Talk:Ha-ha

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Contents 1 Ha-Ha and Ha-ha (garden) 2 Images 3 Washington Monument 4 Etymology 5 The Hoho 6 Origins - The Archers???

[edit] Ha-Ha and Ha-ha (garden)

Both Ha-ha (garden) and Ha-Ha discuss the same thing. They should be merged. Grstain 23:08, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes -- sorry, I could not get to the original text due to circular re-directs. Hopefully now sorted out, with the correct text in Ha-ha (garden), which is a clearer title. quota

Ha-ha is actually the clearer title, the one a Wikipedia user would enter. (garden) would be needed if there were another Ha-ha article. --Wetman 15:13, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

(Previous discussion is a year old.) There was .. that was the problem. And there's 'haha' and 'ha ha', even now. If someone kew it was hyphenated, they'd probably not need to look it up :-). quota 16:57, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Images

The penultimate section displays horribly with the Classic Wikipedia skin. Anyone know how to fix? quota 16:50, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Washington Monument

An 8/22/2006 article in Salon about "new" techniques for urban security says:

"In 2001, the National Capital Planning Commission rejected several bulky plans to protect the Washington Monument, including one proposal to surround the site with a ring of almost 400 bollards. Instead, the commission -- which had thrown up Jersey barriers at the monument after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, another temporary measure that had become permanent -- chose a brilliantly invisible plan by the Philadelphia landscape architecture firm Olin Partnership.

Olin proposed using an 18th century fortification called a ha-ha, a long, low wall sunken inside a trench used by European gardeners to keep animals corralled without visible fencing. Olin designed a series of granite ha-has along the pathways leading to the monument; the simple system, which keeps the site safe from vehicles in a way that's friendly to people, was installed in 2005."

Seems worth mentioning on this page to me.

[edit] Etymology

Removed this: However it's worth noting that the French for 'hedge' is 'la haie' as there is no connection to the word haie.

The English is a borrowing from French, but from the independent word "haha" or "ahah" (an expression of surprise). In 1631 the word is used of "tout obstacle interrompant brusquement un chemin" (any obstacle suddenly interrupting a way) and in 1738 as an "ouverture faite au mur d'un jardin avec un fossé au dehors afin de laisser la vue libre" (opening made in the wall of a garden with a ditch outside to leave the view free) - "marquant la surprise de celui qui découvre l'obstacle" (marking the surprise of the one who discovers the obstacle). Le Trésor de la Langue Française Informatisé -- Picapica 13:16, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Hoho

Terry Pratchett has an amusing bit about another version of the haha, built by his "insane architect" character Bloody Stupid Johnson. The point of a hoho is that it's like a haha "only deeper", about fifty feet deep. (See "Monuments and landscape design" on the BSJ page.) I feel like it would be neat if this were mentioned on the haha page, but I'm not sure where. --24.46.164.83 23:20, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Maybe in a "in popular culture" section. Ingolfson 06:33, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Why not at Terry Pratchett, where it's actually relevant to his mindset? --Wetman 09:45, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Because here, it actually has context? Not that it would be a cricitcal part of the article in any way. Ingolfson 10:02, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Origins - The Archers???

In February 2007, a ha-ha was mentioned in the radio soap The Archers on BBC Radio 4, when Nigel Pargetter decided to restore it in the grounds of Lower Loxley.

Like the above, this could be put in the 'popular culture' section, but until then, it is completely irrelevent to where it is situated (it was placed in 'Origins'), and I have removed it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.11.204.51 (talk) 20:16, 28 May 2008 (UTC)