Absolutely Anything Else

SimonTrew wrote:

Apparently this has been happening in the UK over the last few months.

That would be one Train franchise, "Southern Rail". But as always the trains in the UK are in a mess when aren't they?

fluffy2560 wrote:

It probably makes sense to develop exoskeletons via genetic engineering.

Well I was just leafing through my copy of "The Selfish Gene" by a pillock name of Dawkins and according to him all we are here for is to pass on our genes, we are just kinda the vehicle where our genes are the payload. Apparently the way to genetically engineer things, according to page 73, is to have lots and lots of sex.

So yeah, sounds a good idea to me. And if not, exoskeletons probably would be a nice line in bondage gear down at ye olde szex shoppe. Win-win.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

It probably makes sense to develop exoskeletons via genetic engineering.

Well I was just leafing through my copy of "The Selfish Gene" by a pillock name of Dawkins and according to him all we are here for is to pass on our genes, we are just kinda the vehicle where our genes are the payload. Apparently the way to genetically engineer things, according to page 73, is to have lots and lots of sex.

So yeah, sounds a good idea to me. And if not, exoskeletons probably would be a nice line in bondage gear down at ye olde szex shoppe. Win-win.

Dawkins has hard to get information.  He's married to Lalla Ward who was Doctor Who's assistant.  Clearly he's got the inside track from the horse's mouth.

SimCityAT wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

Apparently this has been happening in the UK over the last few months.

That would be one Train franchise, "Southern Rail". But as always the trains in the UK are in a mess when aren't they?

Actually it is more than just Southern Rail. I forget the names of the companies because they seem to change every six months but the Thameslink franchise went for a burton, the Northern Rail franchise is struggling and it is all a complete mess, as you say, as usual. That is all well and dandy, it gives the British something to complain about (as if they needed any more incentive).

Since bloody Railway Time was invented more or less by the Great Western Railway (the time difference from London Paddington to Bristol to the west, by a sundial being about eight minutes of time) which then became Greenwich Mean Time you would think about 150 years later they might have got the hang of it.

Let's face it the idea that you split, for administration, the trains from the tracks and have different companies run the trains, stations, tracks etc etc is just a very stupid idea. It introduces "competition", no it doesn't, because there are only so many train paths through the network. Hull Trains run a service out of London Kings Cross with very low fares, understandably, and I believe that they do not do return fares because nobody from Hull wants to go back to Hull, but anyway they had a hard job getting the train path through the East Coast Main Line up past Donny and Selby and into Hull. Rail privatisation was a total disaster, there are some things that are held for the common good and there is no point in splitting them up, a "natural monopoly" some might say. If it is a natural monopoly, the place for it to be is in the hands of the Humphrey Applebys who know how to stop politicians interfering in a well-running system. There was a reason that all the small railways were combined in 1923 into the "big four", and nationalised in 1948. Apart from a terrible cup of tea, British Rail actually did very well on extremely scarse resources. This privatisation was a nonsense. It is just an easy way to say we get jam today instead of jam tomorrow, and you know what the rule is, as the Red Queen said to Alice.
I wonder what a Hungarian would think if you told them that there were these things called "peak" and "off-peak". What,. so it costs me twice as much to travel when I want to travel than it costs me when I don't want to travel? At least in Hungary your journey is directly priced by the MÁV-kilometre and you pay the same any day of the week, any time of day.

SimonTrew wrote:

....
Not really, because that mass was already captured so you are really just taking money out of one pocket to put it in another, the essential mass of the solar system remains the same. What should happen, according to Newton (good Cambridge chap), is that the Earth gets a bit further out from the sun with added mass and remains in a steady orbit. So Earth gets a bit farther away and continues on its eccentric path, as indeed do we.
....
Apparently this has been happening in the UK over the last few months. In 1999 my small company had a big contract with Railtrack doing train pathing. My simple suggestion that we should try to make the timetables fit the times of the trains, rather than the other way around, was treated with something more than a raised eyebrow.
....
Not at all. The obvious thing to do is go underground. We as a species seem to have landed ourselves, literally, by forgetting the interior of the planet and choosing to live on the surface. Subterranean is the way to go. In short, we should all go straight to Hell.
...
Maybe, but what kind of massively huge  body could we possibly get under control? I suppose we could ask Roseanne Barr's agent.

