OneGuyFromBarlick

From Roger McGough (via Jim Greenhalf's blog)

"A poet is someone that reminds us of what we forgot to remember."

I like Plaques' comment in the Politics thread that `Cromwell literally stood by his guns'. Much better use of `literally' than the one quoted on the Today programme yesterday in a different topic. Someone had said `The world is literally your oyster'.

Shhhh! You'll be giving him a swollen head....

Saturday's copy of The Times carried a correction apologising for having incorrectly claimed that John Prescott, alighting from a long airline journey, said: "It's great to be back on terra cotta".

The Noble Lord Mandelson always denied confusing mushy peas with guacamole but I'm not too sure about that......

"Dennis Skinner said today,

"enemies to left of us, enemies to the right of us...keep out!"

Rather worryingly that's twice this week that I've agreed with, and quoted Dennis.

From news about Donald Trump on the BBC web site:
Mocking Mr Trump, Independent columnist Mark Steel says his call to ban Muslims from entering the US "doesn't go far enough". "To make the country truly safe he should insist that - as so many non-Muslims go berserk with guns in schools and shopping malls - no non-Muslims can be allowed into the country until we can figure out what is going on," he says.

"Just out of curiosity, does anyone - including the Pope - actually believe Mother Theresa worked miracles? "

Nigel Short Chess Grandmaster. The lad from Leigh

A very pertinent quote David, especially in the week that the Pope has attributed another 'miracle' to her. I don't know enough about her to judge (apart from the fact that I think the creation of 'saints' is a load of hooey) but I have heard some very disturbing accounts of her techniques and cavalier use of funds.
To my mind, the real saints are the unsung heroes, so here's a quote for you.
"And some there be which have no memorial who are perished as though they had never been and are become as though they had never been born; and their children after them"
Ecclesiasticus 4 4:9.

On Quantum Theory.

Particles are like Politicians: the more you attempt to pin them down the faster they change their position.

From RBS to their investor clients. Game on ?

"Sell everything except high quality bonds. This is about return of capital, not return on capital. In a crowded hall, exit doors are small,"

I saw that as well.... Do they really mean that?

Found somewhere on the world wide cobweb -

"The forest would be very silent if no birds sang except for the birds that sang the best"

`A wash a day keeps the doctor away'
Heard from Mr Patel, the newsagent, interviewed on the Radio 4 BH programme this morning...the famous Mr Patel who has a customer that thinks her ticket is the missing £33 million lottery ticket (but it went through the wash in a jeans pocket). No, like you I'm not sure what he meant. It must be some aspect of philosophy only understood by newsagents.

I've heard 'an apple a day....' but not a wash.

On the News Quiz, one of the cuttings from newspapers was a job advert for an engineer at a nuclear power station. It said: "Excellent prospects, you'll soon have a glowing career."

Shades of the Simpsons.....

The following quote seems relevant to the report today on the case of the child who died from sepsis because he was not diagnosed in time.

Sepsis historically has been a condition that is difficult to identify and diagnose. As far back as 100 BC, Marcus Terentius Varro, the ancient Roman scholar and writer (116 BC–27 BC), was quoted as noting that “small creatures, invisible to the eye, fill the atmosphere, and breathed through the nose cause dangerous diseases.” Perhaps the most prescient description of sepsis was by the historian, philosopher, humanist and Renaissance author Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527), as reported in his treatise, The Prince, in 1513. Early in the book, he very eloquently stated that, `hectic fever, at its inception, is difficult to recognize but easy to treat; left unattended it becomes easy to recognize and difficult to treat.' Although hectic fever is not the name by which we know sepsis now, the description of a disease that is difficult to recognize in its early stages, at a time when the condition may be amenable to treatment, and more difficult to treat in its later more obvious stages is a clear description of the more severe forms of sepsis.
Greg S Martin, Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2012 Jun; 10(6): 701–706. LINK

From Tim O'Brien, Professor of Astrophysics in the School of Physics & Astronomy at The University of Manchester and also an Associate Director of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics on the radio programme `Infinite Monkey Cage':
"I wake up at night and worry about the universe"

I'm really pleased to know that, perhaps we'll all be OK after all!

I worry about a lot of things Tiz but they never keep me awake at night. I reckon that's the secret, realise what is beyond your control and don't let it upset your day to day life.

Technical skill is mastery of complexity, while creativity is mastery of simplicity. Sir Erik Christopher Zeeman, 1977.

These two are definitely from Damon Runyon -

"The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's how the smart money bets."

"I have thought for some time now that the whole of life is 6/5 against."



(DT. more like 2-1 I'd say.)

Quentin Crisp said that it was a dash, naked, across open country, under fire.

For some reason that makes me think of a sparrow flying in through one window to escape the storm and out the other window.

Ah! Well remembered! I've bumped the article 'The Conversions' from Stanley's View for you ...... I love that story....