100 more things

49. Tim Henman has a tennis court at his new home in Oxfordshire which he has never used.


80. Fifty-seven Bic Biros are sold every second - amounting to 100bn since 1950.


81. George Bernard Shaw named his shed after the UK capital so that when visitors called they could be told he was away in London.


94. Bill Gates does not have an iPod.

BBC 100 things An almanac of quirky snippets that we didn't know this time last year (via J walk)

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Comments: 100 more things

Tim is my favorite sportsperson, having comprehensively supplanted the previous incumbent, Eddie the Eagle who I think was either a one-legged lumberjacking Moomba Masters skier or an expatriate visually impaired Jamaican bobsledder. Anyhow, Tim's other claim to fame is that he also has a winning killer instinct that he hasn't yet taken out of its gift wrapping.

We wish him all the best at the traditional and time-honoured Qatar ExxonMobil Open on January 2.
http://www.timhenman.org/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsId=284723&itype=5883&icategoryid=496
Posted by Sedgwick at December 31, 2005 05:29 PM

"The power of the mind is very underestimated" TH
http://www.timhenman.org/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsId=286112&itype=5883&icategoryid=496

Wonder if Henman has played the Hopman?
Posted by boynton at January 2, 2006 08:57 PM

I bought most of those Bics since about 1970. In a list of all-time essential pieces of kit, the Bic's near the top.

(I think I feel a meme coming on...)

All the best for an entirely wonderful 2006, B.
Posted by Dick at January 3, 2006 11:01 AM

I don't know if the Henman stat illustrates the reason he hasn't yet won a grand slam or if he simply has no friends.
Posted by Russell Allen at January 3, 2006 01:54 PM

or does he just have one unused court (still gift-wrapped) along with several others, frequently used?

Happy New Year, Miss B.
Posted by wen at January 3, 2006 05:18 PM

÷ of the 57 per second won't write for longer than 57 seconds?
Thanks, Dick, and happy 06 to you and yours.

Russell, I wonder if he'll gain a wild card entry at his place?

Most likely, wen, a gift for when he's not present?
Happy New Year
Posted by boynton at January 3, 2006 07:22 PM

I yam also brilliant, and do not have an I-POD.

I DO have a toy with a mouse that goes rounds and rounds. It is grouse!
Posted by Chairman Mao the Burmese Cat at January 3, 2006 10:18 PM

Hmm... wonder if Tim H has any of your rellies in his rackets? ;)
Posted by boynton at January 4, 2006 04:45 PM

I wish I could say, who is Tim Henman ?
Posted by andy Farnsworth at January 7, 2006 08:25 PM

I'd rather be able to say: who is hewitt, ll?
Posted by boynton at January 10, 2006 05:45 PM

trog blog

Man drinking coffee in cave

(one of many wonderful images on show at dirty beloved)


Ok - so the forecast for New Year's eve turns out to be ridiculous:

Fine, although cloud increasing. Fresh, gusty northwest wind shifting milder
southerly late afternoon. Min 19 Max 42

37 and rising today. In lieu of swimming pool or air conditioner, it's time to head down to the cellar here and turn troglodyte until the weather behaves. Who knows I may see in the new year staring at a string of onions hanging from a six foot ceiling drinking commemorative bottles of trivia red or whatever's over in the wine rack.

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Comments: trog blog

Lacking a cellar, I'd have to resort to hiding under the house. Trouble is there's something living down there already; it's either a gutter possum, a wombat or a street person and I'm not too keen to find out which.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 30, 2005 03:12 PM

You need a Simpson and Day for the Cella-fauna as I imagine these creatures can be distinguished by their cries?
(Think we have all that and the odd rat who runs with the possums...)
Posted by boynton at December 30, 2005 03:26 PM

Duck!
Posted by Tony.T at December 30, 2005 03:36 PM

That sounds like the alarm cry of a flocking street person to me. Now they'll all scurry away like meerkats or praire dogs and it'll be impossible to winkle them out.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 30, 2005 05:39 PM

