Pooch_1 Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 Anybody who uses a cell phone at the movies or my favorite restaurant should be in JAIL. You mean there are cars with automatic transmission where you don't have to double declutch or anything. What is the world coming to. I blame it on Charles Lindbergh. He should have stayed home. Gone are the days of crash gear boxes :hihi: Except on London Buses.
hitchhiker Posted June 6, 2007 Author Posted June 6, 2007 Nah you got it wrong again buck .... a cellphone is a phone in gaol and an automobile is a car with automatic transmission. sheeeeesh :hihi: The irony's not been lost with me! Anyway, I thought the noun 'cellphone' was a derivation of 'cellular telephone' (cell refering to the distinct geographical area covered by a transmitter) and automobile has nothing to do with transmission. It refers to self-propultion ('auto' is greek for self and 'mobile' from the Latin 'Mobilis' meaning moving)
hitchhiker Posted June 6, 2007 Author Posted June 6, 2007 Gone are the days of crash gear boxes Except on London Buses. When I lived in London I worked in Holborn and loved nothing more than riding one of the old London buses after a day at work. It was like going back in time! It's a shame they are all being phased out! (or is that fazed out?)
leviathan13 Posted June 6, 2007 Posted June 6, 2007 Can someone please help me with this one: Which is the correct spelling: 'disc' or 'disk'? Or to put it in context: brake disc or brake disk. The way I had it explained is, if the object is round, as in a c.d. it is disc, or a discus. Disk is only used if referring to computers as in a floppy disk, short for diskette.
hitchhiker Posted June 6, 2007 Author Posted June 6, 2007 The way I had it explained is, if the object is round, as in a c.d. it is disc, or a discus. Disk is only used if referring to computers as in a floppy disk, short for diskette. The reason I asked this was I noticed that I use naturally use 'disk' not 'disc' to describe something like a brake disk - It just seems more 'right' to me. The two words come from the Greek (Diskos) and Latin (Discus) and I wondered what everyone else used as there doesn't seem to be a wrong and right anymore. It seems, historically, in English you would use 'Disc' and in American English, 'Disk', however, in the UK we'll quite hapilly use a 'Floppy Disk' or listen to a 'Disk Jockey' without giving a second thought. Obviously if you look in the OED, 'disc' is right in English (as opposed to American English), however, this is dictated by common usage and may be due for an update.
buck Posted June 6, 2007 Posted June 6, 2007 I actually do know what an automobile is. There are thousands of them passing less than a quarter of a mile from my house on I-91 going god knows where and making a racket. You do not have to have automatic transmission to drive an automobile you can drive a standard shift without double declutching. My first car was a 1937 Rover 14 which I bought in 1959 for 40 quid. I had a hell of a time getting it to shift until some expert informed me you had to double declutch it. Ever after that I double declutched every standard car I ever owned believing to this day that it was better for the transmission. Don't have to worry any more just stick it in D like 95% of my cohabitants.
buck Posted June 6, 2007 Posted June 6, 2007 I forgot to mention the Rover did 9 miles to the gallon till I removed a pile of Welsh beach sand form the SU carb chamber. The floor boards were made of plywood and the ones under the rear seats had rotted so bad you could see the road under you, which made the journey in the rain something of an experience for the back seat passengers. It finally died on a trip from Haverfordwest to Sheffield in a scrapyard in Sheffield as I didn't think it would make the return trip. I thought euthenasia would be kinder. RIP old friend. I hope you made many razor blades.
Pooch_1 Posted June 6, 2007 Posted June 6, 2007 I actually do know what an automobile is. There are thousands of them passing less than a quarter of a mile from my house on I-91 going god knows where and making a racket. You do not have to have automatic transmission to drive an automobile you can drive a standard shift without double declutching. My first car was a 1937 Rover 14 which I bought in 1959 for 40 quid. I had a hell of a time getting it to shift until some expert informed me you had to double declutch it. Ever after that I double declutched every standard car I ever owned believing to this day that it was better for the transmission. Don't have to worry any more just stick it in D like 95% of my cohabitants. What do you like driving best, Auto or Manual? I have an automatic at the moment, and I think it has made me lazy, as you say, just stick it in D and go. I also find it boring driving in the City, with no gear changing to do. The only thing I do like about it is the kick down, hit the gas pedal and it flys like the proverbial tish off a shovel.
buck Posted June 6, 2007 Posted June 6, 2007 What do you like driving best, Auto or Manual? I have an automatic at the moment, and I think it has made me lazy, as you say, just stick it in D and go. I also find it boring driving in the City, with no gear changing to do. The only thing I do like about it is the kick down, hit the gas pedal and it flys like the proverbial tish off a shovel.I like driving standard, and for mny years we always had one standard in the family, my last one being a Fiat X1/9 sports car. All I own now is a Nissan Quest minivan in automatic. Not much fun on the twisty country roads, but a big bonus on those times the interstate has been turned into a parking lot. Whwen we're in Ireland every year we always drive standard, I taught my wife some years ago, and now she's at home driving on the left or right.
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