Thank's for changing the subject header.
I was manually killfiling the tedious thread about who's on the correct side of the political spectrum in our neighborhood--but happened to read laserbeams last contribution for some reason, and enjoyed it.
So--thanks, Ray and Chip!
(now--what does this have to do with University City--get back On Topic!)
from vogue's book of etiquette and good manners (new york: conde nast publications, 1969):
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Cattle were once used as standards of monetary value, which is one possible reason why we still use the expressions "heads" and "tails" when flipping our coins today. "Capital" and "cattle" are both derived from the same Latin word, while "penny" and "pecuniary" stem from another one, "pecu," meaning oxen. The Norsemen contributed their word for cattle, "fe," from which "fee" is an easy step.
We are indebted to the Romans for some of our pecuniary terms. The words "mint" and "money" stem from the Latin Moneta. This was the surname of the goddess Juno; the Romans made money in her temple. "Salary" comes from "salarium," the name for the "salt money" with which the Roman treasury paid the army. The British symbol for the pound (�) originally represented the Roman "libra pondo," and some of Britain's earliest silver pennies were known by the Latin name "denarii," the first letter of which (d.) came to stand for pence.
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Bowling equipment of a kind has been found in the grave of an Egyptian child, put there presumably so he could bowl his way blissfully through eternity. Stone Age man, according to his artifacts, also bowled, rolling large pebbles and rocks at pointed stones or sheep joints. And the ancient Polynesians bowled in a game called "ula maika," in which the distance to be bowled was 60 feet, same as today's
Bowling as we know it originated in the monasteries of continental Europe. By the Middle Ages it was extremely popular, first in Germany and then in England. It became so well liked in England that Edward III passed an edict in 1365 forbidding "the hurling of stones" and other sports which, as in the case of golf, might have interfered with the practice of archery, thus impairing the country's military defense. During Richard II's reign these rules were renewed but bowling, far from dying out, so endeared itself to the people that in 1530 Henry VIII ordered bowling lanes installed at Whitehall for his personal use.
In Europe, bowling has developed a number of variations over the years, among them skittles, half-bowl, the Basque "quilles" and the German "kegelspiel," or ninepins. Dutch settlers brought ninepins to New York. It was first played on the green, and in 1732 the square north of New York's Battery was leased as a bowling green, the name by which it is still known.
Unfortunately, as bowling grew popular, so also did gambling on the game. Its eventual control by gamblers caused Connecticut and New York to outlaw bowling, but these moves had no more success than the earlier ones of English kings. In 1842 someone, realizing that not bowling itself but only ninepins had been outlawed, had the bright idea of adding another pin to the game. Tenpins is what we have played ever since.
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......... laserbeam� [aka ray] (was: striking at strikes) -- coming full circle...
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