An educated person would be expected to have an active vocabulary of about 30,000 words, whereas to read The Sun newspaper you require a vocabulary of just 800 words.
from AC Grayling, The Form of Things
Fact of the Week
Quotes of the Week
Some odd bedfellows this week …
Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.
[Robert Louis Stephenson]
Your car is Japanese. Your vodka is Russian. Your pizza is Italian. Your kebab is Turkish. Your democracy is Greek. Your coffee is Brazilian. Your movies are American. Your tea is Tamil. Your shirt is Indian. Your oil is Saudi Arabian. Your electronics are Chinese. Your numbers are Arabic, your letters Latin. And you complain that your neighbour is an immigrant? Pull yourself together!
[Seen on Facebook]
‘chav’ (vogue label of 2004, originally a traveller’s term of address or endearment, from a French nickname for a young fox), who represents an imagined social grouping, a troublesome, truculent, feckless, shameless underclass delighting in petty criminality and conspicuous consumption (of, inter alia, illicit substances, electronic stimuli, pimped technology and ‘bling’).
[Tony Thorne, Jolly Wicked, Actually]
An eye for an eye makes the world go blind. A tooth for a tooth gums up everything!
[Thoughts of Angel]
Sex was an expression of friendship: in Africa it was like holding hands … It was friendly and fun. There was no coercion. It was offered willingly.
[Paul Theroux quoted in Christopher Ryan & Cacilda Jethá, Sex at Dawn]
I had a friend at university who used to propound this latter theory that sex was (and should be seen as) not necessarily more than an expression of sincere friendship and that why should one not have sex with ones friends just as one might have a beer with them. Not sure he ever managed to put it much into practice though.
More Pussy Porn : Rosie
Meet Rosie …
She is our next door neighbour’s young Persian cat who is currently being fed and watered by Noreen.
She is also about to drop a bundle of kittens. The owners get a female cat, don’t have her spayed and then wonder why every tomcat in the area comes to call. They then bugger off on holiday for 3 weeks – although to be fair they have gone “home” to Lebanon because the husband’s father is seriously ill. So Noreen has had to man the breach. Fortunately they’re due back today, although who knows if that will materialise!?
Fortunately Rosie is a placid and amenable pussy, although that lovely soft, long fur needs a lot of brushing to stop it getting matted. I love her Hobbit feet – in this second photo you can just see the tufts of fur between her toes.
Pussy Porn : The Lodger
Meet “The Lodger” …
She appears to have been abandoned (she’s been around for some months) and decided about a week ago she wanted to adopt us. She was clearly starving hungry and is very friendly and easy to handle. Sadly our current two felines are very not impressed, so she’s having to live in a box in our front porch for the time being. After a week she is still hungry but is already looking in much better condition.
This morning we took her to the vet (we were taking our two as well for their injections) to get her the once over. It turns out she has been chipped and the registered owners live a few streets away. She’s clearly in reasonable health and as there is no sign of kittens she’s likely been spayed. The vet reckons she’s probably about a year old.
The vet is going to try to contact the registered owners and see what gives; he’ll also hopefully contact our nearest vet’s where she may be registered. If there’s no dice in a week or two we’ll get the OK for her to move in with us @ndash; the present two permitting. It would be nice if she does move in as she’s a lovely, friendly small cat who deserves a good home.
Meanwhile she’s doing sentry duty at our front door.
Ten Things – August
Number 8 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: Sunshine- Something I Won’t Do: Eat sheeps’ eyes or tripe
- Something I Want To Do: Win £2M (no-one said I wasn’t allowed to dream!)
