Some odds, ends and personals.
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Reader comments . . .
From Sue in respect of the origin of the expression “Jaywalker”:
From Sue in respect of the origin of the expression “Jaywalker”:
Again, an American reference from my Dad, the Jay is a common bird that chatters and mobs akin to the noisy minor bird in Australia. They can be a nuisance if they take over a bird-feeder as they scare off other birds. This constant talking was seen to be the mark of a foolish person, who was then called a Jay. The young birds in particular could be distracted by shiny objects, so again an easily duped person was then called a Jay. Their foraging pattern is to skip and jump in apparently random fashion and this (my Dad told me) was why a foolish person who walked across the road in a random easily distracted fashion was a "Jay Walker"
Jays can mimic human and industrial noises and feature in a lot of folk songs and Blues
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From Roberta in respect of the post about the loss of family pet Lucy:
Hi guys,
Very beautiful Otto, made me cry!
Have you watched the movie “Dean Spanley”? It’s a wonderful, funny and sad tale about the life of dogs. I you haven’t seen it, I recommend you all watch it together...
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Whilst looking up something on the internet last week, I came across a very simple cartoon/graphic or whateve you woukld call it that struck a responsive chord with me. I'm a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to computers, I confess that I prefer a paper diary to anything electronic, I prefer paper books to read and I find a pen faster than a computer in making notes. This is the item I am referring to:
This resulted in some detours on the issue of pencils and a couple of them are printed below.
This is also simple but carries a lot of truth and good advice:
A little bit of risque pencil humour:
An item about pencils that had me laughing was the following news report and a modern day update.
The news report, from 12 December 1998, is as follows:
Slogan Causes Pencil Recall
A company has recalled a batch of pencils after a fourth-grade student pointed out an embarrassing message that appeared after he sharpened his pencil. The pencils carry the slogan ''Too Cool to Do Drugs.'' But the student noticed that when the pencils are sharpened and get shorter, the message becomes ''Cool to Do Drugs,'' then simply ''Do Drugs.''
As a result of the discovery by Kodi Mosier, a 10-year-old student at Ticonderoga Elementary School, the company, the Bureau for At-Risk Youth, based in Plainview, N.Y., recalled the pencils.
''We're actually a little embarrassed that we didn't notice that sooner,'' Darlene Clair, a spokeswoman, told The Plattsburgh Press-Republican.
A new batch of pencils will have the message written in the opposite direction, so when they are sharpened, they will read ''Too Cool To Do'' and finally ''Too Cool.''
- New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/12/nyregion/slogan-causes-pencil-recall.html
The modern update is that a business by the name of brrybnds has re-released the pencils and they can be purchased online:
And a bit of pencil and eraser philosophy to conclude:
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