In North America the cries of the homeless are easily distinguished from the defensive hissing of native oppossums. Sadly lacking in wombats we must make do for sub-floor pests with raccoons and a few other nocturnal mammalian generalists.
When the cowboys in the old cowboy movies call one another a "polecat" they mean not the civet, but that black-and-white catlike creature with the long bushy tail and the mincing walk.
Skunks - they get under houses too.
One time I had a little sort of studio space away from the main house and would spend too many hours at what it was I was doing then and retire suddenly and gratefully to a small couch that rested against a wall that was built against the hill the studio was on. So that actual ground level on the upper half-floor was right about where I was laying, just the other side of the uninsulated wood paneling.
I awoke there one night to an unmistakable and powerful musk, and heard the scrape and scratch of a small animal foraging close at hand. Thinking I should only be still and try not to alarm it I did just that and lay for a while sending urgent mental commands through the wall as best I could to please go, there were many wonderful things to find and eat all about the compound elsewhere, especially at the compost pile some hundred and two yards to the northwest; suddenly a visitor's small undisciplined ill-mannered high-strung city-bred terrier began yapping hysterically and frantically circling the side-yard edge of the studio, and then it dashed straight under a gap in the upper floor. With predictable but nonetheless exciting consequences for all three of us.
Posted by Juke Moran at December 30, 2005 07:24 PM

new flu

...in 2005 a new type of flu came to the world's attention: avian flu. See the effect it had on overall “flu” searches as news and information about this new strain proliferated.

Google Zeitgeist Nature via things

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Comments: new flu

all that glitters is not Gould.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at December 28, 2005 01:05 AM

or just a could.
Posted by boynton at December 28, 2005 10:16 AM

Why would I care? This is only a simian flu.

What have you to say about cat flu? Cats are important. We do not likest to cough and be imperfect.

Of course I am still impossibly handsome when I coughs.
Posted by Mao the Burmese Cat at December 29, 2005 01:45 PM

sounds reminscent of Peter and the Wolf...
What kind of Flu are you if you can't Fly?
Posted by boynton at December 30, 2005 02:50 PM

It's ok if you can't as long as you flew...
Posted by Mao the Burmese Cat at December 31, 2005 01:41 AM

a lot of my snacks just flew into my claws.
I wait by the water.

and look forward to duckshooters getting sick from handling their kill when the season opens in february, oh yes I do.
Posted by Kitty Brown at December 31, 2005 03:42 PM

overall

...and speaking of overall flu searches, overalls have been good to boynton overall with a tidy dividend of google searchers landing here. This post can only help with the figures in the new year.

qotd

Merry Christmas sanity can you hold the line please

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Comments: qotd

no doubt...
December is mixed up sometimes...
Posted by michelle at December 23, 2005 06:21 PM

It's a fun sentence in which to play swapsy with a comma, a question mark and a couple of !!
Posted by peacay at December 23, 2005 09:03 PM

A few lines to hold on to during the time when conspiracy of love invades too many hearts ...

Someone to hold you too close,
Someone to hurt you too deep,
Someone to sit in your chair,
To ruin your sleep.
Someone to need you too much,
Someone to know you too well,
Someone to pull you up short,
To put you through hell.
Someone you have to let in,
Someone whose feelings you spare,
Someone who, like it or not,
Will want you to share
A little, a lot.
Someone to crowd you with love,
Someone to force you to care,
Someone to make you come through,
Who’ll always be there,
As frightened as you
Of being alive.
Stephen Sondheim, “Being Alive” (music by Sondheim)
Posted by jozef Imrich at December 23, 2005 11:30 PM

A few lines to hold on to during the time when conspiracy of love invades too many hearts ...

Someone to hold you too close,
Someone to hurt you too deep,
Someone to sit in your chair,
To ruin your sleep.
Someone to need you too much,
Someone to know you too well,
Someone to pull you up short,
To put you through hell.
Someone you have to let in,
Someone whose feelings you spare,
Someone who, like it or not,
Will want you to share
A little, a lot.
Someone to crowd you with love,
Someone to force you to care,
Someone to make you come through,
Who’ll always be there,
As frightened as you
Of being alive.
Stephen Sondheim, “Being Alive” (music by Sondheim)
Posted by jozef Imrich at December 23, 2005 11:30 PM

Lovely Jozef, tres poignant. Hi boyn. Try as I might I think I'd have to live under a log (no internet under logs) to succesfully and blithely ignore this Christmas thang.

However, I saw things that made me smile at the beach today. An Indian family swimming fully clothed - for hours and a Jack Russell Terrier x who chased a ball with such enthusiasm that I wish I were he. After several runs he was looking a bit limpy and arthritic on one back leg, but still smiling his little head off and still keen for more. Pain? What pain? What is pain?

Posted by Link at December 24, 2005 12:18 AM

It was just one of those rhetorical questions ;)

People were losing it on Thursday but were courteous around car-parks on Friday.

