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Chatterbox 4th Quarter

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Posted by Mookie on Sunday, November 3, 2013 12:01 PM

54, partly cloudy, Kansas is blowing leaves into our yard (blow your head off south wind), got all clocks changed and Driver in a coma.  Instead of gaining an hour, he seems to have lost several.  

And in tribute to yesterday's football game - Hail Mary!  

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Posted by tree68 on Saturday, November 2, 2013 7:44 PM

Damp day here, but I didn't notice because I was inside manning our booth all day at the train show in Syracuse.  Good turnout, and lots of interest in what we have to offer. 

Not to mention a goodly number of people who have ridden with us and are anxious to ride again.  Never a bad thing!

Time to get stuff ready for tomorrow.  The coloring sheets for the kids were very popular.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, November 2, 2013 11:27 AM

Norm48327

Wondering if Ed survived all the rain in Houston. I was told there was some flooding around Austin.

 

Here in San Antonio we got anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of rain, depending on where in the city you lived.

Just north of us in Canyon Lake, they received up to 14.5 inches.  The Austin area also had some pretty bad flooding.

Here in Texas with rain its either feast or famine.   Bur we are grateful for the rain.   Cowboy

 

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Posted by Norm48327 on Saturday, November 2, 2013 7:44 AM

Wondering if Ed survived all the rain in Houston. I was told there was some flooding around Austin.

Norm


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Posted by JoeKoh on Saturday, November 2, 2013 7:23 AM

good Saturday morning

little wet here in nw ohio. We welcomed a new great nephew into the family this week. 9lbs 2 0z 21 inches long .everyone is doing great. Matt is going with cousins for the rescheduled trick or treat. Don't forget to fall back and change your smoke detector batteries too.

stay safe

joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by Mookie on Thursday, October 31, 2013 6:23 PM

The Mierlo-Hout cam hasn't been back up all that long, but it is on here in the corner of my screen just about every day.  It is like having a picture window to look out.  The heartbeat of a city.  

Haven't figured out the construction of the underpass yet, but still fun to look at for a few.

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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, October 31, 2013 5:42 PM

Sitting here waiting for the trick-or-treaters to come by (four so far), with the Mierlo-Hout webcam up.  It may be past midnight there, but there's plenty of action on the rails.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, October 31, 2013 5:18 PM

Norm48327

Chilly and rainy all day in SE Michigan.

Definitely raining here in the wilds of northern New York, but it's actually fairly warm - 60F as I write this.

We've got high winds on tap for tonight - so I'll probably be out chasing trees and wires down calls.

I've been slowly plugging away at putting a steel roof on the kitchen - I'll have it done before the snow flies (I hope).  Had to "go aloft" today to ensure there were no major loose ends for the wind to take advantage of.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Norm48327 on Thursday, October 31, 2013 4:46 PM

Chilly and rainy all day in SE Michigan.

Norm


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Posted by JoeKoh on Thursday, October 31, 2013 2:45 PM

rain here in Nw  ohio. trick or treat was moved to Saturday. Ns was busy as usual.Local was back bringing cars. Here in Nw ohio  if you don't like the weather wait 5 minutes, you'll hate it more.Chores to do.

stay safe

Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by Norm48327 on Thursday, October 31, 2013 6:25 AM

You may see those blizzards again Mookie. The weather is about as predictable as, well, the weather.Big Smile

Larry is right though. Michigan weather can be whatever comes our way. The old saying goes 'If you don't like the weather, wait till tomorrow'.

Norm


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Posted by Mookie on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 10:20 PM

Gentlemen:  This is interesting.  I am very surprised that a state as far north as Michigan has severe summer weather.  I just figured it was so far north it would miss all the fluctuations involved in a tornado.  Guess I need to have Michigan explained to me.  

So - like Nebraska - has the weather changed a lot since, say 1950's?  We had huge blizzards, torrential rains and some messy floods - in Lincoln local.  Now we barely get any water, snow is an occasional burst of energy but for the most part very manageable and summers are a tad cooler and winters a tad warmer.

