Totally OT --

[gateley]

See those rocks on the bulkhead on the lake? Do you have a word for what that formation of rocks is called? I ask because we in Seattle do, and my brother mentioned once that when he lived in L.A. and used that word, people had never heard it. Just curious if it really is regional.

We also say standing IN line rather than standing ON line, which I've heard is unique to that area, too. (Bored today, gateley? :P)

[WheelWalker]

1. Is it dinner, or supper?

[gateley]

6. Dinner. nt

[PatSeg]

2. I'm originally from the Midwest

and we've always said "IN line". I just heard "ON line" in the past few years and it still sounds really odd to me.

Midwest we say "pop", but west coast its "soda"!

[gateley]

10. In Seattle

we would know someone was a transplant when they said ON line.

I always say "a Coke or something" -- but I think in Seattle we'd say pop, too. Here' it's just sweet tea!

[Tashca]

3. Maybe????

(talking in my best Jethro Bodine voice)

WOO-EEEE....is that one of them thar ce-ment ponds??


(best Iowa voice)

That sure is a purty house....wonder how much corn I could grow there in that yard??

Sorry I'm not more help!!!

:bounce:

[gateley]

7. Ha!

That ce-ment pond is Lake Washington -- so deep the bridges across have to be floated on pontoons.

[WheelWalker]

13. You're getting homesick, aren't you.

[gateley]

18. Yeah -- I just posted a response to you down thread saying that very thing --

with PICS!

[Tashca]

21. Just feeling ornery

I was just in a good mood when I posted that.....happens sometimes!!!

I do not know the name of your rock wall...or the rocks in the wall....retaining wall is all I know. We have mostly corn fields here not much use for walls.

Here it's breakfast, dinner, supper.

Most anywhere I've been in Iowa it is POP....when in central Illinois it was soda and stayed that way going south.....moving north it went to pop. When in Georgia...it was soda

[WheelWalker]

4. I asked my best friend who lives in Seattle...here's his response -

"Tom, Quick.... what's the word Seattlites would use for the rocks in this picture?" (I included link to your post)

Bulkhead, riprap Also, its funny that you chose this house. It is one block
from mine and on the market for $5.9M. The guy just bought a larger house
south of the bridge(2 blocks in the other direction) for $8.5M.


Thomas A. Wolfe, JD, LLM
The Wolfe Firm, Lawyers
1200 Westlake Avenue North
Suite 809
Seattle, Washington 98109

[gateley]

8. Not quite --

It IS a bulkhead, but what do you call the formation of rocks that are make up the bulkhead?

Here's another example:




Your friend must be doing okay to live in that area. I'm always looking at Real Estate listings in Seattle and the listings always start with the most expensive first (although this is not the most expensive by a long shot) which is how I happened upon it.

[WheelWalker]

11. He does alright -

He called me up back in about 1989 and wanted me to look for a "car topper" boat that he could use out in the lake. He thought it might be cheaper in Eugene than Seattle (he's quite frugal you might say). I said, "you're going to put a boat on top of the Benz? You're insane!" He called me back a couple of days later and told me to forget about looking for a boat...that he found one, but it was a bit bigger than he was originally thinking. Then he said he also had to buy a house (with a boathouse) on the lake to have a place to keep it. Car topper. Right. He's on Lakeshore, just north of the floating bridge to Mercer Island. Google Earth (since you're bored) and fly to 47 degrees 35 minutes 31.23 seconds North, and 122 degrees 17 minutes 13.60 seconds West. You'll be over his little bungalow.

[gateley]

12. The BEST place in the world

to watch The Blue Angels over Lake Washington!

I'll go give him a visit. :hi:

I'll give him a second chance to get the quiz right...

[WheelWalker]

14. I think he said

the hydroplane races were good, too...and there's something that happens in July, I think with all the yachts and boats. I enjoy sitting on the back porch in the morning with a cup of REAL coffee, watching the crew shells skimming by SO swiftly.

