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A tentative knock came at the sitting room door. Karen uncrossed her long brown legs and strode across the highly polished parquet floor. Parquetry is a geometric mosaic of wood pieces used for decorative effect.
The two main uses of parquetry are as veneer patterns on furniture and block patterns for flooring. Parquet patterns are entirely geometrical and angular—squares, triangles, lozenges. The most popular parquet flooring pattern is herringbone. (The use of curved and natural shapes constitutes marquetry rather than parquetry.)
The word parquet derives from the Old French parchet (the diminutive of parc), literally meaning "a small enclosed space". Large diagonal squares known as parquet de Versailles were introduced in 1684 as parquet de menuiserie ("woodwork parquet") to replace the marble flooring that required constant washing, which tended to rot the joists beneath the floors. Such parquets en lozange were noted by the Swedish architect Daniel Cronström at Versailles and at the Grand Trianon in 1693.
Timber contrasting in color and grain, such as oak, walnut, cherry, lime, pine, maple etc. are sometimes employed; and in the more expensive kinds such as that in Karen's apartment the richly coloured mahogany and sometimes other tropical hardwoods are also used. While not technically a wood, bamboo is also a popular material for modern floors.
Parquet floors were formerly usually adhered with hot bitumen. Today modern cold adhesives are usually used.
Wood floors may be brushed clean, and mopped when necessary. Upright vacuum cleaners can scratch and wear the surface, as grit particles become embedded in the spinning brushes. Karen frequently warned Mrs Cartwright her ancient cleaner to refrain from using the hoover on the parquet.
Parquet floors are usually long lasting and require little or no maintenance.
Unstuck blocks are re-glued. Bitumen-glued blocks require use of either hot bitumen or a cold bitumen emulsion, as other glue types do not adhere to bitumen.
Parquet floors are often found in bedrooms and hallways, although Karen had them in all of the rooms of her apartment except the romper room which was furnished with thick rubber mats. They are considered better than regular floor tiles since they feel warmer underfoot. However they do little to absorb sounds such as walking, vacuum cleaning and television, which can cause problems in multi-occupancy dwellings.
Karen reached the door and opened it briskly ."Come in sweetheart. Did you enjoy your nap ?"
Mr Changeable was sweating profusely under his ginger facial hair. The moment of truth had arrived.
"I have a surprise for you Roxie ! This is Geoff who is moving in today..."
"Geoff...Roxie; Roxie...Geoff"
Mr Changeable walked calmly up to Roxie and shook her hand. She looked briefly astonished but quickly recovered and said "Delighted to meet you Geoff. Have you come far ?"
Mr Changeable stuttered nervously "From Australia actually. Have you ever been ?"
"As a matter of fact i was there last month with my husband-to-be. We toured the West Coast before our Wedding in Bali. We saw some fascinating things and some very curious people !"
"That sounds a wonderful holiday. I was in the Northern Territories and Queensland myself. I have never been to the West Coast in my life" lied Mr Changeable.
"Perhaps you have relatives there though ? Darling Rupert and i met a chap who was the spitting image of yourself. Very sad, he was a derelict tramp busking for booze money. He looked as if he had been some sort of soldier now fallen on hard times. Heigh ho what can one do ?"
Mr Changeable laughed falsely. "Now i think of it i do have a cousin Albert who lives in the Fish Creek area of Victoria. Sort of a black sheep. Drinks like a fish. Plays the bassoon ?"
"Yes, that was it... poor chap could hardly string two notes together. Rupert gave him a generous sub then we left town".
Mr Changeable was furious at Roxie's taunts and vowed to get his revenge.
"I expect Geoff would like to have a bath Roxie. Would you mind showing him the facilities ? I have to hack in to the Fordow #3 Reactor. They are changing shifts in five minutes and it is a good time to visit."
"Of course Karen. Follow me Geoff, it is just down the corridor"
Mr Changeable kept a respectful distance from Roxie until they were alone in the bathroom. He narrowed his eyes and in a menacing voice challenged her "You think you are so clever you plastic bitch. Rupert is welcome to you. I would not touch you with a bargepole." Roxie sneered back "what's the matter Mr Swagman ? Something nasty in the billabong ?"
This was too much. Something deep inside Mr Changeable snapped and he slapped the evil blonde doll. The red mist came down and he completely lost control. Roxie clambered onto the toilet bowl in a desperate attempt to escape. In her panic she lost her footing and began to slip down the slick china towards the chilly depths. "Help me Geoff. I did not mean those things. If you rescue me you can do anything you want." "Anything ?" "Yes however weird or disgusting. Just help me up... i cannot swim" "OK... but first of all you must insult Rupert. He is rubbish in bed isn't he ?" "Yes yes, he is hung like a bluebottle and prefers boys."
Mr Changeable relented and held out his brawny arm to Roxie. He hauled her out of the luxury lav and carried her gently to the white looped rug next to the bath tub designed by Joël Dupras;
Keyword: Freshness
The highly archetypal TULIP bathtub carries a classic form into the second millennium, keeping the best of both worlds.
This journey celebrates the sensuality of spring as the first blooms burst forth from the ground, their silky petals unfurling into delicately curved tips.
Organic in inspiration, the flawlessly smooth volume shoots up into two distinct angles at each end, one rising slightly above. Opening like a tulip, an exquisite curve crowns the tub, inviting the body to become one with the form.
"Thank you Geoff. You can give me a good seeing-to now"
The two main uses of parquetry are as veneer patterns on furniture and block patterns for flooring. Parquet patterns are entirely geometrical and angular—squares, triangles, lozenges. The most popular parquet flooring pattern is herringbone. (The use of curved and natural shapes constitutes marquetry rather than parquetry.)
The word parquet derives from the Old French parchet (the diminutive of parc), literally meaning "a small enclosed space". Large diagonal squares known as parquet de Versailles were introduced in 1684 as parquet de menuiserie ("woodwork parquet") to replace the marble flooring that required constant washing, which tended to rot the joists beneath the floors. Such parquets en lozange were noted by the Swedish architect Daniel Cronström at Versailles and at the Grand Trianon in 1693.
Timber contrasting in color and grain, such as oak, walnut, cherry, lime, pine, maple etc. are sometimes employed; and in the more expensive kinds such as that in Karen's apartment the richly coloured mahogany and sometimes other tropical hardwoods are also used. While not technically a wood, bamboo is also a popular material for modern floors.
Parquet floors were formerly usually adhered with hot bitumen. Today modern cold adhesives are usually used.
Wood floors may be brushed clean, and mopped when necessary. Upright vacuum cleaners can scratch and wear the surface, as grit particles become embedded in the spinning brushes. Karen frequently warned Mrs Cartwright her ancient cleaner to refrain from using the hoover on the parquet.
Parquet floors are usually long lasting and require little or no maintenance.
Unstuck blocks are re-glued. Bitumen-glued blocks require use of either hot bitumen or a cold bitumen emulsion, as other glue types do not adhere to bitumen.
Parquet floors are often found in bedrooms and hallways, although Karen had them in all of the rooms of her apartment except the romper room which was furnished with thick rubber mats. They are considered better than regular floor tiles since they feel warmer underfoot. However they do little to absorb sounds such as walking, vacuum cleaning and television, which can cause problems in multi-occupancy dwellings.
Karen reached the door and opened it briskly ."Come in sweetheart. Did you enjoy your nap ?"
Mr Changeable was sweating profusely under his ginger facial hair. The moment of truth had arrived.
"I have a surprise for you Roxie ! This is Geoff who is moving in today..."
"Geoff...Roxie; Roxie...Geoff"
Mr Changeable walked calmly up to Roxie and shook her hand. She looked briefly astonished but quickly recovered and said "Delighted to meet you Geoff. Have you come far ?"
Mr Changeable stuttered nervously "From Australia actually. Have you ever been ?"
"As a matter of fact i was there last month with my husband-to-be. We toured the West Coast before our Wedding in Bali. We saw some fascinating things and some very curious people !"
"That sounds a wonderful holiday. I was in the Northern Territories and Queensland myself. I have never been to the West Coast in my life" lied Mr Changeable.
"Perhaps you have relatives there though ? Darling Rupert and i met a chap who was the spitting image of yourself. Very sad, he was a derelict tramp busking for booze money. He looked as if he had been some sort of soldier now fallen on hard times. Heigh ho what can one do ?"
Mr Changeable laughed falsely. "Now i think of it i do have a cousin Albert who lives in the Fish Creek area of Victoria. Sort of a black sheep. Drinks like a fish. Plays the bassoon ?"
"Yes, that was it... poor chap could hardly string two notes together. Rupert gave him a generous sub then we left town".
Mr Changeable was furious at Roxie's taunts and vowed to get his revenge.
"I expect Geoff would like to have a bath Roxie. Would you mind showing him the facilities ? I have to hack in to the Fordow #3 Reactor. They are changing shifts in five minutes and it is a good time to visit."
"Of course Karen. Follow me Geoff, it is just down the corridor"
Mr Changeable kept a respectful distance from Roxie until they were alone in the bathroom. He narrowed his eyes and in a menacing voice challenged her "You think you are so clever you plastic bitch. Rupert is welcome to you. I would not touch you with a bargepole." Roxie sneered back "what's the matter Mr Swagman ? Something nasty in the billabong ?"
This was too much. Something deep inside Mr Changeable snapped and he slapped the evil blonde doll. The red mist came down and he completely lost control. Roxie clambered onto the toilet bowl in a desperate attempt to escape. In her panic she lost her footing and began to slip down the slick china towards the chilly depths. "Help me Geoff. I did not mean those things. If you rescue me you can do anything you want." "Anything ?" "Yes however weird or disgusting. Just help me up... i cannot swim" "OK... but first of all you must insult Rupert. He is rubbish in bed isn't he ?" "Yes yes, he is hung like a bluebottle and prefers boys."
Mr Changeable relented and held out his brawny arm to Roxie. He hauled her out of the luxury lav and carried her gently to the white looped rug next to the bath tub designed by Joël Dupras;
Keyword: Freshness
The highly archetypal TULIP bathtub carries a classic form into the second millennium, keeping the best of both worlds.
This journey celebrates the sensuality of spring as the first blooms burst forth from the ground, their silky petals unfurling into delicately curved tips.
Organic in inspiration, the flawlessly smooth volume shoots up into two distinct angles at each end, one rising slightly above. Opening like a tulip, an exquisite curve crowns the tub, inviting the body to become one with the form.
"Thank you Geoff. You can give me a good seeing-to now"
(edited 10 years ago)
Mr Changeable gazed at Roxie as she lay back on the looped rug with her shot silk skirt lifted up enticingly over her narrow plastic hips. He managed to overcome his baser instincts and covered her shame with some nearby sheets of toilet paper.
Toilet paper is a soft tissue paper product primarily used for the cleaning of the anus to remove fecal material after defecation or to remove remaining droplets of urine from the genitals after urination, and acts as a layer of protection for the hands during this process. It is typically sold as a long strip of perforated paper wrapped around a cardboard core, to be stored in a dispenser adjacent to a toilet. Most modern toilet paper in the developed world is designed to decompose in septic tanks, whereas some other bathroom and facial tissues are not. Toilet paper can be one-, two- or three-ply, or even thicker, meaning that it is either a single sheet or multiple sheets placed back-to-back to make it thicker, softer, stronger and more absorbent.
The use of paper for such hygiene purposes has been recorded in China in the 6th century, with specifically manufactured toilet paper being mass-produced in the 14th century. Modern commercial toilet paper originated in the 19th century, with a patent for roll-based dispensers being made in 1883.
Although paper had been known as a wrapping and padding material in China since the 2nd century BC, the first documented use of toilet paper in human history dates back to the 6th century AD, in early medieval China. In 589 AD the scholar-official Yan Zhitui (531–591) wrote about the use of toilet paper:
"Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes".
During the later Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD), an Arab traveller to China in the year 851 AD remarked:
"...they [the Chinese] do not wash themselves with water when they have done their necessities; but they only wipe themselves with paper."
During the early 14th century, it was recorded that in modern-day Zhejiang province alone there was an annual manufacturing of toilet paper amounting in ten million packages of 1,000 to 10,000 sheets of toilet paper each. During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD), it was recorded in 1393 that an annual supply of 720,000 sheets of toilet paper (two by three feet in size) were produced for the general use of the imperial court at the capital of Nanjing.From the records of the Imperial Bureau of Supplies of that same year, it was also recorded that for Emperor Hongwu's imperial family alone, there were 15,000 sheets of special soft-fabric toilet paper made, and each sheet of toilet paper was even perfumed.
Elsewhere, wealthy people wiped themselves with wool, lace or hemp, while less wealthy people used their hand when defecating into rivers, or cleaned themselves with various materials such as rags, wood shavings, leaves, grass, hay, stone, sand, moss, water, snow, maize, ferns, may apple plant husks, fruit skins, or seashells, and corncobs, depending upon the country and weather conditions or social customs. In Ancient Rome, a sponge on a stick was commonly used, and, after usage, placed back in a bucket of saltwater. Several talmudic sources indicating ancient Jewish practice refer to the use of small pebbles, often carried in a special bag, and also to the use of dry grass and of the smooth edges of broken pottery jugs (e.g., Shabbat 81a, 82a, Yevamot 59b). These are all cited in the classic Biblical and Talmudic Medicine by the German physician Julius Preuss (Eng. trans. Sanhedrin Press, 1978).
A print by William Hogarth entitled A Just View of the British Stage from 1724 depicting Robert Wilks, Colley Cibber, and Barton Booth rehearsing a pantomime play with puppets enacting a prison break down a privy. The "play" is composed of nothing but toilet paper, and the scripts for Hamlet, inter al., are toilet paper.
The 16th century French satirical writer François Rabelais, in Chapter XIII of Book 1 of his novel-sequence Gargantua and Pantagruel, has his character Gargantua investigate a great number of ways of cleansing oneself after defecating. Gargantua dismisses the use of paper as ineffective, rhyming that: "Who his foul tail with paper wipes, Shall at his ballocks leave some chips." (Sir Thomas Urquhart's 1653 English translation). He concludes that "the neck of a goose, that is well downed" provides an optimum cleansing medium.
In many parts of the world, especially where toilet paper or the necessary plumbing for disposal may be unavailable or unaffordable, toilet paper is not used. Also, in many parts of the world such as India, people consider using water a much cleaner and more sanitary practice than using paper. Cleansing is then performed with other methods or materials, such as water, for example using a bidet, a lota, rags, sand, leaves (including seaweed), corn cobs, animal furs, sticks or hands; afterwards, hands are washed with soap.
Joseph Gayetty is widely credited with being the inventor of modern commercially available toilet paper in the United States. Gayetty's paper, first introduced in 1857, was available as late as the 1920s. Gayetty's Medicated Paper was sold in packages of flat sheets, watermarked with the inventor's name. Original advertisements for the product used the tagline "The greatest necessity of the age! Gayetty's medicated paper for the water-closet."
Seth Wheeler of Albany, New York, obtained the earliest United States patents for toilet paper and dispensers, the types of which eventually were in common usage in that country, in 1883.
Moist toilet paper was first introduced in the United Kingdom by Andrex in the 1990s, and in the United States by Kimberly-Clark in 2001 (in lieu of bidets which are rare in those countries.) It is designed to clean better than dry toilet paper after defecation, and may be useful for women during menstruation.
Twenty-six billion rolls of toilet paper, worth about US$2.4 billion, are sold yearly in America alone. Americans use an average of 23.6 rolls per capita a year.
Toilet paper is available in several types of paper, a variety of patterns, decorations, and textures, and it may be moistened or perfumed, although fragrances sometimes cause problems for users who are allergic to perfumes. The average measures of a modern roll of toilet paper is ~10 cm (3 15/16 in.) wide, ø 12 cm (4 23/32 in.) and weighs about 227 grams (8 oz.).
Toilet paper products vary greatly in the distinguishing technical factors: sizes, weights, roughness, softness, chemical residues, "finger-breakthrough" resistance, water-absorption, etc. The larger companies have very detailed, scientific market surveys to determine which marketing sectors require/demand which of the many technical qualities. Modern toilet paper may have a light coating of aloe or lotion or wax worked into the paper to reduce roughness.
Quality is usually determined by the number of plies (stacked sheets), coarseness, and durability. Low grade institutional toilet paper is typically of the lowest grade of paper, has only one or two plies, is very coarse and sometimes contains small amounts of embedded unbleached/unpulped paper. Mid-grade two ply is somewhat textured to provide some softness and is somewhat stronger. Premium toilet paper may have lotion and wax and has two to four plies of very finely pulped paper. If it is marketed as "luxury", it may be quilted or rippled (embossed), perfumed, colored or patterned, medicated (with anti-bacterial chemicals), or treated with aloe or other perfumes.
In order to advance decomposition of the paper in septic tanks or drainage, the paper used has shorter fibres than facial tissue or writing paper. The manufacturer tries to reach an optimal balance between rapid decomposition (which requires shorter fibres) and sturdiness (which requires longer fibres).
A German quip says that the toilet paper of Nazi Germany was so rough and scratchy that it was almost unusable, so many people used old issues of the Völkischer Beobachter instead because the paper was softer.
Colored toilet paper in colors such as pink, lavender, light blue, light green, purple, green, and light yellow (so that one could choose a color of toilet paper that matched or complemented the color of one's bathroom) was commonly sold in the United States from the 1960s. Up until 2004, Scott was one of the last remaining U.S. manufacturers to still produce toilet paper in beige, blue, and pink. However, the company has since cut production of colored paper altogether.
Today, in the United States, plain unpatterned colored toilet paper has been mostly replaced by patterned toilet paper, normally white, with embossed decorative patterns or designs in various colors and different sizes depending on the brand. Colored toilet paper remains commonly available in some European countries.
"Roxie i lied to you earlier. It was me in Fish Creek last month. There is no such person as Albert. I have never visited Queensland. I do play the bassoon, or English Didgeridoo" "But Geoff, why did you say those things ?" "I do not know Roxie. You make me feel dirty and confused, but in a nice way ?"
"Well I am a married woman now and must only have nookie with my husband. You can have a quick BJ now but that is just to say thank you for rescuing me from the dunny."
"Roxie I have too much respect for you to accept your offer. My love for you is far too precious to sully with such crude transactions."
"Whatever... now i need to have a fag and a G&T. Give us a hand up Geoff."
Mr Changeable helped the gorgeous plastic creature to her machine moulded feet. He gazed longingly at her but knew that she would never understand his feelings.
"I guess this is goodbye then. Can we still be friends ?" asked Roxie. Mr Changeable had heard about the friendzone and it did not sound very interesting.
In popular culture, the "friend zone" refers to a platonic relationship wherein one person wishes to enter into a romantic or sexual relationship, while the other does not. It is generally considered to be an undesirable situation by the lovelorn person. Once the friend zone is established, it is said to be difficult to move beyond that point in a relationship.
There are differing explanations about what causes a person to be placed in the friend zone by another. It might result from misinterpreted signals or from a fear that a deeper relationship might jeopardize the friendship. A Chicago Tribune writer suggested there were several cases in which a man might become relegated to the friend zone: (1) the woman is not sufficiently attracted to the man, (2) the woman misinterprets nonverbal cues from the man signaling his interest in deepening the relationship, (3) there is sexual repulsion (but not enough to block a friendship). In a friendship between a man and a woman, being relegated to the friend zone can happen to either person.The zone has been described in this way:
When a guy agrees to be friends, he's forced to stifle his attraction while regularly seeing and talking to the woman he's attracted to. She discusses her love life and has the audacity to ask his advice on it. He performs occasional "manly" household and automotive favors for the women. Essentially, he does everything a boyfriend would do – without the benefits.
— Gina B., Chicago Tribune, 2007
Marshall Fine of The Huffington Post suggested that the friend zone is "like the penalty box of dating, when your only crime is not being buff and unobtainable."Dating adviser Ali Binazir described the friend zone as Justfriendistan, and wrote that it's a "territory only to be rivaled in inhospitability by the western Sahara, the Atacama, and Dante's Ninth Circle of Hell."
One man described himself as always having girlfriends who were "girls" but were only his "friends", meaning there was no sex between them.
There is general agreement that once a man is in the friend zone, it is difficult to get out. However, there was a report in Cosmopolitan magazine that suggested that a friend-only relation could change into a sexual one. It was based in part on a 2001 Match.com survey in which 71% of respondents hoped that they would fall in love with a friend.It has also been suggested that women may also become victims of the "friend zone", in which a man treats them as only a friend, while the woman prefers a more intimate relationship.
Despite the pitfalls of friend zones, there have been views advanced that a friend zone relation can evolve from "the lingering possibility of becoming more than a friend" into something deeper, particularly if the friend-zone friendship leads to a long term feeling of trustworthiness and intimacy.
The term 'friend zone' has come under scrutiny by Lawsonry, which defines "friendzone" as "An imaginary condition created by a sexist person who feels entitled to sexual contact with another person."
Humor and alternative music blog Stuff You Will Hate is heavily critical of the concept of the friendzone, and of the archetypal self-proclaimed "nice guy" to whom the term is often applied. To quote blog contributor Save Parker, "Some dudes get it into their head that [if] they’re really nice to a girl she’ll just **** them, which really on paper doesn’t sound like a practice that makes any sense. So they just spend all their time piling on compliments and favors in a futile attempt to be seen as not a friend (when they’re really just being a really good friend) and then blame the girl for never being attracted to them from the start. If someone thinks you’re their friend and you want to date, they don’t have to, and most likely they do not want to." In a more recent post, he said, "You aren’t owed anything for being nice, everyone should be nice. To every person you meet. All the time. Not just because you want to have sex with them. That’s not nice."
The term "friend zone" was popularized by a 1994 episode of the American sitcom Friends entitled "The One with the Blackout", where the character Ross Geller, who was lovesick for Rachel Green, was described by character Joey Tribbiani as being the "mayor of the friend zone".The question of whether a man can ever "escape the friend zone and begin dating one of his female friends" helped make the "geek dream couple" of Ross and Rachel storyline compelling dramatically, according to one view. Comedian Chris Rock talked about men being trapped in the friend zone in his 1996 album Bring the Pain. The television show Scrubs used the term on the episode entitled "My Best Friend's Mistake" in which the character J.D. explained that after an important turning point happens in the relationship between a man and a woman, there are less than 48 hours to do something about it or else the man will be stuck in the woman's friend zone forever. J.D. doesn't get to finish kissing his unrequited love, Elliot Reid, in 48 hours, so he entered into an imaginary "Friend Zone" hospital room filled with other men who had similarly become stuck in Elliot's friend zone.
The 2005 film Just Friends main character, played by Ryan Reynolds, reunited after ten years with his friend played by Amy Smart, who informs him that she loves him "like a brother", essentially dashing any hopes of him having her as a girlfriend. The movie When Harry Met Sally explored the theme of whether men and women could be friends without being lovers.
In May 2011, MTV had a show entitled FriendZone. In an interview with a national publication, a producer said:
The idea for the show came out of my own experience. Unfortunately, I know the pain of telling the girl of your dreams you love them and want to take the relationship to the next level only to be told they don't feel the same. I figured if it happened to me, it might be something others could relate to as well. If it works, you have the beginnings of a great love story. If it doesn't, well, pain and humiliation make great TV, too."
In the 2010 Nickelodeon-sitcom Big Time Rush, the character of James described the friend zone as "a dark place, where you give girls rides to the airport, talk about their ex-boyfriends and help them move in", without ever having a chance to become a couple.
Mr Changeable had heard that there was a slightly better state of affairs than the friendzone known as Friends With Benefits. Perhaps Roxie might be interested in this ?
Toilet paper is a soft tissue paper product primarily used for the cleaning of the anus to remove fecal material after defecation or to remove remaining droplets of urine from the genitals after urination, and acts as a layer of protection for the hands during this process. It is typically sold as a long strip of perforated paper wrapped around a cardboard core, to be stored in a dispenser adjacent to a toilet. Most modern toilet paper in the developed world is designed to decompose in septic tanks, whereas some other bathroom and facial tissues are not. Toilet paper can be one-, two- or three-ply, or even thicker, meaning that it is either a single sheet or multiple sheets placed back-to-back to make it thicker, softer, stronger and more absorbent.
The use of paper for such hygiene purposes has been recorded in China in the 6th century, with specifically manufactured toilet paper being mass-produced in the 14th century. Modern commercial toilet paper originated in the 19th century, with a patent for roll-based dispensers being made in 1883.
Although paper had been known as a wrapping and padding material in China since the 2nd century BC, the first documented use of toilet paper in human history dates back to the 6th century AD, in early medieval China. In 589 AD the scholar-official Yan Zhitui (531–591) wrote about the use of toilet paper:
"Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes".
During the later Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD), an Arab traveller to China in the year 851 AD remarked:
"...they [the Chinese] do not wash themselves with water when they have done their necessities; but they only wipe themselves with paper."
During the early 14th century, it was recorded that in modern-day Zhejiang province alone there was an annual manufacturing of toilet paper amounting in ten million packages of 1,000 to 10,000 sheets of toilet paper each. During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD), it was recorded in 1393 that an annual supply of 720,000 sheets of toilet paper (two by three feet in size) were produced for the general use of the imperial court at the capital of Nanjing.From the records of the Imperial Bureau of Supplies of that same year, it was also recorded that for Emperor Hongwu's imperial family alone, there were 15,000 sheets of special soft-fabric toilet paper made, and each sheet of toilet paper was even perfumed.
Elsewhere, wealthy people wiped themselves with wool, lace or hemp, while less wealthy people used their hand when defecating into rivers, or cleaned themselves with various materials such as rags, wood shavings, leaves, grass, hay, stone, sand, moss, water, snow, maize, ferns, may apple plant husks, fruit skins, or seashells, and corncobs, depending upon the country and weather conditions or social customs. In Ancient Rome, a sponge on a stick was commonly used, and, after usage, placed back in a bucket of saltwater. Several talmudic sources indicating ancient Jewish practice refer to the use of small pebbles, often carried in a special bag, and also to the use of dry grass and of the smooth edges of broken pottery jugs (e.g., Shabbat 81a, 82a, Yevamot 59b). These are all cited in the classic Biblical and Talmudic Medicine by the German physician Julius Preuss (Eng. trans. Sanhedrin Press, 1978).
A print by William Hogarth entitled A Just View of the British Stage from 1724 depicting Robert Wilks, Colley Cibber, and Barton Booth rehearsing a pantomime play with puppets enacting a prison break down a privy. The "play" is composed of nothing but toilet paper, and the scripts for Hamlet, inter al., are toilet paper.
The 16th century French satirical writer François Rabelais, in Chapter XIII of Book 1 of his novel-sequence Gargantua and Pantagruel, has his character Gargantua investigate a great number of ways of cleansing oneself after defecating. Gargantua dismisses the use of paper as ineffective, rhyming that: "Who his foul tail with paper wipes, Shall at his ballocks leave some chips." (Sir Thomas Urquhart's 1653 English translation). He concludes that "the neck of a goose, that is well downed" provides an optimum cleansing medium.
In many parts of the world, especially where toilet paper or the necessary plumbing for disposal may be unavailable or unaffordable, toilet paper is not used. Also, in many parts of the world such as India, people consider using water a much cleaner and more sanitary practice than using paper. Cleansing is then performed with other methods or materials, such as water, for example using a bidet, a lota, rags, sand, leaves (including seaweed), corn cobs, animal furs, sticks or hands; afterwards, hands are washed with soap.
Joseph Gayetty is widely credited with being the inventor of modern commercially available toilet paper in the United States. Gayetty's paper, first introduced in 1857, was available as late as the 1920s. Gayetty's Medicated Paper was sold in packages of flat sheets, watermarked with the inventor's name. Original advertisements for the product used the tagline "The greatest necessity of the age! Gayetty's medicated paper for the water-closet."
