Aids would be a waste of time & money. He does NOT want them & would not pay the price. ----Original Message----- From: Maisie Egger via Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2016 11:12 AM To: LANARK@rootsweb.com Subject: [Lanark] "Speak properly" Nivard? Is that a deliberate lighting ofthe blue touch-paper? Celia, and just what does this mean --- "Speak properly" Nivard? Is that a deliberate lighting of the blue touch-paper? --- and here I’ve been carping on about the Glasgow patter being unintelligible for those not conversant with it. I had to go to Google to get an understanding of the expression only to discover that it is a colloquialism...so if you’re not in the know, you won’t ‘get it!’ "Touchpaper" is paper impregnated with saltpetre (potassium or sodium nitrate; a. k. a. "nitre"), and used as a fuse for explosives, especially fireworks. Lighting it initiates the process leading to the explosion. To "light the blue touch paper" is simply a colloquial expression meaning "to kick things off" or "to get things started" Maisie ------------------------------- WHEN REPLYING to a post please remember to snip most of the earlier message. Be sure the reply to address shows as LANARK@Rootsweb.com. You may contact the List Admin at lanark-admin@rootsweb.com or click on the following link to the list information page online: http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/intl/SCT/LANARK.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LANARK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message