The latest NS (the dutch railways) euphemism for a delayed train which has not even arrived at the station yet: "The stopping train to Fee, Fie, Foe and Foo will depart in a few minutes".
"The stopping train to Fee, Fie, Foe and Foo will depart in a few minutes". Do they really say that? Do the words Fee, Fie, Foe and Foo mean something or are they just random?
Those words are meant as metasyntactic variables (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasyntactic_variables), they stand for the stations where the train is calling. I chose these ones as a sort of silly inside joke which is so "inside" that probably no-one will get it unless they played Adventure (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure) extensively (or cheated (http://www.literateprogramming.com/adventure.pdf), like I did).
I'm a bit restless, and I went on a futile train journey today, since the person I was supposed to see wasn't there (and I had no phone number brought with me)... (and I still haven't eaten after watching Doctor Who, bad Rhialto!)
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-09 06:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-09 06:13 pm (UTC)Do they really say that? Do the words Fee, Fie, Foe and Foo mean something or are they just random?
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Date: 2007-06-09 08:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-09 08:08 pm (UTC)