The above picture was sent to me by Bungus and I am aware that it isn't politically correct to say nasty things about people's prose.So, let me just say that the above ad. demonstrates an admirable use of the English language, with a masterful grasp of punctuation. The possessive apostrophe in particular is deserving of praise.
Did he perhaps see it in a shop-window in Shirebrook ?
There had been quite a frost during the night but there was sun and the day looked promising. However, while we were at Jean's for the Committee Meeting it started to rain and has continued since. The meeting went well however, so I am only semi-fraught. We've just got the 'minutes' to deal with now. No rush though because the next meeting
is in March 09.No pretty pictures today. But I wanted to share with you this picture of an accidentally torn tea-bag.
It is sometimes said that the makers use 'dust and left over rubbish' in the manufacture of tea-bags. This Twinings English Breakfast gives the lie to it in my opinion. Although the tea is small it is certainly not dust.
Also Thomas Twining, who features highly in my authoritative book about Tea (Xmas prezzie from David last year) still has an excellent reputation. They do their best to be environmentally friendly whilst still providing a first class cuppa.
The picture on the left is a photographed extract from my Tea book. It is a marvellous book for 'dibbing into' when you've done the Xword, read the paper, and your computer magazine doesn't arrive until tomorrow.I might just go and brew a pot of tea !
The last but one picture is of the front of
Jill's daughters house. I have obliterated what I took to be the house-number. Hope I haven't accidentally wiped out an essential part of the mural.If you have been following these pages you will know that Jill is justifiably proud of her daughter who is currently sharing exhibition space with Banksy and Damien Hirst in a Notting Hill Gallery.
And also that, on the first day, she sold several thousand pound's worth of ceramics and things.
So, here you have an original. Well - an original blog-post of someone's photograph of someone's daughter's mural. If you see what I mean.
Tomorrow we have Y's 'nails' at Carlton, rest in the afternoon, and then a National Trust, Tuesday meeting in the evening. The lecture is called "A twist in the tail" and is by Tony Hallam, more than that I cannot deduce. Google is silent on the matter.
Comments
bungus .......... Although no longer a drinker I fully share the despondency at all these pub-closures. A matter of great regret and concern for local communities. But, like the closure of coal-mines and post-offices, Capitalism rules OK ? Unless of course it involves greedy fat-cats and banks and building-societies !
( less of this political stuff please ---- Editor)
Scrooge didn't die in vain. He just moved to Boughton.
I much enjoyed your couplet about the spider's web. Thanks for the thumbs up re 'subscribe'.
Re 'mittens'. This what my Etymology Dictionary has to say.....
- mitten
- c.1386, from O.Fr. mitaine "mitten, half-glove," from O.Fr. mite "mitten," and from M.L. mitta, perhaps from M.H.G. mittemo, O.H.G. mittamo "middle, midmost" (reflecting notion of "half-glove"), or from V.L. *medietana "divided in the middle," from L. medius.
In the enlargement you should be able to see that they are in fact divided in the middle and the usual finger-covering bit folds back to allow the fingers to be used.
anonymousRob ......... Thanks for the illustration and, as you will see in Jill's comment, these are excatly as she describes some from Canada except that in her version the top is secured to the bottom by velcro. Perhaps yours are too and it isn't clear in the snap.
I think "String of Pearls" although a little mundane, does the job. Photography judges, present company expected, generally need the lump hammer approach don't they?
Jill ..... Aw ! Go on ! you are often right !
Y really rates Kenneth Branagh in the part and I suppose they were lucky to get him. The script must be good. Please click here for the promo.
10 out of 10 for 'Norse Morse' - very good.
I haven't yet read the ' junior doctor' piece in today's Tel. - I'll go and do it now.
Quotation time .........
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
Samuel Johnson
"Sleepy tight folks - hope to catch you tomorrow"
"But it will be brief, due to Nat. Trust"
.
"But it will be brief, due to Nat. Trust"
.
3 comments:
DIARY
The expiry date for my neighbour to complete hedge lopping was yesterday.
Guess what?
I have taken photos and, courtesy Picasa 3, annotated and marked on them relevant heights.
I intend to wait a bit to build up the pressure before contacting Newark & Sherwood DC.
BLOG COMMENT
Not Shirebrook (the advert) but just 5 doors from home in the newsagent’s shop.
It reminds me of a a 1940’s joiner’s note to a Clerk of Works which mentioned ‘sealing joyces’.
I know some furniture of that era (1960s) is now regarded as ‘antique’ and I myself have some from the Nottingham firm Stag which I understand is becoming collectable. But melamine !!! £300 ?
Apart from the variations on the greengrocers’ apostrophe I love the ‘VERY HEAVY’ footnote. A classic.
When I saw picture two I thought the NT pressures had led you back to smoking roll-ups!
