Just in case anyone is at al loose end for the remainder of today and tomorrow, the Guardian printed the King William’s College 2017 GKP, as it has every year since 1951. This is the general knowledge paper 2017-18, the 113th issue, sat by the pupils of King William’s College, Isle of Man.
According to Wikipedia: Since 1904, the College has set an annual general knowledge test, known as the General Knowledge Paper (GKP). The pupils sit the test twice: once unseen on the day before the Christmas holidays, and again when they return to school in the New Year, after spending the holiday researching the answers. It is well known to be highly difficult, a common score being just two correct answers from the list of several hundred. The best scores are 40 to 50 for the unseen test and about 270 out of 360 for the second sitting.
The quiz is always introduced with the Latin motto Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est, “To know where you can find anything is, after all, the greatest part of erudition.”
You can find this year’s GKP at https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2017/dec/21/king-williams-college-quiz-2017.
I shall not be getting 100% as tonight’s bedtime reading.
Category Archives: pleasures
Gin
When I was recovering from my left knee replacement in September, my lovely friend Katy sent me a consolatory gin tasking selection. It contained miniatures of eight different artisan gins, none of which I’d heard of. Unfortunately I couldn’t sample them at the time as alcohol was contraindicated by the painkillers I was taking.
Now off the painkillers, I’ve sampled them all over the last couple of weeks, along with several other gins which I happened to have available. All together I tried 14 different gins.
First of all I tried each gin neat, pouring just a teaspoon or two into a shot glass and having a sip. This I spread over a couple of evenings. Then, over several further evenings, I sampled each miniature (or equivalent quantity) with ice and lemon in a 250ml glass topped up with my usual low calorie tonic – ie. as a fairly ordinary gin & tonic. (I’m sure neither method is what you’re supposed to do, but the latter seemed like a fair test of the gins as I would normally encounter them.)
Notes – both mental and scribed – were made. During the process I found that tasting the gin & tonic was much better than the neat gin; I found the neat gin too fiery to enable my unrefined palate to discern any subtlety.
Here, for what they’re worth, are my opinions of the 14 gin & tonics:
| Gin | Notes | Stars |
| Tarquin Sea Dog | Bland; slightly fragrant, almost barber’s shop aftershave | ★★ |
| Williams Grapefruit | Great bouquet of grapefruit when poured. Less in the mouth but lots of grapefruit follow-on. | ★★★★ |
| GB Old English | Slightly sweet and very fruity, with lots of citrus/grapefruit | ★★★★ |
| Williams Elegant | Very aniseed flavour. | ★ |
| Blooms | Bland, only just faintly herbal | ★★★ |
| Darnley’s Spiced | Quite flavourful and very slightly spicy rather than floral | ★★ |
| Nightingale’s Rhubarb | Slight oxalic acid nose; rather pleasant and slightly fruity | ★★★ |
| Dr J’s | Medicinal | ★ |
| Haymans’ Gin Liqueur | Slightly sweet and slight juniper; quite pleasant | ★★★★ |
| Gordon’s | Slight juniper but basically bland | ★★★ |
| Hammer Old English | More fragrant and juniper; very slight sweetness; smooth and pleasant | ★★★★★ |
| Warner’s Rhubarb | Fruity; slight sweetness; very pleasant | ★★★★★ |
| Hendrick’s | Cucumber; nasty | ★ |
| Adnams Copper House | Nicely balanced juniper; slightly fruity; smooth and very pleasant | ★★★★★ |
In summary: It was a very interesting experiment. And it is a shame I wasn’t very taken by any of the eight gins in the tasting selection (the first eight on the list), although Wiliiams Grapefruit and GB Old English were indeed interestingly pleasant. Hayman’s Gin Liqeur doesn’t work for me as a liqueur, but it is pleasant if you like your gin on the sweet side. But, slightly to my surprise, it confirmed my preference for the three gins I drink most often: Adnams Copper House, Hammer Old English and the lately discovered Warner’s Rhubarb. I had actually expected these to be knocked off top spot by one of the eight.
So, big thanks to Katy for a very nice and thoughtful present, and for what turned out to be an interesting experiment.
The Cat as Bagpipes …
Rosie cat fast asleep on our bed the other evening
Click the image for a larger view
Book of Gloria
I posted about this on Facebook earlier, but it’s so brilliant I have to say more here.
Earlier today on the intertubes I came across the Bible in Polari. Those who know Polari, or are old enough to remember Julian and Sandy from the radio show Round the Horne, will guess how much of a hoot it is. Here, for example, are the first five verses of Genesis …
1 In the beginning Gloria created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was nanti form, and void; and munge was upon the eke of the deep. And the Fairy of Gloria trolled upon the eke of the aquas.
3 And Gloria cackled, Let there be sparkle: and there was sparkle.
4 And Gloria vardad the sparkle, that it was bona: and Gloria medzered the sparkle from the munge.
5 And Gloria screeched the sparkle journo, and the munge she screeched nochy. And the bijou nochy and the morning were the first journo.
