| Author | Message | ||
     Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
... No sense of irony. When you see them sat there next to an old tracksuit stuffed with half a copy of TV Quick and a horror mask on top shouting "penny for the guy" - have you ever tried actually just giving them a penny? The look on their face is priceless, and it only costs a penny...  | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
That's inflation for you. | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
If nothing else, I'm ever so happy to hear that kids still are saying "Penny for the Guy!". Some traditions are continuing, thank goodness. Granted, it means that Mr. Adams should be careful when he chooses to return from Spain…} | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.226.134 |
Totally lost on me, this thread. Just fwiw. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Craig - that's because you're not in the UK, and possibly because you don't know who Guy Adams is either. Can't explain now as I've got to dash out to a physiotherapy appointment, but if no-one else has put you out of your misery by the time I get back to this thread, I'll explain then.  | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Caroline, did you not mean Guy Fawkes? | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.242.85 |
I guessed the Guy Fawkes part (Adams?), but what doesn't make sense.... 1) "an old tracksuit stuffed with half a copy of TV Quick and a horror mask" 2) " shouting 'penny for the guy' " 3) Why then giving them a penny is considered funny, and not the proper action response 4) Adams (Fawkes?) returns from Spain? | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
On November 5th - bonfire night aka guy fawkes night - it's traditional to burn an effigy of Guy fawkes. It's also traditional, in the days leading up to bonfire night, to take this effigy out on the streets and effecctively beg for money with the shout "Penny for the guy". With pennies not being worth as much these days, to only give a penny is incredibly mean, but very funny. When I was a kid, we used to put effort into making a really good Guy to burn. We'd be there with the ballons and papier mache for the head and stuffing old jackets and trousers with straw or whatever we could find that would burn. These days kids just knock a Guy out in 10 minutes by stuffing a small amount of crumpled up paper, probably last weeks TV paper, into a tracksuit, then they get a cheap halloween mask and stick it on top. Lazy sods | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I understood everything apart from the Adams part? | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
Mr. Adams' given name is "Guy", making his being anywhere in the UK around the 5th of November potentially fatal as people drag him through town , beat the stuffing out of him, then set him alight in the town square. Hew currently resides on the South East coast of Spain, where he writes books, as well as being Co-Ordinator of the British Fantasy Society's 'special publications' department and heading the organising committee for the annual FantasyCon. [folds up flip-chart, signals for slide-projector to be turned off, steps down from raised platform in front of assembled group] | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
It was Ian who made the joke about Guy Adams - perhaps you all missed that except me?  For anyone who doesn't know, Guy Adams is a writer/editor/publisher and current chair of the BFS - and nothing whatsoever to do with Guy Fawkes. I think Ian was simply joking that he'd have to be careful on his return to the UK in case he got put on a bonfire! Weber's now explained everything else about the "Penny for the guy" tradition. Are you all following us OK now? | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Ooops, me and Ian were posting at the same time - have we explained it, or are people even more confused now? | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
It explains the Guy adams joke to me as well. I had no idea. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.13.10 |
All is now clear. Thank you all. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
So, Ian, I think I'm the only one here who understands your jokes!  | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
I am devoted to you, madam. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Caroline, you really are a shameless hussy. Stop flirting with everyone. You know how much it upsets Frank to see you going after another guy. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
I wasn't doing it deliberately!  Talking of Frank, I haven't seen him round here for a while. Are you still there, Frank? Do you still love me?  | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
If he's not, I'm back from the land of no computer (owing to installing the latest Windows) and shall willingly do all that may be required. Granted, I'm eight full-time zones away, so that's a bit of a challenge then… | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.227.133 |
I'm kind of interested in Windows 7, especially after the Vista débacle. Care to tell us about your adventures in computerland, Ian? | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
>>Granted, I'm eight full-time zones away, so that's a bit of a challenge then…<< Don't worry, Ian. Frank's a few time zones away too. But anything's possible on the internet - and in the imagination of a desperate old lady like me.  Actually, yes, I was wondering about Windows 7 too. I managed to avoid getting Vista after all the problems I'd heard there were with it. Is 7 any better? Or should I avoid buying a new computer and stick with XP for as long as possible? | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.178.87.115 |
Windows 7 is spiffing. Vista got a lot better over the years, but 7 is the beast Vista should have been in the first place. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.254.53 |
I'm looking into a new programme called Fenetres. It's kind of a French Word for Windows. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.227.133 |
Another débâcle, then. | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
Mick Curtis is spot-on as usual: Windows 7 is what XP users have been avoiding Vista for: prettier than before, better use of multi-cores and 8GB< of RAM (if you're using the 64-bit version, but chances are you aren't if you wonder what that means), and none of the surprises with drivers that Vista had (because the manufacturers have had a couple of years to programme them). Oddly, this isn't one that I think the best route is to 'wait for the first Service Pack to be released first'. That said, however, there's no real reason to upgrade from Windows XP that is convincing, other than 'if using an eight-year-old operating system strikes you as odd, then get the upgrade. Then, if you do that, do the clean install (which Windows calls a "Custom Install" to get the most stable situation possible, re-install your programmes, import your files from the old version of Windows and you're away! Yes, a bit of effort, but well worth it. If you're using Vista now, then get a copy of Windows 7 immediately but DO NOT DO THE IN-PLACE UPGRADE as then you'll inherit the buggy patches you had in Vista. Or, you could get a Mac and avoid the whole arse of Windows pain altogether. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.227.133 |
Exactly as I suspected. Another reason NOT to stick with the 'eight-year old operating system' is that agreat many, if not most businesses, schools etc. run on Vista and many of these will conceivably switch to W7, alienating the hardened XP user even further. I'm curious about Ubuntu, which is getting quite popular over here. I've experimented with it and might install it on an outboard hard drive. | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
Oddly, the impression many of the articles about Win7 give are that a great many, if not most, businesses use WinXP! Is this not the case i others' experience? | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.227.133 |
The schools I went to (I'm currently enrolled in yet another series of classes - journalism this time around) all had/have Vista or were making the changeover as soon as it was introduced. |