But I understand that the term ‘dust’ is deceptive being technical tea trade jargon for ‘very tiny pieces of leaf’. It is used in tea bags to allow a speedier brewing time.
Whatever your Tea Book says, and although I would never refuse a mug of tea, I still think nothing beats bone china.
I picked up a similar sort of book about curry (10p second hand, good condition).
I’m pleased you’ve published the picture of Baroness Carrie von Reichardt’s splendidly mosaic-decorated house (she got a mention in Sunday’s Observer, having been nominated in the urban art category of the Street Art Awards).
I know that, like the melamine furniture advert above, you couldn’t make it up. But Carrie is a serious artist just gaining recognition (I think?).
I don’t think your obliterating the house number will be particularly useful. No one is likely to go next door by mistake.
Perhaps the National Trust 'Twist in the Tail' lecture will be about pigs?
You could hardly remain true to yourself without occasionally being a BIT political.
Regrettably, in this case, I think the pub closures are probably more down to a namby-pamby so-called Labour government giving in to a small but vociferous minority of
left wing loonies who want to take away all our pleasures (this week smoking, next month drinking, next year fornicating, I wouldn’t be surprised).
But, as the senior duke wrote, after 3 attempts to bribe him, “I neither drink nor smoke, Norfolk”.
I laughed aloud at your Scrooge riposte.
I do not expect to laugh again until the New Year.
Anonymous Rob’s mitten looks like the shooter’s ‘glove’ that I tried to describe.
I think "String of Pearls" has to have it, with musical accompaniment from Glen Miller.
I would have enjoyed ‘Wallender’ (the Swedish Play) more if I hadn’t heard beforehand, from several sources, that the perpetrator was immediately obvious in the first ten minutes. On that basis every character that came on screen I thought must have done it until they had become too many by the time the real one appeared halfway through (unless, like ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ it had been a conspiracy and all the suspects were guilty).
‘Respect, Sam’ (Johnson).
Anonymousrob;
I didn’t know Barry Manilow was a photographer. Didn’t his nose appear on many of his pictures?
Jill:
As John Wayne (or was it Raymond Burr) said, in a typically very non-PC way, “Every man has a right to be right twice in his life”.
Did you not notice that Wallender’s daughter described the handwear as ‘mittens’? I not only heard her say it but saw it appear on the subtitles.
(You too seem to have the ‘shooters’ mittens).
I agree that it was a touch on the sombre side, a bit Bergmanesque? (Ingmar, not Ingrid). And a bit surprising there was only one suicide. Pehaps the Mad Axeman (boy) beat them to it.
Today I finally made the cauliflower cheese(s) that I started yesterday but could not complete because I had neither goats’ milk nor sheeps’ cheese for Sandra’s sauce. Very good they both were, too (with jacket spuds).
The Junior Dr. Column clue was too cryptic I’m afraid. Can you give us some letters, please?
I feel I must apologise for "String of Pearls"; the blogmeister is right in his comment about its mundaneness. Maybe "Try googling this website!" is a possibility?
The comment's about the apostrophe's remind me of Keith Waterhouse in the 70s (I think) when he used to write about, and ask for, example's of the aberrant apostrophe. He saw it as an attack on the English language. Maybe we should have some sort of defence of the language institution similar to what the French do? I wonder if the end of that sentence will wind up anyone?
"...isn't politically correct to say nasty things about people's prose.
So, let me just say that the above ad. demonstrates an admirable use of the English language..." Im really not sure about you're use of the apostrophe's, RG. Surely the words should be isnt, peoples, and demonstrate's.
Bungus - did the joiners note also mention sky hook's and four candle's?
Sorry, but I don't agree that the smoking ban, on it's own, has caused pubs to close down. We've had this debate before, though, so there seems no point in going through it again.
My mittens do have velcro to hold them folded against the back of the hand - you just can't see it very well in the photo. Shooting gloves is about right, I use 'em for shooting pictures but I'm thinking of swapping them for a camera. The inside of the finger bit is fleece so my digits soon warm up.
Isn't there a sail or mast that's known as a mitten or midden mast/sail? I have this vague recollection of such emerging from a dark corner of my brain. Is there a sailor out there who will cast light upon the subject? Is it anything to do with a half mast/sail, I wonder?
Spider's web so fine
Captures the overnight mist
Releases beauty
Rob
Mizzen mast? I seem to remember awful jokes in Carry On films about 'the mizzen mast is missing'.
A melamine suit must be a bit rigid to wear.....but it is a kind thought to put on it 'very heavy'. I imagine it is an elderly person whose education was possibly interrupted by the war....Roland is not all that hot on spelling and grammar, he went to so many different schools in the war (and moved around before it, lived in Hungary with a German governess for the first few years of his life) the family were very hard up and he went to work at 15 to bring in some money, and never had a chance to go back. It is much easier nowadays to return to learning. So I tend to be not too critical of that generation.....
Post a Comment