[AT] OT don't take any Buffalo Nickels

Sun Jun 23 00:52:30 PDT 2019

I find this discussion a little surprising... I was taught in about the 6th
grade (in a small rural school in the 1950's) that what we all call buffalo
are really scientifically true bison and that early explorers were just
guessing as to what they were. It was much like them thinking at first that
this was the far side of the world and them calling everybody "Indians".
The name just stuck and so did buffalo.
Even back when I was in school it was understood that most people would
probably always continue to call them buffalo in casual conservation and I
still do. By the time I learned that they were really bison I had already
learned the words dog, cat, cow etc. and bison was a strange sounding name
to me.
Languages are funny things... Always evolving but not always in a good way.
I have a few pet peeves from more recent years about how people butcher
things. I watch a lot of DIY stuff and keep saying (mostly to the TV
screen) "No, that is not ship-lap. Every old 8" board is not ship-lap!" or
"No that is not a "cinder block! It is either a cement block or a concrete
block... It is only a cinder block if it was produced using cinders for the
aggregate and very few of those are being produced these days."
Rambling farther off track (not a cinder track).  :-)
When Diana and I got married in June 1963 we rented a small house at the
edge of town for a year and a half that was on a full basement all made of
actual cinder block. When that first winter came along I got a real shock.
The cinders were quite coarse and the block walls were not even close to
being air tight. When the winter winds began to howl you could not heat the
basement. If you lit a candle (I really did) and held it next to the west
wall on a high wind day it would blow the candle out.
Speaking of languages, we have become friends with a Greek family who have
a local gyro based restaurant (pronounced ˈyērō). Really nice family. We
were eating there a day or two ago and a lady and I believe her daughter
sat a the booth behind me and were chatting. I wasn't sure what language
they were speaking but it wasn't English. When things slowed down our
friends came out to visit with them and I realized that that they had been
chatting in Greek. It was a happy visit for the 4 of them and I had to
chuckle a few times as they talked listening to them as all 4 of them
flip-flopped from Greek to English over and over again. It was maybe about
60% Greek and 40% English. Our friends are quite good at English so it was
funny hearing the sudden  shift from rapid fire Greek to a perfectly
enunciated full sentence or more in English then instantly back to Greek. I
can only assume that some thoughts just might be easier to express in
English and some easier in Greek. We have some Chinese friends but they
always speak all Chinese or all English. We also have Hispanic friends and
family and they also speak mostly all one or the other. I have always
wished I could learn other languages but while I have learned many thing in
my time, other languages are just not a big part of my skill set. I do
speak American English, British English, Australian English and a little
New  Zealand English...  :-)  I do also speak a little dog, cat and horse.
.
Dang! I'm getting burned out on daily raining... Crops are all over the
place in quality and some fields are still not planted and still standing
water. One problem with a really wet spring here is that if the ground
stays too wet too long the corn will not put down many deep roots then if
it suddenly turns very dry it doesn't have a root system deep enough to get
good moisture. If that happens the guys that use irrigation here may
benefit from its use.
It's been "interesting" with these everyday rains going past the local
Whitecastle joint in a down pour of rain and seeing their sprinkler system
running. It must be under "corporate control".

.

.

On Sun, Jun 23, 2019 at 12:59 AM James Peck <jamesgpeck at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I am a fan of the Lonesome Dove series, both the books and the miniseries,
> and even have been to one of the filming sites. One main character is
> Buffalo Hump. Maybe we can get author Larry McMurtry to rename him.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Hump
>
> The book 'War Of a Thousand Deserts" gives the Comanches credit for
> discombobulating Mexico enough for the US to win the 1846 war.
>
> https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300158373/war-thousand-deserts
>
> [James Peck] I was on a work related trip to a location along the old Erie
> Railroad right of way in western New York about 10 years ago and heard a
> man rant about the shortcomings of English speakers. He was upset that Beau
> Fleur had become Buffalo. This source says that is fake info.
>
> https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100616152325AAZECYp
>
> [Dean VP Snohomish, WA 98290] I'm sure "Buffalo Bill might disagree with
> this. 😊
>
> [szabelski at wildblue.net  The correct terminology is “BISON”.  Bison are
> members of the bovine group “BUFFALO”.  Bison are native to North and South
> America. Buffalo are native to Africa and Asia ( i.e.: Water Buffalo, etc).
>
> [James Peck] I was in a place where the TV was playing "Highway Through
> Hell" a few days ago. They were towing and removing vehicles and big loads
> on the Alaskan Highway. When they drove by a herd of what my first instinct
> would be to call "Buffalo", the Canadian accented truckers called them
> "Bison".
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison
>
> The show had some WW2 shots of tracked tractors pulling pan scrapers in
> the building of the highway.
>
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_Thru_Hell
>
>
> [Ralph]  <snip>The bison herd are being fed a hay bale or two fairly
> regularly as the grass can't keep up with them. <snip>
>
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-- 
-- 

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com
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