amusement

via The Presurfer:
The Young Man's Book of Amusement
This wonderful book was published in 1854 and it contains gems of Victorian experimental science

A small selection of electrical-leaning articles has been scanned.

I like the idea of The Inconceivable Shock

The whole company may be made to partake of the shock, by joining hands, and forming a circle. The experiment may also be varied if they tread upon each other’s toes, or lay their hands upon each other’s heads

and love the sound of these amusements selected from the index:

Air, a fountain, by the pressure of.
Aeolian harp, to make.
Balloon, small, to construct and inflate.
Brilliant explosion, to cause underwater.
Barometer, an infallible.
Blue, to change to white.
Bird, to make seem as dead.
Chemical change in a fair lady's complexion
Cards, a certain number of, being shown to a person to guess that which he thought of.
Cards, to make jump out of the pack, and run on the table.
Cards, to produce a mouse from a pack of.
Cards, how to tell a person any he thinks of and convey it into a nut.
Easy method of Purloining without discovery.
Extinguish ladies' clothes, catching fire, to.
Electrical orrery.
Echo, interesting account of an.
Fire, for wheels, a slow.
Fire, for wheels, a dead.
Feather, the animated.
Ghastly appearance, to give to persons in a room.
Galvanism, sensations which it excites in some organs of sense.
Handkerchief, a, to cut and tear into pieces, and to make it whole again.
Horn, to soften.
Iron, to melt in a moment, and make it run into drops.
Jealous husbands, three.
Ideal spectrum. Impenetrable winter cloaks, made of feathers.
Learned swan.
Money augmented by an optical illusion.
Money, to melt a piece in a walnut-shell, without injuring the shell.
Magical tea-spoon.
Number nine.
Problem, ingenious, another.
Ring to put through your cheek, and then bring it on a stick.
River spectacles
Report like that of a gun, to cause with a tobacco-pipe.
Recreation with a hundred numbers, a curious.
Supernatural appearance, to give a person a.
Sympathetic ink.
Snow-ball, to keep all summer in a perfect state.
Spectre on a pedestal in the middle of the table, to produce.
Water spout, imitative.
Write in the dark, to.
White gloves of a beautiful purple, to dye.


(I think Handkerchief, a, is my favourite)

---

Comments: amusement

"Extinguish ladies' clothes, catching fire, to"
This has an evocative zing.
And the one just above it has an appeal all its own.
Posted by ajax bucky vernaculo at February 28, 2005 05:05 PM

Yes...

But if discovered and convicted, would one get to hear the phrase "My Learned Swan"?
Posted by boynton at February 28, 2005 05:23 PM

"Rose, the changeable" is actually Rose The Changeable; a Victorian crossdresser named Ross.
Posted by Tone The Knowledgeable at February 28, 2005 06:51 PM

I think I sniff a Limerick in the last line, Tone.
Posted by boynton at February 28, 2005 07:00 PM

...

Once purchased a gallon of gloss ...
Posted by Tone The Knowledgeable at February 28, 2005 07:06 PM

He said with a leer
"Just spoon it and smear"
And ... errr ...

... covered his plate with cos.
Posted by Tone The Knowledgeable at February 28, 2005 08:02 PM

Bravo.

And possibly, a cross-thread of Icebergs or
"When, comes to dinner, the boss..." ?
Posted by boynton at February 28, 2005 08:51 PM

a Victorian crossdresser named Ross
Once purchased a gallon of gloss
He said with a leer
"Just spoon it and smear"
And ... errr ...

We'll take it in turns to toss.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at February 28, 2005 09:50 PM

Those days are not long gone.

Any hearty modern lad, after more than a few cleansing ales, should be able to treat you to tableaux vivants of the followng:

Brilliant explosion, to cause underwater.
Chemical change in a fair lady's complexion
Echo, interesting account of an.
Echo, interesting account of an.
Echo, interesting account of an.
Horn, to soften.
Spectre on a pedestal in the middle of the table, to produce.
Water spout, imitative.

As a gentleman, I've left the single inuenndo here to others. T

Though my water spout is often admired but never imitated.
Posted by Nabakov at February 28, 2005 11:14 PM

FX: splendid blend.
and don't forget the dressing. Or extinguish, to.


Nabakov, Vivants indeed.
Who knew such splendour lay barely hidden under the surface of a little parlour galvanism and invisible ink? And I didn't go near the candles...
Posted by boynton at March 1, 2005 01:19 PM

dooby

Don't think this is worth a ping*, but since I rather casually referred to (The Many Lives of) Dobie Gillis in a comment on a Troppo post by CS, I can't get the dobie theme outta my head. My older sisters watched this show, I only know it from the TV Greatest Hits record. As earworms go, it's not bad.

You can hear it here

The music of Dobie Gillis One outstanding aspect of the Dobie Gillis TV show was its incredibly hip jazz score written by the late Lionel Newman. Newman's background scoring featured the craziest scat singing and bebop harmonies ever heard on a mainstream sitcom

The Newman Dynasty

Also: Dobie Gillis: The structural strategy of juxtaposing the teenage outsider and the mainstream sitcom family.


* update: I mean my post isn't worth a Ping, of course. CS' po-mo post is excellent.

---

Comments: dooby

That's only VERY irritating.
Posted by Tony.T at February 25, 2005 06:15 PM

Yes I know others who share your views on this genre. You would particularly like the 2nd clip.

Strange but it seems I have a very high beebop/ vocalese/whateffer threshold and LOVE that sound.

I would buy the CD.
To go with the "Lambert, Hendricks and Ross".
Posted by boynton at February 25, 2005 06:23 PM

I could only get one of the links to work. Were there other tunes?
Posted by Tony.T at February 25, 2005 06:59 PM

Oh? I'm talking about the
"You can hear it here"
link to Sitcoms online/The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis. 8 clips. Don't miss the 2nd.
Posted by boynton at February 25, 2005 07:17 PM

A Dye-Na-Steeeee.

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0006213/bio
Posted by Alfred.E.Newman (Mad relation) at February 25, 2005 09:57 PM

http://www.dynastyarchives.co.uk/features_merchandise_mad.htm

http://www.collectmad.com/madcoversite/mad256.html

(You could have taken the Chocolates line too, you know, Alfred)
Posted by boynton at February 26, 2005 11:56 AM

Anatevka ...

http://www.collectmad.com/madcoversite/mad156.html
Posted by Fonebone at February 26, 2005 12:33 PM

I'll have to consult with Norabone, Fonebone.

She used to collect those, as I recall.
Posted by boynton at February 27, 2005 08:25 PM

Being 56, I have clear memory of viewing The many loves of Dobie Gillis and thought Thalia Menninger the jaded 17 year old played by Tuesday Weld was totally wonderful ( a sort of junior Barbara Stanwyk). Dobie did his pondering by a Rodin The Thinker statue, and was adored by The First Feminist Zelda Gilroy. For a young teenager in country Victoria, the jazzy music was only one aspect of this show's Pandora's Box of cultural inspiration.
Posted by Brownie at February 28, 2005 11:28 PM

I saw an episode on that David Lyle show 'Golden Years of TV" once. Enjoyed it - but wish I could see more. (Of the whole genre)
And apparently Dobie was on Regional TV (Ballarat) until the early seventies? There used to be compensations for being un-networked. I remember seeing "That Girl" in Gippsland in the early 90's.
Posted by boynton at March 1, 2005 01:34 PM

A message to 20th Century Fox...........

PLEASE, release a The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
box set!!!!!!!!!! Thanks, Ray
Posted by Ray Bradley at January 1, 2006 05:55 PM

A message to 20th Century Fox...........

PLEASE, release a The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
box set!!!!!!!!!! Thanks, Ray
Posted by Ray Bradley at January 1, 2006 05:55 PM

I saw a "Bonanza" box set the other day while I was browsing- so hopefully some of the 60's sitcoms will follow...
"The Patty Duke show" would be on my list
Posted by boynton at January 2, 2006 08:55 PM

flash cards

Found my way to these flash cards. Quite mesmeric. Some favourites:

Abbreviations for Doctors and Nurses

The pageant of world history Ch.20 People

Animal Farm and the symbolis found in it

Phobias


and at another site, see study and take the high speed slide show:

anne sexton and betty

hover craft

I like the odd curly question at Trivia. It's always good to cover the gaps in your knowledge about hovercrafts.

The theory behind one of the most successful inventions of the 20th century, the Hovercraft, was originally tested in 1955 using an empty KiteKat cat food tin inside a coffee tin, an industrial air blower and a pair of kitchen scales. (source)

He became enthralled by the idea of the hovercraft, which would eliminate the friction of water by elevating a boat on a cushion of air. The first model consisted of a cat food can inside a coffee can in a bucket, powered by a vacuum cleaner. He obtained a patent for a two-foot prototype and coined the name “hovercraft” for it. Soon he was walking around with a two-foot long model on a leash that followed him like a buoyant dog.(source)

Ultra-Simple Hovercraft Can lift several adults!

Entry level hovercraft

---

Comments: hover craft

That question sucked!
Posted by Tony.T at February 25, 2005 11:38 AM

A knowledge vacuum?

The question should have been:
Who was the 31st U.S President.
Posted by boynton at February 25, 2005 12:32 PM

Mmmm, hovercraft.

Got that close to crossing the Channel on a Saunders Roe-N4, but for the British Hovercraft Corporation scrappin' em. ("Hovercraft? The fuel consumption of a plane coupled with the speed of a ferry. What's to like?")

