what I have learned today.

[pcolbeck]

American Dad is based on the characters from Till Death Do Us Part - sort of (there were no aliens in Alf Garnets loft).

American Dad is based on All in the Family which is a very successful US remake of Till Death Do Us Part.

[David Martin]

Today I learned how to identify different species of bat from their droppings. Quite clever really. And got most of the test right afterwards.

[Mr Larrington]

One of my mum's friend's daughters is called Gay and I don't think it has an e on the end. She would have been born in about 1967 so will be in her late 40s now.

I used to work with a Gay Anderson, of a similar vintage to myself.  Her motor-car carries the plate V3GAY.

[barakta]

Well if you can't hide it, might as well flaunt it - or something

[Cudzoziemiec]

This is in part a rant at myself, prompted by Mr Larrington's rant in the Rant Thread. But it's also a something I have learned. Lazy, ignorant, assuming git! If you've never come across a word before, look it up and find out rather than inventing something! Turns out "anbaric" is nothing to do with pressure at all.  In fact, it's rather more interesting. Indeed, it seems to have given birth to Natalia Kukulska!

[Cudzoziemiec]

That Struwwelpeter (if you haven't read it, the illustrations are the best thing) was written by Hoffmann! But not that Hoffmann...

[rogerzilla]

Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Nazi Foreign Minister, shagged Wallace Simpson.

[Canardly]

Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Nazi Foreign Minister, shagged Wallace Simpson.

Sauce Source? Forget I asked that, seems well documented via the webby.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Dolly Parton is Miley Cyrus's godmother

[tiermat]

That 1/7 is Canadia day

[Efrogwr]

That surfing was introduced to the USA and the UK* by the same men; David Kawananakoa and Jonah Kuhio Kalaiana'ole.

* In Bridlington.

[jogler]

Today I have learned that The Strawberry Farm Garden Centre in Bramshall regard the many & frequent cyclists whose custom they are favoured with as being amongst their best customers.

'tis a pity then that this establishment has no bike parking facilties nor Sheffield stands or similar.

I have also learned that the kitchen goddess who used to bake all their home made pies & cakes etc has been re-engaged despite retiring a while ago. 

Perhaps this should be in the GoodNewsBadNewsGoodNews thread?

[Kim]

Never mind the bike parking, they need to do something about the hills between there and Tamworth

[jogler]

Those hills are there specificaly for audaxing purposes.

There are alternative almost-flat routes available. as my blind stoker will confirm

[Kim]

Hmm, so a Larrington Manoeuvre is an option...   

[Ruth]

Today I learned that the health messages at work are getting through.

I went for a walk in the Denes - little green areas around the beck in Darlington, each with their own name and character.  I'd not fancied it before, there have been a couple of health alerts at work - the usual open space nocturnal activities have led to an epidemic of syphilis and genital warts.  It didn't make me want to explore!

Today there were lots of condom wrappers.  Hooray!

[Kim]

That MATE (and presumably contemporary versions of Gnome) have an options button in the keyboard settings that lets you reconfigure <Caps Lock> as something more useful / harmless, without having to know what a keycode is.   

[clarion]

That I worked with the Chuckle Brothers' brothers, the Patton Brothers.  I'd previously thought they were their uncles, but no - Jimmy & Brian Patton, sons of entertainer Gene Patton, are two of the three older brothers (the other is Colin) of Paul and Barry Elliot, sons of Jimmy Elliot, who was Gene Patton.  Obvs.

[Speshact]

There are 283 kms of bus lanes in London

[clarion]

How many are Bus only?

[billplumtree]

That one of my cow-orkers was involved in the construction of this last week (the bike, not the barn):



Took an unspecified length of 4.5m white PVC sheeting, six thousand tent pegs (a bargain job lot from ebay), and a spotter on the opposite hillside to guide the placement after the initial stakeout (as it were).

[Kim]

Took an unspecified length of 4.5m white PVC sheeting, six thousand tent pegs (a bargain job lot from ebay), and a spotter on the opposite hillside to guide the placement after the initial stakeout (as it were).

Not Anneka Rice, several tonnes of chalk and a vast supply of cub scouts?  Some people have no sense of tradition...

[Exit Stage Left]

That one of my cow-orkers was involved in the construction of this last week (the bike, not the barn):



Took an unspecified length of 4.5m white PVC sheeting, six thousand tent pegs (a bargain job lot from ebay), and a spotter on the opposite hillside to guide the placement after the initial stakeout (as it were).

That's a classic 'Miner/Farmer Landscape' shot, with adits visible at the bottom of the limestone scarp. The construction of the barn from a mixture of limestone and gritstone suggests the use of mining spoil. I've learned today that the coming of the railway to Hawes in 1878 stimulated a boom in mining, quarrying and dairying.

[clarion]

Nice to hear it is so easily removed. 

[phantasmagoriana]

How to do a wheelie. And an endo. I can only do tiny ones, though...