- A Blog I Like: Norn’s Notebook
- A Book I Like: AN Wilson, After the Victorians
- Some Music I Like: William Byrd, The Battell
- A Food I Like: Smoked Fish, especially eel
- A Food or Drink I Dislike: Absinthe
- A Word I Like: Halberd
- A Quote I Like: The gap between strategic rhetoric and operational reality remains dangerously wide. [Prof. Gordon Hewitt]
Cartoon of the Week
This week something for the cat lovers amongst you …
No, I'm Not Ashamed
As a result of the current “little local difficulties” being experienced in London (see, for example, here) there are a lot of people around saying they are ashamed to be Londoners.
But I’m not one of them.
Yes, I’m a Londoner. But I’ve never been ashamed to be a Londoner. Because I’ve never been proud to be a Londoner. I’ve always known that London is, under a thin surface veneer, crap. And I have never understood why anyone would have any interest in, or get any enjoyment from, the place despite all it’s interesting history (which I love).
London is crap. It always has been. And likely always will be. All that’s happening now is that it is living up (down?) to it’s true nature. And this is a nature which is probably that of many large cities.
That is not to condone what is happening in the smallest iota. I wish it wasn’t thus. Probably we all wish it wasn’t thus. But it isn’t. Shit happens. Always has. Always will. The best we can hope for is that some semblance of the rule of law returns and we’re allowed to back to being crap in our own, relatively peaceful way.
I recall some proverb about leopards and their spots.
Plus ça change!
[32/52] Rainbow
![[32/52] Rainbow by kcm76](https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6088/6023232554_4438ae3365.jpg)
Week 32 entry for 52 weeks challenge.
Rainbow seen this evening from our study window. When Noreen first drew my attention to it, it was very bright, almost a complete arc with a second fainter rainbow outside it. By the time I got a camera on it, leaning out the window, it was beginning to fade. Still it looks like someone in the next street has a crock of gold for a TV set.
Word of the Week
Hoatzin
A species of colourful, remarkably saurian, chicken-like bird, Opisthocomus hoazin, found in swamps, riverine forest and mangrove of the Amazon and the Orinoco deltas of South America. It is notable for having chicks that possess claws on two of their wing digits; the chicks are also able to swim and climb — useful when you’re a pheasant-sized bird which nests in trees over water!
It is brown in colour, with paler underparts and an unfeathered blue face with maroon eyes; its head is topped by a spiky, rufous crest. The Hoatzin is herbivorous and has an unusual digestive system with an enlarged crop used for fermentation of vegetable matter — broadly analogous to the digestive system of mammalian ruminants. It’s common name of Stinkbird is due to the strong smell produced by the bird, perhaps due to its consumption and fermentation of leaves.
Despite its striking plumage, unwary nature and poor flight it seems to be only rarely hunted by the indigenous peoples of its native range. Consequently it is not endangered. It is the national bird of Guyana.
More Auction Oddities
Another collection of oddities from the catalogue of our local auctioneers. Not such an interesting-looking sale this time around but as so often it’s a combination of the curious descriptions and the odd juxtaposition of items in the lots which amuses.
First off, who is sitting on whom? …
A boy in a Tyrolean hat holding a monkey seated on a step with three dogs, by W A Richards, signed, oils, gilt framed … and a vacant picture frame.
A shelf full of interesting items including a barometer, binoculars, a model economiser invented by Robert Sterling 1816, a bondage mask, games, etc.
An I.C.A.N. calibration gauge for airspeed corrections, a whisky flask, a Turkish coffee pot, binoculars, and an old camera.
A set of Diplomatic costume by Moss Bros, early 20th century, including frock coats, trousers, boots, bicorn hat and sword, the etched blade marked Scott Son & Claxton, 31 George Street, Hanover Square, London, in original tin carrying box.
6 glass demijohns and a set of golf clubs.
A quantity of garden tools, a Pogo stick, a signed copy of ‘Double or Nothing’ by Thelma Frye, 3 LG mobile telephones and 2 shelves of miscellaneous items, ornaments, miniature coffee cups, a desk blotter, magazine rack, vases, miniature pictures, hand mirror, carriage clock, knick-knacks, etc.
One is left wondering “Why?”.