What a screw up.  I wrote a reply and something went wrong and I lost it,  so this is the summary.

It depends on how the mass is distributed, not just the total mass.  If the earth/object shape was a dumbell, the rotation would slow down and as the asteroid or mass got closer, the combo would speed up. 

I reckon that if the trains were shorter the people at the far end would arrive earlier and therefore the overall turnover at the station could be faster.  In other words the capacity of the network would increase. 

Holey-moley, living underground.  It's been done!  Those Thai footballers and in the documentary Journey to the Centre of the Earth.  People will be fed up living on giant mushrooms, dinosaurs and so on.

Never mind Roseanne Barr,  Cyril Smith is more deserving of that part.

No there was one train company that changed their timetable and reduced the amount of train stock.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/ne … 20031.html

fluffy2560 wrote:

Holey-moley, living underground.

Indeed, moles do live in holes underground. Well spotted. Clangers also live underground sort of, and of course the Wombles, also the population of Fraggle Rock. It seems on the whole if you wish to live underground you need to be some kind of freaky puppet, which of course then requires some kind of puppet government. It all starts to make sense... no wonder Donald Trump is keen to reopen the coalmines in Pennsylvania. He is not as stupid as he looks, but that is not saying much.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Never mind Roseanne Barr,  Cyril Smith is more deserving of that part.

No, you can't put Sir Cyril into orbit. For one thing, he is a dead weight, so of course you are now just transferring the mass out  and you have just shifted the centre of levity. It is true that Sir Cyril was very clued up on the laws of gravy. But Sir Cyril was for many years a Liberal and then a Liberal Democrat, and Liberals disprove Newton's second law, in that for a Liberal, every action has an equivocal and inapposite inaction.

You could try Cyril Fletcher....

In Hungary there are only two varieties of potato. White potatoes (csarga borgonya, csarga being the Hungarian for "white") or red potatoes (piros borgonya).

The chance of getting a Maris Piper (nice waxy potato, good for roast potatoes) or a King Ted (good for baked potatoes) or a Desiree or any particular variety of potato, is very slim in Hungary. You get red potatoes or white potatoes.

(sings) You say krumpli and I say spud... you say paradicsom and I say legdraggabb: paradicsom, legdraggab, krumpli, tomato,..

I think I should call the whole thing off.

My missus was just talking about our neighbours and she said "oh, they are just the hoi polloi".

Now that really gets my goat. Patently Hoi in Greek means "the" already, so you don't need the English "the" before it. If you are going to slag your neighbours off, at least you could do it grammatically.

SimonTrew wrote:

In Hungary there are only two varieties of potato. White potatoes (csarga borgonya, csarga being the Hungarian for "white") or red potatoes (piros borgonya).

The chance of getting a Maris Piper (nice waxy potato, good for roast potatoes) or a King Ted (good for baked potatoes) or a Desiree or any particular variety of potato, is very slim in Hungary. You get red potatoes or white potatoes.

(sings) You say krumpli and I say spud... you say paradicsom and I say legdraggabb: paradicsom, legdraggab, krumpli, tomato,..

I think I should call the whole thing off.

What about Sarpo Mira?

SimonTrew wrote:

In Hungary there are only two varieties of potato. White potatoes (csarga borgonya, csarga being the Hungarian for "white") or red potatoes (piros borgonya).

The chance of getting a Maris Piper (nice waxy potato, good for roast potatoes) or a King Ted (good for baked potatoes) or a Desiree or any particular variety of potato, is very slim in Hungary. You get red potatoes or white potatoes.

(sings) You say krumpli and I say spud... you say paradicsom and I say legdraggabb: paradicsom, legdraggab, krumpli, tomato,..

I think I should call the whole thing off.

I've tried growing UK potatoes here and it doesn't work at all well.   I've tried Maris Piper and King Edwards and no chance.  Always failed.  It must be the soil or the drainage or just the hotter or colder weather.  Same for UK tomatoes - just doesn't work.

