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General puzzlement thread

Why do people sing Christmas carols without understanding the words or realising that they are completely daft and surreal?:

Away In A Manger;
Firstly a manger is an animal food trough (I had to look that up), which we know is where the babieth Jesus was layeth. Now, I always understood these manger things were not movable, so did this particular one have wheels and an engine? And where exactly did he drive away to?

Good King Wenceslaus;
I looked this up too. Duke of Bohemia King Wenceslaus lived in Prague. The carol has nothing at all to do with Christmas as far as I can see and is just a fictional story about his early life.

Also Christmas was banned between the years 1647 & 1660, reinstated only when Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne because she wanted Philip to give her expensive presents from Bond Street.

Interesting true fact: Christmas (this week in fact) is the busiest of all for photocopier repairs because of people photocopying their naked arses at the office Christmas party.
 
Rasher said:
Good King Wenceslaus;
I looked this up too. Duke of Bohemia King Wenceslaus lived in Prague. The carol has nothing at all to do with Christmas as far as I can see and is just a fictional story about his early life.
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'The Feast of Stephen' is Boxing Day in modern parlance.
 
St Stephen's Day (ph, not v) falls on 26th December, which just happens to be Boxing Day. It has nothing to do with Christmas any more than Boxing Day has, other than being the Day after 25th December.
 
jcbrum said:
Since 'English' is a fluid language, developed from usage, it depends where you got your supposed education, I suppose. Innit.
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I'm happy with the OED, which says you're wrong, and is generally regarded as the final arbiter of correct British English. It's not a matter of recent usage either, spelt has been a correct past form of spell in British English for a very long time indeed. Longer than both of us have been alive. Perhaps you are an American.

And yes, of course, spelt is also wheat, but that's neither here nor there. I make bread with it sometimes, but I also know that spelled can be spelt in two ways.
 
JC,

You know that scene in the Wrath of Khan where Kirk says to Spock, "I would not presume to debate you," to which Spock replies "That is wise"?

Joe
 
Joe, :)

Star Trek, was not included in my philosophical education curriculum.

As Noel Coward said, "Television is for appearing on, not looking at."

JC
 
JC,

Star Trek, was not included in my philosophical education curriculum.
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Could there be a greater travesty in one's philosophical erudition? I think not.

Joe
 
Mullardman said:
Why do rev counters , in the small print, state: RPM x 1000 -1. Have they lost a rev?
Mull
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I was only pondering this last week. I think it may be to do with formula revs/min a mathamatical way of expressing the division [-1]. I am sure someone will come along and correct if otherwise.
 
Rev counters go from zero to whaetever - say 7000 revs, except that because the counter starts at zero, it actually reads maximum at 6999.
The same applies to each numbered reading i.e. 5 = 4999 etc.
 
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