Since I bashed my arm I have a tendency to push wrong buttons.  Anyway I obviously didn't sift my laundry properly when I went to the launderette a couple of days ago and when I took stuff out of the dryer I had a melted bra.  It was only an Asda one and I'd had it a while so I haven't done for an expensive one [not that I own really pricey examples of such items].

Re: the carving of initials.  The culprit should maybe have been admonished but if there is a shortage of such surgeons maybe not dismissed.

Should have been sentenced to write on the next 100 transplants "I must not autograph transplanted livers".

LiR, I fear you will never make a truly liberated feminist - you're supposed to publically burn your bra, preferably on Capitol Hill in front of Congress - and not just slightly singe it whilst doing the laundry!





"Damn ... I should have set that on laine and not linen!"

Oh I haven't just burned a bra, MM, not burning - but I lost a piece of thin wool fabric I was using as a shawl while I had my arm in a sling somewhere between hospital and getting off the bus; I've phoned the lost property department at the hospital twice - no luck and emailed Arriva's lost property and have not heard anything.  As it was thin wool somebody could have thought it was calico or bandage type material so maybe it was disposed of as hospital rubbish.  That's the second shawl that dropped off my shoulders while I was in the sling - I couldn't find that either despite walking the same route home as I had when going out.

Well although it's not a whole bunch of money I worked through some of the night last night to complete the self-assessment tax return.  It's really just the typing and other odds and ends I've done to boost my  pension but I didn't want to end up having to pay fine.  I really only do a minimum of online banking but couldn't see how to make the payment and when I rang to try and do it by telephone banking the geezer at the other end of the phone started wittering on about having to send an activation notice.  Anyway,  I managed to pay it off the debit card in the end but there was some squally weather earlier on and the broadband cut out (why it does that in wind and rain I don't know).  I started saying f*** which I don't usually (just as well I was on my own) but fortunately broadband righted itself and the payment went through but it's frustrating when something which should be simple becomes complicated.  I suppose a lot of people are trying to pay at present as 31st of the month is the last day - well I think they give some allowance for processing the transfers but it has to be despatched from the tax payer's bank by end of the month.  Sorry, rant ended, and I feel a bit calmer now.

Wrong way round. NRA sits on Uncle Sam.

Very true, Gil, very true.

Growl, grumble, mutter - during the great quiz MM ran my computer played up. And I knew several of the answers straight off too. Last night, when it was all done, I got a better signal. On a better note being of creative bent, could we perhaps make a quiz of lines taken from films? Perhaps we could each send MM or nord, 2/3 suitable quotes  with/ without answers to their pm box?  If one would agree to host such a notion. Just a suggestion but it may ease the burden - for them - their style and skills in presentation being much better than mine own and with  my estuary land signals unreliable at  best. Just a thought.

Google has ruined that kind of quiz, P.

I've just about finished compiling another batch of cherubs and sprogs to identify (after having made them as google-proof as possible). I'm struggling with the audio clues since shockwave and flash are now off the menu (ironically a decision made by Google in fact). Hopefully tomorrow.

Not so much a rant more a whinge.  Yesterday I rid myself of a plug-in lamp because there was a smell of burning emanating from it - I'd had it since the early 1990s so it had 'done a turn'.  Under the table where I have my computer the leads to the various bit of contraptions are plugged into one of those extension gizmos into which one can insert a few plugs.  I noticed that the cable going from the plug-in place to the main plug on the wall had twisted and was showing the inner cables (not the actual copper wires).  For now I've wrapped insulation tape around the offending part but I'll probably treat myself to a  new one - better safe than sorry - I have a couple of other extenders (can't think of the proper technical name for them offhand) but they only have room to plug in 4 plug and this one has room for 6 (I use 5 though I unplug the computer one at night).

Aaaaaarrggghhh!!!!!

Triceratops wrote:

Aaaaaarrggghhh!!!!!

That.
Is.
Not.
A.
Pasty.

Shoot.
The.
Judges.

You can tell when the weather in Essex is really miserable when I start daft threads.

We need some daft threads. I want to start one on 3.00 am Tweets From History.

Had tweeting been around in previous centuries, what insulting early morning comments would influential men and women have been tempted to post to or about their foes? What, for instance, would be the Henry VIII equivalent of "rocket man" or "my button is bigger than your button" sent, perhaps, for Francis I or Charles V to view?

