This exists. I have seen it with my own eyes. It was a blowmoulded plastic decoration on the wall of an office in Toronto.
Interesting. I wonder if it’s like the leg lamp (Christmas Story) nightlights—did it really exist back in the day or did the story/movie make it popular enough to prompt someone to cash in on it later? Or possibly the plastic decoration has been around awhile and as the story got passed around, it somehow ended up with a Japanese twist.
Speaking of Japan, ever hear of the Phone of the Wind? People use it to (symbolically) call those who died in the tsunami.
Looks like the Leg Lamp was brought to reality first for a PBS production, and then a little later the movie in it’s most familiar form. Depending on when Christmas Story is supposed to take place, like maybe the mid-50s or later, it certainly looks like something that could have existed at the time had anyone thought of it.
I heard a podcast about it, some folks had agreed to have their phone calls recorded (and translated) and it was quite poignant and memorable.
I just learned that there is a town named Onancock, Virginia. Really
Before your inner eight year old runs amok, I should point out that the name is supposed to derive from Algonkian for “Foggy Place”.
But it’s almost impossible not to be reminded of this
You could’ve tried harder !
Sorry. I just couldn’t help myself.
There seem to be a lot of whatever-cock named things around that part of the country. I guess cock = place.
Japan are going to launch wooden satellites.
Apparently.
It’s not 1st April.
It would be cool if they wrapped all the system hardware and the payload in traditional artful Japanese packaging
https://www.amazon.com/How-Wrap-Five-Eggs-Traditional/dp/1590306198
That reduces my respect for the news source to zero, right there. Wood releases harmful substances when burned: generally, more so than iron.
nm…
Do they make satellites out of iron? I kinda thought they used lighter materials including plastics.
I also had this idea that satellites that cost millions of dollars to build and even more millions to launch weren’t just empty shells that would burn up on re-entry. Maybe it’s insane, but I imagined they put a bunch of electronic equipment for data collection and communications in them and maybe they carried solar cells for power and things like that. But what do I know? I’m sure Japan knows what they’re doing.
It’s quite likely that the Japanese satellite uses lead-free surface coatings, and possible that they made a statement to that effect: it’s even possible that other people may be making satellites that are not lead-free (I haven’t followed satellite technology). And natural wood seems to be a fun alternative to other composite plastic structures and skins. And if readers of “The Independent” are stupid enough to believe that wood burns without releasing harmful substances, I can’t even blame the PR department.
But it reduces my respect for “The Independent” to undetectable levels.
In WWI, a cat was executed for treason.
Felix the cat wasn’t so lucky. During the famous Christmas Truce of 1914, Felix went back and forth between Allied and German troops, carrying friendly messages tucked in his collar.
A French general decided not to take chances and had the cat shot for treason.
That story found its way into the film Joyeux Noel (2005) and an anti-war poem.
After sex?
Yeah, some portion of a satellite is structural material for holding all of the other parts together, and I suppose you could make that portion out of wood, instead of the more usual aluminum… but that’s going to be a very small portion, because weight is money, and you’ve got other parts that you can’t economize on because they’re the reason for the satellite’s existence.
or maybe they’ve developed some wood with semiconductor
properties.
The past tense of Pay is Paid or Payed? Well, it depends what you mean.
In the most common use - transactional, if you will - Paid is correct and Payed is an error. However:
If the verb pay is used in a nautical sense, the correct form is payed .
At which one might reasonably wonder, What nautical sense?
This article addresses the question (as do quite a few other sites you can find online) and comes with the handy reminder:
The sailor was paid well because he payed the joints of the ship.
Meaning, on this occasion, to caulk or tar. The article lists 2 other nautical uses, one about steering ships (bemused smiley), and one common enough for me to get wrong: I payed out the rope…
j
Today I learned that the young of a llama is called a cria. Link: