Chris Stokes

@nisaccom.bsky.social

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A snippet from page 350 of vol. 19 (1666) of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. It's from a paper titled 'Promiscuous Inquiries, chiefly about Cold, formerly sent and recommended to Monsieur Huelius; together with his Answer return'd to Some of them.' The snippet reads: 'That it is most certain, that *Swallows* sink themselves towards Autumne into Lakes, no otherwise than *Frogs*; and that many have assured him of it, who had seen them drawn out with a Net together with Fishes, and put to the fire, and thereby revived.'
A snippet from an article on page 11 of the Financial Times of Monday 13 December 1976 with the headline 'Helicopters aim at new market' by Michael Donne, which appeared in a section of the paper called 'Executive's and Office World. The snippet reads: 'It is possible for a businessman [sic] to keep a helicopter in his back garden if he so wishes (Roy Spooner does), and so eliminated journeys to and from an airfield. Convenience is the essence of the helicopter's sales appeal, and the more it is exploited, the cheaper the operating cost per mile.'
A snippet from an article on page 11 of the Financial Times of Monday 13 December 1976 with the headline 'Helicopters aim at new market' by Michael Donne, which appeared in a section of the paper called 'Executive's and Office World. The snippet reads: 'Ignorance [a bold-text subheading] 'Business aviation has been slower getting off the ground [geddit?] in Britain than in some other European countries, either because of conservatisms on the part of businessmen [sic], or ignorance of the benefits to be gained. But [Roy] Spooner argues that there are probably several hundreds of small- to medium-sized companies in the U.K. alone who could benefit from using helicopters, and he believes that he is engaged not just in a marketing taks, but also in an education campaign.'
Clipping from the Athenaeum, Saturday, 18 July 1868 (No. 2125, pp. 71-73). The clipping is from a review by Augustus De Morgan (but unacknowledged) of 'Elementary Geometry. Part I. Angles, Parallels, Triangles, Equivalent Figures, with the Application to Problems. Compiled by T. M. Wilson, M.A. (Macmillan & Co.)' The text of the clipping is: 'Colenso has written a Euclid. And the reason is of the same kind as that by which the classics have held their ground in education. There is a mixture of good sense and of what, for want of a better name, people call prejudice; but to this mixture we owe our stability. The proper word is postjudice [postjudice in italics], a clinging to past experience, often longer than is held judicious by after times. We only desire to avail ourselves of...' Although the review is not credited in the Athenaeum to De Morgan, it is credited to him in Appendix II of 'Euclid and his Modern Rivals' by Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), which presents an 'Extract from Mr. De Morgan's review of Mr. Wilson's Geometry, in the "Athenæum" for July 18, 1868'. See https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511701320.
Black and white photo of the recently opened Waterside Bridge, a footbridge over the Trent in Nottingham connecting Lady Bay in the south to Trent Basin. The photo is landscape format, with an aspect ratio of about 2.6:1. The bridge deck runs along the bottom of the frame. The bridge is a network arch bridge; the arch extends from just below the middle of the left edge of the frame to the right end of the bottom frame, reaching its apex a little to the right of the centre of the top frame edge. On the deck are a few people—a group of four near the left edge of the frame and another three individuals spaced out to the right of them. The bridge is shown against the sky, which is cloudy.
An image of a mathematical formula, whis is (the twelfth root of 2) raised to the power seven. This is the ratio of the frequencies of a not so perfect fifth, the one you get when played in equal temperament.
Photo of the first line about 1973 in Ian Wallace's 1981 book 'Birdwatching in the Seventies'. It appears on page 47. It's reads: '1973 'For the first time in six years, birdwatchers lacked any common purpose, and'
Photo of the top of page 233 in 'Living in the Sound of the Wind: a Personal Quest for W. H. Hudson, Naturalist and Writer from the River Plate' by Jason Wilson. The text from the page in the photo reads: 'BIRDS OF A FEATHER 233 'them. I'm not sure I even like birdwatchers. They're too obsessive. So what follows is my adaptation of Hudson's vocation.'
