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Post by Baz Faz on Jul 7, 2016 18:46:03 GMT 2
A speeding van passed us on the way home. On its back was written: Highway Maintenance Welfare Service. We wondered if a stretch of the motorway was feeling poorly. Then Mrs Faz accelerated and overtook the van. On the side it said: Portable Toilet.
And a headline in the paper this morning caught my eye: Brexit may mean London will no longer be divorce capital of the world.
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Post by Baz Faz on Jul 10, 2016 11:09:07 GMT 2
I came across an odd piece of reasoning today, courtesy of Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley.
Old maids tend to keep cats. Cats eat mice. Mice eat the nests and honeycombs of bumble bees so less mice means more bumble bees. Bumble bees pollinate clover in fields. More clover means more food for cattle. More cattle means more beef to feed soldiers. More and better fed soldiers mean the British army is a better fighting force. A more powerful army leads to the spread of the British empire.
So the growth of the British empire was all down these spinster ladies. Now you know.
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Post by auntieannie on Jul 10, 2016 12:33:15 GMT 2
lol! He probably meant that everyone can do something for the greater good. Even crazy cat ladies!
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Post by shrjeff on Jul 10, 2016 12:49:42 GMT 2
the problem with that logic is that spinsters' cats likely eat well and don't eat mice - it'll be feral cats who keep mice populations down... and they'd need to be in rural areas to protect fields of clover for cattle...
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Post by Baz Faz on Jul 10, 2016 13:25:51 GMT 2
I don't think cats necessarily hunt mice for food but for the fun of the chase.
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Post by shrjeff on Jul 10, 2016 13:37:53 GMT 2
when we had a horse ranch a neat feral cat attached himself to us... he didn't come inside but we fed him and he would walk around with us like our dogs... we fed our horses grain hay which were in stacks... mice set up house inside to munch on the grain and when we would move a bottom layer the mice would scatter... and herbie the cat would just scarf them up, not play with them at all... a kid in a candy store he was... one of our dogs would watch the cat avidly and once a mouse ran right by him... he shrugged his shoulders and bounded after it, snapping it up and then went ptooey, spitting it out... a scene etched in one's memory
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Post by Voy on Jul 10, 2016 15:07:24 GMT 2
I agree with Jeff. They do play with them, but they also eat them. And if kittens who are abandoned, they also eat bugs and grass - any thing to keep alive . Like my late, lamented Tituba. The Spinster bit may be a stretch, but barn cats really are a necessity! ( and house cats in houses with drystone wall cellars! - see late, lamented Titch above!)
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Post by OnlyMark on Jul 10, 2016 15:39:01 GMT 2
Just a minute, I'll ask my avatar.
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Post by OnlyMark on Jul 10, 2016 15:39:43 GMT 2
He says we will kill mice anyway.
Because we can.
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Post by rikita on Jul 11, 2016 13:28:14 GMT 2
one of our cats once walked up to a mouse, sniffed it, while the mouse sat there relaxed, and then both cat and mouse went on their way again.
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Post by Scrubb on Jul 11, 2016 17:47:10 GMT 2
Our cat has caught a few, but he doesn't seem to be interested in eating them.
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Post by Ethel Mertz on Jul 11, 2016 21:27:33 GMT 2
I have a great mouser. He just happens to be a dawg.
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Post by Baz Faz on Jul 13, 2016 10:10:31 GMT 2
Hollande is the least popular president of France since polling began in the 1940s. Before election one of his promises was for a simpler, more modest, more "normal" (as he put it) presidency. It has just emerged that he pays a hairdresser £99,000 (whatever that is in euros) a year. The barber is on 24 hour call in case the president's hair gets ruffled.
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Post by Baz Faz on Jul 16, 2016 16:14:13 GMT 2
It's that moment we've all been looking forward to, folks - the Republican national convention in Cleveland. Here's an odd thing to be mulling over before it starts. According to Ohio's "open carry" law the delegates can walk round with guns. According to the convention's regulations, they can't have water pistols.
Only in America.
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Post by auntieannie on Jul 19, 2016 18:38:54 GMT 2
A car driving, not only up the wrong way of a one-way street, but on the bus lane section of it... and not seen but heard, a four-car 'acordion'.
