This is intended to be one of those threads that sticks around for a while: where people can ask questions about things that the community might know about that they are curious about or need an answer to for their game or need for some other purpose. Anyone can ask a question and anyone can answer, and you are encouraged to do both at once if possible, just to keep the thread rolling: I will start things off:


A: Why is sparkly mustard/mold colour called "British Racing Green"?

B: When was it invented and/or named?

(I encourage askers to Bold or colorize their Questions so they pop out at people reading the thread and are more likely to be answered.)

From the wikipedia:

British racing green, or BRG, a colour similar to Brunswick green, hunter green, forest green or moss green (RAL 6005), takes its name from the green international motor racing colour of the United Kingdom. Although there is still some debate as to an exact hue for BRG, currently the term is used to denote a spectrum of deep, rich greens. "British racing green" in motorsport terms meant only the colour green in general – its application to a specific shade has developed outside the sport.

All you need to know about British Racing Green: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_racing_green

So end-ith the trick ...

Love that commercial.  :)

(and I don't say that about many commercials)

OK, New but related question: one Wikipedia does not answer:

C: At what point did the term 'British Racing Green' come to be applied to the Sparkly Mustard/Mold colour?

Can you give an example of it being applied to a mustard colour? I understand it being a rich dark green, and Google Image Search seems to agree.

Or perhaps you have really old mustard? time for a new jar if it's that shade.

Yep, British Racing Green has always been a rich, dark green.  If you're seeing the term applied to sparkly mustard colours, then it's a mistake.

This could be the problem.

He also mentioned "sparkly".  I would avoid mustard that sparkles.

Seriously, I have a number of paint catalogs, and none of them have any yellowish British Racing Green.

You all are missing a word - he is talking about Mold growing on the mustard being that color ...

Anything can be called anything with the power of marketing.

If whatever you're talking about was red with sparkles, there's no color "word" for that. It would be "Red" and "with sparkles." They could decide to call it "candy apple" if they wanted though.

Car paint colors are a great example of "creative naming." Silver could be closer to a light grey, gold is kind of a deep yellow rather than real gold, and so on.

In reply to kouk (msg # 11):

It's not just car colors!

The folks at Benjamin Moore named every color of paint they produce.  They got a little quirky with some of them.

Here:
http://www.benjaminmoore.com/e...r-home/color-gallery

Now, Mardigras Gold and Cocoa Brown might be a little obvious.

But, without cheating and looking them up, do you know what colors are:

Featherbed?
Proposal?
English Manor?
Rhythm and Blues?
Baby's Mittens?

yes, but the original question was more like 'why is hunting pink not pink?' (because it's the name of the designer, not the colour, as it goes).

Some fun ones here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/joanna...de-names-of-all-time

I'll play!

Featherbed: Whitish?
Proposal: Light pinkish?
English Manor: Some kind of ivory white or a blue color?
Rhythm and Blues: Dark blue perhaps?
Baby's Mittens: I want to say either light blue or light pink?

In reply to kouk (msg # 14):

I looked, English manor is a brownish color and Rhythm and Blues is a light blue. other than that you are our resident color expert

Me too!

Featherbed? Cuticle White
Proposal? A lighter shade of Evening Star
English Manor? A purplish version of Clapping Octopus
Rhythm and Blues?  Elvis Sequin with a hint of Gooseberry
Baby's Mittens? Kitten Breath Blue

No, it's not...you should see some of the names they come up with for stage makeup colors.  Ben Nye makes at least four different shades of red...Fire Red, Blood Red, Fresh Cut, and Vampire Red (which is a lip color...)  I've seen greens that were called Mountain Moss, skin tones with names like Death Flesh, Old Age, and Geisha, a dark brown/black called Beard Stipple...

Those are just the ones I'm coming up with from memory.  If I started looking at a catalog, I'm sure I could find a bunch of funkier name options...

You can't trademark 'red,' but you can slap one on 'Smokey Firehouse.'  That way, if somebody starts painting their deck, they HAVE to get the last bucket from you too...

Awright: new question:

What kinds of plant and animal are common throughout Polynesia?

Need an answer by around this coming Wednesday.

(I have looked up Polynesia on Wikipedia, but that did not give me anything about widespread plant and animal life, it was all about geography, politics, and people.)

I don't know what most of these are. I'd say palm trees and parrots off the top of my head. But...

