31st October 2017 - Trick or Treat

Thought for the day:"I want to be something really scary for Halloween this year so I'm dressing up as a phone battery at 2%"

Seems I am going out hunting for sweeties tonight - wish me luck!!

Halloween Songs - Sandra Dee

Halloween Drink Receptacles - Choose your Poison 

think I will have a  Green One

Cheers

30th October 2017 - It was a Mondegreen One

Thought for the day:"Just seen literally used incorrectly or gratuitously three times in one minute. I want to figuratively pull my hair out"

As explanation in easy terms ...

Literal vs. Figurative Language

No, you are not literally going to explode from excitement at finally seeing U2 live. You also are not literally dying of laughter while watching Dude, Where’s My Car, in all likelihood. You are figuratively exploding and dying.
Unless you spontaneously combust when Bono takes the stage, literally is not the word you are looking for.

Definition of Literally

When something is literally occurring, that means that it happening exactly as described. Someone who is literally passing out from excitement has their eyes rolling back in their head, and is collapsing to the ground as we speak.
Usually, the intended word is figuratively, which means that whatever is happening is being described metaphorically. Someone who is figuratively on pins and needles with anticipation is really looking forward to something. Someone who is literally on pins and needles is currently experiencing small puncture wounds on their body.

It also means "as written"  or "to the letter" but that is another matter..

But I found a new word today
Mondegreen

and so I looked for some examples...

TOM PETTY: “American Girl”
What people sing: “That Wonderbra that she was gonna keep”
The actual lyric: “She had one little promise she was gonna keep”
This is the second single from Petty’s 1977 debut album. Frankly, Tom mumbles so much when he sings that one could be forgiven for misunderstanding him.

QUEEN: “Bohemian Rhapsody”
What people sing: “Scare a moose, scare a moose, will you do my fan Van Gogh?”
The actual lyric: “Scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the fandango?”
Immortalized by everyone from Wayne & Garth to Mig (from “Rock Star: INXS”), Queen’s 1975 six-minute single is a lesson in rock grandiosity and made-up lyrics (or at least they sound like it). When the band is digging up words like “Scaramouche,” who can blame someone for writing their own lyrics?

BON JOVI: “Livin’ on a Prayer”
What people sing: “It doesn’t make a difference if we’re naked or not”
The actual lyric: “It doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not”
When the song comes from an album called “Slippery When Wet,” you can bet folks misinterpreted this more than a few ways.

JIMI HENDRIX: “Purple Haze”
What people sing: “Excuse me while I kiss this guy”
The actual lyric: “Excuse me while I kiss the sky”
The granddaddy of famous misunderstood songs, this one has been a joke for over 40 years since its 1967 release. Hendrix said the lyrics were inspired by a dream in which he was walking under the sea. Between the crazy dreams and the crazy stuff running through his veins, Jimi himself probably wasn’t sure what he was singing.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: “Blinded by the Light”
What people sing: “Wrapped up like a douche, another loner in the night”
The actual lyric: “Cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night”
Springsteen’s tune from his debut album is full of inside Jersey references and non sequitur silliness. A listener can misinterpret lyrics for days. It’s the ‘76 Manfred Mann’s Earth Band cover that’s responsible for the signature mondegreen on this one.

PEARL JAM: “Even Flow”
What people sing: “Oh, dolphin, he can’t help it when he looks at Santa”
The actual lyric: “Oh, dark grin, he can’t help, when he’s happy looks insane”
I’ll pay anyone ten bucks to tell me half of these lyrics. And tell me what they mean. Pearl Jam’s 1991 single is supposed to be about homelessness. That and dolphins.

BECK: “Loser”
What people sing: “Someone get the door”
The actual lyric: “Soy un perdedor”
Beck only has himself to blame for going bilingual here. No one was ready for that one in 1994. He started a Spanglish craze.

EAGLES: “Hotel California”
What people sing: “Her mind is definitely twisted”
The actual lyric: “Her mind is Tiffany twisted”
I gotta admit it. Before I wrote this blog, I was certain I was singing this Eagles song correctly. In fact, I had to check a few places before I was convinced my version was wrong. You learn something new everyday.

Meanwhile - back in Aylesbury we went a searching for the Gruffalo in Wendover Woods...

Found Him !!

 Cheers !

29th October 2017 - Clock Time

Thought for the day:"Interrogating a fish? Forget the 'holding its head under water bit'

But we are comfortable here in Aylesbury

Eldest (Frillie) not up yet - good teenager

E-Fey watching TV in the other room

TJ watching videos in this room

Susie playing solitaire on the Computer

Me doing birthday Cards

dogs running around and barking at shadows for no reason...

 

Clocks went back last night 

 and so ...

 

Cheers !

28th October 2017 - Grand Court

Thought for the day:"Someone has been adding soil to my allotment at night - the plot is thickening"

A day in Leicester to day - Grand Court of the Masonic Order of Athelstan and a large number of new Grand Officers were rewarded together with a new Assistant Grand Master.  A good day for networking and meeting old friends from many Orders... Photos were taken (but not by me) so will follow in due course ...