They just couldn't see the romance of the thing. Bastards!
Posted by Nabakov at February 26, 2005 05:44 AM

Was the romance to do with the (original lower)skirt line?

http://members.lycos.co.uk/bartieshover/srn4.htm

Maybe I need to brush up my knowledge. Our question only concerned the words "English inventor" + "Wife's vaccum cleaner" ... Yes there were sniggers but the answer eluded us.
Posted by boynton at February 26, 2005 12:02 PM

"I like the odd curly question at Trivia"

Like?

Q: Please mime Shirley Temple's hair do.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at February 26, 2005 06:09 PM

A: I think I do that trying to think without thinking.

(The real Miss Boynton of the film would possibly upbraid her young charge for such stealing-the- limelight behaviour at Trivia. Curly Shirley would just run away from the Big Top again)
Posted by boynton at February 27, 2005 08:32 PM

The Hoover Vacuum Company had a model named The Constellation in the early 60's and the body of the machine was hemispherical and hovered "on a cushion of air' above the carpet - I wish I had one now they were a scream.
Posted by Brownie at February 28, 2005 11:33 PM

Yes I'd like a vintage one too:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.linnell/sso/vacuums%20canister.html

But apparently the idea has been revived:

http://engadget.com/entry/6561357478278770/
Posted by boynton at March 1, 2005 01:56 PM

No research needed here. SRN1 Built by Thorneycroft at Cowes, Isle of Wight, Eng. I actually had a (Ryde) ride on it , 'Weird'. In 2000 I remember a H/Craft commuter service which crossed from Ryde IOW, to Clarence pier Southsea near POMpey (Portsmouth)Where the first fleeters hailed from. Also Mary Spencer.Who was quite a nice bit of Skirt in her day too, still luvs ya Mary.

What was brown and steamy and came out of cowes backwards?
Posted by John Leonard Spencer at March 2, 2005 07:44 PM

That joke never seemed to work when transferred to our Cowes.
The ferry was blue and white, as I recall.
Posted by boynton at March 3, 2005 09:27 AM

Meaning in Vic? Checking the colour of IOW Ferries, the main colour beige, a sort of brown when helped by smoke and weathering.
Posted by John Leonard S pencer at March 3, 2005 12:05 PM

Makes sense now, in an IOW way.

Yes, people used to say this (or some variation that I've forgotton) about Cowes, Victoria. 3922. Maybe the local version left out the colour.

Then again, "green" could work. But I don't think the Seal Rocks or Stony Point ferry corresponds.


Posted by boynton at March 3, 2005 12:15 PM

white noise

When The Boss Come To Dinner was not at the top of the pile of bedside books. That was White Noise, which I'm reading at last.

And I have just happened to read an annotation of the first page which includes observations on the craft:

...when DeLillo writes, he is trying to nail down something that he already has in his head, or is discovering things as he writes. "I'm always discovering -- I should say, 'frequently discovering' -- things during the act of writing," he says. "I never sketch out anything in advance. At most I have a very, very general idea; I depend on language to produce ideas, to produce characters and stories."

---

Comments: white noise

What are you making of "White Noise" so far? I tried reading it last year and wound up throwing it aside in disgust. I was getting irritated with it gradually, but then my eyes lighted upon the sentence "I had never looked at coffee" before and I just snapped.

Oddly enough I made it through all 830-odd pages of "Underworld" with comparatively few difficulties, even if I didn't see why it had to be quite that long...
Posted by James Russell at February 24, 2005 06:05 PM

Quite the reverse, actually.

I found "Underworld" increasingly ... difficult. Love "White Noise" so far. (This may change)I had it reccommended to me years ago - don't know why it took me so long.

I think these things are sometimes as much about timing as anything else.
Posted by boynton at February 24, 2005 06:20 PM

I thought "White Noise" was great - "something about them suggesting massive insurance coverage", "gathered and tended the children" and of course wearing sunglasses to make Hitler Studies sexy.

It and "Libra" are my two favourite Delillos -perhaps because they both have very distinct tones of voice, unlike some of his other works.

Whereas "Underworld" is one of my current books to make plane flights fly by - and it's not really making time fly so far.
Posted by Nabakov at March 1, 2005 12:48 AM

Distinct, and succinct.

Is it the (100?) pages of Baseball in Underworld? I think I could fly through 100 pages of cricket. The 1961 Tied Test or something.
Posted by boynton at March 1, 2005 02:01 PM

nickname

Just call me Lazy van der Jackass
Yes I lived up to my new nickname yesterday.
(via the Presurfer)

---

Comments: nickname

my nickname's wen.
Posted by Precious Fart Knocker at February 23, 2005 03:45 PM

" I asked them why one read in the synagogue service every week the "I thank thee, O Lord, that I was not born a woman." "It is not meant in an unfriendly spirit, and it is not intended to degrade or humiliate women." "But it does, nevertheless. Suppose the service read, 'I think thee, O Lord, that I was not born a jackass. “Could that be twisted in any way into a compliment to the jackass?"

-Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Posted by wen at February 23, 2005 03:51 PM

Wen? When's your name acceptable? ;)

Like your name better than mine. But could you twist "I thank thee, O Lord, that I was not born a PFK" into a compliment to the Knocker?
Posted by boynton at February 23, 2005 06:54 PM

Jackass: the latest Mot Juste (du jour).
Posted by Tony.T at February 24, 2005 11:32 AM

By the way, I was referring to this ...

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07E7DE1E39F930A35753C1A9629C8B63

Under the entry for ''French Literature,'' Jacobs sheepishly admits that Gustave Flaubert wrote a novel, called ''Bouvard and Pécuchet,'' that deals with two sad sacks who futilely set out to amass all human knowledge. In other words, Flaubert got there first. Worse, he had talent. (Jacobs apparently does not know that Flaubert never finished writing the novel, but this is par for the course.) Flaubert is famous for coining the term ''le mot juste''; le mot juste here is ''jackass.'' Far from becoming the smartest man in the world, Jacobs, at the end of his foolish enterprise, wouldn't even be the smartest person at Entertainment Weekly.
Posted by Tony.T at February 24, 2005 01:03 PM

I have heard of Flaubert's Parrot, but not of the Jackass.
I think I will juste aboute hear a kookaburra though before le jour is through
Posted by boynton at February 24, 2005 01:55 PM

Indeed. That parrot was the one in Le Parrot Sketch.
Posted by Tony.T at February 24, 2005 04:23 PM

Le Mort Juste.

Laughter flows. Time flies. Parrot flew.
Posted by boynton at February 24, 2005 05:42 PM

ahoy

Professor ALLEN KOENIGSBERG: When Bell invented the phone, Alexander Graham Bell, he didn't use `hello' at all. He used `ahoy.' He used it twice, `Ahoy. Ahoy.' And apparently he was the only one that used it, because I've never heard anybody to this day say, `Ahoy.' And Bell was not even in the Navy, so I don't know why he insisted on using a call that way.
all things considered via grow a brain

I'm quite tempted to switch from hello to Ahoy! and maybe even to Ahoy. Ahoy. *

I had a friend years ago who persisted in answering his telephone by saying "telephone," a daring innovation which made perfect sense to me but which I, sadly, lacked the courage to help popularize... word detective

* Update: I do not watch the Simpsons, apparently...

---

boynton
Comments: ahoy

So what should be said for goodbye. I hate ciao. Over?
Posted by Flute at February 22, 2005 01:53 PM

Gosh. Charlie. "Over" sounds rather abrupt. Roger. Over and Out.

Is there something nautical that would be appropriate? Or is this correct?

"I think John Smith in Marketing is the right person to help you with this. Let me speak to him, and either he or I will call you back on Thursday"
http://www.mhwcom.com/pages/endconversation.html


Posted by boynton at February 22, 2005 02:28 PM

"I've never heard anybody to this day say, `Ahoy.'"

Someone's never seen Mr Burns answer the telephone in The Simpsons...
Posted by James Russell at February 22, 2005 03:50 PM

I've never seen a single episode of the Simpsons.

I saw them on the Tracy Ullman show.

Am I the only person on the planet with this fault?

However, so pervasive is the simpsons that I do know that Mr Burns is not a good character to emulate.

I still like Ahoy! though in a pre-Simpsons, nineteenth century way. Unfortunately, most of my callers would be Simpsons savvy - some even fans - so maybe I'll have to re-think this whole diversion.
Posted by boynton at February 22, 2005 04:10 PM

I often say "aloha!" myself.

I find it adds to the cheerfulness of most conversation.
Posted by Zoe at February 22, 2005 04:51 PM

Professor Allen Koeningsberg? Isn't that the given name of Woody Allen?
Roger over and out.
Posted by Brownie at February 22, 2005 07:04 PM

"Ahoy polloi" in Caddyshack, too.

I used to like ringing people up and then when they answered I'd ask "What do you want?"

Ahhh, good times.
Posted by Tony.T at February 22, 2005 07:27 PM

Aloha is very good Zoe, it has that ciao versatility, with the added zest of a Ha! (I've just been reading old cookbooks)
You can do a lot with 3 syllables and a little imagination.

Brownie - I'm beginning to think this post was a elaborate joke to catch me out, even down to its `gotcha' title. It was riddled with formatting errors - I rebuilt it 10 times to get it right. I was all set to cringe again, however (it seems) a couple of letters separate the two. Woody is Konigsberg.
I could be wrong.
Over. Aloha!
Posted by boynton at February 22, 2005 07:31 PM

Is Caddyshack the sequel to Caddy?

Ah - here I was thinking Ahoy was quaint.
Posted by boynton at February 22, 2005 07:39 PM

Arrrrrrrrr. That'd be Caddie.


