Poetry

Would You Make a Good Pirate?

Just practicin’ for “Talk Like a Pirate Day” which will be September 19th. Arrrrrrrr an shiver me timbers, I’m training hard trying to sort out me sheets from me belaying pins, me hearties**. And today be the day* to avoid the tax collectors who are the biggest pirates in the land You Are 75% Pirate [...]

Electrically Engineered

The chief of a poor Native American tribe, where there were no paved roads, no electricity, and no indoor plumbing, scrimped and saved and finally was able to send his eldest son to college. The lad did well, working hard for four years and finally graduating with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. Arriving home [...]

LOLTeacher

Tuesday Tune

BRAAAAAAAP!

Grandma’s Life

Of course some things never change. Burgled from the apparently dormant “wistfulrepublic”

The Women Who Helped Gillard Get There

No photos, no smart comments. Just an important essay by a woman who has every right to feel joyous. GRETEL KILLEEN June 27, 2010 In the 1920s my grandmother was ostracised as a divorced woman. In the 1950s my mother, an international flight attendant, was not only weighed before and after each flight but forced [...]

God and the Converted

Ten Things We Didn’t Know Last Week

Courtesy of the BBC:- 1. More than 5,000 so-called mosquito alarms, which emit a sound to disperse teenage groups, are in operation in the UK. More details (Guardian) 2. Human hair is used as a food additive. More details 3. Italy’s footballers were pelted with rotten fruit when they arrived back in the country after [...]

Photo Hunt; Purple

The BP Defence

Bi-Polar Polar Bear

IS Knut nuts? Animal rights activists in Germany say the celebrity polar bear is deeply disturbed after years of confinement in Berlin Zoo. “Out of 34 polar bears that we kept under close observation in 11 German zoos, 27 displayed behavioural disorders,” says Edmund Haferbeck, of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “But Knut [...]

BBC Quiz of the Week

Busy busy busy – in fact too busy to do blog stuff at the moment. By next Friday I shall be retired and I will catch up with the rest of the quiz duties. In the meantime, here is this week’s quiz. I scored a paltry 3/7     

Go Julia

Julia Gillard made history today as she became Australia’s first female Prime Minister, joining a roll call of female world leaders that stretches back 50 years. Despite the fact that Australia was one of the very first countries to grant female suffrage, it is one of the last to have a female leader. Here is [...]