Thanks Jozef - :)

Great obs again, Link.
My Lab used to do that, the jack is never that keen.
But the two used to dig in the sand for hours.
Why Doug dug, only he knew. But it was good enough for her, and she assisted him in this industrious enterprise until his legs ran out.
Posted by boynton at December 24, 2005 11:45 AM

Merry Thingo - No need for directions here:

http://media.putfile.com/Wizards-in-Winter40

http://video.insert.com/videosearch?q=christmas+lights

insert=google
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at December 24, 2005 10:39 PM

Best to you and yours Miss B.
Posted by cs at December 25, 2005 08:11 AM

Ah, sanity, so hard to find so easy to lose.

Happy holidays!
Posted by npiombino at December 26, 2005 01:45 PM

Merci fx. shall watch anon avec broadband in...some suburb...
will keep me from wandering up the ... road.

Thanks, cs. et vous.

Thanks Nick.
I managed to avoid Sanity, shopping in Sanity, in the mad rush, thankfully.
Posted by boynton at December 27, 2005 09:59 PM

parties past

Swapatorium: Office Christmas party 1973


Office Christmas party from Kigu of London photo archive


Christmas Party Dance 1955

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Comments: parties past

the 1973 office party looks even more dull and boring than the one I will be attending in a few in a few days time.
Posted by andy Farnsworth at December 20, 2005 11:15 PM

the 1973 office party looks even more dull and boring than the one I will be attending in a few in a few days time.
Posted by andy Farnsworth at December 20, 2005 11:15 PM

The 1973 party loks even more dull and boring than the one that I will attend in a few days time.
Posted by andy Farnsworth at December 20, 2005 11:16 PM

sorry about the multiple comments
Posted by andy Farnsworth at December 20, 2005 11:17 PM

I like multiple comments, Andy.

Yes the Kigu party rocks in comparison, despite
"champagne and all."
Posted by boynton at December 21, 2005 11:41 AM

Beat ya home. My serve.
Posted by Nabakov at December 22, 2005 01:05 AM

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tweedlebopper/67656623/in/set-566529/
Posted by boynton at December 22, 2005 11:21 AM

Oh. My.

Just heading off to get tanked at mine! 300 public servants, woo hoo...
Posted by armaniac at December 22, 2005 01:20 PM

Can you submit the report ASAP?
Posted by boynton at December 22, 2005 08:05 PM

retro caravans

Vintage Caravans - Australian Touring Heritage

(with many pics to induce teardrops of nostalgia or solastalgia)

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Comments: retro caravans

Scroll down a little bt for a funky old caravan of your very own that you can receive in the post.

http://www.thetintinshop.uk.com/acatalog/The_Tintin_Shop_Atlas___Cars_16.html

Damn shame though that they don't stock the Alfa Romeo from "The Calculas Affair" or the big old Buick from "Land Of Black Gold".
Posted by Nabakov at December 19, 2005 09:05 PM

very nice...
and wen might be happy to see: "Tintin and Snowy passengers in the caravan"

and this is an old link that I often return to:
http://www.teapottery.co.uk/Mid-Size_Teapots_4/Caravan_Teapot_42.htm
Posted by boynton at December 20, 2005 12:15 PM

cross words

Sixteen Across Forty-one short stories by Holly Gramazio

All of the stories are set in Adelaide, and they're appearing twice a week, one every Monday and Thursday, with each story acting as a crossword clue.

via kevan, as above
 

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Comments: cross words

I didn't know Adelaide was so rich in experiences that 2 whole stories a week could come from there. A fella once said to me 'the best thing you can do in Adelaide is go to the airport and go anywhere else'
Posted by Russell Allen at December 18, 2005 11:27 AM

The best thing you can do in any other Australian town is to leave it and come here.
Posted by Kent at December 18, 2005 04:38 PM

Across in the city of churches sounds pleasantly cryptic.


Posted by boynton at December 19, 2005 12:15 PM

Nah, just appropriately parochial and defensive, full of false self-importance and suffering a mild inferiority complex. This place may be a shithole, but it's a quiet and comfy one.
Posted by Kent at December 21, 2005 05:08 AM

Nothing beats a glide along the Torrens in Popeye
Posted by boynton at December 21, 2005 11:37 AM

well said Kent.
Posted by andy Farnsworth at December 21, 2005 08:50 PM

I'm here at the moment, it's good. Apart from the full extent of this ridiculous Australian "summer in December" thing.
Posted by Kevan at December 23, 2005 02:02 AM

Yes yesterday was very ridiculous in Melbourne.

Welcome to Aus, Kevan.
Posted by boynton at December 24, 2005 11:29 AM

golden era

Pencil, Miss?

