Recent content by mawnansmiff

"It is cold, soulless, and devoid of anything resembling characters to care about. Slow, bloated, crammed with filler, lacking wit, and barely skimming the surface of Herbert’s world." Sadly I think this could well apply to so many modern films. They are pumped out with increasing regularity...

....though I am aware some folk still cling to the Columbus theory :rolleyes: Vikings settled in North America in 1021AD, study says - BBC News Regards, Jay.

Odd thing, when I was able to smoke my pipe, although being right handed, I most always held my pipe in my left hand. That puzzled me then as it does now, Regards, Jay.

I saw that story the other day Jay and thought it an early April fool joke! Regards, Jay.

A guy I knew many moons ago was something of an old hippy whose favourite saying was "only dirty people wash"! Regards, Jay.

I'm currently reading a book from 1665 called "A Legacy Of Husbandry" by English/German polymath Samuel Hartlib. It is basically a treatise on farming methods he has gleaned from his European travels. It has some interesting insights into the thinking of the period. For example he suggests...

"We have thousands of books but none of them particularly valuable." I personally believe that all books are valuable, if only as a resource. The value of a thing doesn't have to mean monetary value, just how important it is to the owner. I have read some truly awful books but would never...

Here is another book, titled thus.. A RESTITUTION Of Decayed Intelligence, IN ANTIQUITIES Concerning the most noble, and renowned English Nation By the study, and travel of R. U. Dedicated unto the Kings most excellent Majesty LONDON, Printed by T. Newcomb for Joshua Kirton, at the...

I've been a casual collector of antique dictionaries for quite some years but more recently I've branched out into other books, the older the better. That said, I don't just buy any old book, it has to interest me and be of an educational nature. My oldest book thus far was printed in London...

"I wonder how he got through the metal detector in the ER." Not every country feels the need to install such devices. We certainly don't have them here. Regards, Jay.

What led this guy to these extremes is beyond me but it still made me chuckle. Perhaps he had a screw loose? If so, he certainly nailed it. Kilogram of nails, screws and knives removed from man's stomach - BBC News Regards, Jay.

"So, Stirling silver was an actual thing." I never said it wasn't, just that that is not where the term 'sterling silver' comes from. Incidentally I have a specimen of native silver (I'm a mineral collector) from the Alva Mine at Clackmannanshire! Regards, Jay.

"What's America got to do with the price of cheese?" @Duck, my error so apologies. I wrongly assumed the silver mine you mentioned was in America. Whatever, the term sterling does not originate from any silver mine anywhere which was my main point. Regards, Jay.

"I used to live close to the old Sterling silver mine. It's what Stirling silver got it's name from." Absolute tripe. The term is older than America. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the most plausible etymology of sterling silver is a derivation from a late Old English steorling...

I saw Quo in their heyday when they were a proper rocker's band before they went chasing the charts. Astonished Alan Lancaster was only 72, I thought he was much older. I'll be playing my double vinyl Quo Live from circa 1976 later tonight. Status Quo bassist Alan Lancaster dies aged 72 -...