This year we’re beginning each month with five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. They’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers, so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as have a bit of fun.
April Quiz Questions: Physical Science
How much water is there on Earth per human being?
What was the name of the first, Russian, man-made satellite?
How many internal reflections of light take place in the formation of a primary rainbow?
Roughly how long does it take for the sun’s light to reach Earth?
Which Russian chemist published the first widely recognised Periodic Table?
It’s daffy-dilly day – and no surprise they are in this wet weather! Next up will be the sham-rocks followed by the bleeding-roses. Three in close succession like London buses.
Wed 2
We’ve had so much rain in the last few days that today there was standing water in the garden – despite the affected area having been raised about 3 inches a couple of years ago.
Thu 3
Dizzy, dizzy, dizzy. Definitely very unstable in the head, with headache and general flu-y feeling. Negative LFT. Retired back to bed and slept.
Fri 4
Definitely not well, but less dizzy than yesterday. LFT still negative.
Sat 5
Much as yesterday, but slowly improving. LFT still negative. Feeling better enough to try to do the crossword.
Sun 6
Rinse and repeat – but managed to stay upright most of the day.
Mon 7
It’s that time of year when you start sorting household finances and it goes on, and on and on … because you realise you need to set up next year’s tax files, get upsides of billing & payments which change in April …
Tue 8
What a lovely sunny day, although chilly in the breeze. Lots of small daffodils now out in the garden, and the deeper mauve crocuses are still going strong. The magenta hellebore is almost finished as are the snowdrops.
Wed 9
Tied to my desk all day becase of another of those “It’s that time of year” jobs: subscription reminders for the AP Soc. Even so I didn’t manage to finish it as everything always needs rewriting.
Thu 10
Awoken at 06:00 by 5kg of cat landing on the solar plexus. So up at 07:00 and a huge amount of work shifted before my meeting at 10:00. In fact large amounts shifted right through to 19:00.
Fri 11
Nice delivery of half a case of Champagne. Two are a retirement present for a friend.
Sat 12
Was intending to (re)frame some pictures this afternoon, but not a chance. Spent the time instead cooking fruit and then duck and pepper stir-fry with noodles for dinner.
Sun 13
Why is it that some days everything conspires to get in the way: not serious buggeration but just enough awkward to make everything more difficult. Still I did manage to cook steak & chips for dinner, washed down with bottle of Champagne. Remember Hester Browne’s words: Always keep a bottle of Champagne in the fridge for special occasions. Sometimes the special occasion is that you’ve got a bottle of Champagne in the fridge.
Mon 14
For once, a day of doing almost nothing apart from fiddling about. It wasn’t really “play” more like wasting time.
Tue 15
This morning there were some lovely mackerel cirrus clouds – photographed badly through the window.
Wed 16
A really strange yellowy/peachy light in late morning, dissipating by the end of lunch (possibly with the rain). Seems like it was Saharan dust dragged northwards by a storm over Spain.
Thu 17
It’s been very quiet round here for Sham-Rock Day!
Fri 18
Gorgeous silvery full moon, especially enchanting seen through the trees this evening.
Sat 19
Last night’s moon turned into an equally lovely moon set around dawn, followed by a warm(er) sunny Spring day.
Sun 20
Why is sex at 6am always such a failure? To compensate the afternoon was spent photographing vases of daffodils and tulips.
Mon 21
Afternoon spent trying to untangle another knot in my family history, back in mid-18th century … and failing. Either there are lots of records missing from some Kent parishes, people are telling porkies, or they really do parachute in from nowhere.
Tue 22
A rare treat: home cooked curry eaten in front of the TV. So decadent.
Wed 23
Another literary society talk hosted on Zoom. We’re getting good audiences; over 50 again tonight.
Thu 24
The first queen wasp of the season let itself in the study window this afternoon; and was eventually ushered out again.
Disappointed I didn’t catch it and ID it. I was beginning to think there were none this year as they had a poor year last summer.
Fri 25
Why is it that by the time we get to Friday lunchtime I’m convinced it’s Saturday? And continue to think it’s Saturday all day however much I remind myself it isn’t.
Sat 26
Up betimes so lots done before hosting a lunchtime Zoom call, only to undo the good work by falling asleep for a large chunk of the afternoon. Well it is Sunday, isn’t it?!
Sun 27
Horrible day! (1) Bloody changing the clocks again, for no useful reason. (2) The general nausea of Mother’s Day. (3) Banks getting in the way of business for no reason apart from their profit. (4) A borked literary society website. “Life. Don’t talk to me about life!”