From So, Unafraid, He Faced The Setting Sun: Newspaper Ads From The Golden Era of Advertising

Summer days leave you with frayed nerves and exhausted energy...

via the ultimate insult

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Comments: golden era

Once young of course, and thoughtless,
Posted by rollo at December 15, 2005 12:48 PM

the husband died

at the wrong time
Posted by boynton at December 15, 2005 01:49 PM

Maybe the old lady preferred selling pencils to falling into the clutches of these guys:

http://www.davetill.com/ads1920s/38_salvationarmy.htm
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 17, 2005 01:37 AM

I wonder whether the girl bought a pencil as well as life insurance. Wish they'd finish these stories.
Posted by wen at December 17, 2005 06:50 AM

And in the "there is nothing new under the sun" department, who else has spotted those TV ads for superannuation - like the one where a rich git asks his valet for the morning paper and coffee, then the same scene is played with the roles reversed?

How much money did they spend in the focus groups, I wonder, to come up with an ad campaign based on an idea as old as the 1920s/30s.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 17, 2005 11:34 AM

2B or not 2B?

Intriguing wen. Mayeb it's been waiting for someone to take up the thread? ;)

Have not seen that ad, Gummo. Will have to pencil in commercial TV viewing time this week.
Posted by boynton at December 17, 2005 02:25 PM

Please buy some cleaning products miss. Just a pack or two of laundry detergent maybe.

"Oh shit, here's that pesky old bat again. Just because I let her talk me into buying the shit once -"

Then like an arrow came a strange thought.

The young woman's gaze went past the K-Mart dress, the op-shop coat and rested on the face with the wistful eyes from which fear looked out - the fear that dwells with the aged poor.

The girl knew her story. Once young of course, careful with money, happy with a husband and home. They had good times. They saved for their retirement, he had company superannuation, he paid his life insurance premiums punctually.


Before he retired, they bought the campervan they were going to tour the country but witihn a week after collecting his gold watch, he died. There was no company superannuation - all the funds had disappeared into a bank account in the Caymans. The life insurance company had been declared bankrupt -she would be lucky to get five cents in the dollar on the policy. The widow clung onto her home, and joined a party-plan sales organisation to supplement her income.

So to the young woman came these drumming questions that would not down - "Could this happen to me? Could it? Old, helpless, forlorn ... no money ... unwanted? What can I do to make sure that I will never come to this?"

There you go - let's see somebody top that then.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 17, 2005 05:03 PM

"0h brother, there’s that patronizing young airhead again. Just because I sympathized with her once-“

Then like an arrow came a strange thought.

The widow's gaze went past the drab uniform of corporate servitude, the hopeless stab of personality, the unremarkable bob and rested on the bland face with the cold eyes from which fear looked out – the fear that dwells with young urban mice, prematurely prudent.

The widow knew her story. Young of course, and thoughtless, so many daily units of calories, alcohol and magazines, unable to even consider a campervan, drifting into this... typing reports to people who didn’t want them..."


- actually I'm off to St Vinnies later to search for a Hopeless Coat. Sounds rather cool.


Posted by boynton at December 19, 2005 11:58 AM

Touche, Ms B.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 19, 2005 03:14 PM

They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Keyboard But When I Started to Blog! --

"Can he really blog?" a girl whispered. "Heavens no!" Arthur exclaimed. "He never wrote an original thought in his life."

Arthur had just blogged "Cronulla." The room rang with applause. I decided that this would be a dramatic moment for me to make my debut. To the amazement of all my friends, I strode confidently over to the keyboard and sat down.

"Jack is up to his old tricks," somebody chuckled. The crowd laughed. They were all certain that I couldn't write a single sentence.

"Can he really blog?" I heard a girl whisper to Arthur.

"Heavens, no!" Arthur exclaimed "He never wrote an original phrase in all his life... But just you watch him. This is going to be good."

I decided to make the most of the situation. With mock dignity I drew out a silk handkerchief and lightly dusted off the keys. Then I rose and gave the swivel chair a quarter of a turn, just as I had seen an imitator of TBogg do in a vaudeville sketch.

"What do you think of his execution?" called a voice from the rear.

"We're in favor of it!" came back the answer, and the crowd rocked with laughter.

Then I Started to Blog

Instantly a tense silence fell on the guests. The laughter died on their lips as if by magic. I typed through the first few paras of Swift's "A Modest Proposal. I heard gasps of amazement. My friends sat breathless -- spellbound!

