the "customary rights" of the builders
(meaning the proles, the men who actually did the grunt
labour) was to take the "chips"--any board under three
feet in length left over from construction. Such chips
were useless for anything else.
Now, you can see where acceptance of this principle could
cause a little problem, especially when labourers decided
they needed a *lot* of chips to build their house (and yes,
there were homes--shanties really--made up entirely of
board lengths of less than three feet, including the
furniture). In the late 18th century, Britain begain
to run out of wood suitable for building ships, prices
went up, and what did get to Portsmouth was that much
more precious because large bits had usually come across the
Atlantic Ocean. However, the labourers would often take
a carefully selected board or joist and indiscriminately
saw it up into roughly 2'11" lengths. Considering that
trees were in fact grown or sought out specifically for
certain shapes of board, this was a real problem--20 or
30 years' careful cultivation down the drain, with all the
monies and aggravation that entailed.
So they outlawed it, made it punishable by prison and
eventually by hanging. In return, the dockworkers and
shipyard labourers organised, rioted, struck, and so forth,
because some of them were taking 40% of their "pay" home in
chips--they were fuel, building materials, barter material,
all at once.
On the other hand, I can't imagine a *soggy* chip of this
sort. But it may explain why fries are called "chips" and
here in the YooEss they're not. However, they're not free
in the UK, for dockworkers *or* hungry tourists.
best
Lindsay
PS: Peter Linebaugh (U-Toledo) has a great chapter on chipping
in his book _The London Hanged_ (1990).
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Brickish Museum of Natural History (BMNH)
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| On Thu, 24 Feb 2000, Mr L F Braun (<FqGH9p.E1E@lugnet.com>) wrote at 22:32:13 (...) While not knowing the details of this (shame on me), I *did* think about the woodworking possibilities, but discarded it as another scurrilous nasturtium on the (...) (25 years ago, 25-Feb-00, to lugnet.pirates)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Brickish Museum of Natural History (BMNH)
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| This is so funny I don't know where to start. I laughed out loud a lot. On Thu, 24 Feb 2000, Richard Parsons (<FqEtwJ.FB@lugnet.com>) wrote at 01:09:55 (...) You could just go and let off a few broadsides. Wonderful for relieving that pent up (...) (25 years ago, 24-Feb-00, to lugnet.pirates)
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