Mon 28
Used the Royal Mail facility to come and collect your parcel to go – for a small fee (48p to me). Haven’t used this before, but on this one showing it seems a good scheme. And I managed to fix the borked website.
Tue 29
What happened at the coalface today? I have no clue!
Wed 30
How many times does one get woken at some uncivilised hour by 5kg of cat landing unannounced on the solar plexus? And then they snuggle down and look cute. But try shutting them out the bedroom and there’s a riot.
Thu 31
It snowed. This morning. Big healthy lumps of snow. For 2 minutes. Long interlude. Repeat Scene 1 at teatime. Fin.
Zoologist Lucy Cooke is waging war on Darwin’s prevailing view of the dominance of males and their benefit from promiscuity. Two articles, the first from the Guardian, the second from New Scientist [£££].
Here’s an interesting article about the work to identify which flu strains to put in this year’s vaccine – and some of the people who spend their lives trying to spot the emerging strains. [LONG READ]
And now another pair of articles, this time looking at the long-term, but haphazard, effect of Epstein-Barr virus, which is responsible for glandular fever. Again the first is from the Guardian, and the second from The Atlantic. [LONG READS]
Environment
One American academic has demonstrated that by just redesigning both homes and industrial processes it is possible to use almost no external power – and overall it is the cheapest solution! And yes, he has actually done it, and lives in the house.
An iconoclastic letter in New Scientist suggesting that as we’ve paved over much of our world we would do well to rip it up and plant trees instead. [£££]
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
1700 years ago a Roman boat sank in shallow waters just off Mallorca on the Spanish coast. Archaeologists are now retrieving the amazingly well preserved cargo.
In what shouldn’t be a surprise the teams restoring Notre Dame in Paris have found early tombs and a lead sarcophagus under the cathedral’s floor.
Despite our misogynistic view, there were female composers in the Renaissance. Now more of the ground-breaking work of Maddalena Casulana has been pieced together and performed.
Now not quite up to date … An expedition has found the surprisingly intact wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance off coast of Antarctica.
Meanwhile a forensic pathologist wishes that a legacy of Covid lockdown is that we change the way we talk about death.
Japan may also need a new narrative as their so-called “killing stone” has split in two, releasing superstition and allegedly a nine-tailed fox. In two stories there’s the usual media-hyped look in the Guardian; however the Japanese think the media have the story wrong as Hiroko Yoda writes on Twitter.
And finally one of the great British train journeys which is high on my bucket list … the longest journey on a single train from Aberdeen to Penzance. I actually want to do Thurso/Wick to Penzance, with Kyle of Lochalsh, Fort William and Mallaig thrown in. I’m not holding my breath in the hope of ever doing it.
OK, so here are the answers to this month’s quiz questions. All should be able to be easily verified online.
March Quiz Questions: General Knowledge
Fielding and Chavannes, the inventors of bubble wrap, were originally trying to create what? 3D plastic wallpaper
Who or what are Rouge Croix, Rouge Dragon, Portcullis and Bluemantle? Four Pursuivants (junior heralds) of the College of Arms
Three private (ie. non-state owned) companies in the world each employ over 1 million people. Name one of them. Walmart (2.2m), China National Petroleum (1.34m), Amazon (1.3m)
How is the clock in the Elizabeth Tower (aka Big Ben) of the Houses of Parliament regulated? By adding or removing old pennies to the pendulum
Who patented the first automobile? Karl Benz in 1886
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2021
This month’s selection of interesting, amusing and thought-provoking quotes encountered …
There come moods when these clothes of ours are not only too irksome to wear, but are themselves indecent.
[Walt Whitman]
We had an opportunity to be the most influential country in Europe, but our very marginal decision to leave the EU, based on a combination of simple ignorance and some sort of myopic xenophobia, has weakened both this country and the whole of western Europe. Even so, Europe remains the most culturally interesting continent and the one where the finest wines in the world continue to be made …
[Charlie Boston; Understanding European Wines]
Over the past couple of decades, scientists have discovered that bones are participants in complex chemical conversations with other parts of the body, including the kidneys and the brain; fat and muscle tissue; and even the microbes in our bellies. It’s as if you suddenly found out that the studs and rafters in your house were communicating with your toaster.
[https://knowablemagazine.org/article/health-disease/2022/fun-facts-about-bones-more-just-scaffolding]
No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away … The span of someone’s life is only the core of their actual existence.
