INTERESTING FACT OF THE DAY

Three related facts for you today:

Fact 1: 'Banshee' is the English phonetic spelling of the Irish Gaelic Bean Sidhe. This translates literally as 'woman fairy' (think of the Elves in 'Lord of the Rings', not little winged things)

Fact 2: If you hear a bean sidhe 'keening' (crying or wailing), or see her washing clothes at a ford, then it means that a death is imminent.

Fact 3: Most of the blokes who use 'banshee' as their username on web forums, because it sounds cool, are blissfully unaware of fact 1.

Avon is simply Welsh for river (it's spelt 'Afon' in Welsh). So the river Avon is just the river River.

Originally Posted by wyrdness

Avon is simply Welsh for river (it's spelt 'Afon' in Welsh). So the river Avon is just the river River.

Just to complete the set, abhainn is river in Irish. And "bh" is a soft v sound in Irish. But we thought of it first, and everyone else copied us.

(Or "as Ghaeilge", if you are speaking in Irish. Not Gaelic. Please. Gaelic is a game, not a language. People dont *speak Gaelic* )


And Scotch is a drink. Not someone from Scotland.

[Quiff Wichard]

NICKNAMES
• If Laura, Suzanne, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call
each other Laura, Suzanne, Kate and Sarah.
• If Mike, Charlie, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately
refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla, Sh*t-Head and Four-eyes.

EATING OUT
• When the bill arrives, Mike, Charlie, Dave and John will each throw
in £20, even though it's only for £32.50. None of them will have
anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.
• When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

MONEY
• A man will pay £2 for a £1 item he needs.
• A woman will pay £1 for a £2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale

BATHROOMS
• A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste,
shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel from M&S.
• The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337.
A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.

ARGUMENTS
• A woman has the last word in any argument.
• Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

CATS
• Women love cats.
• Men say they love cats, but when women aren't looking, men kick cats.

FUTURE
• A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
• A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

SUCCESS
• A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
• A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

MARRIAGE
• A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
• A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.

DRESSING UP
• A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the
bins, answer the phone, read a book, and get the post.
• A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

NATURAL
• Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
• Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

OFFSPRING
• Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about
dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favourite foods,
secretfears and hopes and dreams.
• A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
• Any married man should forget his mistakes. There's no use in two
people remembering the same thing.

• What a woman says: C'mon...This place is a mess. You and I need to
clean.Your trousers are on the floor and you'll have no clothes if we
don't do the laundry now.
• What a man hears: C'MON ... blah, blah, blah YOU AND I blah,blah,
blah, blah, blah ON THE FLOOR blah, blah, blah, NO CLOTHES blah, blah,
blah, blah, NOW

Wiff..Did I take a wrong turn? I thought this was the place for interesting facts?

[Quiff Wichard]

oops I meant to put it just in idle banter..!???


oh dear..

Originally Posted by Carsick

Which makes places like Abergavenny even more confusing for people. I think it started being called that because the Fenni joins with another river nearby (I think) but the actual name of the town is Y Fenni, or The Fenni.

Not according to wikipedia where it says the town is on a small stream called the Gavenny and the Usk river.

The ordanance survey map shows the gavenny river running through it, hence the aber gavenny from which it derives its name.

Originally Posted by lynw

The above article demonstrating one reason I mistrust wikipedia. :P

[northwind]

Originally Posted by philipMac

(Or "as Ghaeilge", if you are speaking in Irish. Not Gaelic. Please. Gaelic is a game, not a language. People dont *speak Gaelic* )

Or gaelach, if you have the other version.

Originally Posted by northwind

Or gaelach, if you have the other version.

One of our teachers spoke that. He said it was handy enough to learn if you knew Irish.

It was the knowing Irish part was the bit that seemed problematic to us. Mad language altogether. Fair play to the Welsh for actually keeping their language. And the Finns too. They almost lost it when they were taken over by the rooskies.
Ours is a basically knackered methinks.