An independent forum site for members of the Serif software community
You are not logged in. Please login or register.
Automated signup has been disabled for these forums. If you wish to register, please send an email to admin[at]punster[dot]me stating your preferred username.
Embedded images: Click on the 
Add image to post link below the message box. Your photo will be uploaded to the postimage website and then shared here via a thumbnail link. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view.
Private messages: There is no pop-up alert for new PMs on these forums, so you need to look out for the PM link (near the top right-hand corner of any forum page) becoming bold.
Alfred's Serif Users' Forums → General Discussion → Plastic Wine bottle corks make pencil erasers
I have several synthetic wine bottle corks (hic!) which consist of a smooth sleeve over a soft mass. I cut a piece of the inside plastic mass and found it makes a good pencil eraser.
May be useful to an old fogey, like me....
“Other plastic pencil erasers are available.”
pencil erasers
We used to call them rubbers, but I got funny looks when I tried to buy one here in the US.
I was working in a San Francisco office and asked the secretary if she had any drawing pins. "Drawing pens, with ink in them?" I learnt they were called thumb tacks.
BTW, the refreshments truck with coffee and doughnuts and the like that stopped in the street outside at morning break times was called the Roach Wagon. I have seen one here in the UK, but many years ago.
When I worked/lived in Pennsylvania these are just three of the many questions I was asked.
In response to me answering a question about London and the pavements packed with people. "Why do people walk on the pavement?" Pavement to them was the tarmac on the road.
I had a machine modified and the cutter body comprised of a set of 4 intricate blades costing just over $1000/set. On the initial setup the Supervisor came to inform me that they broken two sets of blades in the first half hour. I wasn't happy, went to see the machine and asked the Supervisor to get a torch. His face dropped as he asked "What are you going to do?" I said I wanted to look down this gap. With a relieved expression he said "Oh you want a flashlight. I thought you wanted to cut the machine up with an oxy-acetylene torch."
"What language do they speak in England?" asked a young assistant in a local store.
Back in 1980 I went on a trip to the US with a group of fellow Barry Manilow fans. The flight home out of Las Vegas was very early so one of the ladies asked the receptionist if they could arrange to knock us all up at 04.00. The look on his face was priceless. 
Over here in the UK, during the Industrial Revolution people were actually employed to knock on people's doors to get them up in time for work, a form of human alarm clock. Hence the phrase was born. As it happens I actually caught mention of it as a job at the tail end of a quiz show last night before we settled down to watch the Bond film, which brought this to mind. 
In the States, to be 'knocked up' was getting someone pregnant. As there were about 50 of us, ranging from girls like me, barely 20 at the time, to women of a more mature age, as I am now, I can imagine the thoughts running through his mind, until we cleared the meaning up. 
In the States, to be 'knocked up' was getting someone pregnant.
The first time my brother in law and his wife visited us, they whooped and had to take a photo of a sign that said "Humps for 200yds"
In the States, to be 'knocked up' was getting someone pregnant.
The first time my brother in law and his wife visited us, they whooped and had to take a photo of a sign that said "Humps for 200yds"
Similar language, yet so many different meanings/associations.
Alfred's Serif Users' Forums → General Discussion → Plastic Wine bottle corks make pencil erasers
Powered by PunBB, supported by Informer Technologies, Inc.