1) Curling: KH thinks this is a bit odd. Karl-Heinz, it is a _Scottish_
sport. Just thank the Lord it does not involve Sheep or parts thereof. These
are the same people that invented the Caber Toss. And as for it being
shuffleboard, to quote a line from the upcoming Men With Brooms movie (how
dreadfully Canadian), "To play this game, you need really big Stones."
2) Hockey/Flags: We're from Canada. We don't like to see our flag
abused, but we're not likely to start and incident over it. We don't have
quite the same reverence for the flag here as in the USA (IMO).
Just to give our European Listers a chuckle, here's an excerpt from a letter
from an Irish born Canadian citizen (an FTer) now living in Den Hague ( a
buddy):
---------------------
"We are able to reap the rewards of being a Common Wealth nation, in that the
BBC covers most games involving CW countries, especially when there is the
distinct possiblity of the boots being put to Uncle Sam.
So in short, the mens hockey was watched in full -with brief pauses as I
try to explain the game as I understand it, to Helen. [Ed: The English born
G.F. also living in Den Hague] What a great game too (esp. because we won;)
The BBC coverage was quite entertaining as the Beeb uses their own hockey guy
(ha ha, no really, he knew all the rules and players names and was on the
whole quite fair and only slightly
pro-Canada and just a bit anti-US (do the math :) However, they had to
have a colour comentator. So they hired some American called Tim to do the
color commentary. Very enterating as Tim lets go with great commentary "Wow!
its a full crowd here tonight!" and the Beeb guy replies "Yeah, when I
mentioned earlier that the tickets were $2500 a piece from scalpers I assumed
the TV audiance would have figured that out." Or (after another Canada goal)
Tim "Well we seem to have a
non-partisan crowd here tonight"...."Yes Tim, execept the Canadians are
out numbered about 3 to 1, but other than that its pretty even"."
> Tomb Wrote:
*SNIP* And as for it
> being shuffleboard, to quote a line from the upcoming Men With Brooms
True, but it's still the easiest comment to reach for. I had to dig
somehow. ;-)
> 2) Hockey/Flags: We're from Canada. We don't like to see our flag
Nor do you seem to have people quite as eager to burn yours. 'Tis a blessing
and a curse at the same time, the mystique we bestow on the
S&S.
> "We are able to reap the rewards of being a Common Wealth nation, in
Since they couldn't do it themselves, I can understand the Brits' voyeurism
in wanting Canada to do it by proxy. ;-)
*snip*
> I can see an obvious cultural difference here between the people who
It reminds me of an incident between Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford on MNF
years ago (American FB, humor me a moment). On a 4th down, the offense chose
to go for it instead of punting. Howard Cosell commented, "Whatever the
outcome of this play, one thing is certain: There will be a first down after
this play." Meredith commented, "Once again, Howard, you display your uncanny
grasp of the obvious."
2B^2 (A Britcom fan)
> 1) Curling: KH thinks this is a bit odd. Karl-Heinz, it is a
A Scottish sport, played by Canadians. I don't think that's a *bit* odd,
exactly... (full disclosure: I'm a Bruce, and married to an anglophone
Canadian).
> 3) Future sports:
> Grav Ball
Something like jai alai?
> Low-G Taekwondo
Musashi (AE sovereignity) is a dojo/monastery for students of the zero
gee martial arts.
> Extremely, Absolutely and Completely Veiled US Bashing (Just for
NAC bashing by now, of course.
> Orbital Platform Diving
As in Competitive Atmospheric Rentry? *That* ought to be interesting. Talk
about having a meteoric career...and going out in a blaze of
[quoted original message omitted]
Quoting ShldWulf@aol.com:
> In a message dated 2/25/02 11:55:51 PM Mountain Standard Time,
I have friends who are, at the present time, on a heli-snowboarding
holiday.
They jump out of helicopters and slide down hills on snowboards. "Yeah,
it's /virgin/ snow - it's GREAT". They're doing this because it's not
skydiving season in the UK and most of them have written off their superbikes.
Me, I go go-kart racing occaisionally. Like maybe once a year. Except
last Easter I broke my knee doing it. I'm *STILL* on crutches, and the current
expectation is that I'm unlikely to be walking again before the one year
anniversary.
Some people are suited to dangerous sports. I've gone right off them. But I
can think of at least three people I know who would give "Competitive
Atmospheric Rentry" a try.
On the bright side, I did get a lot of the new Stargrunt stuff painted while
flaked out on the sofa last week recovering from surgery on it. I just have to
find the crates with the terrain in it and reassemble my table and I can start
katie@fysh.org schrieb:
> Me, I go go-kart racing occaisionally. Like maybe once a
Best wishes for your recovery
Even if a speedy recovery would cut into your hobby time ;-)
Greetings
Quoting KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de:
> katie@fysh.org schrieb:
Thank you.
> Even if a speedy recovery would cut into your hobby time ;-)
Well the fact I can't do anything more adventurous does mean I get to go to
conventions. The last few years I've ended up doing other stuff everytime
there's something on.
Has anyone got a list of the UK sci-fiy wargames conventions?
