[lit quiz] know your holmes

Quite simple - name the story plus answer the specific questions:

1] None did come for a week, and then yesterday morning I found this paper lying on the sundial in the garden I showed it to Elsie, and down she dropped in a dead faint. Since then she has looked like a woman in a dream, half dazed, and with terror always lurking in her eyes. It was then that I wrote and sent the paper to you, Mr. Holmes.

Name the villain. Abe ……

2] 'To act, Sherlock - to act!' cried Mycroft, springing to his feet. 'All my instincts are against this explanation. Use your powers! Go to the scene of the crime! See the people concerned! Leave no stone unturned! In all your career you have never had so great a chance of serving your country.'

'Well, well!' said Holmes, shrugging his shoulders. 'Come, Watson!

What was the other story where Mycroft appeared?

3] "One moment," I asked. "Did the stable-boy, when he ran out with the dog, leave the door unlocked behind him?"

"Excellent, Watson, excellent!" murmured my companion. "The importance of the point struck me so forcibly that I sent a special wire to Dartmoor yesterday to clear the matter up. The boy locked the door before he left it. The window, I may add, was not large enough for a man to get through.

What was the name of the property where the action took place?

4] "Well, I thought as you do," said Lestrade. "On the other hand, this Morse Hudson is the purveyor of busts in that part of London, and these three were the only ones which had been in his shop for years. So, although, as you say, there are many hundreds of statues in London, it is very probable that these three were the only ones in that district. Therefore, a local fanatic would begin with them. What do you think, Dr. Watson?"

Who was the historic figure?

5] She's a beautiful woman, but she can be as hard as a man. She was angry when I left her, and so she doesn't want me to marry another woman. I know that she will send this photograph to the Saxe-Meningen family, and then there will be a terrible scandal. We must find the photograph before she sends it!'

Who was the beautiful woman?

Answers here …

[blogfocus wednesday] quiet men of the sphere

I wanted to include Geoff Jones, Heraklites and The Select but they're not blogging a lot just now. Below are those, with the possible exception of N5, who could be termed "the quiet men", the ones without any aggressive agenda. There are many of them - I had to leave about about five this evening:

1] Alex Blondeau has had storms:

It seems as though we haven't had a drop of rain here in central Minnesota since the middle of June. That all changed this last week. We've found ourselves in the midst of a "storm belt". Four out of the last five days have produced severe weather that has been surging through our area. The photo above is of a storm that just missed us last night.

2] Deogulwulf reflects on ways to rid oneself of pesky dissident opinion:

Naturally, the process of mass-killing needn't be anything personal, for, given the premise, and in the absence of stricture or moral scruple, it can simply be a rational process towards a desired end, strictly business, ideally conducted as efficiently as possible, though perhaps with a modicum of indulgence to any humane sensitivities that might remain.

3] Dave J., of Wandering the Ether is in search of water buffalo wisdom:

The people of the world have more than enough.

I alone appear to have nothing.

The people of the world appear shrewd and wise.

I alone look foolish.

I like to be forgotten by the world and left alone.

4] Dave Hill compares Brittany and Britain:

I'm in Brittany, near Morlaix, with my feet up in our rented mobile home. Driving here, via Portsmouth and Cherbourg, I was impressed as always by how clean and somehow centred small French towns are. I'm the butt of a family joke for always spotting the municipal sports ground each seems to contain, with their well-maintained football pitches. Other civic features appear equally valued: central squares, post offices, war memorials, town halls, even sculptures.

5] Hercules brings to you the tale of the rabid racoon:

A Connecticut woman killed a rabid raccoon with her bare hands when the animal attacked a young boy. Officials with Cheshire animal control say the woman was walking in the woods around 11 a.m. with a group of children when the animal bit the 5-year-old son of a friend.

6] Andrew K. Brown is knee deep in beetroot today:

I’ve decided to start a “proper” food blog and should you be interested in that you’ll find it at Everything but Beetroot.

Should you actually like beetroot then you may want to get yourself to the Love Beetroot site.