For good roasters or for chip potatoes, they really need plenty of starch in them.  Then they end up crunchy when you cook them.  Other types hereabout just turn out limp.

As a substitute for pots, I have had considerable success with British sourced Jerusalem Artichokes.  They take a while but they do grow quite strongly.  Unfortunately they have a side effect so eat them on your own.

SimonTrew wrote:

My missus was just talking about our neighbours and she said "oh, they are just the hoi polloi".

Now that really gets my goat. Patently Hoi in Greek means "the" already, so you don't need the English "the" before it. If you are going to slag your neighbours off, at least you could do it grammatically.

That's an old one.

Here's a Hungarian one:

Take OTP Bank. 

That's Országos Takarék Pénztár which is National Savings Bank. 

So actually "OTP Bank" is National Savings Bank Bank.

I always think, yes, we heard you the first first time.

I am pretty sure there are more varieties of Hungarian spuds?

SimCityAT wrote:

I am pretty sure there are more varieties of Hungarian spuds?

Aye-aye, I'll chip in here with suggestion a search on You-Tuber will unearth some more varieties..... spuddenly!   Apart from keeping our eyes peeled....maybe we need a guide here - perhaps German map....Karte-offe(l)n....would be frootful.

Yes, I know.

I'll get my coat....

SimCityAT wrote:

What about Sarpo Mira?

I quite like that the headline is the "European Cultivated Potato": That was what ever-closer union was all about, the Single European Potato. I wonder what an uncultivated potato would be, perhaps one that does not have acccess to being played Mozart by a string quartet courtesy of my money or something. That is the way the European Union wastes our money and it is why it is time for change. Britain is the first, Hungary will I guess be the second in a few years' time.

There is of course a danger in that, since scrolling down it is not very resistant and I seem to remember some time back in the 18th century the Irish, growing one particular cultivar and having it blighted, went a bit hungry. There was an easy solution, suggested by an Irish  clergmyan, the Dean of Trinity College, Dublin. I forget his name right now but he wrote an essay called "A modest proposal"

fluffy2560 wrote:

s hereabout just turn out limp.

As a substitute for pots, I have had considerable success with British sourced Jerusalem Artichokes.  They take a while but they do grow quite strongly.  Unfortunately they have a side effect so eat them on your own.

Well that is a strange bit of etymology because they do not come from Jerusalem. It is a corruption of the spanish "girasol", sunflower. Hearty folks like artichokes but mortal souls prefer girasols.

Yeah Ihave tried a few british varieties in what I occasionally attempt to call my garden but that is next year's job. Me fuschias are doing all right and my hydrangeas, the spuds I have never succeeded at even with Hungarian varieties. At my other house the cherries that were planted forty years ago are starting to come into fruit as they do ever year. I have a load of walnuts to plant but I am warned by Orwell, "anyone who plants a walnut is planting it for his grandchildren, and who gives a damn about his grandchildren". (The essay is "A good word for the Vicar of Bray," if you want to look it up)

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

My missus was just talking about our neighbours and she said "oh, they are just the hoi polloi".

Now that really gets my goat. Patently Hoi in Greek means "the" already, so you don't need the English "the" before it. If you are going to slag your neighbours off, at least you could do it grammatically.

That's an old one.

Here's a Hungarian one:

Take OTP Bank. 

That's Országos Takarék Pénztár which is National Savings Bank. 

So actually "OTP Bank" is National Savings Bank Bank.

I always think, yes, we heard you the first first time.

PIN number is one that always gets me. What do you think the N in PIN stands for?

There is a linguistic word for this phenomenon (dooo doo deee doo doo). Clue: it is not periphrasis. It is not perrycomo either.

I'lll get my coat, the one with the yelllow ribbons.

That perhaps is a very British thing that whenever someone mildly intelligent says "phenomenon" it is absolutely imperative to sing "doo doo de do dooh". [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4jbq9SVxAc], The Muppet Show was taken on by the great Lew Grade of course, who could occasionally get it right, the American networks didn't want it. This would be the same Lew Grade who having funded the film "Raise the Titanic" said "It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic".