I blogged on and as I blogged I forgot the people around me. I forgot the hour, the place, the breathless readers. The little world I lived in seemed to fade -- seemed to grow dim -- unreal. Only the words were real. Only the ideas and visions it brought me. Visions as beautiful and as changing as the wind blown clouds and drifting moonlight that long ago inspired the master essayist.

It seemed as if the master essayist himself were speaking to me -- speaking through the medium of blogs-- not in words but in polemics. Not in sentences but in exquisite posts!

http://www.passaicparc.com/killer/caples.html
Posted by Nabakov at December 19, 2005 08:55 PM

Right...

It's Mitsubishi's End of Wage Agreement Run-Out!

Don't miss out! These prices can't last!

Order your new Mitsubishi before the Enterprise agreement runs out on August 30 2006!

http://www.davetill.com/ads1920s/27_summercoal.htm
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 20, 2005 06:39 AM

"It sounded so convincing that I filled out the coupon requesting the Free Demonstration Lesson"

(Arthur is a fascinating character and deserves his own blog/post.)

Read blogs regularly and surprise yourself with your keen knowledge of values – to say nothing of your increased knowledge of every day affairs
http://www.davetill.com/ads1920s/26_humannature.htm

And indeed Sir- there is surely nothing new in the Sun.


Posted by boynton at December 20, 2005 12:23 PM

close local lights

Last night to my suprise I discovered a small pocket of illuminated houses a few streets away. Although now I think about it, I had noticed the outline of an unwired Santa in the second storey of a house on the corner earlier in the year. I thought it was some quirk. But no - it's a whole colony of santas down there- on skis, in chimneys, shooting the breeze in pairs on the porch. Unlike Ivanhoe, happily there was no crowd, a few kids on scooters among the low audience figures chatting casually with the owner-operators of the show, in the spotlight of a well known front lawn.

---

Comments: close local lights

I would love to see the illuminated houses without the crowd, Boynton.
Could you tell me where they are?
Posted by Getting in the Christmas spirit at December 14, 2005 06:38 PM

Somewhere in Melbourne...
Posted by boynton at December 14, 2005 07:08 PM


You obviously haven't got the xmas spirit
So evasive........THANKS FOR NOTHIN!!!!!!!
Posted by at December 14, 2005 08:12 PM

Gee! Ingratiate!

I saw a blow up Santa the other day on a roof top it looked like he'd been impaled on a pole. Ha I smiled - I love a sense of humour and then I realised he was probably supposed to have been supported by the pole and that he had possibly been pierced by a well aimed dart. Ha I smiled a bit tragic but I love a sense of humour.

Christmas schmissmass! I want no part of it. I had Silent F@#$!#@$% Night running through my head today. I also got my Christmas card and this time the faithful sender of said Christmas card didn't bother with the Dear blah de blah bit, just signed off seasons greetings from etc. So, I addressed it to the house hold, very easily done just fill in the blank spot at the top of the card where the persons name USUALLY GOES. And voila now we all have a card.
Posted by Link at December 14, 2005 09:28 PM

I see Christmas stress seems to be affecting people allready. Some of my neighbours have got Santas which are similar to garden gnomes.
Posted by andy Farnsworth at December 15, 2005 12:38 AM

Link - some of the local Santas had a definite lean - maybe prevaling winds or something in the soil.
A great card story...Dear oh Dear oh Dear...

I noticed that some of those Santas might indeed be perennials, Andy. As it is that outline of the Santa graces the upstairs window all year - we're talking serious advent there.
btw - welcome back!
Posted by boynton at December 15, 2005 01:44 PM

Behave yourself, Anonymous!
Posted by Tony.T at December 15, 2005 03:17 PM

Behave myself.....Get over yourself Tony.T
You should be telling Boynton to relax.
I dont want to know her whereabouts I just wanted to know where the xmas lights were ..thats all.
People get sooooooooooooo paranoid.
Merry xmas to all .
Posted by at December 15, 2005 07:03 PM

The info is out there, anon.
Posted by boynton at December 15, 2005 07:10 PM

Relax? People tend not to relax around schizo stalkers.
Posted by Tony.T at December 15, 2005 07:10 PM

Geeeeee....assumptions.........I'm no stalker,
just someone reading a blog and getting peeved about comments made..........Maybe T.T. you need to see christmas lights,it may calm you down.
Posted by at December 15, 2005 08:21 PM

Hey Anon, I saw some great Christmas light in the store at Glenreagh.
Posted by Link at December 16, 2005 11:11 AM

Well Miss B, if you're not going to publish your address, could you at least post your bank a/c details, PIN and a specimen sig. just so...you know, we can establish your bona fides?