Ahoy, Boynton! Where are your buccaneers?
Posted by Black Jack Thompson at February 22, 2005 08:38 PM

... - - - ...


Was Jack's co-star

.... . .-.. . -. ?
Posted by boynton at February 22, 2005 09:04 PM

Avast there! Quit that damned cringing!
It's yer pride that's on it. You write fine.
Fine say I.
I do the same thing though.
-
My heart belonged to the girl who demanded I not answer the phone one afternoon, when we were just talking about this and that. It was the first time it had ever been suggested in my presence that it was possible to ignore the summoning bell.
The beginning of much deeper heresies, a renounced faith, and a life of schism.
Posted by Ajax Bucky at February 22, 2005 10:08 PM

Yes and then answering machines took even the guilt from the receiver. Funny how we became so beholden to the bell.
Does anyone not answering the telephone in "the Simpsons" or "Desperate Houswives" say "Avast"?
Posted by boynton at February 22, 2005 10:19 PM

What's this "over and out" crap!

It's EITHER "over" OR "out".

i.e. "roger, out." or "roger, over".

"out" means "I'm not expecting/requiring a reply" and "over" means "I'm standing by for a reply". Ergo, "over and out" is an oxymoron! Morons!

Get it right ya civvie bastards!
Posted by Gerry at February 23, 2005 12:57 AM

Dear Squadron Leader Gerry, I got it from the movies. I am now properly chastised and informed. Chocks away!
Posted by Brownie at February 23, 2005 08:43 AM

No worries Brownie. Had to set the record straight. Dunno what came over me. I think it was the Cab Sav. :-)
Posted by Gerry at February 23, 2005 09:23 AM

Ditto, Brownie. Roger, Gerry. I'm an out and out fool. Over.
Posted by boynton at February 23, 2005 09:23 AM

Er, snap.

Glad to have had the record set straight actually.
Think I must have had a bad Skippy memory happening.
Cheers.
Posted by boynton at February 23, 2005 09:31 AM

"I find it adds to the cheerfulness of most conversation."

Do you know just how pollyannerish that reads Zoe?

The best phone message I've heard is:

Ahuh?
Posted by cs at February 25, 2005 01:10 AM

Ahuh - sounds like a laid-back ahoy. I like it.
May try it, pending cultural-reference clearance.
Posted by boynton at February 25, 2005 12:28 PM

In Japan they say "moshi moshi".
Posted by millipede at February 26, 2005 12:21 PM

And Korea "yobosayo"?

More to choose from here...
http://www.netjeff.com/humor/item.cgi?file=HelloOnTelephoneWorldwide
Posted by boynton at February 27, 2005 08:23 PM

C for Charlie -.-. DASH DOT DASH DOT in morse code. or RN Revellie on bugle call first notes sounding like
CHAR-li CHAR-li
GERRY: I hope this is helpful. possibly someone may think it's a load of ... .... .. - , I remember it well, Aged Matelot.
Posted by john leonard spencer at February 28, 2005 02:19 PM

"Ahoy you Landlubbers" The Brit Royal Navy Still uses antique phrases like Ahoy Avast and a stack of ancient verbal crap, The list is endless. For example "BOAT AHOY" is called out in a loud voice to a boat aproaching ones own ship usually at night or poor visibility, the coxswain (driver) of the boat yells in a clear voice his identity in return. Although I have stirred the bucket with some of my writing about the R N, a book I recommend called JACKSPEAK By RICK JOLLY,ISBN 0-9514305-2-1. 4000 terms & Illustrations could be described as the Royal Navy Dictionary.The copy I have was a present from my U/K Bro in Law.I do not have any connections with the author.J L S.
Posted by John Leonard Spencer at February 28, 2005 03:17 PM

Jackspeak looks good.
an excerpt:
http://home.tiac.net/~cri/1998/british.html


It's the antique I seek.
"BOYNTON AHOY" may work as a way to answer the telephone at night in poor visibility.

Or I could dot and dash "Ahoy".


Posted by boynton at February 28, 2005 04:25 PM

And if you wanna sow dissension, tension and confusion through electro-magentical communication devices, answering the phone with:

"Yes, can I speak to Bob or Ethel please, It's an emergency."

is always good for a cheap laff.
Posted by Nabakov at February 28, 2005 11:20 PM

Nabakov: We are not here to create dissension, tension or confusion, also you should learn to spell correctly. Such coarseness of thought and sillyness is not wanted here. Your delusions of adequacy are unfounded. Elle.x
Posted by Elle Bee at March 1, 2005 12:56 PM

Spelling is nothing, sillyness is rampant.
But any serious Dssnsn will be disemvowelled.

On the contrary, your coarsness is always wanted here, Nabakov. Your delusions are profound.
Posted by boynton at March 1, 2005 01:27 PM

Prvious comments a little irritating. suggest nab and Bee tie the knot and fight it out for ever.I have just pressed the button waved goodbye and closed the lid. Alec
Posted by Alec Smart at March 1, 2005 02:41 PM

whateffer.

I just re-read my previous, Nabakov.
Reads bad, re delusions. I've never spotted any.
Only allusions, appreciated by many.
Posted by boynton at March 1, 2005 02:55 PM

Alec, never heard of Elle Bee before. Never seen her comment here before. Never exchanged comments with her before. Not aware she's been appointed comments moderator. And have no idea what her problem is.
Posted by Nabakov at March 1, 2005 03:32 PM

Zounds!! Ye Varlets. Doth the madness of march be apon us?
Posted by John Leonard Spencer at March 1, 2005 08:33 PM

I cdnuolt blveiee that cluod aulacity uesdnatnrd
waht I was rdgnieg.The phaonnmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to recheeacrh at cmarbgide uinretvsy,it deons't mttear in waht oerdr the lttrees in a wrod are.The olny iprmoatnt tihng is the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rgiht pclae.The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the hmuan mnid deos not raed erevy lteter by ilstef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh ? Yaeh, and Elelebe awlyas tghouht slpielng was ipmorantt. Please do not ignore this, it may look weird, but believe me it's readable.
Posted by John Leonard Spencer at March 3, 2005 09:09 PM

Yes, I read that research a few months ago.
I misspelt "forgotten" today and realised as soon as I hit post, with an O. Oh well, rhymed with cotton. As for typos, they seem to proliferate in comment boxes, usually belonging to other people.
Posted by boynton at March 3, 2005 10:15 PM

However yer grammer and syntax needs work, Ojn Spenthard Lencer.
Posted by Nabakov at March 3, 2005 10:56 PM

Nabakov: My grammar does need improvement, if only to accommodate the Philistinic 1% of the population, who bore people with perfection.
There are many styles of the written or spoken word, some which defy editing. Some editing removes the essential punchline and the writers true meaning.
However,my Soul Is doing fine , "Thank you".
I must confess, although I admire your comments, even I of less learning than your majestic self, have noticed that, occasionally you have a leaky plug.
Mere elegance of language, can produce at best but an empty statement.
Fortunately I have other Qualifications that do not necessarily require the use of grammar.
Avagudweekendmate.J L S.
Posted by John Leonard Spencer at March 4, 2005 04:00 PM

Nabakov: My grammar does need improvement, if only to accommodate the Philistinic 1% of the population, who bore people with perfection.
There are many styles of the written or spoken word, some which defy editing. Some editing removes the essential punchline and the writers true meaning.
However,my Soul Is doing fine , "Thank you".
I must confess, although I admire your comments, even I of less learning than your majestic self, have noticed that, occasionally you have a leaky plug.
Mere elegance of language, can produce at best but an empty statement.
Fortunately I have other Qualifications that do not necessarily require the use of grammar.
Avagudweekendmate.J L S.
Posted by John Leonard Spencer at March 4, 2005 04:09 PM

I have no idea who nabakov is or you for that matter. from what I can deduce nab is a person of letters, who likes to travel rough occasionally with his own brand of barrack room chatter. He may even be a simpleton; I largely suspect this is the case, he is using borrowed words or hiring a speech writer for his barmy comments. I liked your bit about your Soul(syntax). why does he not reply?
Posted by Georgia at March 20, 2005 09:12 PM

I have no idea who nabakov is or you for that matter. from what I can deduce nab is a person of letters, who likes to travel rough occasionally with his own brand of barrack room chatter. He may even be a simpleton; I largely suspect this is the case, he is using borrowed words or hiring a speech writer for his barmy comments. I liked your bit about your Soul(syntax). why does he not reply?
Posted by Georgia at March 20, 2005 11:47 PM

boss

While compiling a list of a pile of bedside books I had occasion to reacquaint myself with the odd title When The Boss Comes To Dinner (for Australian Homemakers) My sister gave this book to me in the hope that within its pages I might find something to idly scan or deconstruct. But maybe the retro isn't quite fifties enough, or I'm starting to like the idea of cooking with vermouth. However, this selection could make me quite nervous.

The important thing is not to over-react and not to be over-ambitious....
Maybe the boss hates the formal and delights in the homely touch...
Just a last thought - when you've planned it all to the best of your abilituy remember to relax and enjoy yourself.
The boss will find you irrestisible.

You'll be at your most nervous (you may as well admit that) so have the drinks ready well ahead of time with plenty of ice, lots of big glasses, slices of lemon and a large bowl of nuts. If you can find out the boss's favourite drink - it might be something slightly out of the ordinary like the driest of dry martiinis, in which case have it mixed and in the freezer together with the glass - you're ahead on marks.

It's up to you how long you linger over drinks.

