A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own

[ElyDave]

this was not actually a moulded plug

Yes, I realise that - I should have made clear that it was an aside.

but yes, I do agree with you on moulded plugs, they only solve one problem, and can introduce others

[Kim]

this was not actually a moulded plug

Yes, I realise that - I should have made clear that it was an aside.

but yes, I do agree with you on moulded plugs, they only solve one problem, and can introduce others

They must be a net win, though.  I've come across some shockingly (pun intended) wired plugs over the years, though I reckon my paternal grandparents were responsible for about half of them.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Lord Kimble tried to mend the electric plug
Himself. It struck him dead: The silly thug!
It is his business, rather than to tweak,
To give employment to the younger geek.

With the usual apologies to the Hilarious Bullock.

[Salvatore]

Somewhere in our family is a cloth book of cautionary verse for children dating from the early 1900s, each page having a suitable illustration. I probably haven't seen it for upwards of five decades, but one page imprinted itself indelibly on my memory. The verse (with a suitably horrific image) was:

                                 Boy, pliers, electric wires.
                                 Blue flashes, boy ashes.

[ElyDave]

A bear met Algy
The bear was bulgy
the bulge was Algy

or something like that

Also,

Poor little Johnny,
Johnny is no more
For what he thought was H2O
was really H2SO4

[Giraffe]

Update: what's HS2for?

[T42]

Update: what's HS2for?

Much like the H2SO4: burning a hole in your pocket.

[Kim]

Update: what's HS2for?

Inflating property prices in Digbeth.

[Torslanda]

Somewhere in our family is a cloth book of cautionary verse for children dating from the early 1900s, each page having a suitable illustration. I probably haven't seen it for upwards of five decades, but one page imprinted itself indelibly on my memory. The verse (with a suitably horrific image) was:

                                 Boy, pliers, electric wires.
                                 Blue flashes, boy ashes.

When I was a SMALL we had a book by Hilaire Belloc 'Cautionary Tales'. I wonder if it is the same one...?

The chief defect of Henry King
Was chewing little bits of string
One day he swallowed some which tied
Itself in ugly knots inside

Physicians of the utmost fame
Were called at once
But when they came
They answered, as they took their fees
'There is no cure for this disease
Henry will very soon be dead!'

His parents stood about his bed
Lamenting his untimely death
When Henry with his latest breath
Said 'Oh! My friends be warned by me
That breakfast, dinner, lunch and tea
Are all the human frame requires'
With that the wretched child expires

I've just typed that from memory, despite not having seen the book for a good 45 years or more...

[hellymedic]

Matilda told such dreadful lies
It made one gasp and stretch one's eyes....

[robgul]

Somewhere in our family is a cloth book of cautionary verse for children dating from the early 1900s, each page having a suitable illustration. I probably haven't seen it for upwards of five decades, but one page imprinted itself indelibly on my memory. The verse (with a suitably horrific image) was:

                                 Boy, pliers, electric wires.
                                 Blue flashes, boy ashes.

When I was a SMALL we had a book by Hilaire Belloc 'Cautionary Tales'. I wonder if it is the same one...?

The chief defect of Henry King
Was chewing little bits of string
One day he swallowed some which tied
Itself in ugly knots inside

Physicians of the utmost fame
Were called at once
But when they came
They answered, as they took their fees
'There is no cure for this disease
Henry will very soon be dead!'

His parents stood about his bed
Lamenting his untimely death
When Henry with his latest breath
Said 'Oh! My friends be warned by me
That breakfast, dinner, lunch and tea
Are all the human frame requires'
With that the wretched child expires

I've just typed that from memory, despite not having seen the book for a good 45 years or more...

I too had that book (IIRC it had a yellow cover and was a Pelican or Puffin published tome) - this one always amused me:

The Rich arrived in pairs
And also in Rolls Royces;
They talked of their affairs
In loud and strident voices...

The Poor arrived in Fords,
Whose features they resembled;
They laughed to see so many Lords
And Ladies all assembled.

The People in Between
Looked underdone and harassed,
And our of place and mean,
And Horribly embarrassed.


Rob

[Ham]

Little Billy in one of his bright new* sashes
Fell in the fire and was burned to ashes
Now, although the room grows chilly
I don't have the heart to poke poor Billy


*New? Blue? my memory fails me.

[T42]

Any time now we'll be shooting hippopotami, and our teeth will be Ogdenly Nashing. Which gentleman said of babies:

A bit of talcum
Is always walcum.

But these days

It is not walcum any more
Since babies hovered at Death's door
And some went in, alas, unweaned
And over-hexachlorophened.

[Cudzoziemiec]

These are two different books, I think. One Cautionary Tales by Hillaire Beloc, the other a German collection with "penny dreadful" drawings, called Struwelpeter (Straw Peter?).

[fimm]

Struwwelpeter "shock-headed Peter" according to Google. I know about this because the teacher of my German evening class had us reading one of the poems (actually too hard for us to translate easily but we know enough to get the jist).
I was instantly put in mind of Hilare Belloc. The poem we read was about a girl who played with matches and burned herself to a little heap of ashes.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Gotta wonder if Belloc had been inspired by Struwelpeter.

[fimm]

Struw-wel-peter. Two Ws. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter
Published in 1845.
"Cautionary Tales" was published in 1907. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cautionary_Tales_for_Children says "It is a parody of the cautionary tales that were popular in the 19th century."
Rapid scanning of those two articles tells me neither a) when Struwwelpeter was first published in English nor b) if Belloc spoke enough German to read the original.

[Jakob W]

Following that link I realised that Wilhelm Busch didn't write Struwwelpeter; in my head I must have conflated one horrific set of 19th-c. German cautionary tales with another...

[Gattopardo]

Is this the YACF board game:

[Kim]

It says falling isn't an option, which rules out many of us...

[Mr Larrington]

I have a compendium yclept "Selected Cautionary Verses" which also includes Stuffs from "The Bad Child's Book Of Beasts" and "More Beasts For Worse Children".

[hellymedic]

My late grandparents gave me an illustrated Struwwelpeter, to occupy the tedium of staying in their flat one November.
The Hillaire Belloc Puffin was either a hand-me-down from cousins or bought new. I think its cover was orange.
Both books are fairly horrible.



The ORANGEness really sticks in the memory...

[Mr Larrington]

That's the one I've got.  I think it fell off the back of a skool library.

[Salvatore]

Cautionary Tales for Children by Hilaire Belloc is available to download for free in a variety of formats
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27424

[Tim Hall]

Hilaire Belloc is buried not far from here at West Grinstead.

Ob. Cycling: I led a tandem club ride, umm, the year before last, where we took in the church at West Grinstead*. That nice Grumpy Greg ,from t'other place, gave a fascinating impromptu lecture about the history of the Catholic church at West Grinstead, whereas I would have just pointed out Belloc's grave.

*Earlier we'd been past where the first President of Kenya worked during WW2.