# Curious about another Doper? Ask them here. (ping:Polycarp) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 15, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244 "2005-02-15T20:08:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/1 "2005-02-15T20:08:13Z")
I started this thread because I am curious about **Polycarp**. Not in that way :dubious: No, I’m curious about his apparent knowledge and interest in many aspects of britain and britishness, The language, the govornment, the History etc… Poly, I always assumed you were American, and so your knowledge and interest stood out. But it never occured to find out or confirm your nationality. Are you British??? If not, why the interest? [Anyone] Please feel free to use this thread to ask about anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/2 "2005-02-15T20:09:36Z")
**Q.E.D.** , are you just a good researcher with infinite patience or do you really know all that stuff? ---
**Author:** ![Limbo\_Donni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Limbo\_Donni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limbo_Donni)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/3 "2005-02-15T20:40:50Z")
I just wonder if Poly Carp is a plastic fish 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/4 "2005-02-15T21:48:36Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > I started this thread because I am curious about **Polycarp**. > > Not in that way :dubious: No, I’m curious about his apparent knowledge and interest in many aspects of britain and britishness, The language, the govornment, the History etc… > > Poly, I always assumed you were American, and so your knowledge and interest stood out. But it never occured to find out or confirm your nationality. Are you British??? If not, why the interest? > > [Anyone] Please feel free to use this thread to ask about anyone. Ancestry largely from Britain, though mostly if not all before the Revolution – and a lot of curiousity about comparative government – combined with a bulldog attitude towards getting **all** the information, when I’ve seized on something that interests me. (Wanna know why the Grand Old Man chatted up prostitutes in the streets? Why Leo Amery quoted Oliver Cromwell? Did you know that Winston Churchill’s son was a great British general? The father-son-grandson combination that separately held three different earldoms? The connection between the erstwhile Lord of Man and the start of the House of Tudor? All these and more can be found in Polycarp’s Store of British Trivia! ;)) ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/5 "2005-02-15T21:57:54Z")
Well that Bulldog Attitude you mention is part of why you are a great doper. It makes sense too. Thanks for answering. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/6 "2005-02-15T22:15:57Z")
I do not know anyone well enough to feel comfortable asking questions, but I would like to mention that, of all the boards I’ve visited in the last couple of decades, this one has the largest number of wonderful usernames. When I first came here, I saw the names Polycarp and Eutychus, and I was hooked. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/7 "2005-02-15T23:07:29Z")
**Limbo Donni** , did you choose your screen name as a play on **Lynn Bodoni**? ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/8 "2005-02-15T23:55:20Z")
**TubaDiva** , will you marry me? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![luluBahrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e5b9ba/32.png) [@luluBahrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luluBahrain)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/9 "2005-02-16T00:03:18Z")
**Smeghead** , tell us something, damn it! ---
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/10 "2005-02-16T00:08:25Z")
**tomndebb** You seem so calm. Is there anything freaky or wild about yourself we don’t know about? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/11 "2005-02-16T00:43:26Z")
> [@luluBahrain](#): > > **Smeghead** , tell us something, damn it! I’m male. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/12 "2005-02-16T01:39:14Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > (Wanna know why the Grand Old Man chatted up prostitutes in the streets? Why Leo Amery quoted Oliver Cromwell? Did you know that Winston Churchill’s son was a great British general? The father-son-grandson combination that separately held three different earldoms? The connection between the erstwhile Lord of Man and the start of the House of Tudor? All these and more can be found in Polycarp’s Store of British Trivia! ;)) I don’t want to know any of those things. I want to know what Scrooge was offering to Bob Crachit on Boxing Day when he proposed renegotiating their business relationship over a bowl of smoking bishop (besides a big raise, that is). I also want to know what a skiffle band is. As in: _Mrs. McCartney thought her son Paul was squandering his potential by continuing to spend his time in John Lennon’s skiffle band._ And what are skittles? As in: _Spring is here, spring is here. Life is skittles, and life is beer._ ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/13 "2005-02-16T02:05:15Z")
A skiffle band was a group of teenaged boys whose families could not afford to get them proper instruments, but they had the burning desire to play music anyway. So they used whatever crappy guitar that was in the family or could be borrowed or bought for cheap. The bassist was often thumping on a washtub bass, rhythm was kept on a washboard or any other thing you could bang on, maybe somebody could play a harmonica. The kind of music they would play was American folk blues, and then early rock and roll. Skiffle was popularized by Lonnie Donegan, who turned scores of British kids onto Leadbelly and others. He played it in a stripped down, convincing, inspired kind of way that told aspiring kids right away that they could learn to play this at home. For this reason, the nature of entertainment in pubs went very quickly from old guys playing music hall songs, to kids belting out their best rendition of “Rock Island Line” or “Maggie Mae” until the pub manager told them to stop the racket. And an institution was born. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/14 "2005-02-16T02:13:54Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I also want to know what a skiffle band is. As in: _Mrs. McCartney thought her son Paul was squandering his potential by continuing to spend his time in John Lennon’s skiffle band._ > > And what are skittles? As in: > _Spring is here, spring is here. > Life is skittles, and life is beer._ Skittles are like 10 pins, except there’s no lane, hand dryer or automatic clear away and pick up thing. In other words, it’s the crumby British version of your great game, played in sheds behind pubs by the likes of **owlstretchingtime** and **GorillaMan**. Skiffle was the name given to young louts in England of Irish descent, the first of a whole line of Elvis impersonators, but of Elvis in his pre Vegas, pre bloated days. The most famous skiffler was Lonnie Donegan, from whom The Beatles learned all the things they mustn’t do if they wanted to be original and successful. Lonnie Donegan in turn gave rise to a whole line of impersonators, the most famous of whom was Val Doonican, who popularised sweaters and paved the way for the influx of cutesy Oirish personalities such as Terry Wogan, Des Lynam and the Kelly brothers. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/15 "2005-02-16T03:51:12Z")
[These](http://www.skittles.com/index.jsp) are skittles. ---
**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/16 "2005-02-16T04:11:04Z")
**GorillaMan** : How long have you been playing the violin? Do you just play for fun, or is it your career? What do you look like? ---
**Author:** ![luluBahrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e5b9ba/32.png) [@luluBahrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luluBahrain)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/17 "2005-02-16T05:12:05Z")
:mad: > [@Smeghead](#): > > I’m male. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/18 "2005-02-16T14:10:50Z")
**Mr.\_Owl** - how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/19 "2005-02-16T14:12:43Z")
**CandidGamera** , how did you come up with your username? (Are username questions allowed?) ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244/20 "2005-02-16T14:26:49Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > **CandidGamera** , how did you come up with your username? > > (Are username questions allowed?) Yes, yes they are. The name originated with either my AICN forum or Netflix account - I forget which. I like puns, and wanted a movie reference in my “handle”, so I spent a precious few seconds pondering those conditions, and ultimately decided CandidGamera was a pretty decent little pun. And, as I have a tendency to be straightforward and blunt, and at other time defensive and cautious, the name’s two halves suit me pretty well. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curious-about-another-doper-ask-them-here-ping-polycarp/290244.md?page=2)