I never knew that!

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

For example there is the word "sign". When I now stumble across the military rank "Ensign" I would assume that the "sign" part in the word is pronounced like in "road sign" but it isn't.

Some do, my Dad always says it that why when he's talking about Ensign Bus (a London based Bus company).

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Some do, my Dad always says it that why when he's talking about Ensign Bus (a London based Bus company).

Weren't you the guy who taught me on TeamSpeak that it's pronounced more like ensinn???

[Eichhörnchen]

These things get shortened colloquially through laziness (especially by the British I expect) so in the Navy an "Ensine" soon would have become an "Ens'n". It's just the way our language develops, organically. Ensign Buses would not have been shortened at all because they were using the word in its intended form, to mean a flag or banner; a badge of office or excellence...

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

Weren't you the guy who taught me on TeamSpeak that it's pronounced more like ensinn???

And just to really mess you up on your real Nav or eel firing exercise by manual means on a 90 degree to the target: Sine, Cosine ....and Tangent Talk about Angles and Saxons here!

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

Weren't you the guy who taught me on TeamSpeak that it's pronounced more like ensinn???

Hardly....those sarfeners find it difficult to even understand themselves

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

These things get shortened colloquially through laziness (especially by the British I expect) so in the Navy an "Ensine" soon would have become an "Ens'n". It's just the way our language develops, organically. Ensign Buses would not have been shortened at all because they were using the word in its intended form, to mean a flag or banner; a badge of office or excellence...

Hey it's the best rum label in the world BBY! Purser(ship's officer) got shortened to Pusser's... As in Nelson's Blood! <a tot with the queen mum! Splice the mainbrace er oh damn...in 1970, the Admiralty Board decreed that there was no place for the daily issue of rum in a modern navy, and so ended the daily issue of Pusser’s Rum in the Royal Navy on July31st,1970. This date since then, is referred to “Black Tot Day”. Alas the pusser is now a now called a Logistics Officer.

[Eichhörnchen]

For those of you who visit London as tourists, you may not know that those guardsmen you see are not all dressed the same.

There are five Regiments of Foot Guards and the way to tell them apart is by the spacing of their tunic buttons, their collar badges and their bearskin plumes:

The Grenadier Guards have evenly spaced buttons, grenade collar badges and a white plume worn on left side; The Coldstream Guards have buttons in pairs, garter star badge and red plume worn on right; The Scots Guards have buttons arranged in threes, thistle badge and no plume; The Irish Guards have buttons in fours, shamrock badge and a blue plume on the right, then finally The Welsh Guards have buttons in fives, a leek badge and a white-green-white plume on the left.

Coldstream Guards


An officer of The Grenadier Guards; his bearskin is taller and of finer manufacture. Also he has gold tunic facings.

[Aktungbby]

WE know all about guards in fuzzy hats U didn't wanna mess with these guys...and always rethink yer plan-If ya can't beat em join em!!

[Eichhörnchen]

"Arrr! Chim chiminey, chim chiminey, chim-chim cheree, I'll keep on singin' til you're sick of me..."


I never knew until I heard on the radio today, that this much loved song won the 1964 Academy Award for Best Original Song. Can you believe that?

[Moonlight]

Yes I can, and I did know.
Have you been living under a rock Mr Squirrel, I thought everyone knew that.

[Eichhörnchen]

OK, clever... did you know that a cartoon Dick Van Dyke starred in a 1973 'Scoobie-Doo' movie called The Haunted Carnival?

In it, the gang discover that the carnival (owned by Dick Van Dyke) has been abandoned because of a horrible ghost. Why did they need a ghost for that, when they had Dick Van Dyke?

[Moonlight]

No I didn't know that Mr Squirrel, I'll also make pretty damn sure that I won't ever watch it either.

[Jimbuna]

Oh God.....'Dick' being the operable word

[fireftr18]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

OK, clever... did you know that a cartoon Dick Van Dyke starred in a 1973 'Scoobie-Doo' movie called The Haunted Carnival?

In it, the gang discover that the carnival (owned by Dick Van Dyke) has been abandoned because of a horrible ghost. Why did they need a ghost for that, when they had Dick Van Dyke?

I didn't know that about the Chim-Chiminy song. I did know that about Scooby-Doo.

[Moonlight]

Hey Mr Squirrel, did you know that Julie Andrews played the part of Dudley Moore's girlfriend in the 1979 film 10, I suspect that you were too busy ogling that Bo Derek muppet to know that little fact.