On Sun, 05 Jun 2016 01:08:15 -0300, Joy Beeson
wrote:


When I was learning to manipulate vulgar fractions, I was taught that
if you have the same number in the numerator that you have in the
denominator, the two "cancel out" -- if you multiply by five and then
divide by five, it's the same as if you'd done nothing, so you might
as well do neither and save yourself the effort.

When I taught vulgar fractions, the students came in knowing that
"cancel" meant "add up to zero" and much confusion resulted -- not
least because I tried to switch to "divide out" and my long years of
saying "cancel" kept sneaking in.

Vulgar: lacking refinement or cultivation or taste

Does one have "refined" mathematics too :-)

So I drop in here from alt.usage.english to say: LANGUAGE MATTERS!!!!

Every time riding style comes up in discussion, the advocates of
sensible cycling are sure to say "take the lane" -- in the latest
kerfuffle, it's been escalated into "seize the lane".

A good rider does nothing of the sort. He doesn't seize the lane or
even take it. He simply rides where it's sensible to ride: sometimes
that's the right wheel track, sometimes it's the left wheel track,
sometimes it's straight down the middle, sometimes it's the next lane
over, sometimes it's on the shoulder.

And, of course, he always leaves himself room to dodge unexpected
obstacles, but I find that I have enough to say about lane position to
fill another post, and my buffer *is* scraping the barrel, so I'll
save that for another time.

Ob A.U.E.: does the metaphor "scrape the barrel" make sense to people
who have never seen a barrel? They were extinct when I was born, but
for the first twelve years, my library consisted of books Mom had
bought at estate sales, and I became familiar with a great many
out-of-date customs. (Though it wasn't until I re-read it as an adult
that I realized that the Bobbsey Twins were DRINKING water from a
(GAAACK) dug well.

Yes, I think "barrel" is still used, at least in some instances
although "drum" seems to have replaced in certain instances. One has a
55 gallon drum of kerosene, for example, but one has a barrel of wine
or whiskey., and the standard for measuring crude oil is still the 42
gallon barrel.

drinking water :-) I was raised drinking water from a dug well.
And, I worked on renovating the Calvin Coolidge homestead one summer.
Cal was raised drinking water from a dug well that was piped into the
hose through a lead pipe :-)
--
cheers,

John B.