French Polynesia

Birds found only in French Polynesia include the Ultramarine Lorikeet (ARKive), Marquesan Imperial Pigeon (Manu), the Polynesian Imperial-pigeon (BirdLife Int'l), the Rapa Fruit Dove (Manu), the White-capped Fruit Dove (IBC), the Makatea Fruit Dove (Manu), the Polynesian Ground Dove (ARKive), the Tuamotu Sandpiper (IBC), the Tuamotu Kingfisher (BirdLife Int'l), the Tahiti Swiftlet (ARKive), the Tahitian Monarch (ARKive), the Iphis Monarch (ARKive), the Fatuhiva Monarch (Manu), the Tuamotu Reed Warbler (Manu), and the Tahiti Reed Warbler (ARKive).

 Marine fish unique to French Polynesia include the Marquesan Parrotfish Scarus koputea (eol), the Yellow-belly Damsel Plectroglyphidodon flaviventris (eol), a puffer Canthigaster rapaensis (eol), the Rapa Triplefin Enneapterygius randalli (eol), a cardinalfish Apogon lativittatus (eol), the Flame Perchlet Plectranthias flammeus (p. 6 of Zootaxa pdf file), a dartfish Parioglossus galzini (Zootaxa pdf file), a dragonet Callionymus marquesensis (eol), the gobies Priolepis ailina (eol) and Vanderhorstia steelei (eol), and two wrasse Pseudolabrus torotai (FishBase) and Coris marquesensis (eol).  Endemic freshwater gobies include Stiphodon julieni (KMAE pdf file), Stiphodon oatea (FishBase), and Sicyopterus rapa (p. 34 of Bishop Museum pdf file).

 Invertebrates known solely from French Polynesia include a butterfly Nacaduba (or Hypojamides) catochloris (Kyushu Univ. pdf file), a leafroller moth Dichelopa anthrocodelta (Lepidoptera of FP), a damselfly Ischnura thelmae (p. 35 of Bishop Museum pdf file), a cicada Raiateana oulietea (tahitiphilatelie.pf), a ground beetle Mecyclothorax ramagei (EurekAlert!), a spider Tetragnatha marquesiana (p. 20 of UC Berkeley 3 MB pdf file), and a freshwater shrimp Macrobrachium feunteuni (Central Pacific Crustacea). More than 160 endemic landsnails include Samoana attenuata (ARKive), Samoana burchi (ARKive), Partula suturalis (ARKive), Partula taeniata (ARKive), and Partula nodosa (Woodland Park Zoo). Endemic marine invertebrates include a coral Echinophyllia tarae (ZooKeys), the Red-spotted Mitten Lobster Parribacus holthuisi (Central Pacific Crustacea), a hermit crab Ciliopagurus vakovako (Central Pacific Crustacea), the cone snails Conus marchionatus (jaxshells.org) and Milariconus encaustus (Eddie Hardy), the cowries Cribrarula astaryi (Eddie Hardy) and Naria thomasi (Eddie Hardy), a murex Chicoreus thomasi (Eddie Hardy), and Nassarius candens (Femorale). A marine amphipod crustacean Kairos segregans from Bora Bora is the sole member of a recently described family, the Kairosidae (p. 24 of Zootaxa pdf file).

 The 520 endemic vascular plant species (Herbier de la Polynésie française or HPF pdf file) includes such endemic genera as Pelagodoxa (ARKive), Apetahia (Flora of the Marquesas), Lebronnecia (eol), Haroldiella (p. 21 of J-Y Meyer pdf file), Plakothira (HPF), Pacifigeron (p. 23 of J-Y Meyer pdf file), Metatrophis (Google Books), and Oparanthus (Flora of the Marquesas). Orchids restricted to French Polynesia include Moerenhoutia plantaginea (HPF), Oberonia tahitensis (Moorea Digital Flora Project), Taeniophyllum elegantissimum (HPF), and Bulbophyllum tahitense (HPF). Other endemic plants include a palm Pritchardia pericularum (HPF), Ixora brevipedunculata (HPF), Serianthes rurutensis (ARKive), Macaranga raivavaeensis (HPF), Nicotiana fatuhivensis (Flora of the Marquesas), Acalypha raivavensis (ARKive), Lepinia taitensis (ARKive), Erythrina tahitensis (ARKive), Sclerotheca forsteri (HPF), Chamaesyce atoto (ARKive), Sophora mangarevaensis (ARKive), and Cyrtandra nukuhivensis (Flora of the Marquesas).