Photographic copy of page 259 in Berzelius, J.J.: Essai sur la Nomenclature chimique. J De Phys, De Chimie, Et D’histoire Naturelle 73, 253– 286 (1811). The text reads: 'ET D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE. ceux qui affectent une espèce d'indifférence électrochimique, en ne produisant ni des acides, ni des bases; ensuite ceux qui donnent tantôt des acides et tantôt des bases; et enfin, ceux qui ne donnent que des bases. Cette série des corps simples commence donc par le corps le plus électropositif et finit par ceux qui possèdent au plus haut degré les propriétés électro-chimiques opposées. Il est très difficile de faire cet arrangement avec justesse, et souvent on est indécis où il faut placer tel ou tel corps. Il est probable que dans la série suivante j'ai manqué à l'ordre naturel, faute de connoissances assez détaillées sur les rapports de quelques oxides métalliques avec les alcalis et les terres alcalines; mais il ne sera pas bien difficile de corriger les fautes, à mesure que nos connoissances s'augmenteront. I. SIMPLICIA. 1°. Oxigenium. 2°. Metalloïda. Sulphuricum (3). Phosphoricum. Muriaticum (4). Fluoricum (5). Boracicum (6). Carbonicum. 3. Metalla. Arsenicum. Molybdænum. Chromium. Wolframium (7). Tellurium (8). Osmium. Tantalum (9). Silicium. Titanium. Zirconium. Stibium (10). Bismutum. Stannum. Iridium. Platinum. Aurum. Rhodium. Palladium. Hydrargyrum. Argentum. Plumbum. Niccolum. Cuprum. Cobaltum. Uranium. Zincum. Ferrum. Manganium (11). Cerium (12). Yttrium. Beryllicum. Aluminium. Magnesium. Calcarium. Strontium. Barytium. Natrium (13). Kalium. Ammonium (14).'
Photo of the front cover of a 1983 reprinting of Tom Sharpe's Porterhouse Blue, first published 1974. The title, authors name and a quote from 'Time' are in white text at the top overprinted on a blue- tinted painting of two men facing each other in front of a grand, old, turreted college building. One wears a bowler hat. The other is virtually bald. There are seven long, pink balloons floating in the air in front of the colleges. The faces of four grotesque pale-blue-faced characters are visible behind the bowler-hatted man. The quote reads 'If Wodehouse write a plot and Waugh write a book round it, the result could hardly be more hilarious'
Screenshot of a Google Translate translation into English (or an English of sorts) of the text (in Italian) of an interview with Anthony Burgess at https://www.tirodeletra.com.br/entrevistas/AnthonyBurgess.htm. The putative translation reads: '- What's hot pot and lobscowse? 'Hot pot or Lancashire hot pot is done this way. In a bowl of barro, alternate a chamber of meat ribs without deliciousness, a bowl of meat in fats, a bowl of meat also in fats. Continue alternating the camadas até encher a vasilha. Increasing warm temperate. At the top, put on your fingers or more fats of batatas, to make it easier. If you ask, increase both ostras or rins. Bake in the oven, for enough time. As with a repolho em preserved. Lobscowse is a meadow of Liverpool marines (the'
A copy of a Google Books Ngram plot showing the frequencies of the words 'within' and 'without' in English fiction between 1985 and 2021. The lines are pretty flat, with frequencies averaging about 0.013% and 0.038% respectively, making 'without' about three times as frequent as 'within'.
Close-up photo of a dead bat lying on the side of a road. The bat is lying on its back. The photo shows the underside, with the face closest to the camera lens and the folded wings running along the sides of the picture. The face is a darker brown than the fur on the underside. Whiskers are visible, the rats and a pair of nostrils. At the far end of the wings the fingered hands are discernible.
Photo of pat of page 1 of W. H. Hudson's Adventures Among Birds. The text reads: 'THE book-buyer in search of something to read before making his purchase as a rule opens a book and glances at a few lines on the first page, just to get the flavour of it and find out whether or not it suits his palate. The title, we must presume, has already attracted him as indicating a subject which interests him. This habit of his gives me the opportunity of warning him at the very outset that he will find here no adventures of a wild-fowler, if that's what he is seeking; no thrilling records of long nights passed in a punt, with a north wind blowing and freezing him to the marrow in spite of his thick woollen clothing and long boots and oil-skins, and the glorious conclusion of the adventure when he happily succeeds in sending a thousand pellets of burning lead into an innumerable multitude of mallard, widgeon, teal, pochard, and pintail;...'
