MISC and MASH

by Bill Exley

Bill X - as in Pub Raffles, Draws - etc , a Nickname, Bill Ex - or is it Blex ?

The following Pearls of Wisdom were observed, some recorded over the past 40 years - Mr Blex

Most entries are factual some just pure Trivia, the rest is food for thought for the Inquiring Mind

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1 . Do you realise that Today, was the Tomorrow that you were worried about Yesterday, and all seems well ...Or... Always look forwards and not Backwards .

2 . Worry is like a Rocking Horse, it gives you something to do, but you get Nowhere at the end of the day . . Or . . People quite often don't say what they mean, but they also, invariably Always mean what they say . - To add a quick ending on, such as , " I was only Joking / Kidding" is irelevant, it is showing you their innermost thoughts, as to what they Really want to tell you . . Or . . the original version , - . 'Many a True word is spoken in Jest' - ref. - Uttered by a Mr Jeffrey Chaucer. ( b.1347 : d.1400 at 53 yrs ) - >

3 . There is a Past which has gone Forever, but there is a Future which is still our own . . Origin - An ornate flat pebble, bought on a beach in Victoria, Australia in 2004 ... Or .. just a few names of our 'U.K. Chippies' . - . 1 / The Cod Father . . 2 / Haydock Plaice, (ref : fm. Liverpool & a Racing venue) . . 3 / Frydays . . 4 / The Chip Inn . . 5 / The Frying Squad . . 6 / Oh my Cod . . 7 / Mr Chips. . ref. / an Olde - English play (Goodbye Mr. Chips) - a story written around a leaving teacher, at Leys School, Cambridge, (1914-18) . . A moving play we saw in Bedfords' Civic Theatre. - 1980's . . 8 / The Plaice to Be . . 9 / Chip in Dales (Otley, Yorkshire) . . 10 / A Fish called Rhondda . . 11 / The Town Fryer, in Sandy, Beds, and many, many other signs. - Oct-2022 / Mr Blex . . Or . . In most cases while conversing with others , it is always very wise to Engage Brain 'before' operating mouth.

4 . Now, don't ever forget , that if you go into a ? , for an item so relevant, but all is well 16 secs later . ! ! . , . - . Amnesia methinks ? . . Or . . The origin of 'Tesco' ? came about by two business friends using letters from their names, to launch Tesco Stores . - Mr Jack Cohen and a Mr T.E. Stockwell - in 1919, - Sainsbury's in 1869 ! - - 28/8/2022 / Mr Blex . . Or . . The Fastest indoor sport in the world is Badmington, with the Shutlecock travelling at 500 km/hr, or 310 mph . The feather structure acts as a 'brake' to slow it down to hit, as so the Parachute / s of a descending space module into the sea . ! The highest recorded speed of a served Squash Ball - is - 175 m.p.h..

5 . I was told years ago, that the only silly question, is the one that's 'Not' asked, it's the only way to learn . . Or . . Don't forget that arguing with a fool proves there are two . . Or , . Don't forget that your Will Power / Opinion , to you , or your own idea / feelings , is stronger than anyone else's on this planet. It is yours to keep by right, your idea or opinion is yours , it 'maybe' wrong until you are enlightend or corrected to change your view point . I knew of a solitary objector to a Business Decision at a meeting, where he did Not want to give in and 'comply' with the Consensus vote, (majority) - Later in time, at the end of it all, it was his ideas that was correct and fitted the criteria better . . Or . . Do a quick search on the 1957 Black & White film ' 12 Angry Men ' starring Henry Fonda . The story is a prime example of this ' Item 5 entry' . its' Author re- enforces my trivia . . Or . . Where is St Stephen's Tower in London ? See link to The Oak , the tree of knowledge.

6 . It's Nice to be Important , but it's 'More' Important to be Nice . . Or. . If you try you might, if you don't, you wont ! Like a new Job, to say something, make a move, take up a new Sport / Activity or Art . . Or . . People can't hear you Thinking, don't stay silent - always Speak Up , you may even have the answer . . Or . . What would you find in Pandora's Box ? - ref. Greek Myth. - Nothing, Wealth, Hope or Problems for all ? - For Answer see The Oak , the tree of wisdom . . Or . . back to Index Page . * ( Refs to all these Links throughout, , visit Blunham.com / Pubs ) .

