nourishing obscurity

You’ve probably seen this but here it is again, courtesy of Mad Piper: Nelson: “Order the signal, Hardy.” Hardy: “Aye, aye sir.” Nelson: “Hold on, that’s not what I dictated to Flags. What’s the meaning of this?” Hardy: “Sorry sir?”

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Filed under: Diversions, Society & human issues

1. Which Bond movie ended on a train? 2. Who wrote The Railway Children? 3. What’s the largest railway station in the world? 4. What year was Strangers on a Train? 5. Which train features in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, ending in Paris? Answers: Live and Let Die, Edith Nesbit, Grand Central, 1951, Orient Express

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Filed under: Diversions, Leisure, travel & sport

Just got in from work. Memo – don’t allow any Russians to visit again because they tend to leave vodka, tomato juice, whisky, apple cider, borodinski bread, mushrooms and pickled cucumbers, which need to be polished off. Sometimes I think I’m a right bstd.

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Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport

The sun has broken out on this Bank Holiday Monday [I'm working today] and I do not wish to rain on anyone’s parade but here is the state of play: Economics Firstly via Jesse:

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Filed under: Politics & economics, Society & human issues

O-ku Nsu-kun No-ko – Yoruban for “The dead are weeping for the dead”. I find the first half of this song thought-provoking and the second half quite uplifting. Below, a sad but haunting song of loss from a most underrated band.

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Filed under: Politics & economics

There’s an article in the Mail – yes, I know, it’s my equivalent of slumming it – and it’s about a houseguest who came to stay … and stay … and stay … There’s a certain amount of artistic licence allowed journos on blog-type pieces and if this journo did act as she said she [...]

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Lovely to see some intelligence in at least one paper.  The article was: Are we trying to keep people in poverty? Plans to ‘protect the poor’ are in fact jeopardising their ability to escape the trap, says Janet Daley Here are three comments:

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Filed under: Politics & economics

Is the well-heeled greenie not unlike Marie Antoinette, tending her washed (and “heavily perfumed“) sheep in a sylvan fantasy? [Sackerson]

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2nd last entry in the current series

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#  The Quiet Man on the various acronyms in the UK #  Blognor Regis and Man Widdicombe on cycling dangers #  IPJ with more of the good oil

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Liz has this post about her car doing strange things when she gets in it and that casts my recent experiences in sharp relief.  Now it might just be flights of fancy but you be the judge: 1.  In the last few weeks, people I’ve visited or have been with have developed colds; 2.  On [...]

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Filed under: Society & human issues, Technology & ideas

See how you go on these recent names: 1. The banker caught looking at pics of Miranda Kerr 2.  The woman who urinated on the war memorial 3. The cat in the bin woman 4. The UK prisons minister 5. The Jackson Hole conference boss Answers: David Kiely, Wendy Lewis, Mary Bale, Crispin Blunt, Ben [...]

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What to do about the Roma?  Does anything need to be done?  France thinks so.  English villagers are turning out in force to block the vans.  Unwanted, do the Roma have the right to descend on villages or roam about this way?  Should they all go back to Romania?  Is it a case of having [...]

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I don’t know if you’ve been following my saga with the railways but I received a response from one company and I’ll now name it – Arriva and they were good. All right, you might say – this is just a standard response and form letter but at least it is a response: Thank you [...]

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Filed under: Society & human issues

Steve Hayes has written a post about C.S. Lewis and makes a good point that some try to press gang his name to their ideology.  Steve then falls into the same error as many, IMHO, when he attempts to define political terms, particularly that of “the liberal”.

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Filed under: Politics & economics