Advertisements: one 'd.' Therefore 'ads,' not 'adds.' 'Adds' is the present tense third-person singular of 'to add.'
Dear Morrison's supermarket,
What the hell is the point of selling mince pies in a nice Christmassy box, when the use-by date is some time in late November?
Trickle-down economics: the theory that the vast and ever-expanding reservoirs belonging to the extremely rich might one day overflow a little bit.
And as I type, I've just heard my first pre-Guy Fawkes night Extra-Loud The Apocalypse Is Upon Us And The Sky Has Just Caved In™ firework. Oh joy.
On that topic though, the cynic in me has never been certain; are we celebrating that fact that Fawkes et al got caught before blowing a bunch of politicians to Kingdom Come, or lamenting that fact that they failed? Tricky one that. Now if the target had been a bunch of bankers…
Climate-change denialism: the theory that the human race can pump out two-and-a-half million pounds of CO2 per second, and it magically won't have any noticeable effect on the atmosphere.
Common sense is usually not the former when it truly is the latter, and not the latter when it is the former.
If the invisible man's eyes are completely transparent, how does he see?
Being interested in the origins of life, the thoughts of long-dead Greeks etc etc (or, indeed, how invisible eyeballs could work): nerdy—and not as a compliment.
Knowing the final score of a football match played on January the second nineteen seventy three: perfectly reasonable.
Run that by me again…?
Never judge a book by its movie. (Sign spotted in the book section of a charity shop, many years ago.)
An armed society is a polite society: the theory that walking on eggshells in case the nutter with the portable killing-machine takes offence and decides to blow your head off, is the same thing as politeness.
And I think that'll about do us for now. For the benefit of those of an American persuasion who've subscribed since I last mentioned this though, I'll finish on one I've mentioned before…
'Tidbit': a bowdlerisation of 'titbit.'
—Daz
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Akshully, in Somerset-speak, ‘adds’ is the entire present tense conjugation of ‘to add.’
I adds, you adds, she/he/it adds (or, indeed, if you want to go truly Somerset, him/her adds), we(/us) adds, you adds, they(/them) adds.
Ooh arr.
“Temporary out of stock”. When did you last pop into the supermarket for some temporary?
That reminds me that I finally got to see some of your lovely European tits a couple of weeks ago, and since the weather is so great today I might go have another look and bring my camera. I also saw some coots, some cormorants, lots of magpies, mallards, swans, and some pretty yellow bird I couldn’t postively identify.
My grandparents (and uncle and great-uncle, who lived with them) used to have have a weekly paper called Tit-Bits, somewhat similar to the Sunday Sport. Does anyone else remember it? I seem to remember them having another similar paper, but I don’t recall its name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tit-Bits
I always thought it was rubbish!
Fojap: Blue Tits are my favourite birds, as they are so feisty, to use a buzzword. They use the same nest box in our garden year after year, and last spring there were no apparent casualties (some pairs seem more successful than others, though they learn over time). Their nickname used to be “Little Billy Biter”, as they would sit firm in their nests when anyone put their hand in and peck them furiously. That begs the question: How did people find that out?
Re the mince pies: a lot of people freeze food for Christmas, and I never keep bread or pastries hanging about now myself. I know it has become fashionable to complain that the shops have Christmas goods in stock at Easter time nowadays, but it helps customers to spread the cost (and no doubt helps them to sell more as well!).
FAO barriejohn:
I think the publication you’re thinking of was “Reveille”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reveille_(newspaper)
The old grey memory cells aren’t giving me much info on the contents though.
Rustiguzzi: That’s the one! I have solid working-class roots. My nan had a telly long before us, and, apart from the horseracing, never switched over from ITV. How I loved staying with her and watching The Army Game on a Friday night, while waiting for the menfolk to bring me back a packet of Smith’s Crisps from the local!
fojap
If there’s a lot of yellow on it, I’m guessing great tit or blue tit.
barriejohn
Ah yes, the freezer. I shall henceforth kick myself.
Eh? There weren’t no football matches on 2nd January 1973.
The tit was probably a marsh tit. As far as the yellow bird goes, it had the wrong body shape. I’m not sure what the size of a Great Tit is, but I would expect it to be smaller than the yellow bird I saw. I’ve been going though the possible birds and I haven’t been able to find a good fit for that one.
Today’s birding was a total bust. I went to the same spot as last time but I didn’t know that they were having a grand opening of a new Frank Gehry building housing a museum. There was a huge crowd of people and few birds. š¦
I saw some crows and one magpie.
Magpies: “One for sorrow, two for joy.”
Yellowhammers can look very yellow (what a surprise!).
“A little bit of bread and no cheese.”
Thanks for the suggestion, barriejohn. I’m actually in France, not England, though there seems to be a significant overlap in the species of birds. I hadn’t looked at Yellowhammers because this was in Paris and, although there are records of them being sighted, they’re apparently not common in urban areas.
It was the first week of October. It was a lot of fun because almost every bird I saw was new to me. I’d actually never seen a Magpie before, although I’m under the impression they’re common. I still haven’t seen a Robin or a bunch of other things.
I was sitting under some trees, but there were some grassy areas nearby and also water, so I can’t narrow it down that way. Also, it flew past me and landed on a nearby tree, but I mainly saw it from the back, so I can’t say the shape of the beak.
I’m afraid it will have to remain something of a mystery since I’ll be leaving soon.
I used to do a lot of birdwatching when I was younger. They do have Yellowhammers in France, but they avoid human habitation. It might have been a Yellow Wagtail, but Grey Wagtails are often seen in towns, especially near water (which you mention), and are quite yellow. Of course, it could have been an escaped canary!
It could very well have been either a Yellow or Grey Wagtail. This was in the Bois de Boulogne. I was working off of a list I found on the internet of birds in the Ile de France region: eBird. As far as birdwatching goes, I’m a rank amateur, but I like to take walks in the woods and doing things like looking for birds gives me a direction, although I could just as easily wander aimlessly.