Photo of the front cover of a paperback edition of 'Kenya Diary (1902–1906)' by Richard Meinertzhagen. Below author's name and book title printed in white on a brown background is a black and white photo of a man holding in front of his legs a large shield resting on the ground. Behind the man are bushes.
screen grab of figure 2.7 on page 51 of Bruyninckx, J. L. M. (2013). Sound science: recording and listening in the biology of bird song, 1880-1980. [Doctoral Thesis, Maastricht University]. Maastricht University. https://doi.org/10.26481/dis.20130419jb] It shows a simple graphical representation of the 'curlew' sound of a curlew. It comprises a horizontal line at the base. From a little above the left end of the line a curve reaches upwards steeply at first and to the right and ends, now almost horizontal, a little to the right of the right end of horizontal line. Another curve, shorter this time, starts just to the right and slightly higher than the right end of the horizontal line. It starts at about 45 degrees and gets steeper. Above the upper end of this curve is a mark that looks like a small letter U without a tail. Under the graphical representation, in quotation marks—cur-ee. The author says this representation is from Rowan, W. M. (1925). A practical method of recording bird-calls. British Birds, 18(1), p. 18.
Screen grab from an online copy of the new and revised edition of J. E. Harting's book 'A Handbook of British Birds' published 1901 (first ed published 1872). It shows a paragraph in the entry for the swallow (page 105). It reads: 'As to the speed of Swallows, see Zool., 1886, p. 299, 1888, p. 308, and 1895, p. 379. One killed by a golf-ball, Field, Sept. 12, 1891 ; another struck by a cricket-ball, Field, Aug. 25, 1894. Mr. Barrett of Wintershall, near Godalming, has a stuffed speciment which was killed by a cricket-ball bowled by F. Caesar, a well-known professional, during a match played at Godalming in 1849 or 1850.'
Image of an excerpt from Hansard, oral answers to questions from Private Finance Initiative debate, Volume 307: debated on Tuesday 24 February 1998 (https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1998-02-24/debates/4d4f3f45-d31c-40c6-a22f-e512964c4aa7/PrivateFinanceInitiativehighlight) 'Mr. Laxton 'What progress has been made in the PFI hospital building programme since 1 May. 'Mr. Dobson 'Before the general election, the tired old Tory Government spent more than £30 million on legal and other fees for the private finance initiative programme but did not make a start on one hospital. Since May last year, I have authorised progress on 17 new hospitals. Building work has already started at Dartford and Gravesham; Carlisle; Norfolk and Norwich; and the two hospitals in South Buckinghamshire. 'Mr. Laxton 'Does my right hon. Friend agree that the centrepiece of this Government's legislation is to start, through the private finance initiative, to build the hospitals that the previous Conservative Government only promised? Does he further agree that whereas, if I can use this phrase, the previous Government were all mouth and no trousers, he is mouth and trousers? 'Mr. Dobson 'I am not sure whether that is a compliment or an insult, but I shall assume that it is a compliment as it comes from our side of the House. 'Besides the hospitals that I have just mentioned, where building work has already started, we expect work...'
screengrab of the logo of the sponsor of the report 'Byte the Budget? Digital transformation in UK higher education' published by the so-called thinktank Social Market Foundation. It is the logo of TechnologyOne. It looks like a string of alphanumeric characters '1technologyone', with 'technology' in black, 'one' in yellow and the '1' made up of a vertical line in yellow and an upcurving cap in black. The horizontal part of the 't' in 'technology' is also in yellow. Above the logo in pink are the words: 'KINDLY SPONSORED BY'.
Screengrab of a paragraph from the preface to Paul Niedieck's book Cruises in the Bering Sea Being Records of Further Sport and Travel, translated into English by R. A. Ploetz. It reads: 'While eminent explorers expend their best energies, and millions are squandered, in order to discover the North Pole, the regions which lie between the latter and the temperate zone remain neglected by Science ; for in the north of the continents of America and Asia there still lie immense tracts of unexplored country, from the opening up of which mankind would derive some benefit, whilst the discovery of the North and South Poles of the earth would only be of small value to Science and scarcely any to humanity at large.'
Close-up photo of a small area of page 207 in Mary Beard's book SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. In the area covered the following words are visible: 'which so many' ': concrete' '...sed Cato more—' '...e image of the g...' '...ve been expecting' 'statue in human'
Excerpt from a synopsis of the Jubilee Meeting of the British Ornithologists' Union that appeared in The Auk , Jul., 1909, Vol. 26, No. 3 (Jul., 1909), pp. 317-319. The author signs of as J. A. A. 'An address by the President, Dr. F. Du Cane Godman, summarized briefly the work of the B. O. U. and its members, and the wonderful recent progress of ornithology. It was noted that in 1864, when the first volume of the 'Zoological Record' was published, only "120 papers on ornithology were enumerated for the previous year, while on turning to that for 1907 there were no less than 1760, or fifteen times as many as there were thirty-three [forty-three] years earlier." He also stated that in 1872 there were only about 30,000 stuffed birds and bird-skins in the British Museum, while now there are 500,000, or sixteen times as many as in 1872. "These two instances," he added, "will give some idea of the progress ornithology has made since the foundation of the British Ornithologists' Union." He...'