SimonTrew wrote:

PIN number is one that always gets me. What do you think the N in PIN stands for?

PIN: A personal identification number is a numeric or alpha-numeric password or code used in the process of authenticating or identifying a user to a system and system to a user.

SimCityAT wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

PIN number is one that always gets me. What do you think the N in PIN stands for?

PIN: A personal identification number is a numeric or alpha-numeric password or code used in the process of authenticating or identifying a user to a system and system to a user.

He means saying PIN number is like saying Personal Identification Number Number.

Ah right, I always refer it to just PIN.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimCityAT wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

PIN number is one that always gets me. What do you think the N in PIN stands for?

PIN: A personal identification number is a numeric or alpha-numeric password or code used in the process of authenticating or identifying a user to a system and system to a user.

He means saying PIN number is like saying Personal Identification Number Number.

Indeed. We do it a lot, there is some technical linguistic word for it which I have forgotten, but essentially when the abbreviation, usually an acronym, then gets taken as a word in its own right (which is normal over time) so that peopole have no idea what it originally stood for, and then repeat the very thing it was abbreviating.

Which is another bug-bear of mine that people call things acronyms when theys mean abbreviations. PIN is an acronym. Roughly, an acronym is an abbreviation that you can pronounce. Not every abbreviation is an acronym. "e.g." and "i.e." and "etc." are not acronyms.

I tend actually to write out "for example" or "that is" or "and so on" because it seems that lots of otherwise intelligent people do not get the diffference between "e.g." and "i.e." so it is best to avoid them in technical documentation. I used to write "&c." for "et cetera" which is perhaps a bit old-fashoined and seems to confuse everybody, those three Latin abbreviations are so often confused that they are best avoided in technical documentation, it is not hard to write "that is" or "for example" or "and so on".

I stilll can't work out how the Hungarians, having invented the ball-point pen, refuse to call it a Biro. Lend me a biro. What's a biro? YOU INVENTED IT. CALL IT A BIRO NOT YOUR STRANGE HUNGARIAN WORD. KÖSZI.

SimonTrew wrote:

.....
Yeah Ihave tried a few british varieties in what I occasionally attempt to call my garden but that is next year's job. Me fuschias are doing all right and my hydrangeas, the spuds I have never succeeded at even with Hungarian varieties. At my other house the cherries that were planted forty years ago are starting to come into fruit as they do ever year. I have a load of walnuts to plant but I am warned by Orwell, "anyone who plants a walnut is planting it for his grandchildren, and who gives a damn about his grandchildren". (The essay is "A good word for the Vicar of Bray," if you want to look it up)

Isn't it a bit late for cherries?  Ours have been and gone ages ago.  We've got pears and apples on the go at the moment but not ready.    Some chilis are still going and I've seen the odd raspberry left behind. Don't really remember walnuts or almonds growing in the UK but they grow rather nicely here.  Well worth having some patience and growing some of those or better - inheriting some.

My neighbour has a very nice tree hanging in the road.  Haven't seen that one of those for a very long time - Greengages.  Really a nice to eat fruit (plum really) so I've put some pips from his tree in a pot and let's see.

I'm currently working on my grasses collection - I've got some unidentified grass plant I stole from outside the Mrs Fluffy Balaton house.

We've also got one here called  Rabbit Tails or Bunny Grass and I have a  Lemon Grass plant too but it'd never survive outside as it's an African plant - looking quite sick. 

I've got my eye on an colder weather Bamboo.   I had a couple of Pampas Grass* plants but they never seem to survive the winter.

I am faced with an ethical decision. I can quietly take a cutting possibly off a very vigorous bamboo I know overhangs a road I drive by or I can ring the doorbell and ask for a cutting. Obvious really I should ask....

* if anyone says anything about THAT  urban myth I'll scream

Since we are nearly on the subject, people who say "pee" instead of "pence" also gets my goat. I was born just after the decimalisation of UK currency and there was a good reason people said "pee", to distinguish it from old money, where there were twelve pennies to the shilling and we had pounds, shillings and sense. For years afterwards my nan would be complaining about the price of ninepenny stamps. Er, nan, they have always cost ninepence....

