Heartlands; a fine British romantic comedy, in that it’s neither particularly romantic, nor particularly funny. It’s a meandering vision-quest on a Honda C50 by a lovelorn darts-obsessed newsagent. But it’s got music by Kate Rusby, and Royd Moor wind farm makes a guest appearance, so it’s okay by me.
Category: goatee-stroking musing, or something
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BCG, RIP
The scourge of British school life is going away: the BCG injection is being dropped. Thisteen year olds from the 1930s have sported suppurating left shoulders because of this. It was a favourite target of school bullies, being whacked on the tender injection site. My BCG scar, 23 years on, is greatly faded, but still there
So goodbye, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin; we hardly knew you … ow, my BCG!
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Hovis Presley, 1960 – 2005
I rely on you
I rely on you
like a Skoda needs suspension
like the aged need a pension
like a trampoline needs tension
like a bungee jump needs apprehensionI rely on you
like a camera needs a shutter
like a gambler needs a flutter
like a golfer needs a putter
like a buttered scone involves some butterI rely on you
like an acrobat needs ice cool nerve
like a hairpin needs a drastic curve
like an HGV needs endless derv
like an outside left needs a body swerveI rely on you
like a handyman needs pliers
like an auctioneer needs buyers
like a laundromat needs driers
like The Good Life needed Richard BriersI rely on you
like a water vole needs water
like a brick outhouse needs mortar
like a lemming to the slaughter
Ryan’s just Ryan without his daughter
I rely on you© H Presley 1994
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phones in receivership
GO Transit —FYI
Pay phones on trains are out of service
We have just been notified that the company which provides the pay phones on board our trains has gone into receivership.
These phones are now out of service until further notice.
We regret the inconvenience.
June 24, 2005So I guess nobody called after all.
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back to school
Staples have all their Back To School! stationery stuff. I always hated being reminded of this just before school was even out for summer. Yuck.
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danger sign
I’d hate to be the webmaster at St Claire, Inc this morning. Seems that dweebs like me have discovered Sign Builder 2.0, and are hitting it hard.
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Is today the happiest day?
According to Chris Arnall, today might be teh happiest day of the year. I mean, I know you’re all hyper ‘cos it’s my birthday and all, but you know, it’s not that big a deal …
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good stuff from kennedy road and mississauga?
Picked up some Old Credit Amber Ale. It’s good; comes in obscenely large bottles, so one will get you gently munted. Then, after dismantling the old shed (yeah!), we picked up some great beef noodle soup from Pho Vietnam on Kennedy north of Ellesmere. Yum!
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… in which Stewart actually does something
Today I built a shed, and put things in it. It wasn’t as if it was a difficult shed (just a Keter prefab), but I like to think of it more as a storage solution than just a shed.
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All Is Not Green At The Viridian Design Online Store
Strange that the supposedly deep green Viridian Design online store only features one organic item out of twenty six on sale …
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“I cannot tell a Soft”
I love the way the word softened has become a nice way of saying falsified, as in Ex-Oil Lobbyist Softened US Climate Research.
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aargh, my eyes, my eyes!
Hmm, my left eye has caome over all useless; all I can see is a flickering pattern in the middle. I haven’t had one for a long time, but I seem to remember this being the precursor to a migraine. Joy …
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Lego, ergo sum
… he returns to his building blocks in preparation for the exhibition, rummaging through a bag of Lego. “Hear that sound? They feel so great. You know that feeling, when your fingers are chafed because you’ve been sticking so much Lego together? And that sound!”
Coupland continues to move his hand in a rhythmic, circular motion, making the hundreds of Lego bricks rattle up against each other. “I love Lego! I just love it!”
— from Douglas Coupland has a plan: Let’s live in Legoland, The Globe & Mail, 4 June 02005.I have always loved Lego. Not in a grown-man-builds-working-model-of-Pickering-A-out-of-Lego-Technic kind of way, which would be weird (and would be more than nuclear engineers could do with the real Pickering A). Lego was such an integral part of my childhood that there was seldom a seat cushion that didn’t have a brick or too under them. And by Lego, I mean the real stuff; hundreds of little regular blocks (mostly red), not the modern stuff that you can make a B’Zurqar Battle Cruiser out of just two simple pieces. Things made from Lego were abstract. You had to use as much imagination to believe they represented the object you set out to make, as to make the object itself.
I predate Technic, though I had some of the proto-Technic gears and blocks. I used to make absurdly high ratio gearboxes out of the plastic spur gears and shafts, and crash them with satisfying gronks. We even made it to Legoland (for all of about 25 minutes), as we raced to catch the Esbjerg ferry in 1977.
The article about Coupland set me off on a serious Lego tactile jones yesterday. The Eaton Centre was about to be a site of great disappointment when I saw stacks of Lego buckets by the door of Toys Toys Toys. And not just any Lego; this was a classic 4028 Creator set, with hundreds of simple blocks. And it was reduced to $13!
So, yes, Lego still hurts to make — the sharp corners make a satisfying impression on the fingers. Prying them apart is still hard. And that sound!
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now reading: Jean Shepherd
Jean Shepherd‘s In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. I have rather a failing for the works of midwestern humorists, and Shep reads like a hopped-up Garrison Keillor. You’d like him.
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critter day
First I saw groundhogs on Ashtonbee, then we saw Bill the Pomeranian Guy in Yorkville. He had a whole bunch of pups with him, and these little critters were friendly, fuzzy and fearless.
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lost pitt pen
I managed to lose my Faber-Castell Pitt pen at the AGO last night. They’re not particularly expensive, but they do write well, and you have to find the right kind of art store that sells them.
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otnay osay ightbray: Shop manager broke into own store
Shop manager broke into own store
“A supermarket manager has been remanded in custody after admitting carrying out a £50,000 break-in at his own store.”This would be unremarkable, except that we used to shop there when we lived in Kirkintilloch. It used to be a branch of The Co-op.
Bet he wouldn’t have done it had it still been the Co’; he’d have been stealing from himself!
