Most of the Italian I have ever heard has been sung, and was written by Lorenzo da Ponte in the first place.

Nonetheless, if I'm not careful it still comes out in a Finnish accent. This makes me complementary to most radio announcers.

posted at: 20:42 | path: /maunderings | permanent link to this entry

I have a copy of The Heart of the Matter which I keep thinking is The End of the Affair. This is probably because at some fundamental level I can't read.

posted at: 20:32 | path: /maunderings | permanent link to this entry

Radio Four wasn't the only radio station to have a theme tune first thing in the morning. Radio One, before it went twenty-four hour had a peculiar brassy one, too. Some BBC local services had theme tunes written by the late Delia Derbyshire, which may have been the last progressive thing they ever did.

The latest series of Doctor Who, at least from my standpoint in the kitchen making the tea and only hearing it rather than seeing it, was dreadful, all space-opera cliche with no sense of the alien. Even the opening notes of Fritz Spiegl's UK Theme are more frightening. I discovered this yesterday morning when they played it on Today at about 0830. It wasn't the time of day after all.

You don't need the defunct Radiophonic Workshop to make unsettling music. If they replaced Sailing By with James McMillan's Tuireadh, nobody would ever get on a boat again.

I wonder whether the incidental music for Doctor Who was commissioned by people who not only don't like music, but don't even like the sound it makes?

posted at: 18:18 | path: /N | permanent link to this entry

AJAX is the new Flash, apparently. I think this is a subliminal way of encouraging web designers to clean the bathroom more often. Crystallographers have been using CIF for years, of course. But does it make a difference?

posted at: 17:49 | path: /simulations | permanent link to this entry

At international darts competitions you don't see the dartboard closed, like you do in pubs, so you can't appreciate the detailed grisaille work on the backs of the wings.

In the better sort of pub you can walk all the way round the back, where there is more grisaille work, often another crucifixion, or SS Sebastian or Edmund.

posted at: 17:31 | path: /artism | permanent link to this entry

The number fourteen bus goes past Hardwick to Cambourn, which is apparently going to be a commuter suburb. Except that, working to the east of the town throughout the day and sleeping at night to the west of the city, Cambourn commuters will have the sun in their eyes in both directions. Therefore, we conclude, the town has been built to serve commuters to St Neots. Perhaps I should go to St Neots to find out what's drawing them?

The alternative, that Cambourn has been built for night shift workers, is too nonsensical to consider.

posted at: 17:24 | path: /maunderings | permanent link to this entry

In the last town I worked in, I hardly ever mentioned the Comlab. I can't even tell you if I've capitalized it correctly. Yet I still call the CL the Comlab, even though the CL is doing relevant work.

Who is this William Gates, anyway?

posted at: 22:32 | path: /maunderings | permanent link to this entry

I used to think that caulielower was a keying error in the dictionary. My device returns "caul?" and gives up.

posted at: 21:13 | path: /simulations | permanent link to this entry

I used to think that the predictive text on my device used trigrams, male sheep capable of simple geometry, to supplement its meagre dictionary, hence Severansmugh, which is the Some of the North, and an important railway junction in the east of England.

I learnt at New Year that Duston, London railway station marked by a empha arch, is Furtmm on a different model made by the same company, apparently using the same algorithm. TMM isn't a valid English trigram.

Out of the single-key words, baccababa is fine, as are feede, nonmomn and uttu. Giggigiigi (GII), jjjj (JJJ) and wwwwy (WWY) are nothing of the sort. Something else is going on, and I couldn't tell you what it was even if my train went all the way to Severansmughadilmruxadiladikoradnonmomnghaccacabanonnededededegiggigiigmom, which might hold a clue.

This press release from the people responsible tells us, with a straight face, that they've now added vlog and ubersexual to a dictionary that doesn't contain cauliflower, broccoli, coriander or Suffolk, and using the phrase "language used in everyday conversation". They've clearly never been to Waitrmsf.

posted at: 20:55 | path: /simulations | permanent link to this entry