My Pedantic Moans
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Earlier this week I was in the ladies department of a local store. (No, don't ask me why)
Anyway, I noticed this sign:
"WOMENS HOLIDAY WEAR".
Well, fair enough - except for the missing apostrophe before the "S".
However, the next sign made me chuckle:
"CASUAL WOMENS WEAR"
How many casual women have you met?
Is our human memory declining because of our reliance on digital storage devices?
Is this deteriorating
Because we are relying more on things like this?
How many telephone numbers do you remember nowadays?
I suspect very few as they are all stored on your phone in a memory chip.
Beware though, human memory, like any other faculty is strengthened by constant use - and what we don't use shrivels up!
So keep using your brain and don't become a robot.
STANDING ROOM ONLY IN CLASSROOMS OF THE FUTURE
Chair-free classrooms where pupils stand for hours a day are being introduced to Britain after a study found that they could lead to substantial weight loss.
Children burnt so many extra calories that the long-term effect on their waistlines would be "significant", researchers found.
The revolutionary approach is led by a British expert on obesity, James Levine, a medical consultant at the Mayo Clinic in the US. He is convinced stand-up lessons can provide an answer to childhood obesity problems.
For the week-long study, researchers took a class of volunteers aged 10 to 12 and taught their normal curriculum in a specially adapted classroom. Rather than sitting at desks, children used "lean and move bays", where they worked on laptop computers, white boards and vertical screens. Cushions on the floor were provided, but only for short breaks.
The pupils spent an average of five hours a day standing, a position that burns up three times as many calories as sitting down.
It has also been suggested that at home armchairs should be removed from in front of televisions.
For adults too?
Many people are abandoning this:
For this:
Has Britain fallen out of love with DIY?
A recent BBC TV programme told us:
"As B&Q and other DIY retailers suffer from falling sales, the Money Programme's Libby Potter reports on the trend away from DIY and towards "GSI" - Getting Someone In.
These days, householders are more likely to book a tradesman to do their household repairs than roll up their sleeves and do it themselves.
Even Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, the design guru of Changing Rooms, tells the Money Programme the heyday of DIY is over.
Now retailers are hoping a new generation of women customers will replace reluctant male DIYers. And there are even plans to sell women special female-friendly tools at Tupperware-style tool parties.
Will this turn the tide or could it be DIY RIP?"
When you answer the telephone and do not recognise the caller, what do you say: "Who is THAT?" or "Who is THIS?" ?
The first is the traditional English way of enquiring and the second is American, now increasingly used in this country.
I suppose it doesn't matter which you say and you will be understood if you use either.
However, "Who is THIS?" still seems a bit strange and, when people say it to me, I feel like replying "Don't you KNOW who you are?" !
Brussels:
A European Union summit meeting already overshadowed by concerns over economic nationalism turned into a linguistic battlefield when President Jacques Chirac of France, "deeply shocked" by the sight of a fellow Frenchman speaking English, stormed out of the room.
Chirac defiantly admitted Friday that he had bolted from the meeting the night before because Ernest-Antoine Seillière, the French head of the European business lobby Unice, was using the language of Shakespeare rather than the language of Voltaire.
When Seillière began addressing the EU's 25 leaders in English, Chirac interrupted him and asked why he was not using his mother tongue.
I'm going to speak in English because that is the language of business," Seillière replied.
With that, Chirac, 73, stood up and left the room, flanked by his finance minister, Thierry Breton, and foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, officials present at the meeting said.
"I was deeply shocked to see a Frenchman express himself at the council table in English, that's why we left - so as not to have to listen to that," Chirac said as the meeting ended Friday.
Chirac, who studied in the United States and speaks English, said France had fought long and hard to promote the French language and to ensure it was spoken from the Olympics to the United Nations and the European Union. "It is not just national interest, it is in the interest of culture and the dialogue of cultures," he said Friday. "You cannot build the world of the future on just one language and, hence, one culture."
