I couldn't care less about football, but I had to grab a thread to bore you with an enjoyable dinner party tropic last night. Conversation turned to CERN and the LHC....which one guest recalled as the 'Large Hagrid Collider'. This was such a terrific malapropism (?) that it set us all off. Harry Potter and the Search for Hogwart's Bison. Professor of Dark Matter Arts. Not so much a story, more a Particle Article. I just thought I'd throw it out for contributions.
P.S. I have had LHC related conversations with many relatives that left me dubious about their intellectual gifts. Things like the LHC are wonderful, they push back the frontiers of our knowledge and are the collaborative brilliance of our species. Unfortunately, they also have the tendency to drag whackaloons out of the darker recesses of humanity who feel that their ignorant comments equal valid critique.
This item confirms my general observation that, the shorter the Gruts item, the more and varied comments it receives. Liverpool trouncing Man Utd to the Large Hadron Collider in clear, logical steps.
(I use the words clear and logical ill-advistedly.)
It really irks me when people apologise retrospectively yonks after the event like that. Who cares what the Church of England said 149 years ago? If I were one of their member, I would take great exception to this politically correct nonsense. By all means say the C of E was wrong, but there is no need whatsoever to apologise - especially to someone who has been dead for 126 years.
Remember Tony Blair apologising to the Irish for the Potato Blight? Wouldn't it be more appropriate for him to apologise for stuff he was actually responsible for? Seems to me he has plenty to choose from.
I have always mantained that an apology is not in what you say, but in what you resolve to avoid doing again.
In light of this belated apology to Darwin, we can presumably expect that the CofE will suspend all ill-informed pronouncements on scientific issues and restrict their public comment to areas of their undestanding. I look forward to a corresponding committment from the Catholic church also.
PS this thread seems to be running on two items - Mary Shitehouse and Liverpool. An "a" missing somewhere, I would think.
....and the second bit of good news is....the running man is on his way to you!
Talking of which, I've just noticed how many Friends of Charles Darwin there are now. Flipping Heck, Richard.
But what about the proprietors?
I don't like to mix sport and politics.
Noggin, the take-up of new FOCD members is not unlike evolutionary change itself: slow-but-steady, mostly, occasionally punctuated by relatively short periods of rapid change.
I couldn't care less about football, but I had to grab a thread to bore you with an enjoyable dinner party tropic last night. Conversation turned to CERN and the LHC....which one guest recalled as the 'Large Hagrid Collider'. This was such a terrific malapropism (?) that it set us all off. Harry Potter and the Search for Hogwart's Bison. Professor of Dark Matter Arts. Not so much a story, more a Particle Article. I just thought I'd throw it out for contributions.
Oh great!...what's a dinner party tropic?
I keep referring to the LHC as the Large Hardon Collider. (There! This comment should bring in a lot more punters.)
Wait......I don't get it. I need diagrams dammit!
No, erm, actually I don't.
Louis
P.S. I have had LHC related conversations with many relatives that left me dubious about their intellectual gifts. Things like the LHC are wonderful, they push back the frontiers of our knowledge and are the collaborative brilliance of our species. Unfortunately, they also have the tendency to drag whackaloons out of the darker recesses of humanity who feel that their ignorant comments equal valid critique.
This item confirms my general observation that, the shorter the Gruts item, the more and varied comments it receives. Liverpool trouncing Man Utd to the Large Hadron Collider in clear, logical steps.
(I use the words clear and logical ill-advistedly.)
If you post a one-word Gruts item, presumably you'll get comments of a quantity and range beyond your wildest dreams. Best not to risk it.
What did we expect from the countries that brought us cuckoo clocks & citroen cars, a nuclear explosion? Let's be serious here!
ooh ooh, deja vu!
So, the Church of England has apologised to Charles Darwin for not understanding him. I hope he sues them!
It really irks me when people apologise retrospectively yonks after the event like that. Who cares what the Church of England said 149 years ago? If I were one of their member, I would take great exception to this politically correct nonsense. By all means say the C of E was wrong, but there is no need whatsoever to apologise - especially to someone who has been dead for 126 years.
Remember Tony Blair apologising to the Irish for the Potato Blight? Wouldn't it be more appropriate for him to apologise for stuff he was actually responsible for? Seems to me he has plenty to choose from.
Apologies by proxy? What a quaint idea.
I have always mantained that an apology is not in what you say, but in what you resolve to avoid doing again.
In light of this belated apology to Darwin, we can presumably expect that the CofE will suspend all ill-informed pronouncements on scientific issues and restrict their public comment to areas of their undestanding. I look forward to a corresponding committment from the Catholic church also.
PS this thread seems to be running on two items - Mary Shitehouse and Liverpool. An "a" missing somewhere, I would think.
I was taught at school that to give an apology was to give reason for your regrettable action.