Henry VIII @ BigBoyNow

Your nose may be bigger than mine, Frankie, but always remember my navy is huge.

Henry VIII @BigBoyNow

Shame about the Franco-Ottoman alliance, Charlie. You'll have to take it on the chin, buddy.

Crossed posts with Temp .... sorry I'm being all serious, in a non-serious-really way.

It's lovely bright sunny weather here, though it has brought out some rather unwanted residents: pine processionary moth caterpillars:






With the warmth they are emerging from the soil in little clumps whereupon they organise themselves into chains and head off to find a nice pine tree in which to set up nest and start feeding. They look quite engaging as they trundle along, follow-my-leader, in a long rippling line, but they can be devastating to conifer plantations, and they are seriously dangerous. The hairs contain an irritant poison that can cause severe blistering and even tissue necrosis, both to people if you touch them, but also more importantly to pets if they tread on them or snuffle them (small dogs in particular can be killed if they ingest or breathe-in the hairs). My cats from long experience know to avoid them and I think the dog has learned from the cats not to touch, but when he's snuffling about or playing with his ball he might not notice them. Accordingly I kill any processions that I see ... a splash of petrol and a match is very effective as it not only kills them but destroys the troublesome hairs.

Oh heck - sort of Dante's Inferno for caterpillars? No time for repentance then for the poor little critters? A lesson for us all there, I think (joke). Caterpillars probably see you as an omnipotent, omniscient and powerfully-vengeful God, MM. What an awful responsibility.

It's quite spring-like here in Devon. Must go and do some gardening now and clear up the terrible mess the birds have made. They have left most of the food I put out for them during our Siberian week - soggy seeds and leftover suet sprinkles all over the place. Turned their beaks up at Morrison's Basics Bird Food - they want the posh mixture from the RHS shop at Rosemoor: " We're not eating this cheap Morrison's muck," is the message. Spoilt brats they are, especially the robins. The RSPB said that no bird could resist their brand of Suet Sprinkles - well mine have.

It's been changeable here in my part of the English midlands - yesterday I put some items which had sort of semi-dried (while hanging over the bath) out on the line and then when I finally knuckled down to doing the typing task I had yesterday when concentrating on the matter in hand I quite missed that the heavens had opened.  The garments in question are now back hanging over the bath wetter than when I first put them on the line.  Oh, woe is me.  It's still pretty miserable and overcast today.

Here the sun is shining on the snow covered lawn - presently - and the chill factor makes it seem like -5 degrees centigrade.

Tomorrow the forecast says snow early and later in the day rain.

I can't find the technical thread, though this is more of a mutter, mumble, growl, grumble than an outright rant.  YouTube has not been my friend (and this time I've not been looking at daft videos).  I've been trying to find out how to put an accent grave on a vowel (can't see it in the symbol box like you get in the PC computers).  I looked on YouTube and it said hit option (alt) key and then hit the double quotes key but it didn't work for me, I seemed to get an elision of a and e.  Does anyone know if it depends which version of the Mac (well mine's a Macbook) one has?  I couldn't wait around all day trying to work out how it was done so I've typed the text without the accent for now.

Looking upthread, a lady who used to go to the same U3A Spanish class as myself was going travelling round Spain with her husband for a few months in their motorhome (I'm not jealous.......) but she mentioned they were getting someone to look after their dog because they were worried to take him because of the species of caterpillars MM showed photographs of.

I can only do accents from my keyboard: if I have to do them from the screen I just ignore them.  Someone explained to once that you can download a whole keyboard online and work from that, but I didn't understand then what to do and certainly haven't remembered it.  Good luck to you in this quest, LIR.

I've not got a mac so can't answer from experience but there are plenty of 'how to do it sites' online, like this one: typing French accents on a mac ,  or typing accented characters on an Apple Mac but I'd have throught the standard codes, like alt 133 for à, should work.

If you're typing in Word or similar you can also 'insert', 'special characters', which is often how I do old English letters like thorn, Þ, or the 17th century long s, ʃ, although that way is rather ponderous if you have many to do. As Caro says you can temporarily change your whole keyboard to a French-style azerty one, (I think ID has said that is how she writes in Greek, by changing from a standard keyboard to a Greek one). There are youtubes on how to change the keyboard, like this one youtube - how to change the keyboard layout to azerty. (I have a proper French keyboard so all accents are already there as standard). Another way, if you only have a few accents to do, would be simply to cut and paste them from a suitable bit of online text (say the wiki entry, wiki-grave accent), changing the size and font as appropriate.

