Clare Townhill

Schooled by Gmail

I don't normally take much notice of the 'funny' quotes of the day that intermittently appear across the top of my gmail, but this one rang a cord with me:

"It's not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on."

Here are some of the other things I have learned today courtesy of my gmail feed: Office Printers pose new health risk (presumably because the frustration caused when they chew or refuse to print vital documents makes you want to kill yourself), Facebook users run the risk of ID theft and (my personal favourite), Panda poo souvenirs in a dung-for-profit scheme...

 

Tiger Tiger Burning Bright?

Not even going to pretend that I found this first. I was doing when I often do when I'm missing my friends, I have a look at their blogs. I'd forgotten that Alistair mentionned his disappointment at being given a racoon as his daemon rather than his dearly desired dog. I noticed too that another dear friend Emma, (aka the Nog) had taken the test and had been given Olin the tiger. Now, upon doing the test and finding myself given a tiger (not that I'm complaining) I felt a moment of deep uncertainty. I'm not sure that even the kindest of my friends would say that Emma and I are similar. Given this fact, I thought it might be worth opening the floor for comments from friends as to whether they think I've been given my daemon in error. Comments please.

Possessor of a Plebian Proboscis

I was looking for a good cheese quote to send to a gloomy caseophile friend when I came across this great blog. The Caseophile (caseo = cheese) is a serious homage to fromage. As confessed in an earlier post, I don't really like cheese, as a longterm veggie this is particularly tricky. I consider it a major achievement that I can cope with the wimpy end of the cheese spectrum; the following quote is spectacularly haughty in it's distain for plebs like me:

"People who know nothing about cheeses reel away from Camembert, Roquefort, and Stilton because the plebeian proboscis is not equipped to differentiate between the sordid and the sublime."
- Harvey Day

Unsurprisingly, my cheese-loving friend loved it. I suppose the real reason I'm writing this post is as a sign of my appreciation for the quirks, foibles and obsessions of other bloggers. It's always such a pleasure to come into contact with other people and their blogs; it's like sitting next to someone at a  dinner party and being able to cut straight to the kind of candour and personal insights you only normally glimpse after four large glasses of wine.