Screengrab of front cover of a book by David Peace. The title, in large black serif typeface at the top of the cover, is 'Rood of dood'. A horizontal white line runs across the cover through 'dood'. The author's name is in white, same typeface. At three bottom of the cover is the name presumably of them publisher, viz. De Bezige Bij'. Yes, it looks like this is a Dutch translation of Red or Dead.
Photo of the cover of a paperback edition of SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. The design is fairly plain. Surrounding the title is a pair of stylised laurel branches in gold. At the top, above the title, 'INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER' appears, also in gold. At the bottom is a review quote, 'Beard succeeds triumphantly' *Sunday Times* The background colour of the whole is a yellowish off-white.
Photo looking down at about 45° from head height at a metal urinal. Visible at the top of the frame are user instructions. They look to have been extemporized by the owners of the site, as they've been printed on paper in red ink and stuck on the wall above the urinal. They read: 'Please stand close enough, and check what is happening. 'It should all go into the trough, with none on the floor.'
Photo of the front cover of a paperback edition of The Damned United by David Peace. There title, authors name and some review quotes are printed on top of a photograph showing Brian Clough at the front of a line of Leeds Utd players walking apparently Bernie the start of a football match onto a football pitch, with stands just visible on the background. The eyes of Clough and the players have been blacked out.
Excerpt from Energy Security and Net Zero Committee Oral evidence: The work of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, HC 1549, Wednesday 12 July 2023. It reads: 'Q18 'Vicky Ford: My questions are for the UKAEA and are about nuclear fusion—the dream solution. The only problem is that, for at least the last 40 years, we have been saying that we will be there in 20 years. I remember coming to Culham over a decade ago, and it was 20 years away then. Is it 20 years away? How confident are you in this date of 2040, by which the Government have set out that we will have commercial nuclear fusion? 'Professor Sir Ian Chapman: I steadfastly refuse to talk about dates. 'Chair: It is a rolling 20 years. 'Professor Sir Ian Chapman: I would quote Lev Artsimovich, who was one of the forefathers of fusion. At a press conference in the 1970s, he was asked, "When will we have fusion?" His response to that question was, "We will have fusion when society needs it". In my view, society really is at the point of needing fusion.'
Excerpt from 'Project Sherwood: The U.S. program in controlled fusion' by Amasa S. Bishop, published 1960. It reads: 'been intrigued by the possibility of controlled fusion and had continued to speculate on this subject as a sort of hobby. Early in 1952, he began a small experimental project to confirm and extend the published work of Ware. 'The first experimental model, which Tuck characteristically called a Perhapsatron (2), used a doughnut-shaped discharge chamber several feet in diameter. When a capacitor bank was discharged through a coil coupled to this toroid, a large pulse of current (tens of thousands of amperes) was induced in the gas contained in the chamber. The purpose of this experiment, which went into operation in the fall of 1952, was to create a highly ionized pinched discharge and study its properties. 'Prediction of instability and subsequent verification 'Even prior to its operation, however, theoretical studies carried out by M. D. Kruskal and M. Schwarzschild gave evidence of a severe impending difficulty. Working at Princeton, but with full knowledge of Tuck's activi-k Boltzmann's constant (1.38 × 10-10 erg/°K). If a is the cross section of the pinch (= πr²), A the cross section of the discharge tube, and N the initial density before pinching, then an = AN, and 'I=2.76 x 10-14 ANT.' 'From this relationship, it is seen that in order to reach tempera-tures of, say, 10° °K under reasonable pinch conditions (A = 400 cm², N=105 particles/cm³) a pinch current of more than a million amperes is required. [Footnote] '(2) in response to a sceptic who, upon learning the ultimate purpose of the apparatus, laughingly called it an "impossibilitron."'
Photo of a snippet from the foreword to J. D. Jukes 1959 Man-made Sun, Abelard Schuman. It reads: 'Mr. Jukes tells us what the prospects are of releasing the nuclear energy of deuterium in a controllable and orderly fashion. They are good. It is reasonable to hope that in about twenty years electrical power from this source may be flowing into the grid...'