Now back in Aylesbury and calming a manic labrador that really does not like Fireworks...
Also, failing to watch TV in the living room as the kids have gone to bed and I do not want to disturb them to find out how to get real channels rather than Netflicks - is possible that there is not TV in here other than DVD and Netflicks - we will find out tomorrow when the small techno genii ( I think that is the plural) are available to consult ...

So - Clocks go back tonight so we have an extra hour in bed - in theory!!  I somehow think that the children in the Keen Family will be up and active at their normal time - we shall see !

Changing the hour at Stonehenge

I manage to retrain the dog to not get up till 9.30am rather than a breakfast request at 6.30am.. I think this will be a challenge....

Meanwhile - it seems that you can get to Crete for £35 on the last week out - with only 35 seats taken so far.....  And back for not much more ... So sending Susie out for a week fishing - if we skpi the hire car and the hotel it should be about the same cost as staying at home. Going to drop her off at Luton on the way to Norfolk and collect the dog on the way back - and collect her from Bristol on the 11th - last flight back from Hereklion - should be fun ....

With nothing else to chat about today - a glass of cheap plonk from the Leicester Masonic Hall (had to bring it home as I was driving)    ....
Cheers ...

 

27th October 2017 - It's not an optical illusion - just looks like one

Thought for the day:"Dr Frankenstein entered a body building competition - then realised that he had misunderstood the objective"


Found this today - New way to slow down drivers near zebra crossings ...

 Some stills from the concept - which is from Iceland

In the small fishing town of Ísafjörður, Iceland, an exciting development in road safety has just popped up – almost literally. A new pedestrian crossing has been painted that appears to be 3D by way of a cleverly-detailed optical illusion.

Not only does the innovative design give foot-travelers the feeling of walking on air, it also gets the attention of drivers, who will be sure to slow down their speed once they spot the seemingly floating ‘zebra stripes.’ Icelandic environmental commissioner Ralf Trylla called for its placement in Ísafjörður after seeing a similar project being carried out in New Delhi, India. With the help of street painting company Vegmálun GÍH, his vision became a reality.

Fascinating...

26th October 2017 - On Small Pox and Dairymaids

Thought for the day:"The word Homeowner has the word MEOW in it - good luck pronouncing it in the future"

So - 1881 and the Gunfight at the OK Corral -

Also this is the anniversary of the eradication of Small Pox...

• 1977 – Ali Maow Maalin, the last natural case of smallpox, develops rash in Merca district, Somalia. The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination.

The one thing I remember from my early schooling on the subject was that Dairymaids appear in historical novels and children's tales as more beautiful - and this was apparently down to the fact that their exposure of Cow Pox meant that their skin was far clearer than most who ended up with small pox scarring...

But here is some more information I found...

No one really knows exactly where or when the smallpox virus originated. It may have been the cause of the plague of Athens, as described by Thucydides, and it probably caused the death of Ramses V and, later, Marcus Aurelius. Killing, blinding and disfiguring countless millions worldwide, "the pox" defeated armies, ended dynasties and ruined economies. It decimated North American Indian communities in the 16th century, South American tribespeople in the 1700s, and Australian Aboriginals a century later. Elizabeth I, Voltaire, Mozart and Abraham Lincoln all survived both its ravages and the bleeding, purging, puncturing, sweating and other dangerous remedies of their day.

Described by Macaulay as "the most terrible of all the ministers of death", it was spread rampantly by colonialism, religious expansion, trade, exploration and war; epidemics ran rife. By the 17th century it had replaced the plague as the principal cause of death. Unsurprisingly, then, smallpox was feared above all other infectious diseases.

The Royal Society in London gathered differing accounts of inoculation against smallpox from around the world and in 1717 variolation – the practice of inoculation by using matter drawn from a smallpox pustule and inserting it under the skin of a healthy person – was introduced to Britain. It was vigorously promoted by the Turkish ambassador's wife, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who had witnessed the "folk practice" and had inoculated her own children.

Variolation usually produced a mild attack of smallpox, giving protection from future infection, but it was risky – and occasionally fatal – and, crucially, it actually assisted the spread of the disease since the recipient remained highly contagious yet was rarely quarantined. Nevertheless – after experimentation on several Newgate prisoners and on a handful of charity children proved to be effective – the practice began to be widely adopted among the nobility. A parallel process was enacted in America and parts of Europe: even Catherine the Great submitted herself to the needle.

Gradually refined, with gentler techniques obviating the earlier incisions, by the end of the century inoculation had become accepted practice among those who could afford it. But it had its detractors: many believed that it was illogical purposely to infect anyone and factions of the clergy argued forcefully against it.

In 1796 Edward Jenner, a Gloucestershire doctor, noticing that milkmaids who suffered from cowpox appeared resistant to smallpox, pioneered "vaccination", using material from the pustules of cows suffering from the related virus. It was the most significant breakthrough in the treatment and prevention of infectious disease that there had been and it was so at variance with established knowledge that Joseph Banks, then president of the Royal Society, advised against publication. Vaccination produced a mild, un-infectious reaction that also gave future immunity. It caught on. Jenner soon became the most famous (and wealthy) country doctor in the world.

The dramatic reduction in smallpox deaths wherever vaccination was introduced proved its efficacy, boosted its popularity and contributed to a decline in the practice of variolation. In order to transport vaccines to countries where they would have degenerated in heat and over time, and before the discovery of glycerine as a preserving agent, human "chains" were used through which vaccinations could be transferred "arm-to-arm", from one patient to the next.

In 1840 the Vaccine Act provided, in effect, the first free medical service in Britain, though compulsory vaccination remained highly contentious. Epidemics continued wherever there were mass movements of people but, after many further refinements and 200 years after Jenner's first vaccination, the World Health Organisation announced in 1979 that smallpox was the first (and still the only) infectious disease to have been effectively eradicated. Medically and politically, it was one of the most remarkable achievements of the century. Estimates suggest that it saves up to two million lives every year.

But it is interesting to note that the role of Dairy Maid became quite sought after - despite the hard work - it required hygene and was exclusively a female role ...

Eighteenth Century Women

Milking and dairy work was not just dominated by women, but considered an exclusively female profession in the eighteenth century. While men took care of cows; bought, sold and helped them calve, milking and preparation of their by-products was taken care of by women on a dairy farm, either family members of the farm or hire-in servants. David Dickson, in Old World Colony says ‘the handling of the milk, the initial preparation of the butter and its first salting were also female responsibilities; men, however, handled, packed and transported the firkins off the farm, and it was they of course who went to market.’

As an exclusively female area, dairy production provided opportunities for young single country women and the position was seen as quite prestigious as it marked dairymaids out as women of means and made them attractive suitors. Nuala Cullen goes into greater detail on the topic of dairymaids in ‘Women and the preparation of food in eighteenth-century Ireland’, in Margaret MacCurtain and Mary O’Dowd (ed), Women in Early Modern Ireland (Dublin; Wolfhound Press, 1991). She says that although good dairymaid’s were valued and treated with a degree of respectability ‘the reality… was that the work was merciless in its demands and required constant attention to hygiene.’ Cullen also points out not everyone appreciated the prestige and wealth these women gained. Mrs Delaney complained that these dairymaid’s were getting above their station. Their wealth allowed them to spend money on clothes unbecoming of their station: ‘dairymaids wear large hoops and velvet hoods instead of the round tight petticoat and straw hat and there is as much foppery introduced in the food as in the dress- the purest simplicity of ye country is quite lost!’.

Haute Cowture!

and a daily Trump..

Cheers - I raise a glass of milk to you

25th October 2017 - St Crispin's Day

Thought for the day:"Synonym n: Word used in place of one you can't spell"

Best go and put some gaffer tape on the Bothy I suppose.... Luckily it is not raining...
Hmm - should have checked - battery dead as a door nail
On Charge - hoping to get her started by 12.30 when it is booked in - nope - did not work ...

6pm - and it is charged - but too late for today - have to be tomorrow..

Meanwhile, it is St Crispin's day

1415 – Hundred Years' War: Henry V of England and his lightly armoured infantry and archers defeat the heavily armoured French cavalry in the Battle of Agincourt on Saint Crispin's Day.

When the Battle of Balaclava was fought on the 25 October 1854, the coincidence was noticed by contemporaries, who used Shakespeare's words to comment on the battle. The contrast between the two battles, one a complete victory, the other indecisive and notorious for the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade, has also been noted. The Battle of Shangani (1893) in the First Matabele War was also fought on that date. Didn't know that before!!

Saints Crispin and Crispinian are the Christian patron saints of cobblers, curriers, tanners, and leatherworkers. Beheaded during the reign of Diocletian; the date of their execution is given as 25 October 285 or 286. 

Born to a noble Roman family in the 3rd century AD, Saints Crispin and Crispinian fled persecution for their faith, ending up at Soissons, where they preached Christianity to the Gauls whilst making shoes by night. While it is stated that they were twin brothers, that has not been positively proved.

They earned enough by their trade to support themselves and also to aid the poor. Their success attracted the ire of Rictus Varus, governor of Belgic Gaul, who had them tortured and thrown into the river with millstones around their necks. Though they survived, they were beheaded by the Emperor c. 285-286.

An alternative account gives them to be sons of a noble Romano-Briton family who lived in Canterbury, following their father's murder for displeasing the Roman Emperor. As they were approaching maturity their mother sent them to London to seek apprenticeship and to avoid coming to the attention of their father's killer. Travelling there, the brothers came across a shoemaker's workshop at Faversham and decided to travel no further and stayed in Faversham. This account fails to explain how the brothers came to be venerated and martyred.

So there !!!

And a Trump Picture - because I can ...

And susie out of hospital
so cheers !

24th October 2017 - Hedging my Bets

Thought for the day:"I just want to be rich enough to be referred to as eccentric instead of just nuts."

Third day in Hospital for Susie - BP coming down slowly ...
Thought I would use some gratuitous Hedgehog Pictures to cheers her up ..

Seems Legit..
Cheers