Replying to Very Peculiar...

's random AFAIK, we're just probably due for one soonish.

A. J. Raffles, on Jun 19 2005, 10:23 PM, said:

Man, you're going to get even more confused then when they swutch again in a few years. I think it happens in 2012.

Tulac, on Jun 19 2005, 10:41 PM, said:

It might also be the reason why they live longer.

Well here's something very peculiar...
If women live 5-10 years (average) than men, then why do men have to work 5-10(depends where you live) more? Or is that the part of equality that feminists aren't interested in?l

You're right, but I still find it extremely confusing...

Huh? Well apart from anything else they switch over every once in a while when the Earth's magnetic field reverses; the magnetic north and south are distinct things which apply to any old magnet, whereas the directional North and South are just things we humans made up to describe directions relative to the earth's surface (and then named the magnetic ones after) - the name just got fixed.

TheVoid, on Jun 19 2005, 05:45 PM, said:

Great sentence.

Why did nobody ever bother to swap the names of the magnetic south pole and north pole of the earth (or whatever their proper names are)? It's a bit misleading as it is...

LordHart, on Jun 19 2005, 04:28 PM, said:

Bah. I admit it's my fault I didn't provide any credit when posting the thing the first time. One reason is I didn't know where it did come from, found it long time ago and already posted in Abandonia forum in the "Jokes" thread. Second reason, I couldn't be arsed to find it out, and besides I never claimed anywhere it was a work of mine. For its purpose, which was just to provide some quick and on-topic fun, it suited fine.
The only thing I copied word from word is those 2 lines about quicksand, again my fault 'cause I didn't want to rewrite it and besides it was exactly what I wanted to say. Next time I'll give all the credits in the right place.

There must evidently be more kinds of quicksand, as you say. Fast and slow ones, depending on wether they're dry or watered. The guy who wrote the stuff probably intended the latter.

"Hamburger" is the original name, meaning "from Hamburg" in German, and the fact that the bit "ham" means "ham" in English is just a pure coincidence, since the German word for "ham" is "Schinken".

About the potato question, it's due to the fact that in my language, Italian, it keeps the same name even when talking about fried potato slices or sticks. Same goes for French, yet it gets weirder with German.

Italian, French and German of "potatoes" are:
I: patate
F: pommes de terre
G: Kartoffeln

Italian, French and German of "french fries" are:
I: patate fritte
F: pommes frites
G: Pommes frites

As you see, they all get the suffix "fried", without meaning "whole potatoes fried".
The weird thing is that German is exactly the same of French when fried. Now, in English it changes even the word "potatoes". That's why I think it's peculiar. They remain potatoes, in fact.

I know he didn't write it. I was pointing out the inconsistences from what he did post though, which to people unfamiliar to the text may think he came up with it, since he didn't provide any credit. Also, when trying to back up things you've posted, it's best not to copy it word for word from another site and make out it is your own. Especially one such as Wikipedia which anyone can add to.

Now, Quicksand. It's best not to try to explain it to someone who grew up at the beach and has encountered it before. If you step into some quicksand and you aren't tall enough to touch the bottom, where the sand or whatever is below is more solid, then you'll usually go under very fast. True, in some cases, if the sand is not sufficiently watered down, then it can be more like falling in a vat of semi-solid mud or something, but that isn't what generally happens.

And I didn't say that the Princess Bride is a reliable source. I was pointing out that it is in effect, quite accurate. That is dry quicksand though, which is rarer in nature than that of regular quicksand formed by water.

Although the term hamburger comes from Hamburg, it generally today is associated with burgers which contain some form of ham on them (just any form of pork), which is what I said. It even says it at Wikipedia where you got the info that it has normally become just 'burger' when talking about a sandwich with meat in it, not hamburger.

By the way, the fried potato thing. I generally make chips out of cut up potatoes... not whole ones. I've never come across anybody who fries potatoes whole.

That English language thing posted by TheVoid mostly refers to problems in American, not English.  [i]English{/i] English it perfect in it's logic