7 . Measure twice , then Cut Once, a carpenters' Tip . . Or . . If things don't change , they'l stay as they are. ...Or...Don't ever be Backward at taking that step Forward. . Or . If it.s not broken, don't try and Fix it, leave well alone . . Or . . Look Good and you will Feel Good. - the Bee's Knees / Smart, for interviews etc, isn't Black for a Funeral, or mourning ? . Or . . Why are Mens' buttons on the right and Womens on the left - hand side when a garment is on ? or does it matter ? z . z . z

8 . If you think 'near enough' is 'good enough' then work for our Competitors - A local Ad. for skilled metal workers - 1979... A fully paid up member of - The Ivor Sawnitoff Group, and the 'Antidisestablishmentarianism'. Soc. 1757 . . Or . . The Amazing Mr Pascal. - At only 18yrs of age, a Mons Blaise Pascal designed a working model of a Mechanical Calculator, in 1642 ! - 380 yrs ago using wheels and cogs etc to do Additions, Division, Subtraction and Multiplications. He made it to help his Father in his work as a Tax Inspector and his Sums . He was a Child Prodigy and at ease with Maths, (or Math), Philosophy and Theology. - (Maths / Mathematics, the study of )

After making Ten Prototypes before he was happy, he showed it to the Lord Chancellor of France . - . From the 1500's we had ornate, intricate wind - up watches & clocks being made by Skilled Craftsmen, the top antiques of today ! - (the study of - Horology) - Then we have the Orrery, but that is another 'story' with connections to Planets, past Poets, Artists and going back 150yrs B.C. and the ancient Chinese. - ( @ 17th Oct 2022 - Mr.Blex )

9 . Do you realise - that if a Nanosecond (with a 10 to the minus 9 zeros ) became a Second, a second would then have to Equate to 32 Years ! ! .(The Opposite or Mirror Image (e.g. a 10 with plus 9 - zeroes) - - Do the Maths (or Math) , so 60 in 1 Min , x 60 = 1 hr , x 24 , then x 365 etc .. / ... so Seconds in one year = 31.5 million, x 32 years , - so now we have 1,008, million - and our 'Plus' 9 zeros. : . It is a 1,000 - millionth, or one Billionth of a Second of time. .

Some of my work from 1969 to 1994 while employed by 'Texas Instruments Ltd.' involved the use of Nanoseconds and even Pico seconds within our Job Premise, 10 to the minus 12 zeros, so a Trillionth of a second. As used in Micro Technology, Computers, data transfer and Laser Design systems . This also involved 5 Alphabets and 32 Languages and a part of the 2004 Greek Olympics . ! . - I was NOT involved with design, - but only the maintaining, then calibrating to National Standards, the tools they used and trusted daily. . Here I met Colin Hinson who was a part of a very smart and inovative design team - also involving Bob Parsons and Trevor Jones for 'T.I.' - they were World Leaders in their expertise with many world patents .

The company designed and manufactured all types of electronic components to be used in most complex electronics, some Top Secret such as Fast Computers, Military / Defence Systems , - Security , - GPS and Car Electronics of today. This involved the use of Nanoseconds and even Pico seconds within our Job Premise, 10 to the minus 12 zeros, so a Trillionth of a second. All used in Micro Technology, Computers, data transfer and Laser Design systems . All our work had to comply with Government and National Standards. - ( The N.P.L. dept in London )

10. In the 'realms' of Time and distance, the speed of Light as we know, is 186,000 miles travelled in One Second, or 670 million m.p.h. . - so one light year is 24hrs x 670m x 365days = one Light Year, . so a fair distance ! - One Star we know of, is 'Kepler 90' and it is 2,840 Light Years from the Earth ! ! - Johannes Kepler was a 17th century Astronomer and Mathematician and has a Telescope named after him, a retired one is now in space launched by NASA. - Ref. - the brilliant Scientist Stephen Hawking, . b.Oxford, U.K. in 1947 / d. 2019, U.K . . Or . . an Astronaut - the word or definition itself not a person means, - a 'Star Sailor' - Stars, or Astro & Naut / Nautical , Sea or Water -etc.