French Polynesia is an overseas collectivity of France, part of the Polynesia- Micronesia biodiversity hotspot (CI) and includes the following terrestrial ecoregions: the Marquesas Tropical Moist Forests (EoE), the Society Islands Tropical Moist Forests (EoE), and the Tubuai Tropical Moist Forests (EoE). Checklists of endemic plant species can be generated at the Herbier de la Polynésie française website (HPF).


http://lntreasures.com/fp.html

Polynesia is a really, really big, and not precisely defined area.  Can you narrow it down?  Hawaii and New Zealand are very different ecosystems for instance.  On the smaller islands it will be mostly insect life, birds, bats, smaller reptiles and amphibians.

Keep it simple. Very few people are able to identify nor care about specific plants and animals being accurate. Example: Almost everything out of Hollywood.

Unless you have a botanist or gardener in your group you already know of that would appreciate the minor reference, don't worry about it.

Hawaii is a part of Polynesia, and probably the most familiar to most people in the U.S. Stick with coconut palm trees, pineapples, ferns, and if it's important some of the lesser-known native Hawaii plants. There's tons of information about the plants and animals native to Hawaii, which will give you loads to work with and not attempt to encompass the entirety of a large section of the planet.
This message was last edited by the user at 00:39, Fri 14 Feb 2014.

Just a few days ago, I was thinking about how much I'd like to see a thread like this. Now I can't remember any of the questions I wanted to ask.

* Pineapples grow close to the ground by the way, not on trees. That could be a little tidbit of flavor.

While I never even took high school geography, my guess here is that Polynesia is close to the equator. I recently heard from a source that diversity of species gets really, really high as you approach the equator, and you could easily find yourself staring at hundreds if not thousands of species of trees alone, none of which will show up all that frequently. I have two suggestions:
1) If you're dealing with a fictional world and want to make it "like reality," don't worry about it. Just pick a few representative species and propagate them all over the place.
2) If you're not dealing with a fictional world, perhaps your best bet would be to just refer to the different types of plants and animals in generic terms. This might be a bush, that might be a tree, and this thing over here might be a beast. If someone expresses curiosity about specifics, make pretty much every response be "Who the heck cares? There's so many of them there's no point in learning which is which." There might be a few people who know, say, what berries are poisonous or which animals are likely to attack you, but these are the shamans and the doctors and the herbalists. It's their job to know these things, and they might not be willing to train replacements that easy.
That's the best I can come up with, although I realize it doesn't answer your question.

Seriously?

http://bit.ly/1gK4GAN
This message was last edited by the user at 14:45, Sat 15 Feb 2014.

I nominate this for BEST POST EVAR(2014)!!!

-----------------------------------------------

to the OP, why not let some of the players (the ones that care) do some of the heavy lifting in the research dept.? They could submit it to you via PM & you can cherry-pick from the submissions.

See, now this is a helpful answer, gives an actual solution to the problem and tells me to do something other than Google, which I already had done and come up with nothing useful.

I don't think this is a bad idea for a thread, just maybe the initial examples were so specific as to (appear to) be easily wiki'd, or so broad as to be difficult to answer for anybody without using a wiki.

Where search engines are still pretty bad at returning desired results is in the area of "figuring out" what it is a person is trying to ask in the first place if the person themselves doesn't know quite how to ask it.

Things like, "What was that old setting (that I think was probably for D&D) that was all about a world of wizards?" to which any number of people here could easily say "Karameikos" or "Mystara" from memory without having to look up a list of all published campaign settings.

Or, "What's a good example for a technologically-focused gang of criminal punks I could insert into my game?" (I don't know, but I'm sure someone would have an idea).

Or the other end, extremely specific but not-mainstream details that would be difficult to find, simply because they would be buried so deep in the Interwebs. Names and uses of certain mechanical parts, real world cultural references or practices, and so on.

The Reavers, from 90's-era Marvel Comics?  (I only know about them because they were some of the villains you had to fight in the X-Men arcade game of the same time period...)  More cyborgs than technologically-focused criminal punks, although they were decidedly criminal...  *grin*

And, yes, I think you've hit upon the best use for a thread like this...questions that can't be easily answered with a visit to Wikipedia or related sites or Google searches...

