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

I plant marigolds between all the plants the slugs like - they really really hate that. Last summer they didn't touch my spinach.

I see I've been missing some great chat while my main computer was down. Glad you had a pleasant day off, Bel.
If I may recap a thing or two, we have lots of egg shells in our compost, and I spread it all around the s. I never see a slug near them; I think the shells are too sharp for their gooey undersides.
The lawn man cut the yard for the first time yesterday, and everything is blooming. After a record cold February, even the things that usually bloom in mid winter are out together with the spring stuff, so we have forsythia and dogwood, red buds and the last of the daffodils. Right now the elms are going to seed, and every AM the birds marching across the roof picking up the seed wake us. It sounds like a bizarre rain storm!

As for the audio books, reading on cassette is the best way to stay awake on long drives. (I had a good brand cassette put in my car rather than a CD because I find it unsafe to hunt for track numbers under the dash while driving 70 down a mountain between two 18 wheelers. The cassette is always just where I left it.)
It does matter who reads. The other day, I got a "Cat Who" book that wasn't read by the fellow I'm used to, and I couldn't understand him on the highway. He trails off the ends of his phrases! If you're looking for English language material, I recommend Maya Angelou reading her own "Even the Stars Look Lonely" and Jim Dale reading the Harry Potter books. Both are beautifully articulate readers. Dame Judy Dench reads some classic books too. I think most folks would like her reading. There are lots of Star Trek novels read by various actors from the series, too.

Doesn't Stephen Fry do some voice-overs and book readings?

He may be the British Harry Potter reader. I was trying to think of his name. (Went to school with a Steven Fry. Not the same guy, I'm sure.)

Yes, he did the British version (book one at least) and rather excellently, I might say.

Is that the Jim Dale we used to over in the 70s?

Does Jim Dale read the American version of the Potter books. I'm confused now.

Last summer they didn't touch my spinach! neither would I YUCK!

last summer I didn't touch any spinach either

Stephen Fry and Jim Dale didn't touch your spinach? I could understand Stephen Fry but....

On googling Jim Dale, there does seem to be only the one.


This was the guy we used to over

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:Msfi7jh8K0_CGM:http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/kneesflashes/happenings/july05/jimdale.jpg


He now looks like this:

http://images.broadwayworld.com/photoops/tonypressday06/Dale_Jim_WM92426.jpg

And confirmation that it's the same guy in his bio:

http://www.jim-dale.com/jim%27s_biography.htm

(11 Carry On films! - need I say more?)

The only thing that hasn't changed is the direction his eyebrows point.

sic transit gloria mundi

(trans: Gloria was sick on the bus on Monday)(musta bin a grate w/end)

Now that's some classic Latin!

(.and, yes, Dale reads all the HP books for American sale.)