Personal Blogs

Prompted by a YouTube post from Tim Spector of the ZOE Covid symptom study, I thought about how I have fared. In health terms, where have I improved, where have I done worse, and where have things stayed more or less the same?

Diet. +3: More fresh produce, more veg, more fibre, trending to less meat, especially red or cured. Ready meals right down.

Keeping in touch with family and friends. +2: In these times I’ve reached out a lot to others and they to me. So more contact, but not as good as meeting in person of course.

Exercise. -1: I’m restricted anyway in what I can do but it’s been notched down now.

Sleep pattern. -0.5: it’s always been erratic and lockdown has made it a little worse.

Alcohol. The same: a bit high but little change if any.

I found this nice puzzle on math.stackexchange.com. I hadn't seen it before.

In a school hallway there are 100 closed lockers. 100 people walk through the hallway one after another.

The first person changes the state of every locker from closed to open,

The second person changes the state of every second locker, from open to closed,

The third person changes the state of every third locker, from open to closed or vice versa,

The fourth person changes the state of every fourth locker, from open to closed or vice versa,

and so on, right on until the hundreth person, who changes the state, open or closed, of every hundredth locker.

At the end which of the lockers are open?

Answer tomorrow.

I love its salty taste.

Plus it's the only word in English with six vowels all 'a' s. Maybe.

The OED allows Taramasalata, but sadly, in Greek it's Taramosalata (Ταραμοσαλάτα).

Pity.

Ti krima.

τι κρίμα

When first I saw you

When you’d gone out the door

When they were all saying shessuchaloverlygirl

I never forgot that moment.

Fado is a traditional Portuguese song genre. Someone once said it is the Portuguese equivalent of Flamenco, but I'm not sure that is wholly accurate; there are Fado dances but it seems to be primarily a vocal form. The word fado perhaps means fate.

If you don't know about Fado, Google it and there are lots of hits. My favourite singer is Amalia Rodrigues (1920 - 1999); she of the heartbreaking voice, a great Fadista; but there are many other artists I like. Mariza is very good too, I think.

Foxes gather at an old tree on New Year's Eve. On the way they set foxfires, which farmers can count to predict the rice harvest.

By Hiroshige, 1857; see https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/55553

If your gran has corn from us,

Lay her to rest in a granary.

Grallitorial, a word describing long-legged birds like herons or cranes. From Latin grallae = stilts and later grallitorius = one on stilts.

I sent my friend a joke about failed deliveries. But he didn’t get it.

In Icelandic folklore, instead of Santa there are 13 Yule Lads, who come one after another on each of the 13 nights leading up to Christmas, and then leave again in the same order as they came. They are fond of playing tricks, but also leave presents for children, in shoes rather than stockings. Their names in English are

Sheep-Cote Clod
Gully Gawk
Stubby
Spoon-Licker
Pot-Scraper
Bowl-Licker
Door-Slammer
Skyr-Gobbler
Sausage-Swiper
Window-Peeper
Doorway-Sniffer
Meat-Hook
Candle-Stealer

Today the word wassail is rare and survives only in Christmassy traditions; it can mean mulled wine, or a booze up, or singing carols house to house. But originally it was not specially related to Christmas but just a drinking formula, e.g.

Me: Ves Heill

You: Drink Heill

Which means something like

Me: To Your Health

You: Drink To Health 

Drinkhail has now sadly faded from the language, but wassail survives, a sort of verbal fly trapped in Christmas amber. Interestingly the drinking formula aspect is quite late. The expression Ves Heill existed before the Norman Conquest but there are no sources connecting it to the drinking formula I have described; it is just used in the sense of ‘be well’ or ‘farewell’. And the ‘hail’ form indicates Danish influence (in Old English it would have hal rather than heill). An interesting theory is that the drinking motif evolved among the Danish speakers in England e.g. in the reign of Cnut and then memed more widely. It’s lost its potency now though.

How would you make a joke about a small fruit basket?

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Punnet.