Ringtone Songs

The problem with using a song as a ringtone is you feel very stupid when it comes up randomly during a shuffle and you try and answer it.

Boooo to Tescos

We don't normally shop at Tescos, living next door to Sainsburys is just too convenient, but once a year or so when I do I always try and pick up a bottle of the wonderful Bella Veroni Espresso Amaretto.  Lately, trying is all I can do as it appears they've stopped selling it.  Given that nobody else sells it either, it is now effectively unavailable.

Boooo.

SPAM - A Warning

Not a warning about SPAM itself.  Goodness me no.  SPAM is wonderful.  The warning is about SPAM preparation.  Don't fry it in olive oil.  It makes it go somewhat bitter and mars the usually wonderful fried SPAM experience.  SPAM is best served pan fried in its own juices.



That is all.

Duly Noted

I came across an interesting warning on a bottle of antiseptic wash:

At first I thought "Woah!  This sounds like nasty stuff!" but then I realised that "Avoid contact with brain" could apply to virtually anything.  Except maybe cerebrospinal fluid.

Language Inconsitencies

It's not that common to think about the oddities of your native language too much, idiosyncrasies and quirks are so ingrained in you that don't even notice them.  At least that is, you don't until someone who's still learning the language makes a logically correct but syntactically incorrect statement - such as yesterday when Phoebe said "Look!  That lady is cigaretting." 

Neither of us corrected her and I suspect we may adopt it as a household in joke.  But that aside, it does kind of make sense.  "The lady is smoking a cigarette" is contracted to "The lady is smoking" but of course, the lady isn't smoking (unless she's standing too close to a fire) so really perhaps you should contract it to "The lady is cigaretting" - however that just sounds wrong.  But why?

Money Well Spent

"So Phoebe, what was your favourite thing at the Zoo?"

"The bouncy castle."

German Compound Words

I've been having a friendly debate with a German speaking colleague at work about the utility of German compound words.  She thinks they're great, I think they are confusing and pointless but also strangely amusing, which is why I keep the debate going.  A case in point, I was excited to come across a new one today: Flüssigmetallblasensäulenreaktor or liquid-metal bubble column reactor from our good friends at the Karlsruher Flüssigmetalllabor (Karlsruhe Liquid-metal Laboratory) itself another cool example of the genre which amazingly manages to create a word with a triple "L", excellent Elling there from the lads at KALLA as they are confusingly known - you'd think it would be KF, wouldn't you?

Interestingly after reiterating the same old guff that she thinks they are great and doesn't have a problem working out which word is which she then misread it as Flüssigmetallblasensäurenreaktor or liquid-metal bubble acids reactor - which could be a problem if you were trying to build one.  If I had been making a point that would have proved it, whatever it was.  Fortunately I wasn't, they just make me laugh.

Anyway, I don't see how liquidmetalbubblecolumnreactor is in any way better than liquid-metal bubble column reactor - unless you are tweeting about them.

That is all.