Word Verification ?

On Saturday "Sage" on Wise Herb's Random Jottings, does a post called Saturday Satire.

Now this weeks story involved an elderly couple who went behind the gasworks.......with several references to knickers.

After enjoying the tale I thought I would leave a comment for her............................and guess what the word verification was!!!!!

 

A Revival ?

Seems to be working again...I wonder what was up?

At first I thought it was because I had used up all my allocated free space?

All these pictures use up quite a few 'Gig', so I'm told. I must find out how to take pictures at a different (lower) resolution.

Do you know, I had no printed instructions with my camera....all the technical bits came on a disc, and I now have to fire up the computer, just to find out how to use the camera!

So....shall I use Tracker-bar as the main one.....or Monkey-organ?

I had thought of having an organ biased version with little bits of organ topics for us grinders and then a second blog with all sorts of eclectic (borrowing freely from various sources - not exclusive in opinion or taste - yes, that will do) snippets with a musical theme.

Therefore if Tracker-bar keeps working, I shall use this for "Organics".

......Organs & Mechanics.

I will keep Monkey-organ for light hearted trivia !

 I will start tomorrow ......maybe.

"Blogged Down"

Having a bit of trouble posting here, so started a new blog.

       monkey-organ.blogspot.com

See you there.....

PS  Link is under 'Places I Browse'  

                  as        'The Organ Grinder's Monkey'

Rests

 

 

Music does not consist only of sounds; it includes silences too.

Notation has to show how long each silence lasts, just as it shows how long each sound lasts.

The signs used for silence are called rests.

 

"The Key is......."

It is amazing how many references to 'Key' or 'Keys' can be found in music.

Apart from the obvious Key that the music is played in, we can come across many songs with words like 'the key to my heart'.

This lady on the left is going to lock her heart 'and throw away the key'.

I wonder how this association of keys and hearts came about? Perhaps it originates from the fashion of ladies wearing a Locket on a chain, locked with their sweethearts photo or picture inside?

I was not going to write about this type of key or the musical key, as in 'the key of D Minor', but on the reference to 'keyless' organs......or perhaps the '112 key Mortier organ'.

The number of keys on an organ refer to the small levers on the playing frame through which the card music passes. Each key is pneumatically and mechanically coupled to a number of pipes, percussive instruments or other movement incorporated in the organ. Hence unlike a piano keyboard, the number of organ keys is not equal to the number of notes available.

A 98 key organ may have over 700 pipes.  All the keys are normally depressed, except when a slot in the music card allows them to rise.

In a “keyless” organ, the row of keys is replaced by a row of holes on the tracker-bar. The principle is like the player piano and uses air suction through the tracker-bar holes. In my organ however the music roll and tracker-bar are enclosed in a pressure box so we have a “blow” instead of a “suck” to control the playing.

So my little organ is actually a 26 note keyless organ with 70 pipes. 

There are, of course, all the keys on a keyboard instrument but Deb at Harmony Club is the expert on these.

And lastly, as I'm a bit of a clock person, I leave you with a circle of lovely Victorian Clock Keys.

'A Storm in a D-cup'.

Sorry to lower the tone of this usually high class blog.......but one has to smile sometimes!

We boobed,” says the latest Marks & Spencer advertising campaign. The high street store has just agreed to stop charging £2 extra for larger bras, after a campaign by a group called......

    Busts 4 Justice.

 As the chairman, Sir Stuart Rose, admitted: “We were wrong.”

The row over M&S underwear was, according to the headline writers, a storm in a D-cup.

Busts 4 Justice.........I like it.

And now ....on a not totally unconnected theme I notice that the W.I. ladies are at it again.

The original WI "Calendar Girls" have taken their clothes off for charity once more. 

Wearing little more than a smile and a trademark set of pearls, six members of the Yorkshire-based Women's Institute have been reunited for a new 2010 calendar.

The youngest of them, Chris Clancy, is now 57; the oldest, Beryl Bamforth, is 75. They are to be pictured in typical WI scenes, their modesty protected only by a baby-grand piano, a tea pot and sprouting broccoli on a vegetable patch.

The 2010 calendar is the first to be shot in colour rather than sepia.

Mrs Baker, 63, who can be seen playing the piano in February, said: "I was a bit apprehensive about colour, because older women can look a bit funny in colour, and we wanted it to be just as good as the first one".

Do you know I found this bit of news by Googling ......

....baby-grand piano....tea pot......sprouting broccoli.

And if you believe that........

 

By the way.......the date on that sheet music, in case you can't read it, is  1895. Not bad condition for 114 years old.

110 Years Ago

After seeing the steam launch 'Alaska' on the Thames at Bourne End in 2008 thought you might like to see a similar boat in the same place but 110 years earlier.

I have enlarged the picture on my PC and it looks as if the name is 'Cynisca'. A name I have never come across before.

 

 

"B.O.T.T.O.M.S."