Australian Home Journal n/d but looks somewhere in the seventies.

---

Comments: boss

"The boss will find you irrestisible."

then:

"It's up to you how long you linger over drinks."


" lots of big glasses,"

But I thought men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses. Especially big ones.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at February 23, 2005 12:32 PM

Well, I don't wear glasses, so I wouldn't know
But I do suspect that given the combo of high nerves and big glasses someone may make a spectacle of themselves.

And I do know that men make passes at girls who wear parkas.

(ah, the good old days of walking my labrador around the river.)
Posted by boynton at February 23, 2005 01:04 PM

"But I do suspect that given the combo of high nerves and big glasses someone may make a spectacle of themselves."

Not to mention, in the context, cocktails and highballs.

PS: I must ask my analyst if I may have watched too many Carry On movies, episodes of Are You Being Served, and Mel Brookes productions.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at February 26, 2005 06:12 PM

Alas - so many cocktails names, so many innuendos to mix, FX, but all I can think of in the context is "Screaming Optometrist". Or maybe "Slippery Lens".
Posted by boynton at February 27, 2005 08:43 PM

whateffer

I can just about make out the the title of the seventh good book recommended in the previous post. The Doctor

"Oh, that weary fiddle!" she said with an impatient shake of her head. But in a few moments the impatience in her face passed into tender pity. "Ah, well, well," she sighed, "poor man, it is the kind heart he has, whateffer."

Meanwhile, I am impressed by the Doctor at Ramage

---

Comments: whateffer

Scary, isn't he? I don't like the look of those test-tubes, either...
Posted by dave at February 21, 2005 06:53 PM

I was going to leave a comment at your place:
"I vant to test your blood"...but chickened out.
Posted by boynton at February 21, 2005 07:11 PM

- even though that allusion is not quite right.

And he needeth no allusion. He is inherently scary.
Posted by boynton at February 22, 2005 11:52 AM

fitness

Keeping Fit: A Health Exhibit For Men and Boys (via the ultimate insult)

(image SWHP0019.jpg)

fairytale generator

Fairy Tale Generator (via Sarcasmo)

Interesting to see a fairytale broken into component parts eg: delivery, complicity, trickery Could be useful for generating other sorts of narrative.

Fairytale Illustrators at Grandma's Graphics (via Twists and Turns)

---

Comments: fairytale generator

Once upon a time, they lived happily ever after.

'cept for the crazy ex who kept ringing up all the time, ranting on about being dumped after midnight in Box Hill with pumpkin seeds stuck between her toes.
Posted by Nabakov at February 20, 2005 09:12 PM

And then there was Hansel and Gretal !
No wonder the wicked witch was pissed of, they ate her god damm house.........those children desevered to be put in the oven.

Some fairytale!
Posted by at February 20, 2005 09:23 PM

Nabakov:
She was standing on the kerb of what appeared to be a major arterial road leading to the mountains.
Behind her was a White Horse. She slowly and deliberately asked him if there was any chance of a tram arriving soon that would take her back into the city. He said nothing, but tilted his head in a gesture that might mean either "Go away" or "Look sharp to your West". To her surprise a mysterious green object was rattling down the hill towards them...
The next bit was generated using "Unrecognized Arrival"...

"Before I entered the foreign kingdom, a general dressed in black and red wearing white paint asked me who I was and how I came. I told him about my shoes, about my needle, and about the creature I had slain. His eyes opened in delight, and he scribbled down my boasts on a parchment of yellow paper."


Anon - I was always disturbed by Hansel and Gretel. I always felt that I should take some breadcrumbs with me on family excursions ;)
Posted by boynton at February 20, 2005 09:51 PM

Proppian?!? It should be called POPPIAN. Most every bloody story is about dad.
Posted by Tony.T at February 20, 2005 10:45 PM

Really? I thought this one was about Pub Trivia.

"While I stood and shook I prayed for the knowledge to come and fill that part of my head that knew and understood nothing of this world."
Posted by boynton at February 20, 2005 10:56 PM

message

I receive an email which says only this:

Please consider our environment before printing this email.

I stare into space before sensing that our content has gone fishing.

misc lettuce

Been doing this for over 20 years now and the only time a lettuce has gone bad on me is when it was left forgotten for a couple of months. lettuce secrets




I have a Tupperware "Lettuce Crispit" which I guard with my life it's so old and does what it's meant to do...

...my tupperware lettuce container has just given up the ghost after 34 years, it was scoured on the sides, its been relegated to the shed now, so is still in production source

Is Iceberg lettuce a drug?
 

lettuce rant

birfurcated rivets is not fond of the Iceberg Lettuce...

What's cool about the Iceberg? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!! IT IS AN ABOMINATION! OUT DEMONS OUT. PARTICULALRY THE ICEBERG LETTUCE DEMON! It isn't a food, it is a wrapping material or something. disgusting, disgusting disgusting. What happened to the Webb's Wonderful - an excellent lettuce that used to be readily available? I haven't seen one for years (apart from ones I grow myself). Grrr......

Recently I heard my sister rant in capitals about every lettuce BUT the very uncool iceberg, all of which she has to avoid. She can't eat Rocket, Cos she can't tolerate them...
Is it true the UK didn't have iceberg lettuces until the 1980's?... What did they do with their Tupperware?

(Related?)

The humble lettuce has emerged as the UK's number one waste item, with 61% of households throwing a soggy one away each week.

And this is an early Wonderful...

---

Comments: lettuce rant

lettuce's are boring !
Posted by at February 18, 2005 04:43 PM

Balls to Rivet person. Iceberg is the best. Rocket is for trendoids and cos for tools.

Iceberg rocks.
Posted by Tony.T at February 18, 2005 08:02 PM

By the way, English food tastes like tupperware.
Posted by Tony.T at February 18, 2005 08:03 PM

l agree Tony English food is like tuppreware.

As for any kind of lettuce they are all nut's and bolt's.
Posted by at February 18, 2005 08:55 PM

right on, this iceberg can sink any meal. it is a flavourless thing. now yer webbs is a totally different matter. in the uk tupps was used to store various animal fats.
Posted by flute at February 18, 2005 10:10 PM

I'm with you Tony. Rocket is a vegetable not worthy of being eaten, not when iceberg lettuce is around.
Posted by Kent at February 18, 2005 11:56 PM

Us open-minded charders-slapping latte-guzzling tree-hugging types love iceberg and rocket.
Posted by cs at February 19, 2005 12:21 AM

Like the first (anonymous) commenter, I have never seen the point of lettuce. But then as a Brit who dines exclusively on tupperware, what do I know..?
Posted by Dick at February 19, 2005 10:38 AM

readily available Butter lettuces are more nutritious and nicer than iceberg. Lettuce is low in Saturated Fat and Sodium, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Protein, Calcium, Phosphorus and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium and Manganese.
You could get seeds for the Wonderful type at Diggers Seeds Dromana Vic by post in time for Spring sowing. Eat Your Greens!
Posted by Brownie at February 19, 2005 12:01 PM

You know a lot about lettuce Brownie !
Posted by at February 19, 2005 12:48 PM

Coincidentally.

My lettuce always ends up brown.
Posted by Tony.T at February 19, 2005 05:54 PM

Let us cease this disputation, leave this vegetative vitriol, head off the negativity.
Iceberg ships and packs with the least risk - easy to grow and easy to pick, thus the profit margins are somewhat higher.
Taste is immaterial.
A little ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickle relish - voila!
Thousand Island iceberg!
Let us eat!
Posted by Ajax Bucky at February 20, 2005 11:51 AM

A fine sentiment, Mr Bucky.

I apologise for any Anti-Brit sentiment that may have seeped through. I suspect that the figure for lettuce wastage is as high here in oz, despite the influence of the ubiquitous Tupperware Lettuce crisper dating from the 50's.
(in the doco on Tuppeware recently this item did seem to come off well)
I was genuinely surprised to learn of the late show of Iceberg in the UK - having assumed we had merely transplanted English varieties and habits. Can't find any potted web history of early lettuce growing in Victoria.
I like Iceberg, as a chard-hugger etc, how else do you eat Vietnamese spring rolls?
But more than that - I like the (non?) taste.
Unlike my sister, I also like others in the mix.
May seek out info on the Webbs, thanks to Brownie's reminder about Diggers.
Posted by boynton at February 20, 2005 12:49 PM

I always think of James Dean in East of Eden when I see the lettuces piled up in the supermarket.
Posted by Brownie at February 21, 2005 07:45 PM

Shameful confession, have not seen it. But the lure of some lettuce action might be enough to make me hire DVD ASAP.

and googling that combo led me to another comprehensive take on the Iceberg question.
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=70782

whereit is suggested:
"...could be it owes its poularity to James Dean more than anything else"
Posted by boynton at February 22, 2005 11:43 AM

amlet

An mp3 of Oor Hamlet (via Twists and Turns)

I once posted a link to the lyrics, but this site has some useful notes including a nod to the rather troppo topical hot potato (teaching English in Schools)

1983 [The author] is an English teacher in a very tough school in Glasgow. He despaired of getting his schoolkids interested in Shakespeare.

remarkable

*

dental poetics

"Mr. Maurice Farkoa." Printed on back: "I find Odol a most cleaning dentifrice and a refreshing mouthwash."

Vintage Dental Postcards (via Life In The Present)


I have been reading poetic dental experiences lately (coincidentally and vicarious)
Paula's House of toast Deracinement

and Okir (see Feb 10, 9, 7)

---

Comments: dental poetics

l am so grateful for modern dentist's.
Gone are the day's of dental pain.
Posted by at February 17, 2005 05:53 PM

On a barely related note, that ivory merchant material reminds me of the joys of developing world public health and safety campaigns, some of which helped make me the fearless mosquito killer I am today.

