In bed, aged 99, shot by a jealous husband

[threemonkeys]

I'm conscious that I have not posted anything for a few days. But really, descriptions of sanding, cleaning, sealing and painting are, if anything, even less interesting than watching the paint dry. I can however report that if you get silicone sealant on your hands and you clean them as recommended using terps, they end up with a very strange dry slippery smooth feeling. Great for rubbing together and laughing maniacally.

I haven't even been reading much. To entertain myself I have been re-watching QI. You do learn some quite interesting stuff. For example the fatal dose of chocolate is about 22 pounds* (10 Kg). I suspect this is related to the fatal dose of caffeine but that varies a lot depending on the individual. Still, it does give me an answer should I ever play that old game of "how would you like to die".


*I originally wrote the "lb" abbreviation for pounds and then wondered, how many people reading this even remember such things.

Comments

[lauriefleming.livejournal.com]

Not only do I remember 'lb', I know what it is an actual abbreviation for - the joys of a classical education!

[mundens.livejournal.com]

What he said! :)

[bytheseaside.livejournal.com]

I, too know what lb stands for!

Hmm. I'm voting for death by chocolate, although being lactose intollerant my end come a little sooner.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

That is interesting. To judge from your userinfo, you are a lot younger than the old codgers above (who are old friends and won't mind the description). Was it something you encountered in the school system or was it personal interest in trivia.

I'm curious too about non-lactose chocolate. I presume it exists but can you easily (relatively inexpensively) get it in this dairy dominated country.

[lauriefleming.livejournal.com]

Does dark chocolate contain lactose? Milk chocolate I can understand, but dark chocolate?

So if it doesn't, go for Valrhona, or Schoc (lime and chilli, or the surprisingly brilliant toasted sesame seed), and live a long and chocolatey life until the cocoa butter does you in...

[stephanie-pegg.livejournal.com]

Libra, right?

[bytheseaside.livejournal.com]

I took Latin and Classics in High school, but I think it was actually something I picked up from mother. Or from a history lesson, I'm not sure. I used to pay attention to the oddest things.

[bytheseaside.livejournal.com]

As for the chocolate, I eat just the regular stuff. Dark chocolate (the darker, the better) has relatively little. But then I love the milk stuff. A little bit and I'm all right. Anymore, and it's up to me if I can put up with the (sometimes very painful) stomach aches, usually though I'm very careful.

[bytheseaside.livejournal.com]

If it does, it isn't much. I can make it through a whole dark chocolate bar (smallish) and I don't feel it. A whole milk chocolate bar and if I've had any other dairy recently and I'll get some fairly nasty stomach cramps for the next 24 hours...

Those sound nice, I've never tried them, mostly because until recently my student's budget has kept me to Cadbury (on a good day).

[lobelet.livejournal.com]

I'll see your lb and raise you an lsd.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I was in primary school when decimal currency came in here. I was a Dollar Scholar - we got little certificates.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Or do you mean lysergic acid diethylamide?

[lobelet.livejournal.com]

Think yourself lucky that you never had to do arithmetic in stones, pounds and ounces (or even tons, cwt and whatever came next (I forget)). After that torture a little bit of the old lysergic would have been a welcome relief. Indeed, in later years I often felt that my primary school arithmetic lessons really were a hallucination. Perhaps I tuned in and turned on too early.

Give them an ell and they'll take a furlong!

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Oh but I did. The introduction of the metric measurement system here didn't really start until the earyy '70s I think. Certainly enough for us to learn it at primary school and to learn how many rods, poles or perches are in an acre etc.

I should add that I enjoyed doing weight or currency calculations in those old measurements. I liked the extra challenge. And you think you are sad spending a week tweaking a unix system.

[lauriefleming.livejournal.com]

And don't forget counting furlongs per fortnight. That's a real killer. 60 km/h = 100,214.7 furlongs per fortnight.

I bet you didn't know that. But you could work it out.

I'm just old enough (as you are, natch!) to remember calculating in lsd. Under lsd is a different matter entirely (I was, and remain I think, too young), but working in three different number bases simultaneously is not something that is easy for an eight-year-old. Good practice, though. And I'm so grateful for my headmaster in primary school (in 1970) for teaching us the 16-times table.

[lauriefleming.livejournal.com]

Valrhona is the Rolls Royce of chocolates. It's French. Schoc is made in Greytown. Its base is Valrhona. John Follis of Truffle (in Garrett Street, of Cuba Street) supplies Schoc with some of their base products. He calls Schoc products amongst the best in the world.

Schoc (http://www.chocolatetherapy.com/Schoc/schoc%20stockists.html)