Q1) 10th December is Human Rights Day. It’s marked on the 10th December, as this saw the adoption of the Universal what of Human Rights?
Q2) The first female writer to receive a Nobel Prize for Literature, did so on 10th December, 1909. Who was she: Selma Lagerlöf, Grazia Deledda or Gabriela Mistral?
Q3) 10th December is the feast day of Eulalia of Merida. She’s the patron saint of whom: runaways, cheese makers or courtesans?
Q4) George Shaw was born on 10th December, 1751. He was a what: botanist, chemist or physicist?
Q5) Finally … ? Actor, Ray Collins, was born: on 10th December, 1889. He made his feature film debut in which 1941, Orson Welles, film?
Q2) 9th December, 1952, saw the birth of actor, Michael Dorn. He played Jedediah Turner in which series: CHiPs, Star Trek: The Next Generation or I am Weasel?
Q3) 9th December, 1934, saw the birth of Dame Judi Dench. She played Laura Dalton in which series: A Fine Romance, Love in a Cold Climate or As Time Goes By?
† Hello, Mum! (Michael Dorn play’s Worf, in Star Trek.)
‡ Well … it turns out I don’t qualify for it, Olga. Which is a bit of a pain, to be frank. I think I’m going to have to chase that tribunal: to see what I can do.
Amazing Grace did have a reputation, bless her: you DO know she filed the first bug report?
Oh, it’s Telethon Time? Good luck with it. (It looks like the weather will be warm: it won’t be too cold, if you’re doing an outside broadcast!)
^ I’ll … um … I’ll see what I can do, Debbi!! He says, hurriedly eyeballing notes … !
I think COBOL’s still used: by some companies. There’s possibly problems, though …
At any rate? Yes: Worf was a CHiP! Dorn also voiced Weasel, in I am Weasel. And, talking of Star Trek? Radio 4’s JUST played William Shatner’s version of Bohemian Rhapsody. Dearie Dearie Me!
Q3) runaways. Yes, there is Santa Eulalia that is patron saint of Barcelona (We have three, La Mercé, Santa Eulalia and Santa Madrona. In theory we have the body of Santa Eulalia buried in the Cathedral of Barcelona, but many of the stories of the saints are very similar. Who knows?)
Q4) botanist
Q5) Citizen Kane. I’ve seen him quite a few times, but I never checked his name. Now I know.
What a pain about the extra Cold Weather payment. Hopefully they’ll come to a decision soon, as it would help on many other fronts, one imagines. Enjoy the novel! I am not a big fan of spy novels, and the only one of Le Carré’s I’ve ever read was in translation and many years back, when I was quite young. I might appreciate him more now, but I remember feeling that it was very long, and there were many characters with confusing names, making it difficult to follow. I am not sure what the plans are for next week, but it is likely to be outside, although we might be going from here to there chasing up stories. We shall see...
I have just read yesterday’s teaser and saw your reference to both the DWP and to Cobol.
Every December since I became a Pensioner I have received the £10. I appears in my bank account as “My NI number” DWP XD. Similarly in November I a line in my bank account which reads “My NI number” DWP WFP. For years this was the £200 Winter fuel payment. For this year (only?) it was £500. 13 times a year a line appears in my bank account and it reads “My NI number” DWP SP and this is my state pension.
All of these happened as a result of me getting to 65balmost 10 years ago.
When it comes to COBOL I am fluent in many of it’s dialects. I am also fluent in many other main frame languages. Never bothered with any PC type languages.
The first version of COBOL that I used back in the mid 1960’s ,when I worked in the computer department of one othe local Steel works up in my home town, was ICT’s Rapid-Write. Some of these programs could take 12 to 14 hours to compile into runnable form. Because of this and the fact that the middle half of each compiled block of code was empty we used to patch these programs with run time machine code patches. The first computer language that I was taught ICT 1301 machine code so that I could do this job.
COBOL is supposed to be readable English. I still remember a line of code written by a guy called Trevor Brown in the mid 1960’s.
