Raving rabbit wrote:
Sir David wrote:
On Dec 3, 12:59 pm, crunch wrote:
Global warming flush
Carl rides his hobbyhorse

What hobby horse? (reference was lost in translation).

Q

It's an English word meaning a topic to which someone constantly
returns, as though it were an obsession or compulsion.

From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

hobbyhorse

Main Entry: hob·by·horse
Pronunciation: \ˈhä-bē-ˌhȯrs\
Function: noun
Etymology: hobby small light horse, from Middle English hoby,
hobyn, perhaps from Hobbin, nickname for Robert or Robin
Date: circa 1553

1 a : a figure of a horse fastened about the waist in the morris
dance b : a dancer wearing this figure
2 obsolete : buffoon
3 a : a stick having an imitation horse's head at one end that a
child pretends to ride b : rocking horse c : a toy horse
suspended by springs from a frame
4 a : a topic to which one constantly reverts

The usage here is 4a, "*a topic to which one constantly
reverts*". IOW, a topic that one seems fixated upon.

David has a small set of 'topics to which [he] constantly
reverts. One of them is climate, on his belief that he is a
meteorologist just because he took a class or two sometime, and
he likes weather.

Hope that helps.

snip

--
Tom

When Tyrants tremble, sick with fear,
And hear their death-knell ringing;
When friends rejoice, both far and near,
How can I keep from singing.