It's not important why I was looking up the northernmost island in the St Kilda archipelago on Google, but I was surprised to see an advert for "Boreray Singles. Here you find singles from your area!". Neither Boreray in St Kilda nor Boreray off North Uist has been inhabited by humans for decades.

posted at: 23:40 | path: /hebridesbailey | permanent link to this entry

I wonder whether the Germans who complain about Denglisch realize that, far from turning German into a dialect of English, it produces expressions that are at least misleading and often incomprehensible if you're a native English speaker.

Take the German online dating service PARSHIP. I can see what they're aiming for, but the name looks to me like a root vegetable. Goodness knows how they'll do in the UK.

posted at: 23:28 | path: /D | permanent link to this entry

That there is a saint called Aviator is a mistaken belief that has arisen from faulty division or faulty inscription; I cannot say which. For ST AVIATOR read STA VIATOR, or "Stop, traveller".

posted at: 17:51 | path: /aletheia | permanent link to this entry

Cormorants, unable to produce waterproofing oil for their feathers, are obliged to hang their wings out to dry like laundry. The cormorant can be distinguished from other black seabirds of the same size by watching it dive into water. If the bird sinks, waterlogged, to the bottom and drowns, then it's a cormorant.

posted at: 11:45 | path: /naturenotes | permanent link to this entry

I see Salman Rushdie's talking about an Islamic Reformation. Would we get an Islamic Counterreformation, and Bradford turning into another Salzburg or Prague but with Moorish architecture? Who would organize it? Maybe we'll get an Islamic version of the Jesuits too. I suppose all good Orientalists would call them Mohammedits.

I live not far from a huge and quite serviceable abbey that the Reformation transformed into rubble. I hope this new Reformation won't involve a Muslim John Knox going round breaking things. We haven't properly recovered from the Christian one yet.

posted at: 20:38 | path: /maunderings | permanent link to this entry

I've just seen on a map where the Flannan Isles are. I can see why you'd turn into a seagull.

posted at: 21:43 | path: /hebridesbailey | permanent link to this entry