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

Why do they do that?

I suspect the manufacturer would say it's to protect the garment till it's sold. They don't want people putting their hands (and potentially other things) in the pockets. Personally I reckon the risk of pre-purchase damage is minimal. I like to know how deep pockets are before I buy an item.

Gents suits are stitched like that "because it makes them look better on the hanger" according to a bloke who works in M&S I meet in the pub sometimes.
Yes this discussions been around a few times in different places & that's the best answer I've heard yet.
[BB]

In a way, that's what I meant. When someone puts their hand in a pocket, it makes the pocket bulge. The bulge should go when the hand is taken out of the pocket, but there may be some residual distortion.

Your friend put it much more succinctly. That's what comes from working in the business.

Yeah but...

I would think a more temporary method than stitching the pocket closed would be preferable, like a simple pin. "BOB" knows there are no shortage of pins one needs to seek & remove before wearing some new garments.

And things attached with those plastic tags that need cutting, often buried deep in a label or similar.

Very irritating.

PH: Jimmy Wales doesn't just expect you to write his encyclopaedia, he expect you to pay him lots of money too.

How about you pay us, JW?

PH: people who write "fayre" on posters when they mean "fair", people who write "fare" when they mean food and people, especially at this time of year, who mix them up, Oh well, "Welcome to our Christmas fayre"

It's OK to use fare when talking about food - that's one of its meanings. Some people believe that fayre is an old spelling of fair. It isn't according to my dictionary, which defines fayre as "pseudo-archaic spelling of fair". My dictionary is only the Concise Oxford English Dictionary and I no longer have access to the online version, so I can't say when people started using the word. All I know is that it's used too often for my liking.

Well, they're right to some degree.

In the horse fair, livestock selling sense, the OED has the spelling 'fayre' recorded from 1489.

The modern-day charity/village fayre is a 19th-Century invention, but this was spelled 'fair' for much of the time. I can't see when it was first spelled 'fayre' - the OED's only quoted example is from 2002, but it's clearly older than that.

If you want access to the online version of the OED, get a library card and use the number to log in.

Library card? Ha! Our local library, a tiny thing in the village hall, is run by volunteers since the local council stopped supporting it. I'm not sure whether they have library cards. I can't get to the nearest decent library very easily.

That's a shame. If you can get to a main county library, they'll give you a free card. It allows access to a number of useful online reference sites (although the exact list varies from county to county). My Camden card cover these, for example:

http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/leisure/libraries-and-online-learning-centres/camden-library-service/twocolumn/online-reference-information/

These are very useful for researching guide entries. The OED, Times Digital Archive, Oxford Reference Online and Newbank site are especially so.

I always thought that in the UK at least, fairs were part of the rights a town enjoyed when it became a town, with the town charter granting it the right to a weekly market and annual fair which would normally be held on or near the saint's day of the saint to whom the parish church was dedicated. Villages and hamlets, not having charters, wouldn't have had the right to a fair.

<BB<

Petty Hate – snow coverage in the national news.
When reporting that some parts of the country have been affected by snow, national news should definitely report on the disruption to travel as that is important for people travelling from the areas left unaffected.

But don't report saying 'schools countrywide are closed' as all it does is raise expectations in the children in areas completed devoid of snow that they're getting days off when they're not, and that everyone else is enjoying a free holiday that they're missing out on. Tell us all about the closed schools in the local news by all means, as there it is relevant in the areas affected. But not the national news. It'll make life for us with very excitable children so much easier

<BB<

BTW... It snowed in Texas (even here on the Gulf Coast) Friday morning. It looked something like this.

http://youtu.be/HRa2sFQ3d3k

I did some checking and found that the local library still counts as a county library. It's listed as a "community library" and issues library cards that are valid for any of the county's libraries. And your right, Icy. My library membership would give me access to the online OED, amongst other things. What's almost as interesting is the ability to borrow ebooks. The selection isn't great, but it will probably get better over time.

I might have had this one before - being asked to sign with a finger on a digital device screen. It's impossible to write anything taht could be verified as my signature so why do it? I might just as well put a cross - in fact whoever is asking me to sign could put a mark & that would suffice.
Pointless means of acknowledging presence or receipt. I can see the day when we all need to have some sort of unique digital signature...