BS: Imponderables

Subject: BS: Imponderables
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 21 May 05 - 03:02 AM

Some years ago, there were some books published on the subject of "imponderables;" simple questions that have no easy anwers, unless you have special knowledge of the particular question (they were published pre-internet, or when the internet was in its infancy). So, here are a couple from one of the books:

1. When do flies sleep?
2. If nothing sticks to Teflon, how do they get Teflon to stick to the pan?

Someone answered the Teflon question in the Hijack a Thread discussion! It prompted me to start this thread.

So, 'catters and guests, any imponderables of your own to post?

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST
Date: 21 May 05 - 03:49 AM

If there is Essex in the East, Sussex in the South, and Wessex in the West - where is Nossex?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: The Shambles
Date: 21 May 05 - 04:47 AM

The Teflon reference reminded me. My wife was puzzled with idea that someone was referred to a Teflon Man - because things did not stick to him or he did not take responsibilty. It did not make sense to her.

It was only when she told me - that her puzzlement was made clear.

When the reference was made to Teflon - she thought of a substance here that was called 'Fablon'. Her confusion was that far from being non-stick - this was a material for lining cupboards and had an already sticky suface revealed when you pulled the backing off. This 'Fablon' was UK TV's Blue Peter's famous - sticky back plastic.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 21 May 05 - 04:47 AM

Just north of the divorce I think.
G..

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: The Shambles
Date: 21 May 05 - 04:48 AM

Where has all the Middlesex gone?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 21 May 05 - 05:09 AM

...long time passing...

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 21 May 05 - 05:11 AM

Remember the first database tool for PCs? It was called DBII (DB Two). Now, what happened to DBI ?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: The Shambles
Date: 21 May 05 - 05:34 AM

You can be - dis - ......but can you be 'gruntled'?

It sounds a bit painful.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 21 May 05 - 06:10 AM

Nossex was located in my house, well until the wife walked out on me.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 21 May 05 - 07:21 AM

Nossex, or Norsex never existed. The Saxon kingdoms, and later counties, such as Essex, Sussex and Wessex used one naming form. The Area of Viking rule, the Danelaw, had its southern edge in East Anglia, about on the current border between Essex and Suffolk.

The what could have been the Northern Saxon kingdom, Norsex, became the southernmost Viking one of Suffolk.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: *Laura*
Date: 21 May 05 - 08:06 AM

If you can be overwhelmed and underwhelmed - can you ever be just 'whelmed'?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST
Date: 21 May 05 - 08:12 AM

So, should there be an Effolk and a Weffolk, or even a Middlefolk?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST
Date: 21 May 05 - 08:17 AM

Thanks Bunnahabhain

That wasn't JUST a joke imponderable query - I really had been wondering for some time, and now I know.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST, puss
Date: 21 May 05 - 08:27 AM

and can you be diswhelmed?

or undergruntled, or overgruntled?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 May 05 - 09:17 AM

whelm v.t. (poet., rhet.) Engulf, submerge, overwhelm.[perh. f. OE *hwelman= hwylfan overturn, whence dial. whelve (Oxford Concise Dictionary.)

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: number 6
Date: 21 May 05 - 10:54 AM

Where do seagulls go to die?

The town I live in which is on the Bay of Fundy has a large population of these sea birds. They live and then they die. I've never noticed a seagull "grave yard" anywhere, even on the barren islands that are out in the bay.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST
Date: 21 May 05 - 11:49 AM

Anyone seen a baby pigeon?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Alba
Date: 21 May 05 - 12:05 PM

Why is a building called a building when it is already built?

(not an original thought of my own but one I have pondered!)

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST, Topsy
Date: 21 May 05 - 12:24 PM

The wood pigeons in my garden have built the most pathetic excuse for a nest in one of my trees - it is a skimpy little platform of birch twigs that are for ever falling onto my lawn. An egg has also fallen out of (or through) it. I shall be very surprised if I see a baby pigeon.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 May 05 - 12:56 PM

A baby pigeon is called a squab. Here's a picture of one. You see them about as often as you see any kind of baby bird (apart from baby ducks, who get paraded around by the mums).

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bill D
Date: 21 May 05 - 01:00 PM

Can a Metaphysician be sued for malpractice?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Azizi
Date: 21 May 05 - 01:06 PM

Who put the bomp
In the bomp bah bomp bah bomp?
Who put the ram
In the rama lama ding dong?
Who put the bop
In the bop shoo bop shoo bop?
Who put the dip
In the dip da dip da dip?
Who was that man?
I'd like to shake his hand
He made my baby
Fall in love with me


The complete lyrics for this song

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bill D
Date: 21 May 05 - 01:49 PM

If a hen & a half could lay an egg & a half in a day & a half, how long would it take a cross-eyed grasshopper with a wooden leg to kick the seeds out of a dill pickle?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: The Shambles
Date: 21 May 05 - 02:08 PM

If West Virginia is a State - why is there not an East Virginia?

