Nostalgia and Trivia

[SEEYA]

While waiting for LoriMNnice 's next installment   I thought some more diversion from politics was in order.
How about our regional differences and similarities?

How many of you have heard of a 'Michigan credit card'?
    It's a siphon hose for stealing gas.

How many of you know what a Yupper is? How about a Troll?
     A yupper (U-per) lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
     A Troll lives (under the bridge) in the Lower Peninsula

How about some  of the old measurements?
Here are some from my childhood:
     A rod (still used on some fencing labels) - 16 1/2 feet
     A peck (you know, peter piper) - 4 pecks to the bushel

Do you Southerners still eat black-eyed peas on New Years Eve - for good luck?

Do the Hispanics still give away Tamales over the Holidays? Like us Anglos use to do with Christmas Cookies?

How about 'Ice house'? Do they still have them in Texas? We would call them bars or taverns, here in Michigan.
Here in Michigan , a hundred years ago M/L, before the days of 'artificial ice', an Ice house was were the blocks of ice were stored.

 

[iddee]

Not only black-eye peas, but ham and greens, too.  Not on New Year's eve. On New Year's day.

Big dinner tomorrow.

[AllenF]

Don't forget the cornbread also.

[AllenF]

The women of the Tiwi tribe in the South Pacific are married at birth.

When Albert Einstein died, his final words died with him. The nurse at his side didn't understand German.

St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was not Irish.

The lance ceased to be an official battle weapon in the British Army in 1927.

St. John was the only one of the 12 Apostles to die a natural death.

Many sailors used to wear gold earrings so that they could afford a proper burial when they died.

Some very Orthodox Jew refuse to speak Hebrew, believing it to be a language reserved only for the Prophets.

A South African monkey was once awarded a medal and promoted to the rank of corporal during World War I.

Coffee is the second largest item of international commerce in the world. The largest is oil.

[SEEYA]

I see you and raise you:

Around 1837 Canada had a couple of revolts. Guerrilla bands of Ontario refugees and American sympathizers were active along the Michigan border. In one incident the British military commander threatened follow the rebels into Michigan and American troops set up defensive positions to defend against a British invasion.

[AllenF]

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." is a grammatically valid sentence in the English language, used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated linguistic constructs. It has been discussed in literature since 1972 when the sentence was used by William J. Rapaport, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo. It was posted to Linguist List by Rapaport in 1992. It was also featured in Steven Pinker's 1994 book The Language Instinct.    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

[kingbee]

...
How many of you have heard of a 'Michigan credit card'?...

Do you Southerners still eat black-eyed peas on New Years Eve - for good luck?...

How about 'Ice house'? Do they still have them in Texas?...

'Round' here we call a syphon hose a Georgia Credit Card.

Nope, we-uns in the South eat blackeyed peas and hogjowl on New Years Day so we-uns will remember our past and have some cash money during the new year. 
  Only a dad gum rich Yankee Carpet Bagger or else a dad burn Scallywag can afford to eat ham and greens on New Years Day.   
blackeyed peas (no hyphen) were a cover or green manure crop 150 years ago and hogjowl (also no hyphen) was scavenged meat from the rotting heads of the livestock that was previously ours and left behind at Union Army camps after Generals Sheridan and Sherman visited us and in Sherman's own words, "Ate us out" (of house and home) "by foraging liberally" (also Sherman's words) on the country side.

There is still at least one "beer joint" ice house in Texas... I think.  But as a young man I helped my Grand Dad work in an ice house on the 4th of July and Labor Day.  The ice house were he worked made and sold block and crushed ice of many types and these two summer holidays were the biggest business days of the year.  I stocked the ice house with my own watermelons and I sold real live "ice cold" watermelons on the side.

[SEEYA]

The last time I was in a Ice House; you couldn't buy hard liquor by the shot. You has to go next door and buy a whole bottle, you then gave the bottle to the bartender, who wrote your name on it. The bartender could then serve you, out of your bottle and charge you a nominal fee, for the mix and ice and effort.

[kingbee]

... You has to go next door and buy a whole bottle... the bartender... wrote your name on it... then serve[d] you... and charge you a nominal fee...

We call that a corking fee.