Povey Prattle

It arrives in the mail a couple of times each year in an “official” looking envelope. “It” is an offer to test the water from my tap – free of charge. “Free of charge” – now that’s a bargain! Except that: 1. I do not believe that my tap water needs testing. 2. I am as certain as I can be that the proffered test would find grievous deficiencies in my tap water. 3. The test would be free – but the “testers” would try to convince me that I am at risk of a thousand and one illnesses, unless and until I install their “water purification system” (at a huge cost). Sadly enough there is a sucker born every minute. I am not one of them, but this tantalising direct mail solicitation probably pays on the fears of many folks, and then entices them to fork up many dollars for water purification systems which they do not need. That’s my opinion!

At 6:41 and 25 seconds (U.S. Eastern Time) this morning (3rd August 2012) as I was walking my dog,  I slipped and fell in my neighbouring  community "Glen Oaks Manor" I slipped on some sand which had been washed out on a side walk during or recent tropical storm. I “suffered” minor abrasions to my left knee and to my left arm.  I broke the fall on the fleshy part of my right hand. It is now a bit swollen. The greater injury was to my dignity. My fall was observed by two other early morning dog walkers. They were appropriately concerned, but entirely relieved when I told them that all was well.   They were able to smile when I assured that that I was cold sober at 6:41 and 25 seconds a.m. It’s comforting to know that had I broken or sprained my wrist these other dog walkers would have been there to assist me. My good dog Penne stayed by my side even though I had dropped her leash. BUT THERE WAS A LOVELY KICKER.  For the ...

So --  you’ve  discovered those old films or videos - - the ones you took at a party, or on vacation, or when your children were cuter than they are now.  You watched them once or twice, put them away in your junk drawer or closets, and then forgot all about them. Having discovered them hidden in some dark storage box you do the right thing.  You have them converted to be played on a DVD. Which is exactly what my brother Martyn and his wife Wendy did with their old videos (old being fifteen years ago!).  And they mailed copies of the DVDs to me. I spent a hour or more yesterday afternoon dancing down Memory Avenue. The DVD I watched yesterday (and I have another yet to view) was mostly of family scenes in 1997/98. There was my nephew Sam, then just able to walk - now aged sixteen, grinning as he ran up a footpath.  That made me giggle. There was my neice Laura, now aged twenty-three then aged eight.   She was and is a fearless advent...

BOSTONIANS WILL LOVE THIS !!! The geographical center of Boston is in Roxbury. Due north of the center we find the South End. This is not to be confused with South Boston which lies directly east from the South End. North of the South End is East Boston and southwest of East Boston is the North End. Boston Mariners call the shore "down east" even if it is south like the Islands & the Cape or North like Gloucester. Same for Rhode Islanders. Harvard Bridge The bridge connecting Boston and Cambridge via Massachusetts Avenue is commonly known as the Harvard Bridge . When it was built, the state offered to name the bridge for the Cambridge school that could present the best claim for the honor. Harvard submitted an essay detailing its contributions to education in America , concluding that it deserved the honor of having a bridge leading into Cambridge named for the institution. MIT did a structural analysis of the bridge and found it so full of defects t...

Once when Frederick II, an 18th-century king of Prussia, went on an inspection tour of a Berlin prison, he was greeted with the cries of prisoners, who fell on their knees and protested their unjust imprisonment. While listening to these pleas of innocence, Frederick’s eye was caught by a solitary figure in the corner, a prisoner seemingly unconcerned with all the commotion. "Why are you here?" Frederick asked him. "Armed robbery, Your Majesty." "Were you guilty?" the king asked. "Oh yes, indeed, Your Majesty. I entirely deserve my punishment." At that Frederick summoned the jailer. "Release this guilty man at once," he said. "I will not have him kept in this prison where he will corrupt all the fine innocent people who occupy it." (By Lloyd Steffen in the Christian Century   April 29th 1987) (I have not been able to check the veracity of this story about Frederick II )  jmp

2 Samuel 11:1-15 11In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. 3David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. 5The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.” 6So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. 8Then David said to Uriah,...