Not a good morning for Lois - oh dear!
Her jaw is still aching a bit from the molar extraction she had at our dentist's on Wednesday, so she doesn't want to travel to Tewkesbury to take part in her church's 2 Sunday meetings.
flashback to last Thursday: we wait in the dentist's
waiting-room for Lois to have one of her molars taken out
A funny word, isn't it - "molar". It's got nothing to do with our little animal friends the moles by the way, in case you were wondering. It's connected with the word "mills", the clever machinery that grinds corn, just like our molars grind our food. See?
The Romans came up with the word "mola" for a grindstone, and "molina" for an actual mill, and the Germanic tribes, including the Anglo-Saxons, were so impressed that they borrowed both the technology and the word as well, at the same time.
graphic reconstruction of an amazing
Roman mill complex at Barbegal, France
At some later stage in our language the letter 'n' in our word for a 'mill' and 'miller' etc dropped out, much as a tooth can drop out of your mouth - but interestingly, although Miller is now a common surname, there's also still a variant of this, Milner, where the original 'n' still survives, a solitary relic of those crazy, far-off times. Isn't life funny like that!
[If you find that interesting, I'm genuinely sorry for you, Colin! - Ed]
Remember John Milner and Hoby Milner (no relation), both American baseball players? Or the amazing Brenda Milner, the Canadian neuropsychologist, born in Manchester, England, in 1918, and still going strong today, at 105 years of age. What a woman !!!!!
By the way, when it comes to the molars in your mouth, it's always worth counting your molars from time to time, to check that you've got all the ones that you're supposed to have, and also to check that you haven't got any extra ones - oh yes!
Remember that horrifying story on Onion Local News a couple of years ago about area woman Meg Stanton, who discovered, from a routine self-examination, that she indeed had an extra molar that she didn't really want?
MALVERN - Moments after she sat down to enjoy a warm bowl
of fettuccine with homemade tomato sauce, a sudden and unexpected crunching
sensation prompted local woman Meg Stanton to stop and take a careful roll call
of her teeth with the tip of her tongue, sources reported Wednesday.
“Oh, f***, was that
part of my tooth?” Stanton reportedly said to herself, her heart pounding as
she spat her pasta back into the bowl and quickly ran her tongue along the
surfaces of each incisor, canine, premolar, and molar to check for any cracks
or holes and ensure each tooth was present and accounted for. “Let’s see—one,
two, three, four. No, all the molars on that side are still there."
According to sources, Stanton dived back in and
finished her meal after searching the bowl and discovering that the rock-hard
object was indeed a tooth, but clearly one belonging to someone else.
Poor Meg!!!! And I hope she discovered who the rogue molar belonged to, and hopefully she's returned it by now to whoever it was - he was probably getting worried about it haha!
typical healthy molars, as seen in a baby's mouth
And talking point - which side of the great "Molar Debate" are YOU on? Are you in the Differentiation Party, that believes the additional cusps evolved from outgrowth from the crown, or are you in the Concrescence Party, that believes that these complex teeth arose from the clustering of originally separate conical teeth? I'm a bit of a "don't know" on this issue - and I'm sitting on the fence if only just for the moment! Call me indecisive if you like haha!
[That's enough about molars! - Ed]
11:00 With her aching jaw, Lois tries this morning to take part in her church's meetings on zoom, but she can only understand what's being said in the first of the two meetings - clearly there are still problems with the audio at the village hall where services are held. She says that speakers are now being fitted with mikes hanging around their necks, but obviously with mixed results!
What a madness it all is!!!
flashback to August 13th: the last time Lois was able to
attend her church's services in person.
14:00 The afternoon is better. Lois can understand what's being said at the second meeting - we're not sure why. Meanwhile I go to bed for a rest and Lois joins me when the meeting is over, so that's nice.
16:00 With batteries recharged we have cup of tea on the sofa with a raspberry slice, and we attempt the puzzles in this week's Radio Times.