7] One thing I know is that SPIT is not a good name for a Christian organization:

Bruce Alderman at his blog “it seems to me” has a funny post about a new Bible “translation” that has just been released. "In January of last year, the Society for the Promotion of Individualized Theologies (SPIT) announced the publication of the New Conservative Bible and the New Liberal Bible."

I should say that Will has offered to play me at scrabble but I haven't answered him yet.

8] Max returns to Treasure Island and I hopefully return on Saturday evening:

[life lesson 1] learn the word uzhas

Sold my car.

Good move, given the unbelievable regulations pertaining to foreigners here. They squeezed and squeezed and squeezed the foreigner for years, made it well nigh impossible, except for big money - so colour this blogger gone.

First reality check - had to physically go over to the post office, first time for years, to pay phone and flat - had my own system before. Uzhas! It means "horror", "awful", "nightmare".

I'll never do this again.

The inefficiency sends me apoplectic - 42 minutes to take money from 7 people; she cleaned out her till completely and took all the money somewhere else for ten minutes, then came back with two people left to serve and theefore had no change.

So five or six people in the post office surrounding us were trying to find the right money - I just paid for the woman ahead of me in the end to get her out of the way. Uzhas. People coughing and spluttering and drunks breathing on you, wanting to chat - what a great test of Christian compassion. What a reality check. Uzhas.

Never again.

Whilst looking around the place, waiting in line, it struck home - the poor old people, the poor young people, this is the old soviet union still fiendishly being clung to by state institutions. What it must have been like before - uzhas.

Seems to this blogger that there are four increasingly major things in society required to preserve one's sanity:

1] Time - we must create a situation where we are not rushing. Rather than paying for time-reduction, we should contract our sphere and not take on so much. It's peace of mind;

2] Space - having an empty flat, empty thirty metres on a beach or under a tree, wide open spaces, empty, free, breathing space;

3] Reality checks - realize that as we age, we firstly lose resolve, secondly memory and lastly reasoning power;

4] Resistance to other people's agendas, whoever they are. No matter how much we might love them - they can send us out of our tree. We must learn to sweetly smile: "No";

5] Refusal to be sucked in. Idiot cuts you off on the road or blocks you, causing you to miss the lights, woman in post office closes up shop when you're two people from your turn - resist them.

Had a client three years back - a walking wreck, came to me more for peace of mind than anything else. Told me of a mate who'd had a heart attack at 49 - had everything that opened and shut in his life, multiple cars and women, plus a wife - for what?

My friend himself was shaking like a leaf. Uzhas.

Sanity, people - number one priority.

The new way to travel

[neil clark] finest post competition

So, here is the field, ladies and gentlemen. Check them out and vote [in the comments] for your favourite:

1] Of course, as a veteran Neil Clark baiter, Stephen Pollard has produced some fine posts and this one is no disgrace: "Neil Clark - Hypocrite." Yes, I understand the headline could do with a revamp but the post is a rip-snorting fisk and so it takes its place on the list.

2] Though Oliver Kamm's heading: "Neil Clark" takes no prizes, the fact that he was sued by the said Neil in late 2006 entitles Oliver to immediate entry to the list.

3] Ross Fountain's fine entry "Rancid little moron" was gratefully received.

4] Our own Matt Murrell went for the tongue in cheek approach with "Bringing people together".

5] Prodicus went for the Grecian touch with "Rollup! Public dissection of Hypocrite".

6] Mr. Eugenides is last but not least with his succinct: "A New Low" and a fine entry it is too.

So there we go - six fine entries but if you too have been overlooked, please rush your url to this post and it will be included for the readers' verdict.

If you want to contact Neil, it's a little difficult. When you go to the Guardian and click on his site, he's missing some of the link and you get "Sorry". When you find his blogger profile, there are in fact two blogs, both called Neil Clark.

An interesting chap, as Slobodan would say.

