Yes, Friends, the Tin Man said it, long ago - "If I only had a brain!", and certainly all these years later, brains are still making news - there are even a couple of stories in today's Onion News, if you don't believe me!!!
And these stories certainly bring a faint smile to the lips of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in semi-lovely Liphook, Hampshire. And that's a "no-brainer" -
no pun intended!!!!my wife Lois and me - a recent picture
And our so-called "brains" are very much on our "minds" today, if that's physically possible!!!
We've been reading this weekend, in Lois's copy of "The Week" magazine, that scientists believe that people's brains are really not one, but two organs. Yes, we've all got a "front brain" and a "hind brain", two brains that evolved separately, and then fused together, which is weird!
Researchers at the Stanford School of Medicine, using mouse embryos to study the early stages of brain development, spotted that the mouse's hindbrain grew out of one type of progenitor cell, while its 'forebrain and midbrain' were formed from another. And their subsequent research showed that it's the same for human brains, would you believe!!!
What madness!!!!
(left) Yours Truly studying this week's copy of Lois's magazine "The Week",
and (right) the article reporting latest theories about the brain
Our "two brains" may even have existed in different parts of the body, in primitive animals, the researchers think, and even today the two brains have different functions: our 'hindbrain' governs survival functions such as breathing, while thinking and reasoning goes on in the "mid- and forebrains" sections, which is weird!
Fascinating stuff, isn't it!!! And certainly mine and Lois's two brains - or should I say our two "fore-brains", which, weirdly, make "four brains" (!) - are "all" working overtime at the moment, to put it mildly!!!!
As an ageing couple of "old codgers", although undoubtedly "wonderful for our age (!), we tend to get by with a strict division of duties: mine and hers. However, for the past couple of days, Lois has been unexpectedly incapacitated after she put her back seriously "out" on Thursday night, so I've got to remember to do "Lois's duties" as well as my own "duties", which is a bit of a "brainteaser" - again, no pun intended!!!!
[That's enough unintentional puns! - Ed]
Yes, for the second day running, today, Yours Truly has been seizing control of meal preparation, normally covered by Lois, but luckily I've got a handful of my own "signature dishes" up my sleeve, and here below is further picture evidence of my unexpectedly wide culinary talents.
In yesterday's blog, I showcased my iconic "surprise" suite of evening meals, "Corn Beef Surprise", "Poached Egg Surprise" etc, even, for special occasions only, my "Sausage Surprise". And to complete the picture, here's an idea of my complementary skills in the "lunch" department today, offering tomato soup with a choice of not one, but two (!) sandwich options: cheese with lettuce or cheese with cucumber.
"Et voila!", as the French say!!!!
(left) Yours Truly in mid-preparation of my lunch "suite" today - tomato soup
with two separate sandwich options, and (right) poor Lois relaxing in our
IKEA "Bingsta" chair, with my iconic "lettuce and cheese" creation - yum yum!
The downside for Yours Truly, however, is very much that I'm concentrating so much on Lois's "
tasks" now, that I'm forgetting some of my own "
tasks", like remembering to pre-heat our bed for afternoon "
statutory nap-time", but no matter, because it soon warms up once we're in it, so that's all good!
[You idle so-and-so, Colin! - Ed]
And Lois's back? Well, she's definitely moving better, - and she's a lovely mover, I can exclusively reveal! But we'll wait and see how she is when she comes off the ibuprofen in a day or two's time. So watch this space!!!!
me showcasing Lois's current pack of ibuprofen pain-killers
And luckily we'll be enjoying a top meal tonight, which is nice! This morning, we had taken delivery of our regular Ocado online supermarket groceries, plus some ready meals from the local CookShop in Haslemere, just over the county line in Surrey, so tonight we'll be having a CookShop's Cottage Pie with some heated-up Ocado frozen spinach, so that's tonight's meal fully "sorted", which is nice!
19:30 Luckily, also, a relaxing evening awaits us, as we wallow in nostalgia, watching a BBC4 retrospective on those wonderful Saturday morning kids' TV shows that our own two daughters grew up with, back in the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's.
And it's amazing to Lois and me tonight to see again clips from these lively, creative shows, oozing with anarchic fun and originality, thanks to their various presenters: Noel Edmonds, John Craven, Maggie Philbin and Keith Chegwin.
And what kid-shows today would ever have such wonderful guests joyously "dropping in" live to the studio, in their casual weekend leisurewear? I'm talking personalities as varied as Prince Edward, pop stars like Sting, Cher and Cliff Richard, and even politicians of the day, such as Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher, Labour leader Neil Kinnock and Liberal leader David Steele - it was total mayhem, but what a joy it all was, not just for the kids, but for their parents too - happy days!!!!!
Here are some clips of those 'celebs', dropping into the studio during these live programmes, in these clips each offering to donate prizes for one of the show's many children's competitions:
pop-star Cliff Richard, offering to donate a tee-shirt he wore at his farewell concert
Lib-dem leader David Steele offering to donate a cute teddy-bear
Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock, offering his own cute teddy, to rival Steele's (!)
Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher, however, was easily able to trump the two opposition teddy-bears with her special prize, no question about that!!!
Why don't kids today (and their parents!) have the benefit of such energising starts to their weekends? Where have these iconic programmes all gone?!!!!
Wake up, TV bosses !!!!!
Today, we've got, like, a billion channels to choose from - more probably! However, Lois and I think that TV was much better when there were only three channels, which guaranteed bigger audiences for a much smaller range of programmes. TV bosses were motivated to put more money, and more talent, into these fewer shows, and celebrity guests were keener to appear on them.
But your views welcome - postcards only, needless to say!!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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