Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Factoids
Three factoids from today's perusal of the DT and the TLS.
I knew that Bomber Command lost around 55,000 people during the last war. What I didn't know was that they only took around 125,000. With losses of that order it is a wonder they were able to keep going at all. They were presumably not very happy either to have been largely left out of victory celebrations, opinion having presumably become rather ambivalent about their achievements.
Item 2, a famous cyclist, having got near the peak of his profession and having retired, got himself made into a lady and lives very quietly in the country. Indulging in a bit of psycho-twad, one suspects that the punishment he must have given himself as a top-flight cyclist served to blot out - for a time anyway - all kinds of problems and issues resulting from uncertain sexuality. A species of masochism. But given my goings on about Napoleon recently, should I be retailing this kind of gossip at all? Is the man not entitled to a bit of privacy in his retirement?
Item 3, I learn of a gelding called Lady. The circumstances were sad, but putting that aside, I wonder how often animals are called by sexually inappropriate names by their human owners. I dare say there are examples of human nicknames being inappropriate in the same sort of way but I can't think of an example. Suggestions on a postcard please.
Have made a very successful combination of two chick pea recipes - although combination is perhaps a rather strong word here. Used two pizza toppings rather than one might be a better way of putting it. Be all that as it may be, soak a pound of chickpeas overnight. Put on to boil, then simmer for an hour or so. Meanwhile, pound up some black pepper, green cardoman, cumin seed and turmeric. Fry in butter with finely chopped garlic. Add chopped onion and smoked bacon (a good batch in this occasion from the man in Cheam). Cook for a bit. Add four or five chopped tomatoes. Cook for a bit. Strain the chick peas, stir then in and simmer the whole lot for half an hour. Add a good portion of cooked chopped leaf beat and simmer some more. Serve with white inorganic rice. All went down very well; two good meals for two people.
Completed mowing the deer exclosure, having a go at the cultivated blackberries on the way. Very nice and sweet and make the Autumn Bliss raspberries seem rather insipid. And there was a Siamese quintuplet among them; that is to say a group of five berries which had fused into one. Must work out how to train the things. I think they fruit on second year wood so the very straggly first (this) year growth needs tying up or something. But the stuff is very fragile and the stems seem to crease if I try anything on. Maybe I should read some instructions somewhere.
And picked the first pumpkin of the season. It was green, roughly spherical and weighed in at 7.75 pounds. A few small scars on the skin where slugs or snails have had a go. We will see what BH makes of it. There look to be lots more. And there seem to be at least two varieties of pumpkin on the pumpkin patch - now about 12 feet square. I think the picked one is one of the foreign ones acquired from Cambridge.
I knew that Bomber Command lost around 55,000 people during the last war. What I didn't know was that they only took around 125,000. With losses of that order it is a wonder they were able to keep going at all. They were presumably not very happy either to have been largely left out of victory celebrations, opinion having presumably become rather ambivalent about their achievements.
Item 2, a famous cyclist, having got near the peak of his profession and having retired, got himself made into a lady and lives very quietly in the country. Indulging in a bit of psycho-twad, one suspects that the punishment he must have given himself as a top-flight cyclist served to blot out - for a time anyway - all kinds of problems and issues resulting from uncertain sexuality. A species of masochism. But given my goings on about Napoleon recently, should I be retailing this kind of gossip at all? Is the man not entitled to a bit of privacy in his retirement?
Item 3, I learn of a gelding called Lady. The circumstances were sad, but putting that aside, I wonder how often animals are called by sexually inappropriate names by their human owners. I dare say there are examples of human nicknames being inappropriate in the same sort of way but I can't think of an example. Suggestions on a postcard please.
Have made a very successful combination of two chick pea recipes - although combination is perhaps a rather strong word here. Used two pizza toppings rather than one might be a better way of putting it. Be all that as it may be, soak a pound of chickpeas overnight. Put on to boil, then simmer for an hour or so. Meanwhile, pound up some black pepper, green cardoman, cumin seed and turmeric. Fry in butter with finely chopped garlic. Add chopped onion and smoked bacon (a good batch in this occasion from the man in Cheam). Cook for a bit. Add four or five chopped tomatoes. Cook for a bit. Strain the chick peas, stir then in and simmer the whole lot for half an hour. Add a good portion of cooked chopped leaf beat and simmer some more. Serve with white inorganic rice. All went down very well; two good meals for two people.
Completed mowing the deer exclosure, having a go at the cultivated blackberries on the way. Very nice and sweet and make the Autumn Bliss raspberries seem rather insipid. And there was a Siamese quintuplet among them; that is to say a group of five berries which had fused into one. Must work out how to train the things. I think they fruit on second year wood so the very straggly first (this) year growth needs tying up or something. But the stuff is very fragile and the stems seem to crease if I try anything on. Maybe I should read some instructions somewhere.
And picked the first pumpkin of the season. It was green, roughly spherical and weighed in at 7.75 pounds. A few small scars on the skin where slugs or snails have had a go. We will see what BH makes of it. There look to be lots more. And there seem to be at least two varieties of pumpkin on the pumpkin patch - now about 12 feet square. I think the picked one is one of the foreign ones acquired from Cambridge.
# posted by Jim @ 9:12 AM 
