Nick Deverill

One of these: http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/w/wheatear/index.aspx

There is a BBC list of the ten worst words to use, and as a former employee of theirs, I can confirm the "c" word tops it. Misspelt by current standards, it occurs more than once in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Both London and Oxford had "Grope c word" lanes and yes they were where prostitutes plied their trade. Really though, the Victorians created the modern definition of a rude word. At that time, the word was more applied to the rustic or rural meaning and as such, nice descriptive Anglo-Saxon words were in common usage by, for want of a better term, the less educated. So the words became rude ones. Then of course some animal names needed changing as part of them was a rude word, 'Whitearse' being what we now call the "Wheat ear". Said bird has nothing to do with wheat, no more observable ears than any other bird, but does have a white bottom.

As a rule, the 'blog' method of telling a tale turns me off, and I don't mind admitting I read the first few words and went somewhere else. Due to the length of this thread, I revisited the story today - and I had to read the whole thing. I was wrong, it is a good tale, well told and the method used, does work well here. So thanks both to Freethinker and the posters here. I'll just go and stick my head in a bucket of soapy frogs...

A jolly good read, and I've just spent a sunny afternoon indoors, reading it. By far the best story of the week.

Can't embed it (I did try) but to my mind, for a fat lady singing, this lady takes a lot of beating: http://www.popmodal....d-Bless-America To my mind, this song and lady in the film, "The return of Captain Invincible" epitomises the idea and is a better performance. But the song was written for the singer, and she did perform it many times. As for the story, yes it could be ended with today's offering, but Cole always seems to round off tales completely, without falling into the trap of overdoing it. I'm sure there'll be a few smaller issues rounded off and I look forward to next week.

Yes! I was right. Not often I work out other folks plots. Thanks Cole for a darn good read.

Well, something has now leapt at me after the latest instalment. If I'm right, it explains some of the earlier actions. And if I'm wrong, I've still enjoyed reading and thinking about the tale. Not saying what it is - I'm not a publisher of spoilers.

The brewers own site on the beer, http://www.theakston...s/Old-Peculier/ There is also a pub locater on the site, and one is in my town... But I'd advise as does the site to ring and check as it is certainly not a session beer A bottled beer site also remarks that the draught does not taste the same as the bottled, but I've not given a link since although this is true, the comment compare it to Fullers ESB which to my mind tastes nothing like it.They are both dark strong ales but that is as far as it goes. Guinness - try Foreign Extra Stout if you can get it. It's a bit rare, very strong, only in little bottles but absolutely gorgeous. On topic, the web is full of self publishing sites, but very few are consistently good places to visit. The trick of writing a good readable story is not that easy to learn. Ease of publishing, yes, but good?

You've not been stroked by a video? Flattens grass, curls up and purrs.

Careful, Murray gets a bit upset when you refer to him as being English - he's a Scot and proud of it. A lot of Scots have a bee in their bonnet about nationalities; leant it the hard way when I lived in Scotland for a few years. Sure I could record one, but I'm not that keen on sport. In fact, I could record both and watch something else, my recorder is far cleverer than I am!

For someone who generally turns the box off when sport come on, I've now got a problem, British Grand Prix and Wimbledon final at the same time.

Very well written, I read the first couple of sentences, realised how good it was, and slowed right down (I am normally a very fast reader).

Story gets a thumbs up from here. Dabeagle gets a rare honour, I've just read the story for a second time in a couple of days. And that is my mark of a good tale, does it stand a second read in a short space of time? Plot and characterisations both need to be good to get this. :applause[1]: :applause[1]:

Pop the baby green tomato into the freezer. When you clear the plants at the end of the season, you'll have more unripened green tomatoes. Then look up chutney recipes on the web and make some chutney out of them. You won't find this published, or at least I haven't but add in an appropriate amount of fresh chilli peppers and make it moderately - not loony, hot. Yum!

Language is an evolving thing. I suspect though a lot of English kids are using computers with the spellchecker set to American English as many computer programs default to that. Around my way, we generally say 'pop' but you'll find them referred to as 'soft drinks' on menus etc. I've never heard the word 'coke' applied to anything but a coke type drink and were you to request it and then get lemonade (the fizzy sort) you'd be most surprised. The spelling of the word 'program/programme' is interesting. Quite a few English people, including myself will refer to a computer program, and a television programme. However, had we asked a teacher 40 years ago, the answer would have been, 'it's programme in English, the spelling without the second 'm' and 'e' is American. And from a etymological point of view, not that logical either since one could argue, the computer program was invented by a English lady, Ada Lovelace.

A short story that could be the start of a serial novel as I've talked to Kiwi, the author. Be that as it may, in general I like the short story format, trying to convey a complex idea or ideas in few words. http://iomfats.org/s...b-erickson.html I'm not saying any more, as I'll spoil it for you, but at just over 1000 words (my computer counted them for me), worth a couple of minutes of your time.

What does putting her in jail teach her? Other than a lesson that if she had money she'd be fine. I think she already knows that. She does not need prosecuting, she needs help. Take some of the load off her and I bet there are no more attendance problems.

As has been said often, the USA and UK are two nations divided by a common language. In the UK, political lampooning has history going back years and truthfully, by the standards of the 1700s and 1800s, Rick's language is mild. There are many things that concern me about Milt Romeny, and his viewpoint on gay marriage is just one of them.

Hmm, had heard similar reports on Orson Scott Card's views. Thankfully, although he has one sympathiser adding a comment, the rest are clearly against. For my money, it's not a 'left' or 'right' wing issue anyway, it's quite possible to support gay marriage and be of either political standpoint.

I'm a voracious reader, and a very slow writer. I greatly enjoyed reading this. It read like it was a trailer for a longer story and certainly left the impression with me that I'd like to read the longer story when it comes.