Do snails have a sense of direction?

Do snails have a sense of direction. According to a recent experiment, they do.

Have a look at the BBC Radio 4 Material World website - "So you want to be a scientist?"

To outstay one's welcome!

A few years ago I bought a marvellous container for cooking rice in the micro-wave and used it a lot until I got lazy. Yesterday, having run out of my "boil in the bag" type I got the old container out to wash it and refresh my memory how to use it. Low and behold!! I was not the only one interested in it, as the instructions inside were torn to bits!

I know who the culprit is. A year ago we had a very frendly mouse visiting us for "B and B". I thought he had gone eventually but obviously he had decided to stay on without telling me and had discovered my nice container and had taken up residence.

I spent ages trying to put all the bits of grubby paper together but was not successful and gave it up as a bad job.

Back to "boil in the bag"!!

Polly.

Things past

I happened to listen to a conversation of two people talking of things past.

The past for me is yesterday and I thought of how others "see" the past.

So... here are some answers to the question of what has past for you?

Organ grinders, organ grinders with monkeys,
street musicians, escapologists, Pearly Kings and Queens,
men with bowler hats and umbrellas, rag and bone men ,
horse drawn carts, tinkers, knife sharpeners, typewriters .

Add as many as you like to your changing world.

Walter Vego

perfect diet

Do you feel over-informed? Or are you suffering from information over-load?
YES, you are.

I read...almost compulsively...the information on nutrition given on anything eaten or drunk.

Now just writing the word "drunk" reminds me of the nutritional information on a bottle of whiskey. Incidentally, such information seems to be absent from the cheaper brands. The information reads as follows: Protein 0%....Carbohydarte....trace.....Fat 0%.

Question
Why is whiskey not promoted as the perfect diet for weight loss plus the added "feel good factor"?

Walter Vego

Waste Disposal

I live in the Bloomsbury area in the London Borough of Camden. I belong to a residents association and one of our persistent complaints relate to "Waste Disposal".

It would be tedious to recount the various combinations of services. A quick survey shows that there are green bags for paper, plastics (must be bottle shaped), glass. Then there are black plastic boxes for paper and cardboard. These green bags and black boxes are cleared (emptied) once a week.

Some streets have general waste collection daily and other streets have collections once and sometimes twice a week. Then there are waste bins on the street and street cleaners who collect and dispose of street debris in green bags emptied into handcarts.

With all of these provisions we have cause for frequent complaints.

NOW, in the interest of "Greenness" and environmental concerns, we are being asked to separate waste into kitchen waste, paper, glass and plastic. Camden is putting a great deal of effort into grooming us to adopt this waste separation behaviour.

I wish to point out that the population of these islands did separate their waste during the years 1939-45 ... but then we were fighting for our lives. Maybe we need a similar threat and I propose "environmental disaster". By the way the Romans had similar problems. However ancient waste disposal makes archaeologists rejoice.

Walter Vego.

A ploughman's lunch

We carry our memories with us like a tortoise in a shell. In my case I remember trivia, more trivia and events that make me remember that I can preface a grumpy note with the introduction "I remember the good old days". So, here goes!

When I was a student, (a long time ago), my courses in ecology took me into the countryside where I found pubs that would serve reasonable and cheap quantities of excellent food. No gastro pubs or cloth napkins either. I found that a ploughman's lunch was a fantastic bargain, satisfying both pocket and appetite. It consisted of a large amount of well matured cheddar, thick slices of farm baked bread, pickled onions, thick Branston pickle, apple chutney, butter and if I could afford it ... a pint of bitter...

A few days ago I asked for a Ploughman's in a country pub ... name withheld ... the bread was "a baguette" forming a choking bolus to be swallowed, the cheese, unfit for mice ... grated, the pickle spread on the cheese in the bread and unavoidable. I ate some of it, suffered in silence and made no complaint. How could I? Since no one now remembers what a ploughman's lunch was really like.

Walter Vego

A restful few days?

I am calling my post that with my fingers crossed. I am about to go and stay with my eldest son and his wife in their lovely house in the country. The reason why I even think it might not be a restful stay is because of what happened last time. I will tell you!

I had arrived about tea-time having been picked up at the station. I sorted myself out and went into the drawing room and sat down for a nice refreshing cup of tea, sandwiches and cakes etc. Suddenly all hell broke loose! The dogs went mad with barking and rushing around and the noise outside was terrific. We all rushed out and lo and behold there were three police cars in the drive.

They hadn't come to arrest us but to dig up various places in a couple of my son's fields! Apparently a man in the next village had reported his wife missing. The police were very suspicious after going into the case thoroughly and seemed certain he had murdered her as he was well known to them. They were also certain that he had buried her somewhere outside the village.

They started to dig in the fields in places that looked as if the ground had been disturbed but found nothing. The next day they came back and started all over again, but still no luck.

My son tells me on the phone that they are still coming back from time to time, but I hardly think they will be luckly. Perhaps when I go down I may bring them luck next time! Should I say that? Poor woman, what a terrible man.

Polly