please empty your brain below
If relevant, please start your comment with a number from 1 to 31.

(questions will not be answered)

diamond geezer | Homepage | 31.03.21 - 12:00 a.m. | #

13. Had the same thing happen to me crossing the campus at Brunel in student days. I swear the gust hit a knee height. I (and several others) went the whole hog and ended up on the deck.

Building wind dynamics is still an incompletely understood, and often ignored science.

Putters | 31.03.21 - 7:31 a.m. | #

5 To lose one cucumber, DG, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness

9 Intrigued as to whether the last time you saw the person naked was 10 years ago or that you last saw them naked 10 years ago but have seen then clothed since then

kerspatula | 31.03.21 - 7:36 a.m. | #

1. You’re getting really good at spotting kingfishers! A Regents Park conservation officer has a blog & daily Twitter feed - @parkbirdslondon - with frequent photos of kingfishers in that park.

Toni | 31.03.21 - 7:47 a.m. | #

29 I’m wondering if the plan is to do a HIGNFY and stick with a rotating chair among a select group. Stephen Fry is in the chair next week.

Roger French | Homepage | 31.03.21 - 7:48 a.m. | #

7. The '70s were a very different age, weren't they.
29. The rotating chair is a distraction but I agree completely with your assessment.

Frank F | 31.03.21 - 7:58 a.m. | #

12: Physically walloped!

Southern Heights (Light Railway) | 31.03.21 - 8:29 a.m. | #

30 Most expensive day of the 21st century! I hope that this is the basis of a forthcoming post.

Martin | 31.03.21 - 8:29 a.m. | #

30. I hope the expensive day was for positive purpose, rather than for a distress purchase.

Fat_boy_pete | 31.03.21 - 8:30 a.m. | #

29. Was Nicholas Parsons ever a contestant on Just a Minute? Being a player needs quite different skill-sets to being an adjudicator, so they need to open up the list. Broadcast journalists, for example (but, please, not John Humphreys).

MartinO'Holcombe | 31.03.21 - 8:38 a.m. | #

11 and 27. Kingfishers. Recently bought online an ex Greenwich Library copy of The Making of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park by John Hopkins and Peter Neal. Have learnt many things from that including the fact that the large concrete bank with holes in it in the wetlands is, in fact, a kingfisher nesting bank. It was placed in the park as a condition of planning permission.

KF | 31.03.21 - 8:44 a.m. | #

29. I hope they do find a permanent chair. Against expectations, Jack Dee has been brilliant at ISIHAC. (That's against expectations they'd find anyone at all, nothing personal against Jack Dee) Fry was awful when he tried it, despite being a popular idea.

I'd agree that competing and hosting are completely different skillsets. Gyles had stepped in a few times before and wasn't particularly notable. I can see Perkins being good, she's sharp but not given to drawn out arguments.

Chz | 31.03.21 - 8:46 a.m. | #

9. Hoping that the maximum possible number of these are the same person, to paint an intriguing picture.

Ben | 31.03.21 - 8:48 a.m. | #

2) If I find cash on the floor with no obvious dropper nearby I make the point of donating it to charity.

7) Feels like this inadvertently bans mobile phones, but at least leaves wriggle room to BYO sheep.

9) What was their world record?

TomH | 31.03.21 - 8:49 a.m. | #

5. A cucumber is a vegetable, true, but in my shopping lists it is in a different category of 'salad'.

Malcolm of Kent | 31.03.21 - 8:54 a.m. | #

5. The opening line sounds like an out-take from Are You Being Served.

Mike Newman | Homepage | 31.03.21 - 9:00 a.m. | #

2 - an abundance of caution, I'd have picked it up, after all how many other people have already touched stuff in supermarkets before you do, in my view that £10 would have presented a similar level of risk.

3 - yes Budget day is less of an event - bit like the FA Cup.

5 - assuming there was no hole in the bag, then the most likely scenario is that you left it behind at the checkout, indicating cucumber blindness, as its not an insignificant item, or if you were using a self service checkout, it could have fallen out of the bag after you put it in.

23 - although the path needs to be accessible, does it need reinforced concrete - what level of traffic are they expecting.

Still Anon | 31.03.21 - 9:08 a.m. | #

5) Maybe the cucumbers are sending you a message...they really aren't worth buying...

ap | 31.03.21 - 9:22 a.m. | #

4. I, too, love the PSB, but now have a rule of not going to see bands I used to adore who are Just Too Old And The Singer Can't Hit The Notes Any More.

The disappointment of Elizabeth Fraser at Meltdown a few years back hit hard.

David | 31.03.21 - 9:26 a.m. | #

5

"It has been a common saying of physicians in England, that a cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing."

