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Tuesday, 30 September 2014

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When Reading Archaic, Why Not Speak Archaic?
As you are no doubt still FASCINATED to know, I am still continuing on with TWTIK, and have come across language that may have been prevalent when it was written (1938), yet is no longer in use.  The word "snell", with no internet explication, is one such: Conrad suspects it may be Scottish idiom of the time.  Another word that came up today was "whilom".  By context I suspected it meant "former" ("whilom professional golfer") and Thus!  The internet proves me correct.

Conrad.  Putting the "Win" in "Swindle" for 490 posts
     And talking* of archaic languages, one can't get more archaic than an entirely dead language.  And no, Latin is not dead, merely turned zombie.  I'm talking about languages mentioned in my other book of the moment, "I Claudius", these being Oscan and Faliscan.  These are now extinct languages of central and southern pre-Roman Italy.  Despite being quite widely read, Conrad had never heard of them before and confidently predicts that neither had you until today.
     BOOJUM! - better living by educating.

"The Big Ship Sails ..."
Ah, you know how it goes - "On the Alley Alley oh".
     Why is a children's nursery rhyme appearing on the electronic pages of BOOJUM!???
     Look at the date.  "On the last day in September."  What date is it today**?
     By consensus the body of water described as the "Alley alley oh" is the Manchester Ship Canal.  This was a major engineering project of the late nineteenth century and is still formidably wet today.
Ship.  Sailing.  30th September.
I can only post this once a year, so I need to get quite a bit of mileage out of it
Matters Of Food
Today my dinner table was graced by young Dan, and by the only-slightly-older Hazel.  Dan was chortling chirpily about getting free tokens or vouchers for keep-fit classes and stated that you can't knock getting anything for free.
     'I can,' I complained, and proceeded to bore about The Metro***.  I then scoffed the rest of my meal, which drew comment.
     "Bread and yoghurt?" wondered Hazel, and then Dan in his turn had to express surprise.       'Yes.  It's not unusual,' I stated, fearing another salted-tomato or men's moisturiser moment.
     Neither were persuaded that downing your baguette slathered in Greek yoghurt is perfectly normal.
    'Downing your baguette slathered in Greek yoghurt is perfectly normal,' reassured Anna. who grew up in Greece and who therefore knows about this stuff.
     (Conrad snaps fingers at Dan and Hazel)

     May I also introduce you to a slightly updated smoothie?

Tea! The cup that cheers and not inebriates
     This one has malt extract in place of honey, as malt extract in coffee was only a partial success.  Strawberry and nectarine and malt and banana smoothie, however - works!  It went down in thirty seconds.

Travel Broadens The Mind
Allegedly.  It rather depends on where and how you're travelling, doesn't it?  Chris from work is on his way to China on holiday, excellent for him.  Conrad today was stuck on a slow bus into work and no bus after work, and cannot in all honesty say that his mind was broadened by either event.  I suspect that Hermes, god of transportation, was feeling a little testy today and excercised his prerogative along the lines of "Ha Har^!  Let's make Conrad's drive into work an intolerable drudge!"
     Gentle reader, kindly do not disabuse him of his misconception.
     I also removed a page from my Premier Foods notebook.  At the time it was quite amusing - not very, just quite - but I felt that it might be - ah - misconstrued if left in, where fellow-passengers might see it and worry.
Imagine sitting next to a man with this on his lap.  You'd try to avoid eye contact, wouldn't you?
What shall I post about next?  Undersea volcano or cute animal?

A cute fluffy bunny.  No, hang on -

* Metaphorically, I know I'm actually typing, thank you pedantic reader
** The last day in September.  Not being too oblique, am I?
*** The free newspaper not the Parisian underground.  Do keep up!
^ Hermes' is known for his annoying laughter.

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