fords

"Fords to the left, Fords to the right, But Ford's never tell, what they see every night..."
Up and Down The 8 Mile Road

"We won't go far—just down the boulevard--"
Come Take A Trip in My Automobile

America on the Move Music and Mobility Cars! Cars! Cars!

(via Jerz's Literacy Weblog)

words

word association (via diversionz)

I am

drums

Acoustics researchers at IRC have completed a comprehensive survey of the nature of the disturbance caused by air conditioner noise. The researchers found that annoyance was highest among neighbours who lived in quiet neighbourhoods and who did not own air conditioners themselves...

However it was the noise level relative to the ambient background noise that caused neighbours to complain about being disturbed. Specifically, when the air conditioner noise level was at least 5 decibels (dB) above the ambient background noise, complaints increased significantly. (source)

In this quiet neighbourhood, the ambient noise is only disturbed by bouts of nocturnal winter ping pong and summer monster air con. But just down the road I did hear a house almost exploding with the boom tish of drumming teenager as I walked past with the blue heeler who usually throws in a few bars of barks at least 5 dB over the ambient noise level. We should all go virtual.

Ken's Virtual Drumkit (via Unity of Multi)

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Comments: drums

OMG LOL, that might be us!
We have a house with no air conditioner but a monster unit next door. We have a drum kit set up in my daughter's room which is at the front, but we have a "not before 10 AM or after 8 PM" rule. And our house borders on a large dog walking park, too.
Cruickshank Park...?
Posted by Helen at May 16, 2004 11:03 AM

Alas - nowhere so Kool as Yville, Helen.
(I wish.)
This is a small pocket of sleepy x-ville ...OMG boroondara OMG...which is why I'm turnin' all middle-suburban and notcing these ambient intrusions.
Perhaps it's time I headed back to the inner city where a drumkit would never be noticed above the sirens, and where a monster air conditioner two doors down was a striking piece of contemporary urban sculpture.
I think your house rules re drumming are very civilised btw.

throw the ball

takes me back to drama school...
Throw the Ball (via Exclamation Mark)

old fords

A 64 Ford party
1963 and 1964 Ford Brochures

67 Interior
1967 Ford brochure


The Old Car Manual Project
(via J Walk)

ping pong party

so there we all were playing ping pong under the fluoro in the carport late into the night
suburban moonlight

Even though it seemed a suitably retro activity - perhaps it wasn't quite retro enough? Reading this article on the sonics almost prompts me to swap the foam for the old fashioned paddle.

In the old days, rallies would be 30 or 40 strokes. There was a dialogue between two players that even a child could understand." The beautiful sound of"kerplock-plock, kerplock-plock" was reduced, according to table tennis writer Howard Jacobson, to "squelch-plock, squelch-plock...

Mastering the neurophysiological skills of a sport is not just learning the game. It’s attuning yourself to the inner life of the sport, to the poetry in motion. A player masters the game the way a thief opens a safe: ear to the combination lock, breaking into the inner chambers through the subtleties. Players become part of a community that knows what it feels like when the shot is hit right.

Chop slam The Inner life of Ping Pong


Of course I have to work on the outer life of Ping Pong too.

In this lesson, you should try to hit with your partner 100 times without miss on both the right- and left-hand sides...
Say out loud, "ping", when the ball bounces on your side of
the table and "pong" when it touches your paddle
Jump when the ball bounce on your side of the table

Lesson Seven
HOW TO SERVE A CHOPPED BALL
When your serve is carrying your game, you are on a win streak.
Paddy-caking rallies, however intense and arobatic they may
appear, are for the birds. The serves become the nails for the coffin.
Conversely, good returning of serve can stop the bleeding.

From How to Play Ping Pong

uncooked

Although half tempted, I managed to avoid using this phrase in the previous post...
And this. And that.

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Comments: uncooked

At least you didn't go off half cooked.. err, you know what I mean!
Posted by Scott Wickstein at May 7, 2004 08:18 PM

cook's cottages

All over historic North Yorkshire and Cleveland, from Middlesbrough to Great Ayton; Redcar to Marske; and Staithes to Whitby; there are places with Cook connections to visit and explore. This area is known as Captain Cook Country
Captain James Cook Celebrated North Country Navigator

(via Plep)

This cottage in Great Ayton looks familiar, and it is interesting for a Melburnian to see Cook's Father's House aka Cook's Cottage in context.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of Cooks' Cottage, the home of Captain James Cook's parents, being shipped from England and rebuilt in Melbourne...
Despite initial claims of a close link to Captain Cook himself, it is not certain whether the pioneer navigator ever stayed in the cottage. The Age

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Comments: cook's cottages


We have always had a 'thing' about Cook in my family. I have regularly derided a so-called explorer who could sail past the heads of Sydney Harbour and not go in. They are super impressive from off the coast, what was he thinking? Still, he had just had to make a toilet stop for the kids in Botany Bay, maybe he was just trying to get some kilometres done before it got too dark... I don't know.

