Re: "Usefull languages"
| From: | Padraic Brown <agricola@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, February 23, 2002, 1:42 |
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Am 16.02.02, John Cowan yscrifef:
> ObDigression: Normally the word "bee" refers to a cooperative
> activity, not a competitive one. (An American immigrant once puzzled
> his relatives back home in England by writing that his "house was
> raised by a bee in a single day".) I wonder how in "spelling bee"
> it came to mean "eliminative competition in spelling".
> Ironically, with the collapse of such activities in most parts of American
> society, "spelling bee" is the only usage of "bee" left.
Then I guess you really can't say the cooperative sort is the
"normal" meaning...
My mother used to host quilting bees here at the house. This
was about 15-20 years ago, though. That's the _only_ other
kind of bee I'm familliar with. That English fellow in your
example would puzzle _this_ Merkin every bit as much as his
rightpondian relations!
And for what it's worth, quilting bees will always be with us
so long as interested ladies (most usually) are willing to
knock together something nice for the church bazaar's auction
or raffle.
What other things do you know of can be done by bees, apart
from quilting and houseraising?
> John Cowan
Padraic.
--
Gwerez dah, chee gwaz vaz, ha leal.
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