You’re Never Too Stupid To Do Science!
I like this story about Sir John Gurdon. Eton College told him he was too stupid to do science and now he goes and wins a Nobel Prize.
I could have titled this post, You’re Never Too Stupid To Do Anything!
In my case, an English teacher, told me I’d never pass my O Level in the subject. I just did, but now, I’ve self-published a couple of books, written stories and had letters in several publications.
It’s probably still not good, as people say I use too many commas and shrieks. Shriek is printer’s slang for exclamation mark. Or it was my father’s! Wikipedia says this.
The name given to “!” by programmers varies according to their background. In the UK the term pling was popular in the earlier days of computing, whilst in the USA the term shriek was used. It is claimed that these word usages were invented in the US and shriek is from Stanford or MIT; however, shriek for the ! sign is found in the Oxford English Dictionary dating from the 1860s.
My father had never been to the United States, so it must have come from his printing background somewhere. His father was also a printer.
What A Name For A Shop!
The picture says it all.
hat A Name For A Shop!
They probably do sell good furniture and possibly even make it or get it made!
But it is a name with connotations.
AWonderful Wordsmith And A Brave Horseman
Lord Oaksey, who died today, was the sort of unique person, that occasionally, gets created in these isles. I won’t say the UK, as the Irish have produced some like him.
I did meet him and I also saw him give a very good speech, but two memories of him stand out.
In 1963, he wrote a dramatic report on the Grand National, describing how Carrickbeg was only beaten by three-quarters of a length. Only at the end of the report did you realise, that he had been riding the horse.
The other was much later, when he was broadcasting on Channel 4, at I think Uttoxeter racecourse. Someone had set up a crane to do bungy jumps and there was pressure for one of the Channel 4 team to do the jump. All the others like John Francome refused and it was the over-60-year-old Lord Oaksey who did it.
How many others have done a bungy jump on air at that age?
War correspondents these days, may have a tougher time, but has there been a racing journalist, who combined both careers with such skill at the same time?
Does Anybody Still Use Gross?
I mentioned to a guy yesterday that as he lived at 144, that that number was a gross.
He didn’t quite get it.
Has the use of 144 as a gross died out?
Does anybody refer to 25 sheets of paper as a quire? That incidentally is a very useful Scrabble word.
Actress Or Actor?
I thought that these days, the term actress wasn’t used, as female actors, prefer to be called actors.
But the BBC has just used the term, Actress under Keira Knightly‘s name on an interview this morning. However, Miss Knightly is referred to as an actress on Wikipedia.
So it would appear that different organisations have different rules.
Non Carpe Diem
This was the pointer on the BBC’s web site to this page about tales of procrastination.
My father always used to use the phrase.
Procrastination thief of time, make me a freeman for all time
I think he got it wrong, but the first part could be from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.
The French Say Things Differently
The row about the bikes ridden by the British cyclists at the Olympics continues according to this in the Guardian.
The sprinter François Pervis, who had tweeted “la sodomie continue” (rough translation, “we got shafted again”) after Jason Kenny’s victory over Grégory Baugé in the match sprint final, said on Monday that he was certain the British were not using drugs, but that they had the edge on the equipment front. “I am sure they are clean but their kit …
So you now know how to say you’ve been shafted again in French.
Twoses and Threeses
I was on a bus today and thought a family opposite had triplets. They were actually a pair of twins and a singleton.
I was reminded of the old Suffolk words of twoses and threeses for twins and triplets respectively.
Does anybody else use these words?
Fifty Shades of Grey
There is an article in The Times on Saturday, where they ask several men to read this publishing sensation or so-called mommy-porn.
Out of curiosity, I read the book a couple of months ago and I think broadly, I have come to similar conclusions to the writers in yesterday’s paper.
The book is rather stereotypical in many ways, as no man could be as perfect in as many ways as is Christian Grey, and Ana fits a lot of male fantasies. Ana seems to have been created round the table in the local pub, by EL James asking all the men present, what they would like in a woman, what she should wear and how she would behave.
But I do think, that in some ways some long-standing and strong relationships do evolve a little like the one in the book. It’s not to say that I ever hit my late wife, or any other woman for that matter, but C sometimes wanted sex on terms her mother would have disapproved of and would dress to get it. She is probably not the only woman to have gone to the toilet, just before the sweet course, in a two-Michelin star restaurant and on return handed her companion, her knickers screwed up in a tight ball. She got the dessert for which she was looking.
One point about the book is that Christian is a pilot. I used to be and didn’t find those scenes too credible. I wonder if EL James has ever flown in a smaller aircraft, upside the pilot. C always found flying as one of those experiences, where you had to do as you were told, even if she didn’t at other times. Especially, as when I had a partial engine-failure in a single-engined aircraft. She didn’t panic at all, did what I said and never worried about flying with me again after the incident.
So! Did the book turn me on? And did I enjoy it? Not really! But it might have been fun to read with a lady. I would have certainly bought it for C, if she hadn’t bought it for herself.
I Tend To Live Life in the Wonderful World of my Head, Where Every Day the Sun Shines
The title of this post is from a leader in today’s copy of The Times and it was said by Eric Sykes, who died yesterday. His obituary was also felt by the paper to be worth two pages.
Has there ever been a comedian and scriptwriter, who succeeded so well, against all of the odds?
C and I once saw him in the theatre in the play, Run for your Wife, where he appeared in his eighties, despite being totally deaf and virtually blind. An absolute tour de farce!
The Anonymous Widower 