Athelstone

  • Well done, @purplewitch. That was an excellent return to the monthly competition 🙂

    Liked that prompt @pinkbelt. Super bunch of entries this month.

     

  • The Return

    Brenda’s dad died in 1983, so when he returned forty years later, it was a bit of a nuisance. Brenda woke up and went down to make a cup of tea. She was rather surprised to see him sitting in the kitchen looking out of the window.

    ‘You’ve let the garden go,’ he said without looking round. Then he did look round, and he added, ‘Bloody…[Read more]

  • Every year I aim to be organised (see Terrie above) and pick presents well in advance. The practice is different. I may not be quite as bad as the proverbial desparate man, the evening before, in the petrol station shop, but I’m cutting it close.

  • By the way, ” I’ve even written my gift list for next year”. I believe this is actually against the law.

  • Oh yes, prevaricating about the bush as Wallace refers to it. I do a great deal of that. Top tip. Every so often, copy the contents of that 1TB hard drive somewhere else as well. Whether that’s the Cloud (Dropbox, One Drive, Google Drive, Apple iCloud and so on) or another sleek 1TB hard drive. The day may come when your adorable cat decides the…[Read more]

  • Well, what do you know? Three totally different old things.

    Sandra, you brought a bit of Rembrandt’s brutal honesty in your piece. I’m not sure whether I was meant to but I chuckled along as I read this. It reminded me of the moment when I realised that my hands now resemble my own father’s as I remember them from years ago. It was an honest…[Read more]

    • Wow. Never expected to win. My way of gently reintroducing myself. I’m dipping my toe back in so I’ll give it a go. Let me have a think and I’ll post a bit later.

  • Athelstone posted an update 1 month, 4 weeks ago

    Aha! I’m away at a writing weekend in Bournemouth! Still checking here and really happy to see the action. Must post soon.

  • Last year I asked for up to 500 words on something new. This year it occurs to me that this is also the time of year when we look back. The topic is “something old”. Up to 500 of your finest however you wish.

  • Thanks Alex. We don’t get many entrants to the competition any more, so winning  can be, if not a poison-chalice, a hot coffee-cup. Your prompt was perfect for Christmas and I had fun writing about it.

     

    • Sorry I didn’t manage to do a story, Alex. I had work to finish, and it’s a busy time of year.
      Congratulations, Ath. A lovely story, exactly right for the season.

  • A very happy, prosperous and successful New Year to all Denizens.

  • Not sure what exactly is happening. Maybe old age is catching me up but I posted this already. There was an amusing intro about how it’s too long and how I’d have to take my chances. And so on. Anyway, it is too long (by loads), so I will have to take my chances.

    The Stoggy

    I’m a magical creature called a stoggy. Don’t get too excited bec…[Read more]

  • Athelstone replied to the topic Season's greetings in the forum Podium 2 months, 2 weeks ago

    Libby, I thought I’d replied, but I was also looking at some site updates that need to be done soon, so my mind was obviously elsewhere and I didn’t press the button.

    Absolutely. I quite agree. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and the same to all other Denizens.

    • Hi Ath, you did reply! I received an email on Christmas Day: “And to you, Libby. And a very happy Christmas to all of us.”

      It never appeared here on the site. I put this down to a computer glitch.
      Thank you for this reply and the next one. Happy new year 🙂

  • Mr Burkhardt is an interesting character who has, it seems, been profoundly interested in trains his entire life. Your blog inspired me to research the man a bit and it does seem that he knows best in matters of running a railroad. Of course, he had “previous” for being the manager of a railroad that allowed a train to run down a sloap while…[Read more]

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 3 months ago

    Just so.

  • Well done Alex. Also, sorry Janette – I had half an entry written when I glanced up and noticed it was all over. Not good enough ????

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 3 months, 3 weeks ago

    Hah, that did occur to me. Hardly a day went by from the late 50s to the 80s when somewhere on television, radio, or simply in conversation, the word nuclear didn’t crop up.

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 3 months, 3 weeks ago

    Pronunciation is a curious thing. I expect the list is very long and finds a home amongst both the well-heeled and the down-at-heel. So we have Magdalen College Oxford which we are admonished to pronounce in the medieval way “Maudlin”. This pronunciation evolved over time, but at least the middle-English speakers had the sense to spell it…[Read more]

    • I’ve heard the new-queue-lar version. It does sound odd but I’ve wondered if, unlike me, the speaker isn’t old enough to have grown up with nuclear as a familiar word and a consistent threat.

      • Hah, that did occur to me. Hardly a day went by from the late 50s to the 80s when somewhere on television, radio, or simply in conversation, the word nuclear didn’t crop up.

  • Athelstone posted a new activity comment 3 months, 3 weeks ago

    It’s one of those words. I hear it mispronounced almost as often as it is pronounced correctly. The curious thing about it is that it really only has two parts, both of which are simple word-sounds in their own right: new and clear. I even hear people who work closely with things nu-cue-ler get it wrong.
    There’s a theory that the British, and a…[Read more]

  • Been watching telly today and I have this to say: NEW CLEAR. that is NEW CLEAR. Two words, new and clear. Not, I should point out, three words: NEW QUEUE LAR.

    • New Queue has a hint of birdsong about it. A distraction in these ghastly times? :/

      • It’s one of those words. I hear it mispronounced almost as often as it is pronounced correctly. The curious thing about it is that it really only has two parts, both of which are simple word-sounds in their own right: new and clear. I even hear people who work closely with things nu-cue-ler get it wrong.
        There’s a theory that the British, and a…[Read more]

    • I’d not heard of that one. Do people really say that? Yuck…
      I’m always fascinated by the way words change pronunciation and meaning, for example Beaulieu becomes Byoolee but Beauchamp becomes Beecham.
      And, speaking of lieutenant, I can see how a word that must have originally meant ‘place holder’ became used like ‘Lord Lieutentant of Wherever,’…[Read more]

      • Pronunciation is a curious thing. I expect the list is very long and finds a home amongst both the well-heeled and the down-at-heel. So we have Magdalen College Oxford which we are admonished to pronounce in the medieval way “Maudlin”. This pronunciation evolved over time, but at least the middle-English speakers had the sense to spell it…[Read more]

        • I’ve heard the new-queue-lar version. It does sound odd but I’ve wondered if, unlike me, the speaker isn’t old enough to have grown up with nuclear as a familiar word and a consistent threat.

          • Hah, that did occur to me. Hardly a day went by from the late 50s to the 80s when somewhere on television, radio, or simply in conversation, the word nuclear didn’t crop up.

      • Perhaps it’s the same. Place holder for the captain under whose command the lieutenant is acting. Does that make sense?
        Re pronunciation, here’s the OED:

        The origin of the βtype of forms (which survives in the usual British pronunciation, though the spelling represents the αtype) is difficult to explain. The hypothesis of a mere m…[Read more]

        • Speaking of the nuclear threat, I’m reminded that Aldermaston, where the Canpaign for Nuclear (never new=queue-lar) Disarmament used to march to when Ah were a lad, is in Berkshire. Now I wonder when we started pronouncing that Barkshire, because a certain piece of rhyming slang suggests that Cockneys, at least, used to say it the way Americans still do.

  • You have my apologies too. I also had a busy month, but mainly I have to confess that every time I turned to the prompt I hit brick walls. I admit defeat. And it is a fine prompt. One good thing from my point of view though is that I had another look at my short story from the Random’s anthology Stalking Leviathan. I had some critique that the…[Read more]

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