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    #51
    Odd family practices that you thought normal.

    Shoes on the table is from the superstition that the next time they'll be on the table is when you're lying out (dead) wearing them, waiting for the undertaker to come and take you away. I don't even allow shoes on the bed (for the same, stupid, reason).

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      #52
      Odd family practices that you thought normal.

      ursus arctos wrote:

      Another belief common in the North of England is that the tradition relates to the coal mining industry. When a miner died in a colliery accident, his shoes were placed on the table as a sign of respect. By extension, doing so was seen as tempting fate or simply as bad taste.
      That makes sense. It fits with Lancashire lore, certainly more sensible than not cutting your fingernails on Friday (another one of my Mum's precepts.)

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        #53
        Odd family practices that you thought normal.

        Bored of Education wrote:
        Now, that, you are going to have to explain.
        Steve Harrison was sacked from the England set up under Graham Taylor for shitting in a paper cup from the top of a wardfrobe.

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          #54
          Odd family practices that you thought normal.

          Not a family thing, but where I'm from they have a Pancake Race every year, on Pancake Day (surprisingly enough). It is (or used to be) a big deal in the town; we'd troop along from school post-lunchtime to watch it, along with plenty of other people, and it was invariably the main item in the local paper that week.

          Of course, I assumed that everywhere had pancake races, but when I moved to London found out that no, it was pretty much only us North Bucks weirdos. To top it off, 'my' pancake race isn't even the famous one , which is about 14 miles up the road.

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            #55
            Odd family practices that you thought normal.

            Smallcaps wrote:
            Originally posted by Jah Womble
            I've still never encountered anyone else who has even heard of the game, however. Until now.
            Ah, welcome to the Netherlands! My students' association had this as one of the games played on unsuspecting freshmen during the welcome camp. In every group of eight freshmen, two mentors would play this game, and slowly, one by one, the group members would figure out the clue. There would always be one or two who didn't get it, though, until we played a couple of rounds of Wooden Stuff Magic and Laptop Magic and Lonely Planet Magic and Telephone Booth Magic etcetera.
            Jesus, I'm starting to wonder whether it is I who is screwed up, and not - as I'd thought for years - this game, after all...

            As for the 'shoes on the table' thang, I'm with Inca. Why the heck would you place your shoes on the table in the first place?

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              #56
              Odd family practices that you thought normal.

              Jah Womble wrote: As for the 'shoes on the table' thang, I'm with Inca. Why the heck would you place your shoes on the table in the first place?
              If I bought a new pair of shoes and took them home in a bag, the first thing I'd do upon entering my flat is put my bag on the table, as the table's the nearest convenient storage surface to the door.

              It's quite possible that, when unpacking the shoes from the bag, I'd put them, albeit briefly, on the table.

              In case you're wondering whether the breakdown that you alluded to yesterday is still in full flow: No, I simply wanted to point out that it's not 'weird' to put shoes on the table; it just doesn't happen very often, unless you have the same relationship to shoe-buying that somebody like Imelda Marcos had, or maybe still has.

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                #57
                Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                It's weird. Sorry.

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                  #58
                  Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                  Jah Womble wrote: It's weird. Sorry.
                  It's weird to insist that only new shoes shouldn't be placed on the table, yes. But I'm almost 100% certain, and I sincerely hope, that I'm not the only person in the world who unpacks their new shoes on a table.

                  (By the way, the company I work for is almost definitely going tits-up. At the moment, we've got very little to do. Which is why, to pass the time, I just asked the two co-workers who sit nearest to me in the open-plan office whether, when they buy new shoes, they unpack them on the table.

                  Unsurprisingly, they thought the question itself was a bit weird. However, both of them said that, although they're uncertain whether they've ever done it, they wouldn't rule out the possibility of it happening.

                  Yeah, so ... so, there.)

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                    #59
                    Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                    The question is weird, in an 'under what circumstances' kind of a way - this being my point. But we're responding to a strange old superstition here.

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                      #60
                      Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                      Jah Womble wrote: The question is weird, in an 'under what circumstances' kind of a way - this being my point. But we're responding to a strange old superstition here.
                      As I said, I've got to pass the time somehow. If I don't write a load of bollocks about somebody not allowing new shoes to be put on a table (or bollocks about anything else, come to that), I'd go mad.

                      There are a million tonnes of leaves that I'm contractually obliged to remove from a crazy-golf course. But I can't, because I have to sit here.

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                        #61
                        Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                        My family has always done the opening of the Christmas presents on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas day as well,
                        We used to wake up so bloody early on Christmas morning it must have felt like Christmas Eve to my parents.

