Conference thebay::joyoflex

    Interesting, I always thought when something failed it went West!
    (from the UK)
    
    

>    Does anybody know where the phrase "gone South" comes from?

        I've sometimes heard it as "Gone south for the winter" as in
        taking a looong vacation. But that doesn't help with the
        origin.

    re: .2 (Phipps)
    
    	You're on the right track.
    
    re: .0
    
    	   As pointed out by .2, it implies 'going south for the winter,'
    	as in migration of birds.  When something 'goes South', you 
    	won't see it again soon.
    
    	   Of course, religious fundamentalists use 'South' as a 
    	metaphor for hell, thus it means to them 'gone to hell'.
    
    	   Both say essentially the same thing, but I rather
    	prefer the latter interpretation (since I am originally
    	from the Bible-belt).
    
    	- Greg

    "Gone west" is an extremely old British euphemism for death.  You
    can trace it all the way back to pre-Roman times and the Celtic
    belief that paradise lay on an island in the western sea. 
   
    --bonnie

	I thought it was something to do with pyramids being to the
	west of the capital(s) of Egypt ..

    re: .5
    
    Probably. My esteemed spouse reminds me that many cultures
    associated the direction west with death because the sun sets
    (dies) in the west every night.  So you'll frequently find burying
    areas and holy spots to the west of populated areas. 
    
    --bonnie

>    "Gone west" is an extremely old British euphemism for death.  You
>    can trace it all the way back to pre-Roman times and the Celtic
>    belief that paradise lay on an island in the western sea. 
   
        Yes Bonnie, I would guess that the sun bit had something to do
        with it too.

        I wonder if it had anything to do with when the world was
        thought to be flat. Going that direction from there you were
        sure to fall off or get eaten by monsters.

        If you went east you could get to France 8^)

        	Mike

    It's not clear that the Celts believed that the world was flat.
    Some of their religious carvings show a round earth.  Whether this
    is a spiritual or practical belief is a matter of argument. 
    
    Most educated Greeks knew the world was round.  One of the Greek
    mathematicians (Pythagoras, I think?) calculated the earth's
    diameter based on the differences in the lengths of shadows cast
    by poles of different heights at the same time; the number he came
    up with is accurate to within the margin of error for the crudity
    of his measuring instruments.  
    
    Columbus's theory may have been news to commoners and priests, but
    it was old history to scholars, and the reason the French refused
    to back his trip wasn't that they thought the world was flat but
    because they thought it was round and knew Columbus's estimate of
    the earth's diameter was too short by about a third and his ships
    would never survive a trip that long. 
    
    And what does all this have to do with disk drives going south,
    you ask?  Why -- absolutely nothing!
    
    --bonnie

    I don't like the idea of faulty things "going South".  It spoils
    my belief in Santa Claus ... after all the poor guy has only one
    way to go from the North Pole!
    
    Disillusioned
    
    Stuart

    re: .9
    
    Not to worry Stuart.
    
    As a result of the new trade agreement, faulty thing produced in
    Canada will now be "going South" to your unsuspecting neighbors.
    
    Clay

    re: .10
    
    Not to worry Clay.
    
    Long before the Free Trade Agreement, all kinds
    of faulty things have been shipped north of the border
    to some over trusting souls -)-)-)-)
    
    Better drop this before we start an international indecint! -)
    
    stuart
    
    

    re: .9
    
    Just turn the globe over . . . then it's all north.
    
    --bonnie

    re .8 - it wasn't poles of different heights, it was poles of the
    same height at different locations (separated by a substantial
    distance).  This required relatively accurate clocks, because the
    measurements had to be made at the same time.  Looking at the geometry
    of the problem, it should be clear that different length poles at
    the same location on the earth's surface don't help.
    
    len.
     

    re: .10, .11
    
    Has the Great One "gone South"?
    
    Clay

    No, more like Pocklington went West (of Edmonton!).
    
    stuart

    Re: .13
    
    It doesn't need accurate clocks, or any clocks at all; the measurements
    are made at noon (easily determined) at both places on the same
    day. The critical measurements are:
    

    1. The pole lengths used for the two measurements.
    
    2. The length of the shadows of the vertical poles at the two
    locations. 
    
    2. The north-south distance between the two locations.
    
    The formula is left as an exercise for the reader. 

    re: .13, .16 
    
    The reader interested in such an exercise probably also has the
    information she needs to make a fairly accurate deduction about
    the quality of my school math grades relative to my history grades.
    
    --bonnie

    In Norwegian, we also have the expression
    "straight west" ("rett vest") with the same 
    meaning. The available dictionaries here
    do not mention it, however.
    
    The road to hell may well be paved with
    good intentions, but I now know the direction, too:
    When in Norway, go west to Britain.
    When in Britain, go west to the US.
    When in the US, go south. Then what?
    
    Henrik ;>

    Re: .18
    
    Yes, where *do* the Australians go to find it?
    Norway maybe? That circular route would certainly
    keep the people on their way there busy.

    G'day,
    
    Can't answer for anyone but meself... (since I am English living
    in Australia) but the expression I use in deference to my adopted
    country is 'gone walkabout'
    
    
    Aborigines have a habit of just taking off for a while for no apparent
    reason. This is described as going walkabout. I think it sums up  very well
    machinery that was working one moment and not the next.          
    
    derek
    
    ps the terms used here are based on one's country of origin and
    then heavily on UK usage.
    
    

"Gone South" is a disrespectful phrase used by ill-mannered, christian Yankees
 who do not want to vocalize the word "hell".

- Skeezix

    As a "yankee" from Wisconsin and Minnesota, I'd always equated "gone
    South" with the results expected if something had been through a war,
    the Civil War.

    re: .0 In the late 1800's a New England farmer whose farm failed often
    went to the south where the growing season was longer and the winters
    were not as bitter cold. This is the origin of the expression.