TIL that there is a version of English-language Scrabble played in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
I read some passing comment online that the Greek word that gave rise to “bible” was originally a reference to the ancient city of Byblos. Here’s the Wikipedia entry:
TIL that elephant polo is a thing.
Today I learned (in the Celebrity Death Pool thread) that the namesake of The Marshall Tucker Band was an actual person, a blind piano tuner in SC. The band adopted the name when they saw it engraved on a key to the warehouse space they used for rehearsal. The real Marshall Tucker had previously used the warehouse for his piano tuning business.
I used to have a sweatshirt that had a drawing of some folks playing elephant polo and a caption that said “once you know how, it doesn’t get any easier.”
Astounding! Do they hold the mallets with their trunks? What on Earth are they mounted on?
I thought they said “elephant polio”. I was horrified at the though of all those elephants in their great big wheelchairs.
Or their jumbo iron lungs.
It seems as though, if’n you can ride it, there is a polo
if they use a meadow muffin in place of the ball, it is called “poo-lo”
This is something I learned a whle ago, and I think I’ve mentioned it here before, but it bears repeating because it’s so bizarre.
The word “frown” has a different meaning in US English vs. British English, but few people seem to be aware of this. In US English, it’s a facial expression primarily characterized by turning down the corners of the mouth. In British English, it’s a facial expression primarily characterized by wrinkling the forehead or furrowing the brow. Most dictionaries, even US ones, only give the British meaning, even though that meaning is practically unknown in the US. Many British English speakers say that until learning this, they had not really understood the US expression “turn that frown upside down”.
And how do they keep from drowning?
They have built-in snorkels, silly.
Doubly appropriate since “Jumbo” was the name of a famous elephant in the 19th century, and became a synonym for huge by association.
I wouldn’t say it’s unknown, I’ve heard phrases like, “with a frown up his brow”. But, I 100% did not believe this until I checked my own shelf of dictionaries. You are right, not one mentions the mouth (though to be fair my dictionaries are quite old). That’s amazing.
Today I learned that there is a boat in Detroit that has its own zip code, 48222. The boat delivers mail (and packages, and pizza, and pilots) to ships moving through the Detroit River, bound for virtually any port on the Great Lakes.
As long as they’re not digesting you –
I’ve lived in the USA all my life and I know the second sense of it; and the first only if accompanying the second. I would never say that somebody’s “frowning” (well, except figuratively) unless they were furrowing their eyebrows.
Somebody who’s frowning probably does also have their mouth turned down.
What did they call Jumbo shrimp before then?
The Jacksonville Suns?
…and it doesn’t have to be an animal.
I remember reading about how, when Mark Cavendish was coming up through the system, this was a “fun” end to a training session. Who? Oh, Mark Cavendish jointly holds the record for Tour De France stage wins. He’s a sprinter, and one of the reasons cycle polo was played was for the pushing and shoving it includes, as a way of training for the breakneck-speed jostle of sprinting.
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I did not know this… and I am Canadian of English descent. The only ‘frown’ I knew was the one of the mouth.