Route recommendations - Austin to Seattle

Chris D'Agnolo wrote:
> "ANOUNCEMENT*
> We may have more turtle (oops, tortoise) knowledge here than Miata
> knowledge!

Slightly off-topic. There is a very important difference. Drop a
tortoise in the water and it drowns. Leave a turtle out of water long
enough and it dies.
A lot of people assume that I caught her wild in the lake. I have to
explain that she is a land animal and not from North America.

> Just kidding, just kidding! It is funny though, to see so much interest
> about such an obscure subject in this relatively small group.

I think that it is mainly me and XS11E, but over 20 people looked at the
video yesterday, so it can't be bothering them to badly.

> Good luck with finding the adoptive parents Pat!
>
> Chris
> 99BBB

I was thinking about you. You need a reptile that will outlive and
possibly outgrow you. She also eats a LOT, and that will only increase
with time. :-)

Pat

>> We may have more turtle (oops, tortoise) knowledge here than Miata
>> knowledge!
>
> Slightly off-topic. There is a very important difference. Drop a tortoise
> in the water and it drowns.

Absolutely, but I thought that difference in terminology only existed in
British English and that American English used the word "turtle" for both
the land and water-borne varieties? Or is it just that people falsely use
"turtle" for everything?

There was a big stink here a while ago when someone phoned the RSPCA (Royal
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a society that basically
does lots of different things for animals) to say they found a "turtle" in
their back garden. They came, collected the "turtle", put it in a bucket of
water, and it drowned. The person involved got sacked for not being able to
tell the difference between a turtle and a tortoise which is, it has to be
said, a very difficult mistake to make - they tend to look distinctly
different.

>> Good luck with finding the adoptive parents Pat!

Too right - can't bear the thought of someone buying it to put in a pot...

Eric

Eric Baber wrote:

> Absolutely, but I thought that difference in terminology only existed in
> British English and that American English used the word "turtle" for both
> the land and water-borne varieties? Or is it just that people falsely use
> "turtle" for everything?

It's strange, we will call a Galapagos a tortoise, never a turtle, but a
Terrapene is called a box turtle, despite the fact that it is a
tortoise, not a turtle.
So it is really both. Any turtle or tortoise besides the Galapagos
tortoise is referred to a turtle by most people that I have known.
I have never heard anyone refer to a turtle as a tortoise.

Most of the people that have seen this one have never heard of the
African Spurred. They call her a turtle every time.
The African Spurred Tortoise is endangered in Africa but they are far
from rare in captivity.

> There was a big stink here a while ago when someone phoned the RSPCA (Royal
> Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a society that basically
> does lots of different things for animals) to say they found a "turtle" in
> their back garden. They came, collected the "turtle", put it in a bucket of
> water, and it drowned. The person involved got sacked for not being able to
> tell the difference between a turtle and a tortoise which is, it has to be
> said, a very difficult mistake to make - they tend to look distinctly
> different.

Yikes! The feet having webbing or not is a big giveaway.

I guess growing up owning box (turtles?), red ears, and even snapping
turtles makes the difference seem obvious where it would not be to some,
but come on, this person should have known better or asked someone else
if they work with an organization that deals with a variety of animals.

There was a local African Spurred that escaped the owner's yard, this
one was almost 40 pounds. His main concern was that someone would find
it and take it to the water and throw it in, thinking that is where it
had come from. (They found it, BTW).

That would suck, but my main concern would have been that my 40 pound
rock was walking around, potentially onto the roadways.
Hitting that thing at speed in your miata could be, interesting, to say
the least....Trying to avoid it might cause similar problems.

> Too right - can't bear the thought of someone buying it to put in a pot...
>
> Eric

Thanks! It looks like a friend may keep her. He keeps telling me that I
will be back soon anyway.

Pat

"Eric Baber" > wrote in
:

>> Slightly off-topic. There is a very important difference. Drop a
>> tortoise in the water and it drowns.
>
> Absolutely, but I thought that difference in terminology only existed
> in British English and that American English used the word "turtle"
> for both the land and water-borne varieties? Or is it just that people
> falsely use "turtle" for everything?
>
> ...the difference between a turtle and a tortoise which is, it has to
> be said, a very difficult mistake to make - they tend to look
> distinctly different.

So, as someone with no particular interest in turtles and a victim* of
American English, I had to look up the difference between the two..
Here's a reasonable description:
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/care/faq.html#difference

-Scott

*victim: someone who blames their own ignorance on the most convenient
scape goat

Scott Hughes > wrote:

> So, as someone with no particular interest in turtles and a
> victim* of American English, I had to look up the difference
> between the two.. Here's a reasonable description:
> http://www.tortoisetrust.org/care/faq.html#difference


The gospel according to St. Encyclopedia Britannica:

turtle
Any of more than 250 species (order Chelonia) of reptiles having a bony
shell overlaid with horny shields; found in most parts of the world.

tortoise
Any of some 40 species (family Testudinidae) of slow-moving,
terrestrial, herbivorous turtles, found in the Old and New Worlds but
chiefly in Africa and Madagascar.

So tortoises are turtles but turtles aren't always tortoises.

I learned something, I didn't know tortoises are included in the term
"turtle".

Pat wrote:
> Chris D'Agnolo wrote:
> > Well, I was (am?) what I thought was a pretty big Rush fan but I
don't know
> > anything about that album. I guess I wandered about that time but,
2112 is
> > an all-time classic of mine amongst several others. Definitely
three of the
> > best musicians to get together of all time.
> >
> > If ya gotta steal Pat, I guess steal from the best, eh?
>
> Yeah, and you would think I could get the albums right after
claiming
> them as my favorite band for 28 years.
>
> "The Analog Kid" is from the album "Signals", not "Grace Under
> Pressure". "Signals" was released in 1982, a year that I do not
remember
> so well.....

No, no, no, Pat, it's the 70's you're not supposed to be able to
remember! <g>

Iva & Belle.)
'90B Classic Red.)
#3 winkin' Miata
(Seventies? What seventies?)

In article >,
"Iva" .> wrote:

> No, no, no, Pat, it's the 70's you're not supposed to be able to
> remember! <g>

Young whippersnapper. For some of us, it's the '60s.

Lanny Chambers > wrote:

> In article >,
> "Iva" .> wrote:
>
>> No, no, no, Pat, it's the 70's you're not supposed to be able to
>> remember! <g>
>
> Young whippersnapper. For some of us, it's the '60s.

And for some of us it's the '40s.

XS11E wrote:
> Lanny Chambers wrote:
> > Iva wrote:
> >
> >> No, no, no, Pat, it's the 70's you're not supposed to be able to
> >> remember! <g>
> >
> > Young whippersnapper. For some of us, it's the '60s.
>
> And for some of us it's the '40s.

Your 40's or the 1940's? <g>

Iva & Belle.)
'90B Classic Red.)
#3 winkin' Miata

XS11E > wrote:

>Lanny Chambers > wrote:
>
>> In article >,
>> "Iva" .> wrote:
>>
>>> No, no, no, Pat, it's the 70's you're not supposed to be able to
>>> remember! <g>
>>
>> Young whippersnapper. For some of us, it's the '60s.
>
>And for some of us it's the '40s.

And for others of us, it is the '50s.

And '60s. And 70s'. And '80s. And '90s. And '00s.

And 30 seconds ago.

Leon
--
Leon van Dommelen Bess, the Miata Bozo, the Miata
http://www.dommelen.net/miata
The only thing better than a white Miata is two white Miatas