DrKrettin

The answer to the thread title is extremely simple: yes

Anybody who denies that there are differences must be clinically insane. Anybody making value judgments based on those differences must be sexist.

Thank you - they are both interesting, but the ultracrepidarianism (which I had come across but forgotten) has a particularly interesting etymology. I find etymology fascinating, which puts me in a very small minority methinks.

*groan* I'm rather fazed by your spelling.

Not too long ago (but before railways) the word "cattle" could mean both sheep and cows. I'm reading a Greek novel at the moment, written about 200 AD which uses the word "probata" literally "that which is driven forwards" referring to a flock of sheep or a herd of cattle. In both cases, the English translation of around 1650 uses the term "cattle". The device to stop livestock from walking through gate is still called a cattle grid in the UK. There are people who go round building little ladders inside them to help hedgehogs escape when they fall in. I'll stop now.

That would not help much if the buffalo landed back on the lines. Why didn't he call it a bison-catcher?

A guy and a girl meet at a bar. They get along so well that they decide to go to the girl’s place. A few drinks later, the guy takes off his shirt and then washes his hands. He then takes off his trousers and again washes his hands. The girl has been watching him and says: "You must be a dentist." "Yes .... How did you figure that out?" "Easy.." she replies, "you keep washing your hands." One thing leads to another and they make love. After it's over the girl says: "You must be a good dentist." The guy, now with an inflated ego, says: "Sure - I'm a good dentist. How did you figure that out?" The girl replies:.... "Didn't feel a thing."

Nice theory, but there is an alternative one, that "goat" was a prison slang for "anger".

Today I learned that a tyrannosaurus rex called Sue (although I doubt that was her name whilst alive) probably suffered from gout.

I read recently that a fly's reaction to being swotted is not actually a brain reaction in the first instance, but hard-wired somewhere else. Equally, a cockroaches reaction to when you switch a light on is hard-wired, not a brain decision. I suppose with a cat it is not the case, but with a smaller brain you might expect the reactions to be faster.

Interesting - that explains why they don't appreciate our music - it must all sound like a terrible dirge.

Today I learned that male cockatoos try to impress females by using tools to make Phil Collins-style drum solos (link to Grauniad article) Today I also learned that using a two-word name as an adjective leads to insoluble hyphen problems. Today I also learned who Phil Collins is. He's a drummer who imitates cockatoos.

Cicero's forensic speeches are indeed called thus with the meaning you state. The word was originally an adjective "pertaining to the forum" so its meaning had already moved on from that. Then it was purloined by modern science to take on the meaning which most people would recognise.

That was a modern version of the lament by Gerard Hoffnung in 1958:

I've remembered - legs?