Why do the Bees need cocaine? For the dance parties where they tell about how to get to the flower patches where the hottest honeys are?

Heh. It seems that <apian buzzing powder> makes the bees dance too fast, which confuses all the other bees who want to reach the flower beds.

Hold on there, that's nonsense. I seem to be confusing the Knopfler brothers (Dire Straits) with the Copeland brothers (The Police). Which shows, perhaps, how shallow my grasp of popular culture really is.

But shallow grasp make limpid wrist.

Anyone remember the movie <Enemy Mine>? - a sci-fi version of John Boorman's <Hell in the Pacific>, featuring a human (being) and a (hostile) alien rather than WW2 Japanese and American enemy soldiers, forced to reach an accommodation to survive.

I've long felt that it should have a sequel called <Limpet Mine> about a couple who etc etc.

In fact, I regard *limpet mine* as a term of endearment.

That's what a shallow grasp of pop culture does to you.

Did you know <Ireland> is increasing their division lead in the <UEFA> championship?

That's "football" in case you forgot. I saw some more <Paddies> pouring in goals on TV yesterday.

Did you know that "limpets" are crustaceans? Or slugs. Can't remember.

<shallow grasp>

heh

Have you seen movie <Shallow Grave>?

It's old- a psychological thriller from UK, I think. Maybe Wales. Well something Pommish this way comes you get the drift.

Did you like it?

Batchimeg at the Movies-

heh

Basically, I know nothing. But I'm a slightly better than average guesser.

"And the guesser sang for the king and queen
In a car he borrowed from James Dean
... bad move."

As <Donny McDurty> sang in the classic hit <3.14159 Nordamericano>.

He also had a hit with a song about a house painter (<ho's painter>?? - ed.)

Not Jonathan Richman's "Pablo Picasso was never called a rabbit hole". The *other* one:

Everyone will run on <Frog Time>.

This will promote world peace, encourage theoretical novelties, and help save the environment.

Well, it's the best idea I've heard yet in that direction. My thanks to her majesty, Jessicafischerqueen, for inspiration.

Except for the crazies and the creatures from sub-Tolkien fantasy yarns ... but we shall try, come 2009, not to feed the trolls or water the wrackets or pay any attention at all to the djinni.

(Djinn, djinni.) Demon(s). "Believed by Muslims to inhabit the Earth".

Like many of us, except for invisibility which *we* only attain on a good day. cf *genie*, *ifrit*.

Anyhow. There's nothing quite like a bare, unadorned, back-to-basics game link, is there?

I reckon that <thebribri8> is exaggerating just a tad -- holiday season impersonation by his hyperbolic Uncle <N.E.Bri8>, perhaps -- when he calls it *the* most beautiful mating attack ever ... but it *is* extremely nice.

However, it also causes me pain. About two years ago I had the chance to play a similar combination in a tournament game against a 2370-rated FM. Not quite identical -- a similar theme, with a variant of the windmill mate threatened, but the other guy had some counterplay and I'd *only* have won a piece with best play ...

And I saw it. I correctly calculated all the main lines ... but I refused to believe it. I felt that such a strong opponent couldn't possibly overlook a chance like that.

It had to be a trap, really, hadn't it? I mean, come on, there's counterplay (unlike here, he gets to play an in-between move) ... there *has* be some killer move there ... I can't see it, but I'm bound to get mated or lose my queen if I try this combination thing ...

So I chickened out, played a 'safe' move, and lost the game. This still hurts, as can be seen from the petulant note of my story. I'd post a FEN but I seem to have erased the pertinent bits from working memory. Along with most of the *impertinent* bits.

So it goes. Chess, innit? But the Svesh combo is a beaut. There's something deeply aesthetically satisfying about landing your queen on an empty square where an enemy fianchettoed bishop would normally live.

I believe they're called dark square complexes?

They're valid all year round, you know.

It's 54.33 <Standard Frogspawn Time>, or "SFT" as it's also known.

Aren't you meant to be in bed?

<Trig> has been dropping "suspicious" games about in other places as well...

Did you read the <biopic> I made about <Niels'> exile from his forum?