So you have "dee" (old penny) and "pee" (new money). That may have made sense forty-seven years ago but can we please stop calling it "pee" now. One penny, two pence. It is not hard.

As if anyone here gives tuppence for my opinions. Or even two pee.

fluffy2560 wrote:

My neighbour has a very nice tree hanging in the road.  Haven't seen that one of those for a very long time - Greengages.  Really a nice to eat fruit (plum really) so I've put some pips from his tree in a pot and let's see.

We have a Greengage, the fruit has nearly gone now, but made a heap load of jam, and chutney. Froze a lot of the remaining fruit to make more later in the year.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Isn't it a bit late for cherries?  Ours have been and gone ages ago....

It is some late-flowering variety that tends to come out in fruit in midsummer. I agree it would usually be rather late for a cherry. Maybe it is not even a cherry but some kind of hybrid and I suppose I could register it at Kew  and then I could give it the name Fluffium Emporium or something.

Daffs seem to do all right, but on the whole getting British seeds is a bit of a waste because of the different climate, they don't tend to like the hard winter. I have cloeared and done up the potting shed so I might try putting down some hardy perrenials or somethiong, but at the moment I am on about a fifty percent success rate. The previous owners basically turned the garden into a parkolo so I have about half an acre of concrete to kango out... that is a big project for next year.

I wouldn't say I was a lazy gardener, but I concreted over the window boxes....

SimonTrew wrote:

....and so on" because it seems that lots of otherwise intelligent people do not get the diffference between "e.g." and "i.e." so it is best to avoid them in technical documentation. I used to write "&c." for "et cetera" which is perhaps a bit old-fashioned and seems to confuse everybody, those three Latin abbreviations are so often confused that they are best avoided in technical documentation, it is not hard to write "that is" or "for example" or "and so on".

I stilll can't work out how the Hungarians, having invented the ball-point pen, refuse to call it a Biro. Lend me a biro. What's a biro? YOU INVENTED IT. CALL IT A BIRO NOT YOUR STRANGE HUNGARIAN WORD. KÖSZI.

I don't think the Biro thing is such a big thing.  What about Hoover?  There's still the alternative in vacuum cleaner. Not even a biggie.  Or even Xerox'ing something.  And now even Google'ing something.   Xerox spent lots of money trying to protect its intellectual property in the name and to avoid it becoming a generic term.  Others don't seem to care, particularly Google.

Actually the ampersand "&" messes up a lot of people who for some reason have no idea what it means.  I really don't like the use of "and so on" because it smacks of laziness and is imprecise.

I've got a beef with the word "naïve" which of course has the two dots over the I. I am not that happy that it's got two dots as that's not an English language letter.   OK, I know about Déjà vu...been there and done that.  Same issue.  Do we need these extra letters as we all know how to say it.

SimonTrew wrote:

White potatoes (csarga borgonya, csarga being the Hungarian for "white")

My understanding is csarga is "grilled" ("white" is fehér). So they are "grilling potatoes", which just happen to be "white" (actually not, they are just a light brown). And it is spelled "burgonya", not "borgonya".

Well, at least you did not say "grilled csarga burgonya". Which I like to do.... just for fun.

fluffy2560 wrote:

[What about Hoover?

Hoover is exactly the right word for it, it is onomatopoeic, as you shunt it round and stuff it goes HOOOVE and it is exactly the right word for it. "Vacuum cleaner" is obviously wrong, it doesn't clean vacua, a vacuum is knida clean by definition. Hoover is just exactly the right word.

I believe it was named after the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, but I could be wrong on that one.

On the other hand "mosogép" is a far better word than the cumbersome "washing machine". "Fank"  is also much better than "doughnut" or "donut".

Only have our little window garden here.
That's enough "yard " work for us.
In S. Ca. we had the nicest lemon tree. It was huge and produced so  much fruit that a few times a year I would pack up large grocery store bags full and drop off 2 bags in front of several neighbors homes.
I got tired of squeezing and freezing lemons all the time.
Wish I had a tree like that again sometimes, never ending supply of fresh lemons.
We tired to grow some tomatoes in large clay pot in Vegas a few years back.
No, didn't work, they fried way before they were even green.
( fried green tomatoes)...

