Ramblings

Police ploy?

Sun, 25 May 2008 10:12:02 GMT

Yesterday I went to my cousin's Silver Wedding celebrations at a hotel just outside York, a good opportunity to catch up with family members, not just my cousin and uncle but also my brother, sister-in law, niece, her husband, and their children. Nice friendly celebration but slightly spoiled by the loud and almost continuous music which made conversation difficult especially if you, like me, listened to the Who at high volume during your formative years.

Anyhow, since shewhomust and I were driving back to Durham after the event, I had agreed to drive my brother and sister-in-law back to their holiday cottage. On a country road just outside Easingwold we were stopped by the police who said they had checked my registration number with the DVLA and the information had come back that the car wasn't taxed. This was news to me as I had coughed up the requisite £115 last November and renewed the tax via the internet. It was a moment's work for the police officer to check the tax disk and she didn't look very closely to see if it was a forgery. She told me that about 50% of the time the computer got it wrong. She then asked me where I had been that evening.

I told her we had been to a silver wedding celebration and she asked me if I had been drinking. I told her that I had had a pint of beer at the start of the evening and had then switched to Kaliber (a non-alcoholic lager). She then told me that as I had told her I had been drinking they would have to breathalyse me, which they proceeded to do. I confidently expected to be under the limit but was very pleasantly surprised that the reading came up as 000. (I had finished my pint about 2½ hours previously.) We then went on our way.

As we drove off my brother suggested that the line about not being taxed was a ploy to enable them to do, in effect, random stop-and-searches. What do you think?

Six parts gin to one part vermouth

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:34:28 GMT

Today is Tom Lehrer's 80th birthday and the occasion should not be allowed to pass without comment; on this occasion from the man himself: "... I went from adolescence to senility, trying to bypass maturity ...". So spend the day singing songs with such outrageous lyrics as:

When they see us coming the birdies all try an' hide
But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide

and

Soon we'll be out amid the cold world's strife
Soon we'll be sliding down the razor blade of life

I was hoping for a longer post, but shewhomust has just interrupted my research ("please, always, to call it 'research'") so I must leave you (I hope you're all taking notes, because there's going to be a short quiz)

And a brief note that Jean-Paul Belmondo is 75 today.

River Tyne Webcam

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:42:50 GMT

Newcastle Gateshead at its best. What a view.

As seen this afternoon on the BBC website. Meanwhile the snow is drifting down here too.

Book prices

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:47:08 GMT

Today's Guardian, as usual, has an item from its archives. In this case a review of Kafka's The Castle in its first English translation in 1930. What struck me was the price for this, presumably hardback, of £7-10-0d, or £7.50 in new money. We would not expect to pay more than double that these days, certainly not triple. Yet the UK inflation calculator tells me that this is the equivalent of £306 today.

This puts into perspective the introduction of the Penguin paperback at 6d (2½p) in 1935.

The 1957 edition (illustrated) was 3/6d (17½p).

Historically it seems hardback prices have dropped but paperback prices have risen. Food for thought.

Two typewriters

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:09:20 GMT

The Guardian today has an interview with Katharine Whitehorn to mark her 80th birthday this week and, I suspect, to promote her recent autobiography Selective Memory. I particularly liked There is a lovely story in her book about how she and her husband [Gavin Lyall] would travel with only one toothbrush, but they always had two typewriters.

The Worlds of Fantasy

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:03:11 GMT

On BBC 4 tonight (Wednesday 27th), the first of a new three-part series, The World of Fantasy, of which the BBC website says:

In the last ten years, fantasy writing has become one of the biggest selling genres in publishing, the first programme in a new series explores the role of child heroes and heroines from Peter Pan to Harry Potter and asks why they have such an enduring appeal to writers of fiction for all ages.

Whether we will sneer or cheer when we have watched it, who knows? But we will watch it.

Not quite open government

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:27:50 GMT

Email to the webmaster for the Environment Agency:

Hi,
I was on this page on your website:

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/aboutus/1105530/310151/319450/?version=1&lang=_e

and I decided that it wasn't quite what I wanted, so seeing that the site had "breadcrumbs":

You are in: About Us > How we work > Your right to know > Publication scheme

I clicked on the link Your right to know and was asked for a username and password for "ea", which of course I do not know.

I must admit I smiled as I'm sure this isn't Government policy on "your right to know", at least I hope it isn't. Can you put it right please?

I have been attending service at Butterby

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:32:34 GMT

While desperance has been writing about Pity Me (or rather, not) this post is about a place about as far south of Durham as Pity Me is North.