All this wet weather certainly gets the grass growing. My lawn has had to have a second cut already.

The trouble is once you start cutting it seems to grow twice as fast to recover.

In the news this week more bits about mowing.

First off, is this poor chap from Wiltshire, who has been banned from trimming a communal patch of grass after 43 years - for H & S reasons. (Here we go again).

Graham Alexander regularly mows, weeds, rakes and clears the verge of other people's litter daily. ....Well done Sir........but

Wiltshire Council has accused him of encroaching on its property and endangering public health claiming he or a neighbour could be injured by the mower or flying debris. 

He has now been ordered to leave the job to council contractors - or face possible prosecution.

Now......how about this for an idea? 

It would appear that those people with large amounts of grass to keep under control are turning to home-bred wallabies to do it for them. 

Theses little chaps are thousands of miles from their native Outback but are increasingly replacing sheep, horses and geese in scores of country gardens and fields. 

All prospective owners need to keep their lawns clipped are half an acre of land, a lot of grass and a large fence. 

Trevor Lay, who runs Waveney Wildlife, of Bungay, Suffolk, has seen demand soar. He has been breeding wallabies for 25 years and is the biggest private supplier in the UK. 

 

The wallabies cost £150 for a male and £600 to £700 for a female, while the sought-after albino wallabies fetch £1,000 for a female and about £500 for a male. 

They are sold in pairs because wallabies like living in a social group. 

Mr Lay said "They are timid creatures and really harmless but adults will growl if their young are threatened. And they don’t like dogs.” 

He takes care to ensure his wallabies go to proper homes with plenty of space for them to roam safely and freely and a fence or wall at least five feet high

So that scuppers it for me.....half an acre and a five foot fence!

Ah well. Back to the drawing board or as we used to say at work...."BOTTOMS"

(Back Over To The Old Manual System)

 

'Alaska' fired by Wood Briquettes

I'm afraid I cannot find out why the boat is named Alaska, but I have discovered a video of her on the Thames at Marlow.

"Jolly Boating Weather"

A chance for a trip on a real steam launch from Bourne End.

Not my boat.....but a trip not to be missed,

.

During 2009, it is intended that 'Alaska' will be running public trips from Bourne End Marina on the May and August Bank Holiday weekends (23rd, 24th, 25th May and 29th, 30th, 31st August) and at the Thames Traditional Boat Rally at Henley (18th and 19th July)

Bourne End trips start at 11am and run on the hour until the last trip of the day at 5pm. Trips last approximately 50 minutes and cost £10 for adults and £6 for children and OAP's.

"Down at Heel"

A clown has been told he cannot wear his giant comedy shoes due to "Elf 'n Safety". 

He was told by management he could no longer wear the size-18 shoes because they compromised his health and safety

His routine includes dressing himself whilst walking on a wire, dress himself within a hoop of fire, and playing a drum-kit, trumpet and double-bass all at the same time.

But he is now worried performing in his regular sized footwear will lose impact on the audience.

Mr Kashkin, 40, from Temruk, Russia, said: "The shoes are an important part of my costume, and I was disappointed to be told I couldn't do this part of my act.

Will they never leave us alone?  I would have thought that the whole point of Circuses is to entertain  by 'death defying' acts. If everything is wrapped up in cotton-wool there will be no excitement and people will just stop going.

Still on the subject of shoes......

I came across this.

It appears that if you want to be one up on your fellow men, you need to be seen wearing a pair of Berluti shoes.

A pair of theses of these shoes will set you back £770.

Like all Berluti shoes, the style is distinguished by its lightweight elegance and by the quality of the last, which is shaped in such a way as to make the shoes instantly comfortable. And these days you don’t have to go to Paris to buy a pair — Berluti has a London store at 43 Conduit Street in the West End. 

Not just at the moment thank you!

Little Tich didn't seem to have a problem with Elf 'n Safety all those years ago in his size 42 comedy shoes....and I bet he didn't have to pay £770 for them either!

 

A Bad Start

Having a bad start today. 

For some reason the Word Processor has developed a mind of its own and keeps changing fonts and line height when I copy and paste to blogger.

I'll just make this a 'quickie' now and try to sort the problem out this afternoon.

The above picture was taken at Swindon on Saturday and just thought how realistic they had made everything. Most of the figures you can see are not in fact real. In fact whilst I was there on Saturday morning, us humans were outnumbered by wax dummies.

With all this nostalgia ...I feel a ditty coming to me.

               There was a young lady at Crewe

                  Who wanted to catch the 2: 2.

                   Said a porter..  "Don't worry,

                         Or hurry or scurry,

                 It's a minute or two....to 2: 2 ".

 

The museum had a vast store of 'bit 'n bobs' like this row of vintage office chairs.

And now comes another ditty to suit......

           An accident really uncanny

           Befell a respectable Granny;

              She sat down in a chair

       While her false teeth were there,

And bit herself right in......a rather tender place!