[Terry Pratchett]
Always keep a bottle of Champagne in the fridge for special occasions. Sometimes the special occasion is that you’ve got a bottle of Champagne in the fridge.
[Hester Browne]
When the rich rob the poor it’s called business. When the poor fight back it’s called violence.
[unknown]
Sexuality is completely natural, however mainstream culture and society have falsely turned it into something considered to be controversial and perverse. We should never condemn, fear or distort any of the beautiful and sacred properties of Nature.
[Damien Carrion]
That’s the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily, that it’s impossible to ever see the end. The fog is like a cage without a key.
Compassion is to have a sense of concern for others and the community. Look at today’s world—we are interdependent. We can’t think only of my nation’s interests. We have to take the whole world into account. Let us live happily together, helping each other rather than fighting.
[Dalai Lama]
OK, so Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is on her way home to the UK having been released from 6 years detention in Iran. And let’s not forget that Anoosheh Ashoori has also been released and is non this way back to the UK.
Of course this is tremendous news for them and their families, at which we should rejoice.
But as always there is undoubtedly more to the story than we’re being told. So …
Q. Why are they released now? A. Because the UK finally paid the almost £400M which Iran claimed it was owed.
Q. So why did we pay this money now, when it could have been paid years ago? A. We now want to have friendly relations with Iran.
Q. But why would we suddenly want to be Iran’s friend? A. Because the UK wants Western sanctions against them lifted.
Q. Why? A. Very simply because we want their oil; oil which they currently can’t sell in the West.
You see just as with Kuwait many years ago, it all revolves around oil (and ultimately corporate greed). As Clare Short memorably remarked when Iraq invaded Kuwait many years ago: If the Kuwaitis grew carrots, no-one would care. So with Iran, my friends.
Boris Johnson needs oil (and gas) to keep the country running – to Hell with climate change – now the Russian (and Ukrainian) supply is effectively cut off.
What a cynical move, when we could (and should) have gotten them both freed years ago. Words fail me to describe my contempt for this government and its immediate predecessors.
This year our Ten Things each month are words with particular endings. Clearly this won’t be all the words with the nominated ending, but a selection of the more interesting and/or unusual.
Ten Words ending with -id
druid
foetid
carotenoid
milkmaid
camelid
meteoroid
apartheid
colloid
thyroid
fibroid
Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to write a story in at most three sentences using all these words correctly. Post your attempt in the comments before the end of the month and there’s an e-drink for anyone who I consider succeeds.
This year we’re beginning each month with five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. They’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers, so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as have a bit of fun.
March Quiz Questions: General Knowledge
Fielding and Chavannes, the inventors of bubble wrap, were originally trying to create what?
Who or what are Rouge Croix, Rouge Dragon, Portcullis and Bluemantle?
Three private (ie. non-state owned) companies in the world each employ over 1 million people. Name one of them.
How is the clock in the Elizabeth Tower (aka Big Ben) of the Houses of Parliament regulated?
Like the first of every month, a day full of tedious admin: household, literary society, patient group … It just multiplies.
Wed 2
Good grief! My chilli plants are still producing a few fruit. Picked 5 today. But they’ll get pruned back later this month so they can put up new growth and hopefully a good crop for a third summer.
Thu 3
Successfully bid for another picture at our local auction house. It’s the brother of one I already have, so really wanted, and I was surprised to get it as cheaply as I did.
Fri 4
Why do jobs always take 10 times longer than they should. A 15 minute update to a website this afternoon took over 4 hours of endlessly fiddling around. And that was just one of 10 things I was supposed to do in that time. Hello weekend – NOT!
Sat 5
So intent on slogging away at website updates this afternoon, I didn’t realise how cold I was – absolutely frozen. Unusually for me I needed a thick sweater to warm up.
Sun 6
Rain lashing down and a gale blowing all night. Wet when I went to bed, and still wet when I got up at 07:15. Awoken, of course, by a drowned Boy cat arriving at 06:15. Still, up early meant lots done.
Mon 7
Went to collect the painting I bought last week at our local auction house. First time going somewhere non-medical in almost 2 years!
The crocuses and the alder catkins are coming out, in lovely Spring-like sunshine.
Tue 8
Discovered why one of our tubs of bulbs had fallen from its position to lie on its side on the lawn below. The trail camera shows Mr Fox jumping up on it from below, making it topple over the edge. Exit Mr Fox in haste.
Wed 9
Received an interesting-looking new book in the mail: Understanding European Wines by Charlie Boston. I don’t know the author, but I do know the guy who’s written an introduction about Anthony Powell and Wine. It goes straight to the top of Mount TBR.