Seth Wheeler of Albany, New York, obtained the earliest United States patents for toilet paper and dispensers, the types of which eventually were in common usage in that country, in 1883.
Moist toilet paper was first introduced in the United Kingdom by Andrex in the 1990s, and in the United States by Kimberly-Clark in 2001 (in lieu of bidets which are rare in those countries.) It is designed to clean better than dry toilet paper after defecation, and may be useful for women during menstruation.
Twenty-six billion rolls of toilet paper, worth about US$2.4 billion, are sold yearly in America alone. Americans use an average of 23.6 rolls per capita a year.
Toilet paper is available in several types of paper, a variety of patterns, decorations, and textures, and it may be moistened or perfumed, although fragrances sometimes cause problems for users who are allergic to perfumes. The average measures of a modern roll of toilet paper is ~10 cm (3 15/16 in.) wide, ø 12 cm (4 23/32 in.) and weighs about 227 grams (8 oz.).
Toilet paper products vary greatly in the distinguishing technical factors: sizes, weights, roughness, softness, chemical residues, "finger-breakthrough" resistance, water-absorption, etc. The larger companies have very detailed, scientific market surveys to determine which marketing sectors require/demand which of the many technical qualities. Modern toilet paper may have a light coating of aloe or lotion or wax worked into the paper to reduce roughness.
Quality is usually determined by the number of plies (stacked sheets), coarseness, and durability. Low grade institutional toilet paper is typically of the lowest grade of paper, has only one or two plies, is very coarse and sometimes contains small amounts of embedded unbleached/unpulped paper. Mid-grade two ply is somewhat textured to provide some softness and is somewhat stronger. Premium toilet paper may have lotion and wax and has two to four plies of very finely pulped paper. If it is marketed as "luxury", it may be quilted or rippled (embossed), perfumed, colored or patterned, medicated (with anti-bacterial chemicals), or treated with aloe or other perfumes.
In order to advance decomposition of the paper in septic tanks or drainage, the paper used has shorter fibres than facial tissue or writing paper. The manufacturer tries to reach an optimal balance between rapid decomposition (which requires shorter fibres) and sturdiness (which requires longer fibres).
A German quip says that the toilet paper of Nazi Germany was so rough and scratchy that it was almost unusable, so many people used old issues of the Völkischer Beobachter instead because the paper was softer.
Colored toilet paper in colors such as pink, lavender, light blue, light green, purple, green, and light yellow (so that one could choose a color of toilet paper that matched or complemented the color of one's bathroom) was commonly sold in the United States from the 1960s. Up until 2004, Scott was one of the last remaining U.S. manufacturers to still produce toilet paper in beige, blue, and pink. However, the company has since cut production of colored paper altogether.
Today, in the United States, plain unpatterned colored toilet paper has been mostly replaced by patterned toilet paper, normally white, with embossed decorative patterns or designs in various colors and different sizes depending on the brand. Colored toilet paper remains commonly available in some European countries.
"Roxie i lied to you earlier. It was me in Fish Creek last month. There is no such person as Albert. I have never visited Queensland. I do play the bassoon, or English Didgeridoo" "But Geoff, why did you say those things ?" "I do not know Roxie. You make me feel dirty and confused, but in a nice way ?"
"Well I am a married woman now and must only have nookie with my husband. You can have a quick BJ now but that is just to say thank you for rescuing me from the dunny."
"Roxie I have too much respect for you to accept your offer. My love for you is far too precious to sully with such crude transactions."
"Whatever... now i need to have a fag and a G&T. Give us a hand up Geoff."
Mr Changeable helped the gorgeous plastic creature to her machine moulded feet. He gazed longingly at her but knew that she would never understand his feelings.
"I guess this is goodbye then. Can we still be friends ?" asked Roxie. Mr Changeable had heard about the friendzone and it did not sound very interesting.
In popular culture, the "friend zone" refers to a platonic relationship wherein one person wishes to enter into a romantic or sexual relationship, while the other does not. It is generally considered to be an undesirable situation by the lovelorn person. Once the friend zone is established, it is said to be difficult to move beyond that point in a relationship.
There are differing explanations about what causes a person to be placed in the friend zone by another. It might result from misinterpreted signals or from a fear that a deeper relationship might jeopardize the friendship. A Chicago Tribune writer suggested there were several cases in which a man might become relegated to the friend zone: (1) the woman is not sufficiently attracted to the man, (2) the woman misinterprets nonverbal cues from the man signaling his interest in deepening the relationship, (3) there is sexual repulsion (but not enough to block a friendship). In a friendship between a man and a woman, being relegated to the friend zone can happen to either person.The zone has been described in this way:
When a guy agrees to be friends, he's forced to stifle his attraction while regularly seeing and talking to the woman he's attracted to. She discusses her love life and has the audacity to ask his advice on it. He performs occasional "manly" household and automotive favors for the women. Essentially, he does everything a boyfriend would do – without the benefits.
— Gina B., Chicago Tribune, 2007
Marshall Fine of The Huffington Post suggested that the friend zone is "like the penalty box of dating, when your only crime is not being buff and unobtainable."Dating adviser Ali Binazir described the friend zone as Justfriendistan, and wrote that it's a "territory only to be rivaled in inhospitability by the western Sahara, the Atacama, and Dante's Ninth Circle of Hell."
One man described himself as always having girlfriends who were "girls" but were only his "friends", meaning there was no sex between them.
There is general agreement that once a man is in the friend zone, it is difficult to get out. However, there was a report in Cosmopolitan magazine that suggested that a friend-only relation could change into a sexual one. It was based in part on a 2001 Match.com survey in which 71% of respondents hoped that they would fall in love with a friend.It has also been suggested that women may also become victims of the "friend zone", in which a man treats them as only a friend, while the woman prefers a more intimate relationship.
Despite the pitfalls of friend zones, there have been views advanced that a friend zone relation can evolve from "the lingering possibility of becoming more than a friend" into something deeper, particularly if the friend-zone friendship leads to a long term feeling of trustworthiness and intimacy.
The term 'friend zone' has come under scrutiny by Lawsonry, which defines "friendzone" as "An imaginary condition created by a sexist person who feels entitled to sexual contact with another person."
Humor and alternative music blog Stuff You Will Hate is heavily critical of the concept of the friendzone, and of the archetypal self-proclaimed "nice guy" to whom the term is often applied. To quote blog contributor Save Parker, "Some dudes get it into their head that [if] they’re really nice to a girl she’ll just **** them, which really on paper doesn’t sound like a practice that makes any sense. So they just spend all their time piling on compliments and favors in a futile attempt to be seen as not a friend (when they’re really just being a really good friend) and then blame the girl for never being attracted to them from the start. If someone thinks you’re their friend and you want to date, they don’t have to, and most likely they do not want to." In a more recent post, he said, "You aren’t owed anything for being nice, everyone should be nice. To every person you meet. All the time. Not just because you want to have sex with them. That’s not nice."
The term "friend zone" was popularized by a 1994 episode of the American sitcom Friends entitled "The One with the Blackout", where the character Ross Geller, who was lovesick for Rachel Green, was described by character Joey Tribbiani as being the "mayor of the friend zone".The question of whether a man can ever "escape the friend zone and begin dating one of his female friends" helped make the "geek dream couple" of Ross and Rachel storyline compelling dramatically, according to one view. Comedian Chris Rock talked about men being trapped in the friend zone in his 1996 album Bring the Pain. The television show Scrubs used the term on the episode entitled "My Best Friend's Mistake" in which the character J.D. explained that after an important turning point happens in the relationship between a man and a woman, there are less than 48 hours to do something about it or else the man will be stuck in the woman's friend zone forever. J.D. doesn't get to finish kissing his unrequited love, Elliot Reid, in 48 hours, so he entered into an imaginary "Friend Zone" hospital room filled with other men who had similarly become stuck in Elliot's friend zone.
The 2005 film Just Friends main character, played by Ryan Reynolds, reunited after ten years with his friend played by Amy Smart, who informs him that she loves him "like a brother", essentially dashing any hopes of him having her as a girlfriend. The movie When Harry Met Sally explored the theme of whether men and women could be friends without being lovers.
In May 2011, MTV had a show entitled FriendZone. In an interview with a national publication, a producer said:
The idea for the show came out of my own experience. Unfortunately, I know the pain of telling the girl of your dreams you love them and want to take the relationship to the next level only to be told they don't feel the same. I figured if it happened to me, it might be something others could relate to as well. If it works, you have the beginnings of a great love story. If it doesn't, well, pain and humiliation make great TV, too."
In the 2010 Nickelodeon-sitcom Big Time Rush, the character of James described the friend zone as "a dark place, where you give girls rides to the airport, talk about their ex-boyfriends and help them move in", without ever having a chance to become a couple.
Mr Changeable had heard that there was a slightly better state of affairs than the friendzone known as Friends With Benefits. Perhaps Roxie might be interested in this ?
(edited 10 years ago)
Mr Changeable and Roxie walked back to the sitting room and sat silently on the luxury chairs.
Chairs have evolved tremendously for thousands of years, as they shifted from being a symbol of state and dignity, to an item of ordinary use.
Chair design considers intended usage, ergonomics (how comfortable it is for the occupant), as well as non-ergonomic functional requirements such as size, stackability, foldability, weight, durability, stain resistance and artistic design.
Roxie sat on a banquette chair. For this one of chair is truly unique. The creator is a duo of Brazilian artists Fernando and Humberto Campana. However, this adorable chair is a potential for dirty easily, even if you diligently clean set of panda-panda who put them together. This chair is produced in limited quantities, prices reached $ 75,000.
Mr Changeable sat on a baby's chair. The chair is made from birch (beech smooth-skinned) are laminated and varnished. The seats can rotate allowing you to change the direction your baby’s position. This German-made chair made so strong that even able to accommodate 15-year-old child. Henry IV is the name of the King of England, King of France, nor the name of the Roman Emperor in Germany. However, this is also the name of an infant seat most expensive ever. The seat worth $ 1,350. It has all the things you need when the baby was sitting on it, such as trays, belts, and pillows.
"Looking good there Geoff" whispered Roxie. "You still want that BJ ?"
Mr Changeable pretended not to hear. Instead he gazed at the stolen Turkish wall paintings adorning Karen's walls.
The Neolithic site, Çatalhöyük, has a number of wall paintings depicting animals and hunting scenes. Since this region was a source for obsidian blades, these images may reflect some aspects of daily life during the 7th-6th millenniums BC. Other wall paintings at this site depict birds consuming flesh from headless bodies. These scenes may reflect Near Eastern practices of the preparation of corpses for burial. The separate archaeological finds of heads and bodies buried under rooms may also indicate the performance of this ritual. Another wall painting, found at Çatalhöyük, and now on display at the Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara, may be the world's oldest map. It shows a series of rectangles, that may depict houses, and a possible profile drawing of a local volcanic mountain.Fragments of white plaster colored with red ochre at the later site called Can Hasan, indicate that wall painting in Anatolia continued into the Chalcolithic Period.
The evidence for wall painting during the Bronze Age is less abundant. Tiny fragments of painted plaster have been found in the Late Bronze Age levels of Troy, and at the Hittite capitol of Hattusa (Boğazköy).The Hittites were also in contact with civilizations in Syria that had wall paintings and probably exchanged ideas with them.
The Iron Age provides more evidence for the decoration of walls with paint. First, the 8th-7th century BC fortified sites of the Urartian kingdom in eastern Anatolia have some paintings that combine Neo-Assyrian and Anatolian stylistic elements. Paintings from the temple at Patnos (Anzavur/Kot Tepe) depict bulls striding and kneeling.At Van-Toprakkale, traces of blue and red paint were discovered in a temple. Evidence for painting was also discovered at Altıntepe and Çavuştepe.
In the middle of the 6th century BC, the Achaemenid Persian Empire, led by Cyrus the Great, conquered most of the polities that existed at that time across western Anatolia, most notably the Lydian kingdom of Croesus. The consolidation of this area under a single, external power from the east affected the indigenous cultures. A ruling Persian elite undoubtedly brought a knowledge of imperial iconography with them from home. Yet, these outside ideas combined with both local ideas as well as Greek ideas brought from the west, to form a new style used by Anatolians in the decoration of their walls. Most of our artistic evidence from this period comes from burial chambers.
For half a century before the Persians invaded, the Lydians of west-central Anatolia had been burying their rulers in stone chamber tombs under monumental tumulus burial markers, a form borrowed in part from the Phrygians. Although the Lydian tumuli become smaller after the Persian invasion, they also become more numerous. Thus a local burial tradition was allowed to continue, but with changes based on outside influences. For example, stone klinai (death couches) imitated Greek wooden originals in shape and painted decoration. Two of the known tombs of Lydian Tumuli had painted walls. Unfortunately, looting and destruction of the tombs, as well as the subsequent dispersal of the paintings and objects on the art market has significantly limited the scientific investigation of these tombs. The first tomb, called Harta, or Abidintepe, is located in Manisa Province and has three separate profile views of human figures. It is believed that these three persons were walking one behind the other with many additional figures in a procession around the tomb chamber, possibly bearing gifts for the deceased. This type of procession is very similar to the one carved in relief on the Apadana at Persepolis. Further Persian influence is evident from the servant costume worn by one figure that reflects costumes seen at Darius I's palace at Susa.
A second Lydian tumulus, called Aktepe and located in modern Uşak province, has two human figures painted on opposite walls of the tomb chamber. They flank and face towards where the body would have lay. Their gestures include holding a branch towards the body with one hand and holding the other hand before their mouths, possibly as a sign of silent reverence. They appear to wear Greek-style clothing. Moving to the southeast edge of Lydia, we find a wooden tomb chamber from the Tatarlı tumulus near Dinar in modern Afyon province. The panels of this tomb were painted and include a scene of battling soldiers that is reminiscent of Greek vase painting.
Two tombs from this period with wall paintings have also been discovered in Lycia. The Karaburun tomb has a scene depicting a man reclining and holding aloft a drinking bowl. This may reflect elements of the Anatolian tradition of the funerary feast, well known from tumulus burials at Gordion. The other painted Lycian tomb is Kızılbel, which depicts Greek legends from the Homeric epics, as well as aspects of kingship similar to those seen in Assyrian imagery.
One unique set of wall paintings from around 500BCE was found at Gordion, the previous capital city of the Phrygian kingdom. A small building with many painted plaster fragments was discovered on the citadel between two larger megara, and was dubbed "the painted house." The fragments include pieces of human figures in profile, and thus may have been part of a procession similar to that seen in the Harta tumulus. The exact purpose of the painted house is unclear, though a ritual or even funerary function cannot be ruled out.
Karen had been given the wall paintings by a grateful Israeli software mogul for her help in de-stabilizing the Middle East.
Chairs have evolved tremendously for thousands of years, as they shifted from being a symbol of state and dignity, to an item of ordinary use.
Chair design considers intended usage, ergonomics (how comfortable it is for the occupant), as well as non-ergonomic functional requirements such as size, stackability, foldability, weight, durability, stain resistance and artistic design.
Roxie sat on a banquette chair. For this one of chair is truly unique. The creator is a duo of Brazilian artists Fernando and Humberto Campana. However, this adorable chair is a potential for dirty easily, even if you diligently clean set of panda-panda who put them together. This chair is produced in limited quantities, prices reached $ 75,000.
Mr Changeable sat on a baby's chair. The chair is made from birch (beech smooth-skinned) are laminated and varnished. The seats can rotate allowing you to change the direction your baby’s position. This German-made chair made so strong that even able to accommodate 15-year-old child. Henry IV is the name of the King of England, King of France, nor the name of the Roman Emperor in Germany. However, this is also the name of an infant seat most expensive ever. The seat worth $ 1,350. It has all the things you need when the baby was sitting on it, such as trays, belts, and pillows.
"Looking good there Geoff" whispered Roxie. "You still want that BJ ?"
Mr Changeable pretended not to hear. Instead he gazed at the stolen Turkish wall paintings adorning Karen's walls.
The Neolithic site, Çatalhöyük, has a number of wall paintings depicting animals and hunting scenes. Since this region was a source for obsidian blades, these images may reflect some aspects of daily life during the 7th-6th millenniums BC. Other wall paintings at this site depict birds consuming flesh from headless bodies. These scenes may reflect Near Eastern practices of the preparation of corpses for burial. The separate archaeological finds of heads and bodies buried under rooms may also indicate the performance of this ritual. Another wall painting, found at Çatalhöyük, and now on display at the Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara, may be the world's oldest map. It shows a series of rectangles, that may depict houses, and a possible profile drawing of a local volcanic mountain.Fragments of white plaster colored with red ochre at the later site called Can Hasan, indicate that wall painting in Anatolia continued into the Chalcolithic Period.
The evidence for wall painting during the Bronze Age is less abundant. Tiny fragments of painted plaster have been found in the Late Bronze Age levels of Troy, and at the Hittite capitol of Hattusa (Boğazköy).The Hittites were also in contact with civilizations in Syria that had wall paintings and probably exchanged ideas with them.
The Iron Age provides more evidence for the decoration of walls with paint. First, the 8th-7th century BC fortified sites of the Urartian kingdom in eastern Anatolia have some paintings that combine Neo-Assyrian and Anatolian stylistic elements. Paintings from the temple at Patnos (Anzavur/Kot Tepe) depict bulls striding and kneeling.At Van-Toprakkale, traces of blue and red paint were discovered in a temple. Evidence for painting was also discovered at Altıntepe and Çavuştepe.
In the middle of the 6th century BC, the Achaemenid Persian Empire, led by Cyrus the Great, conquered most of the polities that existed at that time across western Anatolia, most notably the Lydian kingdom of Croesus. The consolidation of this area under a single, external power from the east affected the indigenous cultures. A ruling Persian elite undoubtedly brought a knowledge of imperial iconography with them from home. Yet, these outside ideas combined with both local ideas as well as Greek ideas brought from the west, to form a new style used by Anatolians in the decoration of their walls. Most of our artistic evidence from this period comes from burial chambers.
For half a century before the Persians invaded, the Lydians of west-central Anatolia had been burying their rulers in stone chamber tombs under monumental tumulus burial markers, a form borrowed in part from the Phrygians. Although the Lydian tumuli become smaller after the Persian invasion, they also become more numerous. Thus a local burial tradition was allowed to continue, but with changes based on outside influences. For example, stone klinai (death couches) imitated Greek wooden originals in shape and painted decoration. Two of the known tombs of Lydian Tumuli had painted walls. Unfortunately, looting and destruction of the tombs, as well as the subsequent dispersal of the paintings and objects on the art market has significantly limited the scientific investigation of these tombs. The first tomb, called Harta, or Abidintepe, is located in Manisa Province and has three separate profile views of human figures. It is believed that these three persons were walking one behind the other with many additional figures in a procession around the tomb chamber, possibly bearing gifts for the deceased. This type of procession is very similar to the one carved in relief on the Apadana at Persepolis. Further Persian influence is evident from the servant costume worn by one figure that reflects costumes seen at Darius I's palace at Susa.
A second Lydian tumulus, called Aktepe and located in modern Uşak province, has two human figures painted on opposite walls of the tomb chamber. They flank and face towards where the body would have lay. Their gestures include holding a branch towards the body with one hand and holding the other hand before their mouths, possibly as a sign of silent reverence. They appear to wear Greek-style clothing. Moving to the southeast edge of Lydia, we find a wooden tomb chamber from the Tatarlı tumulus near Dinar in modern Afyon province. The panels of this tomb were painted and include a scene of battling soldiers that is reminiscent of Greek vase painting.
Two tombs from this period with wall paintings have also been discovered in Lycia. The Karaburun tomb has a scene depicting a man reclining and holding aloft a drinking bowl. This may reflect elements of the Anatolian tradition of the funerary feast, well known from tumulus burials at Gordion. The other painted Lycian tomb is Kızılbel, which depicts Greek legends from the Homeric epics, as well as aspects of kingship similar to those seen in Assyrian imagery.
One unique set of wall paintings from around 500BCE was found at Gordion, the previous capital city of the Phrygian kingdom. A small building with many painted plaster fragments was discovered on the citadel between two larger megara, and was dubbed "the painted house." The fragments include pieces of human figures in profile, and thus may have been part of a procession similar to that seen in the Harta tumulus. The exact purpose of the painted house is unclear, though a ritual or even funerary function cannot be ruled out.
Karen had been given the wall paintings by a grateful Israeli software mogul for her help in de-stabilizing the Middle East.
(edited 10 years ago)
Mr Changeable woke up early the next morning. At first he did not know where he was. Then the amazing events of the previous 24 hours slowly came back into focus.
The 24-hour clock is the convention of time keeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours, indicated by the hours passed since midnight, from 0 to 23. This system is the most commonly used time notation in the world today, and is the international standard (ISO 8601) notation for time of day.In the practice of medicine, the 24-hour clock is generally used in documentation of care as it prevents any ambiguity as to when events occurred in a patient's medical history. It is popularly referred to as military time or astronomical time in the United States, Canada, and a handful of other countries where the 12-hour clock is still dominant.
A time of day is written in the 24-hour notation in the form hh:mm (for example 01:23 ) or hh :mm : ss (for example, 01: 23 :45 ), where hh (00 to 23) is the number of full hours that have passed since midnight, mm (00 to 59) is the number of full minutes that have passed since the last full hour, and ss (00 to 59) is the number of seconds since the last full minute. In the case of a leap second, the value of ss may extend to 60. A leading zero is added for numbers under 10. This zero is optional for the hours, but very commonly used in computer applications, where many specifications require it (for example, ISO 8601).
Where subsecond resolution is required, the seconds can be a decimal fraction, that is, the fractional part follows a decimal dot or comma, as in 01 :23 :45.678. The most commonly used separator symbol between hours, minutes and seconds is the colon, which is also the symbol used in ISO 8601. In the past, some European countries used the dot on the line as a separator, but most national standards on time notation have since then been changed to the international standard colon. In some contexts (e.g., U.S. military, some computer protocols), no separator is used (e.g., 2359).
In the 24-hour time notation, the day begins at midnight, 00:00, and the last minute of the day begins at 23:59. Where convenient, the notation 24:00 may also be used to refer to midnight at the end of a given date– that is, 24:00 of one day is the same time as 00:00 of the following day.
The notation 24:00 mainly serves to refer to the exact end of a day in a time interval. A typical usage is giving opening hours ending at midnight (e.g. "00:00–24:00", "07:00–24:00" ). Similarly, some railway timetables show 00:00 as departure time and 24:00 as arrival time. Legal contracts often run from the start date at 00:00 till the end date at 24:00.
While the 24-hour notation unambiguously distinguishes between midnight at the start (00:00) and end (24:00) of any given date, there is no commonly accepted distinction among users of the 12-hour notation. Style guides and military communication regulations in some English-speaking countries discourage the use of 24:00 even in the 24-hour notation, and recommend reporting times near midnight as 23:59 or 00:01 instead. Sometimes the use of 00:00 is also avoided.
Time-of-day notations beyond 24:00 (such as 24:01 or 25:59 instead of 00:01 or 01:59) are not commonly used and not covered by the relevant standards. However, they have been used occasionally in some special contexts in the UK, Japan, Hong Kong and China where business hours extend beyond midnight, such as broadcast-television production and scheduling. They also appear in some public-transport applications, such as Google's General Transit Feed Specification file format or some ticketing systems (e.g., in Copenhagen). This usage prevents a time period reported without dates from appearing to end before its beginning, e.g., 21:00–01:00.
In most countries, computers by default show the time in 24-hour notation. For example, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS activate the 12-hour notation by default only if a computer is in a handful of specific language and region settings. The 24-hour system is commonly used in text-based interfaces. Programs such as ls default to displaying timestamps in 24 hour format.
In Canada and the United States, the term "military time" is a synonym for the 24-hour clock.In these regions, the time of day is customarily given almost exclusively using the 12-hour clock notation, which counts the hours of the day as 12, 1, ..., 11 with suffixes "a.m." and "p.m." distinguishing the two diurnal repetitions of this sequence. The 24-hour clock is commonly used there only in some specialist areas (military, aviation, navigation, tourism, meteorology, astronomy, computing, logistics, emergency services, hospitals), where the ambiguities of the 12-hour notation are deemed too inconvenient, cumbersome, or outright dangerous.
In the United States military, military time is similar to the 24-hour clock notation, with the exception that the colon is omitted and the time on the hours is often spoken as its decimal value. For instance, 6:00 a.m. would become 0600, and would be spoken "zero six hundred" or "zero six hundred hours" (for example, when said face-to-face), "oh six hundred" (colloquially), or "zero six zero zero" (for example, where clarity is needed when specifying the time over a radio or sound-powered telephone). Hours are always "hundred", never "thousand"; 10:00 is "ten hundred" not "one thousand", 20:00 is "twenty hundred".
Military usage differs in some respects from other twenty-four-hour time systems:
Written military time does not usually include a time separator (for example, "0340" is more common than the civilian "03:40").
Leading zeros, always written out by the military, are often also spoken in military usage, so 5:43 a.m. is often spoken "zero five forty-three" (military) or "zero five four three" (military radio), as opposed to "five forty-three" (civilian).
Military time zones are lettered and thus given word designations via the NATO phonetic alphabet. For example, 6:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5) would be written "0600R" and spoken, "zero six hundred Romeo".
Local time is specifically designated in the military as zone J or "Juliet". A time of "1200J" ("twelve hundred Juliet") corresponds to noon local time.
Greenwich Mean Time (or Coordinated Universal Time) is designated as zone Z, and thus called "Zulu time".
The 24-hour time system has been used for centuries, primarily by scientists, astronomers, navigators, and horologists. There are many surviving examples of clocks built using the 24-hour system, including the famous Orloj in Prague, and the Shepherd gate clock at Greenwich.
At the International Meridian Conference in 1884, Lewis M. Rutherfurd proposed:
That this universal day is to be a mean solar day; is to begin for all the world at the moment of mean midnight of the initial meridian, coinciding with the beginning of the civil day and date of that meridian; and is to be counted from zero up to twenty-four hours.
This resolution was adopted by the conference.
According to a report in the London Times in 1886, the 24-hour clock was in use on the Canadian Pacific Railway train at Port Arthur.
The earliest country to introduce the 24-hour system nationally was Italy, in 1893.Other European countries followed: France adopted it in 1912 (the French army in 1909), followed by Denmark (1916), and Greece (1917). By 1920, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Switzerland had switched, followed by Turkey (1925), and Germany (1927). By the early 1920s, many countries in Latin America had also adopted the 24-hour clock. Some of the railways in India had switched before the outbreak of the war.
During World War I, the British Royal Navy adopted the 24-hour clock in 1915, and the Allied armed forces followed soon after, with the British Army switching officially in 1918. The Canadian armed forces first started to use the 24-hour clock in late 1917. In 1920, the US Navy was the first US organization to adopt the system; the US Army, however, did not officially adopt the 24-hour clock until World War II, on July 1, 1942.
In Britain, the use of the 24-hour clock in daily life has grown steadily since the beginning of the 20th century, although attempts to make the system official failed more than once. In 1934, the BBC switched to the 24-hour clock for broadcast announcements and programme listings. The experiment was halted after five months following a lack of enthusiasm from the public, and the BBC has used the 12-hour clock ever since.In the same year, the US airlines Pan American World Airways Corporation and Western Airlines both adopted the 24-hour clock
British Rail and London Transport switched to the 24-hour clock for timetables in 1964.
