From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V12 #305 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Wednesday, August 13 2003 Volume 12 : Number 305 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Resource? ["FS Thomas" ] RE: Reap ["FS Thomas" ] Re: Avian placenta [Carrie Galbraith ] Thatcher (0% placenta) ["Matt Sewell" ] RE: Thatcher (0% placenta) ["FS Thomas" ] Brenda [AidMerr@aol.com] Re: Brenda [Michael R Godwin ] Phair Warning [Mike Swedene ] Re: Nat, are you bustin' a 40? ["Gene Hopstetter, Jr." ] RE: Reap [Michael R Godwin ] RE: Thatcher (0% placenta) [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey ] RE: Thatcher (0% placenta) [Michael R Godwin ] oppressive embryology ["Natalie Jane" ] Ah... trams... (1% RH) ["Matt Sewell" ] RE: Thatcher (0% placenta) [Sebastian Hagedorn ] Lists that annoy Eb [Barbara Soutar ] RE: Ah... trams of old London (2%RH) [Dr John Halewood ] RE: Thatcher (0% placenta) ["FS Thomas" ] Nice threads, Volcano girls, VW songs ["Rex.Broome" ] Re: Ah... trams... (1% RH) ["Stewart C. Russell" ] Re: Ah... trams... (1% RH) [Christopher Gross ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 23:09:14 -0400 From: "FS Thomas" Subject: Resource? While I haven't received the product yet (and I probably shouldn't sing their praises too loudly) the fine folks at songsearch.net have a nice little selection of RH to be had. Check it: http://www.songsearch.org/catalog/r/robyn_hitchcock.html I might be tempted to cut them some slack; they have two editions of Luxor available, one for $17.40 and another for $23.99, the latter supporting a "12-page booklet of color photos," which I would think is the normal album insert, though I'm not sure. Among the interesting things they have to offer: both "Robyn Sings" and "Robyn Sings Dylan" (which retails for $.40 cheaper, with a different catalog number, the cheaper apparently being the PAF! CD...), "Stand Back, Dennis!" (3 versions from $32-$34), Uncorrected Personality Traits ($47.99! Ouch!), and both I Often Dream of Trains ($14.30) and Working Class Hero ($32.99). - -ferris. PS: the "product" is the Blur 10yr Box set, snagged off eBay for 1/2 price ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 08:04:15 -0400 From: "FS Thomas" Subject: RE: Reap > -----Original Message----- > Matt Sewell aligned his ones and zeroes thusly: > > Another (presumably) manky-toothed old fascist bites the dust... > Fingers crossed that Thatcher is the next to go... > -----Original Message----- Now I can understand ideological differences between Thatcher and, say, everyone in the Labor Party, but to compare Maggie to a Nazi? That's exaggerating it a bit, isn't it? - -ferris. (Fascinating, though, that the two (Diana and Oswald) were married in the house of Hitler's chief of propaganda Josef Goebbels in Berlin in 1936.) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 14:23:07 +0200 From: Carrie Galbraith Subject: Re: Avian placenta On Mercoledl, ago 13, 2003, at 13:29 Europe/Rome, Matt Sewell wrote: > I think that the white is like amniotic fluid and it's the yolk that > provides the nutrients to the unborn bird, therefore the yolk is the > avian placenta... > Ugh. If I hadn't been a vegetarian the past 28 years, I'd become one now. Ummm...how 'bout a dish of bird placenta for breakfast, with a little cooked amniotic fluid on the side? - - ethyl ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 13:40:31 +0100 From: "Matt Sewell" Subject: Thatcher (0% placenta) To compare Thatcher to a nazi is perhaps wrong rather than exaggerating - Thatcher's crimes are far too many to list, though I'd say that up there among them, she set the political agenda right up to the present day, in her campaign to make the rich richer and poor poorer (see also Tony Blair's "Labour" govt) and politicised the police force by using them as a paramilitary force against the striking miners (before this people in general respected the police far more than they do today). She took the country into an entirely avoidable war (the Falklands) in order to win an election and sold off the country's national assets at bargain-basement prices (eg. the railways). She may not be a goose-stepping, uniform-wearing nazi, but it doesn't mean she's not evil to the core... Cheers Matt >From: "FS Thomas" > > Fingers crossed that Thatcher is the next to go... > > -----Original Message----- >Now I can understand ideological differences between Thatcher and, say, >everyone in the Labor Party, but to compare Maggie to a Nazi? That's >exaggerating it a bit, isn't it? > >-ferris. > >(Fascinating, though, that the two (Diana and Oswald) were married in >the house of Hitler's chief of propaganda Josef Goebbels in Berlin in >1936.) - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fed up with 56K? Sign up for a FREE BT Broadband connection! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 08:53:55 -0400 From: "FS Thomas" Subject: RE: Thatcher (0% placenta) Well, if by Nazi one were talking about a person with an agenda that's to the far-right, then it's not entirely off the mark. > [she] sold off the country's national assets at bargain-basement > prices (eg. the railways). The railways were heavily subsidized and not all that well maintained under the government, were they? It's been a relatively recent change, hasn't it? The early 90s maybe? Here in the US we desperately need to kill AMTRAK (a "private" but heavily subsidized rail co. over here.) - -f. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 09:03:44 EDT From: AidMerr@aol.com Subject: Brenda >>Well, it's arguable that BIS is about Thatcher's Britain, but the sledge >>belongs to Brenda, as satirical-institution-in-magazine-form Private Eye >>call the Queen... > >exactly - as in the phrase "Her Majesty's Government". So the song actually >refers to the Thatcher government. According to Robyn (who has been known to, um, mislead about what songs mean), Brenda in this case (and the RH/Captain Sensible collaboration 'Brenda') referred to Johnny Moped's wife. For what it's worth, he _has_ always explicitly denied that it was a reference to the Thatcher government or the Queen. I suspect he's telling the truth on this one, at least re the Capt S one, as the lyrics make perfect sense in the context of "fancying someone else's wife" and no sense otherwise (unless he was claiming he fantasised about Maggie...). Like most of BSDR, BIS was probably rewritten & reedited so often it lost whatever meaning it had by the time it came to record it. Can't remember what the source was, but I'll have it somewhere if anyone cares. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 14:19:54 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: Brenda On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 AidMerr@aol.com wrote: > According to Robyn (who has been known to, um, mislead about what songs > mean), Brenda in this case (and the RH/Captain Sensible collaboration > 'Brenda') referred to Johnny Moped's wife. For what it's worth, he > _has_ always explicitly denied that it was a reference to the Thatcher > government or the Queen. Great to hear from you, Aidan! However, the strip cartoon on the cover of the 12" single (drawn by one Robyn Hitchcock) clearly shows QE2 (the monarch, not the ship). Has anyone got a scan of this cover? I haven't got a scanner, but I could probably get one if sufficient interest exists. - - Mike Godwin n.p. Dantalian's Chariot - Madman running through the fields ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 06:27:25 -0700 (PDT) From: Mike Swedene Subject: Phair Warning FYI - "sexy rocker" LIz Phair will be on Regis & Kelly tomorrow. They have her billed as "sexy rocker." Perhaps they read this list? mike __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 08:57:36 -0500 From: "Gene Hopstetter, Jr." Subject: Re: Nat, are you bustin' a 40? Natalie Jane wrote: > In its literal sense, "bustin' a 40" would presumably mean "drinking a > 40-ounce bottle of beer or malt liquor." However, our new meme changes > the meaning to a metaphorical one - to reiterate, bragging pointlessly about > contact with a famous person. I9ve referred to 40s as Master Cylinders since my college days. To wit, 3Dude, hurry up and drain that Master Cylinder, we gotta to catch Das Damen at The Bayou* tonight.2 Bar/music club in my neighborhood outside Louisiana State University9s campus, which appeared in 3sex, lies, and videotape.2 I met Bob Forrest from Thelonious Monster there. (I may have just busted a 40 with that sentence.) Don9t know the origin of the term, however. I sure could go for a Haffenreffer right now. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 15:02:48 +0100 From: "Matt Sewell" Subject: RE: Thatcher (0% placenta) I think she was far-right in that "neo-conservative" sort of way, in fact I think she helped to formulate neo-conservatism, the benefits of which we're reaping to this very day - George 'n' Tony are just following the model of Ron 'n' Maggie... The railways were a nationalised industry up until the early 90s - heavily subsidised and not run particularly well, the plan to sell them off was formulated by Thatcher's govt and then realised by Major's - it was a way of sidestepping any responsibility for the state of them. Years of underfunding for the railways had left them in quite a state (though they were still in far better condition than today), so, in order not to have to foot the huge bill for modernisation (one think Thatcher was known for - and elected for - was low taxes) the railways were sold off dirt cheap - that way any company buying up any of it was sure to make a quick profit... and of course they did... the terms under which the private companies bought the railways meant that they were still