This collection is particularly delightful.
http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000036.html
http://www.retrocrush.com/archive2003/charts/index.html
Posted by Nabakov at February 17, 2005 10:21 PM

Look after your teeth and you will be able to eat newspapers.

http://www.vintagepostcards.com/cgi-bin/miva?Merchant2/merchant.mv+Screen=PROD&Store_Code=VPC&Product_Code=MEDIDE-R6039

If you don't, we'll stick giant pliers in your gob!

http://www.vintagepostcards.com/cgi-bin/miva?Merchant2/merchant.mv+Screen=PROD&Store_Code=VPC&Product_Code=MEDIDE-F8814
Posted by Tony.T at February 17, 2005 11:18 PM

I think the pain is mainly in the memory and avoidance.

N: That retrocrush collection is wonderful.
I like the indoor 12/12 cricket, but the banana sequence is hard to beat. It is compulsive behaviour?
Posted by boynton at February 17, 2005 11:20 PM

er that should read "Is it...?" not the strange "It is...?" I think the posters got to me...

T - how could have I missed those pliers!
Or are they pliers?
It is not a theatre poster with the dramatic triplets: Comedy, Tragedy and
Metallurgy?
Posted by boynton at February 17, 2005 11:27 PM

I like that the kid turns his burning witch mum into a cigar. Very pragmatic, that.
Posted by Tony.T at February 17, 2005 11:28 PM

I like the radio.

I think that radio would be playing my kinda top 40 mix.
Posted by boynton at February 17, 2005 11:47 PM

reading theory

How to read mathematics
Students need to learn how to read mathematics, in the same way they learn how to read a novel or a poem, listen to music, or view a painting. (via snarkout)

How to Quantify Reading

How to read Physics

is it physically possible to knit and read?

c word

A recent comm@nt at Troppo was quite interesting in regards to preventing cormorant sp@m.
(I have changed the offending word to cormorant in this quote. But it could have been anything. Dingbats or Cement.

Another thing you can do is to rename the cgi scripts. These spam bots go in search of the word "cormorant". Where ever they find the word "cormorant" they will attack. Refrain from using that word ANYWHERE, not just where readers see it but also where it is used in your code, and you help yourself a great deal. That includes renaming mt-cormorants.cgi to something else and going through your index templates and hunting down the word cormorant.
Anyway.... my initial cormorant wasn't even about putting urls in cormorants. It was about your complaint on the right of the main page that the link to the cormorants dont work. And you can fix that imediately by changing the permissons on mt-cormorants.cgi.

Who knew? And does it work?
I may have to test this theory by going through my archives. From memory, I think it is a very common word.

---

Comments: c word

No cormorant!
Posted by Tony.T at February 16, 2005 04:16 PM

That lone cormorant seems like a shag on a rock.
Posted by boynton at February 16, 2005 04:21 PM

early strips

Early Comic Strips (via *.*)

This exhibit of early "funnies" is drawn from the volumes of the recently acquired American Newspaper Repository

---

Comments: early strips

They may have been fruit o' the loom slap-sticklers way back when, Boynty, but those comics are more scary than funny.
Posted by Tony.T at February 15, 2005 10:15 PM

Pretty nice looking "scaries" though, Tony.

I imagine. The latter sections are still downloading here...;)
Posted by boynton at February 15, 2005 10:21 PM

Slo Ho Ho Ho.
Posted by Tony.T at February 15, 2005 10:38 PM

bats row

Can bats swim?
Yes, they row themselves with their wings. Bats do not go swimming by choice.

"We are hoping that they turn out to be the penguins of Melbourne,"The age

Last night at dusk on that balmy night I watched thousands of bats flying overhead from their colony situated between two boathouses on the Yarra (and yet they can row themselves). It was a magnificent sight, thousands and thousands of them, and I half-imagined I was an international grey-headed flying tourist.

And I woke to the local headline same Bat plan to lure tourists...

---

Comments: bats row

When I was a kid I used to enjoy clapping my hands at bats flying overhead and watching them veer away from the sound. Now that I've grown up and realise that life is stressful enough for us all I wouldn't now do this - well not much anyway.
Posted by Link at February 15, 2005 05:35 PM

I wouldn't do that - from fear as much as respect ;)
I could see them veering around the Freeway lights, and others bumping into each other and correcting their course like racehorses. They were kind of low and slow enough to observe like this, so I maybe I could see the tourist potential.
Posted by boynton at February 15, 2005 07:21 PM

Yer damn tootin' those winged wonders have got tourism potential. Visiting OS friends, especially from the States, are always blown away by the flocks flapping by, the sunset flickering through their wings.

And, as our family briefly hosted a young fruit bat (we called him "Turbo") after he fell out of our mango tree on his head, I can say they have heaps more personality than penguins. Also they taste delicious. Well not Turbo, he flew away eventually, but the ones served up in Tonga with sweet potatoes did.

And this is my alltime favourite Melbourne bat story.

http://www.theage.com.au/cgi-bin/common/popupPrintArticle.pl?path=/articles/2003/10/31/1067566088343.html

"...after an eight-month chase around the city's parks, a crematorium, exclusive riverfront properties, a girls' school and golf courses."

""I'm on record as being a bat-move sceptic,"

"wishhhhissht"

There's a little animated movie in this surely - especially from the bats POV.
Posted by Nabakov at February 17, 2005 10:38 PM

Yes and could the tourists do a NGV-Leonard-French-ceiling thing of lying down on grass to best observe world-class tourism attraction horizontally?

That article is a gem - wonder who wrote it. As you observed:
"I'm on record as being a... sceptic," says... Pope"

"every dawn, dispersal agents met the bats as they flew in to "bounce them back to Hawthorn".

I was thinking of having
"We are hoping that they turn out to be the penguins of Melbourne," as the new description for this blog - but "Some went as far as Ripponlea" is
a strong contender.

"One man has a "woo-woo" type of hiss"

My neighbour had a woo-woo type of hiss calling her cat. Actually- more a "shwee-shwee-shwee" type of hiss. Doug (my dog) and I used to think it was slightly ridiculous.
Posted by boynton at February 17, 2005 11:43 PM

arthur miller

Esquire Features What I've Learned Arthur Miller, an Interview from 2003

When plays were written in verse, by the very nature of the language it tended toward what I call prophecy. The energy of springing out of the dead level of contemporary reality. And we don't write that way much anymore, so something else has to enter—this spirit of coming disaster or coming happiness or something coming.

I believe in work. If somebody doesn't create something, however small it may be, he gets sick. An awful lot of people feel that they're treading water—that if they vanished in smoke, it wouldn't mean anything at all in this world. And that's a despairing and destructive feeling. It'll kill you.

stories

J. D. Salinger Uncollected Writings (via Twists and Turns)

Listen to Seven Classic Japanese Short Stories (via bifurcated rivets)

anxiety day

An Anxious Moment...
(the sight of a tiny postman will do that)

On the outskirts a more strapping postman

meanwhile in the general post office

---

Comments: anxiety day

Did you get anxious today when the postman arrived ?
Posted by at February 14, 2005 08:25 PM

I am always anxious, alas.
Posted by boynton at February 14, 2005 09:36 PM

No need to be anxious on such a lovely day.
Love is a many splendid thing !!
Posted by at February 14, 2005 10:15 PM

"Tiny Postman". Where are they playing next?

Somehow an emailed Valentine doesn't quite cut it. But a hand- addressed and delivered letter, now more than ever in this e-world, really gets your attention and expectation up.

Speaking of which, excuse me. The back of my neck is burning.
Posted by Nabakov at February 15, 2005 02:54 AM

- at Dizzy's.

A handwriiten card - yes I imagine it would.
Handwriting is the new prescription.
Posted by boynton at February 15, 2005 09:15 AM

er.. excuse those two i's in written.
They really jump out at me.

Posted by boynton at February 15, 2005 04:45 PM

O boynton
Woe is me. I forgot to send you a Valentine.

Did 19th century Victoria really look like the American South?
(Or at least my minds-eye conception of the American South, which like my minds-eye conception of boynton, may have little
resemblance to reality.)
Posted by millipede at February 16, 2005 12:05 PM

Maybe at the height of Marvellous Melbourne? But inthe first pic her vantage point seems more like from inside a Floral Festival booth of 'non specific place'.
The cottage in the bush seems more Australian, but it is indeed a miracle that those girls could turn out in such finery from the confines of a small bush hut. Such things did happen though, on Sundays.
I suspect they were all in love with the postman and saw this moment as their big chance.
Posted by boynton at February 16, 2005 12:34 PM

poll

I took the challenge and compiled a list of 10 favourite pop songs from the 30's and 40's. But the results are so disappointing to me in their resemblance to any old Standards for EZ piano that I'll hold off publication.

