Conference thebay::joyoflex

    MLNOIS::HARBIG
                  It might be what used to be called "pig latin".
                  I remember the unofficial motto of the Engineering
                  Faculty when I was at university was:-
    
                     "Nil illegitimus carborundum!"
    
                  Translated as "Don't let the bastards grind you down!" 
              
                                                    Max

    When I was an Aggie, those of us who worked the dairy farm formed
    our own frasority < SIGMA KOW MOO >
    
    
    -Dick
    

    It's nearly twenty years since I read Caesar's De Bello Gallico,
    but the phrase reminds me of something Caesar may have said of
    some female chieftain:
    
    The great blue-daubed one [the Britons stained their skin with woad]
    cannot be worn down.
    
    But Boadicea (queen of the Iceni) was after Caesar's time.  Maybe
    he was referring to the wife of king Caractacus.
    
    I can't imagine any other possible interpretation of Magna Caerula
    (literally BIG BLUE).
    
    b

    I think you've done it!  <.3>
    
    Big Blue is none other than IBM in context.
    
    Thanks

    As readers of APPLE::DNT may know, the phrase

	Magna Caerula Non Carborundum
    
    is the motto of "Network University", an internal training program
    for the DNTs.  Yes, it means "Don't let Big Blue grind you down."

    Magna caerula could be ablative or nominative.  As 'carborundum'
    is pig Latin anyway (so can't be parsed) I can't see any reason
    for choosing between
    
    1 Don't let Big Blue grind you down/Let's not be ground down by Big Blue
    
    and
    
    2 Big Blue can't be ground down/...isn't for grinding down/There's
    	no beating Big Blue
        
    (which makes the letterhead mentioned in .0 pretty diplomatic.)
    
    
    Argument against type 1: the 'non' should be 'ne', shouldn't it?
    
    Argument against type 2: 'carborundum' - if it were parseable -
    	should agree with 'Magna caerula', no?
    
    Type 1 has to win, because the whole thing's a spoof, and spoof
    mottoes mean what the people who coin the want them to mean.
    
    Totus sum quod sum
    (I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam)
                 
    Bob

    Re: -.1
    
    >     AS 'carborundum' is pig Latin anyway (so can't be parsed)...
    
    _Carborundum_ is not pig Latin.  It is the registered trademark
    for a silicon carbide abrasive.  It has been used in several pun-ish
    type mottos because of its appearance of being that of a Latin word.
    As used in this discussion, the abrasive properties of Carborundum
    are what translates into "grinding you down".
    
    I'm sure many of you have also seen: "Illegitimus non carborundum".
    This is also a play on words meaning roughly "Illegitimate because
    someone didn't use a condom."
    
 

    Re .6:
    
    The Pig Latin of Carborundum is "Arborundumca."
    
    The rules of Pig Lantin:
    
    If the word begins with a consonant sound, move the first sound
    to the rear of the word and add an "a" sound.  Examples:
    
    Creep => Eepcray
    Love => Ovelay
    Defense => Efenseday.
    Noun => Oun-nay
    
    If the word begins with a vowel sound, just add an "a" sound at
    the end.  Examples
    
    Ear => Ear-ay
    Ouch => Ouch-ay
    Ugh => Ugh-ay
                     
    Ee-say?
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    Of course Carborundum is a trade name: I use one frequently on
    my bill-hook.
    
    What's a bill-hook in Am. English?
    
    b

    Re: .9
    
    Give us a definition of bill-hook and maybe we can tell you what
    we call it in American English.

    It's a small hand-held instrument with a curved (scythe-like) blade,
    used for cutting long grass etc.
    

re: .7
>    I'm sure many of you have also seen: "Illegitimus non carborundum".
>    This is also a play on words meaning roughly "Illegitimate because
>    someone didn't use a condom."
 
   Gee, I had always thought it meant, "Don't let the bad guys grind you down".


re: .11  (Americanized "bill hook")
   
   We call it a "weed whacker".  ;-)  (Actually, that's the powered model.)
   I don't really know what the "manual operation" type is called.  I've 
   always just called it "the tall-grass cutter", or "sickle with a handle".

   -- Sam

    re .8  Digressing on the rules of Igpay Atinlay...
    
