Date:    Fri, 8 May 1998 11:42:17 -0500
<br>From:    Mark Mandel <Mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]DRAGONSYS.COM>
<br>Subject: bottles of beer
<br>
<br>>>>>> Andrea Vine <avine[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ENG.SUN.COM> writes >>>>>
<br>
<br> [...]  So I asked [my English source] in what situation he would sing it:  at a football game, in a pub?  To which he
<br>replied, "On long, boring coach trips when there's bugger-all else to do."
<br> <<<<<
<br>
<br>Which is exactly the context in which I learned it: bus (= "coach"?) trips, or sometimes hikes. (But on hikes we had the
<br>danger of thirst from so much singing, breathing in the dust our feet kicked up from the road. Not that we were old
<br>enough for beer.)
<br>
<br>>>>>> Wendalyn Nichols <wnichols[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]RANDOMHOUSE.COM> adds >>>>>
<br>
<br>Or on a fairly short coach trip, if the back of the coach is full of completely legless lager louts
<br> <<<<<
<br>
<br>I assume that "lager louts" are loutish because they're full of brew.
<br>"Legless" = 'too drunk to stand up'?
<br>
<br>-- Mark
<br>
<br>       Mark A. Mandel : Senior Linguist : mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]dragonsys.com
<br>    Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 796-0267
<br> 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/
<br>           Personal home page: http://world.std.com/~mam/
<br>