I haven't seen allot of news coverage about those fires in Greece, now there are fires up in Redding , Ca.
My one second cousin has a ranch up there and is boarding 4 extra horses and has stables for 2 more, she has offered to take in anyone's horses as long as she has room.
Not sure but it almost seems like these fires are DEW, Direct Energy Weapons.
Just like what was going on in Ca. in Dec.
Cars melting but trees still standing?
Must be more then terrifying.
Not sure without looking online as to what PIN stands for.
In my day we only had pin heads.
Just came to me without cheating or looking, Personal ID No.
Haven't lost it just yet after all...

Feathered flicks don't seem to exist in Hungary. Nowhere, not in the supermarket, not in the discount stores, nowhere. You can't buy a feathered flick, not even a cheap one made with nylon bristles or whatever, and of course it should be multicoloured preferably, but you can't get a feathered flick in Hungary. The spiders otthonon know this and are taking a bit too much advantage at the tops of all mz ceilings.

I quite like a house spider keeps all the nasty insects down. I am perhaops a pantheist or whatever but I don't like killing insects. Yes, a spider is not an insect, but they do like killing insects so I don't mind them sharing my house if they behave themselves.

now cobweb, that is another lovely word isn't it. Labia is also good, a lovely thing to get your tongue around.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Not sure without looking online as to what PIN stands for.
In my day we only had pin heads.
Just came to me without cheating or looking, Personal ID No.
Haven't lost it just yet after all...

err.... you are online and someone you know well already explained it in an earlier post, you did not have far to look

I found a baptist church not too far from me so I might start going there on a Sunday, too late today. I am not particularly religious I am C of E (Church of England) where you are allowed to believe almost anything you want, but I am truly thankful for life dealing me a good hand. Occasionally I get a bum card but on the whole I am truly thankful and I don't care if there is a God or not but it is OK to say thank you for this wonderful life I was given whoever you are.

It is baptist so we don't get the wine and cookies like the catholic mob but I think it is nice once in a blue moon to sit and say thankyou to whoever you want. I have heat and light and the internet I have a lot to be thankful for. Sometimes it is nice to remember that.

SimonTrew wrote:

I have a load of walnuts to plant but I am warned by Orwell, "anyone who plants a walnut is planting it for his grandchildren, and who gives a damn about his grandchildren"

Orwell was correct that a long living walnut tree will certainly be there for, and benefit, the grandchildren. But he was wrong to imply it was only for the grandchildren.

I planted a walnut 15 years ago. For a few years now it gives buckets of nuts each fall. Walnuts do well here. in fact, any nuts I miss show up as little trees next spring.

    “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb

klsallee wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

I have a load of walnuts to plant but I am warned by Orwell, "anyone who plants a walnut is planting it for his grandchildren, and who gives a damn about his grandchildren"

Orwell was correct that a long living walnut tree will certainly be there for, and benefit, the grandchildren. But he was wrong to imply it was only for the grandchildren.

I planted a walnut 15 years ago. For a few years now it gives buckets of nuts each fall. Walnuts do well here. in fact, any nuts I miss show up as little trees next spring.

    “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb

Yes, I am going from memory as after six months I haven't unpacked my books yet, but I think in the same essay Orwell does tend to summarise it as such. In "A good word for the Vicar of Bray", who liived and died by his beliefs - he changed sides about four times but "I shall live and die the Vicar of Bray", Orwell says, what is left of him now? A comic song and a walnut tree that has given shade and pleasure to generations. So, I think Orwell says, if you see a nut, stick it in the ground, after all your evil deeds are forgotten there will be a beautiful tree. It is a bit of an odd sentiment from old Orwell, but I get the point.

Even Thatcher managed to say "No generation has a freehold on this earth. All we have is a life tenancy - with a full repairing lease".