We get a reasonable 7 out of 10 on Popmaster, and there's a nostalgic question for me at number 1. I'd forgotten all about Tommy Bruce's record "Ain't Misbehavin'". Bruce was a Cockney "rough diamond", and ex-barrow boy or market trader. Remember? I'm sure you do!
Tommy Bruce (1937-2006), Cockney rough diamond and barrow boy
And do you remember when my sister Kathy went out and bought the record, back in June 1960, a couple of months after my parents, my siblings and I moved down to Bristol from Sale Cheshire? [Funnily enough, no, I didn't know about that! - Ed]
my sister Kathy (13) with my sister Jill (3), in 1961
At the time I thought that that "Ain't Misbehavin'" was a new song, and that Tommy Bruce was the first singer to sing it, and it was only later that I discovered that the song had had a long history, and that since its emergence in 1929 it had been recorded by many artists included Louis Armstrong.
Lois is definitely feeling a bit better now after a couple of hours in bed this afternoon - and on the Eggheads puzzles, which today are all anagrams of fish, she gets the 4th one - "bonito" - which nobody on the BBC's Eggheads 100-person panel got.
Yay!!! Go Lois haha !!!!
Even on the intellectually more prestigious "Eggheads" questions, we get a creditable 8 out of 10. How clever we are!!
[You just don't seem to realise how useless and pointless your so-called knowledge is, do you! - Ed]
20:00 We unwind on the couch with a bit of culture - an old BBC Proms concert from 2006, the year we both retired.
There was a lot of Mozart that year in the BBC Proms concerts, because it was the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth.
And it's nice to see the two soloists tonight. First the great Bronx-born American pianist Richard Goode plays Piano Concerto No.23. He's the guy whose lips don't stop moving whenever he's playing the piano, a bit like a goldfish would do if it were playing a piano under water - let's hope Richard never wanted to be a ventriloquist, like so many young boys do these days!
a goldfish playing a piano under water
Poor Richard !!!!! But he's a fantastic pianist, no doubt about that!
the great American pianist Richard Goode (63) is the soloist on this
performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No.23 from 2006....
There's a bit of a contrast tonight between pianist Richard Goode, who was 63 at the time of this concert, but looked much older, we think, and the clarinet soloist Richard Bliss, who features next, playing Mozart's wonderful Clarinet Concerto. Incredibly Richard was only 17 at the time of this concert, the age our eldest granddaughter Josie will be in a week's time.
...and the incredible Julian Bliss (17) is the soloist
in this performance of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, again from 2006
Ah 2006 - what a great year that was for Mozart, but also for Lois and me. It was February 2006 when we both decided to retire, with lots and lots of plans, most of which we haven't done.
Damn! Well, it's too late now haha!
But in 2006 our first grandchild, Josie, was born. And we did take that holiday in Europe, travelling by train, and taking in Brussels, Munich and Budapest, so a really good year for us.
flashback to March 2006: Lois and me, on my 60th birthday
and newly retired, both of us, with lots of plans - oh dear !!!!!
May 2006: Lois in Munich
May 2006: Lois being serenaded at our restaurant table
in Szeged, Hungary
May 2006: Lois in Budapest
flashback to May 21st 2006: (left to right) my Hungarian penfriend Tünde,
Lois, and Tünde's son Gábor, at the Royal Palace of Gödöllő,
north-east of Budapest - happy times !!!!!!
[That's enough holiday snaps! - Ed]
And our first grandchild, Josie, who was born in 2006 - look how she's grown! See in this picture from this very weekend: our daughter Alison and husband Ed have been hosting a get-together of some of the friends they got to know in their time in Copenhagen 2012-2018:
Our first grandchild Josie (back row, second from left);
our daughter Alison is kneeling front row (right) and Ed front row (left)
at a get-together with friends from their Copenhagen years, in the extensive
grounds of Ali and Ed's crumbling Victorian mansion in Headley, Hampshire.
Our 2nd grandchild, Rosalind (15) can be seen behind Ali's right shoulder
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!!
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