blakeyboy

Could it have just been a type of 'hypo' ? I can imagine that the GVI toning would be very dark brown if the solutions were stronger, but the farthings really were black.

Yep...'Pangram'.

Classic way of solving problems. We use our prefrontal cortex all the time, and assume it's good at solving problems and maths etc. If I want to fix a real head scratcher on a piece of gear, I think very very hard about it, with no radio on and no interruptions or phone calls. Then I deliberately do something else that is a mind- emptying thing- gardening is excellent. After a few hours- BANG - the solution. using your prefrontal cortex tends to block ideas from the ancient primitive MASSIVE supercomputer in the back of your head, so when you concentrate for a long time on a problem, this loads up that supercomputer with a program, and it starts its work. Only when you stop 'thinking' does it break through with the answer.... it happens very quickly. So many equipment repair men used to smoke like chimneys, because they would have a cigarette and 'stand back' mentally from the job, and there's the answer. An old friend of mine would stop, light a fag, and within 30 seconds know what the problem was, and put the cigarette down on the edge of the bench, leaving a two inch burn since he was then engrossed solving the problem. The edge of his bench was a long line of burn marks. He got through 40 a day, but maybe only actually smoked two of them! He didn't care about the cost, since he reckoned his repair rate was so good it more than paid for the fags....

...and halve your reputation points.....:)

Or the Scout Leader 'Christopher Wave'....

Mr Peckris, thy one-liners are as good as thy coin knowledge- thou truly art an all-round family entertainer....

The young couple next door have been in all week, and have made a sex tape. Obviously, they don't know that yet.....

Yes. In baseball, they have a 'Pitchee'.

So many times we find things on Ebay that no-one spotted. 15 years ago we would all have been bidding against each other, making the rarity sell for proper money. Now a £300 penny can be grabbed for £10, and the seller never knows.... So maybe that's an upside...?

I don't know - the contents of my fridge are pretty shocking.....

Most pleasing picture of a Robin I've seen for years. We used to have a very tame ( probably German migrating) pair that used to fly round the house looking for us to tell us the mealworms bowl was empty.

Maybe even more varieties than your idioms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh what...! Yes yes yes - attender- agent noun from the verb 'to attend'.....you are right! So obvious now. So why 'attendee' ???.... I never thought about 'electrocution'....except when the Mother in Law was visiting. Been a bit difficult this week where she is concerned. It was her funeral on Wednesday, and she found out.....

Agreed. I love the early Alec Guinness films.

Oh yes of course.... Not concomitant. ( Word of the week for me! ) Odd though....so fine....like someone with a very steady hand was playing with the world's smallest brazing kit...

I've just got mine all in one place for once,, ranging from UNC to Fair,. There are nine of them, all with the 8 just to the right of a gap, and one has the 8 over a tooth. Only in Fair, but that'll do for now. So an 8:1 ratio for me.

This thread made me get out the few Victoria halfpennies i have lying around, and I came across this. The raised cross really does like the die had this cut into it. There is a thin 'lead in' line at the bottom of the short stroke. What to make of this????

What a good question- normally 'radio', rarely 'wireless'- mainly if a good Radio 4 play is on... Pardon? or What?

Here is a picture of the main studio monitors I put together two years ago. Very loud....they only really work in a very big room.

That's extraordinary. A dozen Quad electrostatics! I still have a pair of Martin Logan panels somewhere... I'm sure I sold a pair of those ionofone tweeters years ago....God knows where I got them from. I sold a pair of early Tannoy 10 inch a few years back. They sounded lush. Rich and warm, but faster than the big ones. I sold my Mackintosh 2015 and 240 a few years back- just not using them. Small lounge, so wasted. I'm coming to see you when we can next travel!

Oh what....DJ'ing with Quad? When I started out, I worked for a guy who turned into my mentor, and we used all the gear that local DJ's didn't use in the West Midlands. My favourite pub system was a part of Altec 'Voice of the Theatre 15" bins, with Vitavox horns built into them. Phase Linear 700B on the bass, and a pair of Quad 50's on the horns. Sounded HUGE. Everyone else was using WEM columns or crap from the local disco shop. No competition!!

"The original sentence is somehow different in my view as it contains errors / that are not socially acceptable. " SO DOES YOURS!!!!!!!!!! SO WHAT???? I don't care that you are 'not particularly convinced'. Tolerance has nothing to do with it. Your sentence is clearer with commas. Calling it 'the Oxford comma' as if it's some weird stylistic notation IS weird and stylistic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why do people have this odd phobia about it? Is it a class thing? Anti-elitist claptrap? It's just a bloody comma, like the other one you left out. Subordinate clauses are not a crime, you know. Or do you not understand them? I don't care - it doesn't matter to me at all. If you want your use of language to be difficult to understand, go right ahead....... Be my guest. I will just ignore the mistakes. Many people on here don't spell very well. No-one has a pop at them. Who cares? BUT when YOU start pointing out 'linguistic mistakes', as if you are somehow the Grammar Police, get ready for YOUR mistakes to be held up to the light. (Now try that last sentence again WITHOUT the two commas. It's not as clear, IS IT????? There you go.)

The first of the two commas missed out is a correct comma. The second one missed out is the 'serial comma', ( sometimes called the 'Oxford' comma ) used particularly before 'and' as in Peckris' clear example. It avoids confusion. It isn't like a slow change of usage, like Americans saying 'March 6th' instead of 'March the 6th' However, when an American says 'write me' instead of 'write to me' you could, correctly but _pedantically_ take out paper and pencil and write the word 'me'.....but they still say it like that because if they wanted you to think that you should write down the word 'me' then they would instruct you to do just that..... things shift. We shift and the Americans don't sometimes- the commonly used and very old 'gotten' with its German past tense ending only really exists here in words and phrases like 'ill-gotten gains' and 'forgotten'. We changed, they didn't. However, leaving things out to make things genuinely unclear ( as in Peckris' clear example ) is the reverse (converse? inverse? ) of what language is for. There is a reverse snobbery running in this country regarding English usage, that is often wrong, and the _reasons_ for it should be addressed. Mind you, in a country with such a wide disparate class based structure, it's hardly surprising. The amusing opposite of this is when politicians attempt to look educated by using words such as 'referenda' when of course it never existed in Latin in the first place...gerunds remain singular.