The Off Topic Topic

[Tamas]

Is it like a school holiday in the UK or something? Seems like half of my company on annual leave and half of the rest is just offline.

[Richard Hakluyt]

It is half-term for schools in some areas.

[garbon]

It is half-term for schools in some areas.

Yep. Nice and quiet.

[Josquius]

In Dutch peanut butter is called peanut cheese.
DISCUSS

[Grey Fox]

The Dutch are weird in many ways. It's no more right than butter. Both are inaccurate description of grounded peanuts.

[Maladict]

In Dutch peanut butter is called peanut cheese.
DISCUSS

Butter couldn't be used as it was a protected name at the time.

[Barrister]

Is it like a school holiday in the UK or something? Seems like half of my company on annual leave and half of the rest is just offline.

Do you work with a lot of Indians?  Today is Diwali.

[Tamas]

Is it like a school holiday in the UK or something? Seems like half of my company on annual leave and half of the rest is just offline.

Do you work with a lot of Indians?  Today is Diwali.

Not that many and I definitely didn't mean them. I know its Diwali by the way from the constant fireworks in the distance at the evenings. 

[The Brain]

A king cobra (answers to Sir Hiss) is on the loose in Stockholm, so if you visit now watch your step.

[Admiral Yi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36UA9hj4u4c

According to this cast member of The Wind That Shakes the Barley, the origin of the expression "break a leg" has to do with the windlass for hauling up a stage curtain, which was called a leg.

Funky.  I always wondered where that came from.

[grumbler]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36UA9hj4u4c

According to this cast member of The Wind That Shakes the Barley, the origin of the expression "break a leg" has to do with the windlass for hauling up a stage curtain, which was called a leg.

Funky.  I always wondered where that came from.

I've had this discussion with the theater guy at my school, and he doesn't think that "break a leg" comes from the side curtain (the leg) and the idea that appearing from behind it means that someone gets to appear on stage unexpectedly.  He thinks it comes from the Germans who humorously used the Yiddish phrase (I don't recall it) that meant "good luck" in Yiddish but sounded just like "break a leg" in German.  It was a way to say "good luck" without jinxing someone. It came to the US via Jewish immigrants from Germany (in this theory). 

The curtain theory doesn't really work anyway:  it would be "break the leg" in that usage.

[HVC]

i heard that it was a play on making being casted. ie when you break a leg you put it in a cast. that's why its only used on opening night (when you officially make the cast). 

[Syt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36UA9hj4u4c

According to this cast member of The Wind That Shakes the Barley, the origin of the expression "break a leg" has to do with the windlass for hauling up a stage curtain, which was called a leg.

Funky.  I always wondered where that came from.

I've had this discussion with the theater guy at my school, and he doesn't think that "break a leg" comes from the side curtain (the leg) and the idea that appearing from behind it means that someone gets to appear on stage unexpectedly.  He thinks it comes from the Germans who humorously used the Yiddish phrase (I don't recall it) that meant "good luck" in Yiddish but sounded just like "break a leg" in German.  It was a way to say "good luck" without jinxing someone. It came to the US via Jewish immigrants from Germany (in this theory). 

The curtain theory doesn't really work anyway:  it would be "break the leg" in that usage.

The German version is "Hals- und Beinbruch", i.e. "break neck and leg (or bone, Bein is also an old word for bone in German, still used e.g. in anatomy  - collarbone = Schlüsselbein). In a lecture on language history I attended at university the professor also said it's likely coming from a Yiddish/Hebrew blessing or wish for good luck that sounds very similar.

[celedhring]

Monthly base salary of each Head of Government in the EU (left) and the multiple over that country's median wage (right).



Hungary 

(and Orban's salary is probably the least of his "income sources").

[Zanza]

I make more than some EU heads of government.  Or maybe it is because it is their "base" salary?