Chirac's EU colleagues said privately that the president's pique highlighted how the French had still not come to terms with their political and linguistic decline in an expanded EU of 25 members, including 10 recent entrants primarily from the former Soviet bloc for which English is a second language.
(Extract from the International Herald Tribune)
You can read the full article at: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/24/news/chirac.php
We have been told for years that Omega 3 is good for us:
"Omega-3 fatty acids benefit the heart of healthy people, and those at high risk of — or who have — cardiovascular disease."
However, new research shows not only that Omega 3 has no benefit in preventing heart disease but it can in fact encourage it!
"Researchers from the University of East Anglia examined 89 studies of oily fish, and they found no clear evidence that omega-3 fats reduces the risk of heart disease, strokes and cancer.
In fact they actually found that men with angina, given high amounts of oily fish, were at a greater risk of heart attack."
Why do they do it?
I was watching Channel 4 News yesterday and one of the reporters persistently mis-pronounced the word "says".
e.g. "Don't listen to what he saze "- instead of "what he sez".
'Say' is pronounced to rhyme with 'lay' - but 'says' should always be pronounced to rhyme with 'fez'.
Or am I wrong?
NAN
What do you/did you call your grandmothers?
We called my maternal grandmother "Grandma" and my paternal grandmother "Nanna", to distinguish between the two.
I have been doing some research and apparently the nicknames for grandmother are usually culturally specific.
"Grandma is probably the most usual. Gran, Nanny and Nan are very informal and rather down market. Granny and Nanna are more up market." (Wikipedia)
Statistically, it seems that most Nans and their relatives live in council houses. (Snob!)
I have just heard it on the radio again (in an advertisement):
"Are you fed up OF . . . ."
If you have to use the phrase at all, it is "Fed up WITH . . ."
Thank you.
GOM
On 4th March I posted here "IRAQ - MAKING GOD THE SCAPEGOAT", which was about Tony Blair claiming God as the ultimate sanction for the US/UK war in Iraq.
Courtesy of the Daily Telegraph, I enjoyed the following about Wednesday's "Prime Minister's Question Time":
Only last weekend the Prime Minister admitted on television that he expects to be judged by this powerful and mysterious supporter (God) , but few observers imagined things would come to a head so soon.
The rift was exposed by a brilliant question from Sir Peter Tapsell (C, Louth and Horncastle), who at the age of 76 remains the most scornful and authoritative critic on the Tory benches of Mr Blair's adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sir Peter speaks in an orotund tone, which increases the comic effect of his interventions, but also makes him very hard to ignore. To get anything like the full effect of his words, one should declaim them very slowly in a patrician accent.
Yesterday Sir Peter demanded:
"Now that the Prime Minister has used up all mortal excuses for his folly in invading Iraq, and he's relying on his judgment on divine guidance, a factor which oddly was omitted from the dodgy dossier, will he tell us which archangel is now beckoning him towards southern Afghanistan?"
Mr Blair joined in the laughter at his own expense, gazed heavenward and asked: "So what's the answer?"
But answer came there none.
The Prime Minister's most powerful supporter had fallen silent. God had abandoned Mr Blair!"
GOOD STUFF!
I have boasted for years that I NEVER have colds - but today I have a real stinker.
It started a couple of days ago with a sore throat, which is the usual warning to me that a cold is about to develop.
Yesterday morning I started sneezing and soon my nose was running like a tap. I also had a headache and my temperature was 99.9.
During the afternoon I made chicken soup and I went to bed early with a hot whisky and lemon, accompanied by Neurofen.
After a rotten night I feel a little better, but I shall not be going out today. Also, my usual gym visit is OFF.
So, to all my local friends: KEEP AWAY - I AM CONTAGIOUS
SUPER SURFERS OUST COUCH POTATOES
Browsing the internet has overtaken watching TV as the nation's favourite leisure activity, says a new report.