Dr Johnson

David | 31.03.21 - 9:28 a.m. | #

5. In Germany I have heard cucumber described as sliceable water.

Malcolm | 31.03.21 - 9:33 a.m. | #

(4). I'm not sure Neil Tennant had any high notes which he needed to hit. The Royal Opera House shows were superb. My reason for avoiding the O2 shows would be because it is a vast soulless atmosphere free shed.

Ian | 31.03.21 - 9:38 a.m. | #

6. Sad to hear. I like seeing that cafe.

Gap | 31.03.21 - 10:06 a.m. | #

28. Aldgate Square, one of the few City 'improvements' that is actually an improvement. A lovely square instead of a hellish, pedestrian unfriendly traffic gyratory.

Johnny Topaz | 31.03.21 - 10:07 a.m. | #

3. The verb to tick up? I notice that the use of the North American term "uptick" instead of "upturn" is on the "uptick", the latter of which I much prefer. Just sounds better to my anglophile ears.

Mike | 31.03.21 - 10:08 a.m. | #

2. I think that's a good ethical quandary - I would probably leave the money too, although I'd guess there's a 1% chance of the owner coming back and finding it, and a 99% of a less scrupulous person pocketing it instead.

[My other abiding ethical quandary is whether it's acceptable to throw away apple cores, orange peel or banana skins in the countryside]

Alan | 31.03.21 - 10:11 a.m. | #

30. DG's new Porsche.

Kevin | 31.03.21 - 10:14 a.m. | #

4. In the PSB's case, maybe not a case of high notes so much as projection.

"Expressionless, such irony, although your voice is weak"

Agree about the O2. The Savoy Theatre show in '97 was brilliant.

David | 31.03.21 - 10:23 a.m. | #

22. Valente Brothers in Homerton? I thought Chelmer Road is in Lower Clapton.

<checks postcode map>

Damn ! The E5 / E9 boundary runs though their yard, but the front gate is in E9. You’re good, DG.

(NB I realise that the conflation of the postcode boundary and the Clapton / Homerton border is contentious in some circles).

CJS | 31.03.21 - 10:25 a.m. | #

22. I've upped my local wandering in recent weeks, to try and tick off all my local area before we get back to normal!

24. Missing cat outsourcing companies are very persistent, I've seen 50(?) posters for the same cat scattered across a wide area, far beyond the normal territory of a domestic cat

Mikey C | 31.03.21 - 10:26 a.m. | #

9 did the person mind you being naked when you saw them?

10 is that bus stop i or L ?
I mean, seriously, typeface fail.

Joho | Homepage | 31.03.21 - 10:29 a.m. | #

Please read the top comment again.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 31.03.21 - 10:32 a.m. | #

2. you left a tenner flapping disconsolately on the pavement? There's absolutely no chance i would have done. It would have made my week.

Milo | 31.03.21 - 11:06 a.m. | #

5) Thought it's not my field, I'm pretty sure that biologically speaking a cucumber is a fruit, although of course all fruits are vegetables.

Sarah | Homepage | 31.03.21 - 11:25 a.m. | #

6) Benugo, I would assume/fear.

TheLupineOne | 31.03.21 - 12:00 p.m. | #

25) has anybody worked out what the car registration number really is?

I reckon it could be xx58 HRI
But T isn't a starting letter

Is there a website where you can enter "??58 HRI"

ADS | Homepage | 31.03.21 - 12:23 p.m. | #

25. Spends all that money on a Jag and a poncey numberplate, but cannot be bothered to keep it clean. Wasted.

scrumpy | 31.03.21 - 12:41 p.m. | #

15. As one who regularly cleans a local stream and surveys the life in it to get a measure of how clean it is, I think it is absolutely criminal in this day and age that overflow waste is just dumped untreated into our waterways. It's a very delicate eco system.

I do hope it hasn't killed off the kingfisher's source of food.

Blimey, I sound like a commenter of a certain trashy newspaper!

Cornish Cockney | 31.03.21 - 1:09 p.m. | #

25. It's an inadvertent road safety feature. The car will be far more memorable and easier to identify than one with a standard number unless the plates are changed. It must have a very personal association; it certainly means nothing to me.

Andrew S | 31.03.21 - 1:24 p.m. | #

6: I fail to understand how you feel an 80s box brick structure that looks like a place you would park your car has more character than what is to replace it.
A multi-material, larger multi use building is only progress and serves as a positive to the increased amount of visitors that visit the Island Garden area.
I can’t see it being a carbuncle. I just hope it still stays leased by a unique, preferable may independent or small London mini-chain rather than a huge national.

Jabbins | 31.03.21 - 1:41 p.m. | #

29: Nish Kumar is far too shouty for JAM. I found Zoe Lyons too brash as well. It needs a presenter who is boring and has no discernible comedic talent so that they act like wallpaper and don't overshadow the contestants. I think that was the secret to Nicholas Parsons' success.

MKI | 31.03.21 - 2:08 p.m. | #

1) If you ever get close enough to tell, adult male kingfishers have a black beak while the female beak has a dash of pink.

