Time of the Butterfly

A trip to Barcelona last year was a real joy. It got us through a hard winter and now the weather is relenting a little I am looking forward to the spring and summer.

I now know what I would take to a desert island for my one luxury. I would take the Sagrada Familia.

Our Time Will Come

Article in The Grauniad 24/3/06 by Banksy about the cleanup of Melbourne street art prior to the games. He suggests that a similar process will be visited on London.

The precedent set by Melbourne does not bode well for London in the build-up to the 2012 Olympics.

I greatly enjoyed Banksy's book of the same name. A family member received it as a present and was generous or compassionate enough to share it with me over Christmas. I must confess to being ambivalent about the question of graffiti. It is great to see it and it is, sometimes, truly wonderful. If it was my wall that it was painted on I might not feel so inspired.

Seen on the side of Old College Edinburgh in the 70's;

Ken- Ken More

probably written by Gordon Brown after a few pints.

I've never seen this one in the wild but it adorns our fridge courtesy of magnetic poetry!

Read the truth, write it on a wall!

So, a legend in its own lunchtime, might leave it for the landlord who owns the fridge!

Bacon Bagel

I had a sneaking respect for Uncle Arthur. In WW2 he volunteered for the RAF Regiment and spent most of the war guarding buildings in London.
It was part of the myth that he did this so that he could be there if a bank suffered a direct hit.

My mother was a good Catholic and enforced 'the rules' like a Salford Taliban.
There was no meat on a Friday. Visiting Arthur after work one Friday I noticed that he was not eating his tea though sat at the table when we came in.
He was tired and hungry and could take no more.
"Olive! What's happened to my tea?"
"I'll just put it in the oven so it doesn't get cold."
A curious six year old, I drifted into the kitchen to see his wife, Olive, wink as a big plate of cabbage and bacon went in the oven.

I have been asked why I enjoy a bacon bagel so much, as I do from time to time. Its partly because it reminds me of Arthur and Olive. It also tastes much better on a Friday!

Should we only Fear Country Music 2?

I rang the free phone number of the car company who produced the ad with the viral tune.
A very pleasant and helpful young woman answered almost right away and suggested that I should ring the marketing department on their (payphone) number.
I did this. Another very helpful young woman swiftly gave me the number (again payphone) of the customer care line as, she suggested, that would be the answer to all my problems.
I rang this number and obtained a very clear response from a phone menu system which gave me a bewildering number of options. I decided that my care needs might most appropriately be satisfied by general enquiries. I selected this and, yes you have guessed right, I was greeted by a voice telling me my enquiry was valued but they were awfully busy at the moment and would I mind waiting while they got round to me. In the meantime they played me some nice music, not, thankfully, the tune which has been infesting my brain.

I decided another tack should be taken. Why not try t'internet. I googled away and within a few seconds had pages on message boards assuring me that the offending melody was by a certain Mr Mendelssohn, A Song Without Words. Of course I will need to check this for myself but I can feel the clouds lifting at the prospect of eventual peace.

Nice one Felix, old son. I might even borrow the disk from the Library.

Now, what was that tune on the customer care line?!

The Laws of Nature

The New Scientist Feedback section, 25 Feb. 2006, has a reference to the problem of disappearing teaspoons, including the half-life of teaspoon populations and theory by Adams, D et al about the eventual destination of the 'lost spoons'. The "odd sock phenomenon" was mentioned and the possibility of a link between the two based on the quantum equivalence of socks and spoons.

I was reminded of a Jules Feiffer cartoon, in the Observer I think.
A woman puts a load of clothes in the washing machine. After taking out the clean washing she finds that a sock is missing.
Life!
The process of washing clothes is repeated and the number of socks decreases by one between the start and the end, yet again.

The woman, obviously a science graduate, tries a wash where the number of socks is reduced to just one.

At the end of the washing cycle the machine is opened and the washing taken out.
The single sock is missing. In addition there is a soggy piece of paper bearing the following message,

"Quit f***ing with the laws of nature and give the machine more socks!"

The Sceptical Chymist

Thirty five years ago I first taught science in a secondary modern school in Salford.
I did the experiment of burning a candle in a bell jar. In fact we all did. The rule of the day was Nuffield Science and that meant the kids getting stuck in - fingers and hair burnt, trousers and skirts soaked!

After we had performed the experiment and cleaned up we discussed what our conclusion should be. Although damned by the 11 plus the kids were not stupid and realised that something had been used up as the candle burned out and the water level in the bell jar rose.

At that point I was able to pull the rabbit out of the hat and explain that oxygen, roughly a fifth of the air we breathe, had been consumed by the candle....... de daaan!

Terry Burke, a dear friend and head of department, took me on one
side and asked me what I thought had happened in the experiment. (He often hovered at the back of the class or in the prep. room to make sure I got out alive. ) I repeated my explanation. Terry suggested that I consider the chemistry. For each molecule of oxygen burnt from the air one molecule of carbon dioxide was produced. So one molecule of gas reacts with a vaporised solid to produce one molecule of gas............. oops! Terry said that it was probably the case that the carbon dioxide, more soluble than oxygen, was immediately dissolved in the water.

I think you would have liked Terry, he always new the right questions to ask.

Keep asking the right questions!

Getting Things Done

Getting Things Done
How to Achieve Stress Free Productivity
David Allen
2001

Issued by Library 9/2/06

Opened 17/2/06 Closed

Date due back 2/3/06

Returned 4/3/06

Hmmm!

Stone Curry:- food without nourishment?

We delivered rations and a bed for a mendicant doctor on call in Hackney over 20 years ago.
The deal was we would provide food and your man would provide the wine. In those days one bottle between three of us! He did not want to upset the good ladies who would call him out as they knew he was available!

It became a challenge on the days that we cooked. He was not averse to a bit of the vegetarian and so we provided from a range of books. I am not now, nor was I ever macrobiotic but I did enjoy Arturo and others. Our interest in the subcontinent would have been considered positively subversive today.

One of the more enjoyable sources was by Jack Santa Maria.
His work provided great food and some parabolic tales.

My favourite was The Merchant's Tale about Stone Curry.

It has been an inspiration to me ever since.

Three holy men turn up in a village, sit in the centre and place the sacred pouch with the curry stones in front of them. When asked what they are doing they reply that they are able to make the best curry in the whole world - all they need is the stones in their pouch and a cauldron of boiling water. Everyone wants a free lunch so the villagers comply. After a while one of the holy men samples the brew and with little short of rapture on his face pronounces it the best curry in the world- apart from just a little salt! This is provided. The sampling is repeated and the pronouncement is now the curry requires some onion and a little garlic. Well of course you know what happens. The villagers provide the ingredients one by one and the holy men (consultants ) provide the curry!

I saw this as a quirky tale. But the more I think about it the more it inspires me to believe people can do things for themselves.