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  • Serial_Apologist
    Full Member
    • Dec 2010
    • 37684

    Originally posted by oddoneout View Post
    A stray cherry blossom
    Kisses my jasmine tea.
    Bridge to June's roses.
    That's fine, so long as your jasmine tea and June's roses aren't euphemisms!

    Comment

    • oddoneout
      Full Member
      • Nov 2015
      • 9192

      Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
      That's fine, so long as your jasmine tea and June's roses aren't euphemisms!
      Not in my mind...

      Comment

      • Serial_Apologist
        Full Member
        • Dec 2010
        • 37684

        Originally posted by oddoneout View Post
        Not in my mind...

        Comment

        • Padraig
          Full Member
          • Feb 2013
          • 4236

          Is getting your portrait painted better that winning a Nobel Prize for Physics? I don't know for sure, but it could be that failure to win the Prize can be a blessing in disguise. Here is a good news story -

          Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell takes "rightful place" among the world's "most distinguished scientists".

          Comment

          • french frank
            Administrator/Moderator
            • Feb 2007
            • 30286

            Originally posted by Padraig View Post
            Is getting your portrait painted better that winning a Nobel Prize for Physics? I don't know for sure, but it could be that failure to win the Prize can be a blessing in disguise. Here is a good news story -

            https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55115120
            It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

            Comment

            • Quarky
              Full Member
              • Dec 2010
              • 2658

              Originally posted by Padraig View Post
              Is getting your portrait painted better that winning a Nobel Prize for Physics? I don't know for sure, but it could be that failure to win the Prize can be a blessing in disguise. Here is a good news story -

              https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-55115120
              It's heartening to know things have moved on. Female scientists were often in the past subject to sexism. May be the most striking case was Rosalind Franklin, whose work was fundamental to Watson & Crick's discovery of DNA. Photos were shown to Watson without her permission. She died at the age of 37 from cancer, possibly brought on by her work in X ray diffraction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin

              Comment

              • french frank
                Administrator/Moderator
                • Feb 2007
                • 30286

                Originally posted by Quarky View Post
                It's heartening to know things have moved on. Female scientists were often in the past subject to sexism. May be the most striking case was Rosalind Franklin, whose work was fundamental to Watson & Crick's discovery of DNA. Photos were shown to Watson without her permission. She died at the age of 37 from cancer, possibly brought on by her work in X ray diffraction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin
                Yes, I went straight to Wiki to check up on her. It says that in her case had been no precedent for a posthumous Nobel award although there was also no rule against it. I think both women have had their achievements fully, if belatedly, acknowledged.
                It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                Comment

                • Serial_Apologist
                  Full Member
                  • Dec 2010
                  • 37684

                  Where will you be shopping tomorrow?

                  Speaking as one living under Tier 2 from tomorrow, I shall be seeking out a new pair of strong walking shoes down at Clarks' Peckham branch. The current pair I have, which have done me well for the past 5 years, have now started to wear out under the heels, and a hole has now appeared.

                  Clarkes is being mentioned as one of the high street giants under threat of bankruptcy. What will become of our high streets? Will people finally tire of the Amazon and other people, only to find their once-cherished favourite retail outlets are no more?

                  Comment

                  • Joseph K
                    Banned
                    • Oct 2017
                    • 7765

                    Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
                    Speaking as one living under Tier 2 from tomorrow, I shall be seeking out a new pair of strong walking shoes down at Clarks' Peckham branch. The current pair I have, which have done me well for the past 5 years, have now started to wear out under the heels, and a hole has now appeared.

                    Clarkes is being mentioned as one of the high street giants under threat of bankruptcy. What will become of our high streets? Will people finally tire of the Amazon and other people, only to find their once-cherished favourite retail outlets are no more?
                    I find it difficult to get my head around why people would sooner order shoes online when you can't try them on (although I've known at least one person who had purchased shoes online). Case in point: I not so long ago bought some new shoes (from Clarkes as it happens) and, since my last pair had been size 11, I asked for that size for some sturdy walking boots I'd seen. It turned out that the shoes were too big - stupidly I ignored this however, so I ended up having to take them back and fortunately I was able to exchange them for 10 1/2-size ones, despite the fact that I had worn the too-big shoes. I wouldn't want the rigmarole of sending some shoes back in the post; at least, that's how I perceive it. And, sizes hardly seem to be consistent.

