Rest well, and dream of large women. If the quotation above doesn’t immediately ring a bell, then this book may well not be for you. How about: There’s a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours. Or, indeed, the title of this book: As you wish. They’re … Continue reading Cary Elwes: As You Wish
You’ll perhaps recall that when I finally got around to reading Arthur Arnold Dietz’s book, Mad Rush For Gold In Frozen North, I was a little bemused to discover it was a pretty obvious fake (at least in parts) given its widely accepted status as one of the classics of Gold Rush memoirs. My original … Continue reading Mad Rush For Gold In Frozen North: Supplement
Dunsinane Hill (NO 214316, 310m) Black Hill (NO 219319, 360m) King’s Seat (NO 230330, 377m) Buttergask Hill (NO 230340, 307m) Lintrose Hill (NO 234343, 325m) Gask Hill (NO 238344, 358m) 16 kilometres 610 metres ascent So, I found myself uncommitted this morning, and decided to have a wander through the Sidlaw Hills. I was undaunted … Continue reading Sidlaws: Dunsinane to Gask
A familiar pair of primary and secondary rainbows is always concentric, and the outer rainbow has its colours in the reverse order from the primary. But these two have their colours in the same order, and are converging to meet on the horizon. What’s going on there? I was walking home from work a couple … Continue reading Converging Rainbows
This from the November 2015 issue of Judgment And Decision Making. Here are links to the original paper (pdf) and its supplementary tables (pdf). The authors seek to find a preliminary answer to the questions, “Are people able to detect blatant bullshit? Who is most likely to fall prey to bullshit and why?” Their study … Continue reading Pennycook et al.: On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit
Good title, eh? (And yes, I’ve written it correctly, with no articles—it does seem as if the author telegraphed the title to his publishers.) In 1914, when he published this memoir of the Klondike Gold Rush, Dietz was a physical director at the YMCA in Los Angeles, as well as being a “playground director” in … Continue reading Arthur Arnold Dietz: Mad Rush For Gold In Frozen North
ˈhwɛəfə(r) Wherefore: Why There are several ways of misquoting Shakespeare. One is to misquote Shakespeare without knowing it’s Shakespeare at all. Most people who use the phrase “to gild the lily” probably fall into that category, unaware of the original version. King John Act 4, Scene 2: SALISBURY: […] To gild refinèd gold, to paint … Continue reading Wherefore
Angela Gannon and George Geddes were archaeologists with the (now-defunct) Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Both have worked on the islands of St Kilda (Geddes lived there for six months), so they’re well qualified to write this book. St Kilda is that island group you can never quite see on … Continue reading Angela Gannon & George Geddes: St Kilda – The Last and Outermost Isle
ˈsnəʊkləʊn Snowclone: “A multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different jokey variants by lazy journalists and writers” (Pullum, 2003) That definition undoubtedly requires explanation. Geoffrey Pullum, in my quote above, was appealing for a word to fit his definition. He … Continue reading Snowclone
This one’s something I read earlier this year, posted now as a Christmas recommendation for anyone who knows a hillwalker. It’s the sort of book that has something for anyone who is even vaguely interested in British hills. It is subtitled A View of 16 British Mountains. The sixteen mountains are: Beinn Dearg (the one … Continue reading Simon Ingram: Between The Sunset And The Sea