In 2005, BBC Weather television forecasts used the 12-hour notation for several months after its graphical revamp. After complaints from the public, however, this was switched to 24-hour notation.
He glanced sideways and saw a tangled mass of blonde nylon hair on the pillow next to him. Cautiously he reached out his plastic arm and felt downwards. It was definitely a female. "Mmm Geoff you naughty boy. Ready for some more ? You are insatiable !"
It was Roxie. Images of frenzied copulation flashed across Mr Changeable's memory. Her polymerized limbs had been contorted in unimaginable ways. What had he done ?
Whatever it was Roxie was not complaining. The frigid ice-queen act had been dropped for sure. Mr Changeable felt a tiny hand begin to explore his nether regions. "Wait Roxie we need to talk..." "You talk Geoff. It would be rude for me with my mouth full"...
The 24-hour clock is the convention of time keeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours, indicated by the hours passed since midnight, from 0 to 23. This system is the most commonly used time notation in the world today, and is the international standard (ISO 8601) notation for time of day.In the practice of medicine, the 24-hour clock is generally used in documentation of care as it prevents any ambiguity as to when events occurred in a patient's medical history. It is popularly referred to as military time or astronomical time in the United States, Canada, and a handful of other countries where the 12-hour clock is still dominant.
A time of day is written in the 24-hour notation in the form hh:mm (for example 01:23 ) or hh :mm : ss (for example, 01: 23 :45 ), where hh (00 to 23) is the number of full hours that have passed since midnight, mm (00 to 59) is the number of full minutes that have passed since the last full hour, and ss (00 to 59) is the number of seconds since the last full minute. In the case of a leap second, the value of ss may extend to 60. A leading zero is added for numbers under 10. This zero is optional for the hours, but very commonly used in computer applications, where many specifications require it (for example, ISO 8601).
Where subsecond resolution is required, the seconds can be a decimal fraction, that is, the fractional part follows a decimal dot or comma, as in 01 :23 :45.678. The most commonly used separator symbol between hours, minutes and seconds is the colon, which is also the symbol used in ISO 8601. In the past, some European countries used the dot on the line as a separator, but most national standards on time notation have since then been changed to the international standard colon. In some contexts (e.g., U.S. military, some computer protocols), no separator is used (e.g., 2359).
In the 24-hour time notation, the day begins at midnight, 00:00, and the last minute of the day begins at 23:59. Where convenient, the notation 24:00 may also be used to refer to midnight at the end of a given date– that is, 24:00 of one day is the same time as 00:00 of the following day.
The notation 24:00 mainly serves to refer to the exact end of a day in a time interval. A typical usage is giving opening hours ending at midnight (e.g. "00:00–24:00", "07:00–24:00" ). Similarly, some railway timetables show 00:00 as departure time and 24:00 as arrival time. Legal contracts often run from the start date at 00:00 till the end date at 24:00.
While the 24-hour notation unambiguously distinguishes between midnight at the start (00:00) and end (24:00) of any given date, there is no commonly accepted distinction among users of the 12-hour notation. Style guides and military communication regulations in some English-speaking countries discourage the use of 24:00 even in the 24-hour notation, and recommend reporting times near midnight as 23:59 or 00:01 instead. Sometimes the use of 00:00 is also avoided.
Time-of-day notations beyond 24:00 (such as 24:01 or 25:59 instead of 00:01 or 01:59) are not commonly used and not covered by the relevant standards. However, they have been used occasionally in some special contexts in the UK, Japan, Hong Kong and China where business hours extend beyond midnight, such as broadcast-television production and scheduling. They also appear in some public-transport applications, such as Google's General Transit Feed Specification file format or some ticketing systems (e.g., in Copenhagen). This usage prevents a time period reported without dates from appearing to end before its beginning, e.g., 21:00–01:00.
In most countries, computers by default show the time in 24-hour notation. For example, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS activate the 12-hour notation by default only if a computer is in a handful of specific language and region settings. The 24-hour system is commonly used in text-based interfaces. Programs such as ls default to displaying timestamps in 24 hour format.
In Canada and the United States, the term "military time" is a synonym for the 24-hour clock.In these regions, the time of day is customarily given almost exclusively using the 12-hour clock notation, which counts the hours of the day as 12, 1, ..., 11 with suffixes "a.m." and "p.m." distinguishing the two diurnal repetitions of this sequence. The 24-hour clock is commonly used there only in some specialist areas (military, aviation, navigation, tourism, meteorology, astronomy, computing, logistics, emergency services, hospitals), where the ambiguities of the 12-hour notation are deemed too inconvenient, cumbersome, or outright dangerous.
In the United States military, military time is similar to the 24-hour clock notation, with the exception that the colon is omitted and the time on the hours is often spoken as its decimal value. For instance, 6:00 a.m. would become 0600, and would be spoken "zero six hundred" or "zero six hundred hours" (for example, when said face-to-face), "oh six hundred" (colloquially), or "zero six zero zero" (for example, where clarity is needed when specifying the time over a radio or sound-powered telephone). Hours are always "hundred", never "thousand"; 10:00 is "ten hundred" not "one thousand", 20:00 is "twenty hundred".
Military usage differs in some respects from other twenty-four-hour time systems:
Written military time does not usually include a time separator (for example, "0340" is more common than the civilian "03:40").
Leading zeros, always written out by the military, are often also spoken in military usage, so 5:43 a.m. is often spoken "zero five forty-three" (military) or "zero five four three" (military radio), as opposed to "five forty-three" (civilian).
Military time zones are lettered and thus given word designations via the NATO phonetic alphabet. For example, 6:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5) would be written "0600R" and spoken, "zero six hundred Romeo".
Local time is specifically designated in the military as zone J or "Juliet". A time of "1200J" ("twelve hundred Juliet") corresponds to noon local time.
Greenwich Mean Time (or Coordinated Universal Time) is designated as zone Z, and thus called "Zulu time".
The 24-hour time system has been used for centuries, primarily by scientists, astronomers, navigators, and horologists. There are many surviving examples of clocks built using the 24-hour system, including the famous Orloj in Prague, and the Shepherd gate clock at Greenwich.
At the International Meridian Conference in 1884, Lewis M. Rutherfurd proposed:
That this universal day is to be a mean solar day; is to begin for all the world at the moment of mean midnight of the initial meridian, coinciding with the beginning of the civil day and date of that meridian; and is to be counted from zero up to twenty-four hours.
This resolution was adopted by the conference.
According to a report in the London Times in 1886, the 24-hour clock was in use on the Canadian Pacific Railway train at Port Arthur.
The earliest country to introduce the 24-hour system nationally was Italy, in 1893.Other European countries followed: France adopted it in 1912 (the French army in 1909), followed by Denmark (1916), and Greece (1917). By 1920, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Switzerland had switched, followed by Turkey (1925), and Germany (1927). By the early 1920s, many countries in Latin America had also adopted the 24-hour clock. Some of the railways in India had switched before the outbreak of the war.
During World War I, the British Royal Navy adopted the 24-hour clock in 1915, and the Allied armed forces followed soon after, with the British Army switching officially in 1918. The Canadian armed forces first started to use the 24-hour clock in late 1917. In 1920, the US Navy was the first US organization to adopt the system; the US Army, however, did not officially adopt the 24-hour clock until World War II, on July 1, 1942.
In Britain, the use of the 24-hour clock in daily life has grown steadily since the beginning of the 20th century, although attempts to make the system official failed more than once. In 1934, the BBC switched to the 24-hour clock for broadcast announcements and programme listings. The experiment was halted after five months following a lack of enthusiasm from the public, and the BBC has used the 12-hour clock ever since.In the same year, the US airlines Pan American World Airways Corporation and Western Airlines both adopted the 24-hour clock
British Rail and London Transport switched to the 24-hour clock for timetables in 1964.
In 2005, BBC Weather television forecasts used the 12-hour notation for several months after its graphical revamp. After complaints from the public, however, this was switched to 24-hour notation.
He glanced sideways and saw a tangled mass of blonde nylon hair on the pillow next to him. Cautiously he reached out his plastic arm and felt downwards. It was definitely a female. "Mmm Geoff you naughty boy. Ready for some more ? You are insatiable !"
It was Roxie. Images of frenzied copulation flashed across Mr Changeable's memory. Her polymerized limbs had been contorted in unimaginable ways. What had he done ?
Whatever it was Roxie was not complaining. The frigid ice-queen act had been dropped for sure. Mr Changeable felt a tiny hand begin to explore his nether regions. "Wait Roxie we need to talk..." "You talk Geoff. It would be rude for me with my mouth full"...
(edited 10 years ago)
Hi, Everyone,
I started an interior design blog for students who just started studying or anyone who needs a bit of inspiration and guidance.
First entries of the blog are about creating mood, concept boards and developing interior design schemes out of it.
Hope you enjoy it!
Please follow me http://annodominidesign.blogspot.co.uk/ and if you like it share it with friends.
Aurora
I started an interior design blog for students who just started studying or anyone who needs a bit of inspiration and guidance.
First entries of the blog are about creating mood, concept boards and developing interior design schemes out of it.
Hope you enjoy it!
Please follow me http://annodominidesign.blogspot.co.uk/ and if you like it share it with friends.
Aurora
not with out my promition beause it was me that started this story off
Original post by sharkbate633
not with out my promition beause it was me that started this story off
k yes this is fair no problems with that from here would you like to see it published just out interest just wondering in case you did
Original post by ANARCHY__
Please publish this.
ermm it is published
i think a pop-up print version with plastic figure tie-ins would have legs
this could lead to further productions:
Cup Cakes with Karen
Roxie's Dream Gardens
and maybe a singing career for Mr Changeable and Ben ?
(edited 10 years ago)
An hour or so later Mr Changeable and Roxie were sitting at Karen's marble-topped breakfast bar.
Marble is a non-foliated metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.
Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however, stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.
Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material.
The word "marble" derives from the Greek "μάρμαρον" (mármaron), from "μάρμαρος" (mármaros), "crystalline rock", "shining stone", perhaps from the verb "μαρμαίρω" (marmaírō), "to flash, sparkle, gleam". This stem is also the basis for the English word marmoreal, meaning "marble-like."
Whilst the English term resembles the French marbre, most other European languages (e.g. Spanish mármol, Italian marmo, Portuguese mármore, German, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish marmor, Armenian marmar, Dutch marmer, Polish marmur, Turkish mermer, Czech mramor and Russian мрáмор) follow the original Greek.
Marble is a rock resulting from metamorphism of sedimentary carbonate rocks, most commonly limestone or dolomite rock. Metamorphism causes variable recrystallization of the original carbonate mineral grains.
The resulting marble rock is typically composed of an interlocking mosaic of carbonate crystals. Primary sedimentary textures and structures of the original carbonate rock (protolith) have typically been modified or destroyed.
Pure white marble is the result of metamorphism of a very pure (silicate-poor) limestone or dolomite protolith. The characteristic swirls and veins of many colored marble varieties are usually due to various mineral impurities such as clay, silt, sand, iron oxides, or chert which were originally present as grains or layers in the limestone.
Green coloration is often due to serpentine resulting from originally high magnesium limestone or dolostone with silica impurities. These various impurities have been mobilized and recrystallized by the intense pressure and heat of the metamorphism.
Carrara marble, sometimes mistakenly called Carrera marble, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It is quarried at the city of Carrara in the province of Massa and Carrara in modern day Tuscany, Italy.
The marble quarries were monitored by the Cybo and Malaspina families who ruled over Massa and Carrara during the 17th and 18th centuries. The family created the Office of Marble in 1564 to regulate the marble mining industry.The city of Massa, in particular, saw much of its plan redesigned (new roads, plazas, intersections, pavings) in order to make it worthy of an Italian country's capital. Following the extinction of the Cybo-Malaspina family, the state was ruled by the House of Austria and management of the mines rested with them. The Basilica of Massa is built entirely of Carrara marble and the old Ducal Palace of Massa was used to showcase the precious stone.
Karen had spared no expense in her kitchen. It was perhaps her favourite room in the house, although she quite liked the bathroom and her bedroom. Anyway it was definitely in the top three.
In the heart of this home is the gourmet chef's kitchen with classic white, solid wood cabinetry, Carrara marble ogee edged counters and outfitted with all new stainless steel appliances, including 6-burner Thermador gas range with marble back-splash and European style hood. The refrigerator is a French Door style with 4-doors including a FlexZone separate temperature control drawer for cold drinks, snacks, wine or party dish options, snack or deli drawer and in-door water and ice dispenser. Below the large picture window that enjoys the view of the Outdoor Great Room, the sparkling pool and entire backyard, is a triple bowl sink made by Franke. A whisper quiet dishwasher, microwave oven and wine cooler has been installed in the cabinetry with extensive storage accessories including slide out, full extension shelving and soft close drawers, turntable storage in corner cabinets and pull out spice shelving. Glass paned cabinets and corner cabinets are included for displaying fine china and collectables. Under cabinet lighting has been installed to make kitchen tasks easier and also illuminates the beauty of the marble counter tops. Additional items include an appliance garage, recycling and trash pull-outs and a double slide out silverware drawer. A sculpted marble breakfast bar creates an eat in kitchen or party ready cocktail bar conveniently located between the kitchen, dining and living rooms. The wide plank European oak flooring continues into the open style dining room and formal living room.
Mr Changeable appreciated the fine surroundings but his focus was on the cheaply produced plastic doll sitting next to him. Roxie was tucking in to a large bowl of high-quality Muesli. Her vigorous activities in the bedroom had given her a ravenous appetite.
Muesli (pron.: /ˈmjuːzli/ or /ˈmuːzli/; Swiss German: Müesli [ˈmyəsli], Standard German: Müsli) is a popular breakfast meal based on uncooked rolled oats, fruit and nuts. It was developed around 1900 by Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner for patients in his hospital. It is available in a packaged dry form, ready made, or it can be made fresh.
In Switzerland and Germany, it is also eaten as a light evening dish; Birchermüesli complet is muesli with butterbrot and coffee with milk.
Originally known in Swiss German as Birchermüesli or simply Müesli, the word is an Alemannic diminutive of Mues which means "puree" or "mash-up."
Muesli was introduced around 1900 by the Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner for patients in his hospital, where a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables was an essential part of therapy. It was inspired by a similar "strange dish" that he and his wife had been served on a hike in the Swiss Alps. Bircher-Benner himself referred to the dish simply as "d'Spys" (Swiss German for "the dish", in German "die Speise"). Muesli in its modern form became popular in Western countries starting in the 1960s as part of increased interest in health food and vegetarian diets. Traditional muesli was eaten with lemon juice and not milk.
Karen insisted on serving her Muesli with lemon juice. She said that milk was the Devil's beverage.
"Well Roxie", said Mr Changeable between mouthfuls of croissant "thank you for having coitus last night. It was very enjoyable."
A croissant is a buttery flaky viennoiserie bread roll named for its well known crescent shape. Croissants and other viennoiserie are made of a layered yeast-leavened dough. The dough is layered with butter, rolled and folded several times in succession, then rolled into a sheet, in a technique called laminating. The process results in a layered, flaky texture, similar to a puff pastry.
Crescent-shaped food breads have been made since the Middle Ages, and crescent-shaped cakes possibly since old times.
Croissants have long been a staple of French bakeries and pâtisseries. In the late 1970s, the development of factory-made, frozen, pre-formed but unbaked dough made them into a fast food which can be freshly baked by unskilled labor. Indeed, the croissanterie was explicitly a French response to American-style fast food, and today 30–40% of the croissants sold in French bakeries and patisseries are frozen.
This innovation, along with the croissant's distinctive shape, has made it the most well known item of French food in much of the world. Today, the croissant remains popular in a continental breakfast.
The Kipferl – ancestor of the croissant – has been documented in Austria going back at least as far as the 13th century, in various shapes.The Kipferl can be made plain or with nut or other fillings (some consider the rugelach a form of Kipferl).
The original Boulangerie Viennoise in 1909 (when it was owned by Philibert Jacquet). The bakery proper is at left and its tea salon at right.
The "birth" of the croissant itself – that is, its adaptation from the plainer form of Kipferl, before the invention of Viennoiserie – can be dated with some precision to at latest 1839 (some say 1838), when an Austrian artillery officer, August Zang, founded a Viennese Bakery ("Boulangerie Viennoise") at 92, rue de Richelieu in Paris.[5] This bakery, which served Viennese specialities including the Kipferl and the Vienna loaf, quickly became popular and inspired French imitators (and the concept, if not the term, viennoiserie, a 20th century term for supposedly Vienna-style pastries). The French version of the Kipferl was named for its crescent (croissant) shape.
Alan Davidson, editor of the Oxford Companion to Food, found no printed recipe for the present-day croissant in any French recipe book before the early 20th century; the earliest French reference to a croissant he found was among the "fantasy or luxury breads" in Payen's Des substances alimentaires, 1853. However, early recipes for non-laminated croissants can be found in the nineteenth century and at least one reference to croissants as an established French bread appeared as early as 1850.
August Zang himself returned to Austria in 1848 to become a press magnate, but the bakery remained popular for some time after, and was mentioned in several works of the time: "This same M. Zank [sic]...founded around 1830 [sic], in Paris, the famous Boulangerie viennoise".Several sources praise this bakery's products: "Paris is of exquisite delicacy; and, in particular, the succulent products of the Boulangerie Viennoise"; "which seemed to us as fine as if it came from the Viennese bakery on the rue de Richelieu".
By 1869, the croissant was well established enough to be mentioned as a breakfast staple, and in 1872, Charles Dickens wrote (in his periodical "All the Year Round") of:
the workman's pain de ménage and the soldier's pain de munition, to the dainty croissant on the boudoir table
The Viennoiserie technique was already mentioned in the late 17th century, when La Varenne's Le Cuisinier françois gave a recipe for it in the 1680 – and possibly earlier – editions. It was typically used, not on its own, but for shells holding other ingredients (as in a vol-au-vent). But it does not appear to be mentioned in relation to the croissant until the twentieth century.
Fanciful stories of how the Kipferl—and so, ultimately, the croissant—was created are widespread and persistent culinary legends, at least one going back to the 19th century.However, there are no contemporary sources for any of these stories, nor does an aristocratic writer, writing in 1799, mention the Kipferl in a long and extensive list of breakfast foods.
The legends include tales that it was invented in Europe to celebrate the defeat of the Umayyad forces at the Battle of Tours by the Franks in 732, with the shape representing the Islamic crescent;that it was invented in Vienna in 1683 to celebrate the defeat of the Ottomans by Christian forces in the siege of the city, as a reference to the crescents on the Ottoman flags, when bakers staying up all night heard the tunneling operation and gave the alarm;tales linking croissants with the kifli and the siege of Buda in 1686.
Uncooked croissant can also be wrapped around any praline, almond paste or chocolate before it is baked (in the last case, it becomes like pain au chocolat, which has a different, non-crescent, shape), or sliced to admit sweet or savoury fillings. Indeed, it may be flavoured with dried fruit such as sultanas or raisins, or other fruits such as apples. In France and Spain, croissants are generally sold without filling and eaten without added butter, but sometimes with almond filling. In the United States, sweet fillings or toppings are common, and warm croissants may be filled with ham and cheese or feta cheese and spinach. In the Levant, croissants are sold plain or filled with chocolate, cheese, almonds, or zaatar. In Germany, croissants are sometimes filled with Nutella or persipan; in Southern Germany there also is a popular variety of a croissant glazed with lye ("Laugencroissant"). In the German speaking part of Switzerland, the croissant is typically called a Gipfeli, which typically has a crisper crust and is less buttery than the French style croissant.
In Argentina croissants are commonly served alongside coffee as a breakfast or merienda. These croissant are referred to as medialunas ('half moons') and are typically coated with a sweet glaze ("de manteca", made with butter). Another variant is a medialuna de grasa ("of lard"), which is not always sweet.
A cousin of the croissant is the Italian "cornetto" in the Center and South and "brioche" in the North. These variants are often considered to be the same, that is not completely true: the French version of the croissant tends to be crispy and contains a lot of butter, whereas an Italian cornetto or brioche is usually softer. Furthermore, the "cornetto vuoto" (Italian: "empty cornetto") is commonly sided by variants with filling, which include "crema pasticcera", jam and chocolate cream. They often come covered with powder sugar.
St. Martin's Day is celebrated in the Greater Poland region of Poland, mainly in its capital city Poznań. On this day, the people of Poznań buy and eat considerable amounts of croissants, made specially for this occasion from half-French paste with white-poppy and dainties, so-called Martin Croissants or St. Martin Croissants.
Croissants covered with a sweet glaze or filled with chocolate are common in bakeries and convenience stores in Japan.
Historically, the croissant was not commonplace in the UK. Although available in specialty places, it was only in the late 1980s that supermarkets started stocking them and then in the late 1990s with the growth of cafe culture did the croissant spread. They were introduced to Ethiopia by 1902, during the reign of Menelik II.
Croissants are also seen in former French colonies such as Algeria and Vietnam where in the latter they are called bánh sừng bò.
"What is coitus Geoff ? I thought it was those giant rodents from South America ?" asked Roxie with a worried expression. Surely things had not gone as far as shagging mega-voles ?
"No silly ! Those are Coypus... coitus means, you know, bonking ..."
"I am such a big silly aren't i !"
The coypu (from the Mapudungun, koypu), (Myocastor coypus), also known as the river rat, and nutria, is a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent and the only member of the family Myocastoridae. Originally native to subtropical and temperate South America, it has since been introduced to North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, primarily by fur ranchers. Although it is still valued for its fur in some regions, its destructive feeding and burrowing behaviors make this invasive species a pest throughout most of its range.
There are two commonly used names in the English language for Myocastor coypus. The name "nutria" (or local derivatives such as "nutria- or nutra- rat") is generally used in North America, Asia and throughout countries of the former Soviet Union; however, in Spanish-speaking countries, the word "nutria" refers to the otter. To avoid this ambiguity, the name "coypu" (derived from the Mapudungun language) is used in Latin America and Europe. In France, the coypu is known as a ragondin. In Dutch it is known as beverrat (beaver rat). In Italy, instead, the popular name is, as in North America and Asia, "nutria", but it is also called castorino ("little beaver"), by which its fur is known in Italy.
Coypus live in burrows alongside stretches of water. They feed on river plants, and waste close to 90% of the plant material while feeding on the stems.
The coypu somewhat resembles a very large rat, or a beaver with a small tail. Adults are typically 5–9 kg (11–20 lb) in weight, and 40–60 cm (16–24 in) in body length, with a 30–45 cm (12–18 in) tail. They have a coarse, darkish brown outer fur with a soft dense grey under-fur, also called the nutria. Three distinguishing features are a white patch on the muzzle, webbed hind feet and large bright orange-yellow incisors. The nipples of female coypu are high on her flanks. This allows their young to feed while the female is in the water.
Coypu may be mistaken for the muskrat, another widely dispersed semi-aquatic rodent that occupies the same wetland habitats. The muskrat, however, is smaller, more tolerant of cold climates, and has a laterally flattened tail that it uses to assist in swimming whereas the tail of a coypu is round. It can also be mistaken for a small beaver, as beavers and coypus have very similar anatomies. However, beavers' tails are flat and paddle-like, as opposed to the round rat-like tails of coypu.
Coypus can live up to six years in captivity, but it is uncommon for individuals to live past three years old; according to one study, 80% of coypus die within the first year, and less than 15% of a wild population is over three years old.Male coypus reach sexual maturity as early as 4 months, and females as early as 3 months; however both can have a prolonged adolescence, up to the age of 9 months. Once a female is pregnant gestation lasts 130 days and she may give birth to as few as one offspring or as many as thirteen. Baby coypus are born fully furred and with open eyes; they can eat vegetation with their parents within hours of birth. A female coypu can become impregnated again the day after she gives birth to her young. If timed properly, a female can become pregnant three times within a year. Newborn coypus nurse for seven to eight weeks, after which they leave their mother.
Beside breeding quickly, each coypu consumes large amounts of vegetation. An individual consumes about 25% of its body weight daily, and feeds year-round. Being one of the world's larger extant rodents, a mature, healthy coypu averages in weight at 5.4 kg (12 lb), but they can reach as much as 10 kg (22 lb). They eat the base of the above-ground stems of plants and often will dig through the organic soil for roots and rhizomes to eat.Their creation of "eat-outs", areas where a majority of the above- and below-ground biomass has been removed, produces patches in the environment, which in turn disrupts the habitat for other animals and humans dependent on marshes.
Coypus are found most commonly in freshwater marshes but also inhabit brackish marshes and rarely salt marshes.
Local extinction in their native range due to overharvesting led to the development of coypu fur farms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first farms were in Argentina and then later in Europe, North America, and Asia. These farms have generally not been successful long term investments and farmed coypu often are released or escape as operations become unprofitable.
As demand for coypu fur declined, coypu have since become pests in many areas, destroying aquatic vegetation, marshes, irrigation systems, chewing through human-made items, such as tires and wooden house panelling in Louisiana, eroding river banks, and displacing native animals. Coypu were introduced to the Louisiana ecosystem in the 1930s when they escaped from fur farms that had imported them from South America. Nutria damage in Louisiana became so severe that in 2005, a bounty program was in effect to aid in controlling the animal. In the Chesapeake Bay region in Maryland, where they were introduced in the 1940s, coypu are believed to have destroyed 7,000 to 8,000 acres (2,800 to 3,200 ha) of marshland in the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. In response, by 2003, a multi-million dollar eradication program was underway.
In the United Kingdom, Coypu were introduced to East Anglia, for fur, in 1929; many escaped and damaged the drainage works, and a concerted programme by MAFF eradicated them by 1989. However, in 2012 a 'giant rat' was killed in County Durham, with authorities suspecting that the animal was, in fact, a coypu.
Coypu meat is lean and low in cholesterol. While there have been many attempts to establish markets for coypu meat, all documented cases have generally been unsuccessful. Unscrupulous entrepreneurs have promoted coypu and coypu farms for their value as "meat", "fur", or "aquatic weed control". In recent years they have done so in countries such as the United States, China, Taiwan and Thailand. In every documented case the entrepreneurs sell coypu "breeding stock" at very high prices. Would-be coypu farmers find that the markets for their products disappear after the promoter has dropped out of the picture.
In the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, specifically Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Nutria (Russian and local languages Нутрия) are farmed on private plots and sold in local markets as a poor man's meat.
In addition to direct environmental damage, coypu are the host for a nematode parasite (Strongyloides myopotami) that can infect the skin of humans causing dermatitis similar to strongyloidiasis.The condition is also called "nutria itch".
"Roxie we must talk about Rupert" said Mr Changeable. "He is your legal husband you know." "Tell me about it Geoff. Anyway he is out in Afghanistan for the next six months so won't be bursting into the bedroom just yet"
Marble is a non-foliated metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.
Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however, stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.
Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material.
The word "marble" derives from the Greek "μάρμαρον" (mármaron), from "μάρμαρος" (mármaros), "crystalline rock", "shining stone", perhaps from the verb "μαρμαίρω" (marmaírō), "to flash, sparkle, gleam". This stem is also the basis for the English word marmoreal, meaning "marble-like."
Whilst the English term resembles the French marbre, most other European languages (e.g. Spanish mármol, Italian marmo, Portuguese mármore, German, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish marmor, Armenian marmar, Dutch marmer, Polish marmur, Turkish mermer, Czech mramor and Russian мрáмор) follow the original Greek.
Marble is a rock resulting from metamorphism of sedimentary carbonate rocks, most commonly limestone or dolomite rock. Metamorphism causes variable recrystallization of the original carbonate mineral grains.
The resulting marble rock is typically composed of an interlocking mosaic of carbonate crystals. Primary sedimentary textures and structures of the original carbonate rock (protolith) have typically been modified or destroyed.
