h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

MR: yes it is a consolation.

Better go to bed, for the start of my last ever school year tomorrow . Or perhaps I'm not sure.

Still I've got my last ever file, refill pad, foutain pen and academic year diary.

If anyone's intrested I've written an entire personal version of Free electric band and this rant reminded me of it.

Wow, Lil. That is really interesting. I wonder what caused that.

How the hell did your dad get a million to blow, MR?

S**tty weekend. It remains to be seen what the week is like. I confess to being a bit scared right now. My job ends in two weeks time, and I don't have any savings to live off...

B

for Ben. The offer of a chat remains open. As you may gather I'm not in bed .

Ben, he inherited it when his mom died. I got a sewing machine, he got a million bucks.

And I'm going to get nothing when he dies. Thanks, buddy.

(As you can tell, my dad and I aren't the closest)

[Sol]

That would annoy me, MR.

Oh well, back to the grind-stone.

B

It is an effort to get going this morning. It's not so much that I drank too much yesterday as that a gin and tonic seemed a good idea, which turned out not to be. I really don't do gin very well, even a single measure.

No2 son came home from school one day with a safety pin through his ear. Quite apart from it being against school policy, a friend did it for him as a joke. I made the son remove it and wash his ear thoroughly. He told me afterwards that he was relieved to get rid of it as he hadn't expected his friend to actually go ahead and push the safetly pin through! I did consider phoning the kid's mother (they were about 15 at the time), but decided no real harm had been done.

No1 son has always said that there was no real point in rebelling as I found every attempt they made hilarious! H too, took the humourous approach and considering the knocks the sons have taken in their lives they have caused us very little worry, with the benefit of hindsight.

The only time a piercing took me aback was when an elderly gent needed some help washing and I discovered he had a Prince Albert! I was only a first year student nurse and to find that some men have ~that~ pierced was quite a blinder!

[T]
[¤o¤]

I thought a PA was a new thing? I didn't realise that elderly gents might have them.

Having seen a septic one (ok a photo) I'm desperatly trying to disuade my friends from getting it slightly unsuccesfully.

Ick. Thanks for the mental image at this time fo the morning Z!

Lil, that is weird, could it have been cause by a rain drop on the branch (or whatever that is) catching the light of the flash and causing a glare? *Knows nothing about photography*

So are you all settled now Marv?

k

[p] Caught up on the weekend backlog.

It is named after one of Queen Victoria's sons, who was reputed to have one! He became Edward VII in 1901, but was called Bertie by the family. That was the story I was told.

But piercings of that sort have gone a lot longer than that, it was a sign of being really, really tough!

Prince Albert did not have a Prince Albert! So I am reliably informed. Apparently it was some bloke in the seventies that put the rumour around. I started to look this up on the web for confirmation then thought; "Hang about, I'm at work, perhaps not." So I can't confirm that. Still, the bloke who told me has proven himself on other random dodgy Victoruan gibberish, so I believe him.
Anyhoo, that said, Morning all.

I've read in a text about Victorian fashion that Prince Albert was one of many men who wore what they called a dressing ring. They tied the wayward member to their thigh. This was on account of the extremely tight trousers that were the fashion.

Edwardian fashion was strange, too. Prince Edward was so fat that ~all~ men's fashion became really loose and boxy so that even skinny men wore clothes cut to make them look fat.

I have jury duty this morning, and they have pulled two jury pools in! Something big is up.

Lil the Completely Unpierced

*the backlog starts to rustle, somewhere around the end of the 6B conversation.*

*The disturbance moves forward until it reaches the end of the backlog*

*dave pokes his head out, then laboriously pulls himself free*

Wow, talk about getting behind.

Z - congrats on passing! Great news! What are you doing now? Are you finished with school or do you have another year?

Marv - Your place looks nice, looks like you had a great party. Enjoy the new place.

Phil - I don't think there is a shootout equivalent in US sports.
American football - has overtime. If no one scores, the game is a tie. I assume in the playoffs the overtime would keep repeating until someone won.
Basketball - repeated overtime periods until someone wins
Baseball - keep playing until someone wins
Hockey - regular season, one overtime, can have a tie at the end. Playoffs, repeated overtimes until someone wins.

That's my understanding anyway.

dave

You forgot the MLS (Major League Soccer or European Football) dave. They also play to a shootout with a tie possible.

Also, the NHL is considering a shottout to eliminate ties. If they go forward with this idea they will run it for a season in the AHL (American Hockey League, one of the farming leagues for the NHL) before instituting in the NHL regular season.

There have been a few changes over the years to try and stop the need for a penalty shootout at the end of the football (soccer) tournaments. First they (fifa, the world governing body) came up with the golden goal - the first goal scored in extra time wins the match. Now in the current european championships they have the silver goal. If a goal is scored in the first half of extra time then play continues to the end of that period. If the score is a tie at that point then play continues for the whole of the second period of extra time.
Still ends up in the penalty shootout most of the time though.

[Ben]

from only getting 3 hours sleep last night. Still, I am finishing early and should be able to catch up tonight.

B