Friday, August 20, 2010

Down for the count ...

Today is election day after a short and extremely boring campaign. The opinion polls show both major parties almost neck to neck with the probability that the Ranga will win. Both sides are pretty dire but I would prefer the Budgie Smuggler to get his nose past the post as the Ranga's big new tax on the mining companies will affect my shares.

I have started back on a walking programme as Little Bro said that it was the way he lost quite a lot of weight in quite a short time. I used to walk along the beach most mornings until I sprained my right hip, after which I started doing the WII Fitness instead as it is easier on my hip. However, that is getting better and the WII certainly didn't cause me to lose any weight ... a point which it made very clear to me every morning when I weighed in. Little Bro used a very fancy pedometer to count his steps; I had a very cheap pedometer which counted my steps very nicely but yesterday, after I had worked out how far I needed to walk, it died and I realised that it was like a throwaway watch - when the battery dies you buy another one. I might lash out and get myself an electronic one which has a USB connection to keep a record - or I might simply keep walking from one surf-club to the other one and home again, which takes me about 75 minutes.

However, I have lashed out and bought myself an e-reader which should arrive from Melbourne early next week as it was posted on Wednesday. There arae about 1 million books in e-reader format but most are books which are out of copyright. Nevertheless, I have no objection to re-reading Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins and John Buchan and hopefully a few more will be made available as time goes on. Already the 'Girl' books are in e-format as is Dan Brown's latest book whcih I tried to read in paperback form and managed to get to about page 120 before it bored me almost to death and I gave up on it. His books are getting longer and duller and more oriented to America and all its works, both esoteric and masonic.

The reason for the e-reader is that I am getting rid of my books and Cyberflirt is one of the books which has to go so no more hints for now but I might slip in an odd word every so often.

And here, from The Completely Superior Person's Book of Words by Peter Bowler, is your word for today:

MERKIN: [n] A pubic wig for women, or, to quote Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue 'counterfeit hair for women's privy parts.' Do not ask the author to explain this. The lexographer's duty is merely to record. To others remains it to remark, with Ambrose Bierce, "Can such things be?"

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