Pure white marble is the result of metamorphism of a very pure (silicate-poor) limestone or dolomite protolith. The characteristic swirls and veins of many colored marble varieties are usually due to various mineral impurities such as clay, silt, sand, iron oxides, or chert which were originally present as grains or layers in the limestone.
Green coloration is often due to serpentine resulting from originally high magnesium limestone or dolostone with silica impurities. These various impurities have been mobilized and recrystallized by the intense pressure and heat of the metamorphism.
Carrara marble, sometimes mistakenly called Carrera marble, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It is quarried at the city of Carrara in the province of Massa and Carrara in modern day Tuscany, Italy.
The marble quarries were monitored by the Cybo and Malaspina families who ruled over Massa and Carrara during the 17th and 18th centuries. The family created the Office of Marble in 1564 to regulate the marble mining industry.The city of Massa, in particular, saw much of its plan redesigned (new roads, plazas, intersections, pavings) in order to make it worthy of an Italian country's capital. Following the extinction of the Cybo-Malaspina family, the state was ruled by the House of Austria and management of the mines rested with them. The Basilica of Massa is built entirely of Carrara marble and the old Ducal Palace of Massa was used to showcase the precious stone.
Karen had spared no expense in her kitchen. It was perhaps her favourite room in the house, although she quite liked the bathroom and her bedroom. Anyway it was definitely in the top three.
In the heart of this home is the gourmet chef's kitchen with classic white, solid wood cabinetry, Carrara marble ogee edged counters and outfitted with all new stainless steel appliances, including 6-burner Thermador gas range with marble back-splash and European style hood. The refrigerator is a French Door style with 4-doors including a FlexZone separate temperature control drawer for cold drinks, snacks, wine or party dish options, snack or deli drawer and in-door water and ice dispenser. Below the large picture window that enjoys the view of the Outdoor Great Room, the sparkling pool and entire backyard, is a triple bowl sink made by Franke. A whisper quiet dishwasher, microwave oven and wine cooler has been installed in the cabinetry with extensive storage accessories including slide out, full extension shelving and soft close drawers, turntable storage in corner cabinets and pull out spice shelving. Glass paned cabinets and corner cabinets are included for displaying fine china and collectables. Under cabinet lighting has been installed to make kitchen tasks easier and also illuminates the beauty of the marble counter tops. Additional items include an appliance garage, recycling and trash pull-outs and a double slide out silverware drawer. A sculpted marble breakfast bar creates an eat in kitchen or party ready cocktail bar conveniently located between the kitchen, dining and living rooms. The wide plank European oak flooring continues into the open style dining room and formal living room.
Mr Changeable appreciated the fine surroundings but his focus was on the cheaply produced plastic doll sitting next to him. Roxie was tucking in to a large bowl of high-quality Muesli. Her vigorous activities in the bedroom had given her a ravenous appetite.
Muesli (pron.: /ˈmjuːzli/ or /ˈmuːzli/; Swiss German: Müesli [ˈmyəsli], Standard German: Müsli) is a popular breakfast meal based on uncooked rolled oats, fruit and nuts. It was developed around 1900 by Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner for patients in his hospital. It is available in a packaged dry form, ready made, or it can be made fresh.
In Switzerland and Germany, it is also eaten as a light evening dish; Birchermüesli complet is muesli with butterbrot and coffee with milk.
Originally known in Swiss German as Birchermüesli or simply Müesli, the word is an Alemannic diminutive of Mues which means "puree" or "mash-up."
Muesli was introduced around 1900 by the Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner for patients in his hospital, where a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables was an essential part of therapy. It was inspired by a similar "strange dish" that he and his wife had been served on a hike in the Swiss Alps. Bircher-Benner himself referred to the dish simply as "d'Spys" (Swiss German for "the dish", in German "die Speise"). Muesli in its modern form became popular in Western countries starting in the 1960s as part of increased interest in health food and vegetarian diets. Traditional muesli was eaten with lemon juice and not milk.
Karen insisted on serving her Muesli with lemon juice. She said that milk was the Devil's beverage.
"Well Roxie", said Mr Changeable between mouthfuls of croissant "thank you for having coitus last night. It was very enjoyable."
A croissant is a buttery flaky viennoiserie bread roll named for its well known crescent shape. Croissants and other viennoiserie are made of a layered yeast-leavened dough. The dough is layered with butter, rolled and folded several times in succession, then rolled into a sheet, in a technique called laminating. The process results in a layered, flaky texture, similar to a puff pastry.
Crescent-shaped food breads have been made since the Middle Ages, and crescent-shaped cakes possibly since old times.
Croissants have long been a staple of French bakeries and pâtisseries. In the late 1970s, the development of factory-made, frozen, pre-formed but unbaked dough made them into a fast food which can be freshly baked by unskilled labor. Indeed, the croissanterie was explicitly a French response to American-style fast food, and today 30–40% of the croissants sold in French bakeries and patisseries are frozen.
This innovation, along with the croissant's distinctive shape, has made it the most well known item of French food in much of the world. Today, the croissant remains popular in a continental breakfast.
The Kipferl – ancestor of the croissant – has been documented in Austria going back at least as far as the 13th century, in various shapes.The Kipferl can be made plain or with nut or other fillings (some consider the rugelach a form of Kipferl).
The original Boulangerie Viennoise in 1909 (when it was owned by Philibert Jacquet). The bakery proper is at left and its tea salon at right.
The "birth" of the croissant itself – that is, its adaptation from the plainer form of Kipferl, before the invention of Viennoiserie – can be dated with some precision to at latest 1839 (some say 1838), when an Austrian artillery officer, August Zang, founded a Viennese Bakery ("Boulangerie Viennoise") at 92, rue de Richelieu in Paris.[5] This bakery, which served Viennese specialities including the Kipferl and the Vienna loaf, quickly became popular and inspired French imitators (and the concept, if not the term, viennoiserie, a 20th century term for supposedly Vienna-style pastries). The French version of the Kipferl was named for its crescent (croissant) shape.
Alan Davidson, editor of the Oxford Companion to Food, found no printed recipe for the present-day croissant in any French recipe book before the early 20th century; the earliest French reference to a croissant he found was among the "fantasy or luxury breads" in Payen's Des substances alimentaires, 1853. However, early recipes for non-laminated croissants can be found in the nineteenth century and at least one reference to croissants as an established French bread appeared as early as 1850.
August Zang himself returned to Austria in 1848 to become a press magnate, but the bakery remained popular for some time after, and was mentioned in several works of the time: "This same M. Zank [sic]...founded around 1830 [sic], in Paris, the famous Boulangerie viennoise".Several sources praise this bakery's products: "Paris is of exquisite delicacy; and, in particular, the succulent products of the Boulangerie Viennoise"; "which seemed to us as fine as if it came from the Viennese bakery on the rue de Richelieu".
By 1869, the croissant was well established enough to be mentioned as a breakfast staple, and in 1872, Charles Dickens wrote (in his periodical "All the Year Round") of:
the workman's pain de ménage and the soldier's pain de munition, to the dainty croissant on the boudoir table
The Viennoiserie technique was already mentioned in the late 17th century, when La Varenne's Le Cuisinier françois gave a recipe for it in the 1680 – and possibly earlier – editions. It was typically used, not on its own, but for shells holding other ingredients (as in a vol-au-vent). But it does not appear to be mentioned in relation to the croissant until the twentieth century.
Fanciful stories of how the Kipferl—and so, ultimately, the croissant—was created are widespread and persistent culinary legends, at least one going back to the 19th century.However, there are no contemporary sources for any of these stories, nor does an aristocratic writer, writing in 1799, mention the Kipferl in a long and extensive list of breakfast foods.
The legends include tales that it was invented in Europe to celebrate the defeat of the Umayyad forces at the Battle of Tours by the Franks in 732, with the shape representing the Islamic crescent;that it was invented in Vienna in 1683 to celebrate the defeat of the Ottomans by Christian forces in the siege of the city, as a reference to the crescents on the Ottoman flags, when bakers staying up all night heard the tunneling operation and gave the alarm;tales linking croissants with the kifli and the siege of Buda in 1686.
Uncooked croissant can also be wrapped around any praline, almond paste or chocolate before it is baked (in the last case, it becomes like pain au chocolat, which has a different, non-crescent, shape), or sliced to admit sweet or savoury fillings. Indeed, it may be flavoured with dried fruit such as sultanas or raisins, or other fruits such as apples. In France and Spain, croissants are generally sold without filling and eaten without added butter, but sometimes with almond filling. In the United States, sweet fillings or toppings are common, and warm croissants may be filled with ham and cheese or feta cheese and spinach. In the Levant, croissants are sold plain or filled with chocolate, cheese, almonds, or zaatar. In Germany, croissants are sometimes filled with Nutella or persipan; in Southern Germany there also is a popular variety of a croissant glazed with lye ("Laugencroissant"). In the German speaking part of Switzerland, the croissant is typically called a Gipfeli, which typically has a crisper crust and is less buttery than the French style croissant.
In Argentina croissants are commonly served alongside coffee as a breakfast or merienda. These croissant are referred to as medialunas ('half moons') and are typically coated with a sweet glaze ("de manteca", made with butter). Another variant is a medialuna de grasa ("of lard"), which is not always sweet.
A cousin of the croissant is the Italian "cornetto" in the Center and South and "brioche" in the North. These variants are often considered to be the same, that is not completely true: the French version of the croissant tends to be crispy and contains a lot of butter, whereas an Italian cornetto or brioche is usually softer. Furthermore, the "cornetto vuoto" (Italian: "empty cornetto") is commonly sided by variants with filling, which include "crema pasticcera", jam and chocolate cream. They often come covered with powder sugar.
St. Martin's Day is celebrated in the Greater Poland region of Poland, mainly in its capital city Poznań. On this day, the people of Poznań buy and eat considerable amounts of croissants, made specially for this occasion from half-French paste with white-poppy and dainties, so-called Martin Croissants or St. Martin Croissants.
Croissants covered with a sweet glaze or filled with chocolate are common in bakeries and convenience stores in Japan.
Historically, the croissant was not commonplace in the UK. Although available in specialty places, it was only in the late 1980s that supermarkets started stocking them and then in the late 1990s with the growth of cafe culture did the croissant spread. They were introduced to Ethiopia by 1902, during the reign of Menelik II.
Croissants are also seen in former French colonies such as Algeria and Vietnam where in the latter they are called bánh sừng bò.
"What is coitus Geoff ? I thought it was those giant rodents from South America ?" asked Roxie with a worried expression. Surely things had not gone as far as shagging mega-voles ?
"No silly ! Those are Coypus... coitus means, you know, bonking ..."
"I am such a big silly aren't i !"
The coypu (from the Mapudungun, koypu), (Myocastor coypus), also known as the river rat, and nutria, is a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent and the only member of the family Myocastoridae. Originally native to subtropical and temperate South America, it has since been introduced to North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, primarily by fur ranchers. Although it is still valued for its fur in some regions, its destructive feeding and burrowing behaviors make this invasive species a pest throughout most of its range.
There are two commonly used names in the English language for Myocastor coypus. The name "nutria" (or local derivatives such as "nutria- or nutra- rat") is generally used in North America, Asia and throughout countries of the former Soviet Union; however, in Spanish-speaking countries, the word "nutria" refers to the otter. To avoid this ambiguity, the name "coypu" (derived from the Mapudungun language) is used in Latin America and Europe. In France, the coypu is known as a ragondin. In Dutch it is known as beverrat (beaver rat). In Italy, instead, the popular name is, as in North America and Asia, "nutria", but it is also called castorino ("little beaver"), by which its fur is known in Italy.
Coypus live in burrows alongside stretches of water. They feed on river plants, and waste close to 90% of the plant material while feeding on the stems.
The coypu somewhat resembles a very large rat, or a beaver with a small tail. Adults are typically 5–9 kg (11–20 lb) in weight, and 40–60 cm (16–24 in) in body length, with a 30–45 cm (12–18 in) tail. They have a coarse, darkish brown outer fur with a soft dense grey under-fur, also called the nutria. Three distinguishing features are a white patch on the muzzle, webbed hind feet and large bright orange-yellow incisors. The nipples of female coypu are high on her flanks. This allows their young to feed while the female is in the water.
Coypu may be mistaken for the muskrat, another widely dispersed semi-aquatic rodent that occupies the same wetland habitats. The muskrat, however, is smaller, more tolerant of cold climates, and has a laterally flattened tail that it uses to assist in swimming whereas the tail of a coypu is round. It can also be mistaken for a small beaver, as beavers and coypus have very similar anatomies. However, beavers' tails are flat and paddle-like, as opposed to the round rat-like tails of coypu.
Coypus can live up to six years in captivity, but it is uncommon for individuals to live past three years old; according to one study, 80% of coypus die within the first year, and less than 15% of a wild population is over three years old.Male coypus reach sexual maturity as early as 4 months, and females as early as 3 months; however both can have a prolonged adolescence, up to the age of 9 months. Once a female is pregnant gestation lasts 130 days and she may give birth to as few as one offspring or as many as thirteen. Baby coypus are born fully furred and with open eyes; they can eat vegetation with their parents within hours of birth. A female coypu can become impregnated again the day after she gives birth to her young. If timed properly, a female can become pregnant three times within a year. Newborn coypus nurse for seven to eight weeks, after which they leave their mother.
Beside breeding quickly, each coypu consumes large amounts of vegetation. An individual consumes about 25% of its body weight daily, and feeds year-round. Being one of the world's larger extant rodents, a mature, healthy coypu averages in weight at 5.4 kg (12 lb), but they can reach as much as 10 kg (22 lb). They eat the base of the above-ground stems of plants and often will dig through the organic soil for roots and rhizomes to eat.Their creation of "eat-outs", areas where a majority of the above- and below-ground biomass has been removed, produces patches in the environment, which in turn disrupts the habitat for other animals and humans dependent on marshes.
Coypus are found most commonly in freshwater marshes but also inhabit brackish marshes and rarely salt marshes.
Local extinction in their native range due to overharvesting led to the development of coypu fur farms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first farms were in Argentina and then later in Europe, North America, and Asia. These farms have generally not been successful long term investments and farmed coypu often are released or escape as operations become unprofitable.
As demand for coypu fur declined, coypu have since become pests in many areas, destroying aquatic vegetation, marshes, irrigation systems, chewing through human-made items, such as tires and wooden house panelling in Louisiana, eroding river banks, and displacing native animals. Coypu were introduced to the Louisiana ecosystem in the 1930s when they escaped from fur farms that had imported them from South America. Nutria damage in Louisiana became so severe that in 2005, a bounty program was in effect to aid in controlling the animal. In the Chesapeake Bay region in Maryland, where they were introduced in the 1940s, coypu are believed to have destroyed 7,000 to 8,000 acres (2,800 to 3,200 ha) of marshland in the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. In response, by 2003, a multi-million dollar eradication program was underway.
In the United Kingdom, Coypu were introduced to East Anglia, for fur, in 1929; many escaped and damaged the drainage works, and a concerted programme by MAFF eradicated them by 1989. However, in 2012 a 'giant rat' was killed in County Durham, with authorities suspecting that the animal was, in fact, a coypu.
Coypu meat is lean and low in cholesterol. While there have been many attempts to establish markets for coypu meat, all documented cases have generally been unsuccessful. Unscrupulous entrepreneurs have promoted coypu and coypu farms for their value as "meat", "fur", or "aquatic weed control". In recent years they have done so in countries such as the United States, China, Taiwan and Thailand. In every documented case the entrepreneurs sell coypu "breeding stock" at very high prices. Would-be coypu farmers find that the markets for their products disappear after the promoter has dropped out of the picture.
In the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, specifically Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Nutria (Russian and local languages Нутрия) are farmed on private plots and sold in local markets as a poor man's meat.
In addition to direct environmental damage, coypu are the host for a nematode parasite (Strongyloides myopotami) that can infect the skin of humans causing dermatitis similar to strongyloidiasis.The condition is also called "nutria itch".
"Roxie we must talk about Rupert" said Mr Changeable. "He is your legal husband you know." "Tell me about it Geoff. Anyway he is out in Afghanistan for the next six months so won't be bursting into the bedroom just yet"
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by the bear
ermm it is published
i think a pop-up print version with plastic figure tie-ins would have legs
this could lead to further productions:
Cup Cakes with Karen
Roxie's Dream Gardens
and maybe a singing career for Mr Changeable and Ben ?
i think a pop-up print version with plastic figure tie-ins would have legs
this could lead to further productions:
Cup Cakes with Karen
Roxie's Dream Gardens
and maybe a singing career for Mr Changeable and Ben ?
is my story going to be out in book shops is that what it means because i started this off as my own little project that i shared and some of you had continued, so i don't wish for it to be published
Original post by the bear
ermm it is published
i think a pop-up print version with plastic figure tie-ins would have legs
this could lead to further productions:
Cup Cakes with Karen
Roxie's Dream Gardens
and maybe a singing career for Mr Changeable and Ben ?
i think a pop-up print version with plastic figure tie-ins would have legs
this could lead to further productions:
Cup Cakes with Karen
Roxie's Dream Gardens
and maybe a singing career for Mr Changeable and Ben ?
i like your irony. please contact me or the voice concerning a singing career for mr changeable and ben.
Suddenly there was an almighty crash and the Breakfast Bar was blitzed with shards of glass.
Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline) solid material that exhibits a glass transition. Glasses are typically brittle and can be optically transparent.
The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica (SiO2) plus sodium oxide (Na2O) from soda ash, lime (CaO), and several minor additives. Often, the term glass is used in a restricted sense to refer to this specific use.
In science, however, the term glass is usually defined in a much wider sense, including every solid that possesses a non-crystalline (i.e. amorphous) structure and that exhibits a glass transition when heated towards the liquid state. In this wider sense, glasses can be made of quite different classes of materials: metallic alloys, ionic melts, aqueous solutions, molecular liquids, and polymers. For many applications (bottles, eyewear) polymer glasses (acrylic glass, polycarbonate, polyethylene terephthalate) are a lighter alternative to traditional silica glasses.
The observation that old windows are sometimes found to be thicker at the bottom than at the top is often offered as supporting evidence for the view that glass flows over a timescale of centuries. The assumption being that the glass was once uniform, but has flowed to its new shape, which is a property of liquid. However, this assumption is incorrect; once solidified, glass does not flow anymore. The reason for the observation is that in the past, when panes of glass were commonly made by glassblowers, the technique used was to spin molten glass so as to create a round, mostly flat and even plate (the crown glass process, described above). This plate was then cut to fit a window. The pieces were not, however, absolutely flat; the edges of the disk became a different thickness as the glass spun. When installed in a window frame, the glass would be placed with the thicker side down both for the sake of stability and to prevent water accumulating in the lead cames at the bottom of the window. Occasionally such glass has been found thinner side down or thicker on either side of the window's edge, the result of carelessness during installation.
Mass production of glass window panes in the early twentieth century caused a similar effect. In glass factories, molten glass was poured onto a large cooling table and allowed to spread. The resulting glass is thicker at the location of the pour, located at the center of the large sheet. These sheets were cut into smaller window panes with nonuniform thickness, typically with the location of the pour centered in one of the panes (known as "bull's-eyes") for decorative effect. Modern glass intended for windows is produced as float glass and is very uniform in thickness.
Several other points can be considered that contradict the "cathedral glass flow" theory:
Writing in the American Journal of Physics, materials engineer Edgar D. Zanotto states "... the predicted relaxation time for GeO2 at room temperature is 1032 years. Hence, the relaxation period (characteristic flow time) of cathedral glasses would be even longer." (1032 years is many times longer than the estimated age of the Universe.)
If medieval glass has flowed perceptibly, then ancient Roman and Egyptian objects should have flowed proportionately more — but this is not observed. Similarly, prehistoric obsidian blades should have lost their edge; this is not observed either (although obsidian may have a different viscosity from window glass)
If glass flows at a rate that allows changes to be seen with the naked eye after centuries, then the effect should be noticeable in antique telescopes. Any slight deformation in the antique telescopic lenses would lead to a dramatic decrease in optical performance, a phenomenon that is not observed.
There are many examples of centuries-old glass shelving that has not bent, even though it is under much higher stress from gravitational loads than vertical window glass.
The above does not apply to materials that have a glass transition temperature close to room temperature, such as certain plastics used in daily life like polystyrene and polypropylene.
Mr Changeable's army training kicked in and he hurled himself and Roxie behind the cereal packages. Peeping out from behind the Muesli box he saw his nemesis Rupert in full combat gear looking not very pleased.
In Greek mythology, Nemesis (Greek, Νέμεσις), also called Rhamnousia/Rhamnusia ("the goddess of Rhamnous") at her sanctuary at Rhamnous, north of Marathon, was the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris (arrogance before the gods). Another name was Adrasteia, meaning "the inescapable."The Greeks personified vengeful fate as a remorseless goddess: the goddess of revenge. The name Nemesis is related to the Greek word νέμειν [némein], meaning "to give what is due".
Divine retribution is a major theme in the Hellenic world view, providing the unifying theme of the tragedies of Sophocles and many other literary works. Hesiod states: "Also deadly Nyx bore Nemesis an affliction to mortals subject to death." (Theogony, 223, though perhaps an interpolated line). Nemesis appears in a still more concrete form in a fragment of the epic Cypria.
She is implacable justice: that of Zeus in the Olympian scheme of things, although it is clear she existed prior to him, as her images look similar to several other goddesses, such as Cybele, Rhea, Demeter and Artemis.
As the "Goddess of Rhamnous", Nemesis was honored and placated in an archaic sanctuary in the isolated district of Rhamnous, in northeastern Attica. There she was a daughter of Oceanus, the primeval river-ocean that encircles the world. Pausanias noted her iconic statue there. It included a crown of stags and little Nikes and was made by Pheidias after the Battle of Marathon (490 BC), crafted from a block of Parian marble brought by the overconfident Persians, who had intended to make a memorial stele after their expected victory.
Nemesis has been described as the daughter of Oceanus or Zeus, but according to Hesiod she was a child of Erebus and Nyx. She has also been described as the daughter of Nyx alone. Her cult may have originated at Smyrna.
In some metaphysical mythology, Nemesis produced the egg from which hatched two sets of twins: Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, and the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux. While many myths indicate Zeus and Leda to be the parents of Helen of Troy, the author of the compilation of myth called Bibliotheke notes the possibility of Nemesis being the mother of Helen; Nemesis, to avoid Zeus, turns into a goose, but he turns into a swan and mates with her. Nemesis in her bird form lays an egg that is discovered in the marshes by a shepherd, who passes the egg to Leda. It is in this way that Leda comes to be the mother of Helen of Troy, as she kept the egg in a chest until it hatched.
Although a respected goddess, Nemesis had brought much sorrow to mortals like Echo and Narcissus. Narcissus was a very beautiful and arrogant hunter from the territory of Thespiae and Boeotia who disdained the ones who loved him. Nemesis lured him to a pool where he saw his own reflection in the water and fell in love with it, not realizing it was only an image. He was unable to leave the beauty of his reflection and he eventually died. Nemesis believed that no one should ever have too much good, and she had always cursed those who were blessed with countless gifts.
The word Nemesis originally meant the distributor of fortune, neither good nor bad, simply in due proportion to each according to what was deserved; then, nemesis came to suggest the resentment caused by any disturbance of this right proportion, the sense of justice which could not allow it to pass unpunished. O. Gruppe (1906) and others connect the name with "to feel just resentment". From the 4th century onwards, Nemesis, as the just balancer of Fortune's chance, could be associated with Tyche.
In the Greek tragedies Nemesis appears chiefly as the avenger of crime and the punisher of hubris, and as such is akin to Atë and the Erinyes. She was sometimes called "Adrasteia", probably meaning "one from whom there is no escape"; her epithet Erinys ("implacable") is specially applied to Demeter and the Phrygian mother goddess, Cybele.
A festival called Nemeseia (by some identified with the Genesia) was held at Athens. Its object was to avert the nemesis of the dead, who were supposed to have the power of punishing the living, if their cult had been in any way neglected (Sophocles, Electra, 792; E. Rohde, Psyche, 1907, i. 236, note I).
At Smyrna there were two manifestations of Nemesis, more akin to Aphrodite than to Artemis. The reason for this duality is hard to explain; it is suggested that they represent two aspects of the goddess, the kindly and the implacable, or the goddesses of the old city and the new city refounded by Alexander. The martyrology Acts of Pionius, set in the "Decian persecution" of AD 250–51, mentions a lapsed Smyrnan Christian who was attending to the sacrifices at the altar of the temple of these Nemeses.
"Keep very still honeybunch. It is Rupert. I will kick his ass back to the 'Stan for you" said Mr Changeable to the terrified Roxie.
Pausing only to give her a quick French Kiss he edged out of his hiding place and prepared to confront the irate cuckold.
A French kiss is a kiss in which one or both participants' tongues touch the partner's lips or tongue, usually entering their mouth. A French kiss is a slow, passionate kiss which is usually considered intimate, romantic, erotic or sexual.
A "kiss with the tongue" stimulates the partner's lips, tongue and mouth, which are sensitive to the touch. The practice is often considered a source of pleasure. The oral zone is one of the principal erogenous zones of the body.
In early human societies, mothers weaned their children by chewing up their food and then passing it into the infantile mouth by lip-to-lip contact- which involved a considerable amount of tonguing and mutual mouth pressure. Our species practiced this behavior for over a million years, and adult tongue kissing today is considered a relic gesture stemming from these origins.
A French kiss is so-called because at the beginning of the 20th century the French had a reputation for more adventurous and passionate sex practices. In France, it is referred to as baiser amoureux ("lover's kiss") or baiser avec la langue ("kiss with the tongue"), even if in past times it was also known as baiser florentin ("Florentine kiss").
According to the biologist Thierry Lodé tongue kisses, including the exchange of saliva, allows lovers to explore the immune system in order to avoid other people who have too much genetic relatedness. Indeed, from an evolutionary point of view, the sexual partner should be different to be attractive and to provide the genetic diversity that promote the health of the immune system progéniture. The Smell Identification salivary amended by the immune system, can trigger desire, love consent, and finally the sexual act itself.
"Oi Blondie !! Come and get it" Mr Changeable shouted at his erstwhile commander. At the same moment he launched himself at the larger doll's thorax. The element of surprise soon wore off and they battled mano a mano. "Well Sergeant you have put on a bit of weight since we last met. Tucking into the fairy cakes ?" "At least i haven't been touching up the Taliban you turban-licker".
The Colonel reached for his Browning Hi-Power pistol but was too late. Mr Changeable kicked it out of his grasp and fastened his rough hands around Rupert's aristocratic neck.
"Guys stop !! That's enough. Let's behave like grown ups" screeched the object of their affections.Her pleas fell on deaf ears and the struggle entered its final phase.
With a sickening pop Rupert's head came off and the fight was over. Mr Changeable staggered over to Roxie and collapsed on top of her.
Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline) solid material that exhibits a glass transition. Glasses are typically brittle and can be optically transparent.
The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica (SiO2) plus sodium oxide (Na2O) from soda ash, lime (CaO), and several minor additives. Often, the term glass is used in a restricted sense to refer to this specific use.
In science, however, the term glass is usually defined in a much wider sense, including every solid that possesses a non-crystalline (i.e. amorphous) structure and that exhibits a glass transition when heated towards the liquid state. In this wider sense, glasses can be made of quite different classes of materials: metallic alloys, ionic melts, aqueous solutions, molecular liquids, and polymers. For many applications (bottles, eyewear) polymer glasses (acrylic glass, polycarbonate, polyethylene terephthalate) are a lighter alternative to traditional silica glasses.