It gave me night-mares back then when I had to patch the works costings program that it was in. The line read “If Cairo is greater than Rome then move Egypt to Italy”. Very hard to figure out what it means.
I used COBOL at places like The Midland Bank and at my last job at AON. The Midland bank programs looked after Bank customers money. In the over night banking suit was a COBOL program about te size of War and Peace. I kept an abridged version of the program in my head so that I could easily get to the cause of a fault in the middle of the night.
I love it when someone comments. But, having had anonymous comments I feel may be libellous, actionable or just plain offensive, over the years?
I’d appreciate you* leaving your name — with a link to your website or social-media profile†, for preference — before you post a comment.
Should you choose to use a pseudonym/name, I’d appreciate it if that name were to be polite and inoffensive. I’d rather you kept it clean, and relatively grown up. Comments left with a pseudonym will be posted at my discretion: I really prefer a link.
Contentious, actionable or abusive posts left anonymously will not be posted. Nor will comments using offensive pseudonyms or language, or that are abusive of other commenters.
Thank you.
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Q1) Declaration
ReplyDeleteQ2) Selma Lagerlöf
Q3) runaways. Yes, there is Santa Eulalia that is patron saint of Barcelona (We have three, La Mercé, Santa Eulalia and Santa Madrona. In theory we have the body of Santa Eulalia buried in the Cathedral of Barcelona, but many of the stories of the saints are very similar. Who knows?)
Q4) botanist
Q5) Citizen Kane. I’ve seen him quite a few times, but I never checked his name. Now I know.
What a pain about the extra Cold Weather payment. Hopefully they’ll come to a decision soon, as it would help on many other fronts, one imagines.
Enjoy the novel! I am not a big fan of spy novels, and the only one of Le Carré’s I’ve ever read was in translation and many years back, when I was quite young. I might appreciate him more now, but I remember feeling that it was very long, and there were many characters with confusing names, making it difficult to follow.
I am not sure what the plans are for next week, but it is likely to be outside, although we might be going from here to there chasing up stories. We shall see...
I have just read yesterday’s teaser and saw your reference to both the DWP and to Cobol.
ReplyDeleteEvery December since I became a Pensioner I have received the £10.
I appears in my bank account as “My NI number” DWP XD.
Similarly in November I a line in my bank account which reads “My NI number” DWP WFP. For years this was the £200 Winter fuel payment. For this year (only?) it was £500.
13 times a year a line appears in my bank account and it reads “My NI number” DWP SP and this is my state pension.
All of these happened as a result of me getting to 65balmost 10 years ago.
When it comes to COBOL I am fluent in many of it’s dialects. I am also fluent in many other main frame languages. Never bothered with any PC type languages.
The first version of COBOL that I used back in the mid 1960’s ,when I worked in the computer department of one othe local Steel works up in my home town, was ICT’s Rapid-Write. Some of these programs could take 12 to 14 hours to compile into runnable form. Because of this and the fact that the middle half of each compiled block of code was empty we used to patch these programs with run time machine code patches. The first computer language that I was taught ICT 1301 machine code so that I could do this job.
COBOL is supposed to be readable English. I still remember a line of code written by a guy called Trevor Brown in the mid 1960’s.
It gave me night-mares back then when I had to patch the works costings program that it was in.
The line read “If Cairo is greater than Rome then move Egypt to Italy”. Very hard to figure out what it means.
I used COBOL at places like The Midland Bank and at my last job at AON. The Midland bank programs looked after Bank customers money. In the over night banking suit was a COBOL program about te size of War and Peace. I kept an abridged version of the program in my head so that I could easily get to the cause of a fault in the middle of the night.
1 Day
ReplyDelete2 Selma Lugerhoff
3 Runaways
4 Botonist
5 Citizen Kane
Oh, my God. That's worse than his version of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"! :)
ReplyDelete1. Declaration
2. Selma Lagerlöf
3. runaways
4. botanist
5. Citizen Kane (I didn't even have to look this one up - wow!)
I'm still listening to Shatner. Amazing! LOL!