Bon chance.

Ah the keyboard itself is both Greek/English characters, and they are standard issue in Greece as most people use both languages even if it is just to write in Greek using English letters. All you need to do is click on a button to change to either language.

Anyway they look like this.

Thanks for the advice folks.  Of course the other night when I was typing I was doing so under time constraints - and you know how it is, when you look for something hurriedly it is difficult to find.  I'll have a gander on YouTube when I have a mo... Today's grumble (well you can have two for the price of one, aren't you lucky?) ..Why do channels I have told YouTube I am NOT interested in still show up as recommended and why do I get ads I've told Google I don't want to see (no Google for the 999th time I do not want to date a 'hot' xxxxx woman) several times popping up!!!

Just an additional thought LiR, but be aware that if you do change to using a French keyboard layout for typing your French stuff ... while you will get all the accents, sans problème, you will find that some letters and punctuation marks also move to other keys. Obviously the top line will be azerty rather than qwerty, but the thing that I found really difficult getting used to was the positions of the comma and fullstop (eg on a standard French keyboard fullstop is shift-semicolon, where the semicolon is the second key to the right of 'n'). As a competent touch-typist you might well find all these changes too much of a disadvantage, and so you might find it easier and quicker to simply type the text as normal on an English keyboard, sans accents, and then just go through and insert the necessary accents by whatever method you choose when you're going through checking plural endings, masculine/feminine endings, conjugations etc. As I say I have a French keyboard but I still aways have to go through a final time (with spellcheck and a dictionary and sometimes a grammar too) to correct word endings, conjugations and accents. I recently sent an email talking about "original documents" and only at the last minute realised I'd written in French "documents original" and hastily corrected it to "documents originals" ... pressed send, and then almost immediately realised that the blasted docs are masculine and so it should have been "documents originaux". Mais tant pis, c'est la vie n'est-ce pas?

The other thing you can do is change individual words - when I print cafe on my keyboard (not here obviously) it automatically comes up with the acute accent.  You can save individual words on Word (as no doubt you know) and that is what I do with common words or initials or even long words that I don't want to bother typing out in full every time.

The word was 'deja-vu' which didn't automatically put the accents in and for some reason inserting the figure from the symbols box did not work.  I think (as has been mentioned upthread) one can temporarily reprogram the keyboard in Word or as Caro mentions create a Macro or else an auto text shortcut for a symbol.  When I was working full-time I did create templates for common letters or macros/autotext shortcuts for common phrases but now I only type part-time I have not bothered.  I'm having a problem with my phone today - when I pick it up although it is fully charged it defaults to saying 'battery low'.  I'll have to try and remember to answer it without picking it out of the base.  Could just be that it's getting on for 6 years old.  I did buy a spare phone a while back so I'll have to look that out (the issue turned out not to be the phone in that case but the outside wiring).  I did change over the old lot of extension sockets to the new 'surge protected' one recently but I can't see that that should have caused a problem.  MM mentions the importance of writing 'le mot juste'.  I once (I was working in a rather old-fashioned legal firm) typed 'Messers' instead of "Messrs' but I did spot it in time before it went out.  Just as well because a friend of mine used to 'temp' quite frequently at the firm where it was  being addressed and she'd have never let me forget!  (Maybe I mentioned this on another thread).

Oh dear, old misery-guts here again.  I see I was the last person to post on this thread.  I received a letter back "refused" from British Gas today 3rd April - my letter was dated 1st January - and even if I forgot to post it on the day itself it would have been circa beginning of January it was posted.  The letter enclosed my monthly instalment cheque so I wasn't very pleased.  I have filled in British Gas' (Gas's) online form for complaints so will wait and see what they say.  The writing must have been sufficiently clear to have arrived at British Gas' office for it to have been refused.  I have asked them why they didn't address the fact that I mentioned in my letter that I had a broken arm in a sling at the time and why they they didn't just ask for a replacement cheque if they thought it was untidy.  The problem with the phone seems to have resolved itself though I have had a cove (does one still use that word for someone who is a bit of a rascal?) with a non-British accent saying he was ringing from BT.  Pretty sure it was a cove because although I know BT does outsource some of its work overseas he would have rung back after I discontinued the phone call had he been genuine.  I suppose the scammers are using BT as a name now because people have become wise to the "from Microsoft" con.