It has lots of film of <real blue elephants> in it.

He got his forum back today so we are celebrating.

<nanosecond>

Yes well we advocate a return to the <Roman Calendar> of 10 months, which was entertaining in that the seasons would "cycle" in a frisky manner.

Sure, they would be "wrong," but like a stopped clock is right twice a day, the Roman months were right twice a millenium.

I think.

Pretty sure.

For once, no. It's 14:43, Sunday afternoon. I have no idea where - or whether, or indeed *if* - I am 'meant to be'.

But maybe I should stop trying to bee, and just buzz off.

Did you know that the Narnia bloke, CS 'gas man' Lewis, spent 138 years trying to cram an elephant into a wardrobe before giving up and changing the name of his book to 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'?

At least Jack Kerouac and Wm Burroughs showed more large-mammal perseverance with their collaborative work, 'And the Hippos were Boiled in their Tanks'.

I look forward eagerly to David Cronenberg's efforts to film it using native Canada Hippopotami, while holding to the line that "no hippos were hurt, put out, offended, insulted or mildly peeved while being boiled".

Oh, ja, I have one tiny quibble which is almost certainly due to a misunderstanding on my part. (It happens.)

Jessica wrote, I think, that the Dutch language had one word for everything. I understood that the Dutch language had one word for *everything Dutch*. There's a difference -- *that* language is Double Dutch, spkoen now only in the Grand Double Duchy.

And there actually *is* a word we use for those chocolate miniatures, which is:

Pralinekes

(true - the dutch do borrow a lot of words)

Back to the kitchen for me, "acting cheffy", preparing 'duinkonijn' for the guests....

That's exactly the statement I've been waiting for...

Expect more at unexpected places from yours truly.....

Btw they are from my "Collections In Idleness"....

I love Dutch food.

I'm having <Klabberjass> tomorrow.

*Pralinekes*, eh? Innaresting. One of my wacky home-baked linguistic theories states that you can gain insight into the priorities, motivations, obsessions, blind spots (usw) of a culture by looking at their words for things that are important to their neighbours.

Of course, the historic relationship with the neighbours has to be taken into account. Has a relatively small country (Finland, Ireland) been annexed or dominated by a more powerful neighbour (Russia, Sweden, Britain)? Has the culture clung onto its own language (Estonia, Slovenia) or has the language of a powerful neighbour (or two) become the everyday vernacular (English in Ireland, Flemish/ French in Belgium, German/ French/ Italian in Switzerland)? When a 'native' language survives, how much status and political autonomy do its speakers have (Gaelic, Welsh, Romansch, Basque)?

And so on. And these are all European examples: not Eurocentricity, just the turf I know best. Similar arguments can be made for Mayan, Tibetan, etc.

A couple of examples of the <neighbour phenomenon> or <Nachbarphänomen> or <Buurman verschijnsel> - (courtesy of online translators: so simple, so dodgy ...)

(#1) I have a Croatian (Hrvatska?) dictionary published in the 1990s, at a time when the language formerly known as Serbo-Croat was separating into its component parts at warp speed. It has no entry for the word 'icon' (or ikon) -- a useful, common word with a range of contemporary meanings, from academic to religious. But - presumably - from a 1990s Croat perspective it's a very Serbian word: Orthodox rather than Roman Catholic, etc. This sense is taken as the primary one, and the word is left out for being one of 'their' words.

Or perhaps it's just a small dictionary.

(#2) James Joyce wrote (in effect) that the words 'home', 'father', 'ale' could never have the same resonances for him as for an Englishman.

There is still, I think, some academic debate as to whether he was referring to sounds or to meanings -- was it that these were quintessential English concepts with different meanings in Ireland? Or was he just talking about vowels?

Knowing Joyce, probably both.

Any corrections, contradictions, suggestions, examples, counter-examples etc to this <neighbour phenomenon> (in American: *nabor effect*) are welcome.

After you've enjoyed your ... um ... dinner? tea? supper? breakfast? meal? food? celebration? party?

(I'd be even worse if I used a thesaurus ...)