A copy of a short article from p. 5 of The Times on Wednesday 21 October 1970. It reads: 'Excess alcohol evidence at Fisher inquest 'Mr. James Fisher, the ornithologist, had more than double the legal amount of alcohol in his blood when his car crashed on the M1, a coroner's jury at Finchley heard yesterday. 'Dr. Alan Cogswell recorded a verdict of Accidental Death on Mr. Fisher, aged 58, of Ashton Manor, Northampton, deputy chairman of the Countryside Commission since 1968, who was fatally injured in the crash on September 25. 'Dr. Derek Pocock, a pathologist, gave the cause of death as multiple injuries. He added that Mr. Fisher had quite severe heart disease, and a previous stroke, either of which could have caused him to lose consciousness, 'The coroner said the blood alcohol level could have played some part in the accident.'
Screenshot of two black and white illustration panels in the story 'How Yan Knew the Ducks Afar' in Ernest Thompson Seton's book 'TWO LITTLE SAVAGES Being the ADVENTURES of Two BOYS Who Lived as INDIANS and What They LEARNED. WITH OVER THREE HUNDRED DRAWINGS' The upper panel shows six ducks in two rows of three. Underneath is a legend reading 'The Fish-Ducks, Sawbills or Mergansers'. The lower panel shows nine pairs of ducks in a three-by-three panel. The legend for this reads 'The River Ducks'. Every duck is shown in profile looking left.
Except from Oral evidence: The work of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, HC 1549, Wednesday 12 July 2023. 'Q18 'Vicky Ford: My questions are for the UKAEA and are about nuclear fusion-the dream solution. The only problem is that, for at least the last 40 years, we have been saying that we will be there in 20 years. I remember coming to Culham over a decade ago, and it was 20 years away then. Is it 20 years away? How confident are you in this date of 2040, by which the Government have set out that we will have commercial nuclear fusion? 'Professor Sir Ian Chapman: I steadfastly refuse to talk about dates. 'Chair: It is a rolling 20 years. 'Professor Sir Ian Chapman: I would quote Lev Artsimovich, who was one of the forefathers of fusion. At a press conference in the 1970s, he was asked, "When will we have fusion?" His response to that question was, "We will have fusion when society needs it". In my view, society really is at the point of needing fusion.'
A screengrab of part of the EPSRC Delivery Plan 2016/17-2019/20—Science for a Successful Nation. It's from page 4 of the published pdf version. It reads: '2.3 Protecting the UK's Long-Term Capability 'A core strength of EPSRC's operation is our flexible investment in research activity which enhances the UK's academic capability. We will maintain a programme of long-term, excellent research where the emphasis is on 'bottom-up' investigator-led ideas, including community-generated challenges. Comprising around 60 per cent of our total research portfolio, this investment is essential for the UK to compete in a globally competitive environment now and in the future. The longer term results from this will support all our Delivery Plan aspirations, including the Prosperity Outcomes. REF Impact Case Studies show that real-world benefits often emerge over a twenty-year timeframe; consideration of the appropriate pathway to impact' will therefore remain a priority.'
Photo of first four stanzas of a printed copy of 'Hope and Hearts'. It reads: 'Hope and Hearts 'In the brown garden Where playing lost its shadow Among the lonely trees 'These pale children of November Rise from leaves To forbid the frost and burning. 'Frilfralog round the oaks Tipsy and teetering Putting up parasols 'Skirted and stiff as dolls, Never so still a dance, So haunted a step'
A headline generated by the Allister Heath Headline Generator. It reads: 'Allister Heath 'The public will never forgive the establishment for the disaster of badger banknots'
Screengrab from the result of a search on Hansard for 'let me be absolutely clear'. It's a bar chart, showing years from 1800 to present. The first bar looks to be in about 1934, the next about 1958. There are two or three per decade in the 70s and 80s. In the 90s, numbers are increasing. In the 2020s, there are loads. The search result gives a total of 541 occurences (not shown in this view).
Screengrab from the meet-the-team page of Awards Intelligence showing a black and white head-and-shoulders. portrait photo of founder and CEO Mark Llewellyn-Slade. He has a bald pate, trimmed beard and handlebar moustache with tips waxed fine and turned upwards, resembling that of the Archduke Ferdinand. He's wearing a shirt, tie and jacket, and appears to be sat in the front seat of a car but without his seatbelt on.
