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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007To ring the lemons
Hello: Couldn't find this anywhere: "ring the lemons." It probably designates a "failed attempt," but I'm not sure. --------- [Jakes mother has just tried, unsuccessfully again, to "find a girl" for him.] "And if you tried to rig anything for me with Dumonde, you sure rang the lemons." All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren, p. 181 --------- Thanks. Marius Hancu >Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren, p. 181 >--------- That sounds like a reference to the type of (gambling) slot machine (a "one-armed bandit") which displays a row of randomly chosen symbols each time it is played. In BrE these are called "fruit machines" -- most of the symbols are fruits. A row of lemons wins the player precisely nothing. The sound from the machine is a ringing noise. (I don't think I've played on of those for at least 40 years. I've found other ways of spending money!)  SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) > >"And if you tried to rig anything for me with Dumonde, you sure rang > >the lemons." [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > The sound from the machine is a ringing noise. It may well be that. Thanks. Marius Hancu >>Hello: >> [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > >The sound from the machine is a ringing noise. It could also refer to the Bells in the Church of of St. Clement's... "Oranges and lemons" say the Bells of St. Clement's "You owe me five farthings" say the Bells of St. Martin's "When will you pay me?" say the Bells of Old Bailey "When I grow rich" say the Bells of Shoreditch "When will that be?" say the Bells of Stepney "I do not know" say the Great Bells of Bow "Here comes a Candle to light you to Bed Here comes a Chopper to Chop off your Head Chip chop chip chop - the Last Man's Dead." While on the surface this is just a children's nursery rhyme, its origins are somewhat macabre - the last three lines refer to the bells that signalled for the execution to proceed of the prisoners at Tyburn. "... The executions commenced at nine o'clock Monday morning following the first toll of the tenor bell..." So this *might* be an abstruse reference to an impending and metaphorical execution of some subject within _All The Kings Men_ http://www.rhymes.org.uk/oranges_and_lemons.htm gives further details Jitze >> Hello: >> [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > > The sound from the machine is a ringing noise. It was when you last played them It's all electric now. I remember the one-armed bandits very well when they actually had an arm - one of the best mis-spendings in a mis-spent youth. But a row of lemons *did* win - a row of *any* symbol won something. But lemons were probably, in this case, the symbols that created the lowest-paying win. Analogous to "the answer's a lemon" SignatureJohn Dean Oxford >>> Hello: >>> [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] >symbols that created the lowest-paying win. Analogous to "the answer's a >lemon" Yes, I think a row of lemons just got you a free go. I agree that they were fun. There was something in the way the extra resistance of the arm just before it reached the end of its run, went "kerplunk" and the rollers started to whir that was deeply satisfying (not unlike the satisfaction of kerplunking the gear lever of a Vauxhall Victor into neutral without stepping on the clutch before yer dad clipped you round the ear). Still, no one-armed bandit could compete with the ineffable wondrousness of a late 1960s Bally pinball machine (preferably located in a milk bar on an Anglesey caravan site).[1] PlayStation? X-Box? Ha! [1. Sal might note that the best pinball machines, including those manufactured by Bally and Williams, were made in Chicago. So they can get something right after all.] SignatureBrad Germolene ADVANCE REMONIKERIZATION ALERT: Archie Valparaiso is coming (to stay, I promise) in January 2007. >>>> Hello: >>>> [quoted text clipped - 39 lines] > wondrousness of a late 1960s Bally pinball machine (preferably located > in a milk bar on an Anglesey caravan site).[1] Ah, well, NOW you're talking. Although there were prime examples to be found in Paris bistros. And one of the pubs near me in Manchester used to offer a free pint for best score of the day. As if we needed encouraging. Oh the delight of handing on your surplus replays to the next player ... My all time favourite was the Harlem Globetrotters pinball. I can't be doing with the modern all-electronic disasters. I've occasionally thought of tracking one down but I can't honestly say we've room for it. SignatureJohn Dean Oxford Ross Howard: > Still, no one-armed bandit could compete with the ineffable > wondrousness of a late 1960s Bally pinball machine (preferably located > in a milk bar on an Anglesey caravan site)... Bally? Bah! Gottlieb, please! (Or Williams if we can drift into the 1970s.) SignatureMark Brader, Toronto | "We did not try to keep writing until msb@vex.net | things got full." --Dennis Ritchie >Ross Howard: >> Still, no one-armed bandit could compete with the ineffable [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >Bally? Bah! Gottlieb, please! (Or Williams if we can drift into >the 1970s.) Gottlieb! Why had I forgotten about them? Also made in Chicago, if memory serves. SignatureBrad Germolene ADVANCE REMONIKERIZATION ALERT: Archie Valparaiso is coming (to stay, I promise) in January 2007. Peter Duncanson wrote, in <dbo5p2da3fnbhorh5feoa3d1d472juot3u@4ax.com> on Wed, 27 Dec 2006 21:20:51 +0000: > >Hello: > > [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > (I don't think I've played on of those for at least 40 years. I've > found other ways of spending money!) I remember in about 1940 being with my father in some club that had one of those machines. The coin to operate it was a sixpence and pa hit the jackpot and a stream of sixpences came out of the machine overfilling the receiving dish and spilling all over the floor. SignatureNick Spalding > Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > "And if you tried to rig anything for me with Dumonde, you sure rang > the lemons." Another possibility is the sense of "lemon, n." meaning "head" per OED: e. slang. The head. 1923 Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves i. 13 'What might you have missed?' I asked, the old lemon being slightly clouded. 1952 Coast to Coast 195 If you had any brains in that big lemon you'd wipe me. You'd get away. Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~ San Diego > Another possibility is the sense of "lemon, n." meaning "head" per OED: > > e. slang. The head. > > 1923 Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves I am watching Jeeves on TV these days. Not as good as the books ... Marius Hancu > 1923 Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves Would you say that Stephen Fry, the actor playing Jeeves in the current TV series, speaks RP (at least in this role)? http://www.hatsharpening.com/j&w/mtbook.php Marius Hancu >> 1923 Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves > > Would you say that Stephen Fry, the actor playing Jeeves in the > current TV series, speaks RP (at least in this role)? > > http://www.hatsharpening.com/j&w/mtbook.php Never seen the series, but Fry generally speaks rather exemplary RP. SignatureMike. -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com |
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