what I have learned today.

[Wowbagger]

It is well-known that J. S. Bach liked to mess about with numbers and other patterns in his music. There are several instances in which he has spelt his own surname using notes, bearing in mind that in the German scale, what we call B flat was known as B, and B natural as H, so B-A-C-H becomes quite possible.

What I didn't realise until this evening was that Bach was born on 21st March 1685.

21/3/85.

A B C D E F G H
1 2 3  4 5 6 7 8

Now, what do the first 4 digits of his date of birth spell?

[Pingu]

If they're blocked, they usually just leave. It's a tight t-junction between the hill outside a lunar-surfaced lane that constitutes the street behind us. The green waste lorry appears unable to turn corners (they bought a new lorry, the old one was fine). I grinked about this once to Biffa and the chirpy 'waste collection executive' said 'oh no, that's not a new lorry, it's the one we have always used' so I sent her a nice picture of a brand new, shiny lorry with this year's plates (I looked them up) visibly wedged in the junction (it was there for four hours, so I didn't have to hurry). In the spirit of customer service, she never replied and I figured it was their problem. Mostly it reverses up the road, stops, and then drives back down. Comes back the next day. Repeats.

You grinked about a green waste lorry 

[Mr Larrington]

It is well-known that J. S. Bach liked to mess about with numbers and other patterns in his music. There are several instances in which he has spelt his own surname using notes, bearing in mind that in the German scale, what we call B flat was known as B, and B natural as H, so B-A-C-H becomes quite possible.

What I didn't realise until this evening was that Bach was born on 21st March 1685.

21/3/85.

A B C D E F G H
1 2 3  4 5 6 7 8

Now, what do the first 4 digits of his date of birth spell?

Yebbut that seems to have been before Leipzig and the Surrounding Spaces adopted the Gregorian Calendar

[Diver300]

Hmmm. Every car I've ever owned has a lower reverse gear than 1st. Is that the same principle I wonder ?

No, it's so you can crank it up the face of Extremely Steep sandy slopes, should one be obstructing you. So far in teh history of teh world only Dear Johnny Mills has needed such a facility.

I have moved a car (using forward and reverse as required) using the starting handle. It was a Rover P4 that was temporarily without its cylinder head. It need to be moved a few tens of yards for some reason that I forget now. The ground was gravel and not tarmac, so pushing it would have been difficult.

[robgul]

Hmmm. Every car I've ever owned has a lower reverse gear than 1st. Is that the same principle I wonder ?

No, it's so you can crank it up the face of Extremely Steep sandy slopes, should one be obstructing you. So far in teh history of teh world only Dear Johnny Mills has needed such a facility.

I have moved a car (using forward and reverse as required) using the starting handle. It was a Rover P4 that was temporarily without its cylinder head. It need to be moved a few tens of yards for some reason that I forget now. The ground was gravel and not tarmac, so pushing it would have been difficult.

Mention of those old P series Rovers brought back some memories - I passed my test in the bigger brother of the P4, a P5 3-litre automatic (before they changed the rules on automatic cars and driving licences)   Heavy to drive but very comfortable . .  and a bench front-seat - remember them?

[Mr Larrington]

Hmmm. Every car I've ever owned has a lower reverse gear than 1st. Is that the same principle I wonder ?

No, it's so you can crank it up the face of Extremely Steep sandy slopes, should one be obstructing you. So far in teh history of teh world only Dear Johnny Mills has needed such a facility.

I have moved a car (using forward and reverse as required) using the starting handle. It was a Rover P4 that was temporarily without its cylinder head. It need to be moved a few tens of yards for some reason that I forget now. The ground was gravel and not tarmac, so pushing it would have been difficult.

Mention of those old P series Rovers brought back some memories - I passed my test in the bigger brother of the P4, a P5 3-litre automatic (before they changed the rules on automatic cars and driving licences)   Heavy to drive but very comfortable . .  and a bench front-seat - remember them?

On the rare occasions that I am obliged to stroll into the middle of Walthamstow I usually pass a healthy-looking 3 litre P5.  Battleship grey, appropriately enough.  The folks parked next to us at the caravan site in Altnaharra in the summer of 1970 had the coupé version, with the V8 engine, occasioning great car-envy in a six year old Mr Larrington.

[Cudzoziemiec]

It is well-known that J. S. Bach liked to mess about with numbers and other patterns in his music. There are several instances in which he has spelt his own surname using notes, bearing in mind that in the German scale, what we call B flat was known as B, and B natural as H, so B-A-C-H becomes quite possible.

What I didn't realise until this evening was that Bach was born on 21st March 1685.

21/3/85.