Searching for a list I glanced at this Correlating Choice of Musical Genres and Personality and conclude that I'm probably a miscellaneous loon.

| Comments (126) | TrackBack (5)

---

Comments: poll

Brazil
As Time Goes by
Caravan
Perfidia
It don’t mean a thing
Minnie the moocher
Star Dust
Mack the knife
Miss Otis regrets
Good-bye
Posted by Nora at February 11, 2005 09:21 PM

Thanks Nora - was going to have to say "Fools Rush In"...

a couple in there I would choose - Star Dust and Perfidia, which would have added some cred to my ballady list:

The Breeze and I
What a little moonlight can do
The very thought of you
Sky Lark
That Old Black Magic
Smoke gets in your eyes
Blue Moon
I’ve got you under my skin
The More I see you
What a difference a Day made

(I notice that there's a similar sound to a lot of those songs)
Posted by boynton at February 11, 2005 09:29 PM

cheating - 10 more

I’m Getting Sentimental over you
Fine brown Frame
Could be
I’ve got a gal in Kalamazoo
You’d me so nice to come home to
Route 66
My Funny Valentine
The Man I love
Star dust
The clouds will soon roll by
Posted by boynton at February 11, 2005 09:48 PM

If you're a misc. loon the rest of us are mismatched coots.

Frenesi
Les Momes de la Cloche
Blue Skies
Hey Bob-white
White Cliffs of Dover
Posted by vernaculo at February 12, 2005 11:30 AM

I was just humming Frenesi as I walked home...

Misc Loon regrets... she didn't specify the artist.
Blue Moon like Blue Skies has been so mangled.
I like the one I heard on the original Pennies From Heaven TV show by Greta Keller
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000000X2H/ref=m_art_li_4/102-6904053-2437723?v=glance&s=music

It would be good to here GK sing BSkies
Posted by boynton at February 12, 2005 12:27 PM

There seem to be some discordant notes struck by that Choice of Musical Personalities Survey thingy. I’d find it hard to generalize about: unconventional, artistic and introverted fans of religious and pop music, relaxing with foreign movies; headbangers into tranquility and family security; or lovers of hip-hop chillin’ with a Western.

And in many cases too, the ascribed characteristics are pretty much the polar opposite of the people who create such music. Which reminds me of the least uttered phrase in the English language: “Is that banjo player’s Porsche?”

As for old pop songs, I’m now listening to Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan’s transcendent versions of “Unchained Melody” and “Dance Me, Henry” – produced by George Martin, natch!

Henry Crun voice “Why are you carrying that mop?”
Minnie Bannister voice” Well the man said we’d clean up if we recorded this song.”
Posted by Nabakov at February 12, 2005 01:49 PM

I agree about the survey. I may have meant I was a loon to link to it. I'm all over the place, a poor personality.
That's a very fine phrase, should enjoy universal currency.

Now I have to do a KP and say you are disqualified.
Unchained Melody was 1956 - outside our survey period.
But did you like "Peter Sellers Sings George Gershwin" ? My fave used to be "bangers and mash" on that, or the somerset folk song (nod to ancestry)

This reminds me of the very fine recordings of old songs to be found on The Conway Brothers Hiccups orchestra album. eg My Blue Heaven
Posted by auntie rotter at February 12, 2005 02:12 PM

Don't forget the Mills Brothers.
Posted by flute at February 12, 2005 02:53 PM

"But did you like "Peter Sellers Sings George Gershwin" ? "

Yes, but an extended remix would be nice.
Posted by Nabakov at February 12, 2005 05:04 PM

"Terraplane Blues" - Robert Johnson ('37)
"Good Morning, School Girl" - Sunny Boy Williamson ('37)
"Frankie and Albert" - Leadbelly ('33)
"Goodnight Irene" - Leadbelly ('33 - on)
"Midnight Special" - Leadbelly (ditto)
"Rock Island Line - Leadbelly ('37)
"The Lady Is A Tramp" - Tommy Dorsey or Sophie Tucker
"Strange Fruit" - Billy Holiday ('38)
"Tain't Nobody's Business" - Billy Holiday ('40s - original by Bessie Smith, '23)
"Rollin' And Rollin'" - Lightning Hopkins ('40s)
All of Woodie Guthrie
Posted by cs at February 12, 2005 07:24 PM

When I was in a Tex@s Dennys in 1999 (San An Tone, to be precise), I convinced the waitress to belt out a rendition of "Deep in the Heart of Tex@s". Quite the lone star, she was. The other eaters gave her a cheery round of applause. Nothing OTT, mind you. No one ran up and said "YOU are great! I must sign you to a record deal." But enthusiastic, never the less.

I never mentioned the only reason I liked it was because I loved it in Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Possibly not the best name-drop given the circs.

And in a James Russell moment, I believe Star Dust is twenties, not thirties or forties.
Posted by Tony.T at February 12, 2005 08:42 PM

Before some nabakov, or blair, or trotsky comes by to correct me, Billie Holiday ..

"Stardust", although already a standard, was a huge hit for Artie Shaw in 1941.
Posted by cs at February 12, 2005 10:14 PM

How could I forget the Mills Bros, or the Boswell Sisters - or even the Andrews sisters, a 78 bought by my cool sister once and played on a gramophone she picked up at the Camberwell Market for a song.
(Zoot Suit/Sonya's Cafe)

Chris, you make me feel so totally unkool ;)
Should have said Strange Fruit, T'aint Nobody's Business...Woody G.


Alas some of my favourite Bessie Smith numbers are only just outside the frame.

Tony - By Bing or Gene?
How about the Yellow Rose of Tex@s by Mitch Miller as being the one that totally blows any shred of my cred out of the water?

Thanks CS - I hope I meant the Artie Shaw one, but maybe I have to draft a "guidelines concerning cover versions" document for the purposes of fair and balanced polling? ;)
Posted by boynton at February 13, 2005 12:37 PM

A little cred shred is no problem, Boynty. In fact it's probably good for you. Like fibre and saunas.

On the other point, The Yellow Rose of Te@as was sung by the venerable Army Of Barefeet during the Civil War so, conceivably, it fell into the forties. The Eighteen Forties.
Posted by Tony.T at February 13, 2005 01:41 PM

How about Sonny Boy, then, CS?
Posted by Tony.T at February 13, 2005 01:44 PM

Blast you Tony.T! I plead laptopping ...
Posted by cs at February 13, 2005 04:18 PM

different place/grief

When I was living near the biggest op-shop in the Southern Hemisphere, give or take a room, I would acquire books rather randomly, daily for a dollar, or sometimes getting lucky, in handfuls of ex-Library lots. Reading itself became random. One of the books I picked up in those days was A Grief Observed which I quickly put away.
Sorting through the chaos recently, I found it again, but this time it has found me.

... But there are other difficulties. 'Where is she now?' That is, in what place is she at the present time? But if H. is not a body — and the body I loved is certainly no longer she — she is in no place at all. And 'the present time' is a data point in our time series. It is as if she were on a journey without me and I said, looking at my watch, 'I wonder is she at Euston now.' But unless she is proceeding at sixty seconds a minute along this same timeline that all we living people travel by, what does now mean? If the dead are not in time, or not in our sort of time, is there any clear difference, when we speak of them, between was and is and will be?... From A Grief Observed (1961)

I drafted this a month ago. Thought of it when I read about an online chronicle of grief
(via Jerz's Literacy Weblog)

---

Comments: different place/grief

'A Grief Observed' is an extraordinary book, entirely accessible to the non-believer, although Lewis was, of course, a devout if unorthodox Christian.

And that's a hell of a link too. Thanks for it.
Posted by Dick at February 14, 2005 10:01 AM

The book is so honest - even down to its form. A parameter of a notebook, one notebook's worth because resolution is not easy.
Posted by boynton at February 14, 2005 01:23 PM

various

McSweeney's E-mail shorthand that civil war soldiers would likely have used in letters home had the technology been available to them
(via Making Light)

The second annual Metamorphosism.com St. Valentine's Day Limerick Contest...
Extra points this year for references to medical pioneers, microscopic animals and skin conditions. (via eeksy-peeksy)

The 365 Top selling songs of the 20th Century

---

Comments: various

wiL d 1Drz of d modern age nevr c'se?

PS: BURMA
Posted by Nabakov at February 12, 2005 01:55 PM

EOCAWKI

but to be fair, those work best when thumb-tapped by Shelby Foote.

PS - That's a polo term?
Posted by boynton at February 13, 2005 11:47 AM

BURMA = Be Undressed Ready My Angel- British Armed Forces circa 1944.

Now my nec k in is s on frie.
Posted by Nabakov at February 15, 2005 02:59 AM

Yes, ROGER that.

POLO is along the same lines (thanks Mr Google)
I had heard of NORWICH, but not EGYPT or ITALY.
Posted by boynton at February 15, 2005 08:58 AM

affirmation

Dust off your dial telephone and move to the suburbs - everything old and daggy is cool again. Geek Chic

(via media dragon)

---

Comments: affirmation?

How long before uncool is uncool again? Not long, I'm tipping.
Posted by Tony.T at February 10, 2005 02:17 PM

in the case of dial phones - never.

& in the case of Uncoolsville -
how long does it take to get there?
Posted by boynton at February 10, 2005 02:28 PM

Cool's a real paradox eh? boynton is cool even though she posts about daggy things like dial phones. I'm cool (headed) in a disaster but ultimately very daggy in the every day. Personally I think 'fashion victim' covers the uncool is cool thing. Fortunately, try as I sometimes might, I've never been rich or 'cool' enough to be one.
Posted by Link at February 10, 2005 02:51 PM

To be a cool in a crisis is as hip as it gets, Link.

I agree about the fashion victim thing. My brand of coolness has only ever been driven by economics.
What's going at the thrift this week.

Once it's been codified as cool it's a fad.
However - I'm still waiting for parkas to take off ina big way.
Posted by boynton at February 10, 2005 03:01 PM

Apparently lists in big letters are cool.
Posted by Tony.T at February 10, 2005 03:07 PM

There's certainly a mad rush to prove one's essential coolness going on...
OR NOT (in the case of b)

Most peculiar. I must do a Top songs of the 1930's and 40's and watch the comments ROLL IN.

