Nonsense

BBC (01-Jan-03): Ape 'learns to talk'

I was carrying out some diagnostic work with an electrical meter yesterday, trying to work out why the light over my bed still wasn't working after I had re-connected a loose wire. I wasn't quite careful enough with my probe, and the room lit up for a brief instant. As near-death experiences go, I'd give… Continue reading Near-Death Experience

I had a strange, whisky-induced dream last night: I was in a cow shed with a farmer friend of mine, and drank water from a rusty old ladel, realising it would give me a sore throat. When I woke up, I had a humdinger of a sore throat. Less sceptical people than myself would say… Continue reading Premonition

Another prediction comes true. This is getting too easy: Daily Telegraph: They can't mean us [02-Jan-03]"It is sad that someone should make that statement; it is a bit divisive. I admit there is an element of the gin and Jag brigade, but they don't dominate. You've also got people living in council houses." The UK… Continue reading Prediction Comes True: "Half-contrary gin"

I don't believe it. Another of my 'predictions' for the year has already come true: TwinCities.com: WCCO Farewell Ends with Hard Feelings [03-Jan-03] [V]eteran anchor Bill Carlson … read his last script as anchor of the [WCCO-TV] station's noon news. That's veteran TV news anchorman, Bill Carlson, who has been lifted from his show after… Continue reading Prediction Comes True: "Lift angry anchor"

From The Victorians by A.N. Wilson, p. 179 (concerning the Crimean War): [Times journalist, William Howard] Russell's dispatches had revealed a miserable, unheroic, ramshackle campaign presided over by old men. Lord Raglan, fluent in French as he was, and genial, had a distressing habit - born of his youthful years of serving under Wellington -… Continue reading Plus ça change

Today would have been J.R.R. Tolkien's eleventy-first birthday. By way of a tribute, I should like to quote the first paragraph of Tolkien's I ever read (over Irish Mick's shoulder on the train on my way home from school many, many years ago): “I need no map,” said Gimli, who had come up with Legolas,… Continue reading A Rather Curious Number

OK, I admit it, even I wasn't expecting success on the A Farthing for Your Thoughts front quite this quickly… BBC: Sutch Ends Norwich Tenure [02-Jan-03] Norwich City defender Daryl Sutch has left Carrow Road after 16 years and is now poised to join Southend. That's Daryl Sutch of Norwich City Football Club, also known… Continue reading Prediction Comes True: "Nor Canary Flight"

At this time of year, it's traditional to make predictions for the forthcoming 12 months. Then, in a year's time, it's traditional to try to convince everyone that you were uncannily accurate in your predictions. list of anagrams of my friend Carolyn (whose surname is Farthing)'s name. So I chose 10 anagrams from the list… Continue reading Predictions, 2003 (or A Farthing for Your Thoughts)