A panel from a New York Times piece 'Who’s a Better Writer: A.I. or Humans? Take Our Quiz.' from 9 March 2026 by By Kevin Roose and Stuart A. Thompson. In the fifth and last section of the quiz, poetry, the reader is told to 'Choose the passage you like best, regardless of how it may have been written.' There are two choices presented, 'passage 1' and 'passage 2'. The panel shown here is passage 2. It reads: 'Passage 2 'I caught a tremendous fish and held him beside the boat half out of water, with my hook fast in a corner of his mouth. He didn't fight. He hadn't fought at all. He hung a grunting weight, battered and venerable and homely. Here and there his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper. 'Written by a human 'From "The Fish" ((1946) by Elizabeth Bishop '49% of readers chose this option 'This readers better'
Screengrab of a letter from 'Selected Letters of Philip Larkin, 1940–1985', p. 120. The letter reads: 'To J. B. Sutton - 28 July 1946 TS 'The Public Library, Walker Street, Wellington, Shropshire 'My dear Jim, 'Many thanks again for your letter. It is a colourless Sunday morning and I have got down here in order to shit at my ease and bugger about generally. 'I have not much news at the moment. Yesterday my contract with Fabers arrived and I have just signed it. It is a formidable document and I couldn't understand it if I tried: however, I leave all that to "my agent": what else do I pay him for, or her. (Uneasy feeling that he is in cahoots with the publisher: it really is an extraordinary and infuriating fact, that whereas Mr Watt, my agent, and Mr Faber, my publisher, have Daimlers and country cottages now and for evermore, I, the author, without whom they would be nothing but a heap of desiccated dogshit, haven't a Daimler nor a country cottage now, and as far as I can see, never will have. Bastards!) There is a nice clause that starts: "THAT on the day on which they first publish the said novel the Publishers shall pay to the Author the sum of thirty pounds (£30) ..." I warm my hands at that clause. Santa clause. [...]'
Copy of a letter to the Times newspaper, published Tuesday, Jan. 24, 1933, page 11. It reads: 'GREY WAGTAIL IN ST. JAMES'S PARK 'TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES 'Sir,—It may be of interest to record that, in walking through St. James's Park to-day, I noticed a grey wagtail running about on the now temporarily dry bed of the lake, near the dam below the bridge, and occasionally picking small insects out of the cracks in the dam. Probably the occurrence of this bird in the heart of London has been recorded before, but I have not myself previously noted it in the Park. 'I am your obedient servant, 'NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN. '37, Eaton Square, S.W.1, Jan. 23. 'P.S. For the purpose of removing doubts, as we say in the House of Commons, I should perhaps add that I mean a grey wagtail and not a pied.'
Clipping from a Special to the New York Times, 30 October 1964, p. 23. It shows the top of an article with the headline 'British Winner Is a Grandmother'. Underneath is a portrait photo of Dorothy Hodgkin and two smaller subheadings. One is to the left of the portrait and reads, 'Mrs Hodgkin Called a Devoted Chemist—Built Lab as Child' To the right, the other reads, 'Has Three Cildren, Each Working in a Different Country'
Cutting from the Gale Daily Mail archive online showing the top part of an article with headline 'Novel prize for British wife'. There's a portrait photo of Dorothy Hodgkin to the right of the headline. The article was by James Lewthwaite. Its date was Friday, Oct. 30, 1964.
A white page with Allister Heath's name at the top and his byline at the bottom. In between is the auto-generated headline: 'Bob the Builder is a Marxist Trojan horse designed to address the working class'
Copy of a poem, 'Assisi', by Norman MacCaig. It reads: 'ASSISI 'The dwarf with his hands on backwards sat, slumped like a half-filled sack on tiny twisted legs from which sawdust might run, outside the three tiers of churches built in honour of St. Francis, brother of the poor, talker with birds, over whom he had the advantage of not being dead yet. 'A prist explained how clever it was of Giotto to make his frescoes tell stories that would reveal to the illiterate the goodness of God and the suffering of His Son. I understood the explanation and the cleverness. 'A rush of tourists, clucking contentedly, fluttered after him as he scattered the grain of the word. It was they who had passed the ruined temple outside, whose eyes wept pus, whose back was higher than his head, whose lopsided mouth said *Grazie* in a voice as sweet as a child's when she speaks to her mother or a bird's when it spoke to St. Francis.'
Snippet from an article in Nature vol. 284 page 9, 6 March 1980. The headline is 'Europe embraces the fast breeder reactor'. The article begins: 'France's fast breeder programme is already many years ahead of any other nation's Last week Electricité de France...'
