Posted by Ed Kiser on August 10, 2000 at 20:14:24 from MIAMA030-0664.splitrock.net:
In Reply to: Re: Picts and Martyrs posted by Ian E-N on August 04, 2000 at 18:42:28:
Picts and Martyrs - concerning the topic: "Oddities"
The original document, offered to TABOARD for thought, was listed in the
order of how the topics occurred to me, not any particular order implied.
The items of that document, which were numbered, are listed here, a bit
more ordered by general Subject matter. This is offered here as a sort
of "table of contents" or "index" to the ODDITIES document, in the hope
that in your perusal of that document, you can find the topic you are
looking for easier.
And, while I got you here, I wish to express my thanks for those who either
sent me their replies in personal EMAIL, or posted their replies for more
public access. I am very delighed to see how this original topic has
spun off so many items of interest, to where I, at least, and hopefully
others, may have really learned much about each other, and the way the
other people in other lands may live.
At the risk of being slightly "off topic" regarding Ransome, I find very
informative those replies regarding the RANSOME MOWER machine (with grass
catcher IN FRONT), the very complete description of what a COPPICE is (why
don't we do OUR woods that way, in the USA?), as to what certain foods are
(SAGO, BRAWN, TREACLE, GRITS), the meanings of words local to a particular
area, as well as what the road system is like today in the Lake District,
and about North Vs South prejudices exist not only in the USA but in other
lands as well.
This TARBOARD has helped me to "Meet" some very fascinating people, with a
lot of different ways of looking at things. If anything, it just goes to
show the marvel of Ransome, in that his works have been in themselves so
educational as well as entertaining, and have been the vehicle that has
brought so many differences of custom, manners, food, living style, national
variations, languages, and people themselves together so we call all learn
about each other, and hopefully, somehow, learn to get along a little bit
better in this one world...
My thanks to all you that have contributed, and for the many more that have
tried to follow the meanderings of this thread in the TARBOARD.
And thanks, Ian, for riding herd on this mob action...
Now, for the "INDEX" to PM ODDITIES:
-----------------------
FOOD
item 1. BRAWN, TREACLE
item 3. SAGO
item 22 presliced bread, butter the loaf, then cut the slice
Living STYLE
item 2. "Housekeeping"
item 3. Ocean voyage to cure FLUE
Language problems, US ENGLISH vs. UK ENGLISH
item 5. FORTNIGHT
item 8. FRIZZLE
item 9. Passage of time - Two JIFFS
item 14. COPPICE - a mode of wood management
beck, tarn, fells, screes
item 15 butterflies - Fritillaries, red admiral
item 16 - a Nancyism: "codfish eyes" "conger heart"
item 17 Passage of time - two jumps of a weasel
item 23 As if US English being different from UK English isn't bad
enough, we then get dialects...
"Girt auld hen 'at wants to be cock o' t' midden."
item 24 maybe not dialect, could be slang:
"She's a limb, is Miss Nancy."
item 28 more dialect, Jacky style this time:
"Smell ut."
"We don't want all folks wi' their nebs in my cupboard."
item 33 may be a Nancyism:
"...we'll fairly bucket across."
item 36 another passage of time:
Took "two minutes" to climb down the trellis (that LONG?)
item 40 "we were a bit bucked"
"looked gimletty at me"
The way they were, back then
item 6. TELEGRAM vs TELEPHONE
item 7. PRICES of telegrams
item 11. Timothy left supplies unguarded in the rowboat, nobody stole it
item 12. Candles (before electric lights)
Nights in the north in the summer are so short.
item 13. Speed of regular mail much faster then
item 19. Source of water in the house
item 20. Supplies in bulk in stores, not in individual packages as today
Sugar Case, for example
item 21. narrow roads - apparently, still pretty much that way now (egad!)
item 25. Political correctness - references to "white and black"
item 27. Sealing wax to close envelope
item 35. Children dressing and skinning a rabbit, then cooking it
Education:
item 10: QUALITATIVE or QUANTITATIVE analysis
item 18. Dick, the naturalist
item 26. Dick, the time-keeper, so proud of his second hand,
giving such precise time
item 42. Dick, asking about boring for a firing in the mine.
A different way...
item 29. Guddling for trout
item 30. Relative ages of houses, UK vs USA
item 31. Grass catcher in front, not rear, of mower
item 32. Changing clothes out of doors
Ransome touch
item 34. HEN and CHICKEN, real places
item 37. G.A. using the name, "NANCY" - Ransome had this corrected
in later editions
item 38. Nancy's surprise that Dick heard the Pigeon Bell
item 39. Ransome's style changed, Swallowdale called her "great-aunt";
Picts and Martyrs called her "Great Aunt". Both used the
shortened version, "G.A."
item 41. where is Mrs. Lewthwaite's cottage? Not on map.