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Post by efros on Aug 19, 2024 18:52:37 GMT
 An almost completely accurate dialogue you'd hear in any research lab. |
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Post by celebaelin on Aug 20, 2024 13:50:44 GMT
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Post by celebaelin on Aug 21, 2024 8:42:19 GMT
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Post by celebaelin on Sept 17, 2024 6:31:51 GMT
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Bondee
KWC
Bearer of Ye olde Arcane Dobbynge Sticke.
Posts: 377
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Post by Bondee on Sept 17, 2024 20:59:02 GMT
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Post by bigmartin on Sept 20, 2024 6:24:08 GMT
One of my colleagues and I thought is was funny anyway. On the break room table yesterday was the name badge of a South African colleague of ours next to a jar of marmite. We both thought the same thing, I'm afraid to say!
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Post by crissdee on Sept 20, 2024 6:51:02 GMT
Sorry, don't see what you're getting at there.....
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Bondee
KWC
Bearer of Ye olde Arcane Dobbynge Sticke.
Posts: 377
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Post by Bondee on Sept 20, 2024 7:18:50 GMT
"You either love it or you hate it."
I'm guessing that Martin and his (non SA) colleague fall into the latter camp.
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Post by crissdee on Sept 20, 2024 10:45:12 GMT
Yeah, I get that bit, but I thought maybe the South African aspect had some relevance...
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Post by bigmartin on Sept 20, 2024 18:24:32 GMT
No - it's just that the lady in question is from there.
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Post by tetsabb on Sept 20, 2024 19:38:24 GMT
Oh, superb. BBC newsreader talking about the probe into Secret Service failings in assassination attempts on Trump. 'A failure of intelligence... sorry, diligence'
Well....
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Post by efros on Sept 21, 2024 10:19:20 GMT
This made me smile.
Mark Haynes was seven years old when he recognized Moore as James Bond while travelling with his grandfather and asked if it was okay to get an autograph.
"As charming as you'd expect, Roger asks my name and duly signs the back of my plane ticket, a fulsome note full of best wishes," remembers Mark. "I'm ecstatic, but as we head back to our seats, I glance down at the signature. It's hard to decipher it but it definitely doesn't say 'James Bond'. My grandad looks at it, half figures out it says 'Roger Moore' - I have absolutely no idea who that is, and my hearts sinks.
"I tell my grandad he's signed it wrong, that he's put someone else's name - so my grandad heads back to Roger Moore, holding the ticket which he's only just signed.
"I remember staying by our seats and my grandad saying: 'he says you've signed the wrong name. He says your name is James Bond.' Roger Moore's face crinkled up with realisation and he beckoned me over. When I was by his knee, he leant over, looked from side to side, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said to me, 'I have to sign my name as 'Roger Moore' because otherwise...Blofeld might find out I was here.'
"He asked me not to tell anyone that I'd just seen James Bond, and he thanked me for keeping his secret. I went back to our seats, my nerves absolutely jangling with delight. My grandad asked me if he'd signed 'James Bond.' No, I said. I'd got it wrong. I was working with James Bond now."
The story doesn't end there. It gets even better.
Years later, as a scriptwriter, Mark had the opportunity to work with Moore again. "I was working as a scriptwriter on a recording that involved UNICEF, and Roger Moore was doing a piece to camera as an ambassador. He was completely lovely and while the cameramen were setting up, I told him in passing the story of when I met him in Nice Airport. He was happy to hear it, and he had a chuckle and said: 'Well, I don't remember but I'm glad you got to meet James Bond.' So that was lovely.
"And then he did something so brilliant. After the filming, he walked past me in the corridor, heading out to his car - but as he got level, he paused, looked both ways, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said, 'Of course I remember our meeting in Nice. But I didn't say anything in there, because those cameramen - any one of them could be working for Blofeld.'
"I was as delighted at 30 as I had been at 7. What a man. What a tremendous man."
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Post by crissdee on Sept 21, 2024 14:02:25 GMT
He has just gone up massively in my estimation! Never really cared for him as Bond, too smooth for my tastes, but as a person, what a gentleman!
