“But why do chickens do it?”, asked Tom crossly.
Personal Blogs
Bluebell Haiku
Tuesday, 21 Apr 2020, 01:11
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Each year Bluebells come
At the same time. But somehow
I never expect them.
Day 31
Sunday, 19 Apr 2020, 23:27
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Edited by Richard Walker, Sunday, 19 Apr 2020, 23:29
Here I am at day 31. Can we get anything interesting out of the number 31 though, like we did for 23? Here's a start.
1. It's prime, and if we write the primes up to and including 31 in order
2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29,31
the median is 13, which is 31 with its digits reversed.
2. If you add all the prime numbers up to and including 31 you get 137, another prime number.
3. If you turn 31 upside down, it is still a number, and it is the same number. How many numbers up to a hundred have this property?
4. If 3. was too easy; what if we went up to a million?
Our Times
Sunday, 19 Apr 2020, 01:01
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I wasn’t expecting
To be involved in History.
Were you.
From Memoirs of an Alphabet Counsellor
Saturday, 18 Apr 2020, 23:51
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I've had plenty of tough cases. One was the letter 'e'. In denial but wouldn't admit it.
Portrait of a Tulip
Saturday, 18 Apr 2020, 01:26
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Nursery Rhyme
Friday, 17 Apr 2020, 23:23
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Edited by Richard Walker, Friday, 17 Apr 2020, 23:23
Suddenly, The Cherry Trees Were in Bloom
Monday, 13 Apr 2020, 23:17
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Edited by Richard Walker, Tuesday, 14 Apr 2020, 01:24
One Liner
Monday, 13 Apr 2020, 00:02
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Say what you like about self-isolation, but at least you know where you are with it.
My Ambition
Sunday, 12 Apr 2020, 16:57
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I always wanted to be in a Gregorian choir. But I never got the chance.
Joke from Jeff Esworthy, picture from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1038066
Boccherini - Just Listen
Saturday, 11 Apr 2020, 22:41
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One way or another we all know Luigi Boccherini's 'Celebrated Minuet'. It's one of most famous classical tunes of all time. A Google search for 'Boccherini minuet' throws up plenty of hits for it.
But; for a very long time I never even considered what else Boccherini might have written. Like Pachebel's Canon, this piece seemed a singular achievement, a one-off, a kind of outlier in an otherwise unspectacular body of work.
Guess what: that was plain wrong. I'm far from alone in underestimating Boccherini, but in the last few years the talent of this composer has become far better recognised. The excellent classic music service WKSU played some pieces of his recently, and I saw what I was missing.
At home tonight we listened to Boccherini during dinner, and it was lovely.
Joke
Saturday, 11 Apr 2020, 20:22
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Edited by Richard Walker, Saturday, 11 Apr 2020, 20:23
Day 23
Saturday, 11 Apr 2020, 00:14
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This is day 23 of my self-isolation, and that of so many others. But it has to be done.
Can anyone think why 23 is an INTERESTING NUMBER ... from any point of view?
There must be many possible answers. Interest is what we have as an individual but want to share with others.
Can anyone think why 23 is an INTERESTING NUMBER ... from any point of view?
There must be many possible answers. Interest is what we have as an individual but want to share with others.
Raeding Wrods With Jubmled Lettres
Friday, 10 Apr 2020, 22:05
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Smneooe rinemded me rtlenecy of the qtuie aihntssonig fact taht as long as you keep the frsit and lsat letrets of each word in the rhigt pcale you can mldude up the ltertes in the mldide of the wdors and the wolhe thing wlil still be pfrlceety easy to usnrnedatd I wtore a prrogam to try this out and here is the rulest of a tset run. You sluhod esialy be albe to follow waht the mgsaese was
(My program can't handle punctuation properly yet but I can sort that out)
Not all sentences are equal though, here's one I tried to make harder
Riadsnonmig ieionrtr lrettes aftcefs cioepmnehrson mmiianlly cotiigvne scietsints dveiscor
There is a really interesting article about all this here. It discusses the origin of the meme and then goes on to consider things like what the underlying mechanisms might be, whether reading is slowed, what sort of sentences might affected more and which less by jumbling interior letters in the words, whether some permuation of the intrerior letters make more difference than others and so on. An interesting read, though I haven't finsihed digesting it!
Playground Joke
Wednesday, 8 Apr 2020, 21:45
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Q. What kind of street only lets you weigh things once?
A. A one-weigh street!
Benny the hedgehog
Wednesday, 8 Apr 2020, 19:24
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My brother and his wife have been looking after some underweight hedgehogs. I thought you might like to see these night photos of Benny, who has been brought up to a suitable weight and is now ready to retun to the wild.
Benny is keen to go
Benny heads off into the wild
Tom Swifty
Sunday, 5 Apr 2020, 22:41
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"I though I heard the bell, it must be my fiancée", said Tom adoringly.
Wait and Hope
Sunday, 5 Apr 2020, 01:31
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When I was about 9 or 10 years old two of my favourite books were The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After, by Alexandre Dumas. Oh how I longed to be one of the musketeers! But one book I never read, not sure why, was The Count of Monte Christo.
By chance tonight I came across a quote from that book and I felt that it was in some way appropriate to the extraordinary situation we find ourselves in.
“... the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and Hope.”
The Three Diners
Friday, 3 Apr 2020, 22:12
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Edited by Richard Walker, Friday, 3 Apr 2020, 22:12
If you haven't seen the following before you may enjoy thinking about it. It's something I remembered from way back.
Three friends eat in a restaurant. The bill is £30, so everyone puts in £10. However the manager realises the bill should only have been £25, so he asks the waiter to give back £5. Each diner puts a pound back in their pocket and they give the remaining £2 to the waiter as a tip.
The diners have now paid £9 each, which comes to 3 x £9 = £27. With the £2 tip that makes £29. Where has the remaining £1 gone?
Politeness costs nothing
Thursday, 2 Apr 2020, 21:18
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Edited by Richard Walker, Thursday, 2 Apr 2020, 21:19
Knock-knock!
Who’s there?
Open up!
What’s the magic word?
Police.
Alien Invasion
Tuesday, 31 Mar 2020, 23:36
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After some days
The committee was near consensus
On how to respond to the invasion
Just then the aliens broke in
And vaporised everyone.
Oven gloves - haven't you often felt the same?
Tuesday, 31 Mar 2020, 22:46
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Forsythia
Sunday, 29 Mar 2020, 23:41
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Forsythia is out in my garden.
This flower, which originated in the East, grows wild near where I live, a relic of what was once a thriving local industry. Farmers cultivated it and sent the cut blossoms up to Town on the fast train, so that Londoners could have flowers on the table at Easter. All that has gone long ago, but the plant hangs on in the hedgerows.
Tim's Extreme Measures
Sunday, 29 Mar 2020, 20:25
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Tim's Burden of Responsibility
Thursday, 26 Mar 2020, 18:32
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