The observation that old windows are sometimes found to be thicker at the bottom than at the top is often offered as supporting evidence for the view that glass flows over a timescale of centuries. The assumption being that the glass was once uniform, but has flowed to its new shape, which is a property of liquid. However, this assumption is incorrect; once solidified, glass does not flow anymore. The reason for the observation is that in the past, when panes of glass were commonly made by glassblowers, the technique used was to spin molten glass so as to create a round, mostly flat and even plate (the crown glass process, described above). This plate was then cut to fit a window. The pieces were not, however, absolutely flat; the edges of the disk became a different thickness as the glass spun. When installed in a window frame, the glass would be placed with the thicker side down both for the sake of stability and to prevent water accumulating in the lead cames at the bottom of the window. Occasionally such glass has been found thinner side down or thicker on either side of the window's edge, the result of carelessness during installation.
Mass production of glass window panes in the early twentieth century caused a similar effect. In glass factories, molten glass was poured onto a large cooling table and allowed to spread. The resulting glass is thicker at the location of the pour, located at the center of the large sheet. These sheets were cut into smaller window panes with nonuniform thickness, typically with the location of the pour centered in one of the panes (known as "bull's-eyes") for decorative effect. Modern glass intended for windows is produced as float glass and is very uniform in thickness.
Several other points can be considered that contradict the "cathedral glass flow" theory:
Writing in the American Journal of Physics, materials engineer Edgar D. Zanotto states "... the predicted relaxation time for GeO2 at room temperature is 1032 years. Hence, the relaxation period (characteristic flow time) of cathedral glasses would be even longer." (1032 years is many times longer than the estimated age of the Universe.)
If medieval glass has flowed perceptibly, then ancient Roman and Egyptian objects should have flowed proportionately more — but this is not observed. Similarly, prehistoric obsidian blades should have lost their edge; this is not observed either (although obsidian may have a different viscosity from window glass)
If glass flows at a rate that allows changes to be seen with the naked eye after centuries, then the effect should be noticeable in antique telescopes. Any slight deformation in the antique telescopic lenses would lead to a dramatic decrease in optical performance, a phenomenon that is not observed.
There are many examples of centuries-old glass shelving that has not bent, even though it is under much higher stress from gravitational loads than vertical window glass.
The above does not apply to materials that have a glass transition temperature close to room temperature, such as certain plastics used in daily life like polystyrene and polypropylene.
Mr Changeable's army training kicked in and he hurled himself and Roxie behind the cereal packages. Peeping out from behind the Muesli box he saw his nemesis Rupert in full combat gear looking not very pleased.
In Greek mythology, Nemesis (Greek, Νέμεσις), also called Rhamnousia/Rhamnusia ("the goddess of Rhamnous") at her sanctuary at Rhamnous, north of Marathon, was the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris (arrogance before the gods). Another name was Adrasteia, meaning "the inescapable."The Greeks personified vengeful fate as a remorseless goddess: the goddess of revenge. The name Nemesis is related to the Greek word νέμειν [némein], meaning "to give what is due".
Divine retribution is a major theme in the Hellenic world view, providing the unifying theme of the tragedies of Sophocles and many other literary works. Hesiod states: "Also deadly Nyx bore Nemesis an affliction to mortals subject to death." (Theogony, 223, though perhaps an interpolated line). Nemesis appears in a still more concrete form in a fragment of the epic Cypria.
She is implacable justice: that of Zeus in the Olympian scheme of things, although it is clear she existed prior to him, as her images look similar to several other goddesses, such as Cybele, Rhea, Demeter and Artemis.
As the "Goddess of Rhamnous", Nemesis was honored and placated in an archaic sanctuary in the isolated district of Rhamnous, in northeastern Attica. There she was a daughter of Oceanus, the primeval river-ocean that encircles the world. Pausanias noted her iconic statue there. It included a crown of stags and little Nikes and was made by Pheidias after the Battle of Marathon (490 BC), crafted from a block of Parian marble brought by the overconfident Persians, who had intended to make a memorial stele after their expected victory.
Nemesis has been described as the daughter of Oceanus or Zeus, but according to Hesiod she was a child of Erebus and Nyx. She has also been described as the daughter of Nyx alone. Her cult may have originated at Smyrna.
In some metaphysical mythology, Nemesis produced the egg from which hatched two sets of twins: Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, and the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux. While many myths indicate Zeus and Leda to be the parents of Helen of Troy, the author of the compilation of myth called Bibliotheke notes the possibility of Nemesis being the mother of Helen; Nemesis, to avoid Zeus, turns into a goose, but he turns into a swan and mates with her. Nemesis in her bird form lays an egg that is discovered in the marshes by a shepherd, who passes the egg to Leda. It is in this way that Leda comes to be the mother of Helen of Troy, as she kept the egg in a chest until it hatched.
Although a respected goddess, Nemesis had brought much sorrow to mortals like Echo and Narcissus. Narcissus was a very beautiful and arrogant hunter from the territory of Thespiae and Boeotia who disdained the ones who loved him. Nemesis lured him to a pool where he saw his own reflection in the water and fell in love with it, not realizing it was only an image. He was unable to leave the beauty of his reflection and he eventually died. Nemesis believed that no one should ever have too much good, and she had always cursed those who were blessed with countless gifts.
The word Nemesis originally meant the distributor of fortune, neither good nor bad, simply in due proportion to each according to what was deserved; then, nemesis came to suggest the resentment caused by any disturbance of this right proportion, the sense of justice which could not allow it to pass unpunished. O. Gruppe (1906) and others connect the name with "to feel just resentment". From the 4th century onwards, Nemesis, as the just balancer of Fortune's chance, could be associated with Tyche.
In the Greek tragedies Nemesis appears chiefly as the avenger of crime and the punisher of hubris, and as such is akin to Atë and the Erinyes. She was sometimes called "Adrasteia", probably meaning "one from whom there is no escape"; her epithet Erinys ("implacable") is specially applied to Demeter and the Phrygian mother goddess, Cybele.
A festival called Nemeseia (by some identified with the Genesia) was held at Athens. Its object was to avert the nemesis of the dead, who were supposed to have the power of punishing the living, if their cult had been in any way neglected (Sophocles, Electra, 792; E. Rohde, Psyche, 1907, i. 236, note I).
At Smyrna there were two manifestations of Nemesis, more akin to Aphrodite than to Artemis. The reason for this duality is hard to explain; it is suggested that they represent two aspects of the goddess, the kindly and the implacable, or the goddesses of the old city and the new city refounded by Alexander. The martyrology Acts of Pionius, set in the "Decian persecution" of AD 250–51, mentions a lapsed Smyrnan Christian who was attending to the sacrifices at the altar of the temple of these Nemeses.
"Keep very still honeybunch. It is Rupert. I will kick his ass back to the 'Stan for you" said Mr Changeable to the terrified Roxie.
Pausing only to give her a quick French Kiss he edged out of his hiding place and prepared to confront the irate cuckold.
A French kiss is a kiss in which one or both participants' tongues touch the partner's lips or tongue, usually entering their mouth. A French kiss is a slow, passionate kiss which is usually considered intimate, romantic, erotic or sexual.
A "kiss with the tongue" stimulates the partner's lips, tongue and mouth, which are sensitive to the touch. The practice is often considered a source of pleasure. The oral zone is one of the principal erogenous zones of the body.
In early human societies, mothers weaned their children by chewing up their food and then passing it into the infantile mouth by lip-to-lip contact- which involved a considerable amount of tonguing and mutual mouth pressure. Our species practiced this behavior for over a million years, and adult tongue kissing today is considered a relic gesture stemming from these origins.
A French kiss is so-called because at the beginning of the 20th century the French had a reputation for more adventurous and passionate sex practices. In France, it is referred to as baiser amoureux ("lover's kiss") or baiser avec la langue ("kiss with the tongue"), even if in past times it was also known as baiser florentin ("Florentine kiss").
According to the biologist Thierry Lodé tongue kisses, including the exchange of saliva, allows lovers to explore the immune system in order to avoid other people who have too much genetic relatedness. Indeed, from an evolutionary point of view, the sexual partner should be different to be attractive and to provide the genetic diversity that promote the health of the immune system progéniture. The Smell Identification salivary amended by the immune system, can trigger desire, love consent, and finally the sexual act itself.
"Oi Blondie !! Come and get it" Mr Changeable shouted at his erstwhile commander. At the same moment he launched himself at the larger doll's thorax. The element of surprise soon wore off and they battled mano a mano. "Well Sergeant you have put on a bit of weight since we last met. Tucking into the fairy cakes ?" "At least i haven't been touching up the Taliban you turban-licker".
The Colonel reached for his Browning Hi-Power pistol but was too late. Mr Changeable kicked it out of his grasp and fastened his rough hands around Rupert's aristocratic neck.
"Guys stop !! That's enough. Let's behave like grown ups" screeched the object of their affections.Her pleas fell on deaf ears and the struggle entered its final phase.
With a sickening pop Rupert's head came off and the fight was over. Mr Changeable staggered over to Roxie and collapsed on top of her.
(edited 10 years ago)
Karen strode in to the kitchen, her silk kimono gaping open to reveal her recently enhanced boobies.
The kimono is a Japanese traditional garment worn by men, women and children. The word "kimono", which literally means a "thing to wear" (ki "wear" and mono "thing"), has come to denote these full-length robes. The standard plural of the word kimono in English is kimonos, but the unmarked Japanese plural kimono is also sometimes used.
Kimono are T-shaped, straight-lined robes worn so that the hem falls to the ankle, with attached collars and long, wide sleeves. Kimono are wrapped around the body, always with the left side over the right (except when dressing the dead for burial.), and secured by a sash called an obi, which is tied at the back. Kimono are generally worn with traditional footwear (especially zōri or geta) and split-toe socks (tabi).
Today, kimono are most often worn by women, and on special occasions. Traditionally, unmarried women wore a style of kimono called furisode, with almost floor-length sleeves, on special occasions. A few older women and even fewer men still wear the kimono on a daily basis. Men wear the kimono most often at weddings, tea ceremonies, and other very special or very formal occasions. Professional sumo wrestlers are often seen in the kimono because they are required to wear traditional Japanese dress whenever appearing in public.
As the kimono has another name, gofuku, the earliest kimonos were heavily influenced by traditional Han Chinese clothing, known today as hanfu, through Japanese embassies to China which resulted in extensive Chinese culture adoptions by Japan, as early as the 5th century AD. It was during the 8th century, however, that Chinese fashions came into style among the Japanese, and the overlapping collar became particularly women's fashion. During Japan's Heian period (794–1192 AD), the kimono became increasingly stylized, though one still wore a half-apron, called a mo, over it. During the Muromachi age (1392–1573 AD), the Kosode, a single kimono formerly considered underwear, began to be worn without the hakama (trousers, divided skirt) over it, and thus began to be held closed by an obi "belt". During the Edo period (1603–1867 AD), the sleeves began to grow in length, especially among unmarried women, and the Obi became wider, with various styles of tying coming into fashion. Since then, the basic shape of both the men’s and women’s kimono has remained essentially unchanged. Kimonos made with exceptional skill from fine materials have been regarded as great works of art.
The formal kimono was replaced by the more convenient Western clothes and yukata as everyday wear. After an edict by Emperor Meiji, police, railroad men and teachers moved to Western clothes. The Western clothes became the army and school uniform for boys. After the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, kimono wearers often became victims of robbery because they could not run very fast due to the restricting nature of the kimono on the body and geta clogs. The Tokyo Women's & Children's Wear Manufacturers' Association promoted Western clothes. Between 1920 and 1930 the sailor outfit replaced the undivided hakama in school uniforms for girls. The 1932 fire at Shirokiya's Nihonbashi store is said to have been the catalyst for the decline in kimonos as everyday wear. Kimono-clad Japanese women did not wear panties and several women refused to jump into safety nets because they were ashamed of being seen from below. (It is, however, suggested, that this is an urban myth.)The national uniform, Kokumin-fuku , a type of Western clothes, was mandated for males in 1940.Today most people wear Western clothes and wear the breezier and more comfortable yukata for special occasions.
Textiles and manufacture
Kimonos for men should fall approximately to the ankle without tucking. A woman's kimono has additional length to allow for the ohashori, the tuck that can be seen under the obi, which is used to adjust the kimono to the wearer. An ideally tailored kimono has sleeves that fall to the wrist when the arms are lowered.
Kimonos are traditionally made from a single bolt of fabric called a tan. Tan come in standard dimensions—about 14 inches wide and 12½ yards long—and the entire bolt is used to make one kimono. The finished kimono consists of four main strips of fabric—two panels covering the body and two panels forming the sleeves—with additional smaller strips forming the narrow front panels and collar. Historically, kimonos were often taken apart for washing as separate panels and resewn by hand. Because the entire bolt remains in the finished garment without cutting, the kimono can be retailored easily to fit another person.
The maximum width of the sleeve is dictated by the width of the fabric. The distance from the center of the spine to the end of the sleeve could not exceed twice the width of the fabric. Traditional kimono fabric was typically no more than 36 centimeters (14 inches) wide. Thus the distance from spine to wrist could not exceed a maximum of roughly 68 centimeters (27 inches). Modern kimono fabric is woven as wide as 42 centimeters (17 inches) to accommodate modern Japanese body sizes. Very tall or heavy people, such as sumo wrestlers, must have kimonos custom-made by either joining multiple bolts, weaving custom-width fabric, or using non-standard size fabric.
Traditionally, kimonos are sewn by hand; even machine-made kimonos require substantial hand-stitching. Kimono fabrics are frequently hand-made and -decorated. Techniques such as yūzen dye resist are used for applying decoration and patterns to the base cloth. Repeating patterns that cover a large area of a kimono are traditionally done with the yūzen resist technique and a stencil. Over time there have been many variations in color, fabric and style, as well as accessories such as the obi.
The kimono and obi are traditionally made of silk, silk brocade, silk crepes (such as chirimen) and satin weaves (such as rinzu). Modern kimonos are widely available in less-expensive easy-care fabrics such as rayon, cotton sateen, cotton, polyester and other synthetic fibers. Silk is still considered the ideal fabric.
Customarily, woven patterns and dyed repeat patterns are considered informal. Formal kimonos have free-style designs dyed over the whole surface or along the hem.During the Heian period, kimonos were worn with up to a dozen or more colorful contrasting layers, with each combination of colors being a named pattern.Today, the kimono is normally worn with a single layer on top of one or more undergarments.
The pattern of the kimono can determine in which season it should be worn. For example, a pattern with butterflies or cherry blossoms would be worn in spring. Watery designs are common during the summer. A popular autumn motif is the russet leaf of the Japanese maple; for winter, designs may include bamboo, pine trees and plum blossoms.
A popular form of textile art in Japan is shibori (intricate tie dye), found on some of the more expensive kimonos and haori kimono jackets. Patterns are created by minutely binding the fabric and masking off areas, then dying it, usually by hand. When the bindings are removed, an undyed pattern is revealed. Shibori work can be further enhanced with yuzen (hand applied) drawing or painting with textile dyes or with embroidery; it is then known as tsujigahana. Shibori textiles are very time-consuming to produce and require great skill, so the textiles and garments created from them are very expensive and highly prized.
Old kimonos are often recycled in: altered to make haori, hiyoku, or kimonos for children; used to patch similar kimono; used for making handbags and similar kimono accessories; and used to make covers, bags or cases for implements, especially for sweet-picks used in tea ceremonies. Damaged kimonos can be disassembled and resewn to hide the soiled areas, and those with damage below the waistline can be worn under a hakama. Historically, skilled craftsmen laboriously picked the silk thread from old kimono and rewove it into a new textile in the width of a heko obi for men's kimono, using a recycling weaving method called saki-ori.
These terms refer to parts of a kimono:
Dōura : upper lining on a woman's kimono.
Eri : collar.
Fuki: hem guard.
Furi: sleeve below the armhole.
Maemigoro : front main panel, excluding sleeves. The covering portion of the other side of the back, maemigoro is divided into "right maemigoro" and "left maemigoro".
Miyatsukuchi: opening under the sleeve.
Okumi : front inside panel on the front edge of the left and right, excluding the sleeve of a kimono. Until the collar, down to the bottom of the dress goes, up and down part of the strip of cloth. Have sewn the front body.
Sode : sleeve
Sodeguchi : sleeve opening.
Sodetsuke : kimono armhole.
Susomawashi : lower lining.
Tamoto : sleeve pouch.
Tomoeri : over-collar (collar protector).
Uraeri : inner collar.
Ushiromigoro : back main panel, excluding sleeves, covering the back portion. They are basically sewn back-centered and consist of "right ushiromigoro" and "left ushiromigoro", but for wool fabric, the ushiromigoro consists of one piece.
A woman's kimono may easily exceed US$10,000; a complete kimono outfit, with kimono, undergarments, obi, ties, socks, sandals, and accessories, can exceed US$20,000. A single obi may cost several thousand dollars. However, most kimonos owned by kimono hobbyists or by practitioners of traditional arts are far less expensive. Enterprising people make their own kimono and undergarments by following a standard pattern, or by recycling older kimonos. Cheaper and machine-made fabrics can substitute for the traditional hand-dyed silk. There is also a thriving business in Japan for second-hand kimonos, which can cost as little as ¥500 (about $6). Women's obis, however, mostly remain an expensive item. Although simple patterned or plain colored ones can cost as little as ¥1,500 (about $18), even a used obi can cost hundreds of dollars, and experienced craftsmanship is required to make them. Men's obis, even those made from silk, tend to be much less expensive, because they are narrower, shorter and less decorative than those worn by women.
Kimonos range from extremely formal to casual. The level of formality of women's kimono is determined mostly by the pattern of the fabric, and color. Young women's kimonos have longer sleeves, signifying that they are not married, and tend to be more elaborate than similarly formal older women's kimono. Men's kimonos are usually one basic shape and are mainly worn in subdued colors. Formality is also determined by the type and color of accessories, the fabric, and the number or absence of kamon (family crests), with five crests signifying extreme formality. Silk is the most desirable, and most formal, fabric. Kimonos made of fabrics such as cotton and polyester generally reflect a more casual style.
Women's kimonos
Many modern Japanese women lack the skill to put on a kimono unaided: the typical woman's kimono outfit consists of twelve or more separate pieces that are worn, matched, and secured in prescribed ways, and the assistance of licensed professional kimono dressers may be required. Called upon mostly for special occasions, kimono dressers both work out of hair salons and make house calls.
Choosing an appropriate type of kimono requires knowledge of the garment's symbolism and subtle social messages, reflecting the woman's age, marital status, and the level of formality of the occasion.
furisode literally translates as swinging sleeves—the sleeves of furisode average between 39 and 42 inches (110 cm) in length. Furisode are the most formal kimono for unmarried women, with colorful patterns that cover the entire garment. They are usually worn at coming-of-age ceremonies (seijin shiki) and by unmarried female relatives of the bride at weddings and wedding receptions.
Hōumongi
literally translates as visiting wear. Characterized by patterns that flow over the shoulders, seams and sleeves, hōmongi rank slightly higher than their close relative, the tsukesage. Hōmongi may be worn by both married and unmarried women; often friends of the bride will wear hōmongi at weddings (except relatives) and receptions. They may also be worn to formal parties.
Pongee Hōmongi were made to promote kimono after WWII. Since Pongee Hōmongi are made from Pongee, they are considered casual wear.
Iromuji
single-colored kimono that may be worn by married and unmarried women. They are mainly worn to tea ceremonies. The dyed silk may be figured (rinzu, similar to jacquard), but has no differently colored patterns.
Komon
"fine pattern". Kimono with a small, repeated pattern throughout the garment. This style is more casual and may be worn around town, or dressed up with a formal obi for a restaurant. Both married and unmarried women may wear komon.
Edo komon
is a type of komon characterized by tiny dots arranged in dense patterns that form larger designs. The Edo komon dyeing technique originated with the samurai class during the Edo period. A kimono with this type of pattern is of the same formality as an iromuji, and when decorated with kamon, may be worn as visiting wear (equivalent to a tsukesage or hōmongi).
Mofuku is formal mourning dress for men or women. Both men and women wear kimono of plain black silk with five kamon over white undergarments and white tabi. For women, the obi and all accessories are also black. Men wear a subdued obi and black and white or black and gray striped hakama with black or white zori.
The completely black mourning ensemble is usually reserved for family and others who are close to the deceased.
Irotomesode
single-color kimono, patterned only below the waistline. Irotomesode are slightly less formal than kurotomesode, and are worn by married women, usually close relatives of the bride and groom at weddings. An irotomesode may have three or five kamon.
Kurotomesode
a black kimono patterned only below the waistline, kurotomesode are the most formal kimono for married women. They are often worn by the mothers of the bride and groom at weddings. Kurotomesode usually have five kamon printed on the sleeves, chest and back of the kimono.
Tsukesage
has more modest patterns that cover a smaller area—mainly below the waist—than the more formal hōmongi. They may also be worn by married women.The differences from homongi is the size of the pattern, seam connection, and not same clothes at inside and outside at "hakke." As demitoilet, not used in important occasion, but light patterned homongi is more highly rated than classic patterned tsukesage. General tsukesage is often used for parties, not ceremonies.
Uchikake is a highly formal kimono worn only by a bride or at a stage performance. The Uchikake is often heavily brocaded and is supposed to be worn outside the actual kimono and obi, as a sort of coat. One therefore never ties the obi around the uchikake. It is supposed to trail along the floor, this is also why it is heavily padded along the hem. The uchikake of the bridal costume is either white or very colorful often with red as the base color.
Women dressed as maiko (apprentice geisha), wearing specially tailored "maiko-style" furisode kimonos with tucks in sleeves and at shoulders
The susohiki is mostly worn by geisha or by stage performers of the traditional Japanese dance. It is quite long, compared to regular kimono, because the skirt is supposed to trail along the floor. Susohiki literally means "trail the skirt". Where a normal kimono for women is normally 1.5–1.6 m (4.7–5.2 ft) long, a susohiki can be up to 2 m (6.3 ft) long. This is also why geisha and maiko lift their kimono skirt when walking outside, also to show their beautiful underkimono or "nagajuban"
In contrast to women's kimono, men's kimono outfits are far simpler, typically consisting of five pieces, not including footwear.
Men's kimono sleeves are attached to the body of the kimono with no more than a few inches unattached at the bottom, unlike the women's style of very deep sleeves mostly unattached from the body of the kimono. Men's sleeves are less deep than women's kimono sleeves to accommodate the obi around the waist beneath them, whereas on a woman's kimono, the long, unattached bottom of the sleeve can hang over the obi without getting in the way.
In the modern era, the principal distinctions between men's kimono are in the fabric. The typical men's kimono is a subdued, dark color; black, dark blues, greens, and browns are common. Fabrics are usually matte. Some have a subtle pattern, and textured fabrics are common in more casual kimono. More casual kimono may be made in slightly brighter colors, such as lighter purples, greens and blues. Sumo wrestlers have occasionally been known to wear quite bright colors such as fuchsia.
The most formal style of kimono is plain black silk with five kamon on the chest, shoulders and back. Slightly less formal is the three-kamon kimono.
In the past, a kimono would often be entirely taken apart for washing, and then re-sewn for wearing. This traditional washing method is called arai hari. Because the stitches must be taken out for washing, traditional kimono need to be hand sewn. Arai hari is very expensive and difficult and is one of the causes of the declining popularity of kimono. Modern fabrics and cleaning methods have been developed that eliminate this need, although the traditional washing of kimono is still practiced, especially for high-end garments.
New, custom-made kimono are generally delivered to a customer with long, loose basting stitches placed around the outside edges. These stitches are called ****suke ito. They are sometimes replaced for storage. They help to prevent bunching, folding and wrinkling, and keep the kimono's layers in alignment.
Like many other traditional Japanese garments, there are specific ways to fold kimono. These methods help to preserve the garment and to keep it from creasing when stored. Kimono are often stored wrapped in paper called tatōshi.
Kimono need to be aired out at least seasonally and before and after each time they are worn. Many people prefer to have their kimono dry cleaned. Although this can be extremely expensive, it is generally less expensive than arai hari but may be impossible for certain fabrics or dyes.
Karen stared aghast at the scene of carnage on her Carrara marble worktop. "Who is this ?" she whispered, looking at Rupert and his separated head. "That is ermm Rupert. He was trying to steal your diamonds" lied Roxie."Fortunately Geoff was able to prevent him."
"Awww thanks Geoff" said Karen and gave the little warrior a big sloppy kiss. "What would we do without you ?".
Karen picked up Rupert's remains and chucked them into the recycling bin. Mr Changeable could not take his eyes off Karen's pert chest-twins. A painful kick on his shins from Roxie persuaded him to look elsewhere.
"OK guys we are going out to lunch. There is this new Sushi bar in town. They have a genuine fugu chef from Okinawa. Fugu is on my bucket list !"
Fugu ,literally "river pig", is the Japanese word for pufferfish and the dish prepared from it, normally species of genus Takifugu, Lagocephalus, or Sphoeroides, or porcupinefish of the genus Diodon. Fugu can be lethally poisonous due to its tetrodotoxin; therefore, it must be carefully prepared to remove toxic parts and to avoid contaminating the meat.
The restaurant preparation of fugu is strictly controlled by law in Japan and several other countries, and only chefs who have qualified through rigorous training are allowed to deal with the fish. Domestic preparation occasionally leads to accidental death.
Fugu is served as sashimi and chirinabe. Some consider the liver the tastiest part but it is also the most poisonous, and serving this organ in restaurants was banned in Japan in 1984. Fugu has become one of the most celebrated and notorious dishes in Japanese cuisine.
Fugu contains lethal amounts of the poison tetrodotoxin in its organs, especially the liver, the ovaries, and the eyes whereas skin is usually non-poisonous. The poison, a sodium channel blocker, paralyzes the muscles while the victim stays fully conscious. The victim is unable to breathe, and eventually dies from asphyxiation. There is no known antidote. The standard treatment is to support the respiratory and circulatory systems until the poison is metabolized and excreted by the victim's body.
Advances in research and aquaculture have allowed some farmers to mass-produce safe fugu. Researchers surmised that fugu's tetrodotoxin came from eating other animals that held tetrodotoxin-laden bacteria and that the fish develops immunity over time. Many farmers now produce 'poison-free' fugu by keeping the fugu away from the bacteria. Usuki, a town in Ōita Prefecture, has become known for selling non-poisonous fugu.
The inhabitants of Japan have eaten fugu for centuries. Fugu bones have been found in several shell middens, called kaizuka, from the Jōmon period that date back more than 2,300 years. The Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868) prohibited the consumption of fugu in Edo and its area of influence. It became common again as the power of the shogunate weakened. In western regions of Japan, where the government's influence was weaker and fugu was easier to get, various cooking methods were developed to safely eat them. During the Meiji Era (1867–1912), fugu was again banned in many areas. Fugu is also the only food the Emperor of Japan is forbidden to eat, for his safety.
Fugu was and is one of the favorite dishes in China where its name was mentioned in the literature as early as circa 400BC. Fugu comes as the first in the three most delicious fish from The Yangtze river.
The torafugu, or tiger blowfish (Takifugu rubripes), is the most prestigious edible species and the most poisonous. Other species are also eaten; for example, Higanfugu (T. pardalis), Shōsaifugu (T. vermicularis syn. snyderi), and Mafugu (T. porphyreus). The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan provides a list that shows which species' body parts can be consumed. The list names safe genera including pufferfish of the Lagocephalus and Sphoeroides genera and the related porcupinefish (Harisenbon) of the genus Diodon.
