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FT366

GNC

King-Sized Canary
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Aug 25, 2001
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Nice little coincidence: was at the optician's this morning, and when I got back the new FT was waiting for me. As usual, I turned to Mythconceptions first - and it's about opticians.

Looking forward to reading about Richard Nixon and Rodney Dangerfield.
 
Entertaining piece on Nixon and Gleason, I didn't think I knew the story but went, "Oh yeah!" the further I read. Seems to be an urban myth, mind you. The Borges article is an excellent illustration of what happens when you have too much time on your hands and you spend it exclusively in your own company. I mean, a statue?!
 
An actual 1/5* score for a book in the Reviews section! Not often you see the like. It does sound terrible, but maybe we'll have the author in the Letters pages in a couple of issues complaining he was misrepresented.

I was taught about Skara Brae in History in school by a very elderly teacher who made a fascinating subject sound boring. Maybe she was one of the founders of the village?
 
I received issue 365 on the day this issue was released.:confused:
 
The kid who allegedly lays eggs. As if that's something to be proud of... how do you get them in there without breaking any? (Cue joke about omellettes). Talk about egg-bound!
 
The kid who allegedly lays eggs. As if that's something to be proud of... how do you get them in there without breaking any? (Cue joke about omellettes). Talk about egg-bound!

The incredible thing is, they're ostrich eggs.
 
The kid who allegedly lays eggs. As if that's something to be proud of... how do you get them in there without breaking any? (Cue joke about omellettes). Talk about egg-bound!
I wonder whether anyone has tried to incubate them. Watch this space...
 
The kid who allegedly lays eggs. As if that's something to be proud of... how do you get them in there without breaking any? (Cue joke about omellettes). Talk about egg-bound!
That's the sort of fowl and poultry yoke I'd eggspect you to crack.:mcoat:
 
Reading back-copies at random and 366 turned up.

One observation: in the Letters page, there's an account of ghost-hunting in the Treasurer's House in York. A line in the letter reads

In that time, sounds recorded included: sandals walking on a hard surface, someone breathing near the microphone....

I can get that you can record footsteps, from whatever source. But narrowing it down to sandals just by sound alone? Do sandals make a perceptibly different noise on a hard surface compared to enclosed shoes or boots? And "sandals" in this context suggests a pre-existing association, an inbuilt bias, depending on the thing everybody knows about Roman soldiers, that they wore sandals. Therefore if you're investigating a haunting by Roman soldiers, the sound of footsteps on a floor where Roman ghosts have been reported previously... must therefore be sandals.

Two other things wrong with this:

i) Roman soldiers in Britain in the early days did wear caligae sandals as standard issue . But the Roman ghosts in York, from visual descriptions in other reports, appear to be from a later era, dressed for or marching in inclement weather. The Roman army in Britain soon experienced British winters, and the caligae sandals (more suited to places elsewhere with better weather), were "retired" seasonally, for something like a modern boot. Three centuries later, when the Romans left Britain, boots were standard all year.

ii) The word "sandals" today evokes something flimsy and less substantial, generally womens' wear. Sandals of the Scholl or flip-flop type do make a distinctive "flapping" noise when the wearer is walking. However, the Roman caligae was military mens' wear. It had a very substantial sole with metal studs in and was secured very comprehensively. I'm guessing it would have sounded like a far heavier boot or shoe.
if they're so sure it was a sandal, what were they picking up? While the letter says "staff were instructed to stay away during the investigation", people elsewhere in the building still had jobs to do. If they got the "flip-flop" sound via a sensitive mike, might they have been picking up a nearby female employee, of the sort who switches street shoes for comfortable sandals when she arrives at work? She might have thought she was outside the range of the mikes, perhaps.....
 
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Sandals of the Scholl or flip-flop type do make a distinctive "flapping" noise when the wearer is walking. However, the Roman caligae was military mens' wear.

Indoor shoes vs outdoor boots? They did have underfloor heating, so boots indoors might have been unnecessary. If I had to imagine the sound of sandals, it would be a kind of soft, shuffling slap.
I think.
 
Indoor shoes vs outdoor boots? They did have underfloor heating, so boots indoors might have been unnecessary. If I had to imagine the sound of sandals, it would be a kind of soft, shuffling slap.
I think.
Good point; but some quibbles. Things about the York haunting that I remember from reading about it (ages ago)

i) People seeing the ghosts have seen them materialising on the building floor from about knee-level or mid-thigh up, suggesting they are marching on a ground level some way below that of the current building on the site, and that they appear to be dressed and equipped for outdoors. This suggests this is a picture, or a manifestation, or recording, or whatever, of something that happened outdoors
ii) The oldest parts of the Treasurer's House date back to 1091(Wikipedia) and most of the building is from the 1200's - 1300's. The last date for Romans in Britain is around the 400's AD. Whatever is being seen here appears to predate the building where it is reportedly happening, by 700 years.
 
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Good point; but some quibbles. Things about the York haunting that I remember from reading about it (ages ago)


ii) The oldest parts of the Treasurer's House date back to 1091(Wikipedia) and most of the building is from the 1200's - 1300's. The last date for Romans in Britain is around the 400's AD. Whatever is being seen here appears to predate the building where it is reportedly happening, by 700 years.

Well yes, but the land that the Treasurer's House stands on was there before. There's not necessarily a link between the building and the haunting.
 
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