Any question answered...

I think the watering idea is to make them slightly less kindling like. Although, I'm not sure how true that is or how much difference it makes to their combustibility.

As for the unfortunate history of the 'don't mention the war' joke, it's not really something I'm susceptible to...[continues for 94 pages]

🙂

Makes a huge difference in the amount of needles that they drop.

Water in the stand also lowers the centre of gravity, reducing risk of toppling. Although possibly redundant with a stand that substantial.

There are - still - no excuses for Crocs when Birkenstock EVA are available.

Crocs...Birkenstock

Vibram FiveFingers or GTFO 🙂

Cut off the point and stick it in a bucket of water until you have a stand you can add water too. If you can't get one stick it in a bucket of sand and add water to that. A bit of tinsel around the bucket and you'd never know😁

But you can't ask Granny to knit you socks for those!

I’d be interested but my 20+ year old Waldies (Crocs forerunner) won’t die.

Don’t think I could put those on while carrying anything substantial. Not that I would.

When did people in the UK start saying 'real estate', other than in legal discussions?

Around the mid 1600’s by historical accounts. The emerging merchant class would’ve tried to put their wealth into tangible investments, such as buildings and land, popularising the term.

Edit off by a century

you can't ask Granny to knit you socks for those

O rly?

1 Attachment

• Funky_Five_Toe_Socks.pdf

including the (generally) inferior 'replacement' architecture

Alright, Charlie.

A right Charlie

ftfy

There are - still - no excuses for Crocs

a new challenger appears

Vibram FiveFingers

People who wear these are the worst.

other than in legal discussions?

Even in legal land, I don't think "real estate" is used other than a Merkinism. Real property, yes, to distinguish from personal property/chattels/personalty, but not real estate.

20+ years of real christmas trees in our house and we've only ever used a screw in stand with no water and we've never had a tree fire.

I've never had a Christmas tree myself but in the 40+ years I can remember my parents/father having one I can't remember any fires and I doubt it's the kind of thing one would forget. I can see that a dead tree is likely to be flammable, but unless you're daft enough to hang real candles from the tree, what's the ignition source going to be?

@gbj_tester, @Hjusth: do you have any evidence to support your claims?

Dodgy Christmas lights of dubious online origin?

do you have any evidence

1642 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/real%20estate

Various legal treatises on Roman/Civil Law, Tapia Ramírez’ ‘Bienes y Derechos Reales’ is particularly good but not sure it’s available in English.

Edit- if you really want to know I can explain the etymological origins (as I remember them) tomorrow. Basically it originated to refer to the physical (aka real, as is covered by droit réel, not as in‘not imaginary) part of a person’s patrimony (aka estate).

Oh hai, meet my wife's family, until about 20 years ago anyway.
There's nobody more German than a Canadian Mennonite.

Dodgy Christmas lights of dubious online origin?

Low voltage lights? Can't see them really presenting much of a fire risk. Then again, I suspect my father's Christmas lights are older than me, so likely to predate the Internet. By a considerable margin.