[kenberg]

I'm playing bridge at a club today, 12-31-13, I am going hiking tomorrow, 1-1-14. Becky and I have decided that the revelers at midnight can drop the ball without us.

We have some family projects that will take us through the winter, but then we are thinking of hitting the road for a bit. Which road is to be decided.

Do I really have to learn to tweet? I thought it was like the hula-hoop and if I just ignored it it would go away.

Becky tells me that the Smithsonian is using 3-D printers to create things like faux whales. This I want to see. Six months ago I don't think I had heard of 3-D printers, now Becky has a pair of new knees designed by using this technology. Keeping up with advances in technology is getting tough.

For a quick amusement (nothing to do with the New Year) take a look at

http://www.nytimes.c...h_20131222&_r=0

You answer some questions about word usage and they tell you wher you are from. My son-in-law was identified correctly as being from Santa Rosa, Ca and I was identified correctly as being from the Twin Cities (it makes three guesses, un-ranked. For me it was Mpls/St. Paul, Detroit, Des Moines). Becky confused the poor program since she was born in Missouri., moved to Oregon, and then to California, all before starting high school. It though maybe she was from Urbana Illinois. Or maybe Detroit. Or something else perhaps.
But for those of us who generally stayed put, it seems to be pretty accurate.


Again, Happy New Year to all, and what's up?

[lycier]

Everybody happy New Year !
BBO is a great life.Everything is wonderful memories

[Winstonm]

 kenberg, on 2013-December-31, 08:44, said:

I'm playing bridge at a club today, 12-31-13, I am going hiking tomorrow, 1-1-14. Becky and I have decided that the revelers at midnight can drop the ball without us.

We have some family projects that will take us through the winter, but then we are thinking of hitting the road for a bit. Which road is to be decided.

Do I really have to learn to tweet? I thought it was like the hula-hoop and if I just ignored it it would go away.

Becky tells me that the Smithsonian is using 3-D printers to create things like faux whales. This I want to see. Six months ago I don't think I had heard of 3-D printers, now Becky has a pair of new knees designed by using this technology. Keeping up with advances in technology is getting tough.

For a quick amusement (nothing to do with the New Year) take a look at

http://www.nytimes.c...h_20131222&_r=0

You answer some questions about word usage and they tell you wher you are from. My son-in-law was identified correctly as being from Santa Rosa, Ca and I was identified correctly as being from the Twin Cities (it makes three guesses, un-ranked. For me it was Mpls/St. Paul, Detroit, Des Moines). Becky confused the poor program since she was born in Missouri., moved to Oregon, and then to California, all before starting high school. It though maybe she was from Urbana Illinois. Or maybe Detroit. Or something else perhaps.
But for those of us who generally stayed put, it seems to be pretty accurate.


Again, Happy New Year to all, and what's up?

Happy New Year to you, too, Ken.

[y66]

Happy New Year kenberg and fellow water cooler posters.

What's up here is I am recovering from a week of house guests (ideal guests in every way but still), enjoying the peace and quiet and reading a lot.

I tried that New York Times dialect quiz. It figured out which county I live in!

[Phil]

Nice to be back (at least for now). 2013 was a year of change. I started a new gig at Toyota Financial (IT project management) so I'm building the virtual instead of the real. This has curtailed a lot of my bridge although I did make it to Phoenix for the Swiss.

We had a devastating fire in our house the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Nobody was hurt but we lost a lot of stuff. Just a few things that couldn't be replaced. We moved north to Huntington Beach which is great and only a mile from the beach. Plus we are both a lot closer to work.

Spending NYE with some friends who put us up for a few nights when we were in-between after the fire.

Hoping you all are well and hope that 2014 is healthy and prosperous.

[ggwhiz]

 y66, on 2013-December-31, 13:17, said:

I tried that New York Times dialect quiz. It figured out which county I live in!

Happy new year everyone.

I tried the quiz too but from Canada. First choice was Fort Lauderdale, makes sense.

My wife and I were approached once in South Africa by a guy who said his hobby was regional dialects and he asked us if we were from Toronto. Missed us by 250 miles.

[kenberg]

 Phil, on 2013-December-31, 13:52, said:

Nice to be back (at least for now). 2013 was a year of change. I started a new gig at Toyota Financial (IT project management) so I'm building the virtual instead of the real. This has curtailed a lot of my bridge although I did make it to Phoenix for the Swiss.

We had a devastating fire in our house the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Nobody was hurt but we lost a lot of stuff. Just a few things that couldn't be replaced. We moved north to Huntington Beach which is great and only a mile from the beach. Plus we are both a lot closer to work.

Spending NYE with some friends who put us up for a few nights when we were in-between after the fire.

Hoping you all are well and hope that 2014 is healthy and prosperous.

I am sorry to hear about the fire. There are two families, both rather close friends of ours, who have had extremely destructive fires. This frequency goes against my intuition, but clearly my intuition is off. No one injured in either of these cases either. Obviously that's the most important part, but the destruction and the loss has an emotional toll.

Anyway, good luck to you and your family.

[jjbrr]

The language test is great. I'm from NH originally, grew up in TN, and currently live in TX, so naturally it thinks I'm from Anchorage or Phoenix.

