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

Two PH's.

1. Sorry Winnoch, but this is a petty hates theread, not a petty irks thread.

2. Pedants.

PP.

Train ticket pricing.

I want to go to York from Stevenage and return the same day on a Saturday in a couple of week's time.

I checked the price a couple of days ago and it was going to be £40. I go to book my ticket today and the same journey is now £60+. It costs the same to take me and the train will be the same length running on the same rails and costing just the same to run.

Except that I now won't go by train because it is cheaper to drive and they won't be getting £40 from me.

PP

Oh yeah, don't start me on ticket pricing. No really, just don't start me... OK well don't say i didn't warn you

I'm totally 100% convinced that the online rail booking sites use cookies to mark when you search for a particular route and time. Because almost without exception, every time I look up a journey, then close the browser and search for the same journey again later, miraculously the price has gone up

PH and a lesson for you all...

Conventional wood glue (pva) does not stick to supermarket plastic bags and isn't too difficult to remove from the wood afterwards. (use the shiny side for preference)

Polyurethane glue, however, does and is

.

Thanks Rod.

I would, however, be grateful for just a little context to the advice. (I am interested in glueing things together - it is one of my hobbies).

PP.

Ah, PP, methinks you know better than me in yer own context.

On, say, MDF (customwood) using pva (not t'other), clamp & clean up as you go.
On 'normal' woodwork, with pva, clamp & clean up as you go.

if you're looking for a flat surface, glue (pva) & clamp to, say, a piece of thickish MDF with a single thickness of supermarket bag between (they're quite big when cut open & trimmed) (also, very big if 'paved' with an overlap - the joins are thin enough not to notice). Cleaning up afterwards is (usually) not too hasslesome - plane/scrape/sand.
However, doing the same with polyurethane glue can be problematical because it foams up & out, filling the tiniest pores & can affect the appearance of the surface/grain - you may find plane/scrape/sand takes more effort, mayhap with less satisfaction.

Other glues? No comment - refer to yer own kernollidge.

I've recently gone back to commuting by train. There are a pair of fellow commuters who must stand in the middle of the platform, every day, trying to suck each other's face off, with horrible slurping noises.

They usually arrive 10 minutes before the train (same time as me) and do it constantly.

There is an exclusion zone around them and anyone who inadvertantly ends up there, moves swiftly away.

Just stop it, already.

PHotD: Writers of synopses for Electronic Programme Guides who either don't know their history, or can't spell and don't want to admit it. There are two films on Film today that the EPG synopses describe as set in the Dark Ages. Both films (Knights of the Round Table and A Knight's Tale) have a mediaeval (or medieval) setting. OK, so both films are nonsense in their own way, but that's no reason to get the history wrong.

That should have said 'two films on Film4'. I did Preview, honest!

The texts on the BBC website describing the podcasts are sometimes like that. I mean - the BBC! Used to be the go-to place for correct English. Does no one PROOFREAD what they put out there?

And talking of the BBC, I do get mildly irritated when the newsreader on radio WM says "seketery".

And on the other end of that spectrum, the fabulously pronounced Moira Stewart saying "Bach* rain" for Bahrain. Why the exaggerated pronunciation? Would she say the Louvre was in Paree, Fronce? No, of course not.

Deb

*like the "ch" in loch

Bach-rain

A lot of people have trouble with aspirants - or can't be bothered. It is, as you know, deb Bahrein, pronounced , oh, let's say "bahh rain"

other aspirants too - oh, I could go on a bit longer on how to do it!
(and the Welsh 'll' & Scots 'ch')

0ops - should be a comma in there : >It is, as you know, deb [capital comma] bahrein<

We don't say it's in Pah-ree. Then again, we don't call it the Loover either...English is basically just inconsistent in pronunciation and spelling of borrowed words.

Take the football team we call "Bayern Munich". We translate "München" to "Munich", but we don't translate "Bayern" to "Bavaria".

Languages just don't work by logic. Unless it's a programming language or Esperanto, perhaps.

Online surveys that make too many tacit assumptions about an issue and then don't provide an option to say "neither this nor that."

Online surveys in general.

Especially those that pop up as soon as you get to a site: "Tell us what you think about us!" I don't know yet, I've only just got here and can't see anything because your stupid popup is covering the entire page.

If, when you go to the Throne Room, the hanger is empty and so is the Tube-Of-Three and you go to the airing cupboard for a new packofour, when you get back to the throne room to distribute the things...


... just make sure the seat COVER is down, too

i thought you were giving us some cheats for a video game

Pre-Moderation is stupid.

Dim sales assistants who can't understand shop's own pointless offers.

Camera £350.
Spare battery and charger £30
Total £380.

Special offer!!!!!
Camera with battery and charger in the same box. £390.

They don't have seperate items in stock so I suggest they might want to sell me the 'Special offer' pack and discount it by £10.

Can't do that. It's already on offer.

Wha.....?

PP.