Readers Write

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A number of people queried some items in the last Funny Friday.

Here are the explanations:

Item:

A teacher asks her class what their favourite letter is. 

A student puts up his hand and says 'G'. 

The teacher walks over to him and says, "Why is that, Angus?"

Comment: 

Angus’s name without the “g” would be “Anus”

Item:

Bob goes to see his friend Pete. He finds Pete in his barn dancing naked around his John Deere. "What are you doing?" asks Bob. Pete stops dancing and says "My wife has been ignoring me lately so I talked to my psychiatrist and he said I needed to do something sexy to a tractor." 

Comment:

“. . . needed to do something sexy to a tractor.” (to attract her).

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An email from Leo M in response to yesterday’s Tattoo Fails post and the Green Mile quote:

A very funny byte Otto. 

The Green Mile was one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. I put it up there with the Shawshank Redemption.

Leo 

Thanks, Leo. I agree with your comments about both movies.

During the week I will post son Elliot’s analysis of the Shawshank Redemption, done for his final year of high school.  

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A further email from Leo M in response to Saturday’s post “Looking at: Places and Buildings”, in respect of Sigiriya, the ancient rock fortress in Sri Lanka:

Hi Otto,

I was here with my English mate Charles and climbed as much as you could in April 1977.

The most amazing thing I found were the frescoes painted on the side of the mountain. If you google this place there are thousands of photos of these magnificently painted voluptuous women.

I seem to remember that shortly after I was there, some mad Australian attacked them with a hammer and chisel. Probably the same bloke who did the La Pieta in St Peters Basilica in the Vatican City.

It is a very pretty Island. I was adopted by a Tamil family near Negombo who wanted me to marry their daughter Lalita. It was the time before the civil war. I often wondered what happened to her and her family. I kept in contact and sent gifts for a number of years.

Your Bytes bring back so many memories, thank you.

Leo

Thanks, Leo.

Leo is correct about the frescoes. I left them out of the brief summary but here are some notes on the frescoes and about some other aspects:

• British archaeologist and author John Still (1880–1941), known for his discoveries at Sigiriya, in 1907 suggested, "The whole face of the hill appears to have been a gigantic picture gallery... the largest picture in the world perhaps". The paintings would have covered most of the western face of the rock, an area 140 metres long and 40 metres high. 

• Examples of some of the frescoes:

• Some other aspects of Sigiriya:

The Mirror Wall:

Sigiriya had a wall that was so highly polished that it acted as a mirror in which the king could see himself when he walked alongside it. It was made of brick masonry and covered in highly polished white plaster, but the wall is now partially covered with verses scribbled by visitors, some of them dating from as early as the 8th century.. Further writing on the mirror wall now has been banned for the protection of the old writings.

The Mirror Wall and spiral stairs leading to the frescoes

The Gardens

The Gardens of the Sigiriya city are one of the most important aspects of the site, as it is among the oldest landscaped gardens in the world. The gardens are divided into three distinct but linked forms: water gardens, cave and boulder gardens, and terraced gardens.

A pool in the garden complex

The gardens of Sigiriya, as seen from the summit of the Sigiriya rock

Terraced Gardens

One of the many paths winding through the Boulder Gardens

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From Steve M, also in respect of the Saturday post “Looking at: Places and Buildings”, but in this case commenting upon my being cool on vertical gardens on buildings:

Not so sure I agree with you Otto... looking out into a vast metropolis and seeing other concrete buildings is not really my idea of a view – regardless of the cost. Perhaps the greenery (as shown in Bosco Verticale, Milan, Italy) helps provide a more ‘dappled’ outlook that softens the surrounds when seen from within the building. Either that or everyone that lives there is a wanker.

Steve m

Thanks, Steve.

Here’s one for you . . .