Re: "Usefull languages"

On Sat, 16 Feb 2002, Padraic Brown wrote:

> 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!
Here in Australia (or at least Australia), working bees are quite common.
A lot more common than spelling bees, our closest equivalent of one would
just be a spelling competiotn in class.

Tristan