Clipping from Western Daily Press (Yeovil), 5 May, 1920. It shows an advert for Pheasant margarine. At the top is a line drawing of a well-dressed woman left of centre facing us apparently refusing with her left hand the offer of a packet of margarine that is not Pheasant. A shopkeeper right of centre is holding it out for her in his right hand. The counter is between them. In the foreground is a small stack of packets of dodgy margarine. The text reads: 'No Thanks! 'It must be "Pheasant" 'There's no other "Just as Good"! 'Gently, but firmly insist upon "Pheasant" —the brand of unvarying high quality with the butter-like flavour, texture and purity. There is no mistaking "Pheasant." Its packing is as distinctive and exclusive as its excellence, which is unequalled. 'PHEASANT MARGARINE 'THE SUPERIOR BRAND '*SUPPLIED IN HALF-POUND PACKETS* AT 1'10 PER POUND *OF ALL HIGH-CLASS GROCERS AND STORES. 'Look for the Red White and Blue Riband and Pheasant Seal.'
Screen grab of the OED etymology in its entry for 'diddy'. It reads: 'Summary 'Of uncertain origin. Perhaps a variant or alteration of another lexical item. 'Origin uncertain perhaps a variant of tiddy adj. Popularized in the 1960s and 1970s by Ken Dodd (1929-2018), English comedian, through his references to the "Diddy-men".'
Snippet from the online Oxford English Dictionary entry for spanner. It reads: 'Additional sense (2020) '*colloquial (chiefly British). a bag (also box) of spanners and variants: used as the type of a thing which or person who is extremely unattractive, useless, stupid, etc. Frequently in similative use, esp. in to have a face like a bag of spanners: to be extremely unattractive. 'The phrase was popularized by the British comedian Les Dawson (1931-93): see quots. 1976, 1981. '1976 That love of words was born in his [sc. Les Dawson's] childhood in the North of England... I asked him for an example. "How about this for a description of someone? He had a face like a bagful of spanners". 'Press & Journal (Aberdeen) 25 November 14/5'
Photo through a shop window of a neon sign inside the shop, which says BE A Peacock IN A WORLD FULL OF PIGEONS All of the words are pink except 'Peacock', which is pale blue-green. Reflections of buildings opposite are visible around and behind the sign.
Photo of a blank page among the front endpapers of a copy of The Catcher in the Rye on which someone has inscribed: 'TO [underlined] John, Hope you enjoy this book, don't [I think] go and assassinate anyone after reading !!! lots of love Louise xxx April 2021' Underneath, Louise has drawn a heart.
Screengrab of a note in the OED on the pronunciation of the word 'minuscule'. It reads: 'Notes '*New English Dictionary* (OED first edition) (1906) gives only the pronunciation (minskiul) /mI 'naskju:l/. Pronunciations with stress on the first syllable are first recorded in dictionaries in 1961 (Webster) and 1963 (Jones, 12th ed.), where the previous editions of both dictionaries (1954, 1956 respectively) only record pronunciations with stress on the second syllable. The pronunciation with stress on the second syllable is still recorded as a variant in British usage in the 14th edition of Jones (revised S. Ramsaram, 1988). Notwithstanding this evidence, it seems likely that deliberate contrast with majuscule adj. & n. may frequently have forced stress on the first syllable, a hypothesis supported by the quite early emergence of the variant miniscule n. & adj., which is most easily explained as resulting from reduction of an unstressed medial vowel.'
Photo of page 16 of a paperback edition of Jonathan Raban's book 'Bad Land—An American Romance' (Picador 1997). It's the first page of the second chapter. It reads: '2 "FICTIONS FROM THE SPRING OF 1907 through the fall of 1908, the Milwaukee Road railroad lumbered through the Dakotas and into Montana. From the top of any butte, one would have seen its course through the Badlands: the lines of horse-drawn wagons, the heaps of broken rock for the road bed, the gangs of labourers, engineers, surveyors From a distance, the construction of the new line looked like a disaster of war. 'The Milwaukee Road was a latecomer among western railroads. In 1881, the Northern Pacific reached Montana, where it hitched itself to the convenient valley of the Yellowstone River. In 1887, the Great Northern arrived; it clung to the Missouri River, winding westwards to Great Falls. The Milwaukee Road, striking west-by-north through rough country, had to content itself with whatever creeks and coulees it could find. In Montana, it slipped from Waterhole Creek to Sandstone Creek to O'Fallon Creek, a muddy brook where catfish rootled in the shade of the crowding cottonwood trees. The new railroad followed the creek down to the Yellowstone, where it joined company with the Northern Pacific at Terry. 'As the line advanced across the land, it flung infant cities into being at intervals of a dozen miles or so. Trains needed to be loaded with freight and passengers, and it was part of the essential business of the railroad company to furnish its territory with customers, to create ready-made communities of people whose lives would be dependent on the umbilical of the line. So the company built these skeletal market-centres on company-owned land. Its creations were...'
