Skate à la Jackson Pollock

I got a promotional email, containing this photo: It may be called ‘Skate à la Jackson Pollock’ (or possibly Pollock à la Jackson Skate), whatever it is, seems the restaurant has Michelin stars.

the website link.

Bleaagh! It’s just the sort of food in restaurants that I don’t like. To mucked-about with. KISS. Keep It Simple, Stupid. It’s a joke, surely, with all those colourful substances squeezed on top. What must it taste like? The restaurant has Michelin stars.

Broadband in My Hometown

The geographic range in metres from the fibre-enabled telephone cabinets in my home town of Sedbergh. The link below shows something of where FTTC connections should be available. Quite useful. Coded it up meself using the wonderful Google Maps v.3 API.

in-sedbergh.uk/btcabinets

These Academics They Are a Funny Lot

I have a page on the origin of the London slang word kite, (see Kite You Are) where I scoff at academic etymologists for missing the obvious – obvious to me in any case.

Now I have another: the word hassle. Dictionaries seem to agree that this word originates in showbiz and appeared around about 1946. They then try to make sense of it by putting together bits of ancient English words long since obsolete.

Hold on a second, brainboxes. Showbiz? Hmmm, doesn’t that suggest a lingua franca or polari link? And aren’t a lot of lingua franca and polari words derived from Italian? And isn’t an Italian word meaning much the same thing as hassle, assillo? Pronounced not that much different from hassle.

I’m not saying for sure that I am right, for the truth is that I don’t know, probably no one knows for sure, but I am saying that it sounds like a strong contender for consideration.

I dunno, these bloody academics. And they get paid more than I do too!