quotes

Quotes

A few more quotes encountered, for the amusement of those hereabouts. As usual in no special order.

The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory.
[Paul Fix]

Every man serves a useful purpose: a miser, for example, makes a wonderful ancestor.
[Laurence J Peter]

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.
[Charles Bukowski]

The appellation of Gentleman is never to be affixed to a man’s circumstances, but to his behaviour in them.
[Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729) in The Tatler]

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
[Niels Bohr]

Understand that sexuality is as wide as the sea. Understand that your morality is not law … Understand that if we decide to have sex whether safe, safer, or unsafe, it is our decision and you have no rights in our lovemaking.
[Derek Jarman]

Being childfree or childless is a choice for some, a struggle for others. It’s tough to be childfree/childless in our child- and parent-centric society — especially for women. We are questioned, judged, told we’ll change our minds, etc.
[unknown]

An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t.
[Anatole France]
I’d add: and knowing how to find out when you don’t know.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
[Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, 1905]

A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold.
[Ogden Nash]

It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don’t know too much about the problem.
[Malcolm Forbes]

food+drink

National Picnic Week

It’s summer (well, allegedly) so what better time is there for National Picnic Week which runs from 17 to 23 June.

We Brits have always been great picnickers — from the old couple sitting by their car with a sandwich to the magnificent spreads of the Edwardian shooting party — and National Picnic Week celebrates this love of the al fresco lunch.

With the UK’s food preferences changing, why stick to the same old picnic fare? To the egg sandwiches and sausage rolls we can now add pizza, mini-popadoms and kebabs.


So let’s make the most of our, all too short, summer and get out to one of this country’s magnificent picnic spots for a sumptuous snack in the wild.

There are lots of resources, including recipe ideas, over at www.picnicweek.co.uk.

words

Word: Overmorrow

Overmorrow

The day after tomorrow.

The OED suggests it is derived from the German übermorgen and Dutch overmorgen.
The first recorded usage was in 1535.

Compare with nudiustertian, pertaining to the day before yesterday.

These have to be a useful words with which to confound the unwary!

amusements

World Juggling Day

Saturday 15 June is World Juggling Day which is set up International Jugglers Association to help spread the fun of juggling and to bring jugglers around the world together.

Juggling is fun — well so they tell me, I was never any good at it. And it is an ancient art: there are images on a tomb in Egypt show people juggling, and there are references to it in writings from China, Ireland and Rome. Juggling was also popular during Renaissance times, when jugglers would entertain the royal court.

As usual there’s lots more information over at www.juggle.org/wjd.

environment

Bike Week

Bike Week 2013 starts on Saturday 15 June and runs until 23rd.

Bike Week is the UK’s biggest mass participation cycling event with events offering something for everyone; from families, schools and companies, to seasoned cyclists and those who have never cycled before. The idea is to show us just how easy it is to make cycling part of our every day routine.

This year, Bike Week is asking the nation to dig out their bikes, get back on the saddle and fall in love with cycling all over again! Cycling is not only good exercise but is also good for the environment in helping us to reduce our carbon footprint.

There’s lots of information and an events register over at www.bikeweek.org.uk.

words

Word: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

According to the Oxford English Dictionary Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is “a factitious word alleged to mean ‘a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust, causing inflammation in the lungs'”. A condition meeting the word’s definition is normally called just silicosis.

Wikipedia adds: “It occurs chiefly as an instance of a very long word. The 45-letter word was coined to serve as the longest English word and is the longest word ever to appear in an English language dictionary. It is listed in the current editions of several dictionaries”.

Facetious or not its coining in 1935 by Everett M Smith appears well documented, and the word does indeed mean what the OED says.

Whatever you want to call the disease, you don’t want it!

medical

Aromatherapy Awareness Week

Aromatherapy Awareness Week runs from Monday 10 to Sunday 16 June and is promoted by the International Federation of Aromatherapists.

Although like many “complementary” therapies it is much decried by mainstream science, aromatherapy is an ancient therapeutic treatment used in many early civilisations to relieve stress, other ailments and rejuvenate the mind, body and spirit, by the use of pure essential oils from plants, chosen for their therapeutic benefits, specific to the needs of the individual.

Smell is a much more important sense that we often realise. Scents are some of the most powerful triggers for the recall of past events: the smell of the sea bringing back those idyllic childhood holiday memories, for instance. That’s why supermarkets so often use the smell of baking bread, or coffee, to entice us. So why should aromatherapy work too?

The medical sector too have recently started utilising the benefits of aromatherapy — for instance in cancer units as supportive care for their patients and pre- and post-operations — and they have seen benefits to the patients which help to speed recovery.

You can find out more about aromatherapy over at www.ifaroma.org.