In Iron Age England, it was believed that the cock served as a defence against thunderstorms; that is why cocks are still to be found on church steeples. They became known as weathercocks.
[Peter Acroyd, The History of England, Volume 1: Foundation]
Just Too Good Not To …
I just came across this on Facebook. It’s just too good not to share …
Cartoon of the Week
Soundtrack of Your Life
Quite some while back, and I can’t now find who’s weblog it was on, someone asked about the five songs/albums which would provide the soundtrack to your life. Not necessarily songs associated with particular events or people (although that turns out to be almost inevitable) or even ones you would want to take to a desert island, but which provide the right overall background music.
Having put the idea away for another day, I find that day has come and I want to write about it. So here we are; five songs/albums which are my background soundtrack, in no particular order:
1. The Beatles, Abbey Road
It’s that zebra crossing! No, it’s The Beatles!
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Well you could make that almost any late Beatles (ie. Sgt Pepper’s, Abbey Road, Let It Be) but Abbey Road is the favourite as for me it best encapsulates days as a student.
2. Gregorian Chant
Almost any well done Gregorian chant (male voices, monastic acoustics) will do but for me one of the most ethereal is the Pange Lingua of Good Friday.
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And yes, that’s despite my not being religious — Roman Latin liturgy has always done it for me. It is after all a form of magic: what is the priest doing walking round the alter with a thurible if it isn’t casting a circle?
3. Cliff Richard, Summer Holiday
I seem to feel I need to put something in here to evoke childhood and what better than Summer Holiday. Those hot lazy days with no school!
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Not only was Summer Holiday the first film I was allowed to go and see on my own, but Cliff comes from my home town and The Shadows used to practice in the boys club at the back of my primary school playing field. Heady days!
Well back from the ridiculous to the sublime …
4. Monteverdi, 1610 Vespers
The height of Renaissance music, this was one of the early shares which Noreen and I had all those years ago and long before we even thought about going out together.
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And the 35+ year old John Eliot Gardiner recording is still the best available.
5. Pink Floyd, Learning to Fly
The story of my life: learning to fly (and failing mostly!)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX5R00ndzQo&w=420&h=315]
I don’t know what it is this track does to me, or why. But it does. And that makes it for me one of the great rock tracks of all time. And Floyd are out and away the best rock group ever, for me.
Word of the Week : Numpty
Numpty.
1. A stupid person; an idiot.
2. A bumbling fool or one who is intellectually challenged.
3. Someone who (sometimes unwittingly) demonstrates a lack of knowledge or misconception of a subject or situation to the amusement of others.
4. A reckless, absent minded or unwise person.
5. A good humoured admonition, a term of endearment.
Originally Scots dialect.
In 2007 numpty was voted Scotland’s favourite word.
[39/52] Small Footless Child with Dog
Week 39 entry for 52 weeks challenge.
Just haven’t got down to even picking up a camera this week, so here’s one from the archives.![[39/52] Small Footless Child with Dog](https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6170/6204092081_2c93892dab.jpg)
Yes, this me, aged about 8 or 9 (so around 1959/60) with our dog Sue. It looks like our back garden, is clearly summer, and was likely taken by my father with his Box Brownie.
Horrible!
No Sense of the Ridiculous
Three snippets from the “Feedback” column of this week’s New Scientist. Some people really do have no sense of the ridiculous.
“Generations of medical students and doctors have been taught to tell their patients to ‘never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear’,” Michael Glanfield, himself a doctor, assures us. The Asda supermarket chain has clearly taken this advice to heart. The warning on its own brand “D” battery, which has a diameter of 3.3 centimetres, states “…if swallowed or lodged in the ear or nose seek prompt medical attention”.
Geoffrey Hardman is grateful to transportdirect.info for warning him: “Certain combinations of outward and return journeys would result in you needing to leave your destination before arriving at it”.
“By now you will have noticed that the sole purpose of our exotic expeditions is to gather gems for Feedback,” says regular contributor Jenny Narraway. Her latest is the multilingual wording on a waste bin seen on a walking holiday in the Azores. It said: “Lixo Indiferenciado” for Portuguese speakers, “Poubelle Indiferencie” for French speakers and, for the English, “Undistinguished trash”.
Why is the waste bin on a walking holiday, one wonders?
Sublimely Ridiculous
This week’s selection of things which attracted my attention and which you may have missed …
Can the human body combust spontaneously? Most of us think not, unless you’re an Irish Coroner.
Fake degree? Check. Fake Rolex? Check. Fake girlfriend? What? You want fake girlfriend? OK, then see here and here.
Bored with your current home? Fancy your own Lord of the Rings film set? Then build your own Hobbit home. Must admit it looks comfy, but where’s the bathroom?
Now you’ve mastered being an architect here’s just the thing for your design studio … Use your Amazon Kindle as an Etch-a-Sketch. Sadly available only in the US.
And finally the big news of the week: Wasabi fire alarm scoops Ig Nobel prize! Yes, it’s that time of year when the Ig Nobel awards are announced. If you’ve missed out on them before they are serious scientific prizes which honour achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think”. Full reports here and here.
Enjoy your weekend!
Quotes of the Week
Well there’s just one good quote this week …
I have a very proper present for your Lordship. I know your love of antiquities makes you a little superstitious. I have an elderstick, that was cut in the minute that the sun entered Taurus. Such a planetary cutting of it gives virtue to stop bleeding to which you know you are subject. If you desire to know more of the time and manner of cutting it, you must consult Aubrey’s Miscellanies. You may meet with it without doubt amongst your father’s collection of mad books.
[Dr William Stratford writing to Edward Harley (son of the Earl of Oxford), 28 June 1711, quoted in Anthony Powell, John Aubrey and His Friends]
Fact of the Week : Kissing
Two-thirds of us tilt our heads to the right when we kiss, and it’s not correlated with handedness.
[Reported in, inter alia, Sheril Kirshenbaum, The Science of Kissing]