It's approaching the time of the year when the Sun sets directly outsisde my bedroom window. The weather forecast for tomorrow is dreadful so it is probably just as well I had decided against WoW-ing. I was really looking forward to going, even if for only an hour, but I am simply tired.
The National Trust Committee meeting wet well but was demanding, and we have domestic things to sort out tomorrow morning anyway. Sue and Gordon gave us a load of secretarial stuff after the meeting and when we got home I decided to clear a place for it in the garage.
In doing so I unearthed a small cardboard-box of books.
They were books I haven't seen for years and which I thought had gone for ever.Here is a selection. A veritable Treasure-Trove !
I can start boring you again with real quotes from unusual sources !
It was very nice to see our Mansfield chums and we had some good laughs at Jean's. There really does seem to be a lightening of traffic on the A608 and the AA estimate that nationally traffic flow is down 20% which has to be good news for our 'carbon footprint'.
Comments
Jill ..... I'm glad you've sorted out your presenters and we can always use a little sang-froid.
. Like Bungus your 'goldfinch' clue confused me. The reason I don't like 'quick' crosswords is that one needs to know the answer. Not possible to work it out and 'prove' it.
The proper Xword in The Telegraph seems to both of us, particularly good at the moment with some cunning clues. A joy - and we have just about assimilated the approach of the new compilers.
We haven't de-frosted our freezer for years ! Perhaps it's the sort that defrosts itself, and we didn't know.
Re the hospital. Having reached Tuesday evening without panic calls from the coagulation clinic I can assume that the next thing will be that my routine dosage-information letter will arrived through the post.
Bungus ..... I think you will find that Chinamen were the original 'googliers'.
Slightly fearful of causing offence to our lady readers I feel I must ask - "Is 'dogging' anything to do with 'doggy-fashion' ?"
The only use of the word 'redcap' I knew was to identify a Military Policeman. I wasn't one by the way.
mannanan ..... Promise I won't move you again !
anonymousKevin ..... You added your 'comment' about the Buzzard to one of my blog-posts back in April about our 25th Wedding Anniversary. Not to worry - it turned up in my inbox asnyway. You are probably right that the young Buzzard is working his way down Church Lane. If he turns the corner at the bottom he will probably pay Helen a visit.
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Carrying on the thread about old or local expressions. My mother used to accuse people of "making meagrims" by which she meant pulling a face. Was this usage common elsewhere ?
Quotation time ............
Hope I'm a little livelier tomorrow. Sleep tight. See you soon.
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4 comments:
You are lucky to have such clear views of sunsets; mine are criss-crossed with telewag wires, lampposts, etc.
I like the look of your ‘lost’ collection of books. The only one I can duplicate is ‘Under Milk Wood’ (a different edition).
I do have a paperback ‘Mein Kampf’ to match your ‘Mao Sayings’,You are lucky to have such clear views of sunsets; mine are crossed with teewag wires, lampposts, etc.
I like the look of your ‘lost’ collection of books. The only one I can duplicate is ‘Under Milk Wood’ (a different edition). I do have my 19C ‘Brewster’s Phrase & Fable', a paperback ‘Mein Kampf’ to match your ‘Mao Sayings', and my Great-great uncle William Strutt's 'A Missionary Mosaic of Ceylon' but I envy you the Liverpool poets. At my best I always flattered myself that I had something in common with Roger McGough.
I think the reduced traffic flow is, as usual, almost certainly down to ‘schools out for summer’ and any ‘footprint’ and travelling benefit will be temporary.
I don’t do quick crosswords either, for the same reason as yourself. That said, my only usual, The Observer, was far too easy the week before last. I shall do last Sunday’s on my Thursday ‘drip-trip’ to the hospital.
The phrase ‘coagulation clinic’ conjures up, for me, an extremely unpleasant image of a German artist’s canvas showing lost souls drowning in a sea of mucous.
I think that ‘paints the picture’ without further elaboration.
Not only 'googliers'.but ‘boxers’ too. No wonder they are at the top of the medals table.
I think the answer to your following question is ‘not necessarily’ although Stan ‘Colly’more was known as an enthusiastic participant. ‘King Charles’ may have been too, but that suggestion may be ‘Bordering’ on cringeworthiness.
