posted
I hadn't heard this one until today, when it appeared in the Wall Street Journal:
Q. Now many foamers does it take to change a light bulb?
A. No! No! No! Not until we've taken a picture of the old one!
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
| IP: Logged |
In case this needs explanation, some single lines in the UK use a token system. The stop sign reads "Obtain token and permission to proceed". The driver (engineer) goes to a cabinet and obtains a token instrument, not unlike a large key which - if extracted from the instrument machine - proves that he is the only one holding a token for that section. The token machine itself may hold numerous tokens, as would one at the opposite end of the single line, but clever gubbins only allows one out at a time (and even cleverer gubbins allows a group of tokens to be extracted on a special instrument and removed to the opposite end of the line should an imbalance occur). The permission itself, if not granted by the token itself as would appear the case here, is granted by the signaller (dispatcher).
-------------------- Geoff M. Posts: 2426 | From: Apple Valley, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Clever gubbins? What does that mean in real money?
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Geoff, needs an explanation is an understatement. I read British police procedurals constantly and thought I had UK slang and idioms down pat. But you got me with the gubbins. My spell checker hates it too!
-------------------- Vicki in usually sunny Southern California Posts: 951 | From: Redondo Beach, CA | Registered: Aug 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Americans and the English are divided by a common language. Developments since the divide are particularly loaded with them. Railroads, Automobiles, and such.
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