Strict fishing regulations are now in place to protect fugu populations from depletion. Most fugu are now harvested in the spring during the spawning season and then farmed in floating cages in the Pacific Ocean. The largest wholesale fugu market in Japan is in Shimonoseki.
Fugu prices rise in autumn and peak in winter, the best season, because they fatten to survive the cold. Live fish arrive at a restaurant, surviving in a large tank, usually prominently displayed. Prepared fugu is also often available in grocery stores, which must display official license documents. Whole fish may not be sold to the general public.
Since 1958, fugu chefs must also earn a license to prepare and sell fugu to the public. This involves a two- or three-year apprenticeship. The licensing examination process consists of a written test, a fish-identification test, and a practical test, preparing and eating the fish. Only about 35 percent of the applicants pass. Small miscalculations result in failure or, in rare cases, death. Consumers believe that this training process makes it safer to eat fugu in restaurants or markets. Also, commercially available fugu is sometimes grown in environments in which it grows to be less toxic.
Beginning in October 2012, restaurants in Japan can sell pre-packaged fugu which has been prepared by a licensed practitioner elsewhere.
A dish of fugu can easily cost ¥5,000 (approx. US$50), but it can be found for as little as ¥2,000 (approx. US$20), and a full-course fugu meal (usually eight servings) can cost ¥10,000–20,000 (approx. US$100–200) or more. The expense encourages chefs to slice the fish very carefully to obtain the largest possible amount of meat. The special knife, called fugu hiki, is usually stored separately from other knives.
Sashimi—The most popular dish is fugu sashimi, also called Fugu sashi or tessa. Knives with exceptionally thin blades are used for cutting fugu into translucent slices, a technique known as usuzukuri
Fugu no Shirako
Milt—The soft roe (Shirako) of the blowfish is a highly prized food item in Japan. It is often found in department stores; and, along with cod milt, it is one of the most popular kinds of soft roe. It is often grilled and served with salt.
Fried—Fugu can be eaten deep fried as Fugu Kara-age.
Baked—The fins of the fish are dried out completely, baked, and served in hot sake, a dish called Hire-zake.
Fugu-chiri
Stew—Vegetables and fugu can be simmered as Fugu-chiri, also called tetchiri, in which case the fish's very light taste is hard to distinguish from the vegetables and the dip.
Salad—If the spikes in the skin are pulled out, the skin can be eaten as part of a salad called yubiki.
Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a potent neurotoxin that shuts down electrical signaling in nerves by binding to the pores of sodium channel proteins in nerve cell membranes. Tetrodotoxin is not affected by cooking.It does not cross the blood–brain barrier, leaving the victim fully conscious while paralyzing the muscles. In animal studies with mice, the median lethal dose was found to be 8 μg tetrodotoxin per kg body weight. The pufferfish itself is not susceptible to the poison because of a mutation in the protein sequence of its cells' sodium channel.
As previously mentioned, commercially available fugu in supermarkets or restaurants is very safe; and, while not unheard of, poisoning from these products is very rare. Most deaths from fugu occur when untrained people catch and prepare the fish, accidentally poisoning themselves. In some cases, they even eat the highly poisonous liver as a delicacy.
Recent evidence has shown that tetrodotoxin is produced by certain bacteria—such as Pseudoalteromonas tetraodonis, certain species of Pseudomonas and Vibrio, as well as others—and that these are the source of the toxin in pufferfish.
The symptoms from ingesting a lethal dose of tetrodotoxin may include dizziness, exhaustion, headache, nausea, or difficulty breathing. The victim remains conscious but cannot speak or move. Breathing stops and asphyxiation follows.
There is no known antidote, and treatment consists of emptying the stomach, feeding the victim activated charcoal to bind the toxin, and putting the victim on life support until the poison has worn off. Japanese toxicologists in several medical research centers are now working on developing an antidote for tetrodotoxin.
Statistics from the Tokyo Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health indicate 20 to 44 incidents of fugu poisoning per year between 1996 and 2006 in Japan (a single incident may involve multiple diners). Each year, these incidents led to between 34 and 64 victims being hospitalized and zero to six deaths, an average fatality rate of 6.8%.Of the 23 incidents reported in Tokyo from 1993 through 2006, only one took place in a restaurant. All others involved fishermen eating their catch. Poisonings through amateur preparation can result from confusion between types of puffer, as well as improper methods, and some may represent deliberate suicide attempts. Engelvert Kaempfer, a Dutch physician who resided in Japan in the 1690s, reported that an unusually toxic variety of puffer was sometimes sought out by individuals who wished to take their own lives.
Much higher figures have been reported for earlier years; and, for example, in 1958—the first year the preparation of fugu required a special license in Japan—176 people died. According to the Fugu Research Institute 50% of the victims were poisoned by eating the liver, 43% from eating the ovaries, and 7% from eating the skin. One of the most famous victims was the Kabuki actor and "Living National Treasure" Bandō Mitsugorō VIII who in 1975 died after eating an illegally large four servings of liver.
On August 23, 2007, a doctor in Thailand reported that unscrupulous fish sellers sold puffer meat disguised as salmon, which resulted in the deaths of fifteen people over three years. About 115 people were brought to different hospitals. Fugu was banned in Thailand five years prior to the deaths.
In March 2008, a fisherman in the Philippines died and members of his family became ill from pufferfish. The previous year, four people in the same town died and five others fell ill after eating the same variety of pufferfish.
In February 2009, a Malaysian fisherman died and four others were hospitalised after they consumed a meal of puffer fish when they ran out of food while at sea.
In November 2011, a two-Michelin star chef was suspended from his post at "Fugu Fukuji" restaurant in Tokyo. The chef served fugu liver to a customer who (despite being warned of the risks) specifically asked that it be provided. The 35-year-old customer subsequently required hospital treatment for mild symptoms of tetrodotoxin paralysis, but made a full recovery.
Scientists at Nagasaki University have reportedly succeeded in creating a non-toxic variety of torafugu by restricting the fish's diet. After raising over 4,800 non-toxic fish, they are fairly certain that the fish's diet and digestive process actually produce the toxins. The non-toxic version is said to taste the same. Some skeptics say that the species being offered as non-toxic may be of a different species and that the toxicity has nothing to do with the diet of the pufferfish.
Most Japanese cities enjoy one or more fugu restaurants. They may cluster, because of earlier restrictions, as proximity made it easier to ensure freshness. A famous restaurant specializing in fugu is Takefuku, in the Ginza district in Tokyo. Zuboraya is another popular chain in Osaka.
In South Korea, fugu is known as bok-eo . It is very popular in port cities such as Busan and Incheon. It is prepared in a number of dishes such as soups or salads and commands a high price.
As of 2003, only seventeen restaurants in the United States were licensed to serve fugu; twelve of those were in New York. Since that year, some other American restaurants offer fugu.
The fugu is cleaned of the most toxic parts in Japan and freeze-flown to the USA under license in customized, clear, plastic containers. Fugu chefs for U.S. restaurants are trained under the same rigorous specifications as in Japan. Pufferfish native to US waters, particularly the genus Spheroides, have also been consumed for food, sometimes resulting in poisonings.
Sale of fish belonging to this genus is forbidden altogether in the European Union.
The Japanese poet Yosa Buson (1716–1783) expressed some of the Japanese attraction to fugu in a famous senryū:
I cannot see her tonight.
I have to give her up
So I will eat fugu.
In the Kansai region, the slang word teppō meaning rifle or gun, is used for the fish. This is a play of words on the verb ataru, which can mean to be poisoned or shot. In Shimonoseki region, the ancient pronunciation fuku is more common instead of the modern fugu.The former is also a homonym good fortune whereas the latter is one for disabled. The Tsukiji fish market fugu association holds a service each year at the height of the fugu season, releasing hundreds of caught fugu into the Sumida River. A similar ceremony is also held at another large market in Shimonoseki.
A rakugo, or humorous short story, tells of three men who prepared a fugu stew but were unsure whether it was safe to eat. To test the stew, they gave some to a beggar. When it did not seem to do him any harm, they ate the stew. Later, they met the beggar again and were delighted to see that he was still in good health. After that encounter, the beggar, who had hidden the stew instead of eating it, knew that it was safe and he could eat it. The three men had been fooled by the wise beggar.
Lanterns can be made from the bodies of preserved fugu. These are occasionally seen outside of fugu restaurants, as children's toys, as folk art, or as souvenirs. Fugu skin is also made into everyday objects like wallets or waterproof boxes.
The kimono is a Japanese traditional garment worn by men, women and children. The word "kimono", which literally means a "thing to wear" (ki "wear" and mono "thing"), has come to denote these full-length robes. The standard plural of the word kimono in English is kimonos, but the unmarked Japanese plural kimono is also sometimes used.
Kimono are T-shaped, straight-lined robes worn so that the hem falls to the ankle, with attached collars and long, wide sleeves. Kimono are wrapped around the body, always with the left side over the right (except when dressing the dead for burial.), and secured by a sash called an obi, which is tied at the back. Kimono are generally worn with traditional footwear (especially zōri or geta) and split-toe socks (tabi).
Today, kimono are most often worn by women, and on special occasions. Traditionally, unmarried women wore a style of kimono called furisode, with almost floor-length sleeves, on special occasions. A few older women and even fewer men still wear the kimono on a daily basis. Men wear the kimono most often at weddings, tea ceremonies, and other very special or very formal occasions. Professional sumo wrestlers are often seen in the kimono because they are required to wear traditional Japanese dress whenever appearing in public.
As the kimono has another name, gofuku, the earliest kimonos were heavily influenced by traditional Han Chinese clothing, known today as hanfu, through Japanese embassies to China which resulted in extensive Chinese culture adoptions by Japan, as early as the 5th century AD. It was during the 8th century, however, that Chinese fashions came into style among the Japanese, and the overlapping collar became particularly women's fashion. During Japan's Heian period (794–1192 AD), the kimono became increasingly stylized, though one still wore a half-apron, called a mo, over it. During the Muromachi age (1392–1573 AD), the Kosode, a single kimono formerly considered underwear, began to be worn without the hakama (trousers, divided skirt) over it, and thus began to be held closed by an obi "belt". During the Edo period (1603–1867 AD), the sleeves began to grow in length, especially among unmarried women, and the Obi became wider, with various styles of tying coming into fashion. Since then, the basic shape of both the men’s and women’s kimono has remained essentially unchanged. Kimonos made with exceptional skill from fine materials have been regarded as great works of art.
The formal kimono was replaced by the more convenient Western clothes and yukata as everyday wear. After an edict by Emperor Meiji, police, railroad men and teachers moved to Western clothes. The Western clothes became the army and school uniform for boys. After the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, kimono wearers often became victims of robbery because they could not run very fast due to the restricting nature of the kimono on the body and geta clogs. The Tokyo Women's & Children's Wear Manufacturers' Association promoted Western clothes. Between 1920 and 1930 the sailor outfit replaced the undivided hakama in school uniforms for girls. The 1932 fire at Shirokiya's Nihonbashi store is said to have been the catalyst for the decline in kimonos as everyday wear. Kimono-clad Japanese women did not wear panties and several women refused to jump into safety nets because they were ashamed of being seen from below. (It is, however, suggested, that this is an urban myth.)The national uniform, Kokumin-fuku , a type of Western clothes, was mandated for males in 1940.Today most people wear Western clothes and wear the breezier and more comfortable yukata for special occasions.
Textiles and manufacture
Kimonos for men should fall approximately to the ankle without tucking. A woman's kimono has additional length to allow for the ohashori, the tuck that can be seen under the obi, which is used to adjust the kimono to the wearer. An ideally tailored kimono has sleeves that fall to the wrist when the arms are lowered.
Kimonos are traditionally made from a single bolt of fabric called a tan. Tan come in standard dimensions—about 14 inches wide and 12½ yards long—and the entire bolt is used to make one kimono. The finished kimono consists of four main strips of fabric—two panels covering the body and two panels forming the sleeves—with additional smaller strips forming the narrow front panels and collar. Historically, kimonos were often taken apart for washing as separate panels and resewn by hand. Because the entire bolt remains in the finished garment without cutting, the kimono can be retailored easily to fit another person.
The maximum width of the sleeve is dictated by the width of the fabric. The distance from the center of the spine to the end of the sleeve could not exceed twice the width of the fabric. Traditional kimono fabric was typically no more than 36 centimeters (14 inches) wide. Thus the distance from spine to wrist could not exceed a maximum of roughly 68 centimeters (27 inches). Modern kimono fabric is woven as wide as 42 centimeters (17 inches) to accommodate modern Japanese body sizes. Very tall or heavy people, such as sumo wrestlers, must have kimonos custom-made by either joining multiple bolts, weaving custom-width fabric, or using non-standard size fabric.
Traditionally, kimonos are sewn by hand; even machine-made kimonos require substantial hand-stitching. Kimono fabrics are frequently hand-made and -decorated. Techniques such as yūzen dye resist are used for applying decoration and patterns to the base cloth. Repeating patterns that cover a large area of a kimono are traditionally done with the yūzen resist technique and a stencil. Over time there have been many variations in color, fabric and style, as well as accessories such as the obi.
The kimono and obi are traditionally made of silk, silk brocade, silk crepes (such as chirimen) and satin weaves (such as rinzu). Modern kimonos are widely available in less-expensive easy-care fabrics such as rayon, cotton sateen, cotton, polyester and other synthetic fibers. Silk is still considered the ideal fabric.
Customarily, woven patterns and dyed repeat patterns are considered informal. Formal kimonos have free-style designs dyed over the whole surface or along the hem.During the Heian period, kimonos were worn with up to a dozen or more colorful contrasting layers, with each combination of colors being a named pattern.Today, the kimono is normally worn with a single layer on top of one or more undergarments.
The pattern of the kimono can determine in which season it should be worn. For example, a pattern with butterflies or cherry blossoms would be worn in spring. Watery designs are common during the summer. A popular autumn motif is the russet leaf of the Japanese maple; for winter, designs may include bamboo, pine trees and plum blossoms.
A popular form of textile art in Japan is shibori (intricate tie dye), found on some of the more expensive kimonos and haori kimono jackets. Patterns are created by minutely binding the fabric and masking off areas, then dying it, usually by hand. When the bindings are removed, an undyed pattern is revealed. Shibori work can be further enhanced with yuzen (hand applied) drawing or painting with textile dyes or with embroidery; it is then known as tsujigahana. Shibori textiles are very time-consuming to produce and require great skill, so the textiles and garments created from them are very expensive and highly prized.
Old kimonos are often recycled in: altered to make haori, hiyoku, or kimonos for children; used to patch similar kimono; used for making handbags and similar kimono accessories; and used to make covers, bags or cases for implements, especially for sweet-picks used in tea ceremonies. Damaged kimonos can be disassembled and resewn to hide the soiled areas, and those with damage below the waistline can be worn under a hakama. Historically, skilled craftsmen laboriously picked the silk thread from old kimono and rewove it into a new textile in the width of a heko obi for men's kimono, using a recycling weaving method called saki-ori.
These terms refer to parts of a kimono:
Dōura : upper lining on a woman's kimono.
Eri : collar.
Fuki: hem guard.
Furi: sleeve below the armhole.
Maemigoro : front main panel, excluding sleeves. The covering portion of the other side of the back, maemigoro is divided into "right maemigoro" and "left maemigoro".
Miyatsukuchi: opening under the sleeve.
Okumi : front inside panel on the front edge of the left and right, excluding the sleeve of a kimono. Until the collar, down to the bottom of the dress goes, up and down part of the strip of cloth. Have sewn the front body.
Sode : sleeve
Sodeguchi : sleeve opening.
Sodetsuke : kimono armhole.
Susomawashi : lower lining.
Tamoto : sleeve pouch.
Tomoeri : over-collar (collar protector).
Uraeri : inner collar.
Ushiromigoro : back main panel, excluding sleeves, covering the back portion. They are basically sewn back-centered and consist of "right ushiromigoro" and "left ushiromigoro", but for wool fabric, the ushiromigoro consists of one piece.
A woman's kimono may easily exceed US$10,000; a complete kimono outfit, with kimono, undergarments, obi, ties, socks, sandals, and accessories, can exceed US$20,000. A single obi may cost several thousand dollars. However, most kimonos owned by kimono hobbyists or by practitioners of traditional arts are far less expensive. Enterprising people make their own kimono and undergarments by following a standard pattern, or by recycling older kimonos. Cheaper and machine-made fabrics can substitute for the traditional hand-dyed silk. There is also a thriving business in Japan for second-hand kimonos, which can cost as little as ¥500 (about $6). Women's obis, however, mostly remain an expensive item. Although simple patterned or plain colored ones can cost as little as ¥1,500 (about $18), even a used obi can cost hundreds of dollars, and experienced craftsmanship is required to make them. Men's obis, even those made from silk, tend to be much less expensive, because they are narrower, shorter and less decorative than those worn by women.
Kimonos range from extremely formal to casual. The level of formality of women's kimono is determined mostly by the pattern of the fabric, and color. Young women's kimonos have longer sleeves, signifying that they are not married, and tend to be more elaborate than similarly formal older women's kimono. Men's kimonos are usually one basic shape and are mainly worn in subdued colors. Formality is also determined by the type and color of accessories, the fabric, and the number or absence of kamon (family crests), with five crests signifying extreme formality. Silk is the most desirable, and most formal, fabric. Kimonos made of fabrics such as cotton and polyester generally reflect a more casual style.
Women's kimonos
Many modern Japanese women lack the skill to put on a kimono unaided: the typical woman's kimono outfit consists of twelve or more separate pieces that are worn, matched, and secured in prescribed ways, and the assistance of licensed professional kimono dressers may be required. Called upon mostly for special occasions, kimono dressers both work out of hair salons and make house calls.
Choosing an appropriate type of kimono requires knowledge of the garment's symbolism and subtle social messages, reflecting the woman's age, marital status, and the level of formality of the occasion.
furisode literally translates as swinging sleeves—the sleeves of furisode average between 39 and 42 inches (110 cm) in length. Furisode are the most formal kimono for unmarried women, with colorful patterns that cover the entire garment. They are usually worn at coming-of-age ceremonies (seijin shiki) and by unmarried female relatives of the bride at weddings and wedding receptions.
Hōumongi
literally translates as visiting wear. Characterized by patterns that flow over the shoulders, seams and sleeves, hōmongi rank slightly higher than their close relative, the tsukesage. Hōmongi may be worn by both married and unmarried women; often friends of the bride will wear hōmongi at weddings (except relatives) and receptions. They may also be worn to formal parties.
Pongee Hōmongi were made to promote kimono after WWII. Since Pongee Hōmongi are made from Pongee, they are considered casual wear.
Iromuji
single-colored kimono that may be worn by married and unmarried women. They are mainly worn to tea ceremonies. The dyed silk may be figured (rinzu, similar to jacquard), but has no differently colored patterns.
Komon
"fine pattern". Kimono with a small, repeated pattern throughout the garment. This style is more casual and may be worn around town, or dressed up with a formal obi for a restaurant. Both married and unmarried women may wear komon.
Edo komon
is a type of komon characterized by tiny dots arranged in dense patterns that form larger designs. The Edo komon dyeing technique originated with the samurai class during the Edo period. A kimono with this type of pattern is of the same formality as an iromuji, and when decorated with kamon, may be worn as visiting wear (equivalent to a tsukesage or hōmongi).
Mofuku is formal mourning dress for men or women. Both men and women wear kimono of plain black silk with five kamon over white undergarments and white tabi. For women, the obi and all accessories are also black. Men wear a subdued obi and black and white or black and gray striped hakama with black or white zori.
The completely black mourning ensemble is usually reserved for family and others who are close to the deceased.
Irotomesode
single-color kimono, patterned only below the waistline. Irotomesode are slightly less formal than kurotomesode, and are worn by married women, usually close relatives of the bride and groom at weddings. An irotomesode may have three or five kamon.
Kurotomesode
a black kimono patterned only below the waistline, kurotomesode are the most formal kimono for married women. They are often worn by the mothers of the bride and groom at weddings. Kurotomesode usually have five kamon printed on the sleeves, chest and back of the kimono.
Tsukesage
has more modest patterns that cover a smaller area—mainly below the waist—than the more formal hōmongi. They may also be worn by married women.The differences from homongi is the size of the pattern, seam connection, and not same clothes at inside and outside at "hakke." As demitoilet, not used in important occasion, but light patterned homongi is more highly rated than classic patterned tsukesage. General tsukesage is often used for parties, not ceremonies.
Uchikake is a highly formal kimono worn only by a bride or at a stage performance. The Uchikake is often heavily brocaded and is supposed to be worn outside the actual kimono and obi, as a sort of coat. One therefore never ties the obi around the uchikake. It is supposed to trail along the floor, this is also why it is heavily padded along the hem. The uchikake of the bridal costume is either white or very colorful often with red as the base color.
Women dressed as maiko (apprentice geisha), wearing specially tailored "maiko-style" furisode kimonos with tucks in sleeves and at shoulders
The susohiki is mostly worn by geisha or by stage performers of the traditional Japanese dance. It is quite long, compared to regular kimono, because the skirt is supposed to trail along the floor. Susohiki literally means "trail the skirt". Where a normal kimono for women is normally 1.5–1.6 m (4.7–5.2 ft) long, a susohiki can be up to 2 m (6.3 ft) long. This is also why geisha and maiko lift their kimono skirt when walking outside, also to show their beautiful underkimono or "nagajuban"
In contrast to women's kimono, men's kimono outfits are far simpler, typically consisting of five pieces, not including footwear.
Men's kimono sleeves are attached to the body of the kimono with no more than a few inches unattached at the bottom, unlike the women's style of very deep sleeves mostly unattached from the body of the kimono. Men's sleeves are less deep than women's kimono sleeves to accommodate the obi around the waist beneath them, whereas on a woman's kimono, the long, unattached bottom of the sleeve can hang over the obi without getting in the way.
In the modern era, the principal distinctions between men's kimono are in the fabric. The typical men's kimono is a subdued, dark color; black, dark blues, greens, and browns are common. Fabrics are usually matte. Some have a subtle pattern, and textured fabrics are common in more casual kimono. More casual kimono may be made in slightly brighter colors, such as lighter purples, greens and blues. Sumo wrestlers have occasionally been known to wear quite bright colors such as fuchsia.
The most formal style of kimono is plain black silk with five kamon on the chest, shoulders and back. Slightly less formal is the three-kamon kimono.
In the past, a kimono would often be entirely taken apart for washing, and then re-sewn for wearing. This traditional washing method is called arai hari. Because the stitches must be taken out for washing, traditional kimono need to be hand sewn. Arai hari is very expensive and difficult and is one of the causes of the declining popularity of kimono. Modern fabrics and cleaning methods have been developed that eliminate this need, although the traditional washing of kimono is still practiced, especially for high-end garments.
New, custom-made kimono are generally delivered to a customer with long, loose basting stitches placed around the outside edges. These stitches are called ****suke ito. They are sometimes replaced for storage. They help to prevent bunching, folding and wrinkling, and keep the kimono's layers in alignment.
Like many other traditional Japanese garments, there are specific ways to fold kimono. These methods help to preserve the garment and to keep it from creasing when stored. Kimono are often stored wrapped in paper called tatōshi.
Kimono need to be aired out at least seasonally and before and after each time they are worn. Many people prefer to have their kimono dry cleaned. Although this can be extremely expensive, it is generally less expensive than arai hari but may be impossible for certain fabrics or dyes.
Karen stared aghast at the scene of carnage on her Carrara marble worktop. "Who is this ?" she whispered, looking at Rupert and his separated head. "That is ermm Rupert. He was trying to steal your diamonds" lied Roxie."Fortunately Geoff was able to prevent him."
"Awww thanks Geoff" said Karen and gave the little warrior a big sloppy kiss. "What would we do without you ?".
Karen picked up Rupert's remains and chucked them into the recycling bin. Mr Changeable could not take his eyes off Karen's pert chest-twins. A painful kick on his shins from Roxie persuaded him to look elsewhere.
"OK guys we are going out to lunch. There is this new Sushi bar in town. They have a genuine fugu chef from Okinawa. Fugu is on my bucket list !"
Fugu ,literally "river pig", is the Japanese word for pufferfish and the dish prepared from it, normally species of genus Takifugu, Lagocephalus, or Sphoeroides, or porcupinefish of the genus Diodon. Fugu can be lethally poisonous due to its tetrodotoxin; therefore, it must be carefully prepared to remove toxic parts and to avoid contaminating the meat.
The restaurant preparation of fugu is strictly controlled by law in Japan and several other countries, and only chefs who have qualified through rigorous training are allowed to deal with the fish. Domestic preparation occasionally leads to accidental death.
Fugu is served as sashimi and chirinabe. Some consider the liver the tastiest part but it is also the most poisonous, and serving this organ in restaurants was banned in Japan in 1984. Fugu has become one of the most celebrated and notorious dishes in Japanese cuisine.
Fugu contains lethal amounts of the poison tetrodotoxin in its organs, especially the liver, the ovaries, and the eyes whereas skin is usually non-poisonous. The poison, a sodium channel blocker, paralyzes the muscles while the victim stays fully conscious. The victim is unable to breathe, and eventually dies from asphyxiation. There is no known antidote. The standard treatment is to support the respiratory and circulatory systems until the poison is metabolized and excreted by the victim's body.
Advances in research and aquaculture have allowed some farmers to mass-produce safe fugu. Researchers surmised that fugu's tetrodotoxin came from eating other animals that held tetrodotoxin-laden bacteria and that the fish develops immunity over time. Many farmers now produce 'poison-free' fugu by keeping the fugu away from the bacteria. Usuki, a town in Ōita Prefecture, has become known for selling non-poisonous fugu.
The inhabitants of Japan have eaten fugu for centuries. Fugu bones have been found in several shell middens, called kaizuka, from the Jōmon period that date back more than 2,300 years. The Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868) prohibited the consumption of fugu in Edo and its area of influence. It became common again as the power of the shogunate weakened. In western regions of Japan, where the government's influence was weaker and fugu was easier to get, various cooking methods were developed to safely eat them. During the Meiji Era (1867–1912), fugu was again banned in many areas. Fugu is also the only food the Emperor of Japan is forbidden to eat, for his safety.
Fugu was and is one of the favorite dishes in China where its name was mentioned in the literature as early as circa 400BC. Fugu comes as the first in the three most delicious fish from The Yangtze river.
The torafugu, or tiger blowfish (Takifugu rubripes), is the most prestigious edible species and the most poisonous. Other species are also eaten; for example, Higanfugu (T. pardalis), Shōsaifugu (T. vermicularis syn. snyderi), and Mafugu (T. porphyreus). The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan provides a list that shows which species' body parts can be consumed. The list names safe genera including pufferfish of the Lagocephalus and Sphoeroides genera and the related porcupinefish (Harisenbon) of the genus Diodon.
Strict fishing regulations are now in place to protect fugu populations from depletion. Most fugu are now harvested in the spring during the spawning season and then farmed in floating cages in the Pacific Ocean. The largest wholesale fugu market in Japan is in Shimonoseki.
Fugu prices rise in autumn and peak in winter, the best season, because they fatten to survive the cold. Live fish arrive at a restaurant, surviving in a large tank, usually prominently displayed. Prepared fugu is also often available in grocery stores, which must display official license documents. Whole fish may not be sold to the general public.
Since 1958, fugu chefs must also earn a license to prepare and sell fugu to the public. This involves a two- or three-year apprenticeship. The licensing examination process consists of a written test, a fish-identification test, and a practical test, preparing and eating the fish. Only about 35 percent of the applicants pass. Small miscalculations result in failure or, in rare cases, death. Consumers believe that this training process makes it safer to eat fugu in restaurants or markets. Also, commercially available fugu is sometimes grown in environments in which it grows to be less toxic.