And here, the Immaculate Conception from Luke 1:26-35 …
26 And in the seyth month the fairy Gabriel was laued from Gloria unto a smoke of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27 To a nanti charver espoused to a homie whose name was Josephine, of the lattie of Davina; and the nanti charver‘s name was Mary.
28 And the fairy trolled in unto her, and cackled, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Duchess is with thee: fabed art thou among palones.
29 And when she vardad her, she was troubled at her cackling, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
30 And the fairy cackled unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with Gloria.
31 And, varda, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and parker forth a homie chavvie, and shalt screech her name Josie.
32 She shall be dowry, and shall be screeched the homie chavvie of the Highest: and the Duchess Gloria shall parker unto her the throne of her Auntie Davina:
33 And she shall reign over the lattie of Jacob for ever; and of her kingdom there shall be no end.
34 Then cackled Mary unto the fairy, How shall this be, vardaing I know not a homie?
35 And the fairy answered and cackled unto her, The Fantabulosa Fairy shall troll upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that fabulosa fakement which shall be born of thee shall be screeched the homie chavvie of Gloria.
Brilliant isn’t it?!
Incidentally it’s worth downloading the PDF version, even though it is big, as it contains some wonderfully captioned “old style” images (“Gethsemane had always been a notorious cruising ground”) and a huge dictionary of Polari.
What I find interesting is how much Polari has passed into modern parlance (possibly as some was stolen from existing dialect like Cockney and entered the modern English from there). Just in writing this I’ve noticed acdc, troll, barney, butch, drag … the list goes on!
This is what I find so entrancing about language: not just the fun but the interplay between language, dialect, argot and idiolect. And I love it when something in one form is translated into another, but remains amusingly intelligible to speakers of the original – as here and as with the Pidgin of Papua New Guinea for Prince Charles: nambawan pikinini bilong Mises Kwin.
Just excellent!
Pussy Porn
Yes, it’s once more time for some pussy porn. So here is a shot taken today of Tilly, our Queen Cat, who will be four in May. I just don’t know how they look so pretty and cute!
Click the image for a larger view
Happy Christmas
and a
Prosperous New Year
to all our friends and followers
Cactus
A watercolour by Dora Marshall, June 1987
Click the image for a larger view
Counting
Does anyone else have the occasional memory spring randomly into their mind about something heard or learnt in childhood but had long forgotten? Of course it usually happens when you’re in the shower or just dropping off to sleep, so you forget about it again even though you would like to investigate it.
Well that happened to me the other night, yes, as I was dropping off to sleep. Luckily I wasn’t so asleep I couldn’t scribble a reminder. (I always have a pad of Post-Its and a pencil by the bed.)
And what was this? Something I got from my mother as a child: dialect numbers and counting used by shepherds in various areas of the UK. I learnt one from my mother, but there are many and they’re all slightly different.
Imagine you’re counting sheep on a hillside. The one I learnt goes like this:
1 Yan 2 Tyan 3 Tethera 4 Methera 5 Pimp 6 Sethera 7 Lethera 8 Hovera 9 Dovera 10 Dick 11 Yan-a-dick 12 Tyan-a-dick 13 Tethera-dick 14 Methera-dick 15 Bumfit 16 Yan-a-bumfit 17 Tyan-a-bumfit 18 Tethera-bumfit 19 Methera-bumfit 20 Giggot
You can just see the old shepherd, who can just count to ten on his fingers, using this to count his flock.
I shouldn’t have been surprised to find that Wikipedia lists a couple of dozen such sheep counting schemes from around the UK. Apparently this one comes from Borrowdale. That would fit as my mother certainly spend time hostelling in the Lakes before the war.
At least it is logical — well as logical as the way the French count above sixty, where for instance 63 is soixante-treize, and 92 is quatre-vingt douze.
Isn’t it just brilliant?!
Pussy Porn
Winter is coming, the cats are getting keener to be in rather than out — not that this stops them going out for a little light mouse-foraging! All afternoon I’ve had two of our three cats with me in the study, very asleep and both determinedly trying to make it rain.
Wiz has found the warm spot in front of the airing cupboard …
Meanwhile Tilly has a little cave amongst the piles of stuff and toot …
Where number three is I have no idea, but doubtless in much the same state!
Ten Things
In keeping with the randomness of this series, this month’s Ten Things is words.
10 Words I Like:
- Cuneiform
- Halberd
- Petrichor
- Psittacosis
- Varmint
- Verisimilitude
- Vermifuge
- Vespiary
- Yoni
- Zanzibar
Interesting that I seem not to have written a word post about the last two. This will have to be rectified.
Weekly Photograph
We’ve been running around the garden all day.
But now we’ve nowhere nice to sleep,
so we’ve flaked out here in the study doorway.”
Click the image for a larger view