[gateley]

16. Opening Day (of the boating season)

is in May. There's a parade of boats from Lake Union to Lake Washington:




The Hydro races and Blue Angels is part of Seafair, which is the first few days in August. Those take place just south of I-90, which is the bridge your friend lives by. Here's the bridge (I was on it one year and you could SEE the pilot's face as he went over -- it is SO exciting!)





And a closeup of the Angels over the boats





Can you tell how homesick I am? :(

[WheelWalker]

19. Yes, I can tell -

You'll be home soon, my child...soon.

Those are fantastic photos. Have I told you that you're the Queen of Images? What's the name of the cut between Lake Union and Lake Washington? I can never remember. Tom and I were roommates in the dorms in 1968. I was a sophomore and he was a freshman. Being Ducks, there's no love lost between us and those damn Huskies! I see the stadium there in the photo. How'd you get THAT shot!? Those Angels are RIDICULOUS! They look like hydroplanes that left the water! Sigh. Seattle's a beautiful city, isn't it?

[gateley]

20. Montlake Cut -- Here it is :-)

The stadium is off to your right as you look at this pic.

I remember once when the bridge (Montlake Bridge) broke and they had to wait for weeks to get it fixed because it was built in the 20's, so they had to manufacture the part from scratch. Edit to add that luckily it was stuck OPEN so ships could still pass through.



When I went home for my niece's wedding, I was heading up I-5 to my brother's. I take the Montlake Exit. When I was passing Lake Union, the sun was like diamonds on the water, sea planes taking off and landing, and of course the Olympics and Cascades just HUGE and majestic. I realized just how beautiful and unique a city it is, which I took for granted living there all my life.

[WheelWalker]

5. I'm from the midwest

too (Ohio) originally. Never heard of "on line"....always "in line".

[gateley]

9. I hear ON line here in NC,

maybe it's like half and half....

[jillan]

15. In Arizona we would call that a retaining wall made out of boulders.

Do you drink Pop or soda?

Being from Chicago, I drink (used to) pop.... but in Az, people call it soda.

[gateley]

17. No winners on the "rocks" yet. Maybe it IS a word just used regionally...

I usually don't say either -- I usually refer to all soda pop as "a Coke or something". I'm not really sure what they call it here. In Seattle, it's pop.

[Muttocracy]

22. not sure about the rocks, will keep thinking. as for on/in line...

In Virginia it was in line. In Minnesota it was in line except for my friends from southeastern NY/CT/etc. Now in upstate NY it's a mix of both (I guess because the language here is a mix of Midwestern, Mid-Atlantic, and New York City).

I still say in line (one is part of the line of people) though my friend argues it is on line because you stand on the line/path where you're supposed to wait. I guess it depends on whether you think the line exists if there's noone in/on it!

Retaining wall and rip-rap sound good to me... hmm...

[livvy]

23. Sea wall, in line, pop...

Dang that's a big house!

Soda is what I might mix with scotch.
On line is what I'm doing now.

In line makes more sense because one is standing in a line. There is no line to stand on, so you can't be on line, unless of course there really is a line painted on the ground, but then I bet hardly anyone would actually be standing on it. How's that for a run on sentence?

[gateley]

24. Logically you can't be faulted --

both on your soda and on/in line arguments.

And did you see VI's post that the owner of this house moved to a LARGER one? How could something that size feel like a HOME?

[livvy]

25. Yes, I did.

I have no idea why anyone needs/wants a house that large. I really live in three rooms in my house...family room, kitchen, and bedroom. If the living room and other two bedrooms should suddenly disappear one day, it would most likely take me a week to even notice.

[PatSeg]

26. Aha, yes

Soda has always been a mixer to me that people usually drink with scotch!

If I visualize "on line", I picture people standing ON TOP of other people who are waiting "in line" - the people ARE the line, unless there is some line painted on the ground.

