[QUOTE=vivalostwages]
Is quid the same thing as “bob” ?
[/QUOTE]
No - that was slang for a shilling.
[QUOTE=vivalostwages]
Is quid the same thing as “bob” ?
[/QUOTE]
I’m not British, but my understanding is that a “bob” was a shilling, which is not part of the modern, decimal currency system.
Oh - ‘Tricks are for kids’ - what’s that all about?
[QUOTE=Romola Des Loups]
Oh - ‘Tricks are for kids’ - what’s that all about?
[/QUOTE]
There was a breakfast cereal called TRIX, whose commercials featured a rabbit trying to get the cereal. He would always fail and the kids would say, “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!”
Ahh, that makes sense now. Quick too!
More: Trix cereal.
Trix is a brand of sugary cereal which uses a cartoon rabbit in its advertising.
Slow on the draw today, E.
There’s still room to add that there is no particular reason for rabbits to not have Trix. There’s nothing in it that would harm a rabbit. The only reason Trix are “for kids” is because the little bastards don’t feel like sharing.
Soylent green is people?
[QUOTE=zelie zelerton]
Soylent green is people?
[/QUOTE]
It has to do with the movie Soylent Green, but I don’t want to ruin it for you.
[QUOTE=spoke-]
Slavery was not merely a “side issue.” Preserving the institution of slavery was the primary reason cited for secession. (The states which produced declarations of their reasons for secession spelled this out clearly.)
There were other issues, of course, but slavery was the 800 lb. gorilla.
[/QUOTE]
There is quite a bit of debate about the Civil War ongoing in the US, and this has been true for a long time. School textbooks were limited by state school policies on what they could say about the Civil War until probably the 1970s.
There’s a great deal of interest in the Civil War- Gettysburg is a fairly popular tourist destination, especially considering that there’s really nothing to see there except the Civil War battlefield. If you go into a chain bookstore, the US history section will have lots of books about various aspects of the Civil War.
Complicating all this is the fact that opponents of the civil rights movement used the Confederate flag (technically the Confederate Navy Jack, but if you say “Confederate flag” to most Americans, this is what they will visualize) as a symbol for their opposition to racial desegregation (or, as they would have it, their opposition to racial desegregation being forced on states by the federal government). The Confederate flag is thus associated with racism by some people, for reasons that don’t really have much to do with the Civil War itself.
That actually sounds like a pretty interesting film. Thanks Smooth Jack.
[QUOTE=zelie zelerton]
That actually sounds like a pretty interesting film. Thanks Smooth Jack.
[/QUOTE]
It’s actually a very corny film, which is why the anguished overacting of Charlton Heston is so memorable.
[QUOTE=acsenray]
It’s actually a very corny film, which is why the anguished overacting of Charlton Heston is so memorable.
[/QUOTE]
You’re ruining it, you know. Besides, I kinda like the idea of apartments coming with “furniture.”
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]
(snip)
I now have competing information about whether the young men in Horatio Alger stories usually end up rich. Some books I’ve read which discussed Alger say that his heroes didn’t end up rich. The Wikipedia entry on him also says that they didn’t. On the other hand, several posters claim that they did end up rich. Has anyone here read all of Alger and can tell me if the heroes usually ended up rich?
[/QUOTE]
I have. He ends up MUCH more affluent than he starts. “Rich” is subjective in this case, as it is in most real-life cases.
Actually, I read that again and see that I’ve misspoken. I read “Ragged Dick” and have some knowledge about the others, although I haven’t read the rest.
[QUOTE=acsenray]
Traditionally, employers would offer long-term employees what is known as a defined-benefit pension, which, after retirement, would guarantee the retiree X monthly income (based on some formula) and other benefits, such as health care insurance.
These defined-benefit plans have become very expensive for companies and so, these days, most of them offer instead a 401(k) plan, which allows you to designate a portion of your salary to be directed towards certain investments, the proceeds of which (if there are any) are available to you after retirement. This is much cheaper for employers, who are required to contribute nothing more than the regular salary (although many choose to “match” employee contributions to the investment portfolios).
I think recent studies have shown that 401(k) plans are pretty much scams – they generally result in very little for the employee to live on after retirement.
It’s “Wake up and smell the coffee.” Other nouns may be inserted as jokes, but “coffee” is the proper expression. It’s just an expression meaning, “Open your eyes and take a look at what’s really going on around you, you cloth-headed, foggy-brained, starry-eyed fool!”
[/QUOTE]
Waaaaait. 401k plans are pretty much scams? Got anything else that says that? I’ve never heard of that before.
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever]
Waaaaait. 401k plans are pretty much scams? Got anything else that says that? I’ve never heard of that before.
[/QUOTE]
Not that they’re scams, but that they are cheaper for employers and riskier for employees. Employers have used them instead of a fixed-benefit pension for the sole reason of limiting their financial responsibility to the employee to the amount of the employer’s contribution (if any). That’s not a scam; it’s just less generous than it could be.
[QUOTE=Valteron]
Why was the secession of Texas from Mexico a glorious fight for freedom and perfectly all right, but the secession of that same state from the USA in the Civil war a couple of decades later was something illegal that had to be crushed with military might?
[/QUOTE]
As Siam Sam and other have mentioned, I think the glitter of the Alamo has been quietly fading over the past several years for most Americans.