    The way I learned it was that words that began with vowel had the
    ending `-may' added to them, so
    
    Ear => Ear-may
    
    not Ear-ay.  I have also heard of people using `-tay' instead of
    `-may'.
    
    I used to be pretty good at this stuff.  Never learned to ubby-bubby
    though...
                                                               
    Richard
    

    Re: .11
    
    I grew up calling it a "sickle," but I like the English term very
    much; may Americans use it too?  It has an obsure quality; a marvelous
    opportunity to confuse the slightly sloshed at cocktail parties. 
    
    There is, incidentally, a relationship between the two terms.
    Webster's New World defines _sicklebill_ as "any bird with a sharply 
    curved bill resembling a sickle, as a curlew or thrasher."
    
    Bernie                                                          

re .11:

The nearly universal term in the United States for the communist symbol is the 
"hammer and sickle".  Is it "hammer and bill hook" in England?

Enquiring minds want to know!

Larry

        
    We call it the same as you do, and I always call a bill-hook a sickle.

    The way I learned it as a kid, you add "-way" to words that start
    with a vowel.  So "ear" would be "ear-way".  Regional dialects?...
    
    	@V@

    I believe there's a difference - possibly the amount of curve. My
    bill hook's blade is a full semi-circle.
    
    The only thing I've seen that was clearly designated as a 'sickle'
    was not so sharply curved. But as it was the one the Druid uses in 
    Ast�rix, the picture was drawn in France - no help.
    
    Bob

< Note 369.9 by MARVIN::KNOWLES >
	Here in Eastern Massachusetts, when I was a kid in the early '30s,
we had a sickle, which seems to correspond to your "billhook" (short 
handle, fully-curved blade about 15 inches long), AND an implement that my 
Dad called a billhook, which had a short, heavy, straighter blade on a long 
handle.  The handle was long enough to reach the ground from a standing 
position; it (the tool) was used in clearing brush.  For small jobs, not 
big enough to get out the scythe and mount the brush blade.
Dave

        Does anyone remember the canthook...

        Or could it have been kanthook?

    re .-1 "canthook"
    
    Sounds like a golfers dream, especially if it is a driver.
    
    Larry

    Re: .21
    
    Isn't that what loggers use to move logs around in the water?
    
    Bernie

>   Isn't that what loggers use to move logs around in the water?
    
A gold star to Bernie... and you can take off your logging boots now. :-)

        Mike

    A Kanthook is what you use to drag Immanuel off the podium.
    
    --bonnie

    And then there's the Pig Latin versions of the names of the
    Three Stooges (courtesy of one of the Stooge films):
    
    "Moe --- O-may
     Larry --- Arry-lay
     Curly --- Curlycue (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk)"
    
    --- jerry

re: 369.20 

What is your definition of a scythe? The definition of scythe that I have
always used describes what you called a billhook.

			- - -  Karl

< Note 369.27 by WAGON::BRACK >
                       -< Even more billhook confusion >-

	Well, Karl, the billhook I remember from those days (early 1930's,
so the memory is kinda dim!) had a heavy, almost axe-like handle.  That is, 
curved in the plane of the path of the stroke.  The billhook blade was 
mounted so as to extend beyond the handle end, more or less in-line to the 
handle.  It was used with a stroke similar to that of an axe; imagine using 
an axe with a diagonal stroke to chop brush.
	The sythe snath is s-curved in a different plane.  The blade sticks 
out almost at right angles to the snath.  The stroke is a sweep more or less 
horizontal, parallel to the ground.  The blade used for grass or grain is 
gently curved and some 33 or so inches long; the brush blade is nearly 
straight, and maybe 20 inches or so long. And it's much thicker and 
heavier than the grass blade.
	Gee, I wish I could draw a picture!
						Dave

Re. .-1:

What you are calling a billhook sounds very much like a brush hook.  I used 
one for years when I used to survey for a living.  Good for taking out stuff 
that was too big for a machete (sp?) and too small for an axe.

Larry

    There is a range of sycthe attachements, each with its own motion:
    
    wheat or grass sycthe (long and thin) -	sweeping motion beside you
    
    bush sycthe	(medium long but thick)	- 	short sweep more towards you
    
    bush hook (nasty looking hook)	-	yank it towards you
    
    	rmm