For some reason unknown to me, our kids school has chosen today as the return after the Easter break. It isn’t a general thing. Some schools returned Monday, others Tuesday… ours on Thursday. So they are there today and tomorrow… and then it’s the weekend. Hardly seems worth it really! The eldest is excited either … More Back to school – just.

I was discussing with my father the Laurence Binyon stanza used repeatedly at memorials for the fallen service personell of whatever war or conflict they fought and or died in. I used the stanza in its exact format and spelling, i.e. : They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age … More Contemn? Damn right!

We’ve had an epiphany… or something. Either way we now have a clear, clean boring, uninteresting… oops… err… very readable typeface and layout. I hope this will reduce the whinges about the look and feel of the place. Well it might do until I can find some other wacky way out theme to install 🙂 … More From the sublime to the ridiculous.

Reading the Phantom’s comment on ‘Soup Glorious Soup’ reminded me of one of my pet peeves. Something I rant on about constantly is sloppy grammar in speech. And of all the culprits, the ones that *really* set me off are news reports that make no sense. Typically of course, right at this moment I can’t … More There are times I'm a pedantic bastard.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them. Laurence Binyon – For The Fallen (1914)

The blog looks fantastic on a 22″ widescreen monitor… but I have no idea what it looks like on a smaller standard screen. Some feedback on the appearance would be appreciated… please? 🙂

Gosh… it turns out that capital punishment by lethal injection appears to be even *more* “cruel and unusual than anyone thought. You can read the full story here. Basically it appears that the drugs used to sedate the condemned before the lethal cocktail is injected quite often doesn’t work. In fact, the situation is so … More Death by legal torture?

On the way to the station the wife was querying the origins of the word tattoo and where the practice originated. I thought it was common in the stone age… but she thought it might have required metal so perhaps might have originated in the iron age. A Wikipedia article says the word tatoo is … More Tattoo?

Last nights sojourn in the cold and damp seems to have left its mark in the form of a disturbed night, and an attack of the sniffles this morning. I think maybe it’s time to take myself off to my kip where I can quietly fester and suppurate until I feel better. Never mind, it’s … More And now I'm sneezing.

Teachers drive me crazy, especially the ones who teach my kids. I expect very little from them and in return I expect them to expect very little from me. Well I uphold my end of the bargain, but sometimes I find they don’t uphold theirs. For example they seem to think it’s essential that at … More You got an 'ology'?'