Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!nntp.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Snidely Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,alt.usage.english Subject: Re: GNU Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:53:44 -0700 Organization: Dis One Lines: 86 Message-ID: References: <1rsq78a.9hgxro1eczx2yN%nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> <10qb9df$1inu5$14@dont-email.me> <1rsr591.1ssq8oh1dihjwuN%nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> <10qc4dc$1silm$10@dont-email.me> <0cqjskp5oprp9v1utu6t3q8u0urkpnjbvs@4ax.com> <951q9mxo8p.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> Reply-To: snidely.too@gmail.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-15"; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:53:49 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="e26690d7e4e92c2349421674eaa1dd77"; logging-data="4015983"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/z/VC4taumIW1jcaKMcFOU4lxDQR6rF30=" Cancel-Lock: sha1:vdXDk77q0F4Ke+Va/PVm/wh7KWg= X-ICQ: 543516788 X-Newsreader: MesNews/1.08.06.00-gb Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:84947 alt.usage.english:1141894 Monday, Snidely quipped: > On Monday or thereabouts, Tony Cooper declared ... >> On Mon, 30 Mar 2026 23:10:50 +0200, "Carlos E.R." >> wrote: >> >>> On 2026-03-30 22:13, rbowman wrote: >>>> On Mon, 30 Mar 2026 12:50:49 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote: >>>> >>>>> On 2026-03-30 08:49, rbowman wrote: >>>>>> On Sun, 29 Mar 2026 23:17:17 -0400, Tony Cooper wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>> Many of us in the US are old enough to have had our blood pressure >>>>>>> checked with such a device. And, to have used glass thermometers with >>>>>>> mercury in it. When broken, and the little blob of mercury fell out, >>>>>>> to have squished the blob into many smaller blobs and been delighted >>>>>>> to have seen them all reunite into one blob. That was done by a >>>>>>> forefinger before we knew that the mercury was harmful. >>>>>> >>>>>> In grade school the desks were old enough to have both a cutout for an >>>>>> inkwell and a groove, presumably to hold a pen or pencil. The groove >>>>>> was just right to shuttle a blob of mercury back and forth. >>>>>> >>>>>> Eventually they were replaced with the chairs with the integral writing >>>>>> surface. Those suck if you're left handed. >>>>> >>>>> Or having a book and writing notes. >>>> >>>> I don't write marginalia very often but I tend to use those spiral bound >>>> notebooks upside down. >>> >>> Yes, I mean having a book and a notebook in those chairs with integral >>> writing surfaces (is there a name for those?) is horrible. >> >> If you are thinking of this type of school desk: >> >> https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2Fed%2F20%2Fe7%2Fed20e7ebf59e5fae2aa0fad6c37d0752.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=62e194d2b5acc416f75fe257062ab8e8463e5a9e93e4e2d12849bea928fc0ffa >> >> they were just called "school desks". That's the type of desk in the >> high schools I attended. As a left-hander, and hand-over-writing >> writer, they were awkward for me to use. >> >> Some of the grade schools had desks like this, but with a hole at the >> upper right for the inkwell. >> >> https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthumbs.dreamstime.com%2Fz%2Fold-student-classroom-desks-close-up-rows-antique-focus-desk-foreground-34082310.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=2e1b5c0bc76ffe02cd318f65b0ceeebfde8bb99a70e2e70878a8d3d033508ab7 > > Most of my grade school desks/chairs were like this: > > but many did have an ink well. > > In Junior High and High School, we didn't stay put in the same room all day, > so we used > > and the bin we shoveled our text books into was swapped for a locker. > > (Jr High was in a brand new school, and all desks were laminate surfaces with > plastic chairs. High School had been around for more than 13 years, and I > think there were still some desks like Tony's picture 1) In college, some of the classrooms had, uh, veteran furnishings, including desks something like these: (That building dated back to 1911, but the furnishings may have been from the '50s) The newer buildings generally had something like the schoolfix link above in the lecture halls and larger classrooms. Smaller classrooms and seminar rooms generally had tables with chairs around them. The largest lecture, 3 times a week, for the entire freshman class of 350-400 students, involved putting canvas down on a gym floor and setting up folding chairs. The sophomore equivalent of that was held in the Chapel of the 1911 building, with pews. That venue was also used for the Friday Films showings, and for concerts. Once in a while, there would be a wedding on a weekend. /dps -- And the Raiders and the Broncos have life now in the West. I thought they were both nearly dead if not quite really most sincerely dead. -- Mike Salfino, fivethirtyeight.com