tonyXIII

By "something better", do you mean golf?

Hope things get better for you, Bleep.

Don't feel bad. If someone chooses to lead with their chin, it's almost direspectful not to punch them on it.

Good for you. Use that time to good effect. Good luck.

I lived in North Manchester as a boy, so Bury was just up the road. Maybe it was a local thing. Thanks to you and Futtocks for the replies.

On the Rant thread, Bleep mentioned eating black pudding at St.Helens and liking it. I have a question but didn't want to derail the other thread, so here it is. Bleep didn't mention how his black pudding had been cooked. Today, it seems that the default method for this delicacy is frying slices of the long, cylindrical stuff wrapped in plastic (edit: remove the plastic before frying). However, when I was young, my mum used to buy it in a real skin, tied in 'horseshoe' shape. She would boil it for about 5 minutes and serve it for tea with lots of pepper, bread and butter and a large cup of tea. When I first came across fried black pudding, I was quite taken aback. Does anyone else do boiled black pudding?

It's too much like hard work. Or should that be "hard works"?

The posts on here about misdirected feminism reminded of my dad. He was a teacher back in the 40s and up to the 80s. some time after equal pay for women came in, he told me it was a mistake. I thought, "You're mad." However, his was a pov based on the social structure of a previous generation. Men go out to work and women stay home and raise the children, so pay men a much better salary and women a much lower salary. Sexist! Really? In the context of his upbringing - early 20th century - is it so ridiculous? Probably not. But it'll never come back and that's probably for the best, but it does imply a truly significant change in the structure of society.

Be careful! Bifocals and varifocals take some getting used to. You might want to avoid staircases when wearing them. I wear a very thin pair of reading glasses when teaching (I can see the students over them and read the book through them - much like bifocals). I once forgot to take them off, walked out of the classroom and missed my step on the staircase. I avoided a nasty fall only by reaching out and grabbing the bannister. You have been warned.

That struck a chord! I thought I was just getting old and cranky, but you're right. I've become a lazy thinker. WOW! Thanks for that. BTW. I'm serious. No irony intended.

You should create a few 'dummy personae' and post comments. Perhaps enlist some friends to help you. Then you could moderate all these new comments to show how even-handed you are. Once you're up-and-running, you could morph into a news channel and go head-to-head with CNN, Fox and the BBC. After all, news doesn't have to be true any more, does it? You make your own news. Farmduck News Corp coming to a channel near you, soon! Yay!

So, go on a diet. Problem solved!

Corrected to account for your typical Yorkshire profligacy (sic).

Mate. I think you need a hobby.

AFAIK, they make virtually zero profit, don't they? At least, inthe UK.

Quorn is better! At least if your making a curry.

I've trimmed your post to just the bit I'm interested in, sorry. I know I'm going to regret this, but. I watched a serious science program on BBC4 recently (I used catch-up, so it could have been ancient. It might have been "Inside the mind of Einstein", but I can't remember) and it made the case for gravity not existing. They tried to explain this position as (paraphrasing), It's not gravity, it's acceleration. To me, it sounds like someone is confusing cause and effect. In my world, gravity causes acceleration. In his world, acceleration causes us to infer gravity. Please don't ask me to explain it, it did my head in. The basis for his argument went like this. Imagine a box floating in space with a man inside it. The man cannot see out of the box (think of a traditional lift carriage) so he cannot tell if he is moving. He will not know if he is in a gravity field (falling at the same speed as the box) or not. Until the box begins to accelerate (let's say upward) . At this point, he will not know if he is in a gravity field or just a box accelerating upwards, because the effect on him would be the same (the floor pushing up on him). There is no way of telling the difference. I would suggest you think about it, but there aren't enough psychiatric beds available in the country to deal with the consequences. In other news, centrifugal force really doesn't exist. It is just Newton's first law of motion. Now, Newton I get. Einstein, on the other hand, is completely beyond me.

Shame his grandparents didn't throw him out with the bathwater.

Quietly explain to him that it is only the truly ignorant who refuse to open their minds to different experiences and that they are the ones who, ultimately, miss out in life. On reflection, thump the ignorant get!

When you say "it's 1m long with a perspex blade", do you mean the blade is 1m long and is made of perspex or do you mean the handle is 1m long and the blade is made of perspex? If the former, you can't possibly control it effectively - it will wreck the rubber seals round the windscreen - and it won't work. If the latter, then congratulations on a (minor) engineering feat.

Hey! Respect your elders! I was using inter-city trains in the seventies. Those bloody sandwiches are still repeating on me.

No. They deserve a smack in the mouth!

You're in plenty of good company here, both young and old alike.

So why did you endure it? As an engineer, surely you understand the concept of the 'off' button? As to your opinion of the two 'phonies', I can only concur.

Currently 280 outside. A bit chilly, to be honest.