sparkles said:
I guess people who land here on planet ‘diabetes.co.uk’ are looking for info about diabetes.
I know I was…
This is how I met Sid.
Sid said …..Way too Zen for me! (see his post above)
I try to understand Sid and I hope and think Sid is trying to understand me
We are just two people out of many in a ship called humanity.
And we often don’t understand each other.
But we often don’t understand ourselves.
Life is full of things I don’t understand
carrying on the idea in the post I made about gardening here in this thread.
Is it the Gardiner in me that wants to know?
There are ‘ladies’ and there are ‘insects’ and there are ‘birds’
And I ‘know ‘ all three.
At least I ‘think’ I do.
But I have never really understood is
How the ‘insect’ called the ‘Ladybird’ got its name?
I mean a ‘lady ‘is not a ‘bird’
And neither a ‘bird’ nor a ‘lady’ is an ‘insect’
So why did the insect called the ‘ladybird’ come to be known as the ‘ladybird?’
A. Can anyone tell me…
B. Can anyone explain?
C. Or is it too trivial for me to ask?
D. Or just not right to ask here on a site dedicated to ‘diabetes’
I think
Another example.
Blackbirds are birds. The Female blackbirds are BROWN: and the male blackbirds are BLACK.
So why have we come to know this type of bird as ‘Blackbirds?’
I don’t understand.
Half of the Blackbird population is brown. So why call hem Black? Birds.
Diabetes is a lot of things to a lot of people.
Ask anyone
the ‘what’ ‘where’ ‘why’ and ‘how’ of diabetes
And I think you’ll get a lot of different answers and only some of them you’ll understand.
By the way Sid
I like your (what’s that thing called -signiture, statement, motto) yours is
'Scientists use statistics like drunks use lampposts, for support rather than illumination'
I like it. But why when I read it did I make the connection of lampposts and pee?
It totally hijacked and corrupted your intended meaning for me.
I thought of drunks as ‘peeing on lampposts’ instead of ‘leaning on lamposts for support.’
So I think I missed the point a bit.
I think I took it to be a slur on scientists rather than just a statement about them and how they work with statistics... and the idea that scientists could instead be using statistics to illuminate,
Duh… Cave Baby me!
(right... time to put the computer away again...)
Sparkles
I think lady birds were called lady birds because they are far too pretty looking to be called 'bug' or 'insect' and it sort of opens it wings from inside, like an actual bird. it's wings don't stick out like any old insect!! and i think it looks more lady like that other 'insects' with its pretty colours and spots. Reminds me of those skirts like from grease, when i was little my mum had one that was knee length and flared out a little and was red with black spots.
With blackbirds, maybe it was named then they discovered that the females were brown afterwards.
Scientisty guy number1 : 'hey look, it's black.. errr..blackbird! that'll do... time to name that slithery thing over there..'
Scientisty guy number2 : 'Hold on, that brown one over there looks alot like your blackbird bird thing?..'
scientisty guy number 1 : 'ohhh errrrm... iiii..ermmm... It's already named now tough!'
Some time later....
Scientisty guy number 3 : 'AAAAWE look at that pretty bug over there' *touches* 'WOAAAAH IT FLIEEEES!!!'
Scientisty guy number 2 : 'Lets call it 'spotty bug'?'
Scientisy guy number 1 : 'How about spotty bird?'
Scientisty guy number 3 : 'no no no.. we shall call it elephant'
Scientisty guy number 2 : 'i was saving that for something huge...'
*lots of bickering later amongst the guys...*
Scientisty girl comes along... : 'oooooh a ladybird'
All scientisty guys : '****.'
Maybe i should put the computer away because that was a bit strange and i got carried away but i sort of like it now
