Longest Afternoon EVAR

[the_gneech]

Meh ... how can I write, draw, or work on gaming while still looking like I'm actually doing work? Hmm.

In other news, here's Today's Forgotten English.

scare-a-job
A phrase implying that the job will be nearly finished, and tantamount to the expression, "making it look foolish." Essex.

--James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855

On this date in 1801, Britain's first census was begun. In a subsequent survey, conducted in 1881, residents were asked to furnish their "rank, profession, or occupation." Some of the more puzzling responses, as preserved by the London Genealogical Society, included:

• Maker of sand views
  
• Invisible net maker
  
• Colourist of artificial fish
  
• Knight of the Thimble
  
• Disinfector of railways
  
• Carrot and mangle salesman
  
• Boy for general purposes
  
• Electric bath attendant
  
• Count as female
  
• Scarecrow
  
• Drowner
  
• Fish-bender
  
• Cow-banger
  
• Running about
  
• Goldfish-catcher
  
• Grape-dryer

Well no wonder there was somebody running about, with all that cow-banging and fish-bending going on! What I can't figure out is how a job being nearly finished makes it look foolish.

-The Gneech, boy for general purposes

Comments

[joeygatorman.livejournal.com]

Do you have any idea of how wrong “boy for general purposes” and “count as female” sounds?

[kylet.livejournal.com]

Not nearly as wrong as "cow-banging". Yes, I know the slang probably didn't exist back then, but...

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Which is worse, cow-banging or fish-bending? You decide!

-The Gneech

cow-banging....

[mammallamadevil.livejournal.com]

Fish are more flexible....

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

Owl-stretching!

[aidax.livejournal.com]

*grins* It's stuff like this that makes people think that we brits are weird...

Mweh!

[vixent-fox.livejournal.com]

I bet my day today is longer than yours.... I had class at 7:30am... which means I had to be up no later than 6am, and I won't be home until 10 or 11pm tonight due to Prayer Meeting... and being able to take the bus home.

[reynai.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking, a partly-done job looking foolish, as in, not enough time given to properly finish it. For example, if you were only given 3/4 of the time you needed to finish a SJ strip, and so in one of the panels, Tiffany's a half-drawn half-blob creature, and Drezzer's word-bubble is filled in with "Insert witty banter here".

[dlazerous.livejournal.com]

At least no one put down "Bird Stuffer" as an occupation.

[azhreia.livejournal.com]

isn't "foolish" one of those words that have changed meaning over time?

I remember someone in my family looking up family trees, and being incensed that a distant relative was described as "a shoddy worker".

nowadays we are used to the word "shoddy" meaning substandard or inadequate. But shoddy was a type of cloth, and a shoddy worker was a weaver who made that type of cloth.

words are tricky little buggers, and you have to make sure you actually understand them in context ;-)

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Wasn't Britain's first census the Domesday Book?

There were probably fewer colourists of artificial fish in them days, though.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Positively Loopy!