Dark, damp and decidedly dismal at the Castle this morn, the
butler is back shoving fat teenagers into the furnace, the mock orange is still
in situ and I am running out of letters.
Apparently water bill payers in the West Country are to
receive £50 a year from the Government under plans to be unveiled this week.
David Cameron says financial help is needed because the
region has "paid unfair charges to provide clean beaches for many of us
who do not live in the South West". Thirty per cent of England's coast is within Devon and
Cornwall, but the bill is picked up by just 3 per cent of the population.
And I should subsidize them because?
An Oxford Tory club has been expelled by the University
after it failed to pay a £1,200 charity black tie dinner bill at Cavalry and
Guards Club where Liam Fox was guest of honour.
The charity dinner boasted a party frontbencher as guest of
honour and appeared perfect to reinforce the Oxford University Conservative
Association’s status as a training ground for Cabinet ministers.
Instead, it has led to the 88-year-old society suffering the
indignity of being stripped of its university recognition after the bill went
unpaid.
The association, which counts Baroness Thatcher as its
patron, has lost the right to use Oxford’s name after it failed to settle a
£1,200 debt for the black-tie banquet, attended by the former defence secretary
Dr Liam Fox.
The society, whose former members include five current
Cabinet ministers, held the dinner for 32 in support of the Army Benevolent
Fund at the Cavalry and Guards Club on Pall Mall in June 2009.
Wonder where Werritty is......
On the boardroom floor of the
Frankfurt headquarters of Commerzbank in Germany is the loo with a view, male Wbankers
can literally take the piss from a great height.
Yesterday, a debt-for-equity swap was announced by
Commerzbank and is already being eyed by other European banks as a potential
blueprint to improve their balance sheet.
The other thing about it is that it is high enough to do some
damage if it all goes tits up.....
Cooking with Poo and Estonian Sock Patterns All Around the
World are just two of the bizarre books up for the prize of the oddest book
title of the year.
In its native Thailand the title of the cook book by Saiyuud
Diwong is not as strange as it sounds, as 'Poo' means 'Crab' and is also the
chef's nickname.
Aino Praakli's book on socks is also shortlisted alongside
The Great Singapore Penis Panic: And the Future of American Mass Hysteria by
Scott D Mendelson, which details the 'Koro' psychiatric epidemic that hit the
island of Singapore in 1967.
Mr Andoh's Pennine Diary Memoirs of a Japanese Chicken Sexer
in 1935 Hebden Bridge by Stephen Curry and Takayoshi Andoh is also in the
running for the odd accolade.
Taxonomy of Office Chairs, The Mushroom in Christian Art and
A Century of Sand Dredging in the Bristol Channel: Volume Two are also among
the favourites.
Must pop dahn to W.H. Smiths...
And finally:
Worry not, allegedly the smell of rosemary could enhance
your time on a crossword puzzle, a component of rosemary oil in the bloodstream
is the reason.
You can also use this magical substance to rinse your hair
and repel cats.
In the study, a cohort of 20 subjects were exposed to
varying levels of the aroma, and then given a battery of cognitive tests and
mood assessments. Apparently the cognitive performance of the subjects
increased, with a corresponding mood increase of lesser magnitude. However, the
real surprise came when the blood tests were processed.
The results showed absorption of 1,8-coneole into the
bloodstream, meaning the natural compound was absorbed through the nose and
into the blood plasma. For Moss, this means there is a more traditional
biochemical explanation for the increased cognitive performances previously
demonstrated.
I don’t know anyone called Rosemary, and if I did I don’t
think I would want to smell her.....
And today’s thought:
Tits up Banker
Angus
