"Color" = "information"?!

[Doug Harris]

Which beacons are, in Britain, seen at the aptly-named 'zebra crossings'.
(With the 'zeb' rhyming with deb -- that being a pretty good example, I
think, of the 'separated by a common language' concept.)
(the other) doug

Michael Quinion writes:
    >>>>>

                [...] all fitfully
illuminated by the flashing orange beacons of the pedestrian crossing
outside. That was a real colour piece.

ObADS-L: He called the orange lights Belisha beacons, named after the man
who introduced them, Leslie Hore-Belisha, Minister of Transport 1931-7
(who also thought it a good idea that new motorists should pass a driving
test).

 <<<<<

IIRC, the convex disks used on roads that make a vibration and repeated
thumping noise when a driver drifts out of the lane, were called "Botts
dots" when they were first introduced in New York, after the traffic
commissioner at the time. The rhyme was an obvious attraction of the phrase,
as alliteration probably was for "Belisha beacons".

-- Mark
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org