For those that use the knee-jerk response of "Google it," you must remember that not all are equal in Google-Fu skill.

My Google-Fu superior!

Even with that, there is far greater satisfaction getting an answer from someone that studies or has researched a subject because they were sincerely interested. They tend to know little odds and ends that are amusing, and if they love the subject, they do enjoy passing on their knowledge.

Ok RPOLians. i have a question for you all. (though mostly those from the uk. This one i have used all my google fu and trailed through uk legislatative acts and still no deffinate answer only witness testomny which doesn't help.


In the UK what is the larges amount of spirits that can be served in a single glass legally in a bar.

if you happen to know for your own country thats also interesting but i have 100 pesos riding on being able to prove that its more than a double measure.

In reply to PushBarToOpen (msg # 32):

I can't say I've ever heard of a hard limit to how much can legally be served in a glass, and a search of laws in the UK doesn't turn up anything but regulation on how to label the measures (either 25ml or 35ml) and government recommendations for daily consumption (but recommendations only.)  There may be local laws, though. (Scotland had a pretty strong temperance movement for a while, so might have had such limits in place at one time, but the UK didn't mandate them.)

That said, a responsible bartender would only serve alcohol to a person so fast, to prevent injury and allow the person to drink longer (for liability reasons if nothing else).  So, most bars have policy limits on how much to serve per glass, often a double measure.

And, I have noted that some middle-managers either assume such policies are due to legal restrictions and spread those assumptions to those they train or lie to their trainees about the policies being legally mandated to keep their employees from being tempted to circumvent policy.  (It's hard to tell which from observation, and I feel like it would be rude to question their intent.)  So, there certainly do seem to be people out there who believe in such laws.

(It's so hard to prove a negative like "there isn't a law limiting the amount of spirits in a glass," though.)

In reply to PushBarToOpen (msg # 32):

As far as I know there is no legal maximum, though most sensible publicans will refuse stupid requests.

For measurements you might find this interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gill_(unit)

i see your strange measure ment (which was quite an interesting read) and raise you this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...units_of_measurement

Why do you think there is such a law? That sounds like the kind of thing which may exist scattered in local laws, from many years ago, which simply hasn't gotten around to being repealed yet. UK had a pretty sizable re-do of their liquor laws so I would imagine if it did exist as a national thing, it would have been done away with during that time as an artifact, based on lobbying from bar owners and alcohol producers. (Speculation)

EDIT: Although presumably there are special legal terms in existence for this kind of a thing -- if you knew the names of the kinds of laws you could look them up more directly. I don't know where to start though.
This message was last edited by the user at 22:55, Thu 20 Feb 2014.

ok this has nothing to do with a game but this came up this morning and I haven't had time to fully search out the answer:

There is an episode of Loony Tunes where Bugs Bunny is sitting in the artists chair and is screwing with Daffy Duck.  Redrawing scenery, making life difficult for Daffy, etc.

Does anyone recall the name of this episode (or possibly have a link for it)?

It's called Duck Amuck, I believe.

that looks right.  Thanks BBR

(I will subject my wife to it tonight)

In reply to st_nougat (msg # 37):

So that's why the animator was so mean to him. (It was on the other day but I couldn't watch it through to the end.)

Is there a price list around for Napoleonic era things?

It might be possible to find one in GURPS, but you'd have to dig, and I'm not sure there's any recent incarnations of books that detailed the Napoleonic era. Like maybe second ed.

In reply to Brygun (msg # 41):

As in "things from the Nepoleanic era," or "things in the Nepoleanic era"?

objects, clothes, gizmos, gadgets, bags, satchels, boxes, swag, stuff

All the things pack rat players are made of.

In the Napoelonic or Nelson era times 1790s very early 1800s (decade not century)

Ive got lots of cowboy era price lists from catalogues from that time. This earlier time period is hard to nail down. It also gives information on what existed and what did not.

So you want real life stuff?

GURPS Napoleon http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/napoleon/

lists this in its preview:


FOOD AND DRINK . . . . ............... 57
CLOTHING . . . . . . . . . . ............... 57
ENTERTAINMENT . . . . . ............... 58
TRAVEL BY LAND . . . . ............... 59
TRAVEL BY SEA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
59 MONEY AND TRADE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7. CAMPAIGNS. . . . . . . . 111
Slaves and Slavery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
RELIGION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
SOCIAL CLASSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Nobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Duelling . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 62
Gentry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Clergy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Townsfolk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
A Tale of Two Cities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Peasants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
LIFE IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES. . . . . . . 65

The earlier you go, the less likely you are to find generalized pricing practices (because people didn't publish catalogs for distribution to a wide base of patrons).  That's part of your difficulty in finding the information you're looking for...sounds like you're looking for catalog price lists in an era that pre-dates catalogs.

