WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Marilyn]

Banning erasers...
I remember we got a new one in our "school kit" each year. One end was for erasing pencil and the other for pen ( though it rubbed a hole through the page before it removed the pen mark.)
So...before I pass judgement on eraser banning, can you explain to me the current theory of dealing with a mistake. I expect that children are now taught to rule a line through any word or phrase that they consider incorrect, and then proceed to write the corrected word/phrase/spelling as if the mistake was not part of their work?
( see...I don't have a problem with that...because it doesn't stop the creative flow...and making a mistake is not going to incur a penalty. Am I missing something? Is there something I am not grasping? Please enlighten me...)

I wonder what happened to all those school erasers that I was so taken with in the first week of every new school year, and which either,sadly, got lost or were banished to be covered in grey crud at the bottom of the pencil case and never used.

[Cathy]

And remember that with each new exercise book we would ever so carefully write our name, class number and subject on the front, then open those ever so new pages and with our new rulers and new pens we would very carefully draw a margin on every page. Then for as long as we could keep it up we would write our lessons down as neatly as we could (always remembering to put the date at the top right hand corner of the page).
Ah, still love new stationery It holds such promise.

[PanBiker]

Did you have the exercise books with the useful information on the back such as times tables and stuff like, "three pennies weigh one ounce", "22 yards = 1 chain". I remember they came with different jacket colours, some had a ruler printed down one edge as well. I bet your pencil case had a set of compasses a protractor, pencil sharpener and maybe even a small 90 degree set square, oh and as many different pencils (coloured and normal) as you could squeeze in a still close the zipper or popper.

[Marilyn]

I don't know about Cazza ( we were raised seperate), but I only ever got the standard government issue stuff (being a "welfare" kid). When I needed something new several forms were filled in and I remember the humiliation of being taken to the sacred corridor by they sacred school secretary ( clutching forms) whilst all the ancient creaky sacred locks were undone on the sacred stationery cupboard, and finally, after much tutting and cooing, I would be handed a new sacred pencil or whatever else I was deemed to be deficient of. A chorus of heavenly angels would sing and the light would stream out from the sacred stationery cupboard at that moment.
But...I didn't half envy those kids who had pencil cases bulging with Derwent Pencils. Remember those? Came in dozens of colours and you would sell your Granny for a set of those?

Call me strange ( many have) but I had this thing about excercise books...I only enjoyed writing on the Right Hand pages. Hated having to write on Left Hand pages because writing on the previous page showed through. That made the page dirty looking somehow. ( Maz doesn't like grubby things).
Yes Cazza...rule the margin and date at top right before doing anything else.

And I do recall excercise books with weights and measures in...

[Cathy]

They still have all those fandangled conversion tables on the back
I seem to remember my new years supply of stationery coming in a brown paper bag.
Oh and no fancy covers for me, bit I made-up for that in high school by covering everything with pop-star pictures

[Marilyn]

Oh...and I wasn't trusted with a compass/set square/ protractor until I hit High School.
Even got a Slide Rule! Damned if I ever knew what that was for!

[Tizer]

I didn't know kids used erasers any more, isn't it simply a case of `press the delete button' now? And yet...in any stationery shop or gift shop you'll see wonderful bright, multi-coloured erasers. I'm surprised Mrs Tiz hasn't started collecting them - she buy pencils wherever we go, not the basic ones but those with the name of the town/church/whatever on the side. We'll never be short of a pencil, we've got them in shedloads!

We were handed out textbooks on loan each term in secondary school and had to cover them in brown paper. This was good practise for me for when I worked at Boots Chemists and had to wrap medicine bottles in that lovely white paper and seal them with a blob of red wax over a meths burner flame. It's also why I'm the one who's always asked to wrap presents!

[Stanley]