heavily subsidised - still are, not dissimilar to Amtrak. In my limited experience of public transport elsewhere (France, Spain, Greece, Sweden), ours is pretty much the worst in terms of cost, comfort, speed. Cheers Matt >From: "FS Thomas" > >Well, if by Nazi one were talking about a person with an agenda that's >to the far-right, then it's not entirely off the mark. > > > [she] sold off the country's national assets at bargain-basement > > prices (eg. the railways). > >The railways were heavily subsidized and not all that well maintained >under the government, were they? It's been a relatively recent change, >hasn't it? The early 90s maybe? > >Here in the US we desperately need to kill AMTRAK (a "private" but >heavily subsidized rail co. over here.) > >-f. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It's fast, fun and completely FREE! Download MSN Messenger today! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 15:29:05 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: RE: Reap On Wed, 13 Aug 2003, FS Thomas wrote: > Now I can understand ideological differences between Thatcher and, say, > everyone in the Labor Party, but to compare Maggie to a Nazi? That's > exaggerating it a bit, isn't it? Margaret Thatcher has to my knowledge never been accused of admiring Hitler, or being anti-semitic, or wishing that Churchill had surrendered to the Germans. I'm sure that she would deny any Nazi leanings. On the other hand, her brand of flag-waving, business-friendly "England first" populism did have an whiff of the classic fascist "blood and soil" irrationalism. She famously has no sense of humour and may not have realised that this song was intended to be satirical: > (Fascinating, though, that the two (Diana and Oswald) were married in > the house of Hitler's chief of propaganda Josef Goebbels in Berlin in > 1936.) Unity Mitford was hopelessly in love with Hitler, while Jessica Mitford was a Stalinist. What a crew! The weird sisters' upper-class upbringing is brilliantly portrayed in Nancy Mitford's 'The pursuit of love' and 'Love in a cold climate'. - - Mike Godwin n.p. Betjeman's Banana Blush ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 10:04:56 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: RE: Thatcher (0% placenta) On Wed, 13 Aug 2003, FS Thomas wrote: > Here in the US we desperately need to kill AMTRAK (a "private" but > heavily subsidized rail co. over here.) As opposed to what? *No* form of transportation - and that most certainly includes automobiles & the infrastructure supporting their use - is profitable overall (although certainly sectors within it can be). I won't argue that Amtrak has been particularly well run...although one way to ensure that an entity is poorly run is to make sure it has inadequate funding. Marginal independent businesses are seldom well run either. (One word in lieu of long boring rant) Oil. - --Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey, predictably J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html ::I feel that all movies should have things that happen in them:: __TV's Frank__ np: freeway murmur, a/c hum (at "work") ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 16:08:59 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: RE: Thatcher (0% placenta) On Wed, 13 Aug 2003, Matt Sewell wrote: > The railways were a nationalised industry up until the early 90s - > heavily subsidised and not run particularly well, the plan to sell them > off was formulated by Thatcher's govt and then realised by Major's - it > was a way of sidestepping any responsibility for the state of them. The key book is Christian Wolmar's 'Broken Rails'. When Margaret Thatcher's privatisation squad suggested that rail was ripe for denationalisation, she put them off, saying quite correctly that a loss-making industry would always be in trouble in the private sector. It was only when the less acute John Major took over that the ideologues finally had their way. One sane MP, Conservative Robert Adley, nearly stopped privatisation single-handed, but unfortunately he died as the bill was going through parliament. The original plans were quite crazy, envisaging different companies competing for the same traffic along identical tracks. This can work with buses, but not with trains (or trams), which can't overtake! > Years of underfunding for the railways had left them in quite a state > (though they were still in far better condition than today), so, in > order not to have to foot the huge bill for modernisation (one think > Thatcher was known for - and elected for - was low taxes) the railways > were sold off dirt cheap - that way any company buying up any of it was > sure to make a quick profit... and of course they did... the terms under > which the private companies bought the railways meant that they were > still heavily subsidised - still are, not dissimilar to