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

*If the regular crowd of salonistas are getting tired of Matina's hot cross buns, they are far too polite to say so. Lil's paints and pastels are lying idle in the studio, but there is plenty of company including several new faces, most notably Montana Redhead and newunch*

Who are the salonistas?

Looney usually wanders back and forth between the library and the main salon, heineken in fist, newspaper under his arm...
Titania always heads to the kitchen first, however vaguely and elf-like, and grabs the everlasting champagne bottle before heading over to the hearth to scoop up Mindspring, Lil's pet sloth, and give her a thorough cuddle...
Amy always seems to be muttering under her breath when she first arrives, as if she's had a long commute through a particularly dense crowd, but some of Matina's tea soon unkinks her antennae...
Chris, the Professor, has set aside his Gala Group trappings and now attends in mufti, a very bright and good-natured school entity...
Munchkin leaves his daleks at the door, but not his sense of humour...
And he's followed in by another Scot-in-exile, Babel-17...
Marv the Grate does not require us to address him as Holiness when he visits, and I like to think we provide him with sanity maintenance in the face of serious manglement at work.
[33] (we still think of him as Phil) is team leader of the geek contingent...
Sporky comes through at odd hours and frequently utters enigmas but is mostly harmless...
Gw7en is unpronouncable and unflappable and able to carry on conversation on just about anything...
d'Elaphant arrives with Zeppo in tow, and while Zeppo usually gets comfortable onthe hearth with Springie, d'Elaphant shares news and tea from the vantage point of one of the sofas...
Styx comes and goes as he pleases, expects proper and immediate attention to his needs -- and gets it. Handsome rat!...
ddombrow, fellow artist, comes by occasionally, as does Kasia, proprietor at the Crossed Purposes...
And then there are my landlords, Garius Lupus and Afgncaap5, whom I cannot possibly describe in only a few words.

I just know that I'll post this and discover that I have left out two or three salonistas. Many others stop by more rarely than we would like, and we are thoroughly haunted by moderators, but things could be worse.

If you're a newcomer, welcome!

Hello lil...

I think that is the first time I have ever heard anyone sum up something as MASSIVE as this thread. Actually is a great help.

Contemplation

BTW- I have to ask- Who and/or what is a Springie?

Or... should I be asking Springie directly?

Contemfusion

[]
Mindspring's nickname is Springie, and you can find out more about her, and this place, by reading the entry that this forum belongs to:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A304354

[Amy]

*trying not to mutter*

I'm in exile? Oh dear, wish I'd known. What did I do?

Chris, have you thought of looking for SAN 831 A? ie a really old plate from the first time they introduced the 7 character plate?
My avourite plate is M 4 YBE or 'MAYBE'
A sunday at work, and a chance to catch up on backlog. Whew, 5 LED's worth. And that's just this thread

Can't be bothered checking out those links, as quite frankly that stuff bores me senseless.

Apart from that, I'm well

{WM}

New Zealand/Austrlia animals provide an option for European people to enjoy disease free food

European farmers do not like NZ/Aus food imports.

Do EU farmers suffer from George Bush pollution disease?

Whatever happened to the Commonwealth? Does England still get NZ lamb and dairy products? Or is this against the T & C of the EU?

As far as I am aware, we still get NZ lamb.
Not eating lamb myself, I don't look for it in the supermarket.

We get frozen NZ lamb here in Canada (at least in my supermarket in London) all year round. We discovered something called "lamb medallions" recently. It is solid lamb meat formed into 2 inch diameter rounds, along with some spices. Delicious, and you don't have to spend hours trying to separate the fat and bone from the meat.

Regarding language teaching. In Canada, we have 2 official languages: English and French. This means that all government services and all packaging has to be available in both languages everywhere in the country. French is taught in school from about grade 2 or 3, and we have several French Immersion schools in the city where all teaching is done in French. My wife does some tutoring in high school maths and sciences and she has had a few kids that were from the French immersion program. She has found that math learning really suffers under that system. Not only do the kids have to learn the language of math, but they have to learn it from someone speaking a language that isn't their mother tongue. So, they learn french at the cost of all of the other subjects. Personally, I don't think it is worth it.

We home-school our 8 year old daughter and have tried following a french instruction program developed for schools, but it moved along way too slowly and was out of context. What we found worked much better was to subscribe to several french magazines. These magazines are aimed at fairly young native french speaking kids, and are colourful and interesting. Our daughter is excited to get them in the mail and wants to know what the words and phrases mean. My wife sits down with her and they read them together. My daughter has picked up alot of french this way, and it is in context. We also have a couple of CD's of kid's music by one of her favourite singers, all in french.

