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Fast food
It's not just what one eats that makes one fat, it's how one eats as well. Eating fast and until full trebles the risk according to an article in today's BMJ. We do not know what drives us to eat quickly ... . I can answer that. I eat quickly because I worked in the NHS. There was so much work there was little time to eat. I ate fast in order to survive. Now I am retired I eat slower, sometimes, but in company I usually finish before others, and if there are seconds I can lap the rest. In spite of this I am not fat. Restraint is the key; I rarely eat until I am full. And walking at least forty miles a week helps too.
Thought for today
Medicine alone cannot solve the problem of obesity, and nor should it try--obesity is not an illness or syndrome. Solutions already exist, and they are neither new nor complex.
Des Spence, BMJ 2008;337:a2432
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What goes up must come down
Spotted two large rocket sticks today on pavements. Unfortunately, both were broken in half. Did their impact with the ground break them? Being hit by a falling rocket, I imagine, would hurt.
Neighbours are letting off noisy fireworks this evening. Sounds like a war zone outside.
Thought for today
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Joseph Addison (1672 - 1719) English essayist
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Big bang night
So far it is quiet. I expect it will noisy on Saturday. My house is on the top of a hill so I get free displays from the bedroom windows. It seems that I am not the only one to collect rocket sticks. Someone commented on this blog that he collected the sticks. I walked with a group today and heard someone say that she had found two big sticks in her garden and hoped to find more later in the week. They are good quality sticks and make excellent supports for plants. Perhaps we are a nation of scavengers.
Thought for today
Voting is simply a way of determining which side is the stronger without putting it to the test of fighting.
H L Mencken (1880 - 1956) American journalist and literary critic, Minority Report, 1956
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The ones that got away
Dug up a second lot of Jerusalem artichokes this afternoon. Considering that I dug them all up last year and planted no more, Ive had a remarkably good crop this year. I sat outside and scrubbed them in a bucket of water to remove the earth, and just managed to finish before it was too dark to see. Now they are laid out on newspaper in the hall, drying.
I also planted broad beans and covered the rows with plastic polytunnels, more to keep the neighbours cat from disturbing the earth than to protect the beans from frost. There was something on the news about the need for pets to have mental stimulation. If I find a cat in my garden Ill give it mental stimulation.
Thought for today
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967) American author and humorist
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Noisy neighbours
I attend a monthly digital photography class. It is full of old people (at least ten years older than I) who struggle to see the settings of their cameras, let alone alter them. Read your manuals, says the tutor. They look at these but find them little help. The manuals give basic information; I think detailed information is on accompanying, long forgotten, CDs.
Digital cameras (they are mini-computers, says the tutor) make noises; many in the class, I suspect, are unaware that these can be turned off. When we take photos or alter settings, the room is filled with electronic beeps. I told the woman next to me, who was concerned about the state of her camera's battery, that it would last longer if she turned off the beep. That was beyond her. It'll be in the instructions somewhere, I said, and with her permission I looked in it. It wasn't. This was when I realised how basic the manuals were. No wonder many struggled.
I looked over her shoulder as she pressed buttons and noticed the words Silent Mode. Turning that to On did the trick, and there were fewer beeps in my corner of the room.
Thought for today
One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.
Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915) American author
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It's that man again
Or, rather, it's not. The repeat of Jonathan Ross's Film 2008 shown last Tuesday, which I taped and watched on Wednesday, was scheduled to be on at lunchtime. Instead there was a programme about the New Forest. I suspect the programme won't return until next year, unless someone else has a go in the meantime. Pity; I like watching it, though I am no fan of JR.
Thought for today
Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn't have in your home.
David Frost, 1971
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Signs of the time
On my way to buy a newspaper this morning I passed three shattered pumpkins and several squashed egg boxes--remains from last night's festivities. I also spotted a rocket stick which I took home with me as it will make a good support for a plant. I hope to find more. Last year I remember someone telling me that his car was damaged by a falling rocket. It landed on the bonnet and dented it. The dent wasn't huge but he minded because the car was new.
The recent rain will ensure that piles of wood for bonfires next Saturday will be well sodden.
Thought for today
When all think alike, then no one is thinking.
Walter Lippmann, quoted in The Book of Laws by H Faber, 1980
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