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 8:39 PM

We had interesting winter weather on the other side of the mitten from Norm and Larry.  Grand Haven itself didn't get much snow, because the dunes would carry the Lake-effect stuff up and over the city.  Just a little bit inland, though, it would come back down.  Grand Rapids often got it worse than we did.

Pat still remembers the tornado that hit west of Grand Rapids in 1956, devastating the (unincorporated) town of Standale.  She says her mother, brother, and she were in the basement (northwest side of GR), while Dad "kept a lookout" upstairs.  I remember our family driving through the devastation a few times afterwards.  They rebuilt most of the stores, but with the typical cheap designs of the mid- to late fifties, and many have had to be strengthened or replaced in the ensuing years.

Carl

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 8:20 PM

Mookie
Don't you get quite a bit of snow up in your area, rather than summer storms?

Spent my younger years about 20 miles from where Norm lives.

They get snow, sometimes even lake effect, but it's usually pretty mild.  There are times, though...

Summer storms?  One of the ten deadliest US tornadoes ever hit Flint, MI in 1953 - and the area is no stranger to lesser storms.  I've been through a few there myself.  My hometown was hit by another tornado from the same system as the Flint twister.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Mookie on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 7:59 PM

Norm:  Ah, the Land of Oz!  

We really struggled to get much moisture out of Kansas this year.  Not thinking we will get much snow, either.  Kansas had some goodies this year - right up to and including KC.  

Don't you get quite a bit of snow up in your area, rather than summer storms?  

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by Norm48327 on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 6:17 PM

Mookie,

In 2001 I was at Independence, KS at the Cessna single engine plant. We had to wait to depart thanks to one of those whopper sized thunderstorms you have on the prairies. We were flying a Twin Cessna, and had to fly two hundred miles north before we could turn on course for Michigan.

Never before had I seen a storm that large. Duly impressed.

Norm


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Posted by Mookie on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 3:40 PM

Joe - call Kansas - they got the brunt of our storm.  However, HAiL, yes!  Not a lot, quarter sized and Millie was glad she was in a garage.  Long time since we last had hail and in the fall is a surprise, but it melted and is wet, so we kept it.  

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by JoeKoh on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 2:57 PM

afternoon

work not so busy today.Saw a Mookie unit going westbound on NS with a stack train. Local was uptown switching cars. Rain in Illinois now on it's way here. Guessers say tomorrow could be scary.

stay safe

Joe

Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").

 

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Posted by Mookie on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 3:26 PM

Deggesty

Mookie

"Degg" - one syllable (drop the e to get the sound in print?)   Sounds incomplete.  Maybe Ham N. Degges?  

Ricki was right!

Mookie, I'll go you one better. My grandfather's first name was Cookman, and he went by a diminutive of that. He enlisted in Company I of the 40th Virginia Infantry in 1861, and his brother William Hamilton enlisted in the same company in 1862. After my great-uncle joined, Company I did not have to worry so much about food, because it had Cook Degges and Ham Degges.

Johnny - I am going to laugh about that for a long time!  Laugh

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 3:17 PM

Right across the river we have the charming village of Gananoque.

That's Gan-an-OCK-way, not Gan-an-OAK.

And not to far from me is Chaumont (after the region in France).  Sha-MOH, not "CHOW-mont, or Sha-MONT.

And south a few dozen miles is Pulaski - pull-a$$-K(EYE), not pull-a$$-KEE.

My eighth grade American history teacher used to say that you have to put the em-FOSS-iss on the right sil-LOB-bull...

The list is huge...

Of course, one major factor in local pronunciation tends to be  - local pronunciation, which may extend well beyond the place name.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 2:49 PM

Mookie

"Degg" - one syllable (drop the e to get the sound in print?)   Sounds incomplete.  Maybe Ham N. Degges?  

Ricki was right!

Mookie, I'll go you one better. My grandfather's first name was Cookman, and he went by a diminutive of that. He enlisted in Company I of the 40th Virginia Infantry in 1861, and his brother William Hamilton enlisted in the same company in 1862. After my great-uncle joined, Company I did not have to worry so much about food, because it had Cook Degges and Ham Degges.

