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The setting of an event
This was a crossword clue in The Times on Saturday. It had me stumped. The letters I had towards it were M_S_/E_/S_E_E. The middle letter beginning with E made me think it must be a French expression. On my walk this morning I came across the answer. The expression was used by someone speaking on one of the podcasts that I listened to. Mise en scene.
My neighbours' teenaged daughter is learning to drive. She had a lesson with a driving instructor this evening. I saw them in his car outside my house. What caught my eye was a large expanse of naked thigh; the daughter wore shorts. I wondered what the instructor thought.
Thought for today
Reading, the Queen discovers, is like a muscle that grows with use.
John Sutherland in The Times (28 July 2008) reviewing Alan Bennett's book, The Uncommon Reader
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1.7.08 20:13
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Food metres
Dug up my first lot of spuds today. Cooked them for lunch and ate them with my mange touts. They were delicious. There is nothing like home-grown veg. Potatoes are easy to grow, as long as they remain free from blight. Mange tout peas require little care other than the provision of supports for them to climb up. I used chicken wire, kept in place with stakes and bamboos, placed on both sides of the rows and joined at the top to make a V. This kept pigeons at bay. Fortunately, slugs and snails left them alone; they were busy with my broad beans.
Thought for today
An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
H L Mencken (1880 - 1956) American journalist
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2.7.08 20:53
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Bass restored
The fault with my hi-fi system (June 22) turned out to be with the speakers. The woofers had packed up. They have been replaced and music now sounds as it should. I took the car to collect them from the shop because together they weigh 11kg. The shop is on a narrow one-way street; I parked near it on a wider section so not to obstruct traffic. Further down the road was a large delivery van blocking the road. When I came out with the speakers the van had moved onto the pavement so less of it was in the road, but the driver of an SUV had parked sideways in a layby so the vehicle jutted out into the road. I was not prepared to try to squeeze past. The van and SUV were likely to go before long so I remained parked. Prudence was patience.
Two cars did manage to squeeze through the gaps though both had to scrape their tyres on the kerbs, mount the pavement on both sides of the road and avoid a bollard. Along came a white Transit van which, to my surprise, also tried to squeeze through. The bollard got the better of it and it had to reverse.
After a few minutes the delivery van and SUV moved off, the road was clear and I set off hastily before any more vehicles could block the road.
Thought for today
Going to church no more makes you a Christian then sleeping in your garage makes you a car.
Garrison Keillor (1942 - ) American broadcaster
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3.7.08 20:29
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Piled high
My neighbours' skip is overflowing. On the side is written LEVEL LOAD ONLY. Bits will fall off when it is collected and lifted onto the wagon. Tonight foxes might scatter stuff because there is a pizza cardboard box among the rubbish. If they smell food they'll jump on top and rummage about.
Epitaph for today
Beneath this stone my wife doth lie:
Now she's at rest, and so am I!
Boileau
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4.7.08 19:59
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Symptoms of old age
The brief description of the programme Grumpy Old Women on telly this evening says: Personalities groan about the symptoms of getting old. Reading this made me wonder what the symptoms of getting old were. Cessation of menstruation. Nowt to groan about there. Presbyopia: those with myopia only need change the lenses in their glasses to varifocals. Being unable to read because they haven't brought their reading glasses with them is not a problem. I couldn't think of any more symptoms other than being alert and lively and wanting to get a move on but they are hardly ones to groan about. Perhaps I should watch the programme to see what I'm missing.
Thought for today
There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who wants a book to read.
G K Chesterton
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7.7.08 19:54
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More symptoms of old age
I watched the programme Grumpy Old Women last night. Their symptoms of old age included disliking waste, saving plastic bags and pots, and ignoring use by dates; in other words what I call common sense.
The symptoms of old age may simply reveal the differences between generations. Will women in twenty years time dislike waste and so on? Gordon Brown is exhorting us not to throw away so much food. My generation is prepared to eat mouldy cheese and jam (having scraped the mould off first) but are younger generations?
A neighbour (similar age to me) said that when one of her daughter's friends was staying with them for a few days, the friend asked for some jam. The neighbour, who said that she ate jam infrequently, had some in stock. She opened the jar to find mould on top. Oh, she said, hang on till I scrape the mould off. This, unsurprisingly, put daughter's friend off the jam; there might be toxins in it. Antibiotics more like. I'd have kept quiet about the mould.
I'd eat food that fell on my kitchen floor but I'd be reluctant to eat food that fell on someone else's kitchen floor.
Thought for today
Forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of old age.
Victor Hugo
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8.7.08 20:45
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Thoughts about old age
In age we talk much because we have seen much, and soon after shall cease talking for ever.
Joseph Hall, Occasional Meditations, 1630
When we are sighing for the loss of our past youth, which will return no more, let us reflect that decrepitude will come, when we shall regret the mature age we have reached and do not sufficiently value.
La Bruyere, Characters, 1688
Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation.
Dr Johnson, The Rambler, 1750-2
At fifty you begin to be tired of the world, and at sixty the world is tired of you.
Count Oxenstierna, Reflections and Maxims, mid 17th century
Thought for today
Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.
Rabbinic saying
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9.7.08 19:57
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