I just figured out what "stranded" means

[Vort]

It only took me until I was 58. The strand is an Old English term for the beach; it still has that meaning today, though mostly poetically. Those who speak Germanic languages will recognize cognates in those languages. To strand therefore means "to leave on the strand", what we today would call being beached, as a ship left on the shore at low tide or by shipwreck. The occupants of a ship that has been stranded or beached will themselves therefore be stranded. English is such a cool language.

Interestingly, the word beach comes from the Kent or Sussex dialect of Old English (bece, which I believe is pronounced "BEH-cheh"). It referred to the loose, rounded gravel found near a stream; English spoken in those parts still uses the term "beach" to refer to such loose gravel. The use of "beach" to be essentially the equivalent of "strand" spread from there. So all the other Germanic languages still call it something like a strand, but in English we mostly use the word beach these days. Did I mention that English is such a cool language?

[Still_Small_Voice]

So have you ever been stranded in real life?  My girlfriend and I ran out of gasoline once while driving across the country around the year 2000.  Lucky for us she had AAA membership and after a phone call someone brought us a gasoline refill to get us going again on the trek.

It was not our fault.  The gasoline gauge was faulty and showed we had enough gasoline to go for about another seventy miles but obviously not.

[NeuroTypical]

8 hours ago, Still_Small_Voice said:

So have you ever been stranded in real life?
...
It was not our fault.

I wonder if there's ever been a study conducted on people who get stranded, and the reasons behind it.  Then, a study on the human behavior - how many people got themselves stranded, and claimed it was someone else's fault?

I bet the results of the 2nd study could fuel endless Sunday School lessons.

(Not saying you were at fault, SSV.  What a fun way to find out your gas gage is broken!)

Edited April 11, 2021 by NeuroTypical

[Fether]

17 hours ago, Vort said:

It only took me until I was 58. The strand is an Old English term for the beach; it still has that meaning today, though mostly poetically. Those who speak Germanic languages will recognize cognates in those languages. To strand therefore means "to leave on the strand", what we today would call being beached, as a ship left on the shore at low tide or by shipwreck. The occupants of a ship that has been stranded or beached will themselves therefore be stranded. English is such a cool language.

Interestingly, the word beach comes from the Kent or Sussex dialect of Old English (bece, which I believe is pronounced "BEH-cheh"). It referred to the loose, rounded gravel found near a stream; English spoken in those parts still uses the term "beach" to refer to such loose gravel. The use of "beach" to be essentially the equivalent of "strand" spread from there. So all the other Germanic languages still call it something like a strand, but in English we mostly use the word beach these days. Did I mention that English is such a cool language?

Is this the entertainment I get to look forward to when I’m old?

Edited April 11, 2021 by Fether

[Vort]

1 hour ago, Fether said:

Is this the entertainment I get to look forward to when I’m old?

Who are you calling old, whippersnapper?

[JohnsonJones]

6 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

I wonder if there's ever been a study conducted on people who get stranded, and the reasons behind it.  Then, a study on the human behavior - how many people got themselves stranded, and claimed it was someone else's fault?

I bet the results of the 2nd study could fuel endless Sunday School lessons.

(Not saying you were at fault, SSV.  What a fun way to find out your gas gage is broken!)

Ha...

Many years in the past I was driving a vehicle with several of my boys in the back.  We were driving in the backwoods in the West coming home from camping.  The boys, tired out from all the camping "fun" were sleeping in the back.  Suddenly a deer decided to suicidally jump in front of me.  I braked hard, but it was not hard enough.  We hit that deer and instantly gutted it.  It got splattered all over our windshield.  Getting out, I could see the skid marks going all along the highway.  No one else seemed around and though I tried to flag down a vehicle, no vehicle stopped.

Luckily, just down the road was some sort of RV camp.  They had a phone with which I called my insurance company.  They were agreeable, but my policy seemed to only allow one person to drive in the truck with the Tow Truck.  As there were more of us than just I, I did not know what I could do.  We were going to get the vehicle towed but I could not leave the boys alone and I was not going to send one alone by themselves to a Tow company.

Fortunately, a Police officer finally showed up and helped us to get a ride back to town where we were able to get transportation while our vehicle was out of commission.

I probably was not as stranded as some at that time, but I definitely felt somewhat "stranded" in that situation.  I prayed mightly heavily and the Lord truly blessed us at that time.

However, as far as blame...

 

I still blame that deer.  Suicidal insanity is my only explanation why, on an empty road, that deer decided to jump in front of my vehicle at that time!

 

PS:  The boys to this day say they don't remember hitting the deer at all, they slept through all of it.

Edited April 11, 2021 by JohnsonJones

[mordorbund]

16 hours ago, JohnsonJones said:

I still blame that deer.  Suicidal insanity is my only explanation why, on an empty road, that deer decided to jump in front of my vehicle at that time!

We often post signs to alert drivers that some of our roads are popular deer crossing sites. Have we ever extended deer the same courtesy? Have you ever seen a sign in the woods to let deer know there's a car crossing site in their trail?

[Jamie123]

On 4/11/2021 at 3:05 AM, Vort said:

The strand is an Old English term for the beach

Quote

The sea is calm tonight.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

Only, from the long line of spray

Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,

Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,

At their return, up the high strand,

Begin, and cease, and then again begin,

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in.

(Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach)

I like the last verse best:

Quote

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

The last bit is as true now as it was in Arnold's day.

[Jamie123]

On 4/11/2021 at 3:05 AM, Vort said:

The strand is an Old English term for the beach

There's also "The Strand" in London:

The Thames was much wider in medieval times, so you can see how The Strand would once have been a beach of sorts - before the river was dredged and embankment built.