[livvy]

27. Malecon? Groin or groyn? n/t

[gateley]

29. Where the heck did those words come from?

[livvy]

31. LOL...I was Googling.

Both are other words for seawall.

http://www.answers.com/topic/breakwater-groin-groyne-mole-bulwark-seawall-jetty

I found the reference to a seawall as a malecon in a couple of places.

[gateley]

32. The error, Grasshopper, is in looking for a word for "seawall".

What I'm looking for is the name of the formation of rocks used to make the seawall. And I've included another picture with the "mystery formation" in a garden, to take the focus off of it having it associated with water in any way.

But good effort!

[zytime]

28. Round here we call 'em...

Rocks in front of a kick-ass house!

[gateley]

30. Ha! Can't disagree with that!

Welcome to DU -- and welcome to the Biden forum! :hi:

[WheelWalker]

33. Have we had a winner? On my walk tonight a thought came to me...

bulwark. Most likely. Possibly, also, a rampart, but I don't think so. What d'ya say? A winner?

[gateley]

35. No - I've already awarded your failing grade on your other post.

:7

[WheelWalker]

37. Flagstone?

[WheelWalker]

41. Piedmont?

[gateley]

42. Nope. (Boy, after all this, the correct answer will be anticlimactic!) nt

[livvy]

34. I don't know what the name is, so I've decided to give it a name of my own.

From this day forward, in my mind, a wall built of stone will be called a "Jackson".

[gateley]

36. ....

:rofl:

Why the hell not? Apparently if I used the word I'm thinking of, everyone would go "huh? what's that?"

[WheelWalker]

40. Good that you didn't choose "johnson".

[gateley]

43. ....

:rofl:

[livvy]

52. That was already taken. n/t

[WheelWalker]

38. Footwall?

[gateley]

44. You're trying SO HARD. But still wrong! nt

[WheelWalker]

39. Terrace?

[gateley]

45. No, no, a thousand times no. :-) nt

[WheelWalker]

46. Hey, you started this! Just remember, I'm persistent. I stick like shit to an outhouse wall.

[gateley]

47. You guys just let me know when you're ready to cry 'Uncle'. nt

[livvy]

48. It's a Jackson, but do you know why? n/t

[gateley]

49. No -- I thought you just made up a name for it - christened it, as it were. nt

[livvy]

50. Nope, there's a method to my madness. n/t

[gateley]

51. REMINDER --

The word I'm looking for is for the rock formation - not the function of the rocks. Doesn't necessarily have to do with a body of water. As a matter of fact, I'm most familiar with the word from my back yard -- and we didn't live on the water.

I'll post this pic again in case some of you missed it:

[livvy]

53. Rockery?Cairn? Inukshuk? Stonehenge? Stacked rocks, rock stack? Jackson?

It's a rockery, isn't it? A rockery is a retaining or protection structure that consists of stacked rocks without mortar,concrete, or steel reinforcement.
Although the rocks are stacked in an “interlocking” pattern, there are no mechanical connections made between the individual rocks. Rather, these structures rely on the weight, size, shape, and interface friction of the rock elements to provide overall stability.


Inukshuk refers to the stones stacked by Inuit on the land to remind themselves and instruct others about all sorts of things: danger, a safe crossing, a spring of fresh water, thin ice, deep snow, or that travellers should go this way as opposed to that.

[gateley]

54. YES!!! ROCKERY!! Good job! WINNER!!!!!!

We wouldn't have known how to pronounce 'inukshuk' - although it is remindful of many of the native names in the PNW!

So now, after all of that, do those of you in other parts of the country use that word? Or don't you have rockeries?

[livvy]

55. No, we don't call them rockeries in Michigan.

I'm pretty sure we call them Jacksons. :rofl:

It seems like we just call them a rock wall, actually. We're a creative bunch, us Michiganders.