A survey by search engine giant Google has found that Britons with internet access now spend more time surfing the web than watching the box.
The average web user now spends 164 minutes online each day, equal to more than 41 days per year, compared to 148 minutes or 37 days for TV viewers.
Men were the biggest internet addicts, spending an average of 172 minutes per day online compared to 156 minutes for women.
A regional breakdown found users in the Greater London area surfing for the longest, at an average of 181 minutes per day.
(From BBC News webpage)
That's over 3 hours a day.
What is this?
It looks like a telegraph pole, doesn't it?
But it isn't.
In fact it is a 'disguised' mobile-phone transmitting mast.
The 'pole' is made of concrete, made to look like creosoted wood.
It has been erected outside the post office at Hersham Road, Walton-on-Thames and there is another one at Gaston Bridge Road, the other side of Walton Bridge.
Are local residents, who live within a few yards, aware of its presence?
I am not sure what planning permission is required, but I have read that the smallest scale telecom development is not subject to any control.
I think that this kind of concealment is sneaky and designed to deceive.
What do you think?
P.S. The mast is owned and operated by Orange
It really is concrete - not wood!
THE ABERRANT APOSTROPHE
Just outside Walton-on-Thames, at the junction of the A317 (Queens Road) and the B365 (Seven Hills Road), there is a large roundabout.
The road is divided into lanes, with markings indicating which should be chosen to reach Walton, Weybridge and Cobham.
The town names have been abbreviated but, in most cases, the apostrophe to indicate missing letters, has been put in the wrong place.
WEYBRIDGE becomes WEY'BG and COBHAM is COB'HM (I suggest 'WEYB'G and 'COBH'M') - or, better still, make the letters smaller and get all of them in.
Here is the photographic evidence:
Hallelujah! Here is one they got right:
What a pity that, on the other side of the roundabout, it is shown as: WAL TN
"If God is for us, who can ever be against us?"
I note that Tony Blair has joined the ranks of all extremists by claiming God as the ultimate sanction for the US/UK war in Iraq.
When asked about his decision to go in, the prime minister told Michael Parkinson on the ITV chat show: "If you believe in God (the judgement) is made by God."
Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon was killed in Basra in 2004, said she was "quite disgusted" at the comments made by the Prime Minister.
The Military Families Against the War campaigner said: "How can he say he is a Christian?
"A Christian would never put people out there to be killed. A good Christian wouldn't be for this war. I'm actually quite disgusted by the comments. It's a joke."
Reg Keys, father of Lance Corporal Tom Keys, a Royal Military policeman who was one of six Red Caps killed by an Iraqi Mob in Majar Al-Kabir in Iraq in June 2003, said he found Mr Blair's words "abhorrent".
He said: "President Bush made comments like this about how God told him to go to war. God and religion has nothing to do with this war. This is nothing to do with God. He is using God as a get-out for total strategic failure and I find it abhorrent."
Religious faith is to be applauded, but Tony Blair should keep such thoughts to himself and accept personal responsibility for his actions.
The most important rule is "Never mix religion with politics".
You may have been referred here from "Old Age" - a poem published on:
http://poemsandprose.blog.co.uk/
If not, go back to read that first.
WHEN DO WE START GROWING OLD?
From birth!
I like these quotes:
"Aging is not a disease. It is, actually, a series of processes that begin with life and continue throughout the life cycle."
“Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
—Satchel Paige
This I think is the best:
“Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”
—Samuel Ullman
So, we wrinklies must take heart:
“For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades away,
The sky is filled with stars invisible by day.”
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Morituri Salutamus,” 1875
All the above were taken from an interesting article at: http://ohioline.osu.edu/ss-fact/0101.html
I was pleased to learn there that I am "young-old” (ages fifty-five to seventy-four) and not yet "old-old"!
P.S. This is not really a grumpy old moan, but more of a Celebration!
