Will you...?

So, leap year day (but see my post of 24/2/08) and this is the day when traditionally women can propose marriage to men.  Of course in this 21st century the idea that there is a hierarchy in such matters is very passé, but where did the concept originate?  It seems to be Celtic in origin, and the most frequently quoted source is a supposed meeting in Ireland between St Brigid and St Patrick in the 5th century, when she complained to him that women were fed up of waiting for their boyfriends to propose, and he agreed that they should have the right to initiate proceedings themselves once every four years on leap year day.  There is a problem with this story in that - to the extent that we can have any confidence about dates back then - St Brigid would only have been about ten years old when St Patrick died. Anyway, the tradition seems to have been taken by Irish monks to Scotland, and certainly there is a Scots law of 1288 making it an offence punishable by a fine for any man who turns down a proposal of marriage made by a woman in a leap year (not just on the 29th it would seem).  In English law it has been suggested that at one time February 29th was a "non-day" and had no legal status, and that therefore ordinary traditions and customs did not apply. Anyway, like I say, it's an out-of-date concept these days, but interesting nontheless.

And....?

What does this symbol - & - mean?  And what do you call it?  First question is easiest - it means "and".  Mostly now seen in commercial names - Marks & Spencer, Barnes & Noble, and so on.  And it's called the ampersand.  Funny name for a funny symbol. Where does it come from?  Well it started out life as the Latin word for and - "et", and over time (this was of course before printing) scribes would join the "e" and "t" together and make the combination more and more flowery until it approached something like the shape we are used to today.  More fascinating is where the name came from.  At one time it was treated as a letter - the last letter in the alphabet, so if you were reciting the alphabet, you would finish - "X, Y, Z, And". Except of course the obvious retort would be "and what?".  So students started to say "X, Y, Z, and - per se - And".  Per se is Latin and means "by itself" or "on its own".  And it's easy to see how "and per se and" morphed over time into "ampersand".

Are you a sheep?

Is my MP in favour of staying in the EU or getting out?  I don't know - indeed I'm not even sure who my MP is these days - but more to the point, it's of no consequence. Whether we leave or remain is not a parliamentary matter - it is to be decided by referendum, and MPs will just have a single vote, like the rest of us.  I find the fact that how well-known individuals say they intend to vote is getting big publicity rather worrying, because it suggests that there are a lot of people out there who are not prepared to think for themselves, but will blindly follow what other people are doing - or say they are doing.  I'm listening to the arguments (such as they are) and will make my own mind up and I would hope you will do the same.

Go on, my son!

I've always had difficulty getting my head round this legal doctrine of joint enterprise, or common purpose as it is sometimes called, and I don't think the recent Supreme Court ruling has helped me. In English law, to be guilty of a crime, you must have done something which is against the law (the actus reus) and you must have done so in a state of mind which is against the law (the mens rea).  For murder, the actus reus is obviously killing someone, and the mens rea is doing so intending to kill someone (not necessarily the person you did kill) or at the very least intending to cause them really serious harm. OK - you're part of a gang which attacks someone and that someone dies.  You do not strike the fatal blow but you really wish this person dead and generally join in the attack and shout encouragement. So you probably have the necessary mens rea but where is the actus reus?  That was committed by someone else.  You may have a moral responsibility for the person's death, but legally responsible?  I've mentioned before that the Bentley/Craig case back in the early 50s was instrumental in me taking an interest in the law and what I saw as the failings of the system.  Not sure I'm any further forward now.

Cleanup in aisle three...

Here's a fascinating fact - if you were the last human being on a post-apocalyptic highly radioactive earth, and you had found sanctuary in your local Asda or Tesco (which miraculously is hermetically sealed and not radioactive), how long do you think you could survive on the food and drink in there? Well. somebody has done the calculations for you, and reckons there would be enough non-perishable provisions in there to last you - wait for it - 55 years!  Of course, you would almost certainly have gone mad well before then!

It all depends...

Have you seen this "which way is the bus travelling?" puzzle?  The point is, that you are shown a picture of a bus, and the side at which you are looking has no door - it therefore follows that you are looking at the driver's side.  So in this country, that would be the right-hand side, and so the bus is travelling to the right.  But of course, we are in the minority - most countries drive on the right and so the driver sits on the left, and the bus would be travelling left.  So without further information, there is no correct answer.

So stupid it must be true

There's a page on Reddit called "British Problems".  Loved this one - "HMRC sent a letter to my home saying they can't process the form I sent because they don't have my home address."