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Post by crissdee on Sept 21, 2024 20:07:36 GMT
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Post by crissdee on Sept 22, 2024 14:01:18 GMT
You may remember a thread in our previous home concerning personalised number plates*. In that thread, I mentioned a Jag XKR that I had seen with the number plate J46 XKR. Well, I have just seen something similar in town. An Aston Martin DB11, with DB11 APR as its registration...
*which got so thoroughly doffcocked that the name got changed..
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Post by suze on Sept 22, 2024 15:52:32 GMT
TGH was at university with a fellow called Tony, whose initials were APR what with his proper name being Anthony. They weren't particular friends, and the main things that TGH remembers about Tony are that he was a "posh boy", that he was "no good at drinking", and that even as a student he was a bit of a petrolhead.
Tony has done pretty well for himself since he graduated, and is a director of a FTSE 250 company. We reckon that there is a probability well above zero that DB11 APR is in fact Tony's car - although what he is doing in Builth Wells if so is a bit of a mystery.
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Post by crissdee on Sept 22, 2024 20:22:42 GMT
Unfortunately, I didn't look at the driver, so I can't even speculate what he looked like, but it would be a bit odd if it was Andy's university acquaintance....
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Post by amanda on Sept 22, 2024 23:13:27 GMT
crissdee wrote:
You are welcome to start a new one here if you wish.
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Post by jenny on Sept 23, 2024 14:20:23 GMT
I love the Roger Moore story!
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Bondee
KWC
Bearer of Ye olde Arcane Dobbynge Sticke.
Posts: 377
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Post by Bondee on Sept 24, 2024 17:33:40 GMT
You may remember a thread in our previous home concerning personalised number plates*. In that thread, I mentioned a Jag XKR that I had seen with the number plate J46 XKR. There's an ice cream van* that's been plying its trade near Penton Hook lock for at least 5 years. I only noticed its number plate this morning...
GE11 ATO
*It's not limited to the summer months. It also sells tea, coffee, hot and cold snacks, etc so it's there for most of the year.
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Bondee
KWC
Bearer of Ye olde Arcane Dobbynge Sticke.
Posts: 377
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Post by Bondee on Sept 25, 2024 17:58:24 GMT
In which James May does possibly the most James May thing ever and measures the flatness of the Tesla Cybertruck's panels with a steel rule.
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Post by jenny on Sept 26, 2024 17:28:41 GMT
We saw one of those trucks in the pub car park near us. Hideous-looking thing. It's also totally useless as an actual pick-up truck - very little room in the rear and the sides are made so that you really can't put anything in it that has much height.
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Post by crissdee on Sept 26, 2024 19:37:29 GMT
Utterly stupid design, and hideous to boot. Plus, it weighs about a ton more than the green giant, which itself is no lightweight. The fact that one is extremely unlikely to venture anywhere near Builth Wells is a great comfort to me in my old age.....
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Post by celebaelin on Oct 2, 2024 12:11:27 GMT
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Post by tetsabb on Oct 4, 2024 7:57:50 GMT
Laura Kuenssberg was due to interview Boris Johnson yesterday to coincide with his new autobiography being published.
It had to be cancelled, as she sent her briefing notes to him.
Probably really probing questions, like, 'why did you give your latest child such an old-fashioned name?' 'Do you actually like your dog?'...
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Post by alexanderhoward on Oct 4, 2024 10:13:14 GMT
Probably really probing questions, like, 'why did you give your latest child such an old-fashioned name?' 'Do you actually like your dog?'... "Old fashioned" in a name just means "not Oliver or Noah". I would prefer "distinguished" and "well established". I say that as a father of children with well established, distinguished names. I heard a story of a teacher at a girl's school who addressed a pupil "Sarah!", only to realise that half the class were called Sarah. That shows lack of imagination. My son has a name that is almost never given these day and so is unique in the school and indeed the village - apart from one other in his class, which is an odd coincidence. As to dogs - are dog-owners allowed the vote? I have nothing against dog-owners - I know plenty, and some are even respectable - but democracy relies on voters weighing up the options from the information put before them, and you cannot vote if the election leaflets have all been eaten before you see them. You'd think there would be a law or something. |
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Post by suze on Oct 4, 2024 17:09:11 GMT
"Old fashioned" in a name just means "not Oliver or Noah". Noah is surely one of the most old-fashioned names available, what with it having been born by the seven-greats-grandson of Adam!