Looking for xmas lights in all the wrong places doooo dooooooh.
Posted by peacay at December 17, 2005 08:33 PM

You guys have got it all wrong.
I didn't want Boynton Address...........who gives a shit.
I just wanted to know what suburb the lights were
in that Boynton saw.
All the drama.........get a life.
Posted by at December 18, 2005 06:31 PM

When I go to my brother's place next week and I lazily sit around and sup his fine fare and hog his zippy computer and watch dvds on his wonderful setup and he doesn't tell me the secret ingredient in his pistachio pesto when I ask, I think I'll remember to thank him anyway for providing my sustenance and entertainment and try not to get irate about inconsequential minutiae.
Posted by peacay at December 18, 2005 07:54 PM

I can tell you the address. Mr/Dr/Prof/Miss/Ms boynton lives at ..ahh ooooh .. ugh mmmmmffffh..................................
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at December 21, 2005 11:05 AM

Oi - enough of the ugh...
Posted by boynton at December 21, 2005 11:43 A

I campervan

The GMC 26-foot Motorhome is just what a custom-built home should be...
A reflection of YOU

If you so specify, you can have an auxiliary dinette that converts to a single bed; or a pair of swivel chairs, matching the cockpit, with fold-up coffee table.
In the rear living area is a double bed. In its place, you can order a gaucho couch/double bed; or a table and side-facing settee/double bed.
But whichever combination you select, underneath is one of the Motorhomes most welcome features: Insulation.

1973 GMC Motorhome Sales Brochure via things
 

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Comments: I campervan

the foam does a very good job of helping seal out road noise, too...


Umm, people! you are not supposed to be IN THE BACK of the motorhome when it's moving!

I always yearned for a campervan (perhaps a small motorhome) to live in for a year or three, but now it's become a mass market phenomenon ("grey nomads") it doesn't seem so appealing.
Posted by at December 14, 2005 10:57 AM

Sorry, forgot to enter name...
Posted by Helen at December 14, 2005 10:58 AM

I still like the idea of a campervan, Helen.
I'd restrict my wandering to the Victorian coastline (maybe just a backwater in Gippsland) to differentiate myself from the serious map-setters ;)

Actually - "things" has a few links to mobile lifestyle models. Futuristic rather than retro, but it was the latter that naturally appealed to me.
Posted by boynton at December 14, 2005 12:37 PM

Dangnabit. There was a custom motorhome for sale many months back - a guy in Canberra had spent 2 years converting a fire-engine and it was LUSH. Even carried 2 motorbikes undercover and had a back verandah.

Can't find the link. It was on Metafilter but my searching prowess is not so hot today - there were heaps of pictures from the time it was just a shell, all the way through their trip.

He was selling it so they could go to UK as his partner's mother wasn't well. He had the intention of building a new motorhome when he got there for Europe.

Not sure I'd want to be careering around the countryside tooooo much in it. The guy and his partner spent 3 years I think, travelling around Oz but they would spend weeks/months at a time in the one spot. I could handle that pretty easily.

Damn money .. A N D .. the horse she rode in on!
Posted by peacay at December 15, 2005 02:49 PM

Sounds great. And takes the idea of mobile lifestyle a tad further? eg mobile- motor-home conversion-lifestyle?

Think I could handle that sort of idle ambling too.

My own searching wasn't so hot the other day. I had wanted to find pics of *Aust.* vintage campervans but only found this retro/conversion via G Images.
http://snoopy.apana.org.au/~bam/photos/airshows/2004-11/pic00065_Med.jpg.43.html


Posted by boynton at December 15, 2005 07:26 PM

I can remember being sooo disappointed when I discovered that you couldn't actually travel IN the caravan. I'd had visions of - actually I'm not quite sure what I imagined... Anyway, the idea of caravan holidays subsequently lost all their appeal.
Posted by wen at December 16, 2005 05:19 PM

oops. Campervans not caravans. The picture didn't come up the first time - so I had to use my imagination. Went off in the wrong direction - as usual. Is there a map?
Posted by wen at December 17, 2005 06:55 AM

Actually the pic still hasn't appeared here either. and I think I shared your disappointment, wen.
Could say it was too much Enid Blyton that raised the expectations but our first family caravan holiday pre-dated my blyton scholarship.
Posted by boynton at December 17, 2005 01:48 PM

future covers

my smart house is dumb... from the House Beautiful future magazine cover

Magazine publishers of America Future Covers

via memepool

wow!