Photo of the lower nine tenths or so of a can of 'Anti-Marten Spray'. The text on a large green panel taking up most of the visible area of the label on the van reads: 'Protects leads and cables 'Excellent adhesion 'Laying protection '400ml' A background picture visible beneath this panel is a black and white image of what could be a closer up of a part of an engine. There is a Made-in-EU symbol on a circle close to the bottom of the can. But, most important in my view because it explains what this can is for, a similarly sized circle also near the bottom contains a portrait photo of a story or similar.
Screengrab from etymology of headword scientist in the OED online. It reads: '< *scient-* (in either classical Latin *scientia* science n. or scientific adj.) + -ist *suffix*. Perhaps compare artist n. 'Compare earlier sciencist n., and compare also *man of science* at science n. Phrases P.1a, sciencer n., scientician n., scientiate n., scientman n. 'Notes 'The word was a somewhat controversial coinage (compare quot. 1834 at sense 1) and was consciously avoided by many in Britain (apparently less so in North America) until at least the late 19th cent. This was to a certain extent connected with resistance to the narrowing of the word *science* to denote chiefly the natural sciences, although the word *scientist* was criticized and avoided by many who did accept equivalent use of *science*, including leading figures in thenatural sciences in 19th-cent. Britain (some of whome preferred etymologically unrelated terms, such as natural philosopher n.). Compare discussion by S. Ross in Annals of Science vol. 18 (1962) 65-85. 'The eventual selection of *scientist* rather than *sciencist* as the usual term may have been motivated partly by considerations of euphony; compare (from a discussion also hostile to the use of *scientist*): ' 1874 If we would, we could say *sciencist*; and let any who will say it, and hiss himself properly in the saying of it. *Galaxy* January 93/1 ...'
Screengrab of a paragraph from Thomas Hardy's 1882 novel Two on the Tower. This is from an edition published by Macmillan and Co in 1922. It reads: 'Hardly knowing what he did he touched her hand, and obeyed. He was a scientist, and took words literally. There is something in the inexorably simple logic of such men which partakes of the cruelty of the natural laws that are their study. He entered the tower-steps, and mechanically descended; and it was not till he got half-way down that he thought she could not mean what she had said.'
Clipping from the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, Saturday, 22 December, 1849. It reads: 'The Commissioner of the *Morning Chronicle* states that a favourite toast with the Cornish fishermen is, "Long life to the Pope and death to thousands." The thousands apply to the Pilchards, and as to the Pope one of the fishers said:—"It would be a bad thing if some wasn't to think fish necessary to salvation on a Friday."'
Screenshot showing a quotation on the OED's entry on supposedly obsolete word 'gane', whose meaning it gives as 'To open the mouth wide, to gape or yawn.' The quotation is from a text it says was composed in about 1460. It reads: 'And all nyght after grankys and goonys, On slepe tyll I be broght.' It comes from Towneley Plays (1994) vol. I. xvii. 206.
Crop from a photo of some text in the sleeve notes for a Deutsche Grammophon recording of Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps.n This passage is from an interview with cellist Etienne Pasquier, one of the musicians who gave the first performance of the quartet, in Stalag VIII A at Görlitz in Silesia. The interviewer was Hannelore Lauerwald. It reads: '[HL] Messiaen claims that at the first performance you played with only three strings on your cello. '[EP] Yes, he repeatedly made this claim, but in point of fact I played on four strings. A piece as difficult as the one that Messiaen wrote can't be played on three strings. In telling this story he presumably wanted to illustrate the inadequacies surrounding this first performance.'
Photo of the title page of a copy of Margaret Drabble's book A Writer's Britain. The title and author's name are printed, as is the name of the publisher, Thames & Hudson. Written in biro at the top are the words 'To Mum' and under the title the author's signature. However, the book was published more than 30 years after Margaret Drabble's mother died; the mum addressed here must be another's.
Photo of the cover of a 1971 Penguin Modern Classics edition of Aldous Huxley's novel Crome Yellow. It's dominated by a detail taken from the painting 'Froanna: Portrait of the Artist's Wife' by Wyndham Lewis, which shows a woman in what looks like a brown dressing gown with a tea tray on a small table beside her on which there's a teacup on a saucer and a teapot. Behind her are what appear to be a plain interior wall and the left hand side of a wooden door. The background behind the painting is black. Against the background above the painting are the title and the author's name in white and a pale blue respectively, plus 'Penguin Modern Classics' at the top. There is a penguin logo at top left, also on the black background.