Post #140,147
2/5/04 9:28:18 PM
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Atlatl? Sort of...
are used to accelerate spears, no? This was used with stones..
It's a springy branch with a notch and a split cut in it to hold the 'shot' - the 'trick' is to learn how to whip a stone with it - you have to try a couple of times to know when it will release. The stone goes REALLY fast. My grandfather used to encourage us to kill crows and rats with it, if we could.
Is there a name for it in German? I don't know of one (he called it a slingshot, though it clearly wasn't one), but my grandfather said the kids in his village used to use them.
Imric's Tips for Living
- Paranoia Is a Survival Trait
- Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised...
- Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
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Nothing is as simple as it seems in the beginning,
As hopeless as it seems in the middle,
Or as finished as it seems in the end.
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Post #140,149
2/5/04 9:35:10 PM
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lacrosse stick(sort of)
I do hold an englishman's brothel is his castle , where he should behave accordingly--as many flash tails as he likes , but none of the troop fornications that the orientals and germans indulge in. Its not the indecency I mind , but the company of a lot of boozy brutes hallooing and kicking up a deuce of a row when I want to concentrate and give off my best. A regular bacchanalia is something to see right enough, but I am with the discriminating Frog who said that one is interesting, but only a cad would make a habit of it.
Sir Harold Flashman esquire VC OBE
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
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Post #140,151
2/5/04 9:37:26 PM
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Yup - but the stick grips the stone.
Imric's Tips for Living
- Paranoia Is a Survival Trait
- Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised...
- Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
|
Nothing is as simple as it seems in the beginning,
As hopeless as it seems in the middle,
Or as finished as it seems in the end.
|
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Post #141,808
2/14/04 7:54:41 PM
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Your post, 139944, was first I ever heard the name; this...
...one I'm replying to now (#140147) was the first time I ever heard it described.
AFAICR.
OTOH, as a kid, I used to throw apples -- the sour little ones that grew on our old trees weren't really good for much else, most years -- by spearing them onto the point of a springy stick and them whipping them away, much like you describe the "German slingshot" does with rocks. (Down to sharing the same main weakness, namely that the shooter can't exactly determine the instant of release.) Made quite impressive splashes on impact... :-) (And was probably a lot less dangerous, both to property and people {not that I ever aimed at any... much! ;^} than the rocks you mention.)
I can't remember whether I came up with this stunt all on my own... It's quite possible that I got a tip from my Dad; and if it happened that way, then it's not just possible but likely that he, in turn, was adapting the "German slingshot" a bit. (Probably in order to save his daughters' lives. ;^)
I'll try and remember to ask him, when I talk to him next. (i.e, don't hold your breath... :-/ )
[link|mailto:MyUserId@MyISP.CountryCode|Christian R. Conrad]
(I live in Finland, and my e-mail in-box is at the Saunalahti company.)
You know you're doing good work when you get flamed by an idiot. -- [link|http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/34218.html|Andrew Wittbrodt]
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Post #141,812
2/14/04 9:16:14 PM
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you ever clink peewee's?
In the Old Movie March of the Wooden Soldiers Stan and Ollie use a weapon that involved a stick and a small banana shaped pod that fell from trees. There are trees in florida that produce those pods and I had a ball teaching my kids to clink peewee's. tap the stick on the end of the curved fruit, it pops in the air and then slam it like a baseball.
thanx,
bill
and everywhere the great Curse of the New World, the American Child, in all its raucous, spoiled, undiciplined, selfish ghastliness, the female specimens keeping up an incessant high-pitched whine and the male infants racketing like cowpokes on payday. There's nothing wrong with grown Americans, by and large you wont find heartier men or bonnier women anywhere, but the only remedy I can see for the children is to run Herod for President.
Sir Harold Flashman esquire VC OBE
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
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Post #141,846
2/15/04 2:10:20 PM
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Ya think those sub-tropical thingies grow up here...?
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Post #141,849
2/15/04 2:57:10 PM
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dunno we got sumac in alaska, similar
and everywhere the great Curse of the New World, the American Child, in all its raucous, spoiled, undiciplined, selfish ghastliness, the female specimens keeping up an incessant high-pitched whine and the male infants racketing like cowpokes on payday. There's nothing wrong with grown Americans, by and large you wont find heartier men or bonnier women anywhere, but the only remedy I can see for the children is to run Herod for President.
Sir Harold Flashman esquire VC OBE
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
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Post #141,850
2/15/04 3:40:04 PM
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OK, I'll check... Got a more technical name than "peewees"?
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Post #141,854
2/15/04 4:07:46 PM
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Are you familiar with a pole bean? as opposed to green bean
The trees have a similar seed pod
[link|http://plantsdatabase.com/showpicture/14135/|http://plantsdatabas...howpicture/14135/]
thanx,
bill
and everywhere the great Curse of the New World, the American Child, in all its raucous, spoiled, undiciplined, selfish ghastliness, the female specimens keeping up an incessant high-pitched whine and the male infants racketing like cowpokes on payday. There's nothing wrong with grown Americans, by and large you wont find heartier men or bonnier women anywhere, but the only remedy I can see for the children is to run Herod for President.
Sir Harold Flashman esquire VC OBE
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
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