Any big number you figure I'll figure a bigger.
Personal Blogs
Coming down to breakfast I found Sherlock Holmes already up and perusing the morning paper. “What do you make of this Watson?” he cried. “Four eminent professors of chemistry, in different parts of the country, done to death in one night. Scotland Yard admits they are baffled and have asked for my help. Look”, he went on eagerly, thrusting the paper towards me, “these are the postal districts where the victims lived. Can you see a connection, Watson?”
B5
N7
S16
W74
“It's elementary my dear Holmes” I answered.
It’ll be alright. Trust me, I’m an optimist.
“I shall bequeath you my piano”, said Ludwig grandly.
“Doctor”, I said “I keep imaging I’m a light bulb.”
“Does it happen frequently?”
“On and off.”
...a maths website and was amused to read at the bottom
You are visitor N+1, where N is the number of visitors before you.
“I like you too much to let you have a chainsaw.”
Q. What’s the difference between a forest giant cut down by woodmen, and a rainbow?
A. The first is hewed by many, and the second is many-hued.
Were α, β, γ, δ... the Runes of Athens?
Q. What you have with runes?
A. Ustard!
This afternoon 'Moonraker' popped into my head. I don't have the slightest idea why. It's book by Ian Fleming and a subsequent film, but I can't remover anything about either.
But then because the air is always full of wordplay, I instantly thought of 'Runemaker'. Does such a work exist? So I went to check and the good news is that there are least two books with that title, which I found rather pleasing.
Here's something I learned about only last week
The
Romans built fish ponds by the sea. [1] Constructed of masonry, they
were holding tanks to provide wealthy owners of seaside villas, and
perhaps commercial fishmongers too, with access to fresh fish. As the
shallow Mediteranean tide (only a few centimetres) rose and fell the water
in the tanks was refreshed via a system of sluices. These ponds are
mentioned by Columella, writing sometime in the first century CE.
We consider that incomparably the best Fish-pond is one which is so situated that the incoming tide of the sea expels the water of the previous tide and does not allow any stale water to remain within the enclosure. [1]
A number of these tanks have survived in amazingly good condition and are still more or less at sea level, showing the latter has not changed a lot in 2000 years.
This tells us something important, because in the last two decades sea level has been rising at about 3 mm a year [3] and accelerating. If this had been going on for the last 2000 years the fishponds would be under 6 m of water by now. The fact that they aren't indicates that the current rate of incease in sea level is something that has just developed very recently. If it had been going for even as long as 200 years the fishponds would still be under a foot of water.
So something has been happening quite recently that has made the seas rise by an unprecedented amount.
[1] https://harvardmagazine.com/2016/08/what-roman-ruins-rev
[2] Columella, On agriculture, trans. Forster and Heffner
[3] https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/climate-change-evidence-causes/question-14/
Verbs conjugate
But nouns decline.
Q. Why does Father Christmas feel great when he wakes up?
A. Because he's on the top of the world!
This morning for some reason the word 'dwindle' popped into my head. It's a rather beautiful word, so I looked it up in the OED. It's a diminutive form of 'dwine', which means to waste away, but doesn’t seem very common today. The -indle form seems first attested in Shakespeare. In Macbeth the first witch issues this imprecation
Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his penthouse lid.
He shall live a man forbid.
Weary sev’nnights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.
Abstract = Boring manual about braking systems
Collage = Art school
Easel = Decapitated weasel
Engrave = Outcome of road crossing
Impasto = P's up next
Picture = I selected you
Pigment = Hog's intention
Portrait = Harbour fees
Salon = Continue sailing
Watercolour = That hue is awesome!
Pale colours, M-Z? (7)
Mysteriously
In rough wind the plum blossom
Still hangs on somehow.
Convalescence. Get over it.
If you took the lid
Off the universe you’d
Just see smaller ones
Gazing steadily back.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Please welcome: Mrs and Mr Less, and their talented son Maurice.
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