>Bet he’s a social climber, though

>

“I fly with a low cost airline and happy as Larry to have a job as a pilot.

It’s a great job and I earn a descent living.

I work hard but before I started flying I worked just as hard.”

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>Snow chains go on WHICH wheels…?

>

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>Pure art

>

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>Snow removal, UK style

>

Although someone did comment, saying:

Sorry, i find this picture graphically incorrect:

With two ‘snow removal executives’ at work, there should be at least 4 health and safety inspectors to make sure that any broom is the used to correct way round to prevent injury to bystanders and the general public.

Even though they are in hi-vis, there are no hard hats, the area they are working in is not fenced off, no crash barriers erected and no signage to indicate the risk of slipping, and signage to indicate the risk of tripping on the ‘risk of slipping’ signage. etc etc etc.

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>Just in case anyone’s interested…

>

..why I’ve been listening to EPTAS on a daily basis since I bought it in Los Angeles on 4 December 1971?

Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells a Story is the greatest rock & roll recording of the last ten years. It is a mature tale of adolescence, full of revelatory detail (Rod combing his hair a thousand different ways in front of the mirror), and it contains the only reference to the Dreyfus case in the history of rock. It is also hilarious, and one of the friendliest pieces of music ever recorded. It is rock & roll of utterly unbelievable power, and for most of its five minutes and fifty-eight seconds that power is supplied by nothing more than drums, bass, acoustic guitar and Rod’s voice. Mick Waller should have received the Nobel Prize — in physics, of course — for his demolition work at the end of the first verse; Martin Quittenton’s acoustic guitar playing is well beyond any human award — for that matter, it is beyond human ken. John Lennon once said he wanted to make a record as good as “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On”; Rod Stewart did it.

– Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 12/15/77. 

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>Linguistics

>

Q. What do you call an elevator full of intelligent, slim, softly spoken people?

A. A lift.

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>I do like recipes that call for "a handful" of this and "a handful of that"

>

This is really yummy one, found in The Guardian

4 lamb shanks
 (Kleinmarkethalle in Frankfurt from the Turkish guy next to where the horse butcher used to be)
A handful of plain flour

120ml extra virgin olive oil

2 red onions, peeled and chopped
2 celery sticks (with leaves), chopped

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

150ml white wine
 (or a bit more….)
2 bay leaves

2 tins of chopped plum tomatoes
 (I use just one)
600ml chicken or lamb stock
2 handfuls of black olives, pitted

450g pappardelle (Kesslers in the Altstadt in Mainz)

For the gremolata
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped 

1 lemon, finely zested

1-2 garlic cloves, very finely pasted

1 Preheat the oven to 150C/gas 2. Select a heavy-based, ovenproof pan that will hold the lamb shanks quite closely together. Season the shanks and put them in a colander. Throw the flour over them and shake it around over the sink.

2 Heat half of the oil in the pan and sear the shanks on all sides until golden brown. Take the meat out and set aside. Fry the onions, celery, carrot and garlic, stirring from time to time. After 5 minutes, turn the heat down and cover.

3 After 10–15 minutes of on-off stirring the veg will have softened nicely. Put the meat back in and add the wine and the bay leaves. Let the wine reduce by a third, then tip in the tomatoes, along with enough stock so that the liquid just about covers the shanks.

4 Add the olives and season.

5 Pour in the rest of the oil, cover and place in the oven for 2-3 hours, until the meat chunks are coming away from the bone. Take the dish out of the oven and let it sit for 15 minutes with the lid on.

6 Cook the pasta according to the directions.

7 To make the gremolata, mix the chopped parsley, lemon zest, garlic and some seasoning.

8 Drain the pasta, return it to the pan and ladle in all of the veg and juice to coat it nicely.

9 Toss gently and tong into a serving dish. Put the shanks on top, add a ladle or two more of the sauce and sprinkle with gremolata.

Serves 4

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>Speechless….almost

>
Just one word.

Phenomenal

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>Gender Benders, Grammatically Speaking

>

From the Washington Post Style Invitation, in which it was postulated that English should have male and female nouns, and readers were asked to assign a gender to nouns of their choice and explain their reason.

The best submissions:

SWISS ARMY KNIFE—male, because even though it appears useful for a wide variety of things, it spends most of its time just opening bottles.

KIDNEYS—female, because they always go to the bathroom in pairs.

TIRE—male, because it goes bald and often is over-inflated.

HOT AIR BALLOON—male, because to get it to go anywhere you have to light a fire under it… and, of course, there’s the hot air part.

SPONGES—female, because they are soft and squeezable and retain water.

WEB PAGE—female, because it is always getting hit on.

SHOE—male, because it is usually unpolished, with its tongue hanging out.

COPIER—female, because once turned off, it takes a while to warmup… AND… because it is an effective reproductive device when the right buttons are pushed… AND because it can wreak havoc when the wrong buttons are pushed.

ZIPLOC BAGS—male, because they hold everything in, but you can always see right through them.

SUBWAY—male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.

HOURGLASS—female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.

HAMMER—male, because it hasn’t evolved much over the last 5,000 years, but it’s handy to have around.

REMOTE CONTROL—female… Ha!… you thought I’d say male. But consider, it gives man pleasure, he’d be lost without it, and while he doesn’t always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying.

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>Drugs for Women

>

With the introduction of Viagra to fix a perennial male problem, a British pharmaceutical company is working to redress the balance:

MIRRORCILLIN – A 5cc dose enables a woman to walk past mirrors for up to
four hours without pausing once.

STOPPANAGGIN – Gives women a vague feeling of contentment towards their
spouse/boyfriend.

COSMOPOLIRA – Doubles female intelligence, allowing “facts” in trash
lifestyle magazines to be disputed.

LOGICON – Trials showed that females taking this were able to follow a
proposition through to its logical conclusion, and argue effectively
without being diverted into non-relevant postulates such as “you don’t
love me any more”.

PARKATRON – 72% of women taking this were able to safely reverse park a
Ford Fiesta into a space only 12 metres long; 54% achieved this in under
15 minutes.

MAGNATACK – Uniquely distorts the cornea, making certain shapes appear
much larger than in reality – no practical use for this drug has yet been
found.

WARDROBIA – Clinical trials show that almost 23% of women taking this drug
can safely walk past a sale notice, and an amazing 42% stayed within their
credit limit.

BEERINTULIN – Engenders a female desire to bring her spouse/boyfriend
alcoholic beverages and snacks during televised sports.

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