Other than that, his major defect was the amount of imagination he put into naming things. Whitsunday Passage because he sailed through on Whitsunday, Thursday Island, discovered on a Thursday, New South Wales because it looked like South Wales, etc. Please - these things create lasting impressions, for goodness sake! We refer to such names as "Cookism's" and look out for them everywhere. Our hypothetical worst case Cookism (as yet unseen) would be to name a lovely flowing stream 'Wet Creek'. You sure don't need to drive too far in the outback to find a 'Dry Creek' but the converse has yet to show up.
Posted by phlip at May 7, 2004 03:58 PM

have a captain cook here...
http://www.belltrees.com/landsales.html
Posted by boynton at May 10, 2004 12:55 PM

poem hunter

PoemHunter.com Poetry Search Engine (via bifurctaed rivets)

The news headlines section is a good resource. In the current crop, it's interesting to see 8.12pm Australian up for literary prize

wonder what 8.13 pm brings?

names

boynton is a very rare female name.
Very few females in the US are named boynton.
Be proud of your unique name!
source namestatistics.com

...and I imagine there are even fewer females named boynton in Australia...

(as for my real names, first and last, I would have to be proud of my uniqueness in the US apparently. But my middle name sits at #86)

(via J walk)

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Comments: names

Sorry - a friend has alerted me to the fact that I tell a lie.
My first name IS a unique name for Males in the US.
But not so unique for us females apparently - and sits at #37 - even more common than my middle name.
Who knew?...
I was distracted.
Posted by boynton at May 6, 2004 10:10 PM

I spy with my little limpid pool peeper, a name listed at Number 11.

http://www.ozracing.net.au/cgi-bin/rsb/public/form_format.cgi/0805M_V_.FRM+3

Resplendent in:- BLUE, OLD ROSE CROSSED SASHES, SILVER SLEEVES, BLUE AND SILVER QUARTERED CAP, OLD ROSE BOW

Female hoop atop.

What could it all mean?

As ein Stein once cryptically said: "An omen, is an omen is a no man is an island except after 'c' which has 28 days except in the leap year of the dog that got the cream that lived in the house that Jack built."

Simple '99', when you look at it that way.

A sovereign and a half each way if you don't mind, my good turf accountant.
Posted by Sedgwick at May 7, 2004 03:57 PM

Just been informed by the better 3/4s that we shall be gracing MVRC tomorrow on account her deciding to use a dining package freebie she obtained by being part of a MVRC survey. (Errrr, you need a survey to find out if hiking the price of Cox Plate entry to $50 had anything to do with the smallest crowd for a decade?!)

Anyhow, we shall cast critical eyes over the aforementioned No. 11. (a) Before the race to see whether an investment of Kerry Packer proportions would be justified. (b) After the race (if said investment comes unstuck) with an eye to broadening Doug's dietary intake.
Posted by Sedgwick at May 7, 2004 05:20 PM

OMG - 'What a thrill!!!'

What could it all mean? A wager on myself?


Posted by boynton at May 7, 2004 08:11 PM

She rarely has a tip y'know.
Posted by Tony.T at May 7, 2004 08:13 PM

This is getting sillier! (And all true.) She has been informed this evening that she was the winning contestant in the competition to suggest a new name for the MVRC members' news magazine.


Thus, on Cox Plate day 2004 the Vice Regal couple will be looking down on the hoi polloi in between knocking back plate after plate of complimentary truffle-larded lobster humidor nestled on a bed of taylor made honey-glazed broad beans and glass upon glass free Moet et Morwell from a complimentary dining box overlooking the finishing post. How to invest the $10,000 complimentary betting money? (Sorry, that was the mandatory untrue bit.)

(However, being Fawlty MVRC Towers, we could end up with now't more than powdered egg over our faces and a cold cup of Uncle Tone's herbal tea spilled on our laps by Narelle Smiggins the work experience table-top dancer.)
Posted by Sedgwick at May 7, 2004 08:55 PM

Many large parcels of bit-sized nourishment headed in Doug's direction on the morrow.

The horse-racing patois is I believe, "ran an inglorious last".
Posted by Sedgwick at May 8, 2004 06:08 PM

Yes...

I was too busy too get to the TAB. Luckily.

