Highlights of the past week

[johnfowles]

Newsgroup highlights week ending 28 January 2005
Having been asked by silverheels during the week how else she could access the NG as her usual
AOL link was proving troublesome I was not too surprised to see a new thread subject
"OT: "AOL shutting down newsgroups" at:- http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...1e29df58edd568
which might be useful to anyone here who usually accesses the Newsgroup using their AOL facility. Personally I believe that
now Google have got rid of their stupid 3 to 9 hours required before a posting is visible then google grouops is the way to
go:- http://www/newsgroup2.notlong.com of course.
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The chat room last Friday was bustling
somebody recently had a problem with mIRC
so this week I'll give the simplest link that uses a Java applet:- http://chatlink.notlong.com
and the link to my main chat room page on my site:- http://johnfowles.org.uk/LIGHTFOOT/chat/
from where you will find a link to my tutorial page on getting and
configuring mIRC
Once you have downloaded then installed mIRC this link will magically
open mIRC and configure it all in one fell swoop*
using this link:-
irc://irc.dilexnet.net:6667/gordonlightfootch
OK 9PM EST this evening when we can begin detailed planning for gman's August18h barbecue!!
John fowles
*what on earth is a fell swoop anyway??
is there any other kind??

[Auburn Annie]

Originally posted by johnfowles:

*what on earth is a fell swoop anyway??
is there any other kind??

********************************************
Here's one answer from "The Straight Dope":

My late grandmother often used the phrase "one fell swoop" to indicate doing many things at once. What is a fell swoop? And how did this phrase get into our everyday vernacular? --KS

SDSTAFF Ken replies:

Fell, from Old English, means awful, terrible or horrible. The word's stem can also be seen in "felon," which now is mostly used to mean someone who has been convicted of a felony (a serious crime), but which formerly meant one who is terrible, horrible or awful in behavior. The "swoop" is an onomotopoeia, indicating a fast movement. All together, "one fell swoop" means a swift, horrible blow.

Shakespeare, originator of so many English catchphrases, may have dreamed up this one too. It appears in "Macbeth": "What! all my pretty chickens and their dam/At one fell swoop?" (act IV, scene 3) laments Macduff, upon learning his wife and children have been killed by Macbeth. This appears to be the earliest recorded use of the phrase, although it may have been in common usage before Shakespeare wrote it down.

It's interesting that "one fell swoop," which originally had such a dire connotation, is now a mild term meaning "all at once." A similar fate has befallen the expression "fey charm." Few people know that "fey" is an old Scottish term meaning (a) fated to die soon, or (b) full of the sense of approaching death (these definitions from the American Heritage Dictionary). So if you say someone has a certain fey charm, you're saying he or she exerts that morbid fascination associated with imminent death.

--SDSTAFF Ken
Straight Dope Science Advisory Board

[Comment on this answer.]

Cecil's Mailbag is researched and written by members of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, Cecil's online auxiliary. Although the SDSAB does its best, these articles are edited by Ed Zotti, not Cecil, so accuracywise you'd better keep your fingers crossed.

[johnfowles]

Newsgroup Highlights week ending 4 February 2005
quiet week over there as usual. Luckily two Newsgroupers celebrated their 39th birthday which created something to read about at least
Bill Mulrooney usefully highlighted the sale of tickets for the Northampton Mass concert on October 20th and it is to be hoped that the box office have not sold the front row centre seats to too many fans!!
Wayne Francis had the latest tour details on his site very quickly and uploaded his February "commentary" in a very timely fashion
see the "News" page at:- http://www.lightfoot.ca/news.htm
I wanted to try to append something to my own very first Newsgroup posting in November 1997 (a reply to Jenney) at:- http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...e78e8b091a03c9
but as there was no reply link on that old page it would not have worked

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Those of us chatting regularly would appreciate a few new chattering typists
9PM EST tonight and every Friday at http://www.chatlink.notlong.com
John Fowles
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of the English language,in which your house can simultaneously burn up and burn down, in which you fill a form by filling out a form,in which you add up a column of figures by adding them down and in which your alarm clock goes off by going on, and where you must chop a tree down before chopping it up. need I say more??
copyright Richard Lederer

[This message has been edited by johnfowles (edited February 04, 2005).]

