Tag Archives: Wikipedia

Day 75

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I had a lie in, an unhurried breakfast, watched a little TV and started clearing up bits and pieces of work I need to do on the computer. It’s amazing how half-finished thing accumulate, and how, after two hours, I don’t seem to have made much progress.

Lunch was the remains of the green salad with prawns and avocados, and I am now entering that phase of the day where the hypnotic sound of raindrops on glass is starting to work its Morpheotic magic. Well, I would if Morpheotic was a word. It should be, and it should mean “to do with Morpheus, the god of dreams”. Somehow it seems to have slipped through the net and searches for it come up with various medical conditions and a skin-tightening treatment. That’s the trouble with the English language, just not enough words. From what I see on that link, the Koreans are way ahead of us, and the Germans would soon run a word together that meant what I want, though it would probably be very long.

That is the trouble with computers. They offer the same hypnotic spell as a TV screen, added to the potential to procrastinate contained in Google and Wikipedia. This morning I looked up “Wickcliffe”. I always thought it was spelt “Wycliffe“. So does Wiki, though they do mention that it is also spelt Wyclif and Wickliffe. The people who struck a medal in 1924 to celebrate the 600th Anniversary of his birth selected “Wickliffe”. To be fair they also selected 1624 as his birthdate, which is not known with 100% accuracy. This sort of thing can be tricky when you get back into territory where spelling and record keeping had different standards from today.

I ended up on a journey through the Lollards, Tyndale and the Bible, to name but three. Exciting times, where failing to toe the party line in religious matters could end badly, as Sir John Oldcastle, the real life model for Falstaff, could demonstrate.

The problem was that I was supposed to be making a few background notes for the new medallion, not spending all morning refreshing my memory on the Reformation.

The John Wickliffe, if you are interested, was a sailing ship that took Scottish settlers to New Zealand in 1848.

This, if you are a researcher from the future looking at Procrastination in the 21st Century, or some similar subject for your dissertation, is what I do with my day.

Picture for today is coins. Even on my day off I am surrounded by coins.

Weather, Wiki and Wanderings

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I’ve just dropped Julia at work, returned home and turned the computer on to check the weather.

The current weather is  cloudy, 1 degree Centigrade (which feels like -3 due to windchill), humidity of 93%, visibility of 12 miles and pressure of 1010 mb.

The first point that occurs to me is that I could tell most of this from sticking my head out of the door. The second is that I don’t know what 1010 mb represents and the third is that I can’t see 12 miles in most directions on account of houses and trees and other environmental clutter. and I don’t understand humidity.

Specifically, I don’t understand why the humidity is currently higher than it is forecast to be for the rest of the day, when it will be raining. To my simple mind 100% humidity is what you find in a swimming pool, so I don’t know how a damp but rain-free morning can be 93% humid when a rainy afternoon is forecast to be 72%.

It’s a mystery, as Toyah Wilcox used to sing.

I looked Toyah Wilcox up on Wikipedia after mentioning her. I then went on to Robert Fripp, Fripp’s uncle Alfie…

After that I ended up with Paul Brickhill, Roger Bushell and, eventually, Tim Birkin. There were a few more links in there, but I’ll leave you to make your own journey.

The Birkin article, though mentioning his younger brother Archie, fails to mention his older brother Thomas. I sometimes despair at the standard of some Wikipedia entries, though not so much that I’ve ever contributed anything to any of the articles. It seems fair to include Thomas as he seems to have been equally as intrepid as the others.

I’ve lost my Birkin notes, taken about 20 years ago, but I know there is a family link to Jane Birkin. They are a Nottingham family, in case you are wondering about my sudden interest in a random subject.

It’s time to leave you now, as I’ve frittered enough time making an accidentally symmetrical journey between two multi-talented women. A few musings on weather forecasts seem to have taken me quite a way. I am now equipped with new knowledge (which is good) but it is time for breakfast (which is better).

A Walk in Wikipedia

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It all started with Derrick J Knight. The man is a bad influence, though probably not as bad as Wikipedia.

His mention of a Spong mincer set my mind back to a time when, in my early 20s, I was firmly based in the cookery traditions of my mother – Be-Ro cookbook, Spong mincer and pressure cooker.

I’ve just spent a happy couple of hours delving into various links and thinking about the cookery of my youth.

In those days we had savoury mince or Cottage Pie (which is not much of a stretch, just savoury mince with mashed potato on top). Spag Bol and chilli con carne were still some years off. If you wanted exotic food when I was a kid you had a Vesta meal or  prawn cocktail, and you had it with lettuce. Avocados ranked with Unicorns in those days. (I was going to say “hen’s teeth” but even as a kid I knew chicks were born with an egg tooth. It’s a throw-back to when they were dinosaurs). Not all my useless knowledge comes from Wikipedia.

I’ve also been looking into the Laws of Rugby in reply to a discussion on yesterday’s France  v Wales game. That’s not as relaxing as thinking about food.

I’m planning to look at poetry next, as I need some new titles and I should really give Gray’s Elegy a rest.

No photographs for now, I don’t have any relevant food photos and there’s no point photographing a pile of poetry books as I’ve just said I’m browsing poetry on the web.

Instead, I’ll leave you with this thought:

“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.”
― Bill Watterson