Lla ym evol

Lovely story here in the Midlands which came to light as a result of the discovery of a postcard  sent by a young man to his girlfriend back in the early 1900s.  At first it seemed that what he had written was gibberish, until someone realised that all the words were written backwards - obviously to keep his message secret from casual prying eyes.  Some research came up with names for the couple - both now long dead - but the mystery remained as to why he chose that method of writing.  Until his modern-day descendants came up with the answer - he was a typesetter, and back then typesetters had to enter the letters into the frame in reverse order, so that when they were inked and impressed onto paper, they would come out the right way round. So he was well used to seeing words that way.  Like I say - lovely story.

The Bouquet residence....

What would you guess to be the BBC's most popularly exported programme?  That is, the programme which has been sold to the greatest number of overseas broadcasters. I think I would have guessed that it would be a comedy show, but I think I would have gone for "Only Fools And Horses" or maybe "Porridge". I would not have thought of "Keeping Up Appearances", and yet that is the right answer, with nearly a thousand sales to its name.  The writer of the programme suggests that its popularity is down to the fact that "everyone knows a Hyacinth".

R.I.P.

Harper Lee.  One hit wonder?  Maybe, but if so - what a hit!!

The clue's in the name.

Continental breakfast - and it would have to include croissants.  And what shape would they be?  Well, croissant-shaped of course - the French word means "crescent". So they're sort of C-shaped.  Unless you buy them from Tesco that is. Apparently, according to the shop, we Brits find that shape difficult to cope with when it comes to buttering and applying our jam.  Can't turn corners, it seems.  So Tesco are starting to sell straight croissants - except of course, if they're straight you can't really call them croissants, can you? Would have to be droites, I reckon.

The invisible man

Love the story of the Spanish civil servant who became eligible for a long-service award, but when the high and mighty went to present it to him, they found that he wasn't there - and what's more, hadn't been seen for six years.  Apparently it was a classic case of two offices each thinking he belonged to the other one.  The expression "nice work if you can get it" springs to mind.

Ha ha

What do you get if you cross a dyslexic, an insomniac and an agnostic?
 - Someone who lies awake all night wondering if there is a dog.

Erm...

Google's head honcho in Europe is being ridiculed for not knowing what his salary is. Now thinking back to when I was working, I would have known how much I picked up every month, but as to how much my salary was?  I could have made an intelligent guess based on my monthly pay packet, but that would have been about it.  So I don't think it's fair to castigate the man because he couldn't (or wouldn't??) come up with a figure.  I've a feeling that the Public Accounts Committee is beginning to play to the gallery and is in danger of losing sight of its true purpose.

After you...

Should you give up your seat on a bus or train to a pregnant woman?  Well, yes, of course you should, but would you?  And experience suggests that the answer is - probably no.  A pregnant reporter took her camera on the Tube and filmed people looking anywhere but at her as she stood there looking uncomfortable.  Mind you, I think this might be a generational thing - I was brought up to give up my seat for a standing woman, pregnant or not, and indeed equally for a much older person, and open doors for them and such,  But today, the idea that women are the weaker sex and require special consideration is treated with derision - as much by women themselves as anyone.  So I think it's somewhat a case of "as ye sow, so shall ye reap".

Roses are red...

...Violets are blue.  Except they're not, are they?  Violets are violet - the clue's sort of in the name, isn't it?  And just to compound the confusion, how do you make violet? By mixing red and blue! Happy Valentine's Day everybody.

When I use a word...(Humpty Dumpty)

When is a cease-fire not a cease-fire?  When it involves the US, Russia and Syria it seems.  The American Secretary of State and the Russian Foreign Minister have announced a temporary "cessation of hostilities" in Syria.  But wait - this is not to include military action against Islamic State (or whatever we're calling them at the moment).  And given that Russia seem to be bombing the shit out of anything and anyone opposing Assad on the basis that it might be Islamic State, I don't think this will make the ordinary Syrian man in the street feel any safer.

Everybody out??

How do you feel about the junior doctors' strike?  They've just held their second one, with promise of more to come.  Me - I don't know.  I'm sure I am being fed misinformation by both sides, and so I feel I haven't enough facts to make an informed decision.  What I do know though, is that all these doctors will have taken the Hippocratic Oath, which states in part "I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required..." and if I were a doctor, I would find it difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile that with deliberately failing to perform my duties.  

Go to the bottom of the class!

