Quote: Nil Putters @ April 12 2012, 12:29 PM BST

I could post a pic, but you wouldn't thank me for it. Just take my word for it. They're tiny.

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Wimp!

I'm quite envious actually ! . . . .

Lol. Perhaps at rest it is pencil like, but when in use it balloons?
You never know.

And no, I do not want a picture of one 'in use'.

Oh joy. Here comes more fun. I started with Christmas Carol.
Thankfully, there is but one sentence that troubles me.

Prince George asks for a Christmas story:
"Absolutely, as long as it's not that terribly depressing one about the chap who gets born on Christmas Day, shoots his mouth off about everything under the sun, and then comes a cropper with a couple of rum coves on top of a hill in Johnny Arab land.
BA: You mean, Jesus?"

The problematic part is this: "comes a cropper with a couple of rum coves on top of a hill in Johnny Arab land." When dissecting it:
comes a cropper = fail totally? Or - die?
couple of rum coves = couple of rogues (presumable those two criminals on the nearby crosses?)
Johnny Arab land = any land in that Near East area?

Somehow it just does not gel together for me.

The humbag thing at the very beginning bugs me, but I got the joke

(I'm not a heartless person and I like animals, but removing that dog and Easter sentence somehow seems wrong)

Oh yes.
The Future BS scene... The title of lord of High-slung Bottoms...
There's got to be something I'm missing in those bottoms...

The rum coves are thieves, comes a cropper means that things end badly, not always death, and Johnny Arab land is a play on the popular expression Johnny Foreigner (At least it was once) so you pretty much have the right of it.

Quote: WrongTale @ April 19 2012, 8:36 AM BST

The humbag thing at the very beginning bugs me, but I got the joke

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Just in case that was a genuine mistake rather than a typo, it's humbug, not humbag.

Quote: Aaron @ April 19 2012, 12:02 PM BST

Just in case that was a genuine mistake rather than a typo, it's humbug, not humbag.

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It's my typo, yes.

About those high-slung bottoms, though?

A cove is posh people's slang for a person or chap and needs a description whether good or bad - 'my sister brought her new boyfriend home last night, he seems a decent cove' or as above 'some rum cove stole my car last night'

A Cockney would use the word geezer instead of cove.

I'm loving this thread, we have German lad started on our team at work and we're teaching him the finer points of English - It's looking a bit black over Bill's mother's, Stand back and let the dog see the rabbit, and of course the various uses of the word 'manky'

Thanks!

Quote: fasty @ April 20 2012, 6:45 AM BST

I'm loving this thread, we have German lad started on our team at work and we're teaching him the finer points of English - It's looking a bit black over Bill's mother's, Stand back and let the dog see the rabbit, and of course the various uses of the word 'manky'

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Ahh... this is all Greek to me They must be some fairly modern expressions? Manky is supposed to be something worthless?

Quote: fasty @ April 20 2012, 6:45 AM BST

It's looking a bit black over Bill's mother's

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I have no idea what that means!

Quote: WrongTale @ April 20 2012, 4:20 AM BST

It's my typo, yes.

About those high-slung bottoms, though?

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Disappointingly, Blackadder's Christmas Carol isn't included in my script book, so working from an unofficial script Google's pointed me toward ... no idea. To me it suggests he is a Lord (finally a Blackadder in a position of power), but it's not a remotely important position. Probably one so pathetic as to warrant mockery. If there's any hidden meaning in the phrase, it's lost on me I'm afraid. Anyone else?

It's probably a Swiftian type reference. Just nonsense ad adsurdum. As Aaron suggests.

'It's looking a bit black over Bill's mother's'

I've heard this a lot in Yorkshire, simply means it's gonna rain soon...

Ah.
Thought it might be another version of 'There's trouble at t'mill.'

Quote: zooo @ April 20 2012, 5:06 PM BST

Ah.
Thought it might be another version of 'There's trouble at t'mill.'

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I daresay it could be used in such a context, a bit like 'storm clouds gathering over Europe'.

It's quite possible Blackadder used such a simple phrase to deliberatley and sarcastically understate the horrendous acts of war that were about to follow...

Quote: WrongTale @ April 20 2012, 7:14 AM BST

Thanks!

Ahh... this is all Greek to me They must be some fairly modern expressions? Manky is supposed to be something worthless?

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Worthless, damaged or just not nice .....

I changed my spark plugs yesterday because they looked a bit manky

I could get you a date with my girlfriend's sister but she's a bit manky

I got a cut on my hand last week and it's gone manky

'Black over Bill's mother's' as said (Midlands and Yorkshire) means it looks like it's going to rain. So Bill's mother's (house, unspoken but understood) could be in any direction.

'Stand back and let the dog see the rabbit' usually said when someone is struggling to do something and you want to take over to finish it. From the days when men went catching rabbits for food with dogs - if someone stood in front of the dog it couldn't see the rabbit and chase/catch it.