Johnny

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 2:31 PM

      I one time had a window salesman proudly tell me his products were produced in Doo-Boo-Q, Iowa.  I correctly guessed that he had never been there.

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by zardoz on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 2:04 PM

CShaveRR

Des Plaines (the street, the river, the suburb):  Dis-PLANES.

But Illinois still has a silent S.

And yet the big city in Iowa (Des Moines) is pronounced DeMoyn (also a silent 'S').

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Posted by Mookie on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 12:10 PM

"Degg" - one syllable (drop the e to get the sound in print?)   Sounds incomplete.  Maybe Ham N. Degges?  

Ricki was right!

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 12:06 PM

Just watched a TV show of a Bill Gaither "Homecoming" (Gospel hour) that was done in Louisville, Kentucky.  A couple of the singers from the show went out with a camera man to stop people on the street and ask them, "How do you pronounce the name of the capital of Kentucky, is it 'Louey-vill' or 'Loo-ih-vill'?") and they got all sorts of answers from both native residents and tourists.  Of course the joke is, the capital of Kentucky is pronounced "Frank-fort".

My aunt was from Kentucky and I am not sure I can even spell Louisville the way she pronounced it... something akin to "LOUH-vull", but almost as a single syllable.

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 11:22 AM

And, there is a Shallotte in North Carolina, down near the coast. I think that the accent is on the second syllable.

I grew up in Lancaster county, South Carolina, and I learned to accent the first syllable--and everyone I have known with that name accents the second syllable. I am not sure about the pronunciation of Lancaster in Pennsylvania or in Virginia, though I think that the Tidewater Virginians accent the first syllable--at least that is what I heard from family members; my father was born in Lancaster county, Virginia, but he died when I was two years old, so I do not remember hearing him say it.

I don't know if we should move on to the pronunciation of family names, but I will mention mine: Degges. Ricki would say, "If you hear it, you can't spell it; if you see it, you can't pronounce it." It was originally "Degge," but around 1830 or so, the "s" was added (I have no idea why). Seeing it, people want to make two syllables of it; when answering the telephone I am asked if I am John Deg ges; my response is, "This is John Degges." Most people apologize, and I will tell them that it is not a common name. A Methodist minister was addressing me as "Brother Digges" until I asked him if he ate iggs for breakfast. Others have confused us with another family--Diggs or Digges, and there census records with our named spelled with an "i."

Johnny

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Posted by Norm48327 on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 7:11 AM

And in Michigan we have Charlotte. The emphasis is on  LOTTE, contrary to the pronunciation of the same city in North Carolina.

I won't comment on the pronunciation of Illinois. It would be deemed political. Stick out tongue

Norm


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Posted by CShaveRR on Monday, October 28, 2013 9:06 PM

You guys should live in Chicago...I mean, Cha-CAH-Ga!

Everything is pronounced just like it's spelled, regardless of origin. 

Mozart (the street):  MOSE-art.
Goethe (the street):  GO-thee.
Des Plaines (the street, the river, the suburb):  Dis-PLANES.

"You" has a singular (you) and a plural (yous).

But Illinois still has a silent S.

Carl

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, October 28, 2013 8:46 PM

And, Larry, it's not just around Upstate New York, but all over the country. Consider the native names that have French spelling, such as Guyandotte, Ouachita, and Quebec (remember that the French pronounce "qu" as 'k."

As to Guyandotte, the first time I read the French name "Guillaume," I pronounced something like "Gwee ome," and my mother corrected me, and pronounced it more like "Wee ome"--very little different from the English "William." And, I have seen the second one spelled "Washita"--which is the English spelling for the name.

Johnny

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, October 28, 2013 8:15 PM

In some ways, you can't blame folks who aren't familiar with local pronunciations for massacre'in' names. 

F'rinstance, I'd bet the greater portion of us here would pronounce Madrid, NY as muh-DRID.

Locally, it's pronounced MAH-drid, with the emphasis on the first syllable.

Native American names (common around here) can be a challenge. 

LarryWhistling
Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) 
Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date
Come ride the rails with me!
There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...

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