Well, not so much a rant - more a woe is me.  I went to the launderette this aft and was well and truly drenched.  I know March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers but this wasn't so much drip, drip, drip little April showers as splish splash splosh big April showers.  My headscarf was wet, my coat was wet, my skirt and my socks and my shoes were wet so I had to change my skirt, socks and shoes and I've put another scarf over my head (partly to soak up the damp).  I really need some wellingtons and a long waterproof.  I have a couple of water repellant capes (and some stuff to re-proof them but I think it would be better to re-proof them out of doors but I'd need a dry day for that).  There are some reasonably priced wellingtons in the local market and maybe I will be able to find a reasonable mac too.  And maybe a brolly though I excel in either losing or breaking those.  I wanted to go out this evening but if it's going to be bucketing down I may think again.

I have just read that the BBC take on the fall of Troy production cost £16 million..... lost for words.... for a change..... on reflection perhaps they spent  much on trying to resolve the hoarse throat condition that pervades this year's drama teams. There used to be little brown tablet jobs called Fishermen's Friends; on reflection possibly these were to cure something else.

16 million pounds and Troy is as boring as can be. Watched one and a half episodes and couldn't cope with any more. What a waste of money.

I think you can still get Fisherman's Friends at my local co-op, Priscilla, well there did used to be that advert song "It's all at the Co-op shop".  Haven't tried Troy yet and from what people say (not just ID) I'm not really tempted to.  I think the BBC would be better not to punch above its weight - to make things for the home (British) market and then if such a show sells overseas it's a nice bonus for them.  I know there is still a lot of resentment among some folk felt towards the BBC for the way Jimmy Shabby Shellsuit's antics were covered up for years.  They've got a BBC America (sub-company?  I'm not sure so don't take it as gospel).  I did like (well I only watched the first 3 series) of Orphan Black which was a BBC America programme (drama) about cloning.  I was impressed with the lead actress, Canadian Tatiana Mislany, who played all the clones with different accents and personalities, although one person said the British accents on the show were like nails scraping across a blackboard (the main clone and another one who came in later were British) but I thought it was okay.

I've had a few calls from "Microsoft" (not) and "about my internet connection" from people with not British voices.  I'm not saying that companies only employ British people but I just had one such call and I discontinued it straightaway.  I used to try and be polite but when they are trying to con me why should I bother?  If they were genuine they would surely ring again.  I would have thought that the people who make these calls would have twigged that the "Microsoft" scam has been exposed - you'd at least expect them to try something original.  I've had people ring saying that they are BT and you can sort of tell when they are scammers.  If BT ring unless it is about a problem I've reported they are usually trying to get me to spend more money....

To compound matters (and I can't blame this on anyone but myself) I was giving the kitchen floor a scrub (with the damp over the last few days I'd carried some of last autumn's leaves on the soles of my shoes so a swish round with a mop wouldn't suffice) and had moved the cat's water bowl to one side and accidentally knocked it over the lower part of one trouser leg (rats!!!) and had to change that item of attire.  I need a new scrubbing brush and a new mop---and I think will have to go back to what we had at school, indoor shoes and outdoor shoes.

I am hoping to move house soon, and have been looking online for some new furniture. I came across this chair which I thought was a lovely shape - apparently it is a famous design by Finn Juhl, the master of Danish Modern. He called it "The Chieftain" and it has been a design classic since 1949. It is on sale in a famous London shop.

I gulped when I saw the price: I read it as £1,191.00. Then I realised I had misread the information: the chair ("oiled walnut and black leather") actually costs £11,191.00. Eleven thousand pounds! I really was staggered: who on earth pays that kind of money for a chair? Lots of people, I suppose, especially in London. Maybe IKEA do a cheap copy for the plebs...

It's probably not even very comfy. I don't really like modern stuff that much anyway, so I won't bother.




The picture in the background is interesting. One wonders if the girl (is it a girl?) is trying to decide which she wants more: the chair or a new car - or a couple of years' groceries.