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Post by Baz Faz on Jul 21, 2016 13:19:21 GMT 2
Apparently if you suspend a chicken in a cage above your bed this deters malarial mosquitoes. I am just wondering if a chicken in a cage would fit in my backpack on my next trip to mozzieland.
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Post by auntieannie on Jul 21, 2016 15:30:05 GMT 2
poor chicken! plus a chicken above your bed would mean chicken poo on it/you. plus all the illnesses inherent to chickens that can be transmitted to you.
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Post by Baz Faz on Jul 21, 2016 17:32:52 GMT 2
A couple stopped me to ask the way today. It moved on to a general chat. I said that we had lived for 20 years in France. I gave them certain things to think about such as that the Muslims (aka Moors) had got as far north as Poitiers before being defeated in 723. But I was myself defeated when he asked: "Do you think the Jews will come back?" Er, what. "Well, France is where the Jews came from."
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Post by Baz Faz on Jul 22, 2016 10:21:08 GMT 2
I never realised that croquet was a sport at the 1900 Olympics.
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Post by rikita on Jul 23, 2016 21:00:24 GMT 2
A father Holding his son (under two) in a leash with a harness - Not at a busy road or similar, but in a playground. He Held the leash while the kid was climbing the stairs to the slide ...
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Post by Baz Faz on Jul 24, 2016 10:13:04 GMT 2
Al Howie, who died last week, was a runner. He was not just a long distance runner but an extreme distance runner. I read that during a 350 mile race he learnt how to tie his shoelaces while running.
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Post by rikita on Jul 24, 2016 20:52:05 GMT 2
Visited a restroom in a Restaurant where the lights worked by motion Sensor - which meant If you Sat still for five seconds it went dark ....
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Post by Baz Faz on Jul 31, 2016 19:22:14 GMT 2
Park & Ride is well known. But in Padua we saw an official sign in English that read PARK KISS RIDE. Any idea what this involves?
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Post by OnlyMark on Jul 31, 2016 19:53:59 GMT 2
Simple enough, Italians are grateful you don't take your car into the town. So you get a kiss as a reward. Big Iain used to do that job before he got married. I thought everyone knew.
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Post by auntieannie on Jul 31, 2016 23:59:54 GMT 2
This, baz. Kiss and ride Many railway stations and airports feature an area in which cars can discharge and pick up passengers. These "kiss-and-ride" facilities allow drivers to stop and wait, instead of the longer-term parking associated with park-and-ride facilities. The term first appeared in a 20 January 1956 report in the Los Angeles Times.[11] It refers to the nominal scenario whereby a passenger is driven to the station by spouse or partner; they kiss each other goodbye before the passenger catches the train.[11][12] Some high-speed railway stations in Taiwan have signs outside stations reading "Kiss and Ride" in English, with Chinese characters above the words that read "temporary pick-up and drop-off zone". Most people in Taiwan have no idea what the colloquialism in English means.[13] Also in Italy the new Bologna Centrale railway station uses the "kiss and ride" signs. [14] Deutsche Bahn has announced that it will be changing the English expressions for Kiss and Ride, Service Points and Counters to German ones.[15 from here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_and_ride
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 1, 2016 9:38:06 GMT 2
Thanks Annie. I never knew you were such an expert on kiss and ride.
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Post by auntieannie on Aug 1, 2016 21:06:54 GMT 2
A girl has to keep some of her mystery. I just ogle.
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 2, 2016 0:49:25 GMT 2
Annie, am I allowed to keep some of my mystery too? The person I was standing next to on the vaporetto in Venice yesterday must have thought I was fascinated by her because I kept checking her bosom. But really I was intrigued by the message on her T=shirt:
I am a girl. That is my job.
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 15, 2016 13:25:18 GMT 2
Berezniki in Russia has an annual Mosquito Festival. This year it was won by a 9 year old girl who was out berry picking and got 43 bites.
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 17, 2016 11:31:56 GMT 2
An announcement was made on a British train yesterday: "We apologise for the overcrowding on this train. It is caused by too many people."
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