A.Word.A.Day -- effrontery

A.Word.A.Day -- effrontery

Here's the link for Wordsmith if you are interested.

Cow paths and cow pats

The living language is like a cow-path: it is the creation of the cows themselves, who, having created it, follow it or depart from it according to their whims or their needs. From daily use, the path undergoes change. A cow is under no obligation to stay. -E.B. White, writer (1899-1985)

A nice quote from today’s wordsmith. However, it does make you think “The living language is like a cow pat…”

Anyone care to continue?

As a child, one of our regular questions to newcomers was “Which would you rather do, jump a stile, run a mile or eat a country pancake?” Any response was cause for merriment. Anyone chosing the first two options would be asked to demonstrate and if anyone naively chose the third, we would collapse helpless wih laughter. I think perhaps kids are more sophisticated these days.

Gambling

As it's the Melbourne Cup tomorrow, I'm after your gambling stories today. Known as, "The Celebration that Stops a Nation" the Melbourne Cup is run on the first Tuesday in November every year at 3.00 Australian Eastern Standard Time. That's around midday here in the west. It's only actually a public holiday in Melbourne but the rest of the country likes to get in on the act unofficially and lots of workers fail to return to their desks after the race, too busy either celebrating or drowning their sorrows.

My first memory of gambling was when I was about 6 years old. My Dad (a regular at the bookies) asked for my considered opinion on who would win the next race. Lester Piggott was my favourite jockey (and doesn't it speak volumes that at such a tender age I even HAD a favourite jockey?) so I opted for him. "OK" said Dad, "If he wins, I'll give you all the change in my pocket." Lester didn't let me down and I won about 9d in pennies and a threepenny bit. It was probably a pretty safe bet as Lester won 'British Riding Champion' a record eleven times between 1960 and 1982

FYI Lester was born on 5th November 1935 so let's pause a moment to wish him a very happy birthday.

From a start like that I suppose I should have become a compulsive gambler but there always seemed to be far too much maths involved.

Any gambling stories? Do tell.