All that remains of Low Butterby in the present day is a moated farm. But close on 200 years ago it had a paper mill, a number of mineral springs, a ferry across the River Wear and (crucially for my purposes) a highway leading from the city to the ferry, continuing onward to Croxdale Hall. There is a principle of English law, Once a highway, always a highway, which means that if I can prove this road once existed, it can be added to the rights of way map. So I have been conducting some historical research. And stumbling across ninteenth century publications, including The Every-day Book and Table Book: Or, Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, which includes this passage:

About three miles from Durham is a beautiful little hamlet, called Butterby, and in ancient deeds Beautrove and Beantroventis, from the elegance of its situation; and certainly its designation is no misnomer, for a lovelier spot the imagination cannot picture. The seclusion of its walks, the deep shade of its lonely glens, and the many associations connected with it, independently of its valuable mineral waters, conspire to render it a favourite place of resort; and, were I possessed of the poetic talent of veterinary doctor Marshall, I should certainly be tempted to immortalize its many charms in a sonnet. Butterby was formerly a place of considerable note; the old manor-house there, whose haunted walls are still surrounded by a moat, was once the residence of Oliver Cromwell, whose armorial bearings still may be seen over one of the huge, antique-fashioned fire-places. In olden time, Butterby had a church, dedicated to saint Leonard, of which not a visible vestige is remaining; though occasionally on the spot which antiquaries have fixed upon as its site, divers sepulchral relics have been discovered. Yet, to hear many of the inhabitants of Durham talk, a stranger would naturally believe that the hamlet is still in possession of this sacred edifice ; for "Butterby-church" is there spoken of, not as a plate adorning the antiquarian page, nor even as a ruin to attract the gaze of the moralizing tourist, but as a real, substantial, bona fide structure : the fact is, that, in the slang of Durham, (for the modern Zion has its slang as well as the modern Babylon) a Butterby church-goer is one who does not frequent any church ; and when such an one is asked, What church have you attended to-day? the customary answer is, I have been attending service at Butterby.

I have been able to read this via the books.google.com website, where they have been digitising out-of-copyright books. This particular volume came from Harvard, under the care of our very own nineweaving or one of her colleagues. Which is a nice connection.

What is Encyclocentral?

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:21:34 GMT

Encyclocental describes itself this: This official website provides original, informative & authoritative reviews & articles; much like wikipedia but not in a wiki story format. Its url is www.encyclocentral.com but I am not going to boost their Google rating with a link for reasons that will become apparent.

The articles I have seen read as if they have been translated by machine from a foreign language.

For example, this:
A-90 is a major highway, connecting Edinburgh and Fraserburgh in Scotland. It is a popular road among the major connectors of the world. It finally merges into M-90 motorway before covering the Fourth Road Bridge in the west. The M-90 once again becomes A-90 at Perth. On its way it covers Dundee, Forfar, Brechin, Stonehaven, Aberdeen and Peterhead

Leaving aside that the roads are the A90 and M90 (no hyphens) what does it mean covering the Fourth Road Bridge? We would say crossing the Forth Road Bridge. Note the spelling: there are no First, Second or Third road bridges. The bridge is across the Firth of Forth.

Other articles are even worse. The one on Anne Fine, for example, says Anne Fine is a British author who is best known for writing book’s for the children readers, middle-aged readers, old aged persons as well as adult readers. Quite apart from that misplaced apostrophe, you would never guess from reading this that she writes books for younger, middle and older children as well as adults, would you?

Tell me this isn't Jo Brand

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:35:36 GMT

Toggle's Mom has just turned up in Doonesbury. Tell me this isn't Jo Brand...

Sunday's Walk (Broom House)

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:36:35 GMT

shewhomust has already written her description of this walk, complete with photographs. Here's the Google Map of the walk (I did try to embed it here, but LJ must have blocked the markup). Quite a short walk (6.7 miles) but still exhausting, probably because of the climbing (about 400 feet difference). The high point, Long Edge, runs along a ridge with long views in all directions. I like long views, and I like being able to see Durham Cathedral from all sorts of unexpected places, as we could all the way down from Broom House Farm towards Kaysburn.

Who wrote this?

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:25:49 GMT

“The only place I was not thrown out, and my hat after me, was the Durham Miners Gala. Though admittedly, when I was thrown out of Henley Regatta, I was helped up by Grace Kelly’s rather beautiful brother, who said that his father had been thrown out of Henley, too, for being an Irish builder. Just thought I’d mention it.”

This one's for Desperance ...

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:00:08 GMT

Over the weekend, visiting family, mt sister-in-law pulled out a file of old exam papers that her husband (my brother) and I had taken at school in the sixties. Among which was the Oxford and Cambridge Use of English paper I had sat in 1965. The first exercise was a précis, an extract from JBS Haldane's essay On Being the Right Size, which we were told was about 800 words long and we were asked to summarise it in '300 words or less'.

