There’s a legend in Montreal that Rue de la Montagne, which English speakers commonly refer to as Mountain Street, was actually not named for Mount Royal (which it ascends) but after one of the two Anglican bishops of Montreal named Mountain (and therefore that calling it Rue de la Montagne is a nasty anglo-suppressing plot by the evil séparatisses, etc., etc.)
Trouble is, it’s identified on a map as Chemin des sauvages de la Montagne in 1761, when the elder Bishop Mountain was 12, and as Chemin de la Montagne in 1788, before he ever set foot in Canada.
The guy who was stabbed to death by a member of the Hells Angels at the Altamont concert of the Rolling Stones was a crazed man under the influence of methamphetamines who was waving a loaded gun around at the audience. He was not some innocent hippie who was just trying to have a good time or something.
People always talk (and write) about this incident like it’s some big huge symbolic “end of the 60s” and how the Angels represented some kind of evil fascist force that came and killed everyone’s buzz and ruined the peaceful, happy “summer of love.” The truth is, Meredith Hunter was stabbed in self-defense, and if the Angels hadn’t acted, he probably would have shot somebody.
I got to ask cite on this one, I have seen the footage of the concert, and I never saw a gun being waved around. It did look like he tipped into a bike and knocked it over, to me.
I’ve seen and heard it being attributed to the Bible. The irony is that it’s not even particularly sage advice; Polonius was a burbling fool full of cod wisdom.
ETA, on another subject: I’m assuming “daddy long legs” is a reference to the Harvestman (which is not actually a spider, despite the resemblance). In the UK “daddy long legs” is the nickname for crane flies, and IIRC in Australia it means some other critter entirely. Just sayin’.
Actually, I’m taking my own post back. If Wikipedia is to believed it’s the “other critter” to which the myth refers, the cellar spider (which is a spider). I’m dispelling my own ignorance today.
Not to hijack, but what’s the dance for, then? I mean, it does indicate how far food’s away, and in which direction – right? Why go through all that trouble?
And is there any compelling reason why bees couldn’t use both methods (I don’t have time to read the PDF right now)? I mean, flowers do emit some rather strong scents, along with having flashy colours, so that that’s a way for bees to identify food sources probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Whenever people talk about frivilous lawsuits, someone always brings up the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit. When you read the facts, it’s not as frivilous as it sounds.
I figured that was the point? I mean, the way I first learned it in school was in Hamlet as an example of how Polonius would say all this stuff and it was kind of BS (like a super long speech punctuated with “Brevity is the soul of wit”). So I guess I just hear it and automatically think of Polonius being a blowhard.
Well to be technical the first time I heard the speech was on that Gilligan’s Island version of Hamlet the musical…but I try not to tell anyone that…:o
Well, that’s true, but I guess Paul in Qatar’s point was that Shakespeare is not the author of the phrase “Neither a borrower nor a lender be” any more than Sherwood Schwartz is. I get it now. Both of his quotes were “common knowledge” attributions that are false.
I think the idea that lemmings commit suicide by following each other off a cliff came from a documentary that showed this very phenomena. However, it later came out that the reason the lemmings jumped was because the camera crew chased them off the cliff.
And to think of all those hours I wasted on that Lemmings video game!