I did English to A-level and have always thought of myself as pretty literate, but having seen a few questions from the exam which apparently 11-years olds have to sit, I'm now not too sure.  It seems there are things called "determiners", which is something I have never heard of, and how about this question - "My baby brother was born in the hospital where my father works, What is the phrase 'where my father works' in that sentence"?  Well, for starters, it's not a phrase - there's a verb in it (works) so it's a clause.  What does it do? It describes, or tells us more about "hospital".  Hospital is a noun, and a word which describes a noun is an adjective - so it's an adjectival clause.  Wrong answer, apparently - it's a "relative clause". Another description I have never heard before. So I would fail miserably.

Ooh, doctor!

Did you know that the stethoscope was invented out of a sense of embarrassment? A doctor in Paris in 1816 became uncomfortable with the fact that in order to listen to the heart-beat of a woman, he had to put his ear to her bare breasts, so he came up with something akin to an ear trumpet which allowed him to listen to her heart without the necessity of physical contact.  And it developed from that.

Well I never...!

You know Nutella, the hazelnut and chocolate spread?  Well, even though it contains nuts it shouldn't be pronounced Nut-ella, but Nu-tella, with the "Nu" sounding like "noo".  It's Italian you see - in fact it was originally made by the Ferrero family, who are also responsible for Kinder Eggs, and of course, Ferrero Rocher.  Wouldn't lose sleep over it, though.

Go on through...

Rather worrying to learn that putting someone on a "watch list" which should prevent them from leaving the country, does not necessarily have that effect.  Problem is that the checks are not always carried out by the police or border authorities, but are often left to the airlines or ferry companies, who sometimes for whatever reason simply fail to ask for or inspect the necessary documents.  Particularly worrying in that one of the more important uses of the watch list is to try and stop underage girls being taken abroad for forced marriages.

Zut alors!!

France are getting rid of the circumflex accent - or at least making its use optional. For those not sure, this is the ^ mark which - well, that's the point really - for the most part it does nothing.  There are occasions where the circumflex accent differentiates between words which are spelled the same (sur = on, sûr = sure; mur = wall, mûr = ripe) and in these cases it will continue to be used as necessary.  Not surprisingly, there are those who object to the language being messed about like this and #jesuiscirconflexe has started to appear as a hashtag.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

I think this Julian Assange business is being portrayed as unnecessarily complicated. The crucial point is that there is a European arrest warrant out for him, and therefore if he leaves the Ecuadorean embassy we are bound to arrest him under the authority of that warrant, irrespective of what we may feel about the rights or wrongs of the situation.  The matter is therefore not of our making and not within our power to do anything about.

Free from...

Apparently it's the latest health fad to go on a gluten-free diet, and in the way of these things, shops are cashing in by charging premium prices for gluten-free items. But at least you can get them easily now.  My mother-in-law was diagnosed a coeliac back in the late 1980s or early 1990s and my wife and I had a hell of a job finding gluten-free foods which she could safely eat.  I remember we had to go over to Boots in Birmingham, and then down to the lower basement and there in one far-away corner was a small limited display of gluten-free bread, flour, cakes and biscuits. I seem to recall that they were expensive back then, but it was more the availability rather than the price which was the main problem.  It would be so much easier today.

Going down...

At the end of the film Titanic (yuk!) Rose (played by Kate Winslet) climbs aboard a floating door, and survives, while her lover Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) stays in the freezing water and dies.  On a recent American chat-show Ms Winslet has accepted that she thinks her character "misjudged the situation" and that there would in fact have been room on the door for both of them.  But I thought Mythbusters (good programme if you've not come across it) sorted this out some time ago - it's not a matter of whether there was room on the door (there would have been) but rather whether the door could have supported the weight of both of them without sinking, and they showed conclusively that it wouldn't have, and they would both have died.

English as she is spoke.

I am constantly annoyed by an advert running on TV at the moment, which talks about money set aside by the banks as compensation for PPI "...possibly mis-sold to you and I".  And of course that's wrong - it should be "you and me".  There's a simple test - take out the "you".  You wouldn't say "mis-sold to I", it's "mis-sold to me" and sticking a "you" in there doesn't alter things.  There seems to be a feeling that "me" is somewhat uncouth and that "I" is posher, but of course it has nothing to do with politeness and everything to do with grammar.  "My brother and me come from Birmingham" is equally incorrect - same test, take out "my brother" and you wouldn't say "me come from Birmingham", so it should be "my brother and I...".

Music Man

Please, please go onto YouTube and marvel at a 15-year-old girl called Sislena Caparrosa singing "Nessun dorma" (go for the Russian video).  And then marvel even more that this is the grand-daughter of  Luciano Pavarotti.  Talk about talent running in families! 

R.I.P

Terry Wogan - what is there to say?  I think the best example of how supremely good he was at his job is that, when I heard the news, I really felt I had lost a close personal friend.

And for me, this is the perfect memorial.