Beginning in October 2012, restaurants in Japan can sell pre-packaged fugu which has been prepared by a licensed practitioner elsewhere.
A dish of fugu can easily cost ¥5,000 (approx. US$50), but it can be found for as little as ¥2,000 (approx. US$20), and a full-course fugu meal (usually eight servings) can cost ¥10,000–20,000 (approx. US$100–200) or more. The expense encourages chefs to slice the fish very carefully to obtain the largest possible amount of meat. The special knife, called fugu hiki, is usually stored separately from other knives.
Sashimi—The most popular dish is fugu sashimi, also called Fugu sashi or tessa. Knives with exceptionally thin blades are used for cutting fugu into translucent slices, a technique known as usuzukuri
Fugu no Shirako
Milt—The soft roe (Shirako) of the blowfish is a highly prized food item in Japan. It is often found in department stores; and, along with cod milt, it is one of the most popular kinds of soft roe. It is often grilled and served with salt.
Fried—Fugu can be eaten deep fried as Fugu Kara-age.
Baked—The fins of the fish are dried out completely, baked, and served in hot sake, a dish called Hire-zake.
Fugu-chiri
Stew—Vegetables and fugu can be simmered as Fugu-chiri, also called tetchiri, in which case the fish's very light taste is hard to distinguish from the vegetables and the dip.
Salad—If the spikes in the skin are pulled out, the skin can be eaten as part of a salad called yubiki.
Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a potent neurotoxin that shuts down electrical signaling in nerves by binding to the pores of sodium channel proteins in nerve cell membranes. Tetrodotoxin is not affected by cooking.It does not cross the blood–brain barrier, leaving the victim fully conscious while paralyzing the muscles. In animal studies with mice, the median lethal dose was found to be 8 μg tetrodotoxin per kg body weight. The pufferfish itself is not susceptible to the poison because of a mutation in the protein sequence of its cells' sodium channel.
As previously mentioned, commercially available fugu in supermarkets or restaurants is very safe; and, while not unheard of, poisoning from these products is very rare. Most deaths from fugu occur when untrained people catch and prepare the fish, accidentally poisoning themselves. In some cases, they even eat the highly poisonous liver as a delicacy.
Recent evidence has shown that tetrodotoxin is produced by certain bacteria—such as Pseudoalteromonas tetraodonis, certain species of Pseudomonas and Vibrio, as well as others—and that these are the source of the toxin in pufferfish.
The symptoms from ingesting a lethal dose of tetrodotoxin may include dizziness, exhaustion, headache, nausea, or difficulty breathing. The victim remains conscious but cannot speak or move. Breathing stops and asphyxiation follows.
There is no known antidote, and treatment consists of emptying the stomach, feeding the victim activated charcoal to bind the toxin, and putting the victim on life support until the poison has worn off. Japanese toxicologists in several medical research centers are now working on developing an antidote for tetrodotoxin.
Statistics from the Tokyo Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health indicate 20 to 44 incidents of fugu poisoning per year between 1996 and 2006 in Japan (a single incident may involve multiple diners). Each year, these incidents led to between 34 and 64 victims being hospitalized and zero to six deaths, an average fatality rate of 6.8%.Of the 23 incidents reported in Tokyo from 1993 through 2006, only one took place in a restaurant. All others involved fishermen eating their catch. Poisonings through amateur preparation can result from confusion between types of puffer, as well as improper methods, and some may represent deliberate suicide attempts. Engelvert Kaempfer, a Dutch physician who resided in Japan in the 1690s, reported that an unusually toxic variety of puffer was sometimes sought out by individuals who wished to take their own lives.
Much higher figures have been reported for earlier years; and, for example, in 1958—the first year the preparation of fugu required a special license in Japan—176 people died. According to the Fugu Research Institute 50% of the victims were poisoned by eating the liver, 43% from eating the ovaries, and 7% from eating the skin. One of the most famous victims was the Kabuki actor and "Living National Treasure" Bandō Mitsugorō VIII who in 1975 died after eating an illegally large four servings of liver.
On August 23, 2007, a doctor in Thailand reported that unscrupulous fish sellers sold puffer meat disguised as salmon, which resulted in the deaths of fifteen people over three years. About 115 people were brought to different hospitals. Fugu was banned in Thailand five years prior to the deaths.
In March 2008, a fisherman in the Philippines died and members of his family became ill from pufferfish. The previous year, four people in the same town died and five others fell ill after eating the same variety of pufferfish.
In February 2009, a Malaysian fisherman died and four others were hospitalised after they consumed a meal of puffer fish when they ran out of food while at sea.
In November 2011, a two-Michelin star chef was suspended from his post at "Fugu Fukuji" restaurant in Tokyo. The chef served fugu liver to a customer who (despite being warned of the risks) specifically asked that it be provided. The 35-year-old customer subsequently required hospital treatment for mild symptoms of tetrodotoxin paralysis, but made a full recovery.
Scientists at Nagasaki University have reportedly succeeded in creating a non-toxic variety of torafugu by restricting the fish's diet. After raising over 4,800 non-toxic fish, they are fairly certain that the fish's diet and digestive process actually produce the toxins. The non-toxic version is said to taste the same. Some skeptics say that the species being offered as non-toxic may be of a different species and that the toxicity has nothing to do with the diet of the pufferfish.
Most Japanese cities enjoy one or more fugu restaurants. They may cluster, because of earlier restrictions, as proximity made it easier to ensure freshness. A famous restaurant specializing in fugu is Takefuku, in the Ginza district in Tokyo. Zuboraya is another popular chain in Osaka.
In South Korea, fugu is known as bok-eo . It is very popular in port cities such as Busan and Incheon. It is prepared in a number of dishes such as soups or salads and commands a high price.
As of 2003, only seventeen restaurants in the United States were licensed to serve fugu; twelve of those were in New York. Since that year, some other American restaurants offer fugu.
The fugu is cleaned of the most toxic parts in Japan and freeze-flown to the USA under license in customized, clear, plastic containers. Fugu chefs for U.S. restaurants are trained under the same rigorous specifications as in Japan. Pufferfish native to US waters, particularly the genus Spheroides, have also been consumed for food, sometimes resulting in poisonings.
Sale of fish belonging to this genus is forbidden altogether in the European Union.
The Japanese poet Yosa Buson (1716–1783) expressed some of the Japanese attraction to fugu in a famous senryū:
I cannot see her tonight.
I have to give her up
So I will eat fugu.
In the Kansai region, the slang word teppō meaning rifle or gun, is used for the fish. This is a play of words on the verb ataru, which can mean to be poisoned or shot. In Shimonoseki region, the ancient pronunciation fuku is more common instead of the modern fugu.The former is also a homonym good fortune whereas the latter is one for disabled. The Tsukiji fish market fugu association holds a service each year at the height of the fugu season, releasing hundreds of caught fugu into the Sumida River. A similar ceremony is also held at another large market in Shimonoseki.
A rakugo, or humorous short story, tells of three men who prepared a fugu stew but were unsure whether it was safe to eat. To test the stew, they gave some to a beggar. When it did not seem to do him any harm, they ate the stew. Later, they met the beggar again and were delighted to see that he was still in good health. After that encounter, the beggar, who had hidden the stew instead of eating it, knew that it was safe and he could eat it. The three men had been fooled by the wise beggar.
Lanterns can be made from the bodies of preserved fugu. These are occasionally seen outside of fugu restaurants, as children's toys, as folk art, or as souvenirs. Fugu skin is also made into everyday objects like wallets or waterproof boxes.
(edited 10 years ago)
The sushi restaurant was already packed with trendy media types and z list celebrities. Karen managed to find a corner table for three. She caught the eye of the maitre d' and spoke to him in fluent japanese. He was delighted with this and bowed deeply. Soon a succession of tasty oriental morsels was brought to their table. Mr Changeable and Roxie tucked in using their fingers as the chopsticks were far too big.
The starters included Hotate Kainashira Daikon Oroshi/in the small pot, cooked scallops and served cold with grated daikon and sauce.
-Na no Hana/Rape flowers atop:
-Tori no Matsukazekaze Yaki/Japanese-style Chicken Terrine
-Fuku Mame/ a large sweet black bean
-Aka kabu/Red Turnip atop Tako/Simmered Octopus and in front of Uni Shinjo Take/steamed fish paste coated with sea urchin sauce
Mr Changeable particularly enjoyed the sea urchin sauce; it reminded him of Roxie.
Karen spoke confidentially to the maitre d' and slipped him a £50 bonus. It is actually illegal to serve fugu in this country but rules are meant to be broken...
Half an hour later a silver dish was borne in with great ceremony by the chef himself. He explained in Japanese that the restaurant could not take responsibility for any health problems which might ensue from the consumption of the notoriously poisonous fish.
Karen politely accepted the conditions and helped herself to a generous portion of the delicacy, which she swigged down with sake.
Sake or saké (/ˈsɑːkeɪ/, "sah-keh") is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin that is made from fermented rice. Sake is sometimes called "rice wine" but the brewing process is more as rice beer, converting starch to sugar for the fermentation process.
In the Japanese language, the word "sake" generally refers to any alcoholic drink, while the beverage called "sake" in English is usually termed nihonshu Under Japanese liquor laws, sake is labelled with the word "seishu" , a synonym less commonly used colloquially.
Sake is sometimes referred to in English-speaking countries as rice wine. However, unlike wine, in which alcohol is produced by fermenting sugar that is naturally present in grapes and other fruits, sake is produced by means of a brewing process more like that of beer. To make beer or sake, the sugar needed to produce alcohol must first be converted from starch.
The brewing process for sake differs from the process for beer, in that for beer, the conversion from starch to sugar and from sugar to alcohol occurs in two discrete steps. But when sake is brewed, these conversions occur simultaneously. Furthermore, the alcohol content differs between sake, wine, and beer. Wine generally contains 9%–16% ABV, while most beer contains 3%–9%, and undiluted sake contains 18%–20% (although this is often lowered to about 15% by diluting with water prior to bottling).
The origin of sake is unclear. The earliest reference to the use of alcohol in Japan is recorded in the Book of Wei in the Records of the Three Kingdoms. This 3rd century Chinese text speaks of the Japanese drinking and dancing. Bamforth (2005) noted that the probable origin of sake was in the Nara period (710–794 AD).
Sake is mentioned several times in the Kojiki, Japan's first written history, which was compiled in 712 AD
By the Asuka period, true sake, that which is made from rice, water, and kōji mold ( Aspergillus oryzae), was the dominant alcohol and had a very low potency. In the Heian period, sake was used for religious ceremonies, court festivals, and drinking games. Sake production was a government monopoly for a long time, but in the 10th century, temples and shrines began to brew sake, and they became the main centers of production for the next 500 years. The Tamon-in Diary, written by abbots of Tamon-in (temple) from 1478 to 1618, records many details of brewing in the temple. The diary shows that pasteurization and the process of adding ingredients to the main fermentation mash in three stages were established practices by that time.
In the 16th century, the technique of distillation was introduced into the Kyushu district from Ryukyu. The brewing of shochu, called "Imo—sake" started, and was sold at the central market in Kyoto. Powerful daimyo imported various liquors and wine from China.
In the 18th century, Engelbert Kaempfer and Isaac Titsingh published accounts identifying sake as a popular alcoholic beverage in Japan; but Titsingh was the first to try to explain and describe the process of sake brewing. The work of both writers was widely disseminated throughout Europe at the beginning of the 19th century.
During the Meiji Restoration, laws were written that allowed anybody with the money and know-how to construct and operate their own sake breweries. Around 30,000 breweries sprang up around the country within a year. However, as the years went by, the government levied more and more taxes on the sake industry and slowly the number of breweries dwindled to 8,000.
Most of the breweries that grew and survived this period were set up by wealthy landowners. Landowners who grew rice crops would have rice left over at the end of the season and, rather than letting these leftovers go to waste, would ship it to their breweries. The most successful of these family breweries still operate today.[citation needed]
During the 20th century, sake-brewing technology grew by leaps and bounds. The government opened the sake-brewing research institute in 1904, and in 1907 the very first government-run sake tasting/competition was held. Yeast strains specifically selected for their brewing properties were isolated and enamel-coated steel tanks arrived. The government started hailing the use of enamel tanks as easy to clean, lasting forever, and being devoid of bacterial problems. (The government considered wooden barrels to be unhygienic because of the potential bacteria living in the wood.) Although these things are true, the government also wanted more tax money from breweries, as using wooden barrels means that a significant amount of sake is lost to evaporation (somewhere around 3%), which could have otherwise been taxed. This was the end of the wooden-barrel age of sake and the use of wooden barrels in brewing was completely eliminated
In Japan, sake has long been taxed by the national government. In 1898, this tax brought in about 55 million yen out of a total of about 120 million yen, about 46% of the government's total direct tax income.
During the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905, the government banned the home brewing of sake. At the time, sake still made up an astonishing 30% of Japan's tax revenue. Since home-brewed sake is tax-free sake, the logic was that by banning the home brewing of sake, sales would go up, and more tax money would be collected. This was the end of home-brewed sake, and the law remains in effect today even though sake sales now make up only 2% of government income.
When World War II brought rice shortages, the sake-brewing industry was dealt a hefty blow as the government clamped down on the use of rice for brewing. As early as the late 17th century, it had been discovered that small amounts of alcohol could be added to sake before pressing to extract aromas and flavors from the rice solids, but during the war, pure alcohol and glucose were added to small quantities of rice mash, increasing the yield by as much as four times. 75% of today's sake is made using this technique, left over from the war years. There were even a few breweries producing "sake" that contained no rice at all. Naturally, the quality of sake during this time varied greatly.
After the war, breweries slowly began to recover, and the quality of sake gradually went up. However, new players on the scene—beer, wine, and spirits—became very popular in Japan, and in the 1960s beer consumption surpassed sake for the first time. Sake consumption continued to go down while, in contrast, the quality of sake steadily improved.
Today, sake has become a world beverage with a few breweries springing up in China, Southeast Asia, South America, North America, and Australia. More breweries are also turning to older methods of production.
While the rest of the world may be drinking more sake and the quality of sake has been increasing, sake production in Japan has been declining since the mid-1970s. The number of sake breweries is also declining. While there were 3,229 breweries nationwide in fiscal 1975, the number had fallen to 1,845 in 2007.
Mr Changeable and Roxie helped themselves to a few mouthfuls of the puffer fish. The taste was slightly tangy, like sardines with marmite. At first Mr Changeable did not notice anything but after a quarter of an hour his lips began to feel numb and it was difficult to speak clearly. He glanced nervously at Roxie. She seemed to be in some sort of trance state and was gesturing towards the ceiling. Mr Changeable glanced up and to his horror saw a ghostly apparition floating down towards them...
The starters included Hotate Kainashira Daikon Oroshi/in the small pot, cooked scallops and served cold with grated daikon and sauce.
-Na no Hana/Rape flowers atop:
-Tori no Matsukazekaze Yaki/Japanese-style Chicken Terrine
-Fuku Mame/ a large sweet black bean
-Aka kabu/Red Turnip atop Tako/Simmered Octopus and in front of Uni Shinjo Take/steamed fish paste coated with sea urchin sauce
Mr Changeable particularly enjoyed the sea urchin sauce; it reminded him of Roxie.
Karen spoke confidentially to the maitre d' and slipped him a £50 bonus. It is actually illegal to serve fugu in this country but rules are meant to be broken...
Half an hour later a silver dish was borne in with great ceremony by the chef himself. He explained in Japanese that the restaurant could not take responsibility for any health problems which might ensue from the consumption of the notoriously poisonous fish.
Karen politely accepted the conditions and helped herself to a generous portion of the delicacy, which she swigged down with sake.
Sake or saké (/ˈsɑːkeɪ/, "sah-keh") is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin that is made from fermented rice. Sake is sometimes called "rice wine" but the brewing process is more as rice beer, converting starch to sugar for the fermentation process.
In the Japanese language, the word "sake" generally refers to any alcoholic drink, while the beverage called "sake" in English is usually termed nihonshu Under Japanese liquor laws, sake is labelled with the word "seishu" , a synonym less commonly used colloquially.
Sake is sometimes referred to in English-speaking countries as rice wine. However, unlike wine, in which alcohol is produced by fermenting sugar that is naturally present in grapes and other fruits, sake is produced by means of a brewing process more like that of beer. To make beer or sake, the sugar needed to produce alcohol must first be converted from starch.
The brewing process for sake differs from the process for beer, in that for beer, the conversion from starch to sugar and from sugar to alcohol occurs in two discrete steps. But when sake is brewed, these conversions occur simultaneously. Furthermore, the alcohol content differs between sake, wine, and beer. Wine generally contains 9%–16% ABV, while most beer contains 3%–9%, and undiluted sake contains 18%–20% (although this is often lowered to about 15% by diluting with water prior to bottling).
The origin of sake is unclear. The earliest reference to the use of alcohol in Japan is recorded in the Book of Wei in the Records of the Three Kingdoms. This 3rd century Chinese text speaks of the Japanese drinking and dancing. Bamforth (2005) noted that the probable origin of sake was in the Nara period (710–794 AD).
Sake is mentioned several times in the Kojiki, Japan's first written history, which was compiled in 712 AD
By the Asuka period, true sake, that which is made from rice, water, and kōji mold ( Aspergillus oryzae), was the dominant alcohol and had a very low potency. In the Heian period, sake was used for religious ceremonies, court festivals, and drinking games. Sake production was a government monopoly for a long time, but in the 10th century, temples and shrines began to brew sake, and they became the main centers of production for the next 500 years. The Tamon-in Diary, written by abbots of Tamon-in (temple) from 1478 to 1618, records many details of brewing in the temple. The diary shows that pasteurization and the process of adding ingredients to the main fermentation mash in three stages were established practices by that time.
In the 16th century, the technique of distillation was introduced into the Kyushu district from Ryukyu. The brewing of shochu, called "Imo—sake" started, and was sold at the central market in Kyoto. Powerful daimyo imported various liquors and wine from China.
In the 18th century, Engelbert Kaempfer and Isaac Titsingh published accounts identifying sake as a popular alcoholic beverage in Japan; but Titsingh was the first to try to explain and describe the process of sake brewing. The work of both writers was widely disseminated throughout Europe at the beginning of the 19th century.
During the Meiji Restoration, laws were written that allowed anybody with the money and know-how to construct and operate their own sake breweries. Around 30,000 breweries sprang up around the country within a year. However, as the years went by, the government levied more and more taxes on the sake industry and slowly the number of breweries dwindled to 8,000.
Most of the breweries that grew and survived this period were set up by wealthy landowners. Landowners who grew rice crops would have rice left over at the end of the season and, rather than letting these leftovers go to waste, would ship it to their breweries. The most successful of these family breweries still operate today.[citation needed]
During the 20th century, sake-brewing technology grew by leaps and bounds. The government opened the sake-brewing research institute in 1904, and in 1907 the very first government-run sake tasting/competition was held. Yeast strains specifically selected for their brewing properties were isolated and enamel-coated steel tanks arrived. The government started hailing the use of enamel tanks as easy to clean, lasting forever, and being devoid of bacterial problems. (The government considered wooden barrels to be unhygienic because of the potential bacteria living in the wood.) Although these things are true, the government also wanted more tax money from breweries, as using wooden barrels means that a significant amount of sake is lost to evaporation (somewhere around 3%), which could have otherwise been taxed. This was the end of the wooden-barrel age of sake and the use of wooden barrels in brewing was completely eliminated
In Japan, sake has long been taxed by the national government. In 1898, this tax brought in about 55 million yen out of a total of about 120 million yen, about 46% of the government's total direct tax income.
During the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905, the government banned the home brewing of sake. At the time, sake still made up an astonishing 30% of Japan's tax revenue. Since home-brewed sake is tax-free sake, the logic was that by banning the home brewing of sake, sales would go up, and more tax money would be collected. This was the end of home-brewed sake, and the law remains in effect today even though sake sales now make up only 2% of government income.
When World War II brought rice shortages, the sake-brewing industry was dealt a hefty blow as the government clamped down on the use of rice for brewing. As early as the late 17th century, it had been discovered that small amounts of alcohol could be added to sake before pressing to extract aromas and flavors from the rice solids, but during the war, pure alcohol and glucose were added to small quantities of rice mash, increasing the yield by as much as four times. 75% of today's sake is made using this technique, left over from the war years. There were even a few breweries producing "sake" that contained no rice at all. Naturally, the quality of sake during this time varied greatly.
After the war, breweries slowly began to recover, and the quality of sake gradually went up. However, new players on the scene—beer, wine, and spirits—became very popular in Japan, and in the 1960s beer consumption surpassed sake for the first time. Sake consumption continued to go down while, in contrast, the quality of sake steadily improved.
Today, sake has become a world beverage with a few breweries springing up in China, Southeast Asia, South America, North America, and Australia. More breweries are also turning to older methods of production.
While the rest of the world may be drinking more sake and the quality of sake has been increasing, sake production in Japan has been declining since the mid-1970s. The number of sake breweries is also declining. While there were 3,229 breweries nationwide in fiscal 1975, the number had fallen to 1,845 in 2007.
Mr Changeable and Roxie helped themselves to a few mouthfuls of the puffer fish. The taste was slightly tangy, like sardines with marmite. At first Mr Changeable did not notice anything but after a quarter of an hour his lips began to feel numb and it was difficult to speak clearly. He glanced nervously at Roxie. She seemed to be in some sort of trance state and was gesturing towards the ceiling. Mr Changeable glanced up and to his horror saw a ghostly apparition floating down towards them...
(edited 10 years ago)
Whether it was the intense strain of mortal combat, the dodgy fugu, the disorientation of moving from Australia or perhaps a genuine manifestation of the spirit world Mr Changeable seemed to see his late adversary descending slowly from above. His plastic head still looked annoyingly cheerful despite having no body, just a wispy white shroud. Rupert seemed to start speaking. His normally arrogant voice was less grating than usual.
"Sergeant i have a message for you. You upheld the finest traditions of the Regiment in our tussle today. You sought to protect that two-timing hussy Roxanne. Anyway you are welcome to her. And the car. The keys are in the exhaust pipe." With that the apparition faded and all that was left was a paper napkin on the floor.
Roxie had been listening to the ethereal conversation. The effects of the fugu were starting to wear off and she was able to mutter a few choice epithets about her late husband. To summarize, he was an impotent pervert who sought pleasure with dachshunds when Cub Scouts were in short supply.
The Cub Scouting movement was founded by Robert Baden-Powell in 1916, nine years after the foundation of the Scouts, in order to cater to the many younger boys who had not yet reached the age limit for the Boy Scouts but who wanted to take part in Scouting. During these first ten years many troops had either allowed younger boys to join or had set up unofficial Junior or Cadet Scout Troops. These Cadet Troops taught a much simpler form of Scouting, including just the basic knotting techniques, basic first aid and tracking. In 1914, there were articles in the Headquarters' Gazette (a then regular newsletter to leaders) outlining an official scheme, however this was not what Baden-Powell wanted. Rather he sought something quite different — a movement in its own right, with its own identity and program.
In 1914 Baden Powell announced a Junior Section for Scouting. In 1916, he published his own outlines for such a scheme, it was to be called Wolf Cubbing. It has been speculated that Baden-Powell may have had a number of reasons to call this section Wolf Cubs. Wolf was one of the ranks some Native American tribes gave to their best scouts; Wolf was the name of the cannon made in the railway workshops at Mafeking. So a young boy not old enough to be a wolf or true Scout could be a baby wolf or Wolf Cub.
Baden-Powell asked his friend Rudyard Kipling for the use of his Jungle Book history and universe as a motivational frame in cub scouting. Baden-Powell wrote a new book, The Wolf Cub's Handbook, for junior members. In 1917, junior members became known as Wolf Cubs.
In the 1960s and later, the Wolf Cub section departed in many organizations from the jungle theme. Some changed their name to Cub Scout or something similar but retained the Jungle Stories and Cub ceremony as tradition—such as the use of Jungle Books names (as described below); and the Grand Howl which signals the start and end of the Cub Scout Meetings. Other organizations kept the name but changed the theme totally.
Originally, Cub Scout membership was open only to boys while the Brownies were set up as a parallel section for young girls. This remains the situation in some places. Most member organizations of World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) admitted girls to the Cub Scouts while others have separate co-ed sections with a different theme. Most member organizations of the Union Internationale des Guides et Scouts d'Europe (UIGSE) have two single sex sections both named Wolf Cubs and both in the jungle theme.
Cub Scouting has ideals of spiritual and character growth, citizenship training, and personal fitness. Cub Scouting provides a positive, encouraging peer group, carefully selected leaders who provide good role models and a group setting where values are taught to reinforce positive qualities of character.
Cub Scouts are organized in Packs, which are usually linked to a Scout group, providing a community with all age sections. Adult leaders of Cub packs take the names of The Jungle Book 's main characters. In many countries the leader of the Pack is called Akela. Cub Scouts have a distinctive two-finger salute according to the Jungle theme, in contrast to the three-finger salute of Boy Scouts. However, in the Scout Association of United Kingdom (UK) and some of its overseas branches, the two-finger salute was later replaced by the three-finger salute when they detached from the Jungle Book theme. Historically, Cub Scouts wear a distinctive headdress, which is a tight-fitting green felt cap with green felt visor, yellow pipings, and an emblem at the front — although in some countries this has been replaced by more contemporary headgear.
Like Scout Troops, Cub Scouts are assigned to small teams within the Pack. Baden-Powell named the team Six, which refers to the six members in each team. In most countries the members of a Six are from all Cub Scout-ages with the oldest as sixer ("leader"). In the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), these teams are each called a Den, and each Den has all boys in the same school grade.
Youth Leaders from more senior Sections of Scouting are actively encouraged to assist as Cub Scout Leaders. In the UK and in Australia these were originally called Cub Instructors. Within Scouts Australia the term Youth Helper is now formally applied to such persons, whilst in the United Kingdom they are called Young Leaders. In Canada, a Scout who assists in the Cub program is designated as a Kim. In the United States, the term Den Chief is used.
In many European countries (especially where the Jungle theme still has a strong part in the programme), Saint Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of Cub Scouts, because of his relationship with wolves.
The emphasis of Cub Scouting is to have fun and learn at the same time. A Cub Scout gets satisfaction from meeting challenges, having friends, feeling good about himself, and feeling he is important to other people. Cub Scouts learn new things, discover and master new skills, gain self-confidence, and develop strong friendships. A Cub Scout learns the basics of the Scout method, a simple version of the Scout Promise, and a simple version of the Scout Law. Common ways to implement the Scout method include spending time together in small groups with shared experiences, rituals, and activities. Cultivating a love and appreciation of the outdoors and outdoor activities are key elements. Primary activities include games, camping, woodcraft, first aid, aquatics, hiking and sports. Each Pack has a number of annual events at Group or District level and can join nationwide events at pack level such as the Pinewood derby in the USA. Camping most often occurs on a unit level, such as in the pack, but sometimes at Group or District level. For many Cub Scout and Scouters, the highlight of the year is spending up to a week in the summer as part of an outdoor activity. They can stay in a lodge, cabin or tent.
"Sergeant i have a message for you. You upheld the finest traditions of the Regiment in our tussle today. You sought to protect that two-timing hussy Roxanne. Anyway you are welcome to her. And the car. The keys are in the exhaust pipe." With that the apparition faded and all that was left was a paper napkin on the floor.