[kenberg]

 ggwhiz, on 2013-December-31, 14:23, said:

Happy new year everyone.

I tried the quiz too but from Canada. First choice was Fort Lauderdale, makes sense.

My wife and I were approached once in South Africa by a guy who said his hobby was regional dialects and he asked us if we were from Toronto. Missed us by 250 miles.

I have no ability whatsoever in this area. I guess I can tell Texas from Maine, but that's about it. I was expecting a few other words to be int the quiz. For example, a car is a vee-HICK-el, or a VEE-hic-el or (my choice) a VEE-ick-el? And the slip of paper that you give to a cashier to get a discount is a coo-pon or a cue-pon?

And, perhaps oddly, growing up in the Twin Cities people sometimes thought I was from elsewhere, outer space perhaps, but the quiz pegged me exactly.

[kenberg]

 jjbrr, on 2013-December-31, 16:37, said:

The language test is great. I'm from NH originally, grew up in TN, and currently live in TX, so naturally it thinks I'm from Anchorage or Phoenix.

My wife, another nomad, got a big hoot out of this. Clearly the test has a nervous breakdown dealing with those on the move.

[Scarabin]

Happy new year. Obviously the test doesn't work if you live outside US.

[PassedOut]

Happy New Year everyone!

[chasetb]

Happy New Year!

I took that online quiz, and it said I was most likely from Wichita KS, Oklahoma City, or Springfield MS. They were correct in that I am from the Midwest (assuming the contiguous 48 is divided into 6 sections), but I am on the other side from what they said.

[Winstonm]

The quiz nailed me - OKC, Tulsa, or Springfield, Mo. I live in Tulsa, am from OKC area, and used to travel to Springfield for the regional.

[Vampyr]

Came up with the small city in which I was born.

[Trinidad]

 Scarabin, on 2013-December-31, 20:19, said:

Happy new year. Obviously the test doesn't work if you live outside US.

That's not entirely true. I am Dutch, and currently live in The Netherlands. But I spent 5 years in Michigan and the test pinpointed my dialect as from the Twin cities, Detroit or Grand Rapids, despite the fact that I don't use or know some of the phrases. I don't know, e.g., what people call a traffic jam caused by an incident on the other side of the freeway in any English dialect. (I do know it in Dutch and German.)

I was impressed.

Rik

P.S. A genuine Swedish (or perhaps Stockholmish) word related to traffic jams is the word "Solkö", which is a traffic jam caused by the low standing sun. Depending on the season, they have a lot of those on the freeways in and around Stockholm.

[kenberg]

 Trinidad, on 2014-January-01, 12:07, said:

That's not entirely true. I am Dutch, and currently live in The Netherlands. But I spent 5 years in Michigan and the test pinpointed my dialect as from the Twin cities, Detroit or Grand Rapids, despite the fact that I don't use or know some of the phrases. I don't know, e.g., what people call a traffic jam caused by an incident on the other side of the freeway in any English dialect. (I do know it in Dutch and German.)

I was impressed.

Rik

P.S. A genuine Swedish (or perhaps Stockholmish) word related to traffic jams is the word "Solkö", which is a traffic jam caused by the low standing sun. Depending on the season, they have a lot of those on the freeways in and around Stockholm.

I mentioned this to my wife. I was asked this question, but she is sure that she wasn't. Becky suggested that maybe there is a tree of questions so that your answers to early questions affect the choice of later questions. Could be.

As to traffic jam question, I know of no (non-obscene) noun for the event, but the quiz alloed for that and offered the option of "We have no name for the event but we describe the cause as rubber-necking" or some words to that extent.



One question that interested me was what the grassy area between the sidewalk and the street is called. Several choices were offered, including "other". I checked other. I grea up calling it a boulevard. I am not at all sure this is correct usage, but that's what everyone called it. Where I live now, it would be called a fantasy. Sidewalks are scarce, unfortunately. We mostly walk in the streets, sometimes including streets where this is anything but safe. I like to walk, and I very much regret not noting this fact before we moved here. I cope there are planty of places where street-walking is safe, but there are times that I feel constrained. Bike riding can be a little too exciting also.

I had a nice hike earlier today along a fine path, so I will go easy on the griping.

[Aberlour10]

Happy New Year from Duesseldorf!

Walked on the New Years Day evening at the Rhine promenade with a group of friends

This pic was taken by one of them, I like it,

[barmar]

While I've lived in Boston for more than half my life now, I grew up on Long Island. The quiz placed me in the New York metropolitan area, reasonably close.

One thing I noticed was that at least one word in my vocabulary changed when I moved up here. I'm pretty sure I called long sandwiches "heros" where I grew up, but now they're "subs", because that's what it says on signs in the restaurant windows and the menus.

[Vampyr]

 barmar, on 2014-January-01, 19:45, said:

While I've lived in Boston for more than half my life now, I grew up on Long Island. The quiz placed me in the New York metropolitan area, reasonably close.

One thing I noticed was that at least one word in my vocabulary changed when I moved up here. I'm pretty sure I called long sandwiches "heros" where I grew up, but now they're "subs", because that's what it says on signs in the restaurant windows and the menus.

I thought it was "grinders" in New England.