                        When we used to go to my uncle's for the post Christmas family meet up, we'd play a game whereby a log was placed in a table, a nail driven in sufficiently that it could stand without aid, and then we all had a turn at a single blow with the hammer. The winner was the one who finally drove it home.
                        We tried that with Yule Log. Didn't last long. And made a right old mess.

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                          #62
                          Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                          treibeis wrote:
                          Originally posted by Jah Womble
                          The question is weird, in an 'under what circumstances' kind of a way - this being my point. But we're responding to a strange old superstition here.
                          As I said, I've got to pass the time somehow. If I don't write a load of bollocks about somebody not allowing new shoes to be put on a table (or bollocks about anything else, come to that), I'd go mad.

                          There are a million tonnes of leaves that I'm contractually obliged to remove from a crazy-golf course. But I can't, because I have to sit here.
                          I hear ya.

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                            #63
                            Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                            Thanks for listening.

                            Thinking about it, I'd not only out my new shoes on the table, I'd also spray them with weatherproofing agent at the table before wearing them. I'd put down old newspaper first, of course, but I'd still have my new shoes on the table.

                            I think that's perfectly natural. Almost as natural as making sure that the old newspaper is only from a Tuesday. Because, as most people know, if you look at old newspapers from Wednesdays to Mondays for longer than five seconds, you get warts on your left hand.

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                              #64
                              Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                              treibeis wrote: There are a million tonnes of leaves that I'm contractually obliged to remove from a crazy-golf course. But I can't, because I have to sit here.
                              Roll up a newspaper under your arm and make the "going for a dump" face to a couple of colleagues. Then, head for the crazy golf course, do your leaves, and go back to work.

                              Anyone says anything, imply a bad curry and leave it at that. I can't remember an agency where two people didn't say they were heading out to [X] to brainstorm a bit and then fuck off to a film for two hours.

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                                #65
                                Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                                WOM wrote: I can't remember an agency where two people didn't say they were heading out to [X] to brainstorm a bit and then fuck off to a film for two hours.
                                I don't work for a proper agency. There's no 'brainstorming' here. I work for what I believe you once (accurately) referred to as an "oompa-loompa joint".

                                And anyway, I've spent years slagging off people who genuinely believe they're working, and working hard, when they're not (as opposed to people like me, who makes no bones about pretending to work when they're actually writing bollocks on a message board). I'm not going to blemish my record in the last few months (or possibly weeks) by turning into one of 'them'.

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                                  #66
                                  Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                                  I work for what I believe you once (accurately) referred to as an "oompa-loompa joint"
                                  They kidnap indigenous people and force them to work for food?

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                                    #67
                                    Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                                    This is getting very difficult to follow. Your company isn't closing because you put new shoes on a table, is it?

                                    We really can't comment on the weirdness or normality of Christmas traditions when many of us bring in trees from the outside to cover with glass baubles and tinsels, tell our children lies about an strange old man coming down the chimney taking credit for presents we have bloody bought and paid for and leaving mince pies, milk and carrots for him and his pet reindeer.

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                                      #68
                                      Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                                      Bored of Education wrote: Your company isn't closing because you put new shoes on a table, is it?
                                      Causality can be tough to prove.

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                                        #69
                                        Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                                        WOM wrote:
                                        Originally posted by Bored of Education
                                        Your company isn't closing because you put new shoes on a table, is it?
                                        Causality can be tough to prove.
                                        Too right. Maybe if I had put my new shoes on the table more often, none of this would have happened.

                                        Anyway, the company isn't closing. I know this because the upper echelons said it's not, so it must be true. The fact that the company responsible for 70% of my company's income has told my company to go do one is obviously irrelevant.

                                        When management called everybody together to break the news, they said, "Many people would claim that the situation in which we find ourselves is a bad situation. We say: NO! The situation in which we find ourselves is a GOOD situation."

                                        They struggled a bit to justify what was good about the situation, but at least they tried. The fucking idiots.

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                                          #70
                                          Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                                          The future ... is in front of us!

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                                            #71
                                            Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                                            In the form of our shoes, probably.

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                                              #72
                                              Odd family practices that you thought normal.

                                              Jakked Cousteau wrote: We used to call our living room "the house". As in, "where are you having your tea?" - "oh, I'll have it in the house".

                                              Coming from Birmingham originally, I figured it was Brummie slang, but meeting other Brummies later on in life I was looked at like a fool.
                                              My mum-in-law used the same expression.

                                              She was from Great Barr.

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