Why do we suppose it is that the name Adam has never disappeared, while the name Noah has reappeared after a period when it was uncommon? Of the intervening descendants of Adam, the name Jared is more common in NAm than in Britain, Seth is uncommon but not unknown, while Enoch was once common in the English Midlands but has all but disappeared, probably largely because of association with the sometime MP for Wolverhampton. I suppose Methuselah is avoided because of the connotation of being extremely old, but you will look in vain for a Mahaliel or a Lamech.
There are really quite a lot of male names which were considered old fashioned when I was a kid, but are by now once again common - names like Arthur, Joshua, and Samuel. Then there are names which were common when I was a kid but are rarely seen now - you won't see many boys called Clive, Gary, and Trevor if you look down a school register today. The fashions for female names don't seem to have changed so much. When I was a kid, only old ladies were called things like Beryl, Ermintrude, Phyllis, and Winifred, and these names have not returned.
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Post by efros on Oct 4, 2024 18:45:44 GMT
Trevor is known in this part of Maine for some reason. Ava is very popular lately (in the 14-18 year old demographic that I see), Jason (numerous spellings), Kayleigh (again numerous spellings), Isaiah, Madeline (3 different spellings), an Olivia and an Alivia and even an Ophelia.
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Post by jenny on Oct 4, 2024 19:26:49 GMT
"Old fashioned" in a name just means "not Oliver or Noah". I would prefer "distinguished" and "well established". I say that as a father of children with well established, distinguished names. I heard a story of a teacher at a girl's school who addressed a pupil "Sarah!", only to realise that half the class were called Sarah. Apparently, in the decade between 1975 and 1985, Sarah was the most popular name for girls. That probably explains why I have four daughters named Sarah - my actual daughter (born 1981), my stepdaughter (born 1975), my daughter-in-law (born 1985) and my god-daughter (born 1979). I think all four of the mothers of those Sarahs, including me, were just choosing a name we happened to like rather than being influenced by the Zeitgeist. I know that her dad and I, who were married in 1971, always said that if we had a daughter we'd call her Sarah, but maybe the Zeitgeist was doing its thing in the back of our brains. There are an awful lot of Jennifers my age, and also a bunch quite a bit younger, as shown in this song, by an artist whose surname I have only just discovered (no connection, honestly...) |
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Post by suze on Oct 4, 2024 22:20:12 GMT
Trevor is known in this part of Maine for some reason. Ava is very popular lately (in the 14-18 year old demographic that I see), Jason (numerous spellings), Kayleigh (again numerous spellings), Isaiah, Madeline (3 different spellings), an Olivia and an Alivia and even an Ophelia.
Thanks efros, I didn't know that the good folk of Maine still go in for Trevor! I've taught a couple of girls called Olivia over the last decade. One of them was always known as Liv and didn't readily answer to Olivia, and I don't think she has ever entirely forgiven her parents for the initials OMG. I've not encountered those other names, although I did teach an Iolanthe a couple of years back. TGH has it that the name Kayleigh was briefly popular in Britain for a couple of years after the Marillion song, but has been uncommon otherwise.
The median girl at my school right now was probably born in 2009, and these are the top ten girl names in the UK for that year: Olivia, Ruby, Chloe, Emily, Sophie, Jessica, Grace, Lily, Amelia, Evie. I've never taught an Evie, but all the others have featured. Grace is perhaps one of those names that was only for old people when I was a kid but has made a comeback, so it's not only the boys who get them!
I then thought I'd look for the boy names most popular in Canada (exc Québec) in 1968, the year I was born. The top ten are: Michael, David, Robert, John, Joseph, James, Christopher, Richard, Paul, Mark. None of those names has gone completely out of fashion since then, but I don't think there'd be many boys called Robert or Paul on the register today. The #15 name for boys was Geoffrey, and that's one that has disappeared without trace. I was in high school with a Geoffrey - short, spotty, and he'd read Mein Kampf - but I don't think I've ever met a younger one.
Suzanne was the #57 name for girls that year. Interestingly, the top two girl names were Lisa and Marie. Anything to do with the daughter that Elvis Presley brought into the world in the February, do we think?
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