I recall standing toe-to-toe on a sandy Tripoli road with a Red Cap who outranked me by one stripe, debating the matter of me wearing shoes instead of boots with my KD uniform (not allowed to drive with studded footwear).
’Meagrims’ or ‘Megrims’ recalls Macbeth to me. Something to do with cats, I think, ‘I come, Graymalkin, Paddock calls, anon. Fair is foul, etc…’. But it is not an expression I remember otherwise.
Have we discussed ‘barmpot’?
Talking of Buzzards; a couple of years ago a Stork visited Eakring (about 4 miles from Ollerton) and I was lucky enough to see it standing in a field as I drove past.
Did anyone else see the story (BBC News) of the garden gnome ‘borrowed’ by a student from someone’s rockery, taken on a round-the-world holiday and returned to its owner a year or so later with a set of photographs charting the epic journey?
It reminded me of the Mischievous Night prank played on residents of Croft Road (West Bridgford / Edwalton border) a quarter of a century or so ago. Sandra’s parents and their neighbours all along the road had all their garden furniture and ornaments swapped around with each other, inc cast iron benches and stone troughs. Father-in-law Bill was furious. So far as we know, the culprits were never outed.
I intended commenting yesterday on Brooke’s carousel. I recall cardboard model ‘kits’ from my own childhood. I seem to think that they usually came from cornflake packets and were fiendishly difficult to construct. I know adhesives and techniques have improved considerably but Brooke’s achievement certainly deserves praise.
"The world is getting to be such a dangerous place, a man is lucky to get out of it alive." (WC Fields)
Sorry about the duplication above!
Mrs Byrne’s Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words give the following:
Megrim, n, 1. Migraine, 2. the ‘blues’, 3. dizziness, 4. pl, whim, 5. the lantern flounder (a left sided flatfish).
The first two seem to fit your mother’s usage most closely.
I was going to say that 'megrim' was a sort of flatfish, like an inferior sole. Much cheaper, anyway! I was also thinking of it in connection with witches - perhaps that's the Macbeth connection? I have never heard the expression before.
I saw the travelling gnome story, it seemed a rather heavy object to cart all over the place. A Teddy bear would have been easier....
There are some very good clues in the DTel. crossword, if only I could do them all - most days I get about half-way. I have finished them sometimes but I do think it is easier if there are two of you! You get a different approach, otherwise I get set on the same interpretation each time. I usually finish the quick one and the codeword.
Lovely view from your window. Ours is just other houses/blocks of flats, it is very flat round here, and of course built-up.
This morning the traffic flow was reduced almost to zero on the M1 between junctions 27 and 26 as it took me 40 mins to travel the 7 or 8 miles it covers. Which reminds me of a story from years ago when someone arrived very late for a meeting. "Sorry to be late", he said, "it's taken me an hour and threequarters to come two junctions down the motorway." To which one wag replied "You should have used a car."
I didn't see or hear the garden gnome story but, again years ago, I heard about a group of lads who nicked a gnome out of a neighbour's garden. They, and their friends, took it with them to various parts of Europe over the summer and sent the owner photos of the gnome in the varying holiday resorts. At the end of the summer, they put it back with a note saying "I've decided to come home as I was missing you."
The person who told me that also told me of how, as a teenager, he and friends would put dog poo in an envelope, put it on someone's doorstep, set light to it, ring the doorbell and run away. Owners invariably came to the door in carpet slippers and decided to stamp out the burning envelope.
English interest in the UEFA Champions League starts tonight only a week after half the Scottish interest in it ended. Could be a tricky tie for Arsenal I think.
I've never heard of meagrims. When we were pulling faces, my mum used to say If the wind changes, your face will stay like that. I think I've posted that before.
I'm not sure about King Charles as a dogging devotee but I understand it's popular with German Shepherds and in Labrador.
Did anyone watch Longford on Channel 4 a couple of nights ago? I thought Jim Broadbent was tremendous and ought to be in the running for an award for his performance. He's also the hot favourite to play the role of Bungus in Clinical Tales
Rob
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