We did Partizan already, and I can't actually think of any others that
are sci-
Actually, the suggestion of Orbital Platform diving got me thinking... Most
"concept" space stations currently have a "ring" design in which the ring
spins in order to use centrifical force to simulate gravity.
Some yahoo is going to try this:
Suiting up and going outside with a harness and a cable-winch with a
radio remote. He'll epoxy/laser-weld or otherwise attach the winch to
the outside of the ring of the station and let himself out on the cable,
slowly increasing the "pull" of the centrifical force because he'll be
swinging in an ever increasing circle... Then he'll winch himself back in and
tell his buds how much it rocked...
Hey, if people pay 40 dollars for a bungee-jump, they'll pay to swing on
a cable in space...
> On Mon, 2002-02-25 at 18:11, Tomb wrote:
> Orbital Platform Diving
> On Monday, February 25, 2002, at 03:11 PM, Tomb wrote:
> 1) Curling: KH thinks this is a bit odd. Karl-Heinz, it is a
You shouldn't forget golf when mentioning bizarre, frustrating, yet strangely
fun sports invented by the Scots. Throw in haggis, kilts and bagpipes and you
have an interesting nation indeed...
Cheers,
> Tony Christney wrote:
*snip* it is a
> _Scottish_
> You shouldn't forget golf when mentioning bizarre, frustrating, yet
Having Scottish Ancestry myself, I thought it was best stated by the actor
playing Longshanks in Braveheart: "The trouble with Scotland... is that
it's full of Scots."
2B^2
Hang on! I thought Golf was invented by the Hobbits! A Took to be specific!
According to my information, Bullroarer Took knocked Golfimbul's head off with
a wooden club, it sailed 100 yards and rolled down into a rabbit hole...
Winning a battle and inventing Golf in the same stroke. (I may have inverted
the names...)
You're really confusing me now!
--Flak
> On Tue, 2002-02-26 at 11:50, Tony Christney wrote:
Hobbits are Scottish!?!?!?!
And Clams have legs (for the BC fans.)
On 26 Feb 2002 12:04:40 -0500 Flak Magnet <flakmagnet72@yahoo.com>
writes:
> Hang on! I thought Golf was invented by the Hobbits! A Took to be
Polite, timid Scottsman? Pshaw!
Yeah right...
You won't trick me that way... I still think it's NOT the Scotts, but Hobbits
what invented golf.
Scottish hobbits... might as well have an agnostic Pope while you're at
it...
--Flak
> On Tue, 2002-02-26 at 18:10, Glenn M Wilson wrote:
> On 26 Feb 2002, Flak Magnet wrote:
> Some yahoo is going to try this:
In a short story I read a long time ago, the main character did just that and
then cut the cable at precisely the correct moment to give himself the
velocity boost to catch up with a small spacecraft that was running away from
the station (it had applied its thrust and was coasting towards its
destination, a small asteroid not too far away). I think it was titled "Papa
was a Catcher", but I'm not sure, and I can't remember the author. It's in a
collection of short stories I have at home, called "Cities in Space", IIRC.
> On Wed, Feb 27, 2002 at 09:54:12AM -0600, Randy W. Wolfmeyer wrote:
"Poppa Was a Catcher", Steven Gould, 1987; it was indeed in _Cities in
Space_, which was the third volume of _The Endless Frontier_ anthology
series edited by Jerry Pournelle.
> Randy W. Wolfmeyer wrote:
> In a short story I read a long time ago, the main character did just
It should have been ewntitled "Papa was a targeting computer." Wow. I
can't imagine how risky that would be - getting the velocity and angle
just right to avoid either missing the ship entirely or splattering against
it's
hull...
2B^2
And what a coincidence that the ship was travelling along/across the
plane running perpendicular to the station's axis of spin...
I guess it just had to work for him... otherwise the story would be
called "Papa _is_ a Floating Chunk of Debris"
--Flak
> On Wed, 2002-02-27 at 11:12, Brian Bilderback wrote:
I
> can't imagine how risky that would be - getting the velocity and angle
> Flak Magnet wrote:
> I guess it just had to work for him... otherwise the story would be
Which doesn't quite have the same Pizazz to it, no.....
2B^2
> On 27 Feb 2002, Flak Magnet wrote:
> And what a coincidence that the ship was travelling along/across the
I thought about that as I was writing before. He might have had a small
thruster along for minor course adjustments, but that wouldn't help too much.
I can't remember if the story accounted for the coincidence or
not. It was a pretty hard sci-fi story though.
[quoted original message omitted]
> Robin Paul wrote:
*SNIP*
> So, you're right- we do have hobbits, but have to import them.
Based on Tolkien's descriptions of racial personalities, any Scot that short
would probably seem more like a dwarve than a hobbit. ;-)
2B^2
[quoted original message omitted]
On 27 Feb 2002 08:23:36 -0500 Flak Magnet <flakmagnet72@yahoo.com>
writes:
> Polite, timid Scottsman? Pshaw!
If clams can have legs anything is possible...
> Yeah right...
According to John Calvin... Only teasing...
> --Flak