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    I wonder if Dogs are able to sense or 'see' a Ghost, Spirit or Spectre ? - among all their other well known Unique Talents they have ? . like the ability to smell / sense then realise when Insulin Levels are too low, they will warn their owner by a Paw Tap, (after training of course for all these subjects), - also locate 'bad-drugs' , money and explosives in a car or baggage, or find a person under Snow or Rubble. ? - Very hard to prove either way, re Ghosts, as we can't ask them.. Dogs can also sense Danger and protect it's owner to the limit. - I really do think a dog 'knows' if you like dogs or not . - Is this it's 'Siixth Sense' , ref. the film 'The Sixth Sense' starring Bruce Willis . - Or the barking dog scene in the epic film 'Woman in Black - (watch it , if you dare !) when the dog barks at a very tense scene, you can 'feel' the Tense audience . - Absorb the writers' point of view in the plot. - So .'. Mr Blex is Not Alone. . - The latter covering - Telepathy, being Stared at, an atmosphere, a 'Premonition' or the opposite, a Deja - Vue Experience . ( spooky - e.g. been here before ? , or I knew they would say that ). - food for thought , intuition, or a little Freudian perhaps ?

Or are we encroaching into The 7th Sense ?

   This is ' reputedly ' one having the ability to connect and interact within dreams and covered by the term Astral Projection - The prolific English author Dennis Wheatley wrote his book The Ka of Gifford Hilary during his career in the 1930's / 60's on the subject. I read it between 1962 to '69, also there are warnings within the Holy Bible on the dangers of meddling in the subject ! ! - ref : via Wikipedia : The Silver cord be Broken etc , the spirit is severed from the body, so death, also Ka the old Egyptian term for a spirit . ( or worst case scenario , and a Warning, if things ' don't 'go to plan, one can wake up and be Insane ! ! - I was told years ago )

10c . Natures' own ultra powerful, precise G.P.S. System : , as used by the Arctic Tern, Swallow, Bee, Homing Pigeons, during wartime, or peace time in races retuning home over several hundred miles, to a specific home in a tiny U.K. garden . - The Eel and Salmon / via rivers in the U.k. etc, - The Arctic Tern's young will later return within a few feet to it's first nest, by Area, Beach and the excact nest spot. . The journey can be between 25 to 50 thousand miles, between the North & South Poles, (due to bad weather etc.) - returning back to the same nest spot on a beach.

11. All over the world people are saying - " you will Have to wait until I get around to it " - or is it, - >

A 'ROUND TUIT' ?

    At long last, we have just been informed by the Barnsley (Yorkshire, U.K.) company of 'ARKWRIGHT & SON' that they have a sufficient quantity for each of you to have his (or her) own, so GUARD IT WELL. These 'Tuits' have been hard to come by, especially the Round Ones. This is an indispensable item, it will help you to become a much more efficient worker. For years we have heard people say, " I'll do that when I get around to it'' Now you have a 'Round Tuit' of your very own, many things that have needed to be accomplished will get done. Origin - on a 1960's kitchen plate we still own. .

12 . The Beerhouse or Alehouse, the official term as in records sourced, was typically a Pub but 'No Bar' and just a cosy room with Table Service for your Beers / drinks like a mini 'Night Club', being Hand - Delivered to the tables. An Alehouse Lic. could be obtained for Two Guineas a year ( £2 .10p ) by anyone to sell Beers on their own premises, but Not to be taken away, they were all open most of the day. - This Beerhouse Act came in during 1830 but altered in later years, and all Pubs closed at 10p.m. - then relaxed to 10: 30pm. or 11 : 30pm 'ish .

* Yorkshire Homes around the 1950's & 60's - the Front room, or 'Best room' of a two up - two down terraced house (Our 'Lounge' of today) - was where the cherished china was on show alongside crystal glassware and bespoke china oddments, all proudly displayed within a Mansion Polish aroma. - This aromatic pleasant fragrance, still made today, on a check, was for polished floors and perfect for good wood work/furitureso, so 'Tinned Victoriana'. This quiet room only used when visitors arrived. - Origin - my Auntie Floss, Barnsley. - People were very Houseproud and spotless, even to the point of 'Scouring', (a clean and colouring) of a front door step and washing the pavement down. You would see the usual Blackened areas then pure white paved sections as you walked down a street.

Of Course you know our English Language

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Ref 13 : I take it you allready know, of tough and bough and cough and dough

Others may stumble, but not you, on hiccough , thorough, dough and through

Well done ! and now you wish, perhaps, to learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word, that looks like beard and sounds like bird

And dead , it is said like bed, not bead , for goodness sake don't call it "deed" !

Watch out for meat and great and threat (They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.)

A moth is not a moth in mother, both in bother, broth in brother, and here is not a match for there

Nor dear and fear, for bear and pear. Then there is dose and rose and lose, just look them up ,

and goose and choose. and cork and work and card and ward, and word and sword and do and go.