I like it though, especially since it is a real word. Here's more about it, and where I got the definition.

http://www.cflhd.gov/techDevelopment/completed_projects/geotech/rockeries/_documents/04_Chapter_1_Introduction.pdf

[gateley]

56. Boy - you had to dig for that. What a researcher!

I'm not biting on Jackson, by the way. I don't want to drive myself crazy trying to figure it out. :hi:


EDIT -- Never mind on the Jackson. I saw JIOOS's winning answer on the other thread. Very sharp of her, very clever of you.

Bidenites are the smartest!!!!!

[livvy]

57. Oh, sure...drive us crazy....hrmphhh....LOL

This was fun. Clever idea of yours! It got my mind off of the real world and my lost snake for a while.
:hi:

[gateley]

58. Ha!

I didn't know it would turn into such a movement! :P

I really was just looking at that pic and for some reason remembered what my brother said about Californians not being familiar with the word, so just thought I'd ask to see if it was just used regionally.

[WheelWalker]

61. Actually, I can't remember EVER having heard that before. Hearing it now, I'm gonna

swear it's a made up word (until I look it up, that is).

[WheelWalker]

60. Great work ! You win the JBSG GENIUS AWARD for April, 2008.

[WheelWalker]

59. No way...impossible...can't be...you just made that up !!!

[gateley]

62. Ask your friend in Seattle if he knows what rockery is.

Livvy gave an excellent description, plus a link to a lot of other info on it.

[Tashca]

63. ROCKERY?????

I never heard that one before.

I'm with VI on this....I need to see proof this is an actual word!!!

:evilgrin:

[WheelWalker]

64. You knew I wouldn't give up easily after what we went through with "Bellator".

[Tashca]

65. Good point

now what was that???.....a long nosed bug or something...

:rofl:

[zytime]

67. Is the rockery

surrounding shrubbery...possibly planted by someone named Roger?

[gateley]

69. I don't get it, I'm embarrassed to admit -- enlighten me! nt

[Tashca]

73. I don't get it either.

Of course I've made it obvious I don't get a lot of things....:hi:

[zytime]

77. It's from Monty Python

and the holy grail. The knights searching for the grail come across the knights that say "NI" who give them a choice between death, or getting them a shrubbery. They go into town and find Roger the shrubber, a maker and arranger of shrubberies. They bring back the shrubbery, avoid death and go on their way, even after they are told they now have to cut down the largest tree in the forest with a herring.

Consider yourselves enlightened...or mourn the two minutes of your life that you will never get back because you bothered to read the explanation:)

[Muttocracy]

66. good for you! and a cool rhyme for mockery! nt

[Eurobabe]

70. we normal people call that a rock wall, LOL

a rockery? Sounds like a ROOKERY, where birds nest. :rofl:

This was driving me batshit all week, congrats to Livvy. Maybe we need to continue this contest for brain power?

Livvy gets to choose the next word, as winner. :hi:

[gateley]

68. For you sorry-ass doubters (would I lie to you?)

Check out Livvy's posts -- 53 & 55 --

I'll be awaiting your apologies. :)

[PatSeg]

71. American Heritage Dictionary

rock garden

NOUN:

1. A rocky area in which plants particularly adapted to such terrain are cultivated.
2. A garden in which rocks are arranged and plants cultivated in a carefully designed, decorative scheme. Also called rockery .


__________________________________________________________________________________________________


Okay, you drove me nuts on that one. I had no idea what you were talking about.

[gateley]

74. I wonder why it was in common usage

in the PNW and apparently not in other areas of the country.

[PatSeg]

76. Hmmm, I wonder

Wikipedia refers to a "rock garden" in England as a "rockery".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockery

[Tashca]

72. So sorry..

I'm from Iowa....my vocabulary is somewhat limited...but I can except the fact that I learned a new word!!!. I am gonna impress some people with this one....;)



on edit: I can't spell simple words either!!

[gateley]

75. Yeah, you'll impress them with THAT one,

:7 --

Good luck in finding an opportunity to us it! :hi:

[WheelWalker]

78. On the cover of the Rolling Stone... n/t

[WheelWalker]

79. That wasn't suppose to happen?