Exactly.

As far back as old West you can get catalogues. I do have a boyd's midshipman manual which has some prices for common things.

The catalogue isn't just for the prices. It is too know what is an option for the setting.

otghand = Thanks! I'll get one. It will save me a lot of time.

What's your favorite feature from any racing game?

It's a legit question. Trust me.

if you're referring to racing video games I like the customization of the cars that was found in need for speed underground.  I also like being 'able' to drive really fast on the street because its not something I would do in real life

You promise this is legit?

I'm not really a fan of the genre but when I have played them I would also say customization. Different parts doing different things in terms of handling and so on.

I like the idea of Car Wars league play.

Death Track 2000

guns, mines, gizmos and car customaization

Without weapons...

yeah the customization. There was some formulae 1 game (forget the name) where you could even fiddle with the angle of tires for each track.

The only driving game I ever played with any real regularity was the Racing Destruction Set on the Commodore 64 (which tells you how long ago it was that I played racing games).  After riding real motorcycles at 75+mph down a crowded freeway for a few years, the digital race environment lost pretty much all its appeal to me.

Favorite feature?  Customizing the vehicles or even building your own from the ground up.  Biggest gripe with the whole genre?  I rely so much on peripheral awareness and 'feedback' from the vehicle when I'm driving that the games just don't feel real, at all, and often result in me crashing routinely because I'm driving the car beyond its design capabilities and cornering becomes impossible.

In reply to facemaker329 (msg # 54):

Yeah, that's a major problem with pretty much every racing game. It seems like no one likes them unless you crash into stuff all the time.

In reply to HornetCorset (msg # 55):

How's that different than regular racing in real life?   :)

In reply to nuric (msg # 56):

Now, I'm not saying this is always the case, but I think, in general, the drivers of real-life racing would prefer not to crash into things.

Hey, RPoLians who are fans of mythology and folklore (of any culture) - what are some figures famous for being creepers of the stalker variety? The most obvious story that comes to mind is the Hades/Persephone thing, but it'd be cool to hear other interesting examples. Particularly something a little more obscure, or having a musical sort of context involved with the story.

You want stealthy things, or myths with obsessions about humanoids?

Echo the nymph and Narcissus, Hermaphroditus and Salmacis, Venus and Adonis ... wait, pretty much the entirety of the Metamorphoses of Ovid is full of people like that.

Also you might consider Helen of Troy and the Paris/Agamemnon issue, and then all the ensuing drama.

Thanks! Yeah, Greek/Roman canon is really full of that kind of stuff, isn't it?

But yeah, I'm looking for mythological or classical stories about one-sided, unrequited obsession, basically. Something relevant that can be tossed out as a hint to form an interesting parallel to a plot point in a Hunter game I'm running.

I realize it's not exactly what you asked for, but Dante was crazy-obsessed with that one woman. (I want to say her name is Beatrice.) He basically talked to her a total of three times in his life, and she married someone else, but he never really stopped obsessing over her. In fact, pretty much the entirety of the Divine Comedy is him hoping to see her one more time. While he's not exactly a mythological being, he wrote a pseudo-autobiographical story that's responsible for a large chunk of our current (mis)conception of Hell.

Perhaps a little too real or a little too recent, but that's the best I can think of at the moment.

I still think the story of Echo is a pretty good one for one-sided obsession.

The worst part is I feel there's one really awesome example right there on the top of my brain, and I just can't quite put my finger on it.

Zeus.  Wasn't he spurned by someone in one form, so he came back in another form and basically raped her that time?  Or am I just thinking of basically every story about Zeus?

In reply to Genghis the Hutt (msg # 62):

Ah Zeus.  The king slut of all sluts.   Seriously.  -.-

Hey, weird question. Does anyone know how much it would cost in normal worlds to acquire about one cubic inch of generic granulites?

What would that translate to for someone that doesn't know whatever game system that is from?

