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Well, possibly, but ‘Mary’, ‘marry’ and ‘merry’ are not exactly exotic words. The thought that the pronunciation of those three words could be confused had not even begun to start to cross my mind till that conversation.

Fascinating indeed! Thank you very much for that. I see that that article also mentions the “Mary–marry–merry merger”. I was amazed to come across that when talking to a Canadian friend here. Not only could she not pronounce the three different vowel sounds I can hear in those words (‘ay’, ‘ah’ and ‘eh’) she couldn’t even hear my pronunciation of them as different sounds.

The qualification is important. I grew up in the west of Scotland and always pronounced those words differently - I still do. My sister-in-law taught primary school kids in Scotland. There were names for some different letter combination to help with pronunciation. For example: - ‘wh’ were the ‘whistling boys’ or the ‘blowing boys’ - you expel some air through the lips as if blowing/whistling. It’s almost as if there’s a “trace” of an ‘h’ before the ‘w’. - ‘ch’ were the ‘sneezing boys’ - ‘sh’ were the ‘quiet boys’ (as in “shh!”) A couple of (genuine) questions: - how is ‘what’ pronounced? Always “wot”? - how is ‘where’ pronounced? I can’t remember hearing “ware” or “were” when I lived in several places in England.

That’s happened at times here: “My house is making more that I am!”

I can’t see why there’s any confusion - “Wales” and “whales” are pronounced differently.

That is all true - if you are staying in the same ‘market’ (usually meaning the same geographic area). You own a value of ‘one house’ in that market. However, moving to a different market, things can be different, both in good and bad ways. Selling a ‘paid-up’ house in the northeast of England and moving to Surrey, you would not have the value of “one house” in the new market. But move in the opposite direction and you could certainly buy and have plenty of money left over. We see those effects here in BC. House prices in the Vancouver area are insane. It’s the most expensive market in Canada, relative to average income. In the last few years, with ‘working from home’, people moving out of the area to other parts of BC have made big cash profits from selling and buying. (This has had the effect of increasing prices in other desirable areas to which people are moving, but prices there are still nowhere near Vancouver prices.) An example of the opposite situation happened with a vice-president of an organization I worked in. He started work with the organization in the Vancouver area, on the same day as another guy in the same office. The future VP moved around the province, gradually climbing the corporate ladder, until he moved back to the Vancouver area on becoming VP. The other employee stayed in Vancouver, being promoted a couple of levels during his career. When the other employee retired, at a reasonable retirement age, he sold his paid-up house in Vancouver, downsized to a town elsewhere in BC, and pocketed a substantial profit. The VP, on returning to Vancouver, had to buy a house there using the money from the sale of his previous house in “the boonies”. To do that, he had to take out a significant mortgage, within a few years of retiring. He himself asked “Who made the better financial decisions in his career?”.

Not really street running - it’s just an ungated street crossing. They’re coming off a right-of-way on the right and crossing into the CN/CP/BNSF/SRY transfer yard on the left. Search for “1300 Quayside Drive, New Westminster” on Google Maps and you’ll see the arrangement more clearly.

Ours are the same. I can really pack the green waste bin (a la Polybear). It sometimes brings the thought of a Monty Python/Terry Gilliam moment, where the garbage truck grabs the bin, tries to lift, and flips on its side.

Or paying compensation for a single cancelled service.

As in the famous JFK speech “I am a jam filled doughnut”?

At one point in his babyhood, our oldest would fall fast asleep within (literally!) a minute in a moving car. He could be screaming, get him in a car and move off, he’d immediately go to sleep. Only one problem - we didn’t own a car at that point! So it only worked when we had visitors staying.

Possible if it was Scotland to Scotland. For example: - Utter He-brides to the mainland - Dunoon to Gourock - Yoker to Renfrew or, in former times - Partick to Govan - Old Kirkpatrick to Erskine Etc., etc. … 😁

Nothing to do with research. To many people in North America, UK/GB/England are completely interchangeable terms. It can really tick off those of us who came from UK/GB, but not England.

Some routes in BC require snows until the end of March; others to the end of April. Since one son and family live on an ‘until the end of April’ route, our snows will be on till then. There’s a point on one of the main routes in the interior of BC where a “Snow tires required until the end of March” sign is followed within 200 metres by a “Snow tires required until the end of April”sign. A possible business opportunity in that stretch of road for a tire shop!

There’s a series started on ‘public’ TV here called “Trains at War”. It’s about railways in WW2 only. The first two episodes have dealt with Operation Barbarossa (the German attack on Russia) and the Battle of Britain (titled in the program schedule as the “Battle of England”!!). Interesting programs but, obviously, a shortage of film taken at the time. So all sorts of clips of steam engines used, taken from various sources. Thus there were e.g. quite a few shots of French locos (not 141Rs) purporting to be in southern England. The best, though, was the clip shown behind the description of Lenin’s embalmed body being removed to Siberia as German forces neared Moscow. Apparently, the train carrying the body was headed by a GWR Castle. Who knew?

One son worked for an Australian mining company, and was based in Brisbane for a while. He had to visit a site in Laos, and took a significant amount of TimTams in his luggage for the Australian expats working there. Apparently, not doing so could almost be considered grounds for dismissal. (TimTams are chocolate biscuits. They closely resemble Penguin biscuits, though Australians will vehemently deny this.)

But surely, when prototype bears walk in the woods, that’s an occupational hazard, given their other (reputed) activity there?

Is the seaweed specially imported to Minnesota for them to twirl?

There’s also a picture of a standard gauge train out of Alamosa (standard gauge engine and freight cars) with, on the back, a couple of standard gauge idler cars and a narrow gauge caboose.

Standard gauge loco hauling standard and narrow gauge cars in same train: https://ngtrainpics.photoshelter.com/image/I0000cYRxYH0ednE

This looks like a “light box” model: https://www.railpictures.net/photo/853900/

If you’re prepared to look at US railroads, there were a few with mixed gauge lines. Probably the most well-known of these was the Denver and Rio Grande Western. It had about 30 miles of dual-gauged mainline (3 foot and standard) between Alamosa and Antonito and dual-gauge yards, for example at Salida and Montrose. (If there was more than this, or if I’ve got things wrong, I’m sure JZ will be along to add to or correct what I’ve posted.) Here’s a picture of a standard gauge “idler car” showing the two couplers: https://farm2.static.flickr.com/1389/1333542762_f77c229da0.jpg?v=0 and a picture of a narrow-gauge loco hauling standard-gauge cars, showing the use of idler cars: https://railpictures.net/photo/401911/

But it will then be spent - yes? Or is there a big “Scrooge McDuck” room in the Treasury where people get to swim in money?

So where does the extra money raised go?

Correct - indeed it is!