                    Well done for making your shoes last that long! Usually I'll be lucky if mine last a year before needing to be replaced...

                    Comment

                    • Serial_Apologist
                      Full Member
                      • Dec 2010
                      • 37684

                      Originally posted by Joseph K View Post
                      I find it difficult to get my head around why people would sooner order shoes online when you can't try them on (although I've known at least one person who had purchased shoes online). Case in point: I not so long ago bought some new shoes (from Clarkes as it happens) and, since my last pair had been size 11, I asked for that size for some sturdy walking boots I'd seen. It turned out that the shoes were too big - stupidly I ignored this however, so I ended up having to take them back and fortunately I was able to exchange them for 10 1/2-size ones, despite the fact that I had worn the too-big shoes. I wouldn't want the rigmarole of sending some shoes back in the post; at least, that's how I perceive it. And, sizes hardly seem to be consistent.

                      Well done for making your shoes last that long! Usually I'll be lucky if mine last a year before needing to be replaced...
                      Mine were trainers, sort of - which I'd avoided buying previously, as representing stylistic anathema to anyone who was a sartorially self-priding/preening mod during the 1960s. But these are in two tones of brown, in leather, and so not resembling your standard plimsoll+ design trainers, of which that Clarks had no others on show. But I needed trainers at the time, as I was going through agonies while walking and even putting my foot down - some quite common tendon condition that can only be managed by wearing thick fairly soft-soled shoes; but they were expensive - £60+ iirc - whereas I would normally buy cheap shoes in Sainsburys for £15-ish, and yes, have them wearing out after about a year. I do do a lot of walking!

                      I certainly have no intention of going online to buy anything if I don't have to. But I worry about the disappearance of outfitters, no matter how standardised men's styles have become over the past 20-30 years. Go down any mainstream clothiers: rank upon rank of women's clobber, huge ranges in style, patterns and colours, just like it once was for us blokes - then reach the menswear - or men swear, as my dad used to put it - and what does one see: two aisles of boring blacks, whites, greys, dull blues, dark greens and pale yellows, whatever the item. Business men's suits in very dark grey, or dark blue-grey for "variety", scaled down for school uniforms. To think that one of the prime reasons the east Europeans broke down the Iron Curtain was because they wanted all our wonderful western freedom of "choice". If high street retail clothiers all shut down, except for the expensive niche boutiques catering for the well-to-do, and of course charity shops, now ubiquitous 'round 'ere, I shall go into one-man boiler suit proletarian mode, permanently. No further need for belts!

                      Comment

                      • french frank
                        Administrator/Moderator
                        • Feb 2007
                        • 30286

                        Originally posted by Joseph K View Post
                        I find it difficult to get my head around why people would sooner order shoes online when you can't try them on
                        I always order exactly the same as I had before, also jeans. If I can't get the same anywhere, I don't bother and just go on wearing the old stuff (as in the old chestnut, "What do you do with your old clothes?").
                        It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                        Comment

                        • Serial_Apologist
                          Full Member
                          • Dec 2010
                          • 37684

                          Originally posted by french frank View Post
                          I always order exactly the same as I had before, also jeans. If I can't get the same anywhere, I don't bother and just go on wearing the old stuff (as in the old chestnut, "What do you do with your old clothes?").
                          You'd need to be wearing lots of chestnuts not to reveal anything, though!

                          Comment

                          • french frank
                            Administrator/Moderator
                            • Feb 2007
                            • 30286

                            Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
                            You'd need to be wearing lots of chestnuts not to reveal anything, though!
                            Worst sight is the right knee. Why does that always go first? When the knee goes in the second best jeans they are relegated to the gardening painting third pair, the best become second best and I buy a new pair of Wrangler Texas bootcut, 26" waist. The old ones are put in the textile recycling bag.
                            It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                            Comment

                            • Padraig
                              Full Member
                              • Feb 2013
                              • 4236

                              Originally posted by french frank View Post
                              Worst sight is the right knee. Why does that always go first?
                              It must be all that genuflecting you do, f f. (Oh! f f won't get that.)

                              Comment

                              • french frank
                                Administrator/Moderator
                                • Feb 2007
                                • 30286

                                Originally posted by Padraig View Post
                                It must be all that genuflecting you do, f f. (Oh! f f won't get that.)
                                But can you genuflect bending only one knee?
                                It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                                Comment

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