Normal worlds? You know... like this one? Good ol' Earth and whatnot. Probably looking for an answer that's got a dollar sign in front of it.

I think what kouk was asking is: what the fruit are generic granulites?

To quote Wikipedia, "Granulites are a class of high grade metamorphic rocks of the granulite-facies that have experienced high-temperature and moderate pressure metamorphism. They are medium to coarse–grained and mainly composed of feldspars sometimes associated with quartz and anhydrous ferromagnesian minerals, with granoblastic texture and gneissose to massive structure."

In other words, granulites are a specific group of rocks. Generic, of course, meaning that we don't really care what subtype of granulite it is (or even if it's mixed), just so long as it's granulite.

I know you can get a bathroom vanity counter-top made of the stuff for $100~$300, but I'm looking for something a lot smaller.

You want a 1-inch scrap piece of granite countertop? Probably free if you hang around a granite-cutter shop or a house being demolished ...

In reply to kouk (msg # 69):

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you'd have trouble finding a place to buy it, but picking it up as scrap is a pretty good way of getting some.  Or, just looking around and picking it up off the ground wherever such metamorphic rocks are common...

Ah, not some marvellous starship fuel of the same name, then.

I'm with the other guys. The stuff is so common it would be hard to put a price on it. If you bought a cubic inch from a fossil and mineral shop it might cost you a couple of dollars, but as they say, you could easily pick up a piece for free just by asking, or going for a walk in the right area.

In reply to HornetCorset (msg # 64):

Is there any particular reason you only wish to purchase one cubic inch of this stuff? For instance after checking a few local landscape yards and stone cutters you can get a cubic metre of 30mm (slightly more then one inch)crushed bluestone (a type of rock which I believe fits your specification) for AUD$67 or AUD$0.001 per individual stone.

Of course, if you want a perfectly cut and polished one inch cube, a square foot of black granite here is about AUD$20 (prices vary wildly). Most masons seems to be charging about $80 per lineal metre to cut, and $100 to polish, so one cube would be... about AUD$27 each. Not entirely sure my maths is correct on that figure though.

kouk: Granulite. It's a different type of rock. The market for the stuff is apparently really small compared to other materials like marble and granite. This is the strongest correlation I have found between the two: "The production of granite by metamorphic heat is difficult, but is observed to occur in certain amphibolite and granulite terrains."

Godzfirefly: Deep continental crust. You'd pretty much have to dig for it. You would absolutely have to dig for it if you include metaphorical forms of digging (which is, you know, why I ask).

AussieKnight87: The size is not extremely important, and, actually, the end result is supposed to be octahedral. Slate, which is commonly referred to as bluestone in southern Australia (and I think it's safe to assume you're from there), is not a granulite. Granulite is medium-to-coarse grained, while slate is actually the finest-grained of all metamorphic rock, just to give an example.

In reply to HornetCorset (msg # 73):

Well the bluestone that I'm referring to isn't slate. It's, as you say, medium/coarse. In Vic, it's mostly used for road base or concrete aggregate, though in certain gold rush towns like Bendigo and Castlemaine blocks can still be found lining open drains. Don't know what it's actually called, it's just what all the builders that I used to work with called it.

It is in my nature to ask outlandish questions, but this is one of the weirdest ones I've had to ask in a while.

Please name off a language that sounds "purple."

In reply to HornetCorset (msg # 75):

Basque

Catalan

Urdu

I was hoping for something a bit more... well, I guess the term is "mainstream." But thanks. That helps a lot.

In reply to Shiv (msg # 76):

Dutch. Say the word 'purple' in a Dutch accent, it just sounds nice!

Basque <3 I love that language. Behindthename has some cool names from it.

I did a Google Shopping search for "granulite" and ordered the results by price, low to high.  On the first page, I found "Foremost Granulite Vanity Top 31W X 22D X 1-3-8H Canyon Brown Color Includes Undermount Sink Pre-Drilled 8 Centers Integrated Backsplashes Faucet Not Included"  Looks like it's about $60 (US dollars) and it would cost about $93 to ship to Southern CA.  It's way more Granulite than you wanted, but you could cut it down.  Apparently it's common enough that a contractor's lapidary store (not a homeowner's store) would probably have some free scrap that you could take away.

I also found an Etsy rock collection of 154 different minerals for $60, of which granulite was one of them.

In reply to Genghis the Hutt (msg # 80):

Well thanks.