What an interesting bunch of comments....
Comrade, you don't surprise me. I was fairly close to a lot of the action at the time through my contacts and I remember Peter Dawson my architect telling me that he's had an interesting conversation with a local Catholic priest after they'd finished talking about the work Peter was doing. He said that in his opinion most of the problems were in the minds of the 'experts' (no doubt meaning the social workers) and not in anything that was actually happening. He said that of course there were problems in his parish but the reasons were far more mundane than 'ritual abuse' and he reckoned it was easier to pion it on that than on long-standing problems of ignorance and poverty. It made sense to me at the time.....
Stationery and erasers.... I hated writing on the left hand page as well and never do it in my own note books. Yes, we had all the tables of old weights and measures on the back, you can tell my age because as well as avoirdupois it had Apothecary's measures as well. "One rod, pole or perch......" Even the brown paper covered one we had during the war had the tables on the back. I can remember how nice it was to get shiny red covers after the war, much better paper as well. One thing we had then that you don't see now was copying ink pencils (Also known as Indelible Pencils) made for taking old fashioned wet copies of letters and notes using damp tissue paper in a press. When you licked them to make the writing indelible the end of your tongue turned blue....
(I've just got mail from Maz.....)
In case anyone is wondering why I am up at 02:00..... One of the problems with having a brain that works is that sometimes it kicks in at an inconvenient hour. This morning was one of those occasions. I have been vaguely wondering about two small events of late. Why my electricity usage momitor has stopped giving current consumption and a large electricity bill from British Gas. I woke this morning with this running round in my head and in the end had to give up any ideas about sleep because I knew it was useless. So I came down and did some investigating. I think I have solved the monitor problem. The most likely cause is that the two batteries that power the wireless transmitter which sends a signal to the monitor on my kitchen table are dead. I shall test that theory by getting two new batteries this morning and seeing whether this cures it. Once I have done that I can get some clues about the large bill from the current consumption figures.... So there you are! I suppose the cure is to have a brain that doesn't work quite as actively but I don't know how to adjust that.....

[Stanley]

Here's wast caught Maz's attention.....

[chinatyke]

Why all this fuss about making mistakes? Mistakes are part of life and part of the learning curve. Kids should be allowed to make mistakes and taught how to deal with them. We all make mistakes though there was one person in mythology who was said to be perfect. So the Romans nailed him to a cross.

[Stanley]

Quite.......

[Marilyn]

(See pic above)
Tried the chocolate...guess it's not that different to salted caramel..but I can't say I would rush out to buy it again. Then again, I am not a big fan of chocolate anyway, so perhaps I am not best judge. Bought it for curiosity sake really...

[LizG]

I love vegemite, but on toast; I can't imagine what it would taste like with chocolate. Sounds revolting.

[Cathy]

I 'm often amazed at the combination of ingredients in foods and recipes these days, but then again I'm not very adventurous with food either. The chocolate with vegemite surprises me for"Cadburys" though
I actually saw a recipe for Steak with Chocolate Sauce recently...

[Stanley]

I think they must be desperate.....
Re. getting up early, I went back and had another couple of hours sleep and so am back up to speed now. I got two new batteries for the transmitter for the monitor and I'm pleased to say that did the trick, it's up and running again now and giving me a current reading. That's that one solved..... How strange that on the website there is no mention of any batteries only a message threatening dire consequences if you take the back off the unit..... A cunning wheeze???

[Bodger]

"I 'm often amazed at the combination of ingredients in foods and recipes these days, "
Many years ago in the local bar Jimmy invited the last few after hours drinkers back for a jar and a bite to eat, whils't the lads had their take out Jimmy was in the kitchen cooking real oxtail broth / soup, this was duly delivered and consumed with gusto, and comments were passed about the unusual flavour, when asked, Jimmy said if you can have apple sauce with pork theres nothing wrong with marmalade and oxtail, a true story, i was there

[Marilyn]

I recall a friend who loved to eat (cold) Baked Bean and Banana Sandwiches!
Used to freak me out...

[Stanley]

Vintage marmalade will improve almost any stewed meat..... I used to use it often. How about kippers and custard? Never tried it myself....
Perfectly normal full night's sleep.... Nice!

[LizG]

My Grandad used to eat left over gravy on rice pudding

[Marilyn]

Glad you got a proper kip, Stanley.

Liz...I could NOT COPE to watch anyone eat that! That is revolting...

[Stanley]

I like gravy on rice pudding, nourishing stuff I'll bet....
So am I Maz.... I like my sleep and am convinced it's good for me but my brain doesn't seem to realise this!
What's exercising me at the moment is the lousy cold rain falling outside and the fact that Jack and I must get rugged up and go out in it....

[Marilyn]

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, Stanley.
We went for a two hour walk and then a short bike ride today, so I am lovely and warm.

[Tripps]

I saw a van the other day belonging to a company which had the name

'Complete Fabrication'

Since their business was model making - I thought that was rather clever.

[Stanley]

A pair of trousers with a 36" waist. A bit snug..... They remind me that the weight target hasn't been reached yet!

[Marilyn]

Well done Stanley.
David is beating you by a couple of inches...