[knickers] which style do you prefer

Need your advice, ladies:

Faire un sondage autour de soi et demander aux hommes s'ils portent des dessous imprimés, c'est comme leur poser la question : "Vous arrive-t-il de mettre une jupe ?" Les yeux s'écarquillent, le rire éclate et la sentence tombe : "Non moi, c'est noir, blanc ou gris." Sur la forme, les réponses sont plus nuancées : "Boxer, caleçon, slip..." Certains sont fidèles à un modèle, la plupart changent en fonction des envies ou des vêtements.

Après quatre ans de fantaisies (boxer dentelle, string) qui ont encouragé la clientèle masculine à oser un peu plus que d'ordinaire, les choses sont rentrées dans l'ordre. "En 2001 s'est installé un courant de dessous masculins plus proches de l'esprit lingerie, souligne-t-on chez la marque de sous-vêtements Hom. Sophistiqués, sensuels et presque féminins, ces produits en Lycra hyper-fin, finition compliquée, impressions ton sur ton se sont très bien vendus, puisqu'ils ont réalisé, chez nous, une progression de 25 % à 30 %. Aujourd'hui, le marché stagne."

Effet de curiosité ? Impact publicitaire ? Quelle qu'en soit la raison, beaucoup d'hommes - principalement les 40 ans et plus - ont cédé à la tentation. En 2005 pourtant, après s'être offert un détour vers l'originalité, ils semblent être retournés au classique des formes, des couleurs et des matières. Rien d'étonnant à cela. De l'avis des fabricants, l'homme, dans le domaine vestimentaire, est un fidèle. Pour les dessous, il déroge encore moins à la règle. "Quand un modèle lui plaît, il a beaucoup de mal à en changer", remarque Marc Lefèvre, PDG de la marque Eminence.

C'est pourquoi le slip est encore fort apprécié, malgré une très forte percée, cette dernière décennie, du shorty. "En grande distribution, c'est encore le slip qui se vend le plus", précise Estelle Cortier, responsable marketing chez Hechter Studio. Ailleurs, c'est le shorty qui sort grand vainqueur toutes catégories ; chez Hom, il représente 52 % des ventes, contre 33 % pour le slip et 8 % pour le string.

Boxer shorts are the go

La forme shorty fait l'unanimité chez les jeunes; chez les plus âgés, elle plaît plutôt aux citadins. Les coloris les plus appréciés sont les traditionnels blanc, bleu marine, noir ou gris. Les fantaisies couture doivent être discrètes et surtout ne pas nuire au bien-être. "Pour l'homme, la mode n'est pas un facteur déterminant, constate Marc Lefèvre. Au contraire, l'effet de style est plutôt rébarbatif. Son premier critère de choix, c'est le confort de la ceinture, des coutures, de la découpe."

Cette exigence détermine le choix des matières. "Eléments majeurs de la fabrication, celles-ci doivent être de plus en plus souples et élastiques jusqu'à se faire oublier", poursuit le PDG d'Eminence, qui a jeté son dévolu sur le jersey mélangé à un peu de Lycra. Hechter Studio préfère le coton, micromodal ou viscose (95 %) mêlés d'élasthane (5 %), pour sa collection printemps 2006 avec slips et shortys à fantaisie discrète, comme ces petits liserés blancs qui soulignent la coupe.

Tandis que, chez Hom, on ose le vert tilleul, le jaune, la rayure orange sur fond turquoise, en microfibres ou tissus naturels, débardeur et tee-shirt assortis.

Ces innovations inciteront peut-être les hommes à acheter plus de cinq slips par an (soit un budget de 30 à 45 euros), ce qui est la moyenne aujourd'hui. Et à ne plus laisser leurs épouses choisir leurs dessous, comme c'est encore le cas à pour la moitié d'entre eux.

le monde 20.02.06

These last seem to be the answer, don't you think, girls?

[blog reader] seems the way to go

Might get to like my new Blog Reader.

With Blogpower and the Purple Roll on it so far, it's pretty neat - twelve new posts - suddenly I'm there and commenting.

Doesn't alter the loading time but cuts down the overall time.