Another off topic album in the historic empeg collection. Punting!

Cool photos... But the American in me must ask... What is punting? The only definition of that word that makes sense to me has to do with what you guys call American football.

It looks like the british version of tubing, only using flatbottom boats and poles... hey... that's sorta like a pirogue with blunt ends!

Punting is how they get around in Venice.

Of course, in Hugo's case, it looks more like Pole Vaulting.

that's sorta like a pirogue with blunt ends

Yes... probably the best way to describe it for Americans (who've been to Louisiana and Venice) is to say that it's a blunt-ended pirogue that's operated like a gondola (not with the paddle -- that's cheating, unless you're using it to recover a pole that's got stuck in the mud and left behind). It's (AFAIK) peculiar to Cambridge and Oxford.

Peter

It's (AFAIK) peculiar to Cambridge and Oxford.

Not at all - my first punting experience was several years ago in Bath, on the Avon.

Rob

You can go punting on the Avon in Christchurch, New Zealand, too! (the Avon runs through the city between Oxford and Cambridge streets).

Punts are used out in the Fens (or Norfolk, or somewhere) for wildfowl shooting, IIRC. And punt-guns tend to be huge, like 4-bore or so.

And on the Broads, I've had to quant a yacht - like punting, but for a full-size boat; you can walk along the deck as you push. Bloody hard work, as I recall (not that I do recall a great deal, due to lack of ebriation).

Also Durham.

More here and here.

Can't you people invent your own place names??

Yeah! Invent your own place names . . . oh, wait, we stole . . . damn.

John
Durham, NC USA

...due to lack of ebriation

ROFL

tanstaafl.

In reply to:

---

Yeah! Invent your own place names . . . oh, wait, we stole . . . damn.

John
Durham, NC USA

---

Even more reasons why we're better than you.

Bitt Faulk
Raleigh, NC

no, we got some of your flag too :)

... and Leeds, too - at the park, or in the canal basin in town. Trouble was, it was a puddled-bottom canal. Hence, your pole got stuck often enough to be accused of amateurism. Oh, there was the additional risk that if you fell in, you had your stomach pumped

I hate to ask for the explanation of a word that was in a post explaining a different word. But anyhow: What does ebriation mean? I don't know that word and could not find it in any dictionary I could reach.

cu,
sven

PS: Tony: 64 to go

It's the opposite of inebriation. tms13 is saying that he was nissed as a pewt.

Play nice with the rest of us Roger, you are not exactly making things easy are you .

Hi Roger,

very funny, Roger. You were really helpful. NOT.

No please get a bit more serious, and explain those words for us that don't speak english as mother's tongue.

cu,
sven

I forget who said it: Humor is like a frog. You can dissect it, but the thing dies in the process.

Don't ask roger to explain, it wouldn't be funny if he did. By the way, if English is your second language, that's probably why you didn't get it. Some gags only work in their original language.

Hi Tony.

I didn't ask him for an explanation of the joke, but of a single word, which is a huge difference in my opinion.

cu,
sven

Not if the word is the joke.

Okay, I'll kill the frog:

"Inebriation" is "drunk".

In English, prepending a word with "in" usually makes the word take opposite meaning. For instance, the word "correct" means right, the word "incorrect" means wrong.

So, "lack of ebriation" is a pun on the word "inebriation".

The remaining gag "nissed as a pewt" is a reference to how drunk people sometimes speak, mixing up the sounds of adjacent words. (Pissed as a newt).

And in case that one needs explaining, "pissed" also means drunk to English types. Of course, on our side of the pond, "pissed" means angry, but that's a completely different discussion.

Ick. I hate the smell of formaldehyde.

inebriation drunkness, the state of being drunk (Latin inebriatus, pp of inebriare, to intoxicate, in- + ebriare, to make drunk, from ebrius, drunk) [1]

Now, prefix in in English often server to construct antonym (e.g. inappropriate vs. appropriate) (while in Latin, at least in our example, it served to 'intensify' the meaning of the original word). So, by mixing up the meaning of in on purpose, the word ebriation was invented, with the meaning of sobriety. (The later word, BTW, has completely different etymology.)

Why are newts often accused of habitual drunkness I would not know.

[1] After Webster's New World Dictionary

Why are newts often accused of habitual drunkness I would not know.


That's easy. Ever see one scrabble along. Your above average crock can't weave as crooked a line.

Flammable ... Inflammable. Discuss.

Famous... Infamous.

Bruno
No, this isn't flame bait. :)

"We're more than famous! We're INfamous"