I have 3 rather similar chairs - crafted abroad a few years ago but alas no longer as the leather man died. The frame  pieces could be copied but not the quality leather work, so they said. The chairs are very comfortable and seem to blend well with any other style of furniture. They were no where near as expensive as the above but, guests think they are because of their designer /comfort appeal. With no love of any sort of car, personally I'd go for the chair.

Did you have the chairs covered again with some other material, P?  One of the things on my interminably long "to do" list is to have a go at re-stringing (upholstering whatever the right word is) an old chair with reed or grass - I forget the exact term.  I did send off for a sample of reed/grass but that's as far as I went.  The comfort factor is important so I would think your chairs are priceless in that regard, Priscilla.

Not so much a rant, more a case of LiR rolling her eyes.  I meant to click on Sky News Live on YouTube and instead clicked on something about "Kate's Rosemary's baby".  (I've just typed something on the Tumbleweed thread where mention had been made of Hawkeye or The Last of the Mohicans).  Anyway, someone with hawk eyes has spotted that the dress the Duchess of Cambridge wore had a similar collar to one Mia Farrow wore in Rosemary's Baby all those years ago.  Anyway the conspiracy theorists are spouting all sorts of awful things about the poor kid (could he be the antichrist etc) - as if being nobbled with a name like Louis Arthur Charles wasn't bad enough.  But I've learned my lesson about trying to reason with conspiracy theorists and clicked on to something else.  Of course, the fact that there is something of a fad for 1970s type fashion at present couldn't possibly have anything to do with it...

LadyinRetirement wrote:

Not so much a rant, more a case of LiR rolling her eyes.  I meant to click on Sky News Live on YouTube and instead clicked on something about "Kate's Rosemary's baby".  (I've just typed something on the Tumbleweed thread where mention had been made of Hawkeye or The Last of the Mohicans).  Anyway, someone with hawk eyes has spotted that the dress the Duchess of Cambridge wore had a similar collar to one Mia Farrow wore in Rosemary's Baby all those years ago.  Anyway the conspiracy theorists are spouting all sorts of awful things about the poor kid (could he be the antichrist etc) - as if being nobbled with a name like Louis Arthur Charles wasn't bad enough.  But I've learned my lesson about trying to reason with conspiracy theorists and clicked on to something else.  Of course, the fact that there is something of a fad for 1970s type fashion at present couldn't possibly have anything to do with it...

Lady,

today early up for working (physical)...on return together with the lady common breakfast...as usually her TV was on...on such a tabloid channel...as the German Bild (the Sun in Britain?)...not sure if there are others nowadays...because with serious programmes a channel is marginalized through the sheer weight of the viewer rates, which means money mostly for the channels, with the most trivial content, which seems to please the general public (the new "circenses" of the old Rome)
As normally she looks on these channels with mostly "American" content to programmes, as Doctor Oz, Doctor Phil and all that kind...

It was the Doctor Oz going on...about a neuro chirurg, who had seen during his coma a picture of his sister that he had not seen in his life or something like that...I was sitting with my back to the TV...and when he recovered he saw the picture of his sister in real and it was identical to the one he had seen in his coma...my comment: it is not because you are neuro-chirurg that you can't have "'n krak in je kop" (a crack in your head)...
But meanwhile Doctor Oz acted as mouthpiece for this neuro-chirurg and although Doctor Oz made a delicate critique I think half of the common man in the US will now believe at some supranatural existence...or is it neuro chirurgical?...and yes in Europe it could be the same...where is that "Sceptici" organisation...?

Kind regards from Paul.

I haven't seen that item on TV here, Paul.  I think you may be being a tad harsh saying half of the common men in the US will believe what happened.  I think the fact that the US has a large population may make it seem that they have a large preponderance of loonies but I doubt that per capita they have more crazy people than anywhere else.  There are some channels on YouTube that try to explain why the earth is a globe with maths but people who are convinced that the earth is flat.  One of them is "Cold Hard Logic" - mind you they do anti-religious videos as well, I haven't looked at any of those.  I have found some anti-conspiracy channels by googling "debunking conspiracies" or something similar but no matter how sensibly arguments are laid out people who are convinced the strange ideas are right will not be convinced.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

I haven't seen that item on TV here, Paul.  I think you may be being a tad harsh saying half of the common men in the US will believe what happened.  I think the fact that the US has a large population may make it seem that they have a large preponderance of loonies but I doubt that per capita they have more crazy people than anywhere else.  There are some channels on YouTube that try to explain why the earth is a globe with maths but people who are convinced that the earth is flat.  One of them is "Cold Hard Logic" - mind you they do anti-religious videos as well, I haven't looked at any of those.  I have found some anti-conspiracy channels by googling "debunking conspiracies" or something similar but no matter how sensibly arguments are laid out people who are convinced the strange ideas are right will not be convinced.

