New to me

 

New to me

Immiserate: impoverish, make miserable

This verb appeared around 1956, but the noun, immiseration, came into use in the 1940s.

 According to ‘The Times, ‘the chancellor immiserated business by overstressing her point about the catastrophic economic legacy left by the Tories. After that, she impoverished business, using her first budget to raise employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) by 1.2 per cent, damaging the retail sector in particular.’

I suspect many of us are ‘immiserated’ on a daily basis, but at least we can commiserate with each other.

Behave!

 

Behave!

How often in your life have you been instructed to ‘behave?’

Do you behave?

Can you behave?

I’m not sure what ‘have’ means. Is it good, or quiet, or polite, or kind, or invisible?

When I’m told to behave, my answer is usually, ‘I’m being have.’ 

More silly answers

 

More silly answers

Prepare to groan!

1.    Tom and Ella emerged from playing in the cellar. Tom’s face was clean, but Ella had a dirty smear on hers. Why was it only Tom who went to wash his face?

They looked at each other. Tom saw Ella’s dirty face, so thought his must be dirty, too. Ella saw Tom’s clean face and didn’t know hers was dirty.

2.   A man looked out of a window. He was desperate to open it, but knew that doing so would kill him. Why?

He was in a submarine and suffering from claustrophobia.

3.   Why are 1984 bottles of whisky more valuable than 1977 bottles?

There are seven more of them.

4.   Use three identical digits to make a simple addition for which the answer is 12. You cannot use the digit 4. What is the answer?

11+1=12

5.   The fire alarm sounded in a ten-storey building. Chris, working in the building, did not make for the stairs, but jumped out of the window. How did he survive?

It was a ground floor window.

6.   Kate loved the colour yellow. All the walls in her bungalow were  primrose yellow. The doors and skirting boards were a darker yellow. The carpets and soft furnishings were daffodil yellow. Her plates and mugs were lemon yellow. Even her bath towels and kitchen towels were golden yellow. What colour were her stairs?

Bungalows don’t have stairs

.7.   You enter a deserted house late at night. Inside you find an oil lamp, a gas fire and a stove full of wood. You only have one match. Which should you light first?

The match.

 

More silly questions

 

More silly questions (answers tomorrow)

Out of time again, so I’ve resorted to someone else’s work – that well-known person called A Non.

T 

1.     1.  Tom and Ella emerged from playing in the cellar. Tom’s face was clean, but Ella had a dirty smear on hers. Why was it only Tom who went to wash his face?

2.   2.  A man looked out of a window. He was desperate to open it, but knew that doing so would kill him. Why?

3.   3.Why are 1984 bottles of whisky more valuable than 1977 bottles?

4.   4. U.se three identical digits to make a simple addition for which the answer is 12. You cannot use the digit 4. What is the answer?

5.   5. The fire alarm sounded in a ten-storey building. Chris was working in the building, but did not make for the stairs. He jumped out of the window. How did he survive?

6.   6. Kate loved the colour yellow. All the walls in her bungalow were  primrose yellow. The doors and skirting boards were a darker yellow. The carpets and soft furnishings were daffodil yellow. Her plates and mugs were lemon yellow. Even her bath towels and kitchen towels were golden yellow. What colour were her stairs?

7.   7. You enter a deserted house late at night. Inside you find an oil lamp, a gas fire and a stove full of wood. You only have one match. Which should you light first?

Isms

 

Isms

Pinched from elsewhere:

Socialism: You have two cows. Give one cow to your neighbour.

Communism: You have two cows. Give both cows to the government and they may give you some milk.

Fascism: You have two cows. The government shoots you and takes both cows.

Anarchism: You have two cows. Keep both cows, shoot the government and steal another cow.

Capitalism: You have two cows. Sell one. Buy a bull.

The North Wind

 

The North Wind

The North Wind doth blow
And we shall have snow,
And what will poor robin do then, poor thing?
He’ll sit in the barn
To keep himself warm
And hide his head under his wing, poor thing!

This little rhyme originated in 16^th century Britain and was first published two centuries later in collections of nursery rhymes. It has three additional verses, not regularly taught, which build on feelings of sympathy and compassion for those less fortunate.

The second verse is about the swallow.

The North Wind doth blow
And we shall have snow,
And what will the swallow do then, poor thing?
Oh, do you not know
That he’s off long ago
To a country where he will find spring, poor thing?

Swallows migrate to warmer countries for the winter. Any that attempt to remain usually do not survive. This is made clear in Oscar Wilde’s heartbreaking tale of the Happy Prince, a story I can never read aloud to children.

In the third verse, the children learn about the tiny dormouse.

The North Wind doth blow
And we shall have snow,
And what will the dormouse to then, poor thing?
Rolled up like a ball
In his nest snug and small,
He'll sleep till warm weather comes in, poor thing!

Verse four tells of the honey bee.

The North Wind doth blow
And we shall have snow,
And what will the honey bee do then, poor thing?
In his hive he will stay
Till the cold is away
And then he’ll come out in the spring, poor thing!

Referred to as ‘he’ in the rhyme, it is only the females, who are the Queen and the worker bees, who survive the winter. The workers cluster round the Queen to keep her warm and alive. The drones are only of use for mating and as there is no mating in the cold months they are pushed out of the hive and either starve or freeze to death.

A fifth verse was added later.

The North Wind doth blow
And we shall have snow,
And what will the children do then, poor things?
When lessons are done
They’ll jump, skip, and run,
And that’s how they’ll keep themselves warm, poor things.

We woke up to snow this morning, which settled briefly on the roofs and trees. At present, we have a north wind blowing. The forecast tonight is -3˚Celsius (26.6˚ Fahrenheit)

Good night, Vienna

 

Good night, Vienna

JayCee used this phrase in a comment she left recently on a blog post. It reminded me instantly of the ITV television series, ‘Rising Damp,’ about the lives of a penny-pinching landlord, Rigsby, and his tenants. It was broadcast from 1974 until 1978.

Rigsby, had a cat called Vienna, which was variously treated affectionately or despised, depending on the way Rigsby’s life was unfolding. When he put the cat out at night, he would say, ‘Good night, Vienna,’ suggesting that if Vienna met difficulties, it would all be over for him.

The phrase came from a radio operetta of 1932, called ‘Goodnight, Vienna.’ The operetta was later made into a film. Originally, the expression indicated a romantic farewell, but it gradually changed to mean, ‘It’s all over,’ ‘It’s finished,’ ‘That’s it,’ and became a part of British slang.

It was also the title of Ringo Starr’s 1974 album, ‘Goodnight Vienna,’ for which John Lennon wrote the words.

It’s similar in meaning to ‘Goodnight, Irene,’ the song written by Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter) in the 1930s. A one-time friend of ours was called Irene, and she hated it when anyone sang it to her. She took it as a personal insult.