[SilverHeels]

quote:Originally posted by johnfowles:
Newsgroup Highlights week ending 4 February 2005
quiet week over there as usual. Luckily two Newsgroupers celebrated their 39th birthday which created something to read about at least


And I missed YOUR greetings, Sir John, my fellow Brit!

[johnfowles]

quote:Originally posted by SilverHeels:
And I missed YOUR greetings, Sir John, my fellow Brit!


Very sorry Bru dear I must have got distracted

Newsgroup highlights week ending 11 february 2004
An interesting discussion centered around the rare recording by Gord that was included in the Bob Dylan film Renaldo and Clara Gord's rendering of Bob's wistful "Ballad in Plain D" I managed to rediscover the web site from which I had long ago downloaded a tiny real Media File that plays for all of one minute 38 seconds
I think this is included on one of the rare Dylan albums that no doubt jovesjki has is the recording by Gord on that the any longer??
for those of a curious disposition the link is:- http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Coffee...realaudio.html
scroll down to find:-
OTHER ARTISTS:


Gordon Lightfoot:
Ballad In Plain D
(191KB)
The chat room was busier than usual last Friday and we were joined by a silent chatter who resounded in the nick or real name of "setty"; however he or she was obviously totally confused by the rabid exchanges taking place and I do not believe uttered/typed a single dicky bird (word) although (and I do not recall how I knew) I recorded that he or she came from Queens NYC. If setty you are reading this please come back and tell us something about yourself
so folks tonight it will be at 9PM EST at:- http://www.lightfootchat.notlong.com
John Fowles
Have you heard the one about the woman who asked a taxi driver where she could get scrod "I did not know that the verb had a past tense" muttered the cabbie
copyright Richard Lederer

[joveski]

i have a LK remastered version of it... 1.38 is all that circulates

[LSH]

John, I'll forgive you calling us rabid in a roundabout way since you shared that very poignant piece of music from the past. it's sweet. thank you.

[johnfowles]

quote:Originally posted by LSH:
John, I'll forgive you calling us rabid in a roundabout way since you shared that very poignant piece of music from the past. it's sweet. thank you.

You are very welcome Laurel

Newsgroup highlights week ending 18 February 2005
Our new friend Max from Italy struck gold with his second Newsgroup thread posting
challenging with yet another appeal to list "Gord's TOP 10 songs" Note 10 (only) starting at:- http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...b287edbc3249c3
last friday the regulars had a good session incuding Bill triumphantly exclaiming that at very long last he was using mIRC.
I was much struck by a report on NBC News last night about the burgeoning use of acronyms by today's youth in Instant Messenging. Well beyond our usual LOL/ROFLMAO/my own favo(u)rite ROTFLAWMP: Rolling On the Floor Laughing And Wetting My Pants, and the more prosaic brb and even GGP "gotta go P" so this evening I shall be asking Bill if he is NIFOC "Naked In Front Of Computer" and suggesting to Laurel that she could GYPO "Get Your Panties Off" . Noting that neither need worry about POS "Parent Over Shoulder" (unless of course
Laurel your mother decides to call round in person instead of hogging your attention by telephone!!)
I will be checking these matters this evening at 9 pm at:- http://www.lightfootchat.notlong.com
Cheers
John Fowles
What's another word for thesaurus?
good "one-liner" jokes in the "Why Ask Why" section at:- http://www.tech-sol.net/humor/one-liner.htm


[This message has been edited by johnfowles (edited February 18, 2005).]

[LSH]

well, john, sorry I missed it. nothing I like better than bill NIFOC.
I'll definitely be catching up with all of you next friday.