There must be (some) West Virgins - are there not any East Virgins?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 21 May 05 - 03:05 PM

why do we call the stuff we send on a ship the cargo and the stuff we send by rail a shipment?

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: sixtieschick
Date: 21 May 05 - 03:15 PM

If pro is the opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress?

If bread always lands butter side-down and a cat always lands on its feet, if you strap a piece of buttered bread to the back of a cat and toss 'em out the (ground floor) window, which lands where?

Why must I be a teenager in love?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bill D
Date: 21 May 05 - 04:30 PM

"I was born in East Virginia,
North Carolina, I did go...
There I met with fair young maiden,
Her name and age I do not know"

There IS an East Virgina, it just ain't independant. (actually, they just don't use EAST for the big part)

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Alba
Date: 21 May 05 - 05:04 PM

What would a chair look like if your knees bent the other way?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 21 May 05 - 05:18 PM

Why do you laugh when someone tickles you, it isnt funny.

Why is yawning catching?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Don Firth
Date: 21 May 05 - 05:19 PM

Why are there so many more horse's asses than there are horses?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Amos
Date: 21 May 05 - 05:30 PM

-ing(1)   suffix forming gerunds and nouns from verbs (or occas. from
             nouns), denoting: 1 a the verbal action or its result (asking;
             carving; fighting; learning). b the verbal action as described
             or classified in some way (tough going). 2 material used for or
             associated with a process etc. (piping; washing). 3 an
             occupation or event (banking; wedding). 4 a set or arrangement
             of (colouring; feathering). [OE -ung, -ing f. Gmc]

    -ing(2)   suffix 1 forming the present participle of verbs (asking;
             fighting), often as adjectives (charming; strapping). 2 forming
             adjectives from nouns (hulking) and verbs (balding). [ME alt.
             of OE -ende, later - inde]

    -ing(3)   suffix forming nouns meaning 'one belonging to' or 'one having
             the quality of', surviving esp. in names of coins and fractional
             parts (farthing; gelding; riding). [OE f. Gmc]


From the OED.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 May 05 - 06:23 PM

"Give me sowething to keep this ice cream cold,"
"Okay...Here's a styrofoam cup."
"Thanks! Now how about something to keep my coffee hot?"
"Okay...Here's a styrofoam cup."
"Wait a minute here. Styrofoam keeps hot stuff hot and cold stuff cold?"
"Yep...Pretty neat huh?"
"How do it know?"


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 21 May 05 - 07:29 PM

Why, in the whole if the UK, is there only one Monopolies Commission?

Why is it that, whether you are inflammable, or flammable, you will burn equally well?

Have you ever come across the verb "To scrute"?........Me neither, so how did we get inscrutable?

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: The Shambles
Date: 21 May 05 - 07:37 PM

Who are you calling inscrutable - how can you tell?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST
Date: 21 May 05 - 07:42 PM

You cheeky little sphinx!

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 May 05 - 07:51 PM

From Latin scrutari, search, as in scrutiny, scrutinize and scrutinizable (with inscrutable really being a contraction of inscrutinizable, which would be a bit of a mouthful).

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST
Date: 22 May 05 - 02:35 AM

Now I have nothing against the chap and we should all encourage people to make the effort - but the question that must be asked is -with all these attemps - when is Earnest going to finally get it right?

And what is it exactly that folk are tring to do IN poor old Ernest?

Leave him alone there is an importance in this...........

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST, puss
Date: 22 May 05 - 03:30 AM

probably something ex-scrute-iating

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST,JennyO
Date: 22 May 05 - 04:09 AM

If pro is the opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress? Exactly.

Is the opposite of increment - excrement?

It's a wise crow that knows which way the camel points.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Alba
Date: 22 May 05 - 07:36 AM

If you invent an acid that could eat through anything, what would you keep it in?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST
Date: 22 May 05 - 08:26 AM

Surely it would quickly disappear in the direction of the centre of the earth.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Alba
Date: 22 May 05 - 08:34 AM

mmmmm...she ponders Guest ..:>)

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST, puss
Date: 22 May 05 - 08:51 AM

... but would it stop in the middle or carry on - to errupt suddenly somewhere on the other side?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: CStrong
Date: 22 May 05 - 09:11 AM

What's another word for "thesaurus?"

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST,gnu
Date: 22 May 05 - 10:07 AM

If you are going to try and do something, why try?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST,Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 22 May 05 - 11:29 AM

Thank you McGrath, I always wondered.

Now... What about the other two? LOL

Don T

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: The Shambles
Date: 22 May 05 - 01:41 PM

Why was Oscar Wilde?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 May 05 - 03:26 PM

Something to do with the importance he placed on being Ernest, I suspect.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 22 May 05 - 04:40 PM

Why do we park in a driveway, but drive on a parkway?

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST
Date: 22 May 05 - 04:49 PM

Why does it rain cats and dogs?