(nb: Tony is referring to a HOT list of Top songs of the last 20 years featuring on Troppo and over at his place.)
Posted by boynton at February 10, 2005 03:19 PM

I'd certainly pop in the main title suite from 42nd Street.

The big parade goes on for years
It's a rhapsody of laughter and tears

Naughty

Bawdy

Gawdy

Sporty

42nd Street


I'd also pick Hang Out the Stars in Indiana.
Posted by Tony.T at February 10, 2005 03:38 PM

That

Miiddle
Bit

(naughty to sporty) is the best description of your blog I've ever read ;)
You really should pinch it, y'know.
Posted by boynton at February 10, 2005 03:45 PM

Done!

In the spirit of pinching, I'll say it was my idea, too.
Posted by Tony.T at February 10, 2005 03:49 PM

uncool:
http://www.crosleyradio.com/products/phones/cr_58.html
Posted by Kent at February 11, 2005 03:16 PM

if *that's* uncool, my name's not boynton.

(nb Link: Don't sell)

Thanks K - I'll explore that site properly soon.
Posted by boynton at February 11, 2005 03:26 PM

It has touchbuttons, no dial. Like a Gypsy Moth with a jet turbine.
Posted by Kent at February 11, 2005 04:09 PM

Now that's silly. TIGER moth, of the man-made variety.
Posted by Kent at February 11, 2005 04:09 PM

er Cancel that Call...

Just looked at the pictures, didn't I.

"Phone has the nostalgic rotary dial, it actually functions with push button technology. No more waiting for that rotary dial to make its excruciatingly slow rotation"

But the excruciantly slow rotation and the purr is the whole point for nostalgics like me. Still - if it has to be push button it may as well imitate a Tiger.
Oh did I mention that none of my five old phones works properly... ;)
Posted by boynton at February 11, 2005 04:26 PM

Since it's now cool to be uncool, that means being uncool is cool, which is uncool. Which is cool...in a kinda uncool way. And we're all cool with that, right?
Posted by Nabakov at February 12, 2005 01:59 PM

I always liked the K spelling
I mean mints rather than cigs.
(Guess I'm forever uncool. But the way the Allan's sign over the Yarra used to unfurl - that was koolsville)
Posted by boynton at February 13, 2005 12:10 PM

vandals

the wurst gallery Vintage Vandals
each artist was asked to find a framed piece of artwork at their local thrift store and manipulate it into a piece of their own

(via things)

---

Comments: vandals

Thank you so much for your link to the wonderful site of Things Magazine.

Curse you for bringing things magazine to my attention - now I will never get off this chair.
Posted by Brownie at February 14, 2005 06:36 PM

Yes - I curse the day I ever met 'Things'
every post, so many top links, especially for the retro minded.

Posted by boynton at February 14, 2005 07:00 PM

I magpie

why oh wry... did I choose to go into link-blogger overdrive when Jarrett was watching ;)

...and link to the first available hoist I see. Luckily the Creature of the Shade has found better examples.

...and overdo the brevity on yesterday's original bit of writing (a brief nod to the writerly content claim) I kept pruning the paragraph back. The line didn't look quite right.
(And then, another level of fear prevented me from ending the post with a twist.
That superstition about pre-empting things, the causality of a casual joke.)

Still, I don't really mind being called a magpie. ...

---

Boynton occupies an interesting bit of turf: Not much extended writing, just links, quotations, and a sentence or two. And yet it is, as she calls it, a "wry writerly blog," wry to an arid extreme that's off the American scale. The whole form -- literary blog without much writing -- may be distinctively Australian.

Such observations about my style and description have got me thinking.
I happened to call myself a writerly blog (and boynton for that matter) in that first flush of enthusiasm when you know nothing and it's all frontierland.
I soon realised that I wouldn't be talking much about writing or posting a great deal of original material. Even though I am always inspired by writers who do, and bloggers who have mastered the form of brief unfolding observation, or those who try to forge a hybrid of the link and the thinking, or those who try to engage with the form itself. And I still admire the essential coolness of the pure link blogger, where the links themslves do the talking.
(And meanwhile, is there sometimes poetry or a joke in the link itself? The smallest unit of blog currency.)

I remarked rather pretentiously in the air to another blogger the other day, that one of the hardest things about blogging is getting the balance right bewteen original material and links. I have so far resisted solutions like multiple blogs or sidelinks, or outsourcing or even the radical move of updating my description (along with the vintage template.)

(with apologies for the outbreak of meta, and/or the lack of links...and apparently the permalinks are on the blink?)

---

Comments: I magpie

I hope you don't fall into self-questioning on my account. Do it because it's fun, or don't do it.

To me, you arrange shiny found objects in a highly literary way. Perhaps it's just a mood you fell into while I was watching, but it's still an interesting blog-genre for category-hounds like me.

Cheers, Jarrett (of, not in)
Posted by Jarrett at February 10, 2005 02:35 AM

Problem is, original content can be terribly dribbly if one isn't careful. Much safer to be terse.
Posted by Kent at February 10, 2005 03:23 AM

In was unforgivable.I hope you forgive me.
Corrected/re-pinged.

You are right about the F word.
And it's not as much fun as it was.
But your post coincided with this line of thought - possibly always present.

However - these sort of infrequent posts don't sit well with me - especially after sitting for half a day. Maybe meta needs the privacy of a Comments Box? So I have placed half in that extended entry
in lieu of censoring altogether.

Felt too dribbly as Kent might say.


Posted by boynton at February 10, 2005 08:21 AM

Aren't you and Kent just dramatizing the process of writing? Many of us in writerly blogdom use the blog to dribble freely. The we come back and see if any of the spatterings look like Art. But most of us don't get art without dribbling first.
Posted by Jarrett at February 10, 2005 05:47 PM

A sound approach.
I wrote elsewhere this week that a free-writing space is a rare thing. A lesson about freeing up writing that needs to be learnt and re-learnt.

Though I do like terse, and suspect terse works well with readers who don't have a lot of time.
I am getting to understand the clear distinction between the terse post and the chatty comments parlour. It evolves that way.
Posted by boynton at February 10, 2005 07:25 PM

Indeed, Jarrett. Unfortunately the blog doesn't give us the chance to edit out the stains and keep the shiny words.
I suppose I should give up that dream.

And, IMHO one person's dribble is another's champagne. Which makes it even more muddled.
Posted by Kent at February 10, 2005 11:06 PM

extreme laundry

The back fence with a bad lean didn't seem so bad. It's just done its back.

In fact, the entire back fence is now being supported by one corner of the hills hoist. The clothes-line was shaky to start with, but seems to have risen to the challenge of shouldering the fallen. But hanging out washing now seems a perilous activity. It is impossible to peg the angle of greatest impact in the event of collapse, and avoid it. If the line were in a public place it would be condemned in orange netting. It needs a soundtrack.

---

Comments: extreme laundry


Dead link! And really, we need this visual!
Posted by Jarrett at February 8, 2005 05:46 PM

Thanks. Hope it measures up.
It was the angle of the visual...
Posted by boynton at February 8, 2005 05:55 PM

That ABC article made me look twice - written by Clare Valley? http://www.clarevalley.com.au
Posted by Kent at February 8, 2005 08:47 PM

There is, of course, only one test as to the Hills' stability.

Put a cricket ball in a stocking, hang it from one corner of the hoist and procede to improve your eye. And more importantly, your footwork.
Posted by Tony.T at February 9, 2005 10:24 AM

Kent - I was lazy linking yesterday and didn't even notice.
http://www.abc.net.au/southcoast/presenters/VALLEYCLAREVALLEY.htm
Related to Margaret River?

Tony.
I think my footwork would be marred by edgy glances and I'd be stumped well outside the crease (inside the pavillion).
Posted by boynton at February 9, 2005 04:13 PM

two years ago. my neighbour. who is not well. said. "don't ever talk to me again or visit please. or ring my sons and daughters. or police or the CATT team."

The side fence leans and leans. theres a gap the orange cat can squeeze through withought squeezing at all. a tree holds it up. almost. i don't know what to do.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at February 9, 2005 07:40 PM

Sisters, surely, sipping their wine.
Posted by Kent at February 10, 2005 04:06 AM

FXH - I think you may have chanelled my last bit of the story, which I chose to leave out. Well, the general territory thereof. Cats and Dogs.

Fences make good stories.

I hope the tree holds.

K- They could do a 2wineladies sort of show together.
Posted by boynton at February 10, 2005 08:31 AM

you said "It needs a soundtrack"?

Don't Fence Me In?
Patsy Cline - I fall to Pieces
Don Henley - Dirty Laundry
Hilary Duff - Come Clean
Bob Seger - Against the Wind
Thomas Dolby - AirWaves.

cheers from the Western District of Victoria.
Posted by Brownie at February 14, 2005 06:54 PM

I was thinking (but didn't explain properly) of a Bernard Herrmann sort of deal, sort of Psycho/Birds/Lost In Space - to underscore the psychic terror of approaching clothes-line gone wrong.
But I love you suggestions - esp Patsy Cline.
'I fall to pieces' could work very well.

I wish I was in the Western District. Cheers.
Posted by boynton at February 14, 2005 07:07 PM

misc linkage

Bella C. Landauer Collection of Aeronautical Sheet music (via Ramage)

Book (via Burp)
'For thirty-six weeks, a sketchbook was sent in random order between four artists: two in Brooklyn and two in Belfast'.

