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[jbovlaste] Re: kunkemgerplucpi



On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 10:48 PM, Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu> wrote:
> On Friday 26 November 2010 09:57:35 Zefram wrote:
>> Michael Turniansky wrote:
>> >>   I'm guessing, knowing my etymology, that a gerplucpi is a canary.  But
>> >
>> >what the heck is a mineral canary?
>>
>> Mining canary?  As used to detect low oxygen levels?
>
> Yes. But sometimes one is called "the canary in the coal mine" when one is
> neither a literal canary nor in a literal mine.

Then one is being referred to by an English idiom that is not remotely
culturally neutral.