Cash for order

Yesterday I had cause to send a piece of mail which required the inclusion of an application fee. The application fee had to be sent in the form of a postal order. I had never bought one before so wasn't sure what to expect. I was very surprised to discover that postal orders had to be paid for in cash. This meant I had to leave the post office, find a cash machine and return. Thankfully it was early so the post office wasn't that busy.

I still have no idea why postal orders have to be paid for in cash and not by card.

A Name for a face

When I went to Canada last summer I was struck by the number of beggars on the street. It was a sight I was unaccustomed to. However upon my return I realised that were it not for the Big Issue there would be a lot more beggars on Glasgow's streets. Anyway when I first came to Glasgow there was a Big Issue seller who sold his copies outside the Safeway on Byres Road. These days he is still selling the Big Issue but his pitch has moved to Partick. Today while out shopping I happened to learn his name when I overheard somebody else greeting him. It's John.

That's quite a common name in Scotland, and judging by the number of Big Issue sellers on the streets homelessness is a little too common as well.

Each peach

When I was younger and still living at home I can remember that in the summer months punnets of summer fruits would appear in our kitchen, usually berries, nectarines and peaches. The other day I bought some nectarines because I could not find any peaches. The two taste similar so I figured it was all much of a muchness. Then I wondered if peaches and nectarines were related or if they were two completely distinct fruits. It turns out that nectarines are in fact a variety of peaches, or more correctly, a cultivar group of peaches. The lack of fuzz on the skin is caused by a recessive gene. In fact regular peach trees occasionally produce a nectarine or two.

I have to say that now I know it, it does seem obvious.

'Scuse me while I kiss this guy

"Scuse me while I kiss this guy" is not, contrary to the belief of several thousand people, what Jimi Hendrix is singing in the song "Purple Haze". He is actually singing "Scuse me while I kiss the sky". It is an easy enough mistake to make. We have all done it, we have all mistaken words or phrases for other words or phrases. And there is now a word in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary to describe such words. They are known as a "mondegreen". The word "mondegreen" is inspired by the misheard lyrics of an old Scottish ballad. The ballad's actual lyrics go "laid him on the green" but many a person has misheard this as "Lady Mondegreen". Interestingly as a word mondegreen was first seen in 1954.

I have a mondegreen of my own it's from the Moby song "Why does my heart feel so bad?" . For years I misheard the word "bad" as the word "sad".

Eat up dear.

Although my grandparents all died either before I was born or when I was quite young, I am aware that grandmothers have a reputation as feeders. That is to say when their grandchildren come to visit they like to feed them up. Apparently this is vaguely connected to the evolutionary reasons for the menopause. Some 300, 000 to 50, 000 years ago the competition for food in a family unit was won by younger women who fed their offspring. Thus the older women tended to stop having children and focus on rearing the grandchildren rather than having more children of their own.

It's an interesting theory but let's not forget that pregnancy takes an immense physical toll on women too.

Traffic stopping news

When I was a small child I can remember gong shopping in Belfast and hearing the call "Tele, tele!" from the street vendors of the Belfast Telegraph. I have never really read this paper with any degree of regularity but it seems popular enough in Northern Ireland. While at home I discovered that the Telegraph is now being sold by men and women standing at traffic lights. So when the lights turn red you can snaffle a paper while you wait. I was especially surprised to discover that this phenomenon was not limited to Belfast. Today while on my walk I saw Telegraph vendors at the traffic lights in Lisburn.

Whatever next? A hotel? Apparently so...but who would come to stay in Lisburn?

Mystery cries

According to my parents I was something of a colicky baby. I was reminded of this while reading a book which touched on how our treatment in early childhood affects our personality in later life. The book stated that there is no known cause of colic. Colic is a condition which causes an otherwise healthy baby to cry for no discernible reason. The general consensus is that colic is caused by digestive problems but this has yet to be proven conclusively.