Chemcraft Atomic Energy Safe! Exciting! Real!*

see also:
Harmless! Exciting! Practical!

Fun Easy Exciting
 

*thanks to Bib for the link to new finds at retrokid

new words

'podcast' is word of the year beating avian flu and sudoku... via J walk
 

Meanwhile Solastalgia is a new word meaning the sadness caused by environmental change

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Comments: new words

An obscure Internet trophy today; tomorrow, a word familiar to all.
Posted by Dick at December 9, 2005 11:29 AM

Podcast still sounds odd to me.
Whale songs, or something.
Posted by boynton at December 9, 2005 12:12 PM

So if I combine the two, that would make ipod the grim reaper of the new millenium.
Posted by peacay at December 9, 2005 12:14 PM

Yes - if the numbers stack up in the grim grid ahead
Posted by boynton at December 9, 2005 12:18 PM

On Sunday they're Godcasts.
Posted by Tony.T at December 9, 2005 01:19 PM

Nodcasts?

On your Todd cast?
Posted by boynton at December 9, 2005 01:33 PM

I agree boynton with the podcasts sounding something like pariah baby whales or summit. Sudoku? I plan to get through life not really knowing what this is, something to do with a numbers puzzle and all of a sudden I've glazed over.
Posted by Link at December 10, 2005 10:29 PM

Wise to be wary of the addictive charm of Sudoku from what I've heard, Link.
Posted by boynton at December 11, 2005 08:51 PM

Did anyone think to tell them that Avian Flu is two words?
Posted by Adam 1.0 at December 12, 2005 08:48 PM

That kinda counting would certainly ruin the sodoku.

Posted by boynton at December 12, 2005 11:18 PM

hulot book

inconceivable. Mr Hulot won every point. And just with the service alone. What a Service!

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday The book of Jacques Tati's Classic Film

via I like

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Comments: hulot book

Great drawing of the killer Hulot serve. Pity he never went pro - Hulot vs Borg's double handed backhand would have been something to see.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 9, 2005 01:53 PM

I would have like to have seen M Hulot's Umpire take on Monsieur McEnroe too, punishing racket abuse and namecalling with effusive applause.
Posted by boynton at December 9, 2005 02:11 PM

writting

You have a very talented and skilled writting

Say the spam bots today recast as samuel and jason and john with a mean line in flattery that could almost work except they do run on and on and vex us with sudden references to tables, stakes and slots.

i must say i got here by mistake, but now i know it's destiny...
hope steal expect - that is all that stake is capable of

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Comments: writting

This Bonyton blog is goood. We no sambots.
Posted by Samuel J John at December 6, 2005 04:00 PM

"I really liked your comments here"
Posted by someone Jason at December 6, 2005 04:09 PM

Spare us the false modesty Ms B - obviously this is a tribute to your fine legal mind which has turned out so many classic writs of mandamus, habeas corpus and nil desperandum over your distinguished career in the lore.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at December 6, 2005 04:18 PM

"I had a great time reading your comments."

btw - I gave up the lore for skilled philosophy:
"when Cosmos is Chair it will Percieve Grass "
Posted by someone johnson at December 6, 2005 04:28 PM

Too much nicety of detail disgusts the greatest part of readers, and to throw a multitude of particulars under general heads, and lay down rules of extensive comprehension, is to common understandings of little use. P.S. You Have A Nice Blog Here! I'm Going To BookMark It! Stop By My Site Sometime!
Posted by DR S JOHNSON at December 7, 2005 03:21 PM

I'll have $10 each way on No.3 in the third at Swan Hill.
Posted by Travis Johnston at December 7, 2005 04:19 PM

Yay! I play cricket for Straya.
Posted by Mitchell Johnson at December 8, 2005 04:59 PM

DR S: "No man but a blogger ever wrote, except for money"
Reading your content just made my day....


Travis, Mitchell etc:
"Beautiful Tournament becomes Central Stake in final"
Posted by boynton at December 8, 2005 05:32 PM

lennin remembered

BBC John Lennon Remembered via PCL Linkdump

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Comments: lennon remembered

I tried to remember myself but I was only 3 when he died and the only recollection of Lennon from those years was singing Yellow Submarine with other runts in the sand pit.
Posted by Russell Allen at December 6, 2005 12:37 PM

I think that's as good a recollection as any.

I read a few things yesterday but not inclined to blog too piously on the anniversary.
I just get hit by that same sense of mad sadness.
Posted by boynton at December 6, 2005 12:48 PM

Mm. I remember coming home from the beach with a school friend and being told. Wow. Just blew me away. The latterday JFK-esque where-were-you rememberances. 25 years. He's been gone a lot longer than he was publically around.

Chapman, still serving his sentence after 3 parole knockbacks, and who is of course now an evangelical christian, remains married to the Japanese woman he sought as a parallel to Yoko.

I saw a Yoko trees-growing-out-of-coffins exhibition by Yoko a few years ago...I thought it was excellent.

[Interestingly, the BBC site has links to the wikipedia entries.]
Posted by peacay at December 6, 2005 01:55 PM

It was a hot afternoon swimming here too.

I try to ignore any references to MDC. All I can do. Hate the way these horrible facts become pubtrivia pulp, though I suppose that's always the way with History crib notes, dates n kings n things.
A piece of trivia I read yesterday: a reporter heard "All My Loving" piped through the hospital in Lennon's final moments... If true, this is unsettling, a case of life too neat for death?

http://www.a-i-u.net/open02.html
Ex it...
http://www.instantkarma.com/yobiennaleexit.html
Posted by boynton at December 6, 2005 02:27 PM

Instant Karma's gonna getcha.
Maybe Cynthia had been doing voodoo.
He certainly was a mongrel to her and Julian.
Maybe he was shot because Yoko deserved the pain of his loss.
I do love Paperback Writer though.
Posted by Brownie at December 8, 2005 11:28 PM

we all shine on.
Posted by boynton at December 9, 2005 10:57 AM

I read a few things yesterday but not inclined to blog too piously on the anniversary.
I just get hit by that same sense of mad sadness.

Yeah, just about me as well. The guy was just a part of life, or at least mine, a part that died that day.
Posted by cs at December 12, 2005 09:50 PM

Just watched 'Gimme Some Truth' cs, which wasn't as bad as the other Imagine doco, which I found a tad too much the other night.
Think that Mikal Gilmore (in the link over at Flop Eared) did say it well about such events shaking a sense of both future and past. The Beatles narrative could seem almost transcendent, of the times but above it. Such a senseless end to a cultural dreaming.
Posted by boynton at December 12, 2005 11:35 PM

Curses, got involved in writing a post and missed it (even after my mother, of all people, rang to remind me).
Posted by cs at December 13, 2005 01:00 PM

Pretty much like "Imagine" 88.

All these imaginings... seem to be self-generating.

Oh well - I'm glad you wrote that post, cs, even if you missed JL. I've been dwelling on it too.
Posted by boynton at December 13, 2005 01:09 PM

talkin' poetry

The Norton Anthology of English Literature Archived Audio Readings
via bifurcated rivets

The Poetry Archive
The Poetry Archive is the world's premier online collection of recordings of poets reading their work.
via as above, kevan

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Comments: talkin' poetry

Great. Thanks for that Poetry as she is spoke. Not only does it have Famous Seamus as expected of any decent collection, but it also has "Our Les" Murray and Louis MacNiece who I have only just discovered through a book of about 100+ Irish Poems on sale at Readings for about $14. But wait. There's more. The book comes with 3, yes 3 CDs of the poems being read, not by the authors themselves but by other famous Paddies (male and female). Liam Clancy does Yeats 2nd Coming. Seamus Heaney reads someone else's poems.

While we are on poetry don't forget to visit my mate Frank's Poetry here: http://talesoffaust.com/
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at December 3, 2005 10:53 PM

Oim green with envy re that bargain, FX.
Wonder if it's still around on special?

And thanks for the link.
Posted by boynton at December 4, 2005 03:35 PM

vo do de o

Extremely popular songs would also inspire parody songs expressing how sick the listener was of the repetition of the popular song. "Yes, We Have No Bananas" was parodied by " I've Got The Yes We Have No Bananas Blues". Songwriters Yellen & Ager followed up their own success " Crazy Words Crazy Tune" with " Vo Do Do De O Blues" --perhaps the composers became tired of the song themselves!
Froggy's Novelty Song Lyric Collection: Introduction

As performed by the The California Ramblers

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Comments: vo do de o

Spike Jones was a favourite of my childhood Musical anarchy.
I am fond of 'Never Smile At A Crocodile', and "I'm Walking Backwards to Christmas (Spike Milligan?)
Novelty songs were killed stone dead in 1976 by Bill and Boyd 'Santa Never Made It Into Darwin'.
(ref to xmas eve cyclone tracy)
Posted by Brownie at December 2, 2005 12:10 PM

Agree about that Bill and Boyd Song.
Stone dead?
And yet these are the times for novelty songs.
Posted by boynton at December 2, 2005 02:01 PM