Click the image for a larger view.
Cartoon of the Week
Word of the Week: Distaff
Distaff.
1. A cleft staff about 3 feet long, on which, in the ancient mode of spinning, wool or flax was wound.
2.The staff or ‘rock’ of a hand spinning-wheel, upon which the flax to be spun is placed.
3. As the type of women’s work or occupation. Hence, symbolically, for the female sex, female authority or dominion; also, the female branch of a family; a female heir.
Image: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), Girl with spindle and distaff. (Spindle on left, distaff on right.)
[42/52] Green Woodpecker
![[42/52] Green Woodpecker](https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6234/6254149303_0432490798.jpg)
Week 42 entry for 52 weeks challenge.
Green Woodpecker (probably male) this morning on our next door neighbour’s lawn. This is the third or fourth time I’ve seen him visiting in the last 2-3 weeks. He spends a lot of time (I watched him for 45 minutes one day) covering the same area, so it must be very rich in ants.
Taken at a range of 20-25 yards from our study window with my biggest lens and still this is a small crop from the middle of a frame.
Listography – Top Five Keywords
As regular readers will know I don’t always do Kate’s weekly Listography — sometimes because I just don’t get time and sometimes because the subject doesn’t fire me with enthusiasm. But this week Kate is asking us something simple: list the top five keyword searches on your weblog (excepting the name of the weblog and keywords like “blogger”). So I can hardly refuse, especially as whenever I see anyone listing the searches used to find their weblogs they’re usually either a scream or completely unbelievable!
Will mine be any different? In a word, No …
At #1 we have pheasant. Yep really. Four times the number of hits of its nearest competitor! Everyone seems to have liked my December 2009 recipe for Pheasant Casserole.
#2 is the quite shocking pussy porn. I guess, guys, you were sadly disappointed to find this, this or this.
#3 is perhaps the equally worrying, and equally disappointing, dumb blonde.
At #4 we have another search for pornography: osho on porn. But this time it is a serious article.
Finally at #5 we go from the sublime(?) to the ridiculous with the search woodpecker feet. Well, yes, I really did write a post about woodpecker feet!
In the words of JBS Haldane:
The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.
[41/52] Barber Shop Girls
Week 41 entry for 52 weeks challenge.
Girls from the next door ladies hairdressers having a break outside the barber’s shop at Rayners Lane, Harrow. They’re there, drinking coffee and smoking, every time I go past; they never seem to do any work. How do they make a living?
Quotes of the Week : On Beauty
This week several quotes about beauty …
Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick.
[Gwyneth Paltrow]
Beauty is the first present nature gives to women and the first it takes away.
[Fay Weldon]
Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.
[Kahlil Gibran]
Looking into someone’s eyes and knowing that you have loved them for ever. That’s beauty.
[Tracey Emin]
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
[Confucius]
Biofuels Making People Hungry
Just seen this on on a UN report at Nature News Blog: Biofuels helping make nearly one billion people go hungry.
Interesting that others support my thesis.
Cartoon of the Week
Word of the Week: Purlicue
Purlicue.
1. Space between extended forefinger and thumb.
2. Flourish at end of a handwritten word.
3. A discourse, especially its summary.
Ten Things – October
Number 10 in my monthly series of “Ten Things” for 2011. Each month I list one thing from each of ten categories which will remain the same for each month of 2011. So at the end of the year you have ten lists of twelve things about me.
Something I Like: Tea- Something I Won’t Do: Halloween
- Something I Want To Do: Fly on Flightdeck of an Airliner
- A Blog I Like: Bad Science
- A Book I Like: Nick McCamley; Secret Underground Cities: an Account of Some of Britain’s Subterranean Defence, Factory and Storage Sites in the Second World War
- Some Music I Like: Moody Blues, Octave
- A Food I Like: Swiss Chard
- A Food or Drink I Dislike: Milk
- A Word I Like: Persiflage
- A Quote I Like: Well, art is art, isn’t it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And East is East and West is West and if you take cranberries and stew them like apple sauce they taste more like prunes than a rhubarb does. Now you tell me what you know? [Groucho Marx]
Something I Like: Tea