But I did tune in time to to hear the words:

"...And last of all was Boynton"
Posted by boynton at May 9, 2004 07:38 PM

Ne'er
despair.
Dylan
willin'...

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
Posted by Sedgwick at May 9, 2004 10:38 PM

Where have all the donkeys gone?
(Gawn to douglas every one...)

But in the spirit of Seabiscuit I hope Dylan is indeed prophetic, and I shall be keeping an eye on the form of Boynton.

(btw - congrats to Mrs. S for the win and may the Cox Plate deliver the Moet to the Vice Regals.)
Posted by boynton at May 10, 2004 12:29 AM

communications

How to Make Friends By Telephone (via Incoming Signals)

The Bavarian Pigeon Corps (1903) (via Penny Dreadful)

ask dog lady

To bump up the waning canine quotient on boynton: Ask Dog Lady ...lighthearted advice – and wisdom – with a serious nip if neccssary - on dogs, life and love
(via fishbucket)

and via the favourite sites page, a link to Valentine's Dog by Lynda Barry

random pics

Let the fun begin... says this Random Personal Picture Finder (via Twists and Turns)

I've always found a standard Google Image search to be both fairly random and fun. You can almost rely on at least one of the 20 thumbnails being the odd man out

So often there is a plant hiding among the poets, or even a saco de torro somehow finding its way into a Thomas Hardy collage (These are real leather. They are made from big herd sires. The bulls don't give these up easy)

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Comments: random pics

Odd men out?

Back recently from a trip to the Horn of Africa, I was looking for images of the crazy Marabou Storks found there.

The image search returned images falling into three distinct categories:
* women in fluffy lingerie;
* fishing flies; and
* the storks themselves.

The combination of lures, sexy nightwear and storks seemed a little uncanny, as though the Googleverse was trying to send me a message or something...?
Posted by talis at May 6, 2004 02:00 PM

"Lingerie" (or the genre) may be the "S" or "E" of the tiles in the Goggle-Images Scrabble Box?

Though it's the "Q"s like lures that make the mix exciting.

Trying to find the x link is rather diverting...All I can say is it's a good 'game'...

(Still struggling with the Hardy/Saco connection though)
Posted by boynton at May 6, 2004 02:56 PM

slogan

This recent search from the referrer logs might just be my new description

retro tv

TV Will Change your Life Australian House and Garden, September 1956

It's going to have quite a big impact on our living.... It could mean actual room change-overs.

however:
Those who prophecy a decline in culture could be wrong

This is from the Social Aspects section from a fabulous site:
Domestic TV Sets in Australia The Valve Era, 1956~1970

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Comments: retro TV

"It could mean actual room change-overs" -

you mean someone actually prophesied the dullest manifestation of reality tv? -- shoulda pulled the plug then.
Posted by wen at May 3, 2004 08:25 PM

oz radio

an idle search for Pan led to The Peter Pan radio
This is yet another bizarre offering from Melbourne, a very modern creation

from the wonderful Oz Radio Australian Bakelite Radios

See also the Healing range
What the hell was going on in Melbourne in the 1940's and 50's?

found qotd

Pan pan situations may develop into Mayday situations

(there is always a found quote of the day glinting in the googlepile)

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Comments: found qotd

Happy Birthday To Me!
Posted by Nora at May 1, 2004 04:40 PM

http://fly.wabyn.net/FlightTraining/PSTAR/3Qs.htm#3.18
Posted by boynton at May 1, 2004 04:51 PM

A Joke never gains an enemy but often loses a friend...
Posted by Rod Kratochwill at May 6, 2004 05:51 AM

Hope I haven't lost any...
(or I might have to find some more)

A good joke is hard to find. ;)
Posted by boynton at May 6, 2004 03:15 PM

prune pipe

Prune pipe from Classic Pipe Shape Chart

(via Incoming Signals)

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Comments: prune pipe

Fancy m'self as a very cavalier pipe type. Indeed most fancy.
Posted by Sedgwick at May 1, 2004 03:59 PM

Lovat
Posted by boynton at May 1, 2004 04:16 PM

mayday

the tail of doug brushed the light that fell on the table knocking over the small alarm clock that suddenly started playing a tune maybe the william tell overture or mission impossible but it may as well have been the first of may by the bee gees in full tilt midi because I had managed to catch a few stray bars of that song in the small hours as the radio imaginatively welcomed in may.

Meanwhile Come and hear Miss Hotson...
from Mayday Pictures at Melbourne's Mayday

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Comments: mayday

A mayday present?
Posted by nora at May 6, 2004 04:34 PM

lizzie lines

lines from a late night lizzie borden verse box session (via quiddity)

if the parameters start to get a bit bleak, there's always Dog Lover to restore order.