please empty your brain below

Yes,very interesting blog so far,DG, but I think I might be drifting back to sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep
You've failed!!!!! This doesn't seem boring at all, QI in fact! I have certainly been to much less interesting events. Perhaps it's your way with words that brings even the most mundane things to life.
Thanks for this terrific write-up - when my friends ask at work what I saw, I can definitely point them to this (as I always forget a few!).

I enjoyed the vast majority, though one or two suffered perhaps from delivery such that I struggled to catch what they were actually saying, and the Mountweazle talk was, as you say, a bit too in-depth- reminding me of my University days (argh) but also making me think it could have been explained a bit more slowly and clearly, to greater effect. Still, a very interesting topic!

I really didn't like the last piece though. Yes, yes, we get it, in the future some old people will use Twitter and drugs. I go to Boring to think, and laugh, and groan sometimes too - but not to hear a guy pimping out his novel about a man hoping his nurse gives him oral sex. Others there were selling too, I know - and I did buy the books of the absent Joanna Biggs and the present Andy Riley- but just reading out half your book and telling us we can buy the rest for 50p does seem against the spirit of Boring. Though for me it definitely went with the letter of the day.

I agree also with what you say about the Stratford talk, it was a bit uncomfortable in places, though I'd argue that the speaker herself, for example describing the bike recipient as a criminal, was pushing the "laugh at" approach, not the audience.

Still, one of the great things about Boring (and there are many!) is that usually each piece is only 10 mins or so, so if you don't like it there's another talk, entirely different, along soon. I just wish that last piece had been a) 10 minutes and b) not last, as it was a frustrating experience (for me at least) to end on.

Definitely a top day though, and any mention (and video) of paternosters is fine by me!
The first 5 talks seem, judging by your report, that they may have been interesting. No doubt the following talks made the rest of the event boring enough to justify the title.
You write your blog AND a diary? Crumbs.
Now I do feel older, you quote "an old postcard from 1965" in the Post Office Tower report. As I started work in 1962 anything from 1965 still seems fresh in my mind. Hard to realise how long ago it was.
Syphilis in 12th century France? Don't think so; perhaps she meant gonorrhoea.

Gasometers...yum.
Can I submit a point of clarification?

The gasometer with the LH and arrow for Heathrow is at Southall; just in case anyone heads to Battersea to try to find it on the one that's being cut down.

I seemed to talk for longer than I thought I would.
Thanks Sarah - I've now tweaked the post to mention Southall properly.

I suspect most speakers talked for longer than they thought - generally this was not an issue for the audience :)
I (and the three other people I spoke with after the end) am not sure I understand the intent of the last talk. Was it meant to be, for a change, literally boring, in a sort of double-bluff intent? Or was simply a poorly-screened entry? Or is there something I don't get?
Umm...suffering from a bit of 'priming' here. It is quite facile to preface something as boring and then to proceed with what, in another context, would be noteworthy. I'm clearly not in the target group for the audience - Conway Hall manages to be quite offensive to my sensibilities too often for me to want to go any where near it. They're probably quite grateful. Shame your efforts, DG, are wasted on me as I indicated above. Lids lowering as I end here.
There is little clear evidence for syphilis in Europe before 1492.
I thought gasometergal said the bit in the middle of a gasometer was called a dumpling, not a pudding?

dg writes: Having checked my notes, you're absolutely right. Amended, thanks.
The reason for the LH and arrow on the gasometer at Southall was to prevent hapless civilian pilots landing on Runway 26 at RAF Northolt instead of Runway 23 at Heathrow.
A Pan-Am 707 pilot managed this in the early 60s which is the reason they added the signs onto the gasometers.
Sorry, to be boring....
Another boring fact -
I took my accountancy exams in the Conway Hall in June 1980. At the block of flats next door workmen were refurbishing the flat roof with asphalt. I haven't been able to smell asphalt since then without being taken straight back to those 4 excruciating days 35 years ago.
Liverpoo is more popular than Liverpool for a password because of 8-character limits. Though I'd *like* to imagine it's the case that more people hate the team/place than love it.
I thought the storage devices commonly known as 'Gasometers' are actually called 'Gas Holders' as that is what they do/did. No measurements involved, other than being one, two or maybe three levels full!
"The term 'gasometer' is discouraged for use in technical circles where the term 'gasholder' is preferred."

(Roebuck,K. 2012, Energy Storage: High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors)

I just like the word gasometer.










TridentScan | Privacy Policy