The Daily Teaser — 9-4-2015: Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Oh … This could be good … 

I mentioned, yesterday, that I’ve had a mention in yesterday’s Brentwood Gazette: complaining about my building’s otherwise inaccessible gas meters.

Basically, they’re in next door’s carpark: and can’t be got to, unless we climb out of a window, or use next door’s Tradesman entrance.

Well, we’ve had some good news.

Crest Nicholson, the developers responsible for maintaining and altering the structure of the building, have finally decided to to door what I’ve been asking for, for quite some time.

Put a door in the communal hallway in the back of the building.

Indeed, the area outside my flat?   Saw workmen measuring up for the relevant bits and pieces, yesterday!

Personally?

I’m both grateful to the Gazette for running the story: and waiting for work to start.   Here’s hoping!

And here’s to the power of a free press!

~≈†≈~

The Daily Teaser — 19-7-2013: The SS Great Britain

Bloody HELL … !

I have to admit, I’ve got a documentary on, I recorded last night: a repeat of one I’d already seen about household killers in the Victorian home.

Amazing what they’d feed kids, back then … !

At ANY rate, that wasn’t quite what caught my eyes, on the news, for however briefly I had it on.

Seemingly … ?   Mars was habitable.   OK, four billion years ago: but it WAS habitable.

Wow … !

That made my eyes water.   And if THAT hasn’t set a thousand or so science-fiction writers into an ideas frenzy, then Julian May was right about the human brain … 

~≈∏≈~

Let’s move on, shall we?

Yesterday’s Teaser saw Debbi putting in her answers: along with bagging four out of six*,  she was keeping her fingers crossed about her answers.

Let’s see how she — and you — do with today’s questions, shall we?

Here they are, along with the ‘How To’, License and video … 

Q1) 19th July, 1843 saw the launch of the SS Great Britain: what was then the largest ship afloat.   It was also the first to made largely of which metal … ?

Q2) The ship was also one of the first ocean-going ships to be propelled by what: sails, a paddlewheel or a screw-propellor?

Q3) What does the SS in SS Great Britain stand for … ?

Q4) On which set of islands was the ship famously retired to, in 1884?

Q5) Finally … which (then) member of the Royal Family took part in the the ship’s launch … ?

And here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 18th July, 1555, saw the Royal College of Arms reincorporated: by which English Queen … ?

A1) Mary 1st.

Q2) The study, creation, granting and blazoning of those arms is known by what name … ?

A2) Heraldry.

Q3) The main part of a coat of arms is the escutcheon, which is also known as what: the shield, helmet or background … ?

A3) Shield.

Q4) If you’re a lady with a coat of arms, what shape IS your escutcheon … ?

A4) Lozenge shaped for British ladies: Cartouche shaped for continental ladies.   Oh, and vicars … 

Q5) If you’re entitled to a Coat of Arms, you are said to be … what … ?

A5) Armigerous: or an armiger.

Q6) Finally … what’s the term for the Japanese equivalent to a coat of arms … ?

A6) Mon: also known as a monsho, mondokoro and kamon.

Enjoy those, folks.

I’ll leave you with this thought the ship’s designer …

“… an explosion in the engine room … would have destroyed a lesser ship”

Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

And — in lieu of music — this helpful video.

Have a good day.

*        Sorry, Debbi†, there’s actually a word for being eligible for a coat of arms: armigerous.   And a woman’s escutcheon is either lozenge or cartouche shaped, depending on whether she’s from Britain, or the continent.   Priests and vicars get a cartouche, too.   It’s an oval, so you know.   (I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, it always amazes me what I find out … !)

†        Oh, by the way, Debbi, about Neuromancer?   HAve you come across Molly, yet … ?   Gibson always claimed her look, on the cover of the Pretenders first album: personally, I can go with that …