[Borderstone]

Seeing as how my PC is busted at home and I a naturist,it's been awhile since I was NIFOC!

I think the library would frown on that!


B.M. L! C!

------------------
"A knight of the road,going back to a place where he might get warm." - Borderstone

[johnfowles]

Newsgroup highlights week ending 11 March 2005 a current thread asks
"Which Lightfoot Songs Had To "Grow On You"?"
which has had a subject title change and is now comparing the merits of old fashioned analog vinyl vis a vis CDs
starting at:- http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...02bf6b47a4e272
as always I give the URL of the first posting to see the complete thread to date simply click on "show options" then select "view thread"
apparently Geoff Kulawick of Linus Entertainment (who with Nanci famously posted here last year announced that "Chum Television International
(CTI) and Linus Entertainment today announced" a deal to exploit CTI's
Library of music programmes leading to speculation that a DVD could be released of Gord's famed 1999 Chum/Much More Music's Intimate and Interactive or was it Interactive and Intimate? program(me).So perhaps if Geoff or Nanci still read this forum they might like to comment?
NG thread at:- http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...2781d217f8728c
Our newcomer from Italy Max started a thread
"Gord's TOP 10 songs " at:- http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...b287edbc3249c3

Now for the commercial break
Every Friday we hold a Chat room session at 9PM eST
I have given previously provided various links and methods for getting
in and it is pleasing to see that several more chatters have seen the
light and as strongly recommended installed the mIRC chat "client"
John Fowles

[johnfowles]

Newsgroup highlights week ending March 18th 2005
Janice posted her appeal for information on Massey Hall attendees (only just over two months to go!!) on the Newsgroup so several replies are to be expexcted from Lightheads who eschew this forum. her original posting is at:- http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...a45d6416631e26
To flesh out my weekly Newsgroup report from now on I am going to post a link found almost at random by searching the group
To start off here is a nice long thread "Favorite Concert Songs " originally started by Cathy using a then-recent corfid topic:- http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...bfd1892d29162e
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regarding the chat room it is gratifying to find that more and more of the regulars are now using mIRC and thanks to Sheryl for alerting me to a strangely different Java applet security warning. As very often a chatter does not appear to know if he/she came in via mIRC or not I
will this afternoon rewrite my chat room page to define in better detail what you should expect to see
But whatever just click on my easy to remember link http://lightfootchat.notlong.com
To attend this evening's session at 9 PM EST
before I forget I just perused my old corfid chat room topic:- http://www.corfid.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001182.html
Which made entertaining reading and reminded me how many chatters have not been seen in the room for a very long time
John Fowles

------------------
My Gordon Lightfoot webring
starts at
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/lightfoot

[johnfowles]

Newsgroup highlights week wending March 25th 2005
Not a lot to draw your atention to sorry to say
I would have given a random link to an old Newsgroup thread on a Lightfoot song but google group's usually most useful "search this group" facility as per the search box so named at the top of the page seems to have forgotten its manners and now you get the results from a full web search not the same thing at all dammit.
Fortunately the "advanced search" feature is still behaving itself so I was able to pick a random song title "Let It Ride" and
pull up a listing of the many Newsgroup threads referring to that epic song I have chosen a 2002 thread discusing the East Of Midnight album which started at:- http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...195aeafef709c5
OK
I have yet to rewrite my chat room tutorial at:- http://www.lightfootchat.notlong.com
Last week I tried to make screenshots of each distinct method of getting into the room so that chatters could tell when in the room which method they used to get in as often I find they do not know
I.E.
mIRC and the two Java applet/browser ways the JWIRC applet on my own site or
the IRC server (dilexnet) applet but could not get in using the latter on Firiday evening so I emailed my contact at dilexnet and in his reply he confirmed that they had had a problem Friday night
Just one more reason to get mIRC.
I was pleased to see that nearly everybody who attended last week has now installed mIRC
Anyway the regulars wil be a'chatting again this evening at 9 pm EST
John Fowles
Happy Easter to all you bunnies out there