Ped & Tree

I'd just like to take a moment to point out that…

You toe the line. If you're towing a line, it's probably got a boat or a sea-anchor attached to the other end.

People who think climate change is bunk are denialists. Denier is a measure of the weight of cloth.

We reap what we sow. Last time I looked, farmers were not in the habit of planting their fields using a needle and cotton.

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Titbits

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.

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Titbits

Why is Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's moons always touted as having disproven geocentrism? I mean, the Ptolemaic system already incorporated epicycles, which provide a neat (and correct) definition of a moon's orbit. Always puzzled me, that has. (The phases of Venus, on the other hand, and which he also discovered, do provide support for heliocentrism.)

Did you know that the tune of The Star Spangled Banner was originally that of an English drinking song?

Okay, so Superman and Lois Lane get horizontal… Wouldn't Superman's super-ejaculation be, to say the least, a bit bloody dangerous to poor Lois?

Why do hedges need funds?

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The Kindness Blog

Just a short one, as the bishop said to the actress…

One thing I've noticed about blogs on social/religious/political topics. We can get, well, just a tad focussed on the negative at times. Found via Tony at The Shoop's Roost is this marvellous antidote; The Kindness Blog. You'll find all sorts of nice stuff there, ranging from stories that make you smile a bit, through big cheesy grins to tearfully heart-warming.
—Daz

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Fireworks As You’ve Never Seen Them Before

A drone's-eye view of the exploding heart of a fireworks display. This is, quite simply, beautiful.
—Daz

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Pictorial Titbits

Every now and again, I get the urge to put up a photo of some vaguely interesting thing, then decide that, no, it's not really interesting enough to base a blog-post on. On the other hand, they are still vaguely interesting, so here's a (very) small collection of them, posted in the hope that I'll gain by quantity what is lost in quality. Ho-hum.

This one was taken this very afternoon. Our garden is fairly well protected from the worst of the weather, and at the same time is at the south side of the house, so we're maybe a smidgen ahead of the trend here, but… Spring has most definitely sprung! Yay!

[Click picture to enbiggen]

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This one is pretty-well self explanatory. How unlucky can you get?

[Click picture to enbiggen]

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And here's a bit of DIY/make-do-and-mend I did a while back. I wanted a reading-light over my bed, with a string-operated pull-switch, so that I don't have to stir myself too much to switch it off, when the book starts to flop out of my hand and my eyes begin to close. (Just the act of doing so can wake me right back up again, an' I hate that.)

The case is an old trinket-box I've had for years. It held odds-and-ends like dice, drawing-pins, old keys; all the usual small clutter. A bit of light polishing took just enough of the patina off to leave an interesting highlighted-grain effect.

The light-fitting was off a broken lamp, the pull-switch was kicking around in the attic doing nothing, and the magnetic catch (Obligatory safety warning: I'd recommend nailing the box shut, if anyone wants to do the same, and has kids in their lives) was one of a multi-pack we'd bought because we needed two elsewhere. Total immediate cost: 70p for the light-bulb—though if I can ever find an old Bakelite or brass pull-switch, I might fork out enough to replace the modern plastic; there's a certain "early years of electricity" look to it that I think would be enhanced by an older-looking switch. (Oh, and yes; I've since added an earth-lead.)

[Click picture to enbiggen]

[Click picture to enbiggen]

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And finally, this is part of why I like living in a smallish town. In the opposite direction, behind me as I was taking the photo, the town centre is five minutes' walk away. In front of me, this. I really don't think I'd want to live anywhere where the countryside was too far away to be within practical walking distance.

[Click picture to enbiggen]

—Daz

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Titbits

A few bits and bobs which were too short for regular posts.

Almost any savoury food can be improved by the addition of onion. In the case of onion-based items, this means more onion.

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Dear Microsoft updatey-people,

When I installed Microsoft Office, I deliberately didn't install the Outlook email client. Why, then, does your update site insist on trying to make me download junkmail filters for Outlook?

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Titbits

A few items which were too short to merit separate posts.

If you feel the need to add the words "no offence intended" to the end of a statement, please stop and consider the fact that this means you've just made an offensive statement, and that you know you've just made an offensive statement. Here's a novel thought: try not saying the offensive thing, if you really wish to avoid offence.

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In Which I Answer Unasked Questions

So I thought I'd answer a few questions that I haven't actually been asked. Which sounds kinda like I've become the Reader in Invisible Writings at Unseen University. But no. These questions have definitely been asked; just not of me, exactly.

Certain subjects come up again and again in the list of search-terms which have landed folks on this blog, and often-times they're phrased as questions. Many of them will have found an answer on the page that Google, Bing or whatever, sent them to in response to the search, but some are, well, kind of tangential—and it's those that I thought I'd try to provide some direct answers to.

So, Gentle Reader, let's be about it, shall we?

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Blogging In Spandex Hotpants

Okay, I could have gone with Blogging In Brief or Blogging In Short but they wouldn't have been half as much fun. Sticking with the underwear-theme, Blogging In Sparkly Y-Fronts crossed my mind, but I managed to dislodge it after a quick nip of vodka and a few careful headbutts to the nearest wall. So Spandex Hotpants it is. And if you're actually imagining me sitting here writing this whilst wearing spandex hotpants, then I pity you—I very much doubt that it's a pretty sight! Here, have a nip of this vodka…

Anyway, the idea is that I've been a tad busy the last few days, and haven't had time to do more than skim various blogs and news-stories, let alone actually spend time writing anything about them, plus I've a handful of vague ideas I've been mulling over that probably don't even deserve a full-on post of their own, so here they are in brief. Or hotpants, as the case may be.

Standard disclaimer: It's a mixture of the serious and the not so serious, in no particular order, and no denigration of the importance of the former is meant by its proximity to the latter.

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