Lady,

perhaps a quarter of the (wo!)men   and yes both in the US and Europe...and the US has many times better scientists and especially the historians I prefer about European history, as they haven't many times the same bias as the European ones...or it have to be perhaps those of European descent

Kind regards from Paul.

A couple of months ago I listened to a podcast about "YouTube makes People Crazy" or something similar.  It mentioned how the YouTube algorithm suggests similar videos to what one has watched - so if one has watched one conspiracy theory videos others will be suggested..and susceptible minds may be convinced if they watch several conspiracy theory videos consecutively.

Not quite the same thing, but in the Thatcher era, one of the arguments made for giving some people to my mind disproportionately high salaries was that if such people weren't paid thus they would be part of a "brain drain" to places such as the USA.  At one time I worked with a young American lady who was married to an Englishman and she wanted to go back to the States to do a post-graduate degree.  One of the reasons she gave was that American university degrees tend to be deemed of a better quality than British ones because American students study on average for 5 years to get their degrees while British students study for 3.  Admittedly I am no expert in the field of tertiary education but if what she said was true it would appear to nullify the argument that Americans are awaiting British graduates with baited breath.  That said, I suppose how far up the pecking order the university attended was would have something to do with it.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

A couple of months ago I listened to a podcast about "YouTube makes People Crazy" or something similar.  It mentioned how the YouTube algorithm suggests similar videos to what one has watched - so if one has watched one conspiracy theory videos others will be suggested..and susceptible minds may be convinced if they watch several conspiracy theory videos consecutively.

Not quite the same thing, but in the Thatcher era, one of the arguments made for giving some people to my mind disproportionately high salaries was that if such people weren't paid thus they would be part of a "brain drain" to places such as the USA.  At one time I worked with a young American lady who was married to an Englishman and she wanted to go back to the States to do a post-graduate degree.  One of the reasons she gave was that American university degrees tend to be deemed of a better quality than British ones because American students study on average for 5 years to get their degrees while British students study for 3.  Admittedly I am no expert in the field of tertiary education but if what she said was true it would appear to nullify the argument that Americans are awaiting British graduates with baited breath.  That said, I suppose how far up the pecking order the university attended was would have something to do with it.

 
Lady,

"A couple of months ago I listened to a podcast about "YouTube makes People Crazy" or something similar.  It mentioned how the YouTube algorithm suggests similar videos to what one has watched - so if one has watched one conspiracy theory videos others will be suggested..and susceptible minds may be convinced if they watch several conspiracy theory videos consecutively."

It is perhaps right what you say, but I like that algorithm of you tube...as I for instance look to a song from Benjamin Gigli, I can look the whole evening to all my favourites, as from tenors as from songs...and I have the choice of several in the side column and I can choose those that I most like...the whole evening!...
I find that much better than the algorithm that enerves me half a week with "hats", when I once looked to some sites about a hat...with that in mind I didn't dare to have a look to the "Ladies"...how one can be sucked by an algorithm into a porno circuit and get addicted...
But back to my tenor addiction...see it yourself...


I see now that you have seemingly to do it direct on youtube and not via Res Historica to have the effect...but here too you have the choice of four youtubes to go further

"Not quite the same thing, but in the Thatcher era, one of the arguments made for giving some people to my mind disproportionately high salaries was that if such people weren't paid thus they would be part of a "brain drain" to places such as the USA.  At one time I worked with a young American lady who was married to an Englishman and she wanted to go back to the States to do a post-graduate degree.  One of the reasons she gave was that American university degrees tend to be deemed of a better quality than British ones because American students study on average for 5 years to get their degrees while British students study for 3.  Admittedly I am no expert in the field of tertiary education but if what she said was true it would appear to nullify the argument that Americans are awaiting British graduates with baited breath.  That said, I suppose how far up the pecking order the university attended was would have something to do with it."