Thwart and cart. Come, come I've hardly made a start ! A dreadful language.

Man alive I'd mastered it when I was Five !

ref ... 'Trivia' collected over 60yrs by Mr Blex - / - 12th Oct. 2020

Just as an afterthought, I would like to Choose to sing in a Choir, at the bottom

of a Chasm in the Peak District. - (The Phonetics of c,h,'s) - Mr Bill Ex or / Mr Blex ?

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14. 'Detail' : - In this sentance, there are Three misteaks, what are they ? - Or , - Where is a Dado-Rail in a normal Dining Room stucture ? . - Consult The Oak - the tree of knowledge for the answers . . Or . . Back to Index Page, (visit my ref - Blunham.com/pubs)

A bit of Lateral thinking . . me thinks' - (or outside the box) - with assumptions - An English Engineer working in the Middle East, is sentenced to Death for a crime by Beheading. The local Prince shows mercy to him, as a fellow Ex - Graduate from the U.K. - so spares him, but still puts him in a cell for Life and fed. This cell has two Doors / Exits , say 1 and 2, controlled by two guards , say 'Guard A' and 'Guard B'.

He is informed that one guard Always tells the TRUTH and the other, Always tells LIES and that Exits 1 and 2 lead to certain Death, or certain Freedom and only known by both guards : The Prince says to the prisoner, "you are allowed 'only' one question to ask any Guard , they know the outcome of the exits," - What is the question?. The prisoner works out how to walk to his certain freedom (with No risk) - by asking this one question, with a certain result, what is it ? - For the Answer to solve this - : Ask the Queens Head - and it is a Logical certanity . - Visit Blunham.com / pubs for all Links etc

15. 'The Rules of Life, ( 'Wife' ) . . Rule - 1 . I am allowed to do anything she wants. - 2 . One word from me, and she does what she likes. - 3 . I am the Boss of the house, when she is not there. - 4 . I must always accept that she is Right, in all matters , even when we both know she is Wrong. - Rule 5, please note, that Rule 3 only applies, if The Wife has said so. - 6, The Boss must know what The Wife is thinking at all times, and follow any change of plans without question , also be ready to comply to 'any' requests.

Acknowledgements : with very kind permission of The Wife . - . 2022 / Mr Blex

16.A good example 0f . . 'When Drinks in, then Wit is out' ... Hedy Lamarr, a Filmstar in the 1940's Black & White film days, was also an Inventor. - She picked up all her knowledge just by listening in at Dinner Parties and talk of Torpedoes and more. She was in the company of Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini and others, with her husband Fritz Mandl a munitions manufacturer. She took up an avid, but surreptitious, interest in the subject. - Now her ideas are found today within - WI Fi, / G.P.S. / Blue - Tooth and C.D.M.A. technologies. .

She left Austria, her birthplace in 1937 at 23 yrs old, for the U.S.A. and her film career. . ' What a Plot for a Film ? ' - We have a Glamorous Socialite Harvesting secrets from the German Reich under their very noses. If she had been found out, she would have been Shot, there and then ! . - . They say that Truth is Stanger than Fiction . - . For more on this subject see my link to The Oak Beerhouse / Blunham and Hedy Lamarr . * all links, see my ref see Blunham.com and Pubs- . (12/07/ 2022)


And Mash of 1903

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NORTHILL Pubs / Beerhouses, 11 in all for 1903

The Crown (still open, 14/2/2024) 1903 / Martha Marson

The Kings Head / Henry Brinklow

The Rose & Crown / James Nottingham

The Royal Oak / Arthur Woodward

The Sugar Loaf / Samuel Matthews

The Lion / James York

The Queens Head / Sidney W. Ebbs

The Gardners Arms / Samuel Stanford

The Barley Mow / George Truin

Two recorded, but No pub Name or Sign at all, so probably just an old cottage with Beerhouse - see Ref 12 entry above

1 - with a Sarah, Ann Darnell - and 2, a Joseph Nottingham

It was a pleasure to discover the above information as it was written in the typical Ornate style of the time

Ref / a Brewer's Ledger, seen 39yrs ago in Sandy, village - / - Mr Bill Ex / or Mr Blex ?

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Last Revision this day by Bill Exley - 6th Mar - 2024 . ret to Index Page - and our Blunham Home Page , @ . Top / LHS