Thu 10
Lovely trip to the dentist this morning. An hour in the chair for crown prep, but no impressions as they now have a wizzy machine which does scans instead. Sad that as I opted for a gold crown, I won’t get to see the scans printed as a crown onsite: gold has to go to the lab.
Fri 11
Actually managed to do a bit of family history today for the first time in ages. And here’s an interesting problem: my half-aunt wants a printed chart of the family line back as far as I have it. This runs to 28 sheets of A4 (14×2) so will be about 3×0.5 metres! How best to do it?
Sat 12
Family history curiosity of the day. May 1563 in Cranbrook, Kent; marriage between Reynolde Madisson and Frysweed Webb. Then in the same church in June 1626; marriage between William Unicombe and Regenerat Weekes. (Sadly none are mine.)
Sun 13
Sunday lunch of cold leftover chicken & chickpea curry sandwiches. The curry maybe even better than it was hot last night. Plus an improved loaf thanks to the new bread machine (the old one has retired after almost 10 years!).
Mon 14
How is this our 44th Valentine’s Day together? Our first (1979) was really cold; like 5cm of ice even on major roads, but the buses were still running. We were at my parents and still managed to go out (by bus) to a fantastic local restaurant: Blunk’s in Waltham Abbey (now long gone). The meal cost £50 (almost a week’s take-home) for the 2 of us!
Tue 15
Dear God! How much more rain can the garden take? We’ll soon be swimming in mud; the continual parade of muddy paws suggests the cats already are.
Wed 16
Hosted the second evening talk for the literary society. An immensely interesting talk from Nick Birns which was well attended. An hour easily turned into an hour and a half.
Thu 17
Great fun after dinner: we decided to strip down the old bread machine for recycling. Two of us and one hour to produce a carrier bag of metal/electrical parts and one of plastic parts; plus hundreds of screws; and a bonus cut finger from the brittle, heat-stressed plastic.
Fri 18
We’ve not had wind like this since the Great Storm of October 1987. The Gods have obviously forgotten about the effect of beans and Jerusalem artichokes.
Sat 19
I’ve been far too lax during the pandemic about wearing my hearing aids around home. So I’m making a concerted effort to get used to wearing them during the day. Let’s see if I can keep it up.
Sun 20
The bloody Winter Olympics are over, thank the gods! They’re not intended to be, but all Olympics have become a nauseating festival of global corruption and willy-waving.
Mon 21
What’s this? The third storm in a week? And not even any snow? Now come on, this just isn’t playing the game, even for winter in London.
Tue 22
Early evening meeting. Why are they always across food time? And how much longer can they resist meeting in person, which still worries me witless.
Wed 23
Lamb Shank & Fennel Casserole with Garlic Bread for dinner. I also cooked Chicken & Mushroom Pie (with homemade shortcrust pastry!), so we have that (cold) for tomorrow.
Thu 24
To the dentist (the only reason I didn’t have toasted garlic bread for breakfast) to get my new piece of gold mouth jewellery. Then spent a chunk of the afternoon picking oakum: demolishing some cotton string to make bird nesting material.
Fri 25
Arrggghhhh!!!!! No supermarket delivery due to IT issues. Have had to rebook it for tomorrow. Now tell me why we have a full freezer.
Sat 26
Finally got the supermarket delivery this afternoon. The the logic (or incompetence) of the pickers continues to astonish me. This week we were short 2 bunches of daffodils; but gained 1 fennel (3 rather than 2) and 3 tubes of tomato paste (8 rather than 5). OK we win but that’s a hard way to make a profit.
Sun 27
Found an error in my family tree: Elizabeth Cotton, wife of Stephen Marshall (right name; wrong identity). Stephen (born c.1763) is currently the furthest I can get my paternal line; I know where he logically fits but I don’t have the evidence, and the records seem not to exist. I now know Elizabeth Cotton’s name, but no details.
Mon 28
Absolutely no go, either mental or physical, today despite a reasonable night. So, yet again, little got done – and none of the things I’d planned.
Eccentric looks at life through the thoughts of a retired working thinker
What a lovely sunny day, although chilly in the breeze. Lots of small daffodils now out in the garden, and the deeper mauve crocuses are still going strong. The magenta hellebore is almost finished as are the snowdrops.
Received an interesting-looking new book in the mail: Understanding European Wines by Charlie Boston. I don’t know the author, but I do know the guy who’s written an introduction about Anthony Powell and Wine. It goes straight to the top of Mount TBR.