So you like trains? You should see my neighbor who has lots of trains in his basement. Peter Smith, Memphis
Even though I know what you mean I’m not personally bothered by that one because people are (a) conditioned to say “choo choo” and “woo woo” when they see or talk about trains, and (b) they are attempting to connect and participate which, IMO, is worth the extra affordance of patience and understanding. Plus (c) I’ve been known to go “choo choo” and “woo woo” at steam engines myself… [:D] And its even cuter when my kid does it.
I might have been tempted to ask them if they actually had teacher’s certificates or even a high-school diploma. Morons like that don’t belong on school boards.
Rumor has it that steam engines were more powerful than diesels, but the diesels were replaced for this very reason.
You’re kidding, right? After 10+ years dealing with public school boards and administrations, I thought being a moron was a prerequisite for service!
Personally, I would have asked Mr Genius if he had hand-me-down Lionel or American Flyer as a kid. Then I would have told him that the track voltages for Lionel AC were higher than the voltages used for modern HO scale locos.
My favorite [#offtopic] school board story concerns a town in Arkansas where the residents petitioned to add foreign language studies to the curriculum. Quoting the School Board spokesbeing, “If English was good enough for Jesus Christ it’s good enough for our students…”
Say WHAT? Jesus preached in Aramaic, and may have known enough Latin to converse with the Romans who were occupying Palestine at the time. Modern English didn’t evolve until over a millennium later.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in a language not taught in the USA)
You’re probably right.
Last Month,I went to a Train Show in Arlington.I bought a new Transformer;an Athearn MP Cattle Car;an Athearn NdeM Gondola;some signs and an Intermountain NC&StL Box Car.
My Wife asked me"Why Do You Buy So Many Box Cars??".
Her Sister said"Because Most Freight Trains Have Box Cars!!".
After my Athearn Power Pack shorted out after four years of service,I tried to sell it by putting a post on HO Yard Sale.
I got one reply.He wanted to know"What Road Name Is Your Athearn Transformer??".[banghead][?][#offtopic]
I shoulda replied"How About’Optimus Prime’??".[(-D]
Yep!!!Jesus never spoke English!!He spoke Aramic;Hebrew;some Greek;Latin and Arabic!!!
You know,when some of these"English Only!!“types start complaining about"No One Speaks EnglishAnymore!!”,I’m tempting to say"Well,If we Spoke English like they do in London;Dublin;Bangor and Aberdeen;first of all,we’d spell tires’tyres’;spell color’colour’and call women’s lingerie’knickers’.[(-D][(-D][swg]!!
We’d watch the Evening News on The Telly;tell the Mechanic"To Take a Look Under The Bonnet"and load our luggage in the Boot of Our Motorcar!!![(-D][swg][8D]
In one of those ironic things,there’s a popular email going around showing The Duke saying"Now Why The Hell Should I Press One For English???!!".
Turns out that all three of John Wayne’s Wives were Hispanic-His First Two Were Mexican and his third was Peruvian!!-and the Duke was very fluent in Spanish!!
He always wanted his Tombstone to read"Feo,Fuerte Y Formal-He was Ugly,Strong and Dignified’.[tup][C):-)]
However,his grave didn’t get a headstone for nearly twenty years!![:O]
Seems his family felt that some overzealous fan might want to steal it!![:O][sigh]
Finally they put one on his grave about ten years ago.
Stupid questions (SQ’s) that I get often.
SQ1: What is the most expensive part of your layout?
Ans: The house that I bought to build it in.
SQ2: Why do they go so slow?
Ans: Because they can.
SQ3: Do you ever race them?
Ans: It’s a single track. Not much point.
SQ4: How much did that one cost?
Ans: I stole it, I built it, it was a gift (pick one)
SQ5: I have my dad’s Lionel trains from when he was a kid. One is a santa fe. How much is it worth?
Ans: I don’t collect, I model.
SQ6: How come when you run one train, they all don’t just turn on?
Ans: How come when you turn on one light switch in your house, they don’t all turn on?
SQ7: What are they made out of (as he taps on the boiler of a steam engine)?
Ans: Brass, now get your greasy hands off it.
SQ8: What does your wife think of all this?
Ans: I offered full disclosure before we got married so apparently she accepts it.
SQ9: (After explaining that the scenery will be modeled to look like the New Mexico desert) So, you will probably have some camels then, right?
Ans: (I have yet to figure out a suitable answer without offending the questioner)
On a similar note, my wife went to the LHS to buy me my father’s day gift. I had asked for 2 particular stock cars with different numbers. She told the clerk what she was looking for. he went in the back room and brought out two boxes. She looked at them and then said to the clerk “He wants stock cars, not box cars.” He got really embarrassed that a woman had corrected him. I was proud of her. Not many wives know the diff
SQ9: (After explaining that the scenery will be modeled to look like the New Mexico desert) So, you will probably have some camels then, right?
Dazzle 'em with the depth of your historical knowledge. The US Army actually experimented with camels as pack animals in the 1850’s in the desert Southwest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Camel_Corps
Andre
Ans: Dromedary or Bactrian?
How about"One Hump or Two??".[(-D]
A: Yes, all around the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid.
And a few nuggets I’ve heard over the years:
“Do they run on batteries?” (HO scale)
“Why do you make them so dirty?”
And, while not a question, photos in eBay auctions of the seller’s vain attempts to couple the tender to the engine backwards make me nuts!!!
I had someone ask me if the wheels threw out sparks.
Yeah the “dirty” questions they all asks [:D]
Don´t forget the wonderful pic´s on Ebay where they put a Cab-Forward with the tender connected to the Cab-end, and write that it´s broken in some way…[xx(]
Not so much what they say,but what they do. My adult cousins can’t keep their hands off stuff. Ooooh whats this made of? tap,tap, tap with the fingernails on the scenery. Does this turn? while trying out the lift wheels on the barge landing, Rolling the cars,feeling the ballast etc. Makaes me awful nervous sometimes.BILL
Just tell the genius that Haj Ali died before the time you model, and the camels all ended up in zoos. If they want to know who Haj Ali was, then you can tell them about the Camel Corps (He was the camel handler the Army imported with the camels.)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Just tell the genius that Haj Ali died before the time you model, and the camels all ended up in zoos. If they want to know who Haj Ali was, then you can tell them about the Camel Corps (He was the camel handler the Army imported with the camels.)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Back when cigarettes could be advertised, RJ Reynolds (the maker of Camels) had a slogan, “I’d walk a mile for a Camel”. I think they had Haj Ali in mind on that one. Either that, or Ross Winans ( http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/abboc.Html )
Andre
That’s one thing I have never understood. When I used to belong to a model railroad club back in my hometown, at countless times during our open houses, we’d be telling people not to touch the trains or layout as they kept reaching over the plexiglass on the perimeter of the layout just to feel things. A few years ago when I’d just finished the mainline on my current layout, a friend of mine was down in the basement with me to see the progress, and I noticed him carefully reach over to touch the track, even though it wasn’t ballasted or anything, just track on cork.
Kevin