I remember, as if it were yesterday, seeing a particular engine City of London at Crewe. It sticks in the mind because I had a model of it,
It cannot have been later than 1964. And that is 61 flipping years ago!
'Language, Timothy!'
Now where (oh where) did that come from?
Sorry - fairly limp sitcom with Ronnie Corbett as a middle aged man still living with his mother.
By “fairly limp” I assume you mean “crap and totally unfunny”. This sort of thing is also often referred to as “gentle comedy”
Either that or ‘comedy drama’.
"Gentle Comedy" - set in the same middle class suburban semi as a good 50% of the last 60 years of UK Sitcoms and totally unfunny.
"Comedy Drama" - we tried to be edgy by making up for a shortage of laughs by having some serious stuff happen as well.
I liked 'The Beiderbecke Affair' quite a lot - remember that one? I wonder where that fits in the scheme of things, I might have said 'gentle comedy' before I read these comments. I even think it still holds up OK. I await the deprecation of the internet.
A young man is giving me a ride to the dentist this week. He called to tell me that he can get me there on time, but might be a bit late picking me up after my appointment, as he has another stop to make during my appointment. I said," No problem, we will play it by ear." He had no idea what I was talking about.
A young man is giving me a ride to the dentist this week. He called to tell me that he can get me there on time, but might be a bit late picking me up after my appointment, as he has another stop to make during my appointment. I said," No problem, we will play it by ear." He had no idea what I was talking about.
That's in common circulation where I live...though most of my friends are older
I remember, as if it were yesterday, seeing a particular engine City of London at Crewe. It sticks in the mind because I had a model of it,
It cannot have been later than 1964. And that is 61 flipping years ago!
'Language, Timothy!'
Now where (oh where) did that come from?
Sorry - fairly limp sitcom with Ronnie Corbett as a middle aged man still living with his mother.
By “fairly limp” I assume you mean “crap and totally unfunny”. This sort of thing is also often referred to as “gentle comedy”
Either that or ‘comedy drama’.
"Gentle Comedy" - set in the same middle class suburban semi as a good 50% of the last 60 years of UK Sitcoms and totally unfunny.
"Comedy Drama" - we tried to be edgy by making up for a shortage of laughs by having some serious stuff happen as well.
I liked 'The Beiderbecke Affair' quite a lot - remember that one? I wonder where that fits in the scheme of things, I might have said 'gentle comedy' before I read these comments. I even think it still holds up OK. I await the deprecation of the internet.
I do remember the Beiderbecke Affair. I think it is gentle comedy drama - it is definitely a drama, but with humour. It was also very good.
I think I would put differently:
Gentle comedy: Not very funny, not in the slightest bit offensive, highly predictable. You will watch it but it will fail to interact with you in any way.
Comedy Drama: A drama that would never get made, because it is niche and edgy, and occasionally will provide offense. But because it can be pushed as a "comedy" it does get made. You will only really get it 2 years later.
Our fathers were contemporaries - mine would have been 112 in June. He came at the end of a family of 9 siblings and had brothers - my uncles - who were killed in the First World War. I'm aware this will sound like history from the dawn of time to my two-year-old granddaughter.
My mother's father was born in 1887 and (in the early 1900s) taught in a one-room school. During the Depression, he kept teaching, unpaid, and still had a job when it ended.
I was born in 1964. My parents were born in 1918 and 1919. They had 3 children soon after getting married and then I came along after quite a long gap. I was an uncle at the age of 8. My eldest nephew is actually closer to me in age than my youngest sister and only a year younger than my wife.
Most of the kids I went to school with had grandparents who had seen active service in WWII and parents who had been evacuated. I was unusual in that my dad had served in the RAF during the war as a navigator on Wellington bombers. He died at the age of 61, the age I am now, when I was only 15.
I am on the end of a rather spread out family. My father would have been only 98 this year, but my oldest uncle (married to my father’s oldest sister) would have been 136.
My father would have been 110 this year, and my mother was 2 years younger. They got married in September 1939.
My father did not serve in the armed forces as he was a toolmaker and was told his skills we're needed in the production of munitions.
My paternal grandparents were born in 1897. My maternal grandmother was born in 1916.
I remember telling Dad that I was about to turn 70, and he looked at me and said, "Well! What does that make me?" He died just before his 94th birthday, and Mom died on the date of their 70th Anniversary. She was 87.
Almost forgot to add that my oldest granddaughter will turn 20 in January. Doesn't that make me feel ancient!!
I have just read my original copy of Alice. I was my mums copy - bought shortly after she was born - the edition is dated 1933.
This was over 90 years ago. But the story was only 70 years old when that was produced. That means that proper childrens stories, as we know them were only 70 years old at that time.
I have always liked structure to my day/ week but I realise that I am increasingly becoming dependent on detailed routine as, without it, I lose track of what I have done or where I have put something.
So door and car keys must go straight into their container, bags must be put back into the same place each time as soon as I come in.
It doesn’t quite work for thought processes, as I can soon get distracted from my planned list off tasks when I think of something else that needs doing or that I would rather do.
I had to fix the car today. I spent quite a lot of the day walking around in circles looking for tools (and quite a lot of it getting very cross with myself). The job itself probably took half a day. I am 54, but my brain seems to be somewhat older.
Not necessarily. Could be a sign of stress, or other things. If it were me, I'd put it down to the oblivionator (reversible only when the stress passes) which goes with ADHD.
My Medicare card came in the mail today. (For non-Americans, you can go on Medicare the month you turn 65, which is in two months for me.) On one hand it makes me feel old. On the other hand, health insurance is about to get a lot less expensive for me. It’ll be even better when my wife goes on Medicare 6 months after I do.
This is all assuming Medicare survives, of course.
Back when I did all my own car repairs I knew every tool that I had and where it was. Now I have surprises when I go into the tool boxes, struggling to remember when or why I bought something. Now I look through the tool catalogues thinking, "That looks really useful... but I don't actually need it."
I daren't rationalise where my tools live - if I change anything, I am really fecked.
I sold a small lathe yesterday on behalf of our museum. I get more pleasure out of saving things from the bin by finding new homes for them than I do out of housing them myself, these days. Not enough space, which is probably a good thing really. I need to really get the bit between my teeth and clear the decks a bit - but as one always sells the easy-to-sell things first, as time goes on things get more and more esoteric!
I’m out in mind if this from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
I see that Bill is a mechanic of the “photographic mind” school. Everything lying around everywhere. Wrenches, screwdrivers, old parts, old motorcycles, new parts, new motorcycles, sales literature, inner tubes, all scattered so thickly and clutteredly you can’t even see the workbenches under them. I couldn’t work in conditions like this but that’s just because I’m not a photographic-mind mechanic. Bill can probably turn around and put his hand on any tool in this mess without having to think about where it is. I’ve seen mechanics like that. Drive you crazy to watch them, but they get the job done just as well and sometimes faster. Move one tool three inches to the left though, and he’ll have to spend days looking for it.
I’m out in mind if this from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
I see that Bill is a mechanic of the “photographic mind” school. Everything lying around everywhere. Wrenches, screwdrivers, old parts, old motorcycles, new parts, new motorcycles, sales literature, inner tubes, all scattered so thickly and clutteredly you can’t even see the workbenches under them. I couldn’t work in conditions like this but that’s just because I’m not a photographic-mind mechanic. Bill can probably turn around and put his hand on any tool in this mess without having to think about where it is. I’ve seen mechanics like that. Drive you crazy to watch them, but they get the job done just as well and sometimes faster. Move one tool three inches to the left though, and he’ll have to spend days looking for it.
That pretty much describes my surroundings when I was running my miniature engineering business, except that I most definitely don't have a photographic memory. The organisation may have looked chaotic to anyone else, but it worked for me. And yes - a project could be held up a long time if a special tool was in the wrong place. Now I can look at one of the models and think, "How on earth did I ever build that?"
I just find myself buying a new screwdriver set every 3-4 years when I can't find the ones I'm looking for. We're gearing up to move so I don't know how many screwdrivers will turn up in the process!
If I could keep such things in my pocket I could put them in a safe place when I finished using them. In fairness I've done quite well the last couple of years with a Temu mini socket set and leaving 3-4 fairly chunky crossheads around the place for anything bigger.
Our scattered group of ex-work friends used to gather for dinner several times a year. Now we gather for lunch, since nobody will drive for hours in the dark any longer.
My grocery charge was $25.25 the other day, and I started singing “In the Year 2525,” and then realized that none of the people there knew the song. And yet it was used in a Futurama episode not long ago, but the series may take for granted a more in-the-know audience…
I can blow them up - still, as far as I know - but I've never been able to tie them. Fat fingers and poor coordination at that level. Somehow can still play the piano and touch type fairly accurately. Odd.
Comments
I liked 'The Beiderbecke Affair' quite a lot - remember that one? I wonder where that fits in the scheme of things, I might have said 'gentle comedy' before I read these comments. I even think it still holds up OK. I await the deprecation of the internet.
That's in common circulation where I live...though most of my friends are older
I do remember the Beiderbecke Affair. I think it is gentle comedy drama - it is definitely a drama, but with humour. It was also very good.
I think I would put differently:
Gentle comedy: Not very funny, not in the slightest bit offensive, highly predictable. You will watch it but it will fail to interact with you in any way.
Comedy Drama: A drama that would never get made, because it is niche and edgy, and occasionally will provide offense. But because it can be pushed as a "comedy" it does get made. You will only really get it 2 years later.
Most of the kids I went to school with had grandparents who had seen active service in WWII and parents who had been evacuated. I was unusual in that my dad had served in the RAF during the war as a navigator on Wellington bombers. He died at the age of 61, the age I am now, when I was only 15.
My father did not serve in the armed forces as he was a toolmaker and was told his skills we're needed in the production of munitions.
I remember telling Dad that I was about to turn 70, and he looked at me and said, "Well! What does that make me?"
Almost forgot to add that my oldest granddaughter will turn 20 in January. Doesn't that make me feel ancient!!
This was over 90 years ago. But the story was only 70 years old when that was produced. That means that proper childrens stories, as we know them were only 70 years old at that time.
So door and car keys must go straight into their container, bags must be put back into the same place each time as soon as I come in.
It doesn’t quite work for thought processes, as I can soon get distracted from my planned list off tasks when I think of something else that needs doing or that I would rather do.
This is all assuming Medicare survives, of course.
I sold a small lathe yesterday on behalf of our museum. I get more pleasure out of saving things from the bin by finding new homes for them than I do out of housing them myself, these days. Not enough space, which is probably a good thing really. I need to really get the bit between my teeth and clear the decks a bit - but as one always sells the easy-to-sell things first, as time goes on things get more and more esoteric!
That pretty much describes my surroundings when I was running my miniature engineering business, except that I most definitely don't have a photographic memory. The organisation may have looked chaotic to anyone else, but it worked for me. And yes - a project could be held up a long time if a special tool was in the wrong place. Now I can look at one of the models and think, "How on earth did I ever build that?"
I've just discovered I can no longer tie balloons. 😕
I discovered several years ago that I can no longer blow up balloons!
Yep, along with nerve damage from before my op.
I’ve never been able to
Same here. I think I have poor lung capacity. Or something. I have never been able to get the pressure to blow them up.