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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 20, 2009 8:53:26 GMT
Is the question about the southern hemisphere to do with the R months? It wouldn't hold true there, since it's the warmth of water in the hot season that prompts the oysters to spawn.
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Post by mockchoc on Feb 23, 2009 8:25:21 GMT
We don't have that rule, bixy is right.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 26, 2009 4:47:18 GMT
Isn't it true that if a black cat crosses your path, you're supposed to double back to that in effect he has un-crossed your path?
I didn't see the tossing spilled salt over your left shoulder in that list.
Here's a weird Spanish one: when I was a kid in Spain, I was told it was against the law to destroy a swallow's nest. This refered to the big mud nests that swallows would build in the eaves of buildings. The reason the nests had to be respected is because when Jesus was on the cross, swallows swooped down and pulled the thorns from his forehead.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2009 6:34:08 GMT
That list was not meant to be the most common superstitions -- we would have heard of all of them in such a case.
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Post by gyro on Feb 26, 2009 10:58:07 GMT
That's ironic, Bix, seeing as how the Spanish shoot every other bird out of existence ....
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2009 11:40:34 GMT
therefore, my avatar,please don't shoot!
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Post by gyro on Feb 26, 2009 11:48:34 GMT
I'd be careful, Bix learnt to shoot in Espana ....
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2009 11:57:39 GMT
I taught her everything she knows
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 26, 2009 14:19:02 GMT
Actually, Gyro prompted a random memory with his talk of shooting -- and it's even about shooting in Spain. My dad took my brother & me to a fair where there was a shooting booth I wanted to try, although I'd never held a rifle. There were some boys there laughing at me because I was a girl and thought I could shoot. I hit the target and won a shot of creme de cacao.
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Post by spindrift on Feb 26, 2009 18:04:58 GMT
I witnessed some shooting whilst I was staying in Marbella, Spain. Live doves/pigeons? were released from underground for the guns. It was horrible.
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Post by gyro on Feb 26, 2009 20:08:39 GMT
Yeah, and they LOVE to kill Bulls too ................
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 26, 2009 20:28:11 GMT
Bull-related trivia: there are no bullfights in the state of Oaxaca because of anti-cruelty to animals laws in this state.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2009 23:03:13 GMT
Eating sperm, sorry not for me..
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2009 11:46:27 GMT
Beware The Ides of March
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 16, 2009 5:28:54 GMT
Who should beware ~~ the oysters? March has an R in it! heh heh heh heh
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Post by gyro on Mar 16, 2009 6:09:39 GMT
Nice picture of you and Kerouac, B ...
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 16, 2009 6:35:16 GMT
Hand over some of that beer. Nothing goes better with oysters!
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Post by gyro on Mar 16, 2009 6:40:29 GMT
Never had live oysters, only cooked ones. One of these days...
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 16, 2009 6:54:07 GMT
Wow ~~ you really do have something to live for! I LOVE raw oysters -- they're tons better than cooked ones. I used to have a job opening oysters. People were always dragging friends up, daring them to eat a raw oyster. I had a little spiel I'd give, preparing them for the delicate briny taste. Everyone who was ever introduced to oysters by me loved them.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2009 10:31:07 GMT
Good one,Bixa
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Post by Kimby on Mar 16, 2009 19:32:34 GMT
So I suppose you like sea urchin, too, bixa?
I had to remind myself of the "delicate briny taste" as I gagged trying to swallow some in a sushi bar in Los Angeles years ago.
Though it actually tasted more like sea gull droppings in raw eggs!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2009 21:31:41 GMT
I have actually never opened oysters myself -- always had them in restaurants or relied on other people to open them.
However, just recently I discovered that I actually own an oyster knife (saw it in my drawer of miscellaneous utensils), and I am feeling inspired.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 16, 2009 21:35:20 GMT
Photo, Kerouac? I wouldn't know one if I saw one.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2009 21:41:14 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 16, 2009 21:49:57 GMT
You know me, K ~~ I'll be happy to provide long-winded instructions before you put that sucker through the palm of your hand. Ideally, you need an oyster lead, too: . If another rummage through the kitchen doesn't yield one, use a folded towel, slightly dampened so it doesn't slip. Hold the oyster down on that towel with your non-dominant hand and slip the knife (in your dominant hand, natch) into the hinge, making sure it's angled away from any part of your body you value. Push and twist. I am betting you already knew that. Kimby ~~ oyster knife:
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Post by Kimby on Mar 17, 2009 22:10:03 GMT
The OP was about superstitions, right? Here's some Irish ones in honor of St. Paddy's Day (some were also on K2 and bixa's lists).
Though called superstitions, they are a faith-based set of practices dating back to the Celts (according to my newspaper):
Along with "Never walk in the front door of your house and leave by the back door or you'll let death in" (#8) and "Never put a hat on a bed" (bixa), there's
"Never put shoes on a table."
"Never put a new calendar on the wall before New Year's Day or you won't live to see it."
"If you hand someone a knife, it will break the friendship." Put it on the table instead. (see #16)
"Never walk around a streetlight or a parking meter with a friend."
(If you do this, utter "bread and butter" as protection.)
"Never give a gift of a purse without putting some money in it."
"A bride should put a penny in her shoe and carry or wear a horseshoe down the aisle for a lifetime of good luck."
"Bubbles on a freshly poured cup of tea means money will come into someone's future."
"Itchy hands: right hand means money is coming, left hand means you'll lose money."
"Cutting a baby's hair before its first birthday may cause it to die. As can letting a baby look into a mirror." (These superstitions might help explain away frequent infant deaths of the times.)
"A bird in the house is a sign of death." (#1) (The author remembered her Irish mother hiding in the bathroom in a panic when a bird got in their house.)
And as spindrift said, banshees wailing are a bad omen.
My kitties are caterwauling for dinner - yikes! "bread and butter" +crosses self+
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2009 5:41:54 GMT
I always put the new calendar up before the end of the year.
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Post by gyro on Mar 18, 2009 6:24:54 GMT
I thought it was just never put NEW shoes on a table, but either way, my mother would go FRANTIC if you put any form of footwear on the kitchen table ...
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Post by rikita on Mar 19, 2009 22:44:04 GMT
i always start my weekend trips on fridays. unless i get friday off, then i might start them on thursday.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2009 23:42:58 GMT
Potato Cures Rheumatism:" A curious belief still lingers in some country districts,as to the efficacy of wearing a potato somewhere about the body as a cure for rheumatism. Little by little these...shrivel till hard as a stone,and are then said to have absorbed and become full of the uric acid drawn from the patient's body" from Sussex County Magazine 1933, (A Dictionary of Superstitions,Oxford)
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