Out of the mouth of babes...

[Jacksgranda]

4 minutes ago, KingRocketman II said:

am sure this has been discussed before but why is this thread titled "...babes"? I can see that it has been running for 12 years, so am assuming "babe" was a commonly used term at the time or was it based on a saying?

I thought "babe" when referring to women was a Wayne's World briefly lived term from about 20 odd years ago....

Was it not Shakespeare?

ETA: The Bible - Psalm 8 v2

Edited March 6, 2022 by Jacksgranda
Update

[anotherchance]

Clive Myrie hosting Mastermind last night.

”I thought he was in Ukraine”

Told her they flew the audience and the contestants out as a show of solidarity, and she quite happily accepted said explanation without question.

[diegomarahenry]

My sister has spent her life buying scrapper cars and within weeks manages to turn them from a former beloved family car to something that sounds like a 1982 Lada.

last year she went out and bought a new car.

She said this week that she is selling it as it is to complicated.

Every time she tried to start it, it fails because she pumps the accelerator and the engine management thinks she is going to flood the engine. She has to phone the AA to come and reset the engine management for it to start.

The AA has told her she is on the edge of her “fair usage” policy so she has decided to sell it and buy a simpler car as it is to complicated for its own good.

She told me this blaming both Vauxhall and the AA for the situation. 
 

 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

“See Mercury, the planet, is it bigger than 2 double decker busses?”

[Boo Khaki]

1 hour ago, Melanius Mullarkay said:

“See Mercury, the planet, is it bigger than 2 double decker busses?”

You need to do a bit of digging and find out what prompted this question. 

[dysartrovers]

You need to do a bit of digging and find out what prompted this question. 

Absolutely this

[Melanius Mullarkey]

The bairn was asking some trivia questions earlier, one of which was “what is the third planet in the solar system?”.

After clarifying whether she meant from the sun out or from the outer solar system in (?!?!) the wife said Saturn. Anyway after finding out it wasn’t Saturn she started asking if Mercury is closer to the sun than the earth then why doesn’t it block out the sun.  When prompted with the fact that Mercury is a very small planet (amongst other things) she then questioned whether it was bigger than 2 double decker busses. 
 

 

[Boo Khaki]

Christ.

At the risk of indulging in the folly that is trying to figure out what the f**k goes on in women's brains, presumably she is labouring under the misapprehension that the Sun is the size of two average corporation double-decker buses, and therefore, if Mercury was larger than that, it would surely block out the Sun? (I'm being uncharitable here and assuming she doesn't realise that planets actually move).

I think you're going to have to go back and do a bit more digging. Only if you can safely do so without ending up rocking back and forth in a corner, holding yourself and gently sobbing though.

[Bold Rover]

9 hours ago, Melanius Mullarkay said:

The bairn was asking some trivia questions earlier, one of which was “what is the third planet in the solar system?”.

After clarifying whether she meant from the sun out or from the outer solar system in (?!?!) the wife said Saturn. Anyway after finding out it wasn’t Saturn she started asking if Mercury is closer to the sun than the earth then why doesn’t it block out the sun.  When prompted with the fact that Mercury is a very small planet (amongst other things) she then questioned whether it was bigger than 2 double decker busses. 
 

 

Wouldn't that prompt an enquiry about one double decker bus as a comparator?

[deej]

11 hours ago, Boo Khaki said:

Christ.

At the risk of indulging in the folly that is trying to figure out what the f**k goes on in women's brains, presumably she is labouring under the misapprehension that the Sun is the size of two average corporation double-decker buses, and therefore, if Mercury was larger than that, it would surely block out the Sun? (I'm being uncharitable here and assuming she doesn't realise that planets actually move).

I think you're going to have to go back and do a bit more digging. Only if you can safely do so without ending up rocking back and forth in a corner, holding yourself and gently sobbing though.

 

But if you stand next to a double decker bus with the sun on the other side, the bus blocks the sun - so it must be smaller than one bus, never mind two?

[Arch Stanton]

18 minutes ago, deej said:

 

But if you stand next to a double decker bus with the sun on the other side, the bus blocks the sun - so it must be smaller than one bus, never mind two?

That's more of a "small, far away" situation.

[hk blues]

1 hour ago, deej said:

 

But if you stand next to a double decker bus with the sun on the other side, the bus blocks the sun - so it must be smaller than one bus, never mind two?

It's actually smaller than my thumb.  

[Boo Khaki]

5 hours ago, Bold Rover said:

Wouldn't that prompt an enquiry about one double decker bus as a comparator?

It had occurred to me that much depends on the size of these hypothetical double-decker buses, but I felt there were more pressing questions to ask.

[Sergeant Wilson]

Size goes like this...

Double decker bus, football pitch, Wales.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

I once tried to explain how the moon actually rotates about its axis, but at such a rate that we tend to see the same side of the moon. I ended up having to use an orange (Earth) and an apple with a bite out of it (to represent the sea of tranquility). Gave up after half an hour. 
 

She has 2 (two) engineering degrees.

[Florentine_Pogen]

Just now, Melanius Mullarkay said:

I once tried to explain how the moon actually rotates about its axis, but at such a rate that we tend to see the same side of the moon. I ended up having to use an orange (Earth) and an apple with a bite out of it (to represent the sea of tranquility). Gave up after half an hour. 
 

She has 2 (two) engineering degrees.

No f*ckin' way......................You make it sound as if she's a born-again Flat Earther who can't fathom how to operate a cigarette lighter.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

2 minutes ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

No f*ckin' way......................You make it sound as if she's a born-again Flat Earther who can't fathom how to operate a cigarette lighter.

I think she’s just a bit dense tbh.

Space is definitely not her thing.

[Shipa]

2 hours ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Size goes like this...

Double decker bus, football pitch, Wales.

Blue Wales, or Minke Wales?

[superbigal]

I once tried to explain how the moon actually rotates about its axis, but at such a rate that we tend to see the same side of the moon. I ended up having to use an orange (Earth) and an apple with a bite out of it (to represent the sea of tranquility). Gave up after half an hour. 
 
She has 2 (two) engineering degrees.

To be fair Mercury is only about the diameter of 1.4 million double decker busses.
Tell her to apply for the price is right.

[Boo Khaki]

3 hours ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Size goes like this...

Double decker bus, football pitch, Wales.

I notice you've omitted the next one up, 'Belgium', which has presumably been dropped now that the UK is no longer an EU member state.

I'm fairly certain it's still commonly used to quantify things which are non-EU related though, so "Bolsonaro is destroying the Amazonian rainforest at the rate of an area the size of Belgium every year" for example.

Edited April 12, 2022 by Boo Khaki