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Re: Silly part name

To: mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Silly part name
From: wzehring@cmb.biosci.wayne.edu (Will Zehring)
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 08:25:30 +0500
>
>
>And I know of offside in football and hockey, but what's the "OFF SIDE" of 
>my B?
>

Okay: offside:  bear in mind that in England (there'll always be one) folks 
drive on the 'wrong' side of the road (i.e. the left side) in a car where 
the steering wheel is also on the wrong side (i.e. on the right side).  So, 
the passenger's side of the car (i.e. the left side) is the "near side" 
because it is the side nearest the curb.  Hence, the driver's side is the 
"off side," by default, as it 'twere, in a manner of speaking, don't you 
know, because afterall, one can't have a car with two "near sides" now, can 
one?  That sounds faguely anti-British, doesn't it?  Instead of calling the 
opposite of the "near" side the "far" side (like the cartoon), someone 
called it the "off" side, but refused, categorically, to rename the "near" 
side the "on" side.  Hence, your confusion.

This probably dates, as does almost everything in England, to the umpteenth 
century and to which side of the carriage you alighted, as the saying goes.  
Count on the English to devise a terminology that depends not upon absolutes 
(like, say, the electron's orbital diameter in a hydrogen atom) but on your 
community's convention for road manners.

I hope this helps.

Will "is it Friday yet?" Zehring


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