Amtrak. In fact subsidies to the 'private' rail companies are far in excess of anything that BR ever received. The infrastructure company Railtrack gobbled up 10 years' subsidies in about 2 years, and then asked for billions more. Meanwhile it neglected safety and there were horrendous crashes at Southall, Ladbroke Grove, Hatfield and Potter's Bar. It has now effectively been renationalised. > In my limited experience of public transport elsewhere (France, Spain, > Greece, Sweden), ours is pretty much the worst in terms of cost, comfort, > speed. Italy and India are good too. Japan is reputed to be the best but I haven't been. - - Mike Godwin PS I have just loaded my first Doncaster 150 photo at More to follow! n.p. Chas McDevitt and Nancy Whiskey "Freight train" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 08:15:40 -0700 From: "Natalie Jane" Subject: oppressive embryology >But Natalie...we still haven't finished embedding "oppressive >udders." I'll try it out in my breastfeeding class in September... it'll probably be a hit. >For some time I've been wondering whether the white of an egg is the avine >equivalent of the mammalian placenta. Or is the placenta more like the >shell? I think the white is like amniotic fluid, the shell is the chorion (outer layer of membranes) and the membraney stuff is the amniotic sac. The equivalent of the placenta would probably be the yolk. Mammals also have a yolk, which supports the embryo until the placenta gets properly implanted in the first couple of months of pregnancy. I've seen pictures of a human yolk - it looks just like a chicken yolk. ("Yolk" is a weird word, is that Middle English or something?) Boy, all this talk about bad threads makes me want to get back on Postcard again... yum! gnat "Jeff Tweedy has more eyebrow hairs than Jay Farrar! No, Jay Farrar has more eyebrow hairs!" the gnatster _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 16:22:52 +0100 From: "Matt Sewell" Subject: Ah... trams... (1% RH) Ah... trams - to this day I have still not managed to travel by tram... I remember, as a child, my mother pointing out the tramlines to me in Cornmarket St (in Oxford) which were still there after many years (they're gone now of course). There was talk a few years ago of reinstating them, but of course this never happened... can anyone recommend somewhere I can go and ride the trams? "poles that could only be used for overhead wiring stand around with their wires all gone" Cheers Matt PS - couldn't see your train picture, Mike... >From: Michael R Godwin > The original plans were quite crazy, envisaging different >companies competing for the same traffic along identical tracks. This can >work with buses, but not with trains (or trams), which can't overtake! - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It's fast, it's fun and it's free! Click here to download MSN Messenger. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 17:30:17 +0200 From: Sebastian Hagedorn Subject: RE: Thatcher (0% placenta) - --On Mittwoch, 13. August 2003 16:08 Uhr +0100 Michael R Godwin wrote: > PS I have just loaded my first Doncaster 150 photo at > Nice try, but the following: Stirling GNR 4-2-2 No 1, Doncaster 2003 instructs the browser to look on the local hard drive, not on the server. If you can edit the file directly, try changing it to: Stirling GNR 4-2-2 No 1, Doncaster 2003 - -- Sebastian Hagedorn PGP key ID: 0x4D105B45 Ehrenfeldg|rtel 156 50823 Kvln http://www.spinfo.uni-koeln.de/~hgd/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 16:34:23 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: Ah... trams... (1% RH) On Wed, 13 Aug 2003, Matt Sewell wrote: > Ah... trams - to this day I have still not managed to travel by tram... I > remember, as a child, my mother pointing out the tramlines to me in > Cornmarket St (in Oxford) which were still there after many years > (they're gone now of course). There was talk a few years ago of > reinstating them, but of course this never happened... can anyone > recommend somewhere I can go and ride the trams? Manchester. Sheffield. Lots of places in Holland and Germany (Sebastian, any info?). Odessa. The tram museum in Crich, Derbyshire - Do they still exist elswhere? I believe Americans called them streetcars or trolleycars. > "poles that could only be used for overhead wiring stand around with > their wires all gone" RH content! I spotted it! > > Cheers > > Matt > > PS - couldn't see your train picture, Mike... Odd, maybe I did the chmod og+r command wrong. Try again! - - Mike n.p. The trolley song ("Clang clang clang went the trolley" - they obviously used to have them in St Louis). ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 08:43:54 -0700 From: Barbara Soutar Subject: Lists that annoy Eb Well, I certainly opened up a can of worms. And apparently some people don't like worms. At least Eb said that my original request was interesting... seeking the hidden muses behind songs. And mission accomplished! Thanks to all who contributed. One item I found intriguing was the Velvet Underground European Son song being about Delmore Schwartz... I believe Lou Reed was his protege so it's a logical connection. I did know about Uptown Girl by Billy Joel but had forgotten, that's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Or at least my brother was looking for. He's the one directing the whole project. Yesterday I spent lying on a beach reading David Sedaris's book "Naked". No, I wasn't naked. But I will recommend any book by this guy. Try "Me Talk Pretty One Day". Hilarious. Barbara Soutar Victoria, British Columbia ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 16:52:14 +0100 From: Dr John Halewood Subject: RE: Ah... trams of old London (2%RH) Michel Godwin's electrons seemed to say: > Manchester. Sheffield. Lots of places in Holland and Germany > (Sebastian, > any info?). Odessa. The tram museum in Crich, Derbyshire - > >Do they still exist elswhere? ...Croydon, Beamish museum in Co. Durham as well IIRC. Making a comeback worldwide from what a friend of mine (retired ex-railway worker) says. Seeing as most of his holidays involve going tram- and train-spotting, I guess he ought to know. Maybe the phrase "about as good looking as the back end of a Sheffield tram" might start meaning something again... cheers john ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 17:52:07 +0200 From: Sebastian Hagedorn Subject: Re: Ah... trams... (1% RH) - --On Mittwoch, 13. August 2003 16:34 Uhr +0100 Michael R Godwin wrote: > Manchester. Sheffield. Lots of places in Holland and Germany (Sebastian, > any info?). I'd say there's hardly a city in Germany that *doesn't* have some kind of tram system. The one in Cologne isn't remarkable in any way, but if you're curious, here's its history (in German but including some nice pictures), starting in 1876: And here are some pictures of a new model: More remarkable is the Schwebebahn in Wuppertal if you haven't heard of that one: Cheers, Sebastian - -- Sebastian Hagedorn PGP key ID: 0x4D105B45 Ehrenfeldg|rtel 156 50823 Kvln http://www.spinfo.uni-koeln.de/~hgd/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 17:07:31 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: RE: Thatcher (0% placenta) Thanks, Sebastian. I tried doing this on Composer in Mozilla rather than writing the script, but it looks as if that has limitations. I'll sort it out tomorrow. - - Mike On Wed, 13 Aug 2003, Sebastian Hagedorn wrote: > --On Mittwoch, 13. August 2003 16:08 Uhr +0100 Michael R Godwin > wrote: > > > PS I have just loaded my first Doncaster 150 photo at > > > > Nice try, but the following: > > alt="Stirling GNR 4-2-2 No 1, Doncaster 2003" > style="width: 320px; height: 200px;"> > > instructs the browser to look on the local hard drive, not on the server. > > If you can edit the file directly, try changing it to: > > alt="Stirling GNR 4-2-2 No 1, Doncaster 2003" > style="width: 320px; height: 200px;"> > -- > Sebastian Hagedorn PGP key ID: 0x4D105B45 > Ehrenfeldg|rtel 156 > 50823 Kvln > http://www.spinfo.uni-koeln.de/~hgd/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 12:59:10 -0400 From: "FS Thomas" Subject: RE: Thatcher (0% placenta) > > Here in the US we desperately need to kill AMTRAK (a "private" but > > heavily subsidized rail co. over here.) > > As opposed to what? *No* form of transportation - and that most certainly > includes automobiles & the infrastructure supporting their use - is > profitable overall (although certainly sectors within it can be). I won't > argue that Amtrak has been particularly well run...although one way to > ensure that an entity is poorly run is to make sure it has inadequate > funding. Marginal independent businesses are seldom well run either. The problem with Amtrak is that it's a loss-leader. The rail situation in the States is similar to the airline and the American farming industries: at the center of the issue is the government propping up (either financially or legislatively) bad business. By "bad" I mean unprofitable. Unprofitable businesses should be allowed to die; it's a basic principle of economics. By meddling with the natural course of business cycles, you skew the economy. Can the rails be profitable? Possibly. What they need to do is to break with the idea of passenger-only service and commit to opening lines to freight portage. To do that, however, they would have to break the back of the Teamster's Union; something that more than likely isn't going to happen. I don't doubt for a moment that by revitalizing rail (at least in metropolitan areas) would lessen traffic and environmental problems, but without such a venture to at least break even, it's a bad, bad proposition. - -f. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 10:13:21 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: Nice threads, Volcano girls, VW songs Jason T: >>How about "rock songs that use electric guitar" Oddly, the only one I can think of is "Fender Stratocaster" by Jonathan Richman. Oh, wait, you meant songs where they *play* electric guitar. I know there are some, but I don't listen to that kind of shit. ____ Mike Swedene: >>So I really dig the Nick Drake tune that they use in the VW commercials. I know... Any recomendations? Everything. Conveniently collected in the Fruit Tree box set, and still easily absorbable as the total run time is probably barely over three hours. Lucky you will get the remastered versions created almost solely *because* of the VW ad. (grumble grumble) Talking of which, anyone want my CDR's of the "lost" Neil Young albums that are being issued on CD for real next week? "On the Beach" is a mid-level semi-pro boot with some bonus tracks (nothing spectacular); "American Stars & Bars" is a mix of lifts from the digital tracks on "Decade" and digitized vinyl; "Hawks & Doves" and "ReAcTor" are nicely digitized near-virgin vinyl. All come with shitty homemade artwork which includes if nothing else spine art & titles that look good on a shelf. I won't need them anymore but I hate to throw them away since I took the time to make them and everything. ______ Matt S: >>I recently won a competition here at work which was to list songs with >>a girl's name in the title... minimum 200 entries... blimey. Didn't the feglist itself once generate a list of, like, almost 50 songs about Carolines/Carolyns alone? At my old work, someone had a friend who was working on promoting the movie Volcano and was looking for songs about volcanos, lava, and most dangerously, fire. Between me and our other resident power-pop nerd we came up with about 500 in three hours or so. The ads used the score. Volcano was a lame movie, but it made my wife one of the few people who can say a whole movie was devoted to the violent destruction of her workplace. ___ Mike: >>For some time I've been wondering whether the white of an egg is the >>avine equivalent of the mammalian placenta. Or is the placenta more like >>the shell? Placenta's more like the yolk, I believe. Nutrients, you know. I know it looks solid, as if it would turn into the bird itself, but no, it's a snack for the proto-bird. Least favorite threads? Placenta's not even in my bottom 10. The Nader thing sucked pretty bad. And the prescriptions for correct living. Could do without seeing anything else about Heidi Klum. Otherwise it ain't too bad around here. - -Rex "but bring on more SquidTalk!" Broome ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 10:14:11 -0700 From: "Jason R. Thornton" Subject: RE: Thatcher (0% placenta) At 04:08 PM 8/13/2003 +0100, Michael R Godwin wrote: >Japan is reputed to be the best but I >haven't been. I've ridden trains in Japan, and the system is quite impressive to say the least, if a bit overcrowded at times. At 12:59 PM 8/13/2003 -0400, FS Thomas wrote: >The rail situation >in the States is similar to the airline and the American farming >industries: at the center of the issue is the government propping up >(either financially or legislatively) bad business. By "bad" I mean >unprofitable. And how profitable would the auto industry be if Ford and Chevy had to buy land and build their own roads? - --Jason "Only the few know the sweetness of the twisted apples." - Sherwood Anderson ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 13:16:44 -0400 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: Ah... trams... (1% RH) Matt Sewell wrote: > > can anyone > recommend somewhere I can go and ride the trams? Toronto's trams are great. You could spend all day on them for about three quid. Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 13:03:26 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: Ah... trams... (1% RH) On Wed, 13 Aug 2003, Michael R Godwin wrote: > > reinstating them, but of course this never happened... can anyone > > recommend somewhere I can go and ride the trams? > > Manchester. Sheffield. Lots of places in Holland and Germany (Sebastian, > any info?). Odessa. The tram museum in Crich, Derbyshire - > > > Do they still exist elswhere? I believe Americans called them streetcars > or trolleycars. Lisbon has several active tram routes. (Porto also apparently has a couple, but I didn't see any trams when I passed through the city.) I think I rode one out to Belem, though that might have been an articulated bus -- I was tired and jetlagged and my memory is hazy. Especially neat are the funiculars, trams built on a slant to transport folks up steep hills. A quick Google search yielded an intimidating amount of information here: - --Chris, whose computer has now been certified worm-free ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V12 #305 ********************************