It鈥檚 a mad MAD world
THIS week marks the 71st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which led to the deaths of over 129,000 people. Earlier this month British MPs voted to maintain the UK鈥檚 nuclear deterrent, which aims to prevent a repeat of this tragedy by making sure it can happen again at any given moment.
Shortly before becoming prime minister, Theresa May wrote a letter in the stating that it would be 鈥渟heer madness鈥� to give up the country鈥檚 nuclear arsenal, and the mutually assured destruction it offers.MAD is in fact sane, we are told, and renewing Trident will demonstrate that 鈥渨e remain committed to working alongside our NATO allies鈥� even as the UK prepares to distance itself from its European ones.
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Nonetheless, further cooperation with one NATO partner is inescapable: despite claims that nuclear defence is the flexing biceps of its independence, the UK can鈥檛 build the submarines, missiles or warheads needed without US assistance.
鈥淚n the waiting room of a clinic in Harrogate, a poster advises Michael Laycock: 鈥淧lease note you may expect to wait if being seen by rapid access doctor.鈥濃��
A long shelf life
to a local journalist that 鈥渋f you live in Clifton you are going to live ten times longer on average than someone living in Knowle West and some of that is down to diet and what you eat.鈥�
Barry Cash who lives in nearby Bishopston, where the life-extending benefits of local food are unclear, has doubts about the accuracy of the statement. But he admits: 鈥淚t could explain why the restaurants are so expensive in Clifton.鈥�
It seems much more likely that life in Clifton just seems ten times longer, says Barry, 鈥渂ecause the residents鈥� parking zone makes it so difficult to find a space鈥�.
Papal poke
POPE FRANCIS has urged nuns to break the habit of frittering away hours on Facebook in his latest Apostolic Constitution. The guide to living the God life states that nuns ought to be wary of 鈥渨asting time or escaping from the demands of fraternal life in the community鈥�.
Feedback thinks it鈥檚 worth bearing in mind that when it came to the Ten Commandments, even Moses used a pair of tablets.
Package tour
FURTHER to Feedback鈥檚 observation that UK Post Office guidelines do not explicitly rule out sending oneself by mail, Tony Harker relays the case of legendary prankster W. Reginald Bray, who repeatedly tested the limits of the postal system in early 20th-century Britain. As well as posting a collection of bizarre items, we鈥檙e told, he arranged to have himself delivered by mail on more than one occasion.
Bray鈥檚 antics are recounted in John Tingey鈥檚 The Englishman Who Posted Himself and Other Curious Objects.
Big bangs
PAUL BUCKINGHAM writes that he has always wondered if the mantra that matter 鈥渃an neither be created nor destroyed鈥� was reliable. 鈥淎pparently it does not even apply here in France,鈥� he says, as 鈥渙n my Elseve shampoo bottle, manufacturer L鈥橭r茅al claims to be Cr茅ateur de mati猫re 鈥� a creator of matter.鈥� A volume-enhancing concoction, perhaps?
Second glance
鈥淚N RESPONSE to Ian Napier鈥檚 quest for a phrase meaning a recurrent feeling of d茅j脿 vu,鈥� writes Dan Wunder (9 July), 鈥渢his humble author suggests d茅j脿 deux in keeping with the overall esprit de la France of the original.
Tailor鈥檚 holiday
FEEDBACK was perplexed by the news that in many places on the Continent, the slow news season is referred to as 鈥渃ucumber time鈥� (30 July).
Dave Beakhurst writes to say that one Dutch source claims the phrase komkommertijd comes from an English expression, dating back to around 1700. According to IsGeschiedenis, cucumber time takes its name from the summer period when the nobility retreated to their country homes, leaving the city tailors who dressed them out of work, and only able to afford cucumbers to eat.
鈥淭he history quoted doesn鈥檛 completely explain its near-ubiquity in northern Europe, so may be just one possibility,鈥� he says. Perhaps it鈥檚 down to an inordinate fondness for cucumbers.
Trunk time
ELEPHANTS are journalists鈥� favoured unit of weight, but we found them used as a unit of area by the Rogers Centre baseball stadium in Toronto (25 June).
Andrew Glassner gets in touch to say elephants are also employed as a unit of time: 鈥淎t the website from Princeton University, we discover 鈥榦nly 60 elephant lifetimes ago, much of East Africa was dense tropical forest鈥�.鈥�
Andrew suspects that all of space and time may be measured in elephants 鈥� which makes them a convenient reference point, if only Feedback were remotely familiar with their weight, area or lifespan.
Veni vidi Viz
OUR all-seeing eye discovers Rob Ellis boasting to Viz that he has published in both Feedback and Profanisaurus, but 鈥渨on鈥檛 be telling New 杏吧原创 this鈥�. To which we say, why ever not?
We can assure you there鈥檚 no shortage of creative profanity in our letterbocks, er, letterbox.