The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by AlyxL:

Looking at the particles and following up some links, I was surprised (or possibly terrified) to find that the friends with whom I will be spending this weekend in Paris live practically on top of the site of the Montfaucon gibbet. I wonder if I should tell them?

Shadowsong – I suppose it’s mostly a matter of what fresh vegetables are available in the winter, and having to combine ones that can be stored, like potatoes, with ones that can’t like greens. Having said that, my mother was from Dublin, and her version of colcannon consisted of potatoes and swede (rutabaga) mashed together with plenty of butter and pepper. She also cooked carrots and swede together as a vegetable side dish. Both were delicious, but I suspect that the swede was there originally to eke out the other vegetables.

Coming in a bit late here, but in London we have had a couple of weeks of beautiful clear autumnal weather, not too cold ( deg C) and with hardly any rain. I’ve not been able to enjoy it much, since I’ve spent most of that time stuck at home with flu, but looking at the park across the road from where I live has reminded me of something I wondered about in previous years. Although we have had no frost yet, the leaves have begun to turn and fall, and here they mostly turn yellow and brown. The only trees with the sort of spectacularly bright colours seen in North American woodland are imports from there; one red oak and (I think) a green ash. Why is there such a difference in autumn colours between old and new world trees? Is it climatic? Does an early frost have something to do with it?

There are some nice pictures of the typical Southern England autumn colours here.

FWIW, my experience with UK waiting times - I live in central London, and am just old enough to have been looked after by the NHS since birth.

To see my GP, I can either make an appointment for the afternoon/evening, which can take from a couple of days in the summer to over a week in winter, or turn up in the morning and wait until he's free. With an appointment, you actually see the doctor within half-an-hour or so of the acual appointment time, depending on how busy they are, and without one, you can wait for up to an hour, again depending on how many other patients there are - in the winter flu season, they sometimes have a nurse to do triage before you see the doctor. I had a blood test last week (no appointment, drop in to the hospital with note from my GP); that took about ten minutes, and I'm just off now to get the results from my GP now.

Last year I had a hip replacement; it was diagnosed in September 2007, and I was told the operation would be in about five months. I was actually called in within four months, and couldn't make it (my fault, not theirs), so I ended up waiting until June 2008 but, as I say, this was my fault. Treatment and care were exemplary (apart from dubious hospital food). Now I'm wondering about a knee replacement; I've been told I can get my name down for one any time I like, with a wait of about five months again, but I'd like to lose some weight before going through the whole process again.

About dentists - here in central London I haven't had much difficulty finding an NHS one, although there are plenty of private ones as well, and certain newspapers like to make a lot of their alleged scarcity. You have to pay for NHS dental treatment, but it is very much cheaper than going private.

Dave Bell @ #368: Is this gur Rzcrebe Pynhqvhf, in Eboreg Tenir's version?

I'm getting a taste for this!

Dave Bell @ #146 and #305 Is this Ohpuna'f Guvegl-Avar Fgrcf? (I can't remember the hero's name offhand, without cheating)

Xopher @ #315 Nhag Nqn Qbbz in Pbyq Pbzsbeg Snez - ("V fnj fbzrguvat anfgl va gur jbbqfurq")

Clifton @ #225; is this Purfgregba'f Gur Zna Jub Jnf Guhefqnl?

I'm very pleased to find I have a couple of suggestions for such high-powered company.

Is #185 Evaprjvaq from Greel Cengpurgg'f Qvfpjbeyq books?

And, um I haven't read the copy I got for Christmas yet, (trails toe through the dust), but is #184 from Arny Fgrcurafba'f Nangurz?

Dad was fond of quoting

"If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft
And from thy slender store two loaves alone are left,
Sell one, and with the dole
Buy Hyacinths to feed the soul."

I used to think it was from Fitzgerald's version of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which he also quoted and knew by heart, but searching for it just now I discover it is by one Muslihuddin Shah. The only original advice I can remember from him is "never drink anything blue" and "don't always buy the same newspaper because you'll end up believing them".

Serge @ 50 I'm reminded of the much younger friend who professed herself bewildered by my drooling over Sean Bean. Not only did she think he was unattractive, but he wasn't funny either. After some time, it emerged that she thought I meant Mr Bean. Now I am haunted by images of Rowan Atkinson as Boromir.

Also, on the subject of emergency calls for non-emergencies, this story came out as part of a UK campaign to prevent them. The tone of the responding policeman's voice is completely indescribable.

The best and oldest of my local bakeries here in London still slices bread on request, using a machine that looks at least 80 years old. I must ask where it came from originally. As a useful by-product, they also sell bags of breadcrumbs for cooking.

There was an excellent BBC Radio 4 documentary about them last week - it's probably still available on Listen Again. I can particularly recommend their version of Wuthering Heights.

This is amazingly pretty, but it's also why I usually wait until a book
comes out in paperback. In the past, I have bought hardcovers I was
especially interested in, then been afraid to read them for fear of
damage, so that I ended up not actually reading them until I got the
paperback. Mind you, since I am incapable of going anywhere without a book, I do tend to cram them randomly into my handbag and then pile stuff on top, which would destroy something this elaborate.

Unless you made a dust cover to protect the dust cover...

May I just delurk here, to quote a couple of my favourite bits of Auden, from The Sea And The Mirror;

So, if you prosper, suspect those bright
Mornings when you whistle with a light
Heart. You are loved; you have never seen
The harbour so still, the park so green.
So many well-fed pigeons upon
Cupolas and triumphal arches.
So many stags and slender ladies
Beside the canals. Remember when
Your climate seems a permanent home
For marvelous creatures and great men,
What griefs and convulsions startled Rome,
Ecbatana, Babylon.

and also;

As poets have mournfully sung,
Death takes the innocent young.
The rolling in money,
The screamingly funny
And those that are very well hung.

I suppose it's too much to hope that the Nazi racoons might eventually meet in a spectacular battle with the giant Stalinist crabs in the Norwegian Sea?

Brenda:
That story sounds a lot (but not exactly) like John Varley's "The Black Hole Passes".

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