Free association thread

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In our birthday suits

- time for Naked Party drinks I think! I hope Ogg comes back to explain the Jolly Roger properly LOL. I don't think I did a very handy job. As it were. ;)

Oh, Naoko, I think a job with your hand would make any roger jolly.

In the meantime, I'd best get my birthday suit ironed if we're having a party.
 
Oh, Naoko, I think a job with your hand would make any roger jolly.

In the meantime, I'd best get my birthday suit ironed if we're having a party.

LOL, that's what my grandmother said once (see Hot Arabic Chicks thread). I don't think yours will need it as much as hers, sweetie.

Ironing - gosh I must fetch my washing in!

There's a cup of tea for you in Naked if you would like it. :rose:
 
Jolly Roger Flag explanation, with holes....

Blood Red Flag meaning No Quarter?


Origins

The origin of the pirate flag has been lost. It is thought that pirates originally used a red flag, which was also common in naval warfare, to signal that no quarter would be given. This red flag was called Joli Rouge (pretty red) by the French, and may have been corrupted into English as Jolly Roger. From the red flag it seems that individual pirates began to develop their own personal flags in order to terrify their foes into a quick surrender. In contrast with the well known red flag, they used the black flag of quarantine and disease as the base, with the universal symbol for death, the skull and bones, and modified it to suit their individual tastes. The skull and bones was also used in captains' logbooks to indicate the death of a sailor.

A third possibility is that Jolly Roger derived from 'Old Roger' as a term for the devil. That the "Jolly Roger" flag was called the "Old Roger" flag in 1723 supports the third proposed origin. A news report in Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer (London, England), Saturday, October 19, 1723; Issue LVII, page 2, col. 1 reads: "Parts of the West-Indies. Rhode-Island, July 26. This Day, 26 of the Pyrates taken by his Majesty Ship the Greyhound, Captain Solgard, were executed here. Some of them delivered what they had to say in writing, and most of them said something at the Place of Execution, advising all People, young ones especially, to take warning by their unhappy Fate, and to avoid the crimes that brought them to it. Their black Flag, under which they had committed abundance of Pyracies and Murders, was affix'd to one Corner of the Gallows. It had in it the Portraiture of Death, with an Hour-Glass in one Hand, and a Dart in the other, striking into a Heart, and three Drops of Blood delineated as falling from it. This Flag they called Old Roger, and us'd to say, They would live and die under it."
Term

The name "Jolly Roger" goes back to at least Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates, published in Britain in 1724.

Johnson specifically cites two pirates as having named their flag "Jolly Roger": Bartholomew Roberts in June, 1721 and Francis Spriggs in December 1723. While Spriggs and Roberts used the same name for their flags, their flag designs were quite different, suggesting that already "Jolly Roger" was a generic term for black pirate flags rather than a name for any single specific design. Neither Spriggs' nor Roberts' Jolly Roger consisted of a skull and crossbones.

A Richard Hawkins, captured by pirates in 1724, reported that the pirates had a black flag bearing the figure of a skeleton stabbing a heart with a spear, which they named "Jolly Roger".

Despite this tale, it is assumed by most that the name Jolly Roger comes from the French words joli rouge, meaning "pretty red" and referring to a plain red flag which was flown to indicate that the ship would fight to the death, with no quarter given or expected. During the Elizabethan era "Roger" was a slang term for beggars and vagrants who "pretended scholarship." "Sea Beggars" had been a popular name for Dutch privateers since the 16th century. Another theory states that "Jolly Roger" is an English corruption of "Ali Raja," supposedly a 17th century Tamil pirate. Yet another theory is that it was taken from a nickname for the devil, "Old Roger". The "jolly" appellation may be derived from the apparent grin of a skull.

 
I love French!

But I don't understand what you're saying, Tio.

It's a bit of a word play - it means both "Wild Pansies" and "Savage Thought."
It's also the title of an important work in Anthropology by Claude Levi-Strauss.

There was a French saying "Une pensee pour tes pensees" which meant "A pansy for your thoughts." Itdidn't work quite the same in English, and became "A penny for your thoughts."
 
The Cheddar is Gorge-ous.

Wookey Hole Witch

Six miles south-east of Cheddar Gorge, along the main Wells Rd (the A371), on a minor road about a mile or so outside the town of Wells is Wookey Hole, a series of caves inhabited for some 70,000 years. The first ever cave dive in Britain was made in the Witch's Parlour cavern of the Wookey Hole in 1935. Twenty five caverns have so far been discovered, with further exploration still pending. The cave's most notorious inhabitant is its witch, who can still be seen at the bottom of Hell's Ladder, on the shore of the subterranean River Axe, her eyes fixed on the river. Of course, she has been turned to stone now. According to folklore, a monk from Glastonbury faced her in her lair and sprinkled her with holy water, thus petrifying her and making it safe for the cave- and history-loving public to explore her former home. In 1912, an archaeologist named Herbert Balch found the almost complete skeleton of an old woman, the bones of two goats, a dagger, some household items and a polished alabaster ball among other Iron Age remains near the entrance to the Hole. Whether or not these remains have any tie-in with the legend of the witch makes for interesting conjecture.
 
Ignore all Keep Right and Keep Left signs. They are merely political slogans.

(Gerard Hoffnung: Advice to foreign tourists attending 1951 Festival of Britain in London.)

Senso Unico

(Answer proudly given by two young women to taxi driver in Rome on being asked what street their hotel was in.)
 
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