RogerW | 31.03.21 - 2:29 p.m. | #

9) Based on very little other than Mr Marshall's occasional comments here, my assumption is that the Guinness record formerly held is that of Tube Challenging.

Jamesthegill | 31.03.21 - 3:05 p.m. | #

2 :If I found a £10 note in the street, I would struggle to know where to hand it in.

From DG's accounts of his Olympic Park walks, and Police Station closures happening at a rapid rate, it seems easier to spot a Kingfisher than a Lesser-Spotted Police Station.

Richard | 31.03.21 - 4:36 p.m. | #

25 I think someone should report that vehicle as it is not traceable from that combination of digits

mikeH | 31.03.21 - 5:11 p.m. | #

29. I took part in a recording of 2 shows. I’ll let you make up your own mind on Julian Clary and Tony Hawks but, like many so far, I think many are better at being contestants.
At least they credited NP at the end with “curating the game over the years”.
We need someone who doesn’t defer to giving “the benefit of the doubt” too much.

AndrewR | 31.03.21 - 6:52 p.m. | #

5. >>my cucumber had slipped out

Don't you just hate it when that happens? ;)

Agent X | 31.03.21 - 7:37 p.m. | #

(29) yes, Nicholas has appeared as a panellist a few times - there's some old episodes on Spotify where Clement Freud, Kenneth Williams and Geraldine Jones hosted one apiece - he's probably made more than three contestant appearances though throughout the archives

Raedwald | 31.03.21 - 9:20 p.m. | #

5 - Cucumbers and I do not get on very well at all. I’m sure that if I bought one it, too, would slip out of the bag and nip back into the store as soon as it realised who had bought it. Sneaky things, innit.

Herbof | 31.03.21 - 9:39 p.m. | #

2. I'd have taken it, rather than let it blow away. If I had lost one, I'd assume it would have blown away by the time I retraced my steps.

5. A cucumber would have great difficulty slipping out of my bag.

12. A heavy hangover for me, and a slight majority of people I know.

30. I don't know when my Most Expensive Day Of The 21st Century was either, and I don't intend to find out.

NickW | 31.03.21 - 10:14 p.m. | #

12. Happily, no side effects whatsoever. And a sticker to boot!

H SE18 | 31.03.21 - 10:21 p.m. | #

Days which have not inspired comment:
8 14 16 17 18 19 20 21 26 31

(but the majority have, cheers!)

diamond geezer | Homepage | 31.03.21 - 11:59 p.m. | #

2 Alan: it seems you should definitely not throw banana skins or orange peels into the great outdoors as they will be there for two years. Apple cores are better, at 8 weeks, but still not great. Take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints :-).

5. The article doesn't mentiom cucumbers though.

Will | 01.04.21 - 6:44 a.m. | #

25. 'T' can appear at the start of modern registration codes. In 2007, one of the normal sequences in Scotland would have been 'SN07' but that was considered as looking like 'snot' so 'TN07' was used instead .

dg writes: See Unblogged September.

IslandDweller | 01.04.21 - 8:40 p.m. | #

9 ", someone I last saw naked ten years ago"— Haha (Wish I saw someone naked ten years ago...)

Noel cottrell | Homepage | 01.04.21 - 11:30 p.m. | #

9) I briefly held a Guinness World Record. It lasted about a week, but I still have my Blue Peter badge from the experience. (A very belated happy birthday)

12) I wonder if anyone's managed to find any predictor of side-effects yet. I'm definitely in the 'generally feeling unwell' category but I was already coming down with a cold, so it's hard to say if the vaccine's the cause.

23) I cycled down Essex Way that morning and saw an unusually high number of people in hi-vis loitering near the Timber Lodge. I later saw a picture of Sadiq having a chat with some of them, so I guess I must have missed him by a few minutes.

26) unless you have a huge amount of money in the bank, the tax advantages of ISAs aren't really worth it these days. Not that any savings accounts are really worth it these days.

martin | 02.04.21 - 7:29 a.m. | #

28. When I walked past Aldgate Square recently the blossom was out and there were loads of people, with some definitely admiring it. Looking forward to one day soon being able to sit and have coffee and cake with my better half in the cafe when it reopens. One very unwelcome addition to the square is the brown tourist sign emblazoned with the word Arcadia. Terrible piece of art/snark, depresses me every time I see it.

Colin | Homepage | 02.04.21 - 3:12 p.m. | #

11 and 27. Kingfishers

Would you mind showing on a map where you think they are nesting? I have managed to see one kingfisher one time only. My sighting was just near the little amphitheatre/terraced part of the park, perched on one of the poles in a swampy bit (the bird was perched, not myself)

Stuart | 03.04.21 - 3:58 p.m. | #

29
"... and Sue Perkins a pitch perfect successor."

Absolutely yes :)

diamond geezer | Homepage | 20.07.21 - 10:15 a.m. | #











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