Congratulations, Chris on getting into the school you wanted, and on the new Jag!

And congratulations, Lil on finishing your taxes. A couple of years ago, we ran a small business out of our home. Doing the taxes those years was awful, so I know a little of what you went through. I don't know if you had to do this, but we had to keep a log in our car and write down the mileage of each use and whether it was business-related or personal, so that at tax time, we could determine the percentage of car use that was related to business and deduct that percentage of the car expenses. What a pain!

Hi all. I didn't manage to get the ballon ride yesterday - it's been dismantled and moved. We did however get tickets to the London Eye Wheel so all was not lost. The weather could have been better though. PCT, which Jag is it that your dad's got? Elcetion issues - I'll try and answer questions on the technicalities of how the system works (as long as they don't get moderated - there is a thread at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F19585?thread=105468&skip=0&show=20 where some of these are and a short disscussion of alternative systems that have been used in the UK). Montana Redhead (I think). I guess that's what my mum was getting at, the lack of teaching of formal english grammer.

Morning all, I lost a battle to a bottle of wine last night. Just getting up to find six inches of b****y snow on the ground.

Marv

*sporky walks in at a perfectly reasonable time and simply mutters:*

Hullo

*can't control himself*

Colour me, colour me
When you're sitting all alone in the middle of the floor
There's something uncontrollable
You sit there watching the door
Cover me, cover me
Cover me, cover me

already feelin' tied to your bad side
Slap your thigh
Slap your mouth
Sing your mantra
Do your walk
Cover me, cover me
Cover me, cover me

Something fits along my spine
Just givin' lovin' from behind
Fortify my arms
Fortify my arms
Cover me, cover me
Cover me, cover me

Hm. Is that song gender-specific?

Garius, that part about mileage is so gnarly that I wouldn't bother, which is why I'll be getting an accountant next year, when I'll be in New Mexico, and probably adding tutoring to my range of consulting options.

I may be trading in my beret soon for a goo stetson. I am differing with the Subcommandante concerning his blanket condemnation of Mark Moxon for the interdiction of political discussion. On the other hand, I don't in the least agree with Smiley Ben's take on the matter: he thinks everything is fine and dandy and those of us who don't like the way things are should just... go away. *sigh*

Hot ccross buns? Why, thank you Matina. *sighs again*

I still love hot cross buns

I read part of that particular discussion Lil and the two of them (ben and subcom) are being as stupid as the other.
I'm waiting now for the answer to a question I posed about election mechanics and technicalities.

What ho all!

I like that new summing up of the thread, LIl - a great idea!
In mufti, am I? Hehe, I never deviate from my dress-sense, and always where my trademark green jacket, only today it doesn't sport a GalaGroup Emblem on the chest pocket. There's a goo beret poking out instead.

Thanks for the congrats, everyone!
The Jag is a XJ8 3.2 Sport, or something (I'm quoting right from my dad here). He actually just told me not to tell anyone until he's got it, just incase something goes wrong in the deal, and it would look embarassing. I'm confident though.

And I never tire of Matina's buns! Though I have to admit that I can't wait for some of that cinnamon (sp?) toast. Ahh...

On the topic of Siley Ben and his anti-ravings, I don't agree with a thing he said. In fact, the only thing he said with an ounce of truth in it was when he said the BBC wasn't owned by the Government.
And although I agree with many points of the Subcom. (or else I wouldn't be a Zaphodista), I don't like it when people blame the PTB (the Italics, not the BBC) for what has come about. They simply had no choice in the current economy.
Like the analogy you used, Garius!

I have to go before I talk any more. I don't like the way the BBC are treating us, but I never turn down a decent documentary of theirs. I'm off to see Sun of God on BBC1 now.

Toodlepip!

Sorry, I meant Lil, not LIl. This font doesn't diferentiate between capital 'i' and lower-case 'L'.
Sorry, I used way too many smileys...

Lil, NZ/Aus beef, lamb, butter and apple exports to the EU countries (and America) are restricted by quotas. If the quotas are exceeded tariffs are applied. Fot tariffs read subsidies to protect inefficient EU (and American) farmers.

The land of the free (and other beneficieries of globalisation like the EU and Japan) do not believe in free trade in food.

One of the reasons for the current foot and mouth plague spreading through Britain (and parts of Europe) is because the farmers have been indulging in intensive (overstocking) farming in a doomed attempt to compete with unsubsidised farmers from downunder.

The British farmers have seen the writing on the wall. Once the Eastern European countries join the EU then the long-suffering EU taxpayers won't be able to afford the taxes that pay the subsidies.