This one is for desperance because he has me trained with a Pavlovian reaction to the incorrect use of 'less'. The instruction should have read '300 words or fewer'.

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:49:29 GMT

Dear Santa...

Dear Santa,

This year I've been busy!

In October I punched nineweaving in the arm (-10 points). Last Tuesday I ate my brussel sprouts (1 points). In March kelpercomehome and I robbed a bank (-50 points). Last Sunday I helped shewhomust see the light (8 points). Last Thursday I set fjm's puppy on fire (-66 points).

Overall, I've been naughty (-117 points). For Christmas I deserve a lump of coal!

Sincerely,
durham_rambler

PS handworn made me do it.

Weather report

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:12:31 GMT

Right now it's snowing in Durham. In a half-hearted sort of way, but definitely snow.

Try your hand at this one

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 10:44:03 GMT

This futoshiki puzzle from today's Guardian is described as "Easy".

Contains one use of strong language

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:11:48 GMT

Have you noticed how many films rated 12A manage it because they have “one use of strong language”?

The sad thing is that this is not because they have, in many cases, a good artistic reason for this (as is presumably the case for Michael Moore's latest, Sicko, which restarted this whole train of thought, but because the marketing people think that people are more likely to go to see the film if it has a 12A certificate than if it has a PG.

So, cynically, somebody says “fuck” once which automatically pumps the film up a notch.

Sad, isn't it?

More than I bargained for

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 16:09:34 GMT

The Durham Tesco Extra is selling Müller Amoré yogurts at 54p each, or four for £2.50

Shooting yourself in the ...

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:06:02 GMT

Sometimes spam is so contradictory, so — I'm searching for the right word here, and I know it begins auto- — anyhow, the message begins:

Be a supermacho! Charge your prick for 110% and have a lifetime fiesta with Ur girl. This is the one and only remedy which works flawlessly
Ask me why? Just because it's the Original thing!

But then destroys the build-up with the name of the company where you may purchase this wonder product: highqualityplastics.com

Seriously silly meme

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 21:07:43 GMT

Ganked (I think that is the term) from valydiarosada

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Durham_rambler!

In Ancient Egypt, people wore glittery eyeshadow made from the crushed shells of durham_rambler.
If durham_rambler was life size, he would stand 7 ft 2 inches tall and have a neck twice the size of a human.
Originally, durham_rambler could not fly.
The condom - originally made from durham_rambler - was invented in the early 1500s.
Durham_rambler is actually a vegetable, not a fruit!
The Australian billygoat plum contains a hundred times more Vitamin C than durham_rambler!
Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are durham_rambler.
The number one cause of blindness in the United States is durham_rambler!
A sixteenth century mathematician lost his nose in a duel over his love for durham_rambler, and wore a silver replacement for the rest of his life!
Reindeer like to eat durham_rambler!

To Sir with Love Revisited

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 17:51:28 GMT

BBC Radio 4 is promising a programme To Sir with Love Revisited tomorrow morning at 11:00am "Burt Caesar explores the story behind ER Braithwaite's famous account of life in a progressive school in Stepney during the early 1950s.".

It is a little-known fact (at least it was till I spilled the beans) that ER Braithwaite was the maternity leave replacement for shewhomust 's mother, who was off giving birth to shewhomust at the time. Skip's account of the school differed somewhat from that told in To Sir With Love. Must make a point of listening.

Repenting made easy

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 11:44:14 GMT

I have just discovered iGod who provides the answer to all those troublesome problems. Though my question Who done it? seems to have iHim stumped. So I tried again:

Me:
Who done it?
God:
Be more specific. :-).
Me:
Was it the butler?
God:
If it is, then I'll be very surprised.
Me:
When will desperance finish his next novel?
God:
Soon, I think.

Happy birthday

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:32:10 GMT

See you tomorrow, fjm!
The weather may even be half-decent.

This one was a doddle

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:56:26 GMT

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

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What kind of detective are you?

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:45:55 GMT

(found via a Google alert to the Meadville Library, wherever that is ...)

What kind of detective are you? Your Result: Armchair Detective You like to do your detecting from the comfort of your own home. You have your sources of information and enjoy the intellectual challenge of unraveling a mystery. If you're interested in meeting a fellow Armchair Detective, check out Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe in _Fer-de-Lance_ (retitled _Meet Nero Wolfe_).
Hard-boiled Sleuth
Genteel Woman / Gentleman Sleuth
Forensic Pathologist
Police Detective
What kind of detective are you? Take More Quizzes