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

While we're on washing, if my washing machine has a gentle cycle for hand-wash items, why can't my dishwasher have something for stuff that's not dishwasher safe?

Dishwashers and washing machines don't work the same way. Washing machines have variable temperatures (mine has a cold wash, which I presume is lower than 30 Celsius), and a gentle wash has reduced agitation and lower spin speed. A dishwasher, AFAIK, works by blasting the dirt off. Mine has an 'eco-wash', but that's just cooler to reduce the energy used to heat the water. There's no cold wash and no way to reduce the pressure of the washing process.

Yes, it would be great to put things that aren't 'dishwasher safe' in the dishwasher. Until somebody comes up with a machine that can deal with these items, we're just going to have to put up with the occasional session up to our elbows in suds.

(sorry, TC) PH for me, which drove me crazy while I was in the UK when pregnant: using "baby" without the definite article.

Did I do that? Whoops - not my usual way. I find it very affected, and don't like it either. But I can't find where I did it....?

oh blimey did I mis-read?

(No you didn't.) But PH - TV chefs who make "scallop" rhyme with "polyp".

Do you mean the fish? I've never heard it pronounced any other way ? Or do they actually say skollip?

I still can't find the baby thing. It's annoying me. (PH?)

Filmmakers who COMPLETELY misunderstand actual scientific principals that are well-understood and well-documented, don't bother to investigate them, and then make movies based on this misunderstanding that perpetuate misinformation and promote bad thinking in an unsuspecting public. For money.

And, to be clear, it's them doing it *for money* that bothers me the most, not so much for the sake of something they (rightly or wrongly) actually believe, and/or not for the sake being cool. Being cool is just fine.

But still, even then, don't spread around ideas that are patently false as though they're actually plausible. Don't try to ground it in science when it's clearly and obviously NOT grounded in science. If you want to make a blockbuster movie for money, go right ahead, but if you're going to do that then stick with the coolness angle.

X-Men is totally awesome, but they don't pretend any of that could really happen, so I don't have anything against it. And it still makes buttloads of cash.

I suppose what I'm really complaining about is the marketing department.

I think it's probably a personal idiosyncracy rather than a regional thing, but I always pronounce the first syllable of "scallop" just like the first syllable of "scallion". I'm not saying my way is right, but the other way drives me bonkers for reasons I don't fully understand.

>> I had to iron those tiny little t shirts and rompers to get them soft enough for baby after hanging them on the line. <<

And another thing: People teasing me for not smiling enough. I have a right to be miserable, dammit!

Are you a Portion of P.U.D.D.I.N.G., Mr X? If not, it sounds like you should be.

Not so PH: the fear that it will turn out that I don't have some sort of Autistic Spectrum Disorder and am, in fact, just an awkward .

Uh, to clarify, do you mean that other people are afraid of this outcome or that you're afraid of this outcome?

I'm afraid of this outcome. I cannot speak for other people. I can barely understand them at the best of times!!

PH: accidentally hitting Num Lock in the middle of typing a long string of numbers.

my eldest son gets reading books for homework from school this is good literacy is a good thing

however his latest book features the main character visiting an egg shop.... What is an egg shop? from the pictures you can clearly see it sells very little other than eggs... that shouldn't exist even in a children's book, why can't he just visit the corner shop or the supermarket... an Egg shop

it's in the high street between everyone's 2nd favourite and their favourite caramel shop...

Before we leave this page, I just wanted to comment on quotes PH at the top:

>>While we're on washing, if my washing machine has a gentle cycle for hand-wash items, why can't my dishwasher have something for stuff that's not dishwasher safe?<<

My dishwasher has a selection of programmes from really hot and vicious for saucepans to cool, quick and gentle for glasses and delicate stuff. I'm on my third dishwasher now and all of them had a choice of washes.