Lady, a lot of Americans have a "thick neck" and five years is therefore perhaps not better than three, as it is the quality level, which is important I suppose, and in that is, as you said, the pecking order of the universities perhaps also important...

Kind regards from Paul.

There was an article in a local paper The Express and Star about silly people stubbing out cigarettes against the wooden parts of a half-timbered house in my hometown.  Unfortunately I can't copy the whole link but here is a general link about the building "The Ancient High House".  [url=staffordmuseums.co.uk/museums/ancient-high-house/]staffordmuseums.co.uk/museums/ancient-high-house/[/url]  While my town was never as imposing as places such as Shrewsbury and Chester there were a few (smaller) half-timbered buildings which were allowed to fall into disrepair and were demolished to make room for small box shape type buildings in the 1960s. 

Here is a quote from the article "Stafford Borough Council bosses have said there is a 'serious concern' the building, which is the largest timber framed town house in England, is 'vulnerable to fire' due to yobs discarding and putting out cigarettes on the timber ledges and timber work joints. 
The timbers are more than 400 years old with the Ancient High House having been constructed in 1594. 
A report prepared by Stafford Borough Council states: "Cigarettes and smoking materials are discovered in the porch on a daily basis – with cigarettes often discarded on the timber ledges – and on occasion pushed into the timber work joints."  
I'm mindful of the Cutty Sark the tea clipper on the Thames South Bank being burnt severely by stupid people some years back (though it has been restored to some extent).  The stupid things people do when they have a few pints inside them.  Part of the High House has hotel rooms so a fire there could run a risk of loss of life.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

There was an article in a local paper The Express and Star about silly people stubbing out cigarettes against the wooden parts of a half-timbered house in my hometown.  Unfortunately I can't copy the whole link but here is a general link about the building "The Ancient High House".  [url=staffordmuseums.co.uk/museums/ancient-high-house/]staffordmuseums.co.uk/museums/ancient-high-house/[/url]  While my town was never as imposing as places such as Shrewsbury and Chester there were a few (smaller) half-timbered buildings which were allowed to fall into disrepair and were demolished to make room for small box shape type buildings in the 1960s. 

Here is a quote from the article "Stafford Borough Council bosses have said there is a 'serious concern' the building, which is the largest timber framed town house in England, is 'vulnerable to fire' due to yobs discarding and putting out cigarettes on the timber ledges and timber work joints. 
The timbers are more than 400 years old with the Ancient High House having been constructed in 1594. 
A report prepared by Stafford Borough Council states: "Cigarettes and smoking materials are discovered in the porch on a daily basis – with cigarettes often discarded on the timber ledges – and on occasion pushed into the timber work joints."  
I'm mindful of the Cutty Sark the tea clipper on the Thames South Bank being burnt severely by stupid people some years back (though it has been restored to some extent).  The stupid things people do when they have a few pints inside them.  Part of the High House has hotel rooms so a fire there could run a risk of loss of life.

Lady found this on google with your link:
http://staffordmuseums.co.uk/museums/ancient-high-house/

And as there is no picture:
https://goo.gl/JxBWek


And if you see that store inside...if that material starts to burn? ...trade and capitalism goes before the museum  ...

Kind regards from Paul.

There are a couple more stores round to the side of the house (the right hand side from the front) which abuts a path/walkway which can't be seen from the picture.  The Swan Hotel uses some of the High House upper floors (not all) for bedrooms so a fire could indeed have serious consequences.  Some of my original post from yesterday appeared as black type against the brown background of the website so could not be read.  I had mused about the burning of The Cutty Sark in London (a tea clipper on the south bank of the Thames).  It has been restored to some extent - the fire brigade were able to save some of it - but it's never really be established whether it was burned through carelessness or deliberately by vandalism.

