My Mail Box is a Museum, and for that I have to thank La Poste; which in spite...

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Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on December 21, 2014 at 5:08pm

Once upon a time, yes, I was a real political scientist. Later I became a Visiting Professor at a number of universities and taught pol sci and environmental management on MBA programmes. Now I teach the cats not to scratch the furniture, but they don't take any notice. I failed the only geography exam I took in High School, but did pass economics second time around.

Comment by Linda French on December 21, 2014 at 6:05am

You lectured on political science? That must have been a stitch.  I'm sure your students felt fortunate to have you. In secondary school I had a course called 'economic geography'. Really nice teacher, but the material was a yawn. I think I didn't believe half of it. And I will pretend dI didn't see that last remark.  --Linda

Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on December 21, 2014 at 5:16am

On your bucket and its (fair) sex....

When I was learning languages at school I came across a word (that sadly I do not remember) that was masculine in French, butfeminine in German (or vice versa). This caused much hilarity atb the time.

Also, as a hormonally and testorone-angished teenager, it was very hard to think that inanimate objects had any 'sex' at all. But as i went to a single sex boys-only High School that thinking did not, fortunately, extend to the girls at the single sex girls High School at the other part of town.

This may explain why I am hopless at French -- language that is.

Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on December 21, 2014 at 5:10am

It WAS interesting, so worry not.

As a one-time professor of political science, it is always interesting to know how the citizens of countries call their countries. I suppose 'America' is too 'wide' as there are the Americas , north and south. But there is only one 'real' America, the US -- and not a single South America (Chile? Peru? Costa Rica?, etc).

The same sort of problem affects the UK. Is it the United Kingdom, Great Britain, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or even England? Am I a Brit or an Englishman? Or, here in France a 'rosbief'?( If the latter, medium rare, with mustard, please). Here in Europe, when one talks about 'America' it means the US (of A). And 'Yanks' refers to Americans, whatever side of the Civil War their State might fought on.

The usual postel address from France to 'Blighty' is 'Angleterre' or England. But you can't really write, an address that ends in 'Scotland (Ecosse), Angleterre'  or Waldes (Pays de galles), Angleterre'.

I am really more curious about your 'Two Harbours'. Was there ever a One Harbour, and are there now Three or Four Harbour town(ship)s? What happens if the civic powers expand the existing Two Harbours -- are you then living in 'What-was-once-Two-but-is-now-Three-Harbours'?In Holland, there are a number of villages called 'Nieuwekerk', or New Church. I always wondered, but could not always find on a map, if there was a nearbye village called 'Oudekerk', or Old Church. And what happened when a village was started with a newER chruch?

I think I had better feed the cats now, as they tell me that their breakfast is more important than my geopolitical ramblings. No lines and no spaces, just Val

Comment by Linda French on December 20, 2014 at 11:15pm

I SO wish I hadn't written that. I thought it was a little interesting at the time, but it reads like total crap.  --Linda

Comment by Linda French on December 20, 2014 at 9:49pm

Ha! My bucket is perfectly fine, thank you.  BTW, that gender thing in "Francaise" reminds me (obliquely) of something that we drop here in the U.S. We almost never call our country 'America' in casual conversation. We say 'the U.S.' or 'the States.' It would usually be a specifically political or patriotic reference to call our home 'America.' All the continental western hemisphere is called, inclusively, 'the Americas.' No one has made a reference that I recall here in IUOMA, I am not an expert of any kind, and it isn't a big deal anyway.  Just something I have noticed. Referencing the US as 'America' is something that gives away a British writer in movies, books, etc. Just something cool and fun to know. And this had nothing to do with that.  Good grief.  This whole comment was probably politically incorrect, and being an American, I wouldn't have the faintest.   --Linda    One more thing: after I make comments, I leave 2 spaces and 2 dash lines to distance myself from my own remarks.  --Linda

Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on December 20, 2014 at 7:39pm

Nearly right....but if I told you that you had made a sexual mistake* then you would only tell me again that I am a rascal, so I won't tell you that.*

I hope there's not a hole in your bucket, Dear Liza, Dear Linda

*However La Poste is feminine, and so there is an 'e' on the end of Francaise, but La Poste seems to have dropped the Francaise bit these days

Comment by Linda French on December 20, 2014 at 5:14pm

Yes, Mercy Buckets, La Poste Francais! (did I do that right?) Personally, I need mercy by the bucket, myself.  --Linda

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