Category: General

‘Look, it’s all very simple. You want to be famous, we want you to be famous and you could be incredibly famous or even, who knows, infamous. You have the boyish smile, which really works on tv, the slightly annoying but instantly recognisable voice and inflection and the fact that you are completely full of yourself and utterly devoid of any principle or genuine conviction or belief of any sort. Works for us and you are a natural. All you have to do is sign the contract’. Continue reading “The Secret Contract – JW’s CW Competition”

I’ve just read an article about cosmetic surgery for pets.  Some of it was quite sensible and beneficial, like enlarging the nostrils and reshaping the nasal cavity of dogs such as pugs, to stop them gasping for breath and snoring. Some of it was at the level of nail varnish for dogs’ claws, with a photo of a poor poodle having a lurid pink polish applied – and my dears, it did not match the red collar at all!

The most amazing description was of prosthetic testicles for dogs who have been neutered and are suffering from depression.  Called neuticles and $300 a pair.  I always thought it was the lack of hormones that caused the problems.  Still, if it gives the dogs something to lick.  Needless to say there was no equivalent on offer for spayed bitches.

 

On July 20, 1969, as Commander of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon.

His first words after stepping on the moon, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for Mankind,” were televised to Earth and heard by millions.

But just before he reentered the lander, he make the enigmatic remark “Good luck, Mr Gorsky.”

Many people at NASA thought it was a casula remark concerning some rival Soviet cosmonaut.

However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American space programs.

Over the years many people questioned Armstrong as to what the “Good luck, My Gorsky … ” statement meant, but Armstrong always just smiled.

On July 5, 1885, in Tampa Bay, Florida, while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26-year-old question to Armstrong.   This time he finally responded.

Mr Gorsky had died, so Neil Armstrong felt he could now answer the question.

In 1938, when he was a kid in a small mid-west town, he was playing baseball with a friend in the backyard.   His friend hit the ball, which landed in his neighbour’s yard by their bedroom window.

His neighbours were Mr and Mrs Gorsky.

As he leaned down to pick up the ball, young Armstrong heard Mrs Gorsky shouting at Mr Gorsky. “Sex!   You want sex?! You’ll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!”

Across Albermarle Sound today about 25+ miles of open water.
I did take one picture off to the right side, it’s a famous place, two Bicycle making brothers from Dayton made history right there about 107 years ago, but you would never know it from this distance, just a line on the horizon.

Continue reading “Albermarle Sound and Coinjock”

Janus was absolutely right to point out that I had made the most elementary mistake by neglecting to render ‘law’ in the correct accusative case (making it the ‘object’, in English grammar) , and I immediately corrected it to ‘legem’.   However, it then struck me that it would be better classical Latin to express the statement in the passive voice – “The Law of the Iceni is honoured here” – so I changed it to the current version.

O Zangado objected, makings the following assertion –

Observatur isn’t even in the dictionary, and Janus is right about the accusative (lex, legis, f, 4th declension).

and then later compounds his folly by saying –

I just KNEW there was no -ur ending in Latin

Poor chap.   The wolf flu must be confusing his grey matter. Continue reading “A Latin lesson for the sick Wolf”

Indulge me please.  I have gone down with a second dose of Wolf Flu due to nursing the NSW through the mild, girly version of same all last week  and am feeling very fragile.  She’s gone back to work now and I’m huddled under my blanket feeling very sorry for myself, so, in between arguing the toss on Latin grammar earlier with Bearsy, I thought I’d indulge myself on YouTube with those songs that make me feel like I have something in my eye.

Continue reading “Indulgence”

Into the canal and across the Alligator River, 60 miles of purgatory (was that the Styx River we just passed?). We have no one to blame as we chose to move North in March (when it often snows in Maryland, as it did today).

Continue reading “Alligator River- Pungo River Canal”

In my school boy days I often heard instructors singing the praises of Mohandes Gandhi, something which always left me with a degree of uncertainty. There was simply too much praise heaped on him, yet little to no scrutiny was placed in less savoury aspects of his life or personality. My suspicions were confirmed after reading Richard Shenkman’s “Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of World History” in which Gandhi was finally scrutinised and I learnt why he had two names — as well as the fact that he gave “Mohatma”, “great man”, to himself! Always having been sceptical of those who have been their own best friends and greatest admirers it made my quietly comfortable in my questioning of it all. Recently a new book as been published with even more damning information about Gandhi — some of which I had already learnt, other bits of it quite new. To avoid being repetitive I will simply attach a link to the article written about said book and let you read that there.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/8410318/Mahatma-Gandhi-racist-and-bisexual-claims-new-book.html

BBC – BBC Four Programmes – The Killing.

If you didn’t happen to catch this series on BBC Four, its 20 episodes remain available for now on the BBC Iplayer site. A second series is scheduled for the Autumn.  Very well worth watching – up there with “24”.