That surprises me, only because it implies that many people are aware of the existence of Austria. I would have thought most people thought they were both German. *
My daughter used to have a “no kangaroos” t shirt, because every time she mentioned her Austrian heritage people would start taking about how they loved kangaroos or koalas.
Do you know how many WOMEN think that? (To be fair, without a hand mirror and possibly some contorting it isn’t possible to easily directly determine this.)
Bolding mine. I realize that you know how pineapples grow, but the way this is worded, it almost sounds as though the fruit itself grows ‘in soil’ (i.e., underground). And I’m pretty sure that’s not what you meant to imply.
Go to Hawaii where mountains are in the center of the island, the ocean is the outside and they have word for those (cannot remember them). So they dont usually use north, south, east and west.
That’s a good point, many won’t know which country Einstein was from and guess a European country or America, but those who have a passing knowledge of European history (and live either in or near Europe) will often mix up the two.
Knowing one’s cardinal directions is easier in some places, and harder in others. For example, all the roads are pretty much on an E-W, N-S grid in central Indiana. That makes it easier to remember the directions since you’re reminded of them every time you go anywhere. Many places aren’t like that, however. The city I last worked in has its streets on a grid, but large parts of it are twisted so the streets run SW-NE and SE-NW. Outside of town, roads go every which way.
Einstein was born in the German Empire but his residency history is so complicated that I think I’d give most non-scientists a pass if they don’t know that. At various times he lived as a non-citizen in Italy and had citizenship in Germany, Switzerland, the U.S., and even (briefly) the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
My sister in law prepared today’s Children’s Mass with the help of her 7yo daughter (the stuff that doesn’t come pre-packaged, such as picking songs). One of the things to prepare is find out which words may be good for the priest to ask for definitions.
Today’s word was “widow”, selected because my niece had no idea what it meant. Out of a couple hundred children, only one boy happened to know it.
I was teaching DUI class one night, and we were discussing a movie in which two children had lost their parents to a DUI crash. One young man remarked that it was sad that those children were now bastards. The guy got eerily withdrawn and silent after others explained to him that the word he should have used was orphans and that bastards are children of unmarried parents.
I was speaking to a young woman who is a performing arts music student at a university. Now, I fully realize you may not be familiar with every composer, but you may have heard their names. She had never even heard of Gilbert and Sullivan.:eek:
I’m always puzzled at people - non-Southerners, almost always - who don’t realize that y’all is a contraction of you all, and thus plural. I usually notice it in writers - I’m looking at you, Christopher Moore - who are writing Southern characters and have them say “How y’all doing?” to a single person. Drives me nuts.
Come on, you have to know a woman pretty intimately to know this. I’ve been with my wife for ten years, and I’ve never seen her pee - she’s very shy about it.
In any case, most men, in my experience, call the whole female genital area, from the mons pubis to the anus, “the vagina”. (Or, y’know, another word…)
Brother Cadfael - so all I have to do to get you to send me some real maple syrup is to disparage it? Okay. Ahem, “Real Vermont maple syrup is actually a deadly poison.” Convince me otherwise. Send me, oh, a gallon or so - for a thorough test, you understand - and I’ll dare the challenge. For science.
I live in the south. I have been called y’all by native Southerners more times than I can remember. It never made me feel plural. I have been told by several (over)educated Southern people that the true plural form of y’all is “all y’all.”