Ponderances

Janny · 03-29-2004, 03:28 PM

What did the Chinese do to get Chinese Whispers named after them?

Lalaith_Elf · 03-29-2004, 03:29 PM

Don't forget Chinese Burns.

Janny · 03-29-2004, 03:37 PM

Hmm... true. Chinese finger traps too. This is a whole new thread for our spamming to overflow into!

Lalaith_Elf · 03-29-2004, 03:40 PM

YOU'RE spamming! I've cut mine down dramatically! It's just people like you (and Beor) who drag me back into it!

Lizra · 03-29-2004, 06:16 PM

What's a Chinese whisper?

BeardofPants · 03-29-2004, 06:48 PM

What's a chinese jasper... pass it on.

Lizra · 03-29-2004, 11:21 PM

Oh! ......

Ruinel · 03-30-2004, 12:07 AM

What is a Chinese Whisper?

GrayMouser · 03-30-2004, 12:52 AM

Chinese fingertraps came from China (OK, it's a guess)

Chinese Whispers -maybe because what comes out at the end is as incomprehensible as Chinese?

Chinese fire-drill?

***Khamûl*** · 03-30-2004, 01:04 AM

Couldn't all of life's little unanswerable questions be discussed somewhere like The Teacup Cafe without opening an entirely new thread for them?

Janny · 03-30-2004, 04:01 AM

A chinese whisper is when a message gets distorted in the telling. Nice explanation BoP!

Well, ultimately Khamul, yes. But then shouldn't you pose that question in the Teacup Cafe? And shouldn't this be posed there too... and on it goes...

sun-star · 03-30-2004, 05:41 AM

While it goes against my nature to prolong spamming... no, wait, it doesn't. Here goes

I would suggest that "Chinese" in this phrase is one of those rude imperialist prefixes to mean "wrong". The whispers go bad, we can call them Chinese, goes the reasoning. Pre-twentieth century, "Irish" was used in the same way: "Irish logic", for example, meant bad logic.

What did the Chinese do to have the game named after them? Nothing.

03-29-2004, 03:28 PM	#1
Janny The Blobbit Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Kent, England (Not Oxford! ... yet...) Posts: 1,596	Ponderances What did the Chinese do to get Chinese Whispers named after them? __________________ Janny's Songs Janny's lyrics and random photographs Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who happen to be walking about. ~ Mercutio... erm, GK Chesterton.

03-29-2004, 03:29 PM	#2
Lalaith_Elf Her Infernal Majesty Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 2,188	Don't forget Chinese Burns. __________________ "It is a good viewpoint to see the world as a dream. When you have something like a nightmare, you will wake up and tell yourself that it was only a dream. It is said that the world we live in is not a bit different from this." - Yamamoto Tsunetomo

03-29-2004, 03:37 PM	#3
Janny The Blobbit Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Kent, England (Not Oxford! ... yet...) Posts: 1,596	Hmm... true. Chinese finger traps too. This is a whole new thread for our spamming to overflow into! __________________ Janny's Songs Janny's lyrics and random photographs Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who happen to be walking about. ~ Mercutio... erm, GK Chesterton.

03-29-2004, 03:40 PM	#4
Lalaith_Elf Her Infernal Majesty Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 2,188	YOU'RE spamming! I've cut mine down dramatically! It's just people like you (and Beor) who drag me back into it! __________________ "It is a good viewpoint to see the world as a dream. When you have something like a nightmare, you will wake up and tell yourself that it was only a dream. It is said that the world we live in is not a bit different from this." - Yamamoto Tsunetomo

03-29-2004, 06:16 PM	#5
Lizra Domesticated Swing Babe Join Date: May 2002 Location: Reality Posts: 5,340	What's a Chinese whisper? __________________ Happy Atheist Go Democrats!

03-29-2004, 06:48 PM	#6
BeardofPants the Shrike Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: San Francisco, CA <3 Posts: 10,647	What's a chinese jasper... pass it on. __________________ "Binary solo! 0000001! 00000011! 0000001! 00000011!" ~ The Humans are Dead, Flight of the Conchords

03-29-2004, 11:21 PM	#7
Lizra Domesticated Swing Babe Join Date: May 2002 Location: Reality Posts: 5,340	Oh! ...... __________________ Happy Atheist Go Democrats!

03-30-2004, 12:07 AM	#8
Ruinel Banned Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: I have no idea. Posts: 5,441	What is a Chinese Whisper?

03-30-2004, 12:52 AM	#9
GrayMouser Elf Lord Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Ilha Formosa Posts: 2,068	Chinese fingertraps came from China (OK, it's a guess) Chinese Whispers -maybe because what comes out at the end is as incomprehensible as Chinese? Chinese fire-drill? __________________ Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them? "I like pigs. Dogs look up to us, cats look down on us, but pigs treat us as equals."- Winston Churchill

03-30-2004, 01:04 AM	#10
*Khamûl* Slacker Warrior Admin Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Alabama Posts: 2,759	Couldn't all of life's little unanswerable questions be discussed somewhere like The Teacup Cafe without opening an entirely new thread for them? __________________ "If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you." Gandalf to Pippin Psalm 107:31

03-30-2004, 04:01 AM	#11
Janny The Blobbit Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Kent, England (Not Oxford! ... yet...) Posts: 1,596	A chinese whisper is when a message gets distorted in the telling. Nice explanation BoP! Well, ultimately Khamul, yes. But then shouldn't you pose that question in the Teacup Cafe? And shouldn't this be posed there too... and on it goes... __________________ Janny's Songs Janny's lyrics and random photographs Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who happen to be walking about. ~ Mercutio... erm, GK Chesterton.

03-30-2004, 05:41 AM	#12
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	While it goes against my nature to prolong spamming... no, wait, it doesn't. Here goes I would suggest that "Chinese" in this phrase is one of those rude imperialist prefixes to mean "wrong". The whispers go bad, we can call them Chinese, goes the reasoning. Pre-twentieth century, "Irish" was used in the same way: "Irish logic", for example, meant bad logic. What did the Chinese do to have the game named after them? Nothing. __________________ And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand As they have done for centuries, as they will For centuries to come, when not a soul Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks, When England is not England, when mankind Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea, Consolingly disastrous, will return While the strange starfish, hugely magnified, Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool.