Harry P.

Another one... to my ear, most Canadians have no discernible accent except that they all pronounce the word "out" as "oot!" Whenever I hear a person say "oot" I immediately know they're Canadian. Aside from that one word (and maybe "about-aboot"), they have no accent that I can hear. But just that one word? Weird...

Ok, here's an interesting topic... I think... On another thread Rob and I were talking about accents, and it got me wondering... why do people from different parts of the country have such widely different accents? I don't mean people for whom English is not their native language. Obviously a German or a Frenchman will have an accent when speaking English because English is not their native tongue. I get that. But why do people from Boston say "Baaaaaaaaaaaahston?" Why do you "paaaaahk ya caaaaaaah" in Boston, instead of just parking your car? Why do people from New York say "noooo YAWK?" Even here in Chicago, within the same city, there are those who say "Shi-CAAAH-go" (like me) and others who say "Shi-CAW-go?" There's no "W" in "Chicago! And then there's the whole "valley girl" nonsense... fer sherrr! Accents must be a learned behavior. But how (why) did they begin? Not that any of you have the answer. It just has always fascinated me.

Bee Gees are from England, all born on the Isle of Man.

Of course, they would say it's we who have the accent!

I think that "Aussie" is pretty much heard when spoken as "ozzie"... so "ozzie" became synonymous with "Aussie." I've also heard of Australia being referred to as "Oz" many times.

Yeah, I pretty much figured that.

He was against any modifications to the engine. That's why his "Bentley Boys" had to mount the supercharger up front like that, and not on the engine, as would usually would have been done (like the Mercedes blown K cars).

Come on, people... get with the program. From urbandictionary.com... An Ozzie or (Aussie) is an Australian slang term to name themselves, often used in chants on Australia day "Ozzie ozzie ozzie" "oi oi oi"

From illinoispolicy.org... The average pension for a career teacher in Chicago who recently retired is $71,700 – a full $24,000 more than the average for all teachers. It’s also more than double the maximum $31,700 Social Security benefit that private sector workers who reach full retirement age can receive. To put that further into perspective, a recently retired career teacher makes more in retirement than the average Chicago household income ($71,020). And the median benefit of recently retired career teachers is nearly $67,000. That’s 23 percent higher than the median family income in Chicago ($54,188) and more than double the median earnings of Chicago workers ($31,052). Pension benefits for most career workers don’t reflect today’s fiscal and demographic realities. People are living longer, which means government retirees are collecting more retirement benefits for longer than in the past. On top of that, the average career worker in Chicago retires at or near the age of 60. some career city workers even retire in their mid-50s while collecting pension benefits equal to most of their final salary. In contrast, private sector workers cannot begin drawing a full Social Security benefit until nearly a decade later – at the age of 67. The amount of money a career city worker contributes to his or her pension has no bearing on what that worker will receive in retirement. With every paycheck, a city employee contributes a fixed percentage of his or her salary to the pension system. Over a worker’s career, their total contributions are based on their average salary. But pension benefits aren’t based on those contributions. Instead, pension benefits are based on a worker’s end-of-career salary, when their salary is likely to be at its highest point. Retirees with 30 or more years of service will receive, on average, total pension benefits nearing, and sometimes exceeding, $2 million over the course of their full retirement. In contrast, an individual in the private sector would need to have $1 million to $1.5 million in the bank at the point of retirement to purchase an annuity that mirrors what career city workers receive during retirement. Rhea Fries Boldman’s experience as a Chicago Public Schools teacher reveals just how out of sync city worker contributions are compared to the benefits they receive. Boldman retired in 2012 at the age of 59 with a final average salary of $87,057. Boldman is receiving an annual pension of $71,674 – and she will receive $2.4 million in pension benefits during her retirement if she lives to her full life expectancy. Yet she contributed just $147,032 to the pension system over her 30-plus year career. Her direct contributions to the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund will cover just 6.2 percent of her expected lifetime benefits. Including the interest earned on those contributions, the total would cover approximately 12 percent of her expected lifetime pension benefits. Chicago Public Schools – and by extension city taxpayers – will foot the lion’s share of Boldman’s pension benefits in retirement. That’s the problem with the current system: worker contributions are completely unrelated to their retirement benefits. Current pension benefits for city workers are no longer sustainable or affordable. It’s not fair to ask Chicago workers, who earn a median income of $31,052, to pay for career government workers to retire in their 50s and draw lifetime pension benefits nearing $2 million. 'nuff said..

Don't know why nobody uses it. Works just fine as far as I know.

Wait... what? You mean Canada isn't our 51st state?

Beautiful GTO.

You're welcome! I'm a stickler not only for mirrors, but for realism. If the real car has mirrors, the model should, too... or else it's not an accurate replica. I'm happy to hear that I was a positive influence on you! Beautiful model.

Beautiful! My favorite generation of Charger, BTW. And yes! It has mirrors! Hallelujah!

Absolutely!

Do you do it casually, or you a "birder" and keep a log of which birds you've seen and where? Do you take photos of them?

When I talk about woodworking, I don't mean hand tools and carving and such. Marquetry is cool, but my real dream is to build (and sell, of course) custom designed furniture. So yeah, I would need a full-blown "production" shop... table saw, planer, drill press/milling machine, lathe, etc., etc. Mucho big bucks. And like I said, I have no actual physical place to set up such a shop, even if I could afford the tools. So woodworking (as I would want to pursue it) is pretty much a pipe dream. That's why I had such a blast in college, working in our production shop. I got to use tools that I could never afford to own, in a space that I don't have.

Just checked. Everything is perfectly normal.

1/16 and 1/8 are my scales of choice... to me, those are "standard!"

Ok... Crowded House is a tossup. The Finn brothers were New Zealanders by birth, but the band was formed in Australia. So let's say CH was Australian. My absolute favorite CH song...

Split Enz/Crowded House are from New Zealand, not Australia. AC/DC gets a vote from me...

Another vote for INXS. Geez... this is tough!

Another vote for MO...

Ok... we covered the best from Canada. How about Australia? I have a really hard time picking between my two favorites... INXS and Midnight Oil. Call it a draw...