ON 10 December we published a list sent in by Fred Rost of words containing rogue hyphens that have mysteriously appeared in New 杏吧原创. Now Bob Taylor writes to say that he and a friend have bagged some similar trophies from newspapers in Canada.
Their list includes the following: mans-laughter, real-locations, calfs-kin, royal-ties, deter-gents, imp-roved, read-just, forest-all, thin-king, roman-tic, gene-rations, cart-ridges, end-anger, cows-lip jar-ring, prick-led, cad-avers, corn-ices, bar-rage, wee-knights, disc-over, drama-tics, tramp-led, casual-ties 鈥�
Aren鈥檛 they delightful?
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THEY鈥檝e noticed it in Staffordshire and they鈥檝e noticed it in Sussex. In fact, the outbreak seems nationwide. Everywhere you go, you come across dogs whose breath smells of garlic.
Seldom has an issue provoked so much correspondence in the Veterinary Record. Some say the mild, damp winter has provoked early growth of wild garlic, Allium ursinum, which dogs brush against as they dart about chasing sticks. Some say that pet food manufacturers are adding garlic to dog food (though why they should suddenly start doing this is a mystery). And some say, with a logic that so far escapes us, that it is all connected with the Channel Tunnel.
The magazine鈥檚 editors have their own suggestion. Garlic breath, it seems, is the first symptom of selenium poisoning in humans. Could selenium be finding its way into dogfoods or veterinary treatments?
AS ANY gardener will tell you, ladybirds make excellent biological pest control agents. But the problem for people who grow plants on a commercial scale is how to gather enough ladybirds to control pests on, for example, a whole field of vegetables. In some countries, ladybirds are bred for the purpose, but according to Ladybirds, by Michael Majerus, they do it differently in the US.
At the end of the ladybirds鈥� spring breeding season in the US, available food becomes depleted, so they migrate from their lowland breeding sites to spend a summer and autumn of relative inactivity in higher regions. Eventually, as their food runs out entirely and the weather gets cold, they form overwintering aggregations and remain immobile until the spring, when they fly back down to the lowlands.
These winter aggregations can be massive, comprising many millions of ladybirds. To collect them, all a commercial ladybird trader needs is a portable vacuum cleaner, which can harvest up to 50 kilograms a day (some two million ladybirds). The task is made easier by the fact that the ladybirds tend to revisit the same spots to aggregate each year.
The ladybirds are bottled and stored in a cool place. They continue to hibernate until the spring, when they are sold to farmers to control aphids on their crops. It鈥檚 an arrangement that suits everybody very nicely 鈥� especially the ladybirds, who are kept safe for the winter and then transported, without the hazards of a long journey on the wing, to places where there is masses of their favourite food waiting for them. After which, they head back to the highlands and the process starts all over again.
FEEDBACK has been a little late paying off some overdue income tax this year. A trifling matter of a few hundred pounds, but enough to lead to an embarrassing appearance in court if it isn鈥檛 sorted out. So the heart jumped straight into the mouth when a large brown envelope from the Inland Revenue arrived the other day.
But fear not. There is no reason to send flowers and cakes with files in them just yet. The envelope contained an invitation to go to the press day at the new Inland Revenue centre in Nottingham. This funpacked day includes coffee, a guided tour of the centre, a light lunch, and a press pack full of interesting information about the Inland Revenue. Curiously, however, there is no mention that the new building is actually rather interesting (see 鈥淥ffices that breathe naturally鈥�, 11 June 1994).
WHEN Laura Spinney was researching her article 鈥淩eturn to the wild鈥� (14 January), she went to Scotland and talked to conservationists, farmers鈥� organisations and others. She was told that the way to spell the name of the island that has been chosen for the possible reintroduction of wolves in Scotland is 鈥淩um鈥�.
But the New 杏吧原创 subeditors decided to check the spelling, as is their wont, since they had also come across the spelling 鈥淩hum鈥� and believed this to be correct. They turned to no less an authority than the Ordnance Survey, who told them that they were right, so this is how the word appeared in the published article.
But they weren鈥檛 right. Ian Fraser of the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh tells us that 鈥淩um鈥� is a Gaelic name, and was used in all records about the island up until around 1900. At this point, scholars who were attempting to Anglicise Gaelic words decided, for some reason, to add an 鈥渉鈥� after a whole swathe of place names beginning with 鈥渞鈥�, including the Rhinns of Islay, Kells and Galloway, and Rhu in Dunbartonshire, none of which had the 鈥渉鈥� before. The original spelling, however, is the right one and is being increasingly used again by those in the know.
And the Ordnance Survey? They have now agreed there should be no 鈥渉鈥� in 鈥淩um鈥�, and all their future maps will be amended accordingly. A rum do, eh?
ON 21 January we reported on 鈥渄igital video guru鈥� John Watkinson鈥檚 definition of the acronym MPEG (鈥淢otion Predicted by Educated Guesswork鈥�). Watkinson was so delighted to be described as a guru that he penned a ditty on the subject for Feedback, modelled on the Flanders and Swann Gnu song:
I鈥檓 a Guru: G. U. R. U.
I鈥檓 not just an authority, thank you.
I鈥檓 a Guru, I鈥檓 a Guru,
You鈥檒l find me in a copy of Who鈥檚 Who.
I鈥檓 a Guru, I鈥檓 a Guru,
Call me merely a consultant and I鈥檒l sue you.
Gnor am I in the least like that awful expert beast.
Gno gno gno, I鈥檓 a Guru.
He also offers us another of his definitions. The ISO JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) standard for the compression of still pictures stands, he suggests, for 鈥淛ust Pretend Everything鈥檚 Great鈥�.