How To Build Modern Furniture - a photoset on Flickr (via Topher Tune's Times)

All About Scones (via Bells and Whistles)

---

Comments: misc linkage

Having recently posted a series of poems inspired by aeroplanes, these musical links are fascinating. I love the quiet, dogged fanaticism to be found in odd corners of the Internet.
Posted by Dick at February 8, 2005 05:34 PM

I loved those aeroplane poems of yours.

(If I'd been sharper I would have paired up the links)

It is indeed the lure of those odd corners (and the skill of sifters like Ramage who find em) that keeps the web wanderlust alive.
Posted by boynton at February 8, 2005 05:39 PM

universal

Yes a week is a long time in blogging and meteorology.
Just over a week ago, on one of our mid-thirties days, I read again of the snowbound blogospherical elsewhere, again of that contrast noted by Gary, at its most stark in January.
But then our weather went silly buggers anyway - so that we all could possibly meet in global jumpers for a day unmarked by seasonal distinction.

Which in turn made an earlier thought redundant. When I was still struck by the polarity of blogging narratives with weather, I came across this picture of the day via Toph.

Untitled, I'm not sure of the context, but the maginifcent Pine tree seemed to be a universal.
I had walked among the Pines only the day before, so the unknown image seemed especially familiar. Of no specific place, but this.

---

Comments: universal

I see you have indeed slipped Ms Fitsward with your language.
Posted by Flute at February 7, 2005 02:56 PM

Yes and hot on the heels of my nude quotes link.
shamelessly hitsward, or hitswall.
Posted by boynton at February 7, 2005 03:11 PM

I think you need to blow that up. There's someone deep in the shadows. I believe it could be David Hemmings' ghost.
Posted by Tony.T at February 7, 2005 09:34 PM

By the way, Flutey beat me to the punch language-wise.

Tsk.
Posted by Tony.T at February 7, 2005 09:35 PM

"There's someone deep in the shadows. I believe it could be David Hemmings' ghost."

No, it's actually Vanessa Redgrave going through the pockets of her dead agnet to find the contract that got her into this weirdo film in the first place.

"Damnit, I should done "Tom Jones" instead."
Posted by Nabakov at February 7, 2005 10:55 PM

Maybe he walked off the Moonlight Screen - I didn't know that was that playing? I thought it would have been the usual suspects.

Oh - 'that' Tom Jones...

All this talk of the weirdo film means I'll really have to hire the DVD now. Is there an alt soundtrack to synch?
Posted by boynton at February 8, 2005 12:05 PM

Of no specific place indeed, nor of specific genus. For that pine-like thing in the foreground of your picture could be a casaurina, no?
Posted by Jarrett at February 8, 2005 03:02 PM

"a pine-like thing" may be the etxent of my knowledge, Jarrett, but I'm glad you asked.

Don't think it's a casaurina, it's probably more your (literally in this case) Monterey - is that the same as the standard Radiata?

I chose this vague detail for the almost iconic background of blue/gold/gum.
The "no specific place" possibly meant a shorthand for the non-native landscape.
(I could have written more)

Non-native Pines (from California?) featured in childhood places, so my affection is nostalgic, if not strictly environmentally sound.
But I've just googled "Australian conifers" which has been interesting.
Posted by boynton at February 8, 2005 03:40 PM

moderating

...Since there are all those anonymous slime spammers and other malicemail promulgators and trolls, clueless wonders arrantly averse to collecting clues, deranged sorts, etc., around and with net access and no reasonable ways to play pin the tailtag on the donkey and have it -stay- there to filter the donkey out and block them from where they are yelling fire in crowded theaters or otherwise being disruptive and Excessively Annoying where in brick and mortary facilities they would be physically removed from the premises and banned from returning, there are major problems with spammers, horrendous signal ro noise ratios, ... to use SF convention terminology, the Internet is overrun with aan every-increasing infestation of parasites and ghosts and assorted other vermin related to them destroying the facilities and communities, that there aren't effective vermin suppression technologies and procedures for...

From a comment in a typically fascinating thread at Making Light. Some things I know about moderating conversations in virtual space.
Here’s a little bit of what I would have said on Liz Lawley’s panel on “Spammers, Trolls and Stalkers: The Pandora’s Box of Community.”

---

Comments: moderating

Every-one has a right to comment BUT if you don't like it RELAX,DELETE and get over it.
And in regards to people not writing their name, that's their right.
Posted by at February 7, 2005 06:32 PM

Quite.
Although I think I might prefer the
RELAX, DISEMVOWEL and get over it
approach, if I have to.
Posted by boynton at February 8, 2005 11:46 AM

weird books

Looking forward to being attacked (via PCL Linkdump)

rant

"Yours utterly, utterly pissed off"

A fine rant

utilities

Undervalued items on batman’s utility belt

(the hanky took my fancy)

the moment

i believe instead that to experience anything, it must be felt and wrung through body and mind utterly before thinking about thinking on it. only when the moment has passed will i allow myself another new moment, the one that shuts me in a room alone and quiet to write about it.

the space in between
perfect images, written photographs and the absolute

via wood s lot

more quotes

Is linking to nude quotes a smart move, traffic wise?

Actually I like the sound of unconscious quotes better.

Art quotes via fishbucket

---

Comments: more quotes

lt depends on the nude.
Posted by at February 4, 2005 06:13 PM

and the unconscious, I guess.

But I think the bare words might be enough.
Posted by boynton at February 4, 2005 06:21 PM

The bare body can speak a thousand word's.
Posted by at February 4, 2005 06:38 PM

I'd better find an art coat.
Posted by boynton at February 4, 2005 07:10 PM

Or an art stand !
Posted by at February 4, 2005 08:01 PM

topical

the weather

I watched 20 minutes of full on storm footage, with that litany of trees uprooted, cars afloat, jetties smashed like matchsticks, ferries retreating, power cuts, cranes snapping, train chaos, havoc wreaked.

The back fence with a bad lean didn't seem so bad. It's just done its back.

We all coolly put on our coats and went up the road for pasta in february

---

Comments: topical

this extreme weather is a manifestation of global warming, probably linked to the recent collapse of the antarctic ice cap.
It is only going to get worse.
Posted by millipede at February 4, 2005 02:35 PM

Probably
Posted by boynton at February 4, 2005 02:37 PM

I've never heard of a "litany" of trees uprooted, etc.

Although I might have missed the odd one while the power was out.
Posted by Tony.T at February 4, 2005 06:07 PM

Are you smashing my literary style like match-sticks?
Hmm - perhaps that should read "I listened."

"A repetitive or incantatory recital"

- and another reason - there was a rhyme to it.
Posted by boynton at February 4, 2005 06:15 PM

I had to prune the sentence of its offensive "of of",
so I added a "with" when I was there, defensively.
Posted by boynton at February 4, 2005 06:35 PM

The cruelty of the literal critic...
Posted by wen at February 6, 2005 07:48 AM

water off a duck's back...
Posted by boynton at February 6, 2005 06:57 PM

one liners

Thousands of one liners
Or (easier to read) here
(via grow a brain)

---

Comments: one liners

Why have one line when you can have a thousand?

That kinda collection used to be called a cookie file in the earlier BBS-ridden days of the internets.

But thanks for pointing it out. It's a resource that will allow me to become more proactive in adding value to my comments.
Posted by Nabakov at February 3, 2005 09:29 PM

I was wondering how long the 1990-2000 page took to load on dial-up. Probably a really, really, REALLY long time.
Posted by Tony.T at February 3, 2005 10:54 PM

Cookie files?
is that also cos the cookies aren't cross-referenced?
Bit like browsing the web in general, but the "nicefied" ones are easier on the eye.

Ironically, Tony, it's FAST here today.
Maybe it's because the storm has knocked out a lot of local web activity? (Dumb theory #103)
It's so un-slow that I've lost one of my standard blog whinges.
Posted by boynton at February 4, 2005 02:11 PM

Grab your pliers, then. Put an end to your lack of slow.
Posted by Tony.T at February 4, 2005 06:10 PM

I spoke too soon, wouldn't you know.

It's slowing.
Posted by boynton at February 4, 2005 06:24 PM

"Mark Waugh's batting beautifully; he looks set for another fine century. He's out!"
Posted by Tony.T at February 4, 2005 11:34 PM

that should be Tony.G, shouldn't it?
Posted by boynton at February 5, 2005 01:34 PM

old patterns

Convenient pattern viewing areas are set out in all our Lincraft stores so you can leisurely flip through our pattern books and decide the styles best for your needs.

Unlike Flute, I find the news of Lincraft's receivership sad, and I'm don't even sew.
But my mother did, and we'd often call into Lincraft in Main street Croydon (oft, of yore) where we junior misses would pore over the heavy manuscripts in the hushed scholarly tones of haberdashery. Deciding styles so, or leisurely looking at the pictures.

1950's Uncut Simplicity Patterns at VintageCat

Patterns from the Past - Simplicty 1970's


and whither haberdashery?

---

Comments: old patterns

...so you can leisurely flip through our pattern books...

I rest my case.
Posted by Harry Lime at February 3, 2005 04:59 PM

Too leisurely for Lincraft it seems...

& I'm nostalgic at leisure, Harry.
Posted by boynton at February 3, 2005 05:05 PM

Those lovely 50's dresses could be sewn, but alas, the wasp waists are long gone. We need some 50's underwear, B.
Posted by wen at February 6, 2005 07:53 AM

Were they wasp waists for wasted wasps?
Oh dress, where is thy sting?
Posted by bee at February 6, 2005 06:39 PM