A B C D E F G H
1 2 3  4 5 6 7 8

Now, what do the first 4 digits of his date of birth spell?

Tomorrow: Wowbagger's new career as a numerological diviner.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Hmmm. Every car I've ever owned has a lower reverse gear than 1st. Is that the same principle I wonder ?

No, it's so you can crank it up the face of Extremely Steep sandy slopes, should one be obstructing you. So far in teh history of teh world only Dear Johnny Mills has needed such a facility.

I have moved a car (using forward and reverse as required) using the starting handle. It was a Rover P4 that was temporarily without its cylinder head. It need to be moved a few tens of yards for some reason that I forget now. The ground was gravel and not tarmac, so pushing it would have been difficult.

Mention of those old P series Rovers brought back some memories - I passed my test in the bigger brother of the P4, a P5 3-litre automatic (before they changed the rules on automatic cars and driving licences)   Heavy to drive but very comfortable . .  and a bench front-seat - remember them?

On the rare occasions that I am obliged to stroll into the middle of Walthamstow I usually pass a healthy-looking 3 litre P5.  Battleship grey, appropriately enough.  The folks parked next to us at the caravan site in Altnaharra in the summer of 1970 had the coupé version, with the V8 engine, occasioning great car-envy in a six year old Mr Larrington.

About 1985 I had a Saturday job where my boss drove a P5. He also had an AJS that was always broken down.

[robgul]

Courtesy of one of my daughters - works in publishing . . .   

Some Endeavour (as in Morse) wordplay: one of the characters, editor of The Oxford Times, is called Dorothea Frazil - the word "frazil" is a form of partially thawed ice, and she is of course played by Abigail Thaw   (the late John Thaw and Sheila Hancock's daughter)

[Wowbagger]

It is well-known that J. S. Bach liked to mess about with numbers and other patterns in his music. There are several instances in which he has spelt his own surname using notes, bearing in mind that in the German scale, what we call B flat was known as B, and B natural as H, so B-A-C-H becomes quite possible.

What I didn't realise until this evening was that Bach was born on 21st March 1685.

21/3/85.

A B C D E F G H
1 2 3  4 5 6 7 8

Now, what do the first 4 digits of his date of birth spell?

Yebbut that seems to have been before Leipzig and the Surrounding Spaces adopted the Gregorian Calendar

My understanding is that that had been taken into consideration when planning Bach's birthday. 

@Cudzo: I didn't discover this. It cropped up in a choir rehearsal yesterday evening.

[Cudzoziemiec]

My faith in your mystical powers has been shattered.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Alexa is a joker.

I asked for 'Miner for a Heart of Gold' and was told I would have to sign up for the premium service.
When I refused I got 'I still love you'.

[Mr Larrington]

The existence and, moreover, meaning of the word “greebling”.

[T42]

And now I know it too.  Betcha I forget it first.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Today is the Pandemic's first birthday.

[Pingu]

The sportsball dugout was invented in Furryboottoon. I discovered a plaque for the perpetrator on a ride yesterday:


Colman, Donald by The Pingus, on Flickr

[Mr Larrington]

Back in your technical area!

[Legs]

That it can cost £891.20 to ship a Yaris wiper arm to South Africa 

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

That it can cost £891.20 to ship a Yaris wiper arm to South Africa 

There are 200 Toyota dealers in ZA

https://www.toyota.co.za/showroom

None of them have a Yaris wiper arm?

[Legs]

Didn't say they didn't!  I'm only interested in getting one sent to me in Staffordshire...  But I had a quick squizz down the worldwide shipping list...

[Cudzoziemiec]

That insects – or at least, one species of insect – have gears.
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/functioning-mechanical-gears-seen-in-nature-for-the-first-time

Previously believed to be only man-made, a natural example of a functioning gear mechanism has been discovered in a common insect - showing that evolution developed interlocking cogs long before we did.

In Issus, the skeleton is used to solve a complex problem that the brain and nervous system can’t
Malcolm Burrows
The juvenile Issus - a plant-hopping insect found in gardens across Europe - has hind-leg joints with curved cog-like strips of opposing ‘teeth’ that intermesh, rotating like mechanical gears to synchronise the animal’s legs when it launches into a jump.

They seem to be fixies. The link is worth following for the great video too.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Didn't say they didn't!  I'm only interested in getting one sent to me in Staffordshire...  But I had a quick squizz down the worldwide shipping list...

Buy it locally.  £20.

(I just had my Yaris serviced)

[T42]

Brambles have a great affinity for woolly hats.

[rafletcher]

What a “mustard well” is.

[T42]

Virginia Woolf had an earth closet in the loft.