The thing that occasionally I refer to as my garden which is more a rather expensively stoned parkolo at the moment (not my waste of money, previous owners spent money in all the wrong places) is going to take some time to get into shape, but I have made a start. It will take a few years to start looking nice, but as the Chinese proverb says, the second best time is now. I hadn't heard that proverb before but it is right,. Sow and ye shall reap.

Hoover. proprietary name for a make of vacuum cleaner (patented 1927); sometimes used generally for "vacuum cleaner." As a verb, meaning "to vacuum," from 1926, in the company's advertising.

The first upright vacuum cleaner was invented in June 1908 by Canton, Ohio department store janitor and occasional inventor James Murray Spangler (1848–1915). Spangler was an asthmatic, and suspecting the carpet sweeper he was using at work was the cause of his ailment, he created a basic suction-sweeper by mounting an electric fan motor on a Bissell brand carpet sweeper then adding a soap box and a broom handle. After refining the design and obtaining a patent for the Electric Suction Sweeper[1] he set about producing it himself, assisted by his son, who helped him assemble the machines, and his daughter, who assembled the dust bags. Production was slow, just two to three machines completed a week.

Spangler then gave one of his Electric Suction Sweepers to his cousin Susan Troxel Hoover (1846–1925),[2] who used it at home. Impressed with the machine, she told her husband and son about it. William Henry "Boss" Hoover (August 18, 1849 – February 25, 1932)[3] and son Herbert William Hoover Sr. (October 30, 1877 – September 16, 1954)[4] were leather goods manufacturers in North Canton, Ohio, which at the time was called New Berlin.[5] Hoover bought the patent from Spangler in 1908, founding the Electric Suction Sweeper Company with $36,000 capital, retaining Spangler as production supervisor with pay based on royalties in the new business. Spangler continued to contribute to the company, patenting numerous further Suction Sweeper designs until his death in 1915, when the company name was changed to the Hoover Suction Sweeper Company, with Spangler's family continuing to receive royalties from his original patent until 1925.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hoover_Company

I believe this is true that Electrolux used to advertise in the UK "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux". It was pointed out to them that this may not have the meaning they intended, and they carried on, quite successfully, advertising under that slogan. It is catchy and makes people laugh and people remember the brand, and that is what you want.

Everyone remembers the awful Ferrero Rocher adverts and so on. It can be the most awful advert that you tend to remember.

I tend to get rather addicted to infomercials in the small hours, I can jusdt watch for hours while they try to sell me the latest greatest frying pan or exercise machine. I never buy anything from them but I just love watching them and going hang on, I know advertising is cheap at 3am on the Only Simon Watches It Channel, but it is not free, and start doing back-of-.the-fag-packet sums to work out how many they must have to sell to pay for the advert, assuming a healthy profit margin on their rubbish.

Neil Sedaka nearly tempted me last night/this morning with "The Teen Years", 135 hits from the fifties and sixties for 49.95 GBP. It is "cheaper than downloading", according to Neil. I am not sure where he gets that idea.

SimCityAT wrote:

Hoover... (at Wikipideia)]

Oh dear, another fall guy who believes everything he reads on Wikipedia. Obviously Hoover was retronamed after the US president, John F. Kennedy, because the peanut guy, Carter, was busy making carts and missed the opportunity.

SimonTrew wrote:

....

Neil Sedaka nearly tempted me last night/this morning with "The Teen Years", 135 hits from the fifties and sixties for 49.95 GBP. It is "cheaper than downloading", according to Neil. I am not sure where he gets that idea.

Is that all they were offering?   

I'd want a lot more money than that to listen to 135 hits from Neil Sedaka. 

I don't think I could take just so much sugary smarmy lyrics from a somewhat creepy guy - almost as creepy as Liberace. 

How does he continue to look youthful?

SimonTrew wrote:

SimCityAT wrote:

Hoover... (at Wikipideia)]

Oh dear, another fall guy who believes everything he reads on Wikipedia. Obviously Hoover was retronamed after the US president, John F. Kennedy, because the peanut guy, Carter, was busy making carts and missed the opportunity.

Do some more research Simon, the net is full of it. Not just Wikipedia. That was purely an example.