Roxie had been listening to the ethereal conversation. The effects of the fugu were starting to wear off and she was able to mutter a few choice epithets about her late husband. To summarize, he was an impotent pervert who sought pleasure with dachshunds when Cub Scouts were in short supply.
The Cub Scouting movement was founded by Robert Baden-Powell in 1916, nine years after the foundation of the Scouts, in order to cater to the many younger boys who had not yet reached the age limit for the Boy Scouts but who wanted to take part in Scouting. During these first ten years many troops had either allowed younger boys to join or had set up unofficial Junior or Cadet Scout Troops. These Cadet Troops taught a much simpler form of Scouting, including just the basic knotting techniques, basic first aid and tracking. In 1914, there were articles in the Headquarters' Gazette (a then regular newsletter to leaders) outlining an official scheme, however this was not what Baden-Powell wanted. Rather he sought something quite different — a movement in its own right, with its own identity and program.
In 1914 Baden Powell announced a Junior Section for Scouting. In 1916, he published his own outlines for such a scheme, it was to be called Wolf Cubbing. It has been speculated that Baden-Powell may have had a number of reasons to call this section Wolf Cubs. Wolf was one of the ranks some Native American tribes gave to their best scouts; Wolf was the name of the cannon made in the railway workshops at Mafeking. So a young boy not old enough to be a wolf or true Scout could be a baby wolf or Wolf Cub.
Baden-Powell asked his friend Rudyard Kipling for the use of his Jungle Book history and universe as a motivational frame in cub scouting. Baden-Powell wrote a new book, The Wolf Cub's Handbook, for junior members. In 1917, junior members became known as Wolf Cubs.
In the 1960s and later, the Wolf Cub section departed in many organizations from the jungle theme. Some changed their name to Cub Scout or something similar but retained the Jungle Stories and Cub ceremony as tradition—such as the use of Jungle Books names (as described below); and the Grand Howl which signals the start and end of the Cub Scout Meetings. Other organizations kept the name but changed the theme totally.
Originally, Cub Scout membership was open only to boys while the Brownies were set up as a parallel section for young girls. This remains the situation in some places. Most member organizations of World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) admitted girls to the Cub Scouts while others have separate co-ed sections with a different theme. Most member organizations of the Union Internationale des Guides et Scouts d'Europe (UIGSE) have two single sex sections both named Wolf Cubs and both in the jungle theme.
Cub Scouting has ideals of spiritual and character growth, citizenship training, and personal fitness. Cub Scouting provides a positive, encouraging peer group, carefully selected leaders who provide good role models and a group setting where values are taught to reinforce positive qualities of character.
Cub Scouts are organized in Packs, which are usually linked to a Scout group, providing a community with all age sections. Adult leaders of Cub packs take the names of The Jungle Book 's main characters. In many countries the leader of the Pack is called Akela. Cub Scouts have a distinctive two-finger salute according to the Jungle theme, in contrast to the three-finger salute of Boy Scouts. However, in the Scout Association of United Kingdom (UK) and some of its overseas branches, the two-finger salute was later replaced by the three-finger salute when they detached from the Jungle Book theme. Historically, Cub Scouts wear a distinctive headdress, which is a tight-fitting green felt cap with green felt visor, yellow pipings, and an emblem at the front — although in some countries this has been replaced by more contemporary headgear.
Like Scout Troops, Cub Scouts are assigned to small teams within the Pack. Baden-Powell named the team Six, which refers to the six members in each team. In most countries the members of a Six are from all Cub Scout-ages with the oldest as sixer ("leader"). In the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), these teams are each called a Den, and each Den has all boys in the same school grade.
Youth Leaders from more senior Sections of Scouting are actively encouraged to assist as Cub Scout Leaders. In the UK and in Australia these were originally called Cub Instructors. Within Scouts Australia the term Youth Helper is now formally applied to such persons, whilst in the United Kingdom they are called Young Leaders. In Canada, a Scout who assists in the Cub program is designated as a Kim. In the United States, the term Den Chief is used.
In many European countries (especially where the Jungle theme still has a strong part in the programme), Saint Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of Cub Scouts, because of his relationship with wolves.
The emphasis of Cub Scouting is to have fun and learn at the same time. A Cub Scout gets satisfaction from meeting challenges, having friends, feeling good about himself, and feeling he is important to other people. Cub Scouts learn new things, discover and master new skills, gain self-confidence, and develop strong friendships. A Cub Scout learns the basics of the Scout method, a simple version of the Scout Promise, and a simple version of the Scout Law. Common ways to implement the Scout method include spending time together in small groups with shared experiences, rituals, and activities. Cultivating a love and appreciation of the outdoors and outdoor activities are key elements. Primary activities include games, camping, woodcraft, first aid, aquatics, hiking and sports. Each Pack has a number of annual events at Group or District level and can join nationwide events at pack level such as the Pinewood derby in the USA. Camping most often occurs on a unit level, such as in the pack, but sometimes at Group or District level. For many Cub Scout and Scouters, the highlight of the year is spending up to a week in the summer as part of an outdoor activity. They can stay in a lodge, cabin or tent.
(edited 10 years ago)
Mr Changeable was cheered by Roxie's denunciation of the late Colonel as a polymorphous pervert. Also the offer from beyond the grave of Rupert's E-type Jag was not to be sniffed at. (see above for long section about E-type Jags. Duh).
Suddenly a terrifying vision unfolded before his plastic eyes...
Rupert's body had materialized but with the head of a giant stag beetle ! This was some serious Kafkaesque shiz. Roxie was gazing longingly at the disgusting insect head.
Stag beetles are a group of about 1,200 species of beetle in the family Lucanidae, presently classified in four subfamilies Some species grow up to over 12 cm (4.8 in), but most are about 5 cm (2 in).
The English name is derived from the large and distinctive mandibles found on the males of most species, which resemble the antlers of stags.
A well-known species in much of Europe is Lucanus cervus, referred to in some European countries (including United Kingdom) as "the" stag beetle (it is the largest terrestrial insect in Europe). Pliny the Elder noted that Nigidius called the stag beetle lucanus after the Italian region of Lucania where they were used as amulets. The scientific name of Lucanus cervus is this word, plus cervus, deer.
Male stag beetles use their jaws to wrestle each other for favoured mating sites in a manner that parallels the way stags fight over females. Fights may also be over food, such as tree sap and decaying fruits. Despite their often fearsome appearance they are not normally aggressive to humans.
Female stag beetles are usually smaller than the males, with smaller mandibles. As larvae, females can be distinguished from males by the presence of cream-coloured, fat ovaries visible through the skin around 2⁄3 down the larva's back.
The larvae feed for several years on rotting deciduous wood, growing through three larval stages until eventually pupating inside a pupal cell constructed from surrounding wood pieces and soil particles. In the final larval stage, "L3", the grubs of larger species, such as Prosopocoilus giraffa, may be the size of a human finger.
Lucanidae express male-specific "weapon traits" (antler size) that often show size variations among individual males.This is termed scaling relationship or static allometry. Environmental conditions during development affect absolute weapon size but there are genetic factors.
The Metamorphosis (German: Die Verwandlung, also sometimes translated as The Transformation) is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It has been cited as one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century and is studied in colleges and universities across the Western world. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin. It is never explained in the story why Samsa transforms, nor did Kafka ever give an explanation.
One day Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up to find himself transformed into a "ungeheures Ungeziefer", literally "monstrous vermin", often interpreted as a giant bug or insect. He believes it is a dream, and reflects on how dreary life as a traveling salesman is. He looks at the wall clock and realizes that he has overslept and missed his train for work. He ponders on the consequences of this delay, and is annoyed at how his boss never accepts excuses or explanations from any of his employees no matter how hard working they are, displaying an apparent lack of trusting abilities. Gregor's mother knocks on the door and he answers her. She is concerned for Gregor because he is late for work, which is unorthodox for Gregor. Gregor answers his mother and realizes that his voice has changed, but his answer is short so his mother does not notice the voice change. His sister, Grete, to whom he was very close then whispers through the door and begs him to open the door. All his family members think that he is ill and ask him to open the door. He tries to get out of bed but he is incapable of moving his body. While trying to move, he finds that his office manager, the chief clerk has showed up to check on him. He finally rocks his body to the floor and calls out that he will open the door shortly.
Feeling offended by Gregor's delayed response in opening the door, the clerk warns him of the consequences of missing work. He adds that his recent performance has been unsatisfactory. Gregor disagrees and tells him that he will open the door shortly. Nobody on the other side of the door could understand a single word he uttered (Gregor was unaware of the fact that his voice has also transformed) and conclude that he is seriously ill. Finally, Gregor manages to unlock and open the door with his mouth. He apologizes to the office manager for the delay. Horrified by the sight of Gregor's appearance, the manager bolts out of the apartment, while Gregor's mother faints. Gregor tries to catch up with him but his father drives him back into the bedroom with a cane and a rolled newspaper. Gregor injures himself squeezing back through the doorway, and his father slams the door shut. Gregor, exhausted, falls asleep.
Gregor wakes and sees that someone has put milk and bread in his room. Initially excited, he quickly discovers that he has no taste for milk, once one of his favorite foods. He settles himself under a couch. The next morning, his sister comes in, sees that he has not touched the milk, and replaces it with rotting food scraps, which Gregor happily eats. This begins a routine in which his sister feeds him and cleans up while he hides under the couch, afraid that his appearance will frighten her. Gregor spends his time listening through the wall to his family members talking. They often discuss the difficult financial situation they find themselves in now that Gregor can’t provide for them. Gregor had plans of sending Grete to the conservatorium to pursue violin lessons, something that everyone else including Grete considered to be a dream. Gregor was however pretty determined to do so on the same Christmas before which the metamorphosis occurs. His incapability of being the provider of his family as well as his shattered dreams in respect to his sister coupled with his speechlessness reduces his thought process to a great respect. Gregor also learns that his mother wants to visit him, but his sister and father will not let her.
Gregor grows more comfortable with his changed body. He begins climbing the walls and ceiling for amusement. Discovering Gregor’s new pastime, Grete decides to remove some of the furniture to give Gregor more space. She and her mother begin taking furniture away, but Gregor finds their actions deeply distressing. He tries to save a picture on the wall of a woman wearing a fur hat, fur scarf, and a fur muff. Gregor’s mother sees him hanging on the wall and passes out. Grete calls out to Gregor—the first time anyone has spoken directly to him since his transformation. Gregor runs out of the room and into the kitchen. The father throws apples at Gregor, and one of them sinks into a sensitive spot in his back and remains lodged there, paralyzing his movements for a month and damaging it permanently. Gregor manages to get back into his bedroom but is severely injured.
One evening, the cleaning lady leaves Gregor’s door open while the boarders lounge about the living room. Grete has been asked to play the violin for them, and Gregor who usually took care to avoid crossing paths with anyone in the flat, in the midst of his depression and thus caused detachment, creeps out of his bedroom to listen. The boarders, who initially seemed interested in Grete, grow bored with her performance, but Gregor is transfixed by it. One of the boarders spots Gregor and they become alarmed. Gregor’s father tries to shove the boarders back into their rooms, but the three men protest and announce that they will move out immediately without paying rent because of the disgusting conditions in the apartment.
Grete, who has by now become tired of taking care of Gregor and is realizing the amount of burden his existence puts on each one in the family, tells her parents that they must get rid of Gregor or they will all be ruined. Her father agrees, wishing Gregor could understand them and would leave of his own accord. Gregor does in fact understand and slowly moves back to the bedroom. There, determined to rid his family of his presence, Gregor dies.
Upon discovering that Gregor is dead, the family feels a great sense of relief. The father kicks out the boarders and decides to fire the cleaning lady, who has disposed of Gregor’s body. The family takes a trolley ride out to the countryside, during which they consider their finances. Months of spare living as a result of Gregor’s condition have left them with substantial savings. They decide to move to a smaller apartment than the present one to further save their finances, an act which they were unable to carry out in Gregor's presence. During this short trip, Mr. and Mrs. Samsa realize that in spite of going through hardships which have brought an amount of paleness to her face, Grete appears to have grown up into a pretty and well figured lady, which leads her parents to think about finding her a husband.
Gregor is the main character of the story. He works as a traveling salesman in order to provide money for his sister and parents. He wakes up one morning finding himself transformed to an insect. After the metamorphosis, Gregor becomes unable to work and a claustrophile. This prompts his family to begin working once again.
The name "Gregor Samsa" appears to derive partly from literary works Kafka had read. The hero of The Story of Young Renate Fuchs, by German-Jewish novelist Jakob Wassermann (1873–1934), is a certain Gregor Samsa. The Viennese author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose sexual imagination gave rise to the idea of masochism, is also an influence. Sacher-Masoch (note the letters Sa-Mas) wrote Venus in Furs (1870), a novel whose hero assumes the name Gregor at one point. A "Venus in furs" literally recurs in "The Metamorphosis" in the picture that Gregor Samsa has hung on his bedroom wall. The name Samsa is similar to Kafka in its play of vowels and consonants: "Five letters in each word. The S in the word Samsa has the same position as the K in the word Kafka. The A "is in the second and fifth positions in both words." Kafka, when asked, would deny the significance of this correlation.
Gregor Samsa appears to be based upon Kafka himself. As when Kafka suffered from insomnia he feared he was repulsive and a burden to his family, during this time his sister was his caretaker.
Grete is Gregor's younger sister, who becomes his caretaker after his metamorphosis. Initially Grete and Gregor have a close relationship but this quickly fades. While Grete initially volunteers to feed him and clean his room, she grows more and more impatient with the burden and begins to leave his room in disarray out of spite. She plays the violin and dreams of going to the conservatory, a dream Gregor had intended to make happen. Gregor planned on making the announcement on Christmas Eve. To help provide an income for the family after Gregor's transformation, she starts working as a salesgirl.
Mr. Samsa is Gregor's father. After the metamorphosis, he is forced to return to work in order to support the family financially. His attitude towards his son is harsh; he regards the transformed Gregor with disgust and possibly even fear. Mr. Samsa may have been based on Kafka's father, who treated Kafka harshly.
Mrs. Samsa is Grete and Gregor's mother. She is initially shocked at Gregor's transformation, however she wants to enter his room. This proves too much for her, thus giving rise to a conflict between her maternal impulse and sympathy and her fear and revulsion of Gregor's new form.
Kafka's sentences often deliver an unexpected impact just before the period—that being the finalizing meaning and focus. This is achieved from the construction of sentences in the original German, where the verbs of subordinate clauses are put at the end. For example, in the opening sentence, it is the final word, verwandelt, that indicates transformation:
Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt.
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect-like creature.
These constructions are not directly replicable in English, so it is up to the translator to provide the reader with the effect of the original text.
English translators have often sought to render the word Ungeziefer as "insect", but this is not strictly accurate. In Middle High German, Ungeziefer literally means "unclean animal not suitable for sacrifice" and is sometimes used colloquially to mean "bug" – a very general term, unlike the scientific sounding "insect". Kafka had no intention of labeling Gregor as any specific thing, but instead wanted to convey Gregor's disgust at his transformation. The phrasing used by Joachim Neugroschel is "transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect" whereas David Wyllie says "transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin".
However, in Kafka's letter to his publisher of 25 October 1915, in which he discusses his concern about the cover illustration for the first edition, he uses the term Insekt, saying "The insect itself is not to be drawn. It is not even to be seen from a distance."
Ungeziefer has sometimes been translated as "cockroach", "dung beetle", "beetle", and other highly specific terms. The term "dung beetle" or Mistkäfer is in fact used in the novella by the cleaning lady near the end of the story, but it is not used in the narration. Ungeziefer also denotes a sense of separation between himself and his environment: he is unclean and must therefore be secluded.
Vladimir Nabokov, who was a lepidopterist as well as writer and literary critic, insisted that Gregor was not a cockroach, but a beetle with wings under his shell, and capable of flight. Nabokov left a sketch annotated "just over three feet long" on the opening page of his (heavily corrected) English teaching copy. In his accompanying lecture notes, Nabokov discusses the type of insect Gregor has been transformed into, concluding that Gregor "is not, technically, a dung beetle. He is merely a big beetle."
Then the hideous soldier-insect creature started speaking; Rupert's irritating patrician drawl being modified by the narrow voicebox of the beetle.
"I haave chaaanged my mind Saaaargeant. Roxie is coming with meeeee to the aaaaafterliiiiife. You caaan keeep the sooooodding caaaar aaaaaassshollllle".
Mr Changeable pondered for a moment then replied "Deal."
Suddenly a terrifying vision unfolded before his plastic eyes...
Rupert's body had materialized but with the head of a giant stag beetle ! This was some serious Kafkaesque shiz. Roxie was gazing longingly at the disgusting insect head.
Stag beetles are a group of about 1,200 species of beetle in the family Lucanidae, presently classified in four subfamilies Some species grow up to over 12 cm (4.8 in), but most are about 5 cm (2 in).
The English name is derived from the large and distinctive mandibles found on the males of most species, which resemble the antlers of stags.
A well-known species in much of Europe is Lucanus cervus, referred to in some European countries (including United Kingdom) as "the" stag beetle (it is the largest terrestrial insect in Europe). Pliny the Elder noted that Nigidius called the stag beetle lucanus after the Italian region of Lucania where they were used as amulets. The scientific name of Lucanus cervus is this word, plus cervus, deer.
Male stag beetles use their jaws to wrestle each other for favoured mating sites in a manner that parallels the way stags fight over females. Fights may also be over food, such as tree sap and decaying fruits. Despite their often fearsome appearance they are not normally aggressive to humans.
Female stag beetles are usually smaller than the males, with smaller mandibles. As larvae, females can be distinguished from males by the presence of cream-coloured, fat ovaries visible through the skin around 2⁄3 down the larva's back.
The larvae feed for several years on rotting deciduous wood, growing through three larval stages until eventually pupating inside a pupal cell constructed from surrounding wood pieces and soil particles. In the final larval stage, "L3", the grubs of larger species, such as Prosopocoilus giraffa, may be the size of a human finger.
Lucanidae express male-specific "weapon traits" (antler size) that often show size variations among individual males.This is termed scaling relationship or static allometry. Environmental conditions during development affect absolute weapon size but there are genetic factors.
The Metamorphosis (German: Die Verwandlung, also sometimes translated as The Transformation) is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It has been cited as one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century and is studied in colleges and universities across the Western world. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin. It is never explained in the story why Samsa transforms, nor did Kafka ever give an explanation.
One day Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up to find himself transformed into a "ungeheures Ungeziefer", literally "monstrous vermin", often interpreted as a giant bug or insect. He believes it is a dream, and reflects on how dreary life as a traveling salesman is. He looks at the wall clock and realizes that he has overslept and missed his train for work. He ponders on the consequences of this delay, and is annoyed at how his boss never accepts excuses or explanations from any of his employees no matter how hard working they are, displaying an apparent lack of trusting abilities. Gregor's mother knocks on the door and he answers her. She is concerned for Gregor because he is late for work, which is unorthodox for Gregor. Gregor answers his mother and realizes that his voice has changed, but his answer is short so his mother does not notice the voice change. His sister, Grete, to whom he was very close then whispers through the door and begs him to open the door. All his family members think that he is ill and ask him to open the door. He tries to get out of bed but he is incapable of moving his body. While trying to move, he finds that his office manager, the chief clerk has showed up to check on him. He finally rocks his body to the floor and calls out that he will open the door shortly.
Feeling offended by Gregor's delayed response in opening the door, the clerk warns him of the consequences of missing work. He adds that his recent performance has been unsatisfactory. Gregor disagrees and tells him that he will open the door shortly. Nobody on the other side of the door could understand a single word he uttered (Gregor was unaware of the fact that his voice has also transformed) and conclude that he is seriously ill. Finally, Gregor manages to unlock and open the door with his mouth. He apologizes to the office manager for the delay. Horrified by the sight of Gregor's appearance, the manager bolts out of the apartment, while Gregor's mother faints. Gregor tries to catch up with him but his father drives him back into the bedroom with a cane and a rolled newspaper. Gregor injures himself squeezing back through the doorway, and his father slams the door shut. Gregor, exhausted, falls asleep.
Gregor wakes and sees that someone has put milk and bread in his room. Initially excited, he quickly discovers that he has no taste for milk, once one of his favorite foods. He settles himself under a couch. The next morning, his sister comes in, sees that he has not touched the milk, and replaces it with rotting food scraps, which Gregor happily eats. This begins a routine in which his sister feeds him and cleans up while he hides under the couch, afraid that his appearance will frighten her. Gregor spends his time listening through the wall to his family members talking. They often discuss the difficult financial situation they find themselves in now that Gregor can’t provide for them. Gregor had plans of sending Grete to the conservatorium to pursue violin lessons, something that everyone else including Grete considered to be a dream. Gregor was however pretty determined to do so on the same Christmas before which the metamorphosis occurs. His incapability of being the provider of his family as well as his shattered dreams in respect to his sister coupled with his speechlessness reduces his thought process to a great respect. Gregor also learns that his mother wants to visit him, but his sister and father will not let her.
Gregor grows more comfortable with his changed body. He begins climbing the walls and ceiling for amusement. Discovering Gregor’s new pastime, Grete decides to remove some of the furniture to give Gregor more space. She and her mother begin taking furniture away, but Gregor finds their actions deeply distressing. He tries to save a picture on the wall of a woman wearing a fur hat, fur scarf, and a fur muff. Gregor’s mother sees him hanging on the wall and passes out. Grete calls out to Gregor—the first time anyone has spoken directly to him since his transformation. Gregor runs out of the room and into the kitchen. The father throws apples at Gregor, and one of them sinks into a sensitive spot in his back and remains lodged there, paralyzing his movements for a month and damaging it permanently. Gregor manages to get back into his bedroom but is severely injured.
One evening, the cleaning lady leaves Gregor’s door open while the boarders lounge about the living room. Grete has been asked to play the violin for them, and Gregor who usually took care to avoid crossing paths with anyone in the flat, in the midst of his depression and thus caused detachment, creeps out of his bedroom to listen. The boarders, who initially seemed interested in Grete, grow bored with her performance, but Gregor is transfixed by it. One of the boarders spots Gregor and they become alarmed. Gregor’s father tries to shove the boarders back into their rooms, but the three men protest and announce that they will move out immediately without paying rent because of the disgusting conditions in the apartment.
Grete, who has by now become tired of taking care of Gregor and is realizing the amount of burden his existence puts on each one in the family, tells her parents that they must get rid of Gregor or they will all be ruined. Her father agrees, wishing Gregor could understand them and would leave of his own accord. Gregor does in fact understand and slowly moves back to the bedroom. There, determined to rid his family of his presence, Gregor dies.
Upon discovering that Gregor is dead, the family feels a great sense of relief. The father kicks out the boarders and decides to fire the cleaning lady, who has disposed of Gregor’s body. The family takes a trolley ride out to the countryside, during which they consider their finances. Months of spare living as a result of Gregor’s condition have left them with substantial savings. They decide to move to a smaller apartment than the present one to further save their finances, an act which they were unable to carry out in Gregor's presence. During this short trip, Mr. and Mrs. Samsa realize that in spite of going through hardships which have brought an amount of paleness to her face, Grete appears to have grown up into a pretty and well figured lady, which leads her parents to think about finding her a husband.
Gregor is the main character of the story. He works as a traveling salesman in order to provide money for his sister and parents. He wakes up one morning finding himself transformed to an insect. After the metamorphosis, Gregor becomes unable to work and a claustrophile. This prompts his family to begin working once again.
The name "Gregor Samsa" appears to derive partly from literary works Kafka had read. The hero of The Story of Young Renate Fuchs, by German-Jewish novelist Jakob Wassermann (1873–1934), is a certain Gregor Samsa. The Viennese author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose sexual imagination gave rise to the idea of masochism, is also an influence. Sacher-Masoch (note the letters Sa-Mas) wrote Venus in Furs (1870), a novel whose hero assumes the name Gregor at one point. A "Venus in furs" literally recurs in "The Metamorphosis" in the picture that Gregor Samsa has hung on his bedroom wall. The name Samsa is similar to Kafka in its play of vowels and consonants: "Five letters in each word. The S in the word Samsa has the same position as the K in the word Kafka. The A "is in the second and fifth positions in both words." Kafka, when asked, would deny the significance of this correlation.
Gregor Samsa appears to be based upon Kafka himself. As when Kafka suffered from insomnia he feared he was repulsive and a burden to his family, during this time his sister was his caretaker.
Grete is Gregor's younger sister, who becomes his caretaker after his metamorphosis. Initially Grete and Gregor have a close relationship but this quickly fades. While Grete initially volunteers to feed him and clean his room, she grows more and more impatient with the burden and begins to leave his room in disarray out of spite. She plays the violin and dreams of going to the conservatory, a dream Gregor had intended to make happen. Gregor planned on making the announcement on Christmas Eve. To help provide an income for the family after Gregor's transformation, she starts working as a salesgirl.
Mr. Samsa is Gregor's father. After the metamorphosis, he is forced to return to work in order to support the family financially. His attitude towards his son is harsh; he regards the transformed Gregor with disgust and possibly even fear. Mr. Samsa may have been based on Kafka's father, who treated Kafka harshly.
Mrs. Samsa is Grete and Gregor's mother. She is initially shocked at Gregor's transformation, however she wants to enter his room. This proves too much for her, thus giving rise to a conflict between her maternal impulse and sympathy and her fear and revulsion of Gregor's new form.
Kafka's sentences often deliver an unexpected impact just before the period—that being the finalizing meaning and focus. This is achieved from the construction of sentences in the original German, where the verbs of subordinate clauses are put at the end. For example, in the opening sentence, it is the final word, verwandelt, that indicates transformation:
Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt.
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect-like creature.
These constructions are not directly replicable in English, so it is up to the translator to provide the reader with the effect of the original text.
English translators have often sought to render the word Ungeziefer as "insect", but this is not strictly accurate. In Middle High German, Ungeziefer literally means "unclean animal not suitable for sacrifice" and is sometimes used colloquially to mean "bug" – a very general term, unlike the scientific sounding "insect". Kafka had no intention of labeling Gregor as any specific thing, but instead wanted to convey Gregor's disgust at his transformation. The phrasing used by Joachim Neugroschel is "transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect" whereas David Wyllie says "transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin".
However, in Kafka's letter to his publisher of 25 October 1915, in which he discusses his concern about the cover illustration for the first edition, he uses the term Insekt, saying "The insect itself is not to be drawn. It is not even to be seen from a distance."
Ungeziefer has sometimes been translated as "cockroach", "dung beetle", "beetle", and other highly specific terms. The term "dung beetle" or Mistkäfer is in fact used in the novella by the cleaning lady near the end of the story, but it is not used in the narration. Ungeziefer also denotes a sense of separation between himself and his environment: he is unclean and must therefore be secluded.
Vladimir Nabokov, who was a lepidopterist as well as writer and literary critic, insisted that Gregor was not a cockroach, but a beetle with wings under his shell, and capable of flight. Nabokov left a sketch annotated "just over three feet long" on the opening page of his (heavily corrected) English teaching copy. In his accompanying lecture notes, Nabokov discusses the type of insect Gregor has been transformed into, concluding that Gregor "is not, technically, a dung beetle. He is merely a big beetle."
Then the hideous soldier-insect creature started speaking; Rupert's irritating patrician drawl being modified by the narrow voicebox of the beetle.
"I haave chaaanged my mind Saaaargeant. Roxie is coming with meeeee to the aaaaafterliiiiife. You caaan keeep the sooooodding caaaar aaaaaassshollllle".
Mr Changeable pondered for a moment then replied "Deal."
(edited 10 years ago)
i never thought that toys would get this meany pages, i love the ideas and that, but don't ever for get everyone that this story is still mine
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