The sign language group met for the last time before Christmas today in a hostelry which is perhaps more cheap and cheerful than the posh end of the market but it is quite nice for what it is.  Anyway, the last week of November I renewed my TV licence (which I need even if I watch it on the computer) but no new licence has come through.  The money has gone out of my bank account.  Anyway, I emailed TV Licensing to check everything was okay and they say they hadn't got a record of my licence having been renewed and would I give them a ring and if I could let them know my bank card number.  I rang and guess what, they were closed for the evening.  Maybe I can ring them tomorrow.  I'm pretty sure I did check I'd entered the right number but then no-one is so rare and wonderful they can't make a mistake. I've sent them an email saying the money had gone out of my account.  Sorry, you don't all need to hear this - just it's so tiresome.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

The sign language group met for the last time before Christmas today in a hostelry which is perhaps more cheap and cheerful than the posh end of the market but it is quite nice for what it is.  Anyway, the last week of November I renewed my TV licence (which I need even if I watch it on the computer) but no new licence has come through.  The money has gone out of my bank account.  Anyway, I emailed TV Licensing to check everything was okay and they say they hadn't got a record of my licence having been renewed and would I give them a ring and if I could let them know my bank card number.  I rang and guess what, they were closed for the evening.  Maybe I can ring them tomorrow.  I'm pretty sure I did check I'd entered the right number but then no-one is so rare and wonderful they can't make a mistake. I've sent them an email saying the money had gone out of my account.  Sorry, you don't all need to hear this - just it's so tiresome.

Lady, I like your "talks"

Kind regards from Paul.

I'm glad at least one person likes them, Paul.  At the moment I am very worried because even though I may not be Teresa May's number one fan, I prefer her to some of the alternatives.

Ha ha! There was a bit of sun so I was going to put some washing on the line.  Guess what, (although the online weather forecast said 10% chance of rain) as soon as I went out of the back door the sky clouded over and it started to rain. So I'm like in the old rhyme

"Rain, rain, go away
Come again another day"

not that the rain takes any notice of me!

Upthread there was some discussion about whether Americans have "thick necks" (would we say "thick heads" in Britain).  I'm not convinced that per head of the population there is more daftness in America than anyone else - just that it's such a big country that the number of people who can be silly is a larger number than in a small country like the UK.  But I guess it is okay to link this YouTube from a series "myworldisgettingdumber" because it is made by Americans for Americans, so it's not people from outside making fun of the Americans.  

I'm not ranting, but further to LiR's post directly above ...

My partner, who was Belgian, gained his Baccalauréat (that's sort of the equivalent to English A levels although the whole system is rather different), at just 17. That is a year earlier than usual (for the time) though its certainly not exceptional .... but anyway to further improve his English he then spent a 'final year' at an ordinary American high school in Louisiana. As a native/mother-tongue French speaker he acted rather as a classroom assistant in French lessons, but for all other subjects such as history, English and maths, he was basically there just like any other student. Accordingly he was always very proud that at the end of the year he won the school prize for English grammar, and also came second in the school (English) spelling bee - in both having competed against ordinary English-speaking American students. I can however vouch that his knowledge of both history and geography - in whatever language - was atrocious. And of course once back in Europe he also had to unlearn the deep Southern-American drawl that he'd picked-up.

.... Seriously though in response to LiR's post; I suspect that Americans' (in)famous ignorance of geography and the larger world outside of the US, is largely a function of the enormous size of their country and the distances to anywhere 'foreign'. I visited the US as a student in the 1980s and encountered many Americans who'd never needed or wanted to travel, whether for business or holidays, outside of the continental US ... indeed many hadn't even been more that a state away. I had just spent two weeks happily travelling around Europe, while many American's I encountered seemed frankly amazed that one would willingly visit a country where English wasn't the usual language. I was repeatedly asked, 'But how did you tell them what you wanted?!? Adding to this casually xenophobic mixture of arrogance and conservatism, there is also undeniably, the US's post war economic success which basically meant guaranteed jobs for all - whether that be in the local mine or factory, or the local gas-station or store. Why bother struggling to learn calculus or Spanish when it was simply expected that you'd join your father, brothers and uncles, working for good pay at the neighbouring car-factory or chemical plant?

All that has now changed of course, but the deep-rooted sentiments are probably still there.

For a country that has largely been built on open immigration, the US has nevertheless also had several long-lasting bouts of deliberate self-imposed isolationism ... in particular the years before both the World Wars, but also increasingly these days too with Trump's 'America First' policy. Foreigners, immigrants, foreign languages, different ideas, different weights and measures, unfamiliar ways of doing things ... all are increasingly seen as un-American and threatening, and so the US further entrenches itself behind its self-built walls. In such a climate is it really unsurprising that many Americans don't know the capital of Hungary, the name of the French President or even where Pakistan is situated?