Mr Bun the baker

With the addition of some large shelves to the left of the fireplace in the lounge I have been able to display my favourite childrens books for the first time in many years. These include the Brian Jacques Redwall series, books by Colin Dann, Dick King Smith and a few other odd ones. A couple of days ago I decided to reread 'the rectory mice' and was amused to find a reference to the happy families card game and Mr bun the baker.

I spent many happy times playing happy families in my grandparents lounge. Having looked the card game up on Wikipedia I've found that there were many versions, with different families, but some of the other families I remember are Chop, the Butcher, and Sole, the Fisherman/Fishmonger?

Unfortunately I can't find a picture on the internet of the set we used to have, but the daily mail has made a set for the modern age, which is similar in style to the cards that we had.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=468633&in_page_id=1879

Ginkgo Biloba

I've always wondered how to pronounce ginkgo biloba and have finally looked it up. Ginkgo comes from the Chinese (and later Japanese) ginkyo meaning silver (gin) apricot (kyo). In Japanese this would be pronounced geen kyoh. Engelbert Kaempfer, responsible for the current awkward spelling as written in his "Amoenitates Exoticae", unfortunately made a mistake by writing kgo instead of kyo when making his notes in Japan. The current accepted pronunciation is GINK-oh.

Biloba (pronounced by-LOH-ba) comes from the Latin for two-lobed (bi from Latin "bis" meaning double, loba meaning lobes), the leaf being fan-shaped with a split in the middle.

Cities of Germany

Ian and I are currently taking a German language course at the University. One week we learned how to say 'city A is in Germany', 'city B is not in Switzerland' etc. Unfortunately we all hesitated as to which cities were in Switzerland and which were in fact in Germany. Coupled with the fact that I can't actually put on a map the German cities that I do know I've decided to put up a very simple map on the blog. Suspect one of Switzerland will appear on the blog sooner or later.

Chinese New Year Presiding Animals

• Rat (2008, 1996...)
• Ox (2009, 1997)
• Tiger (2010, 1998)
• Rabbit (2011, 1999)
• Dragon (2012, 2000)
• Snake (2013, 2001)
• Horse (2014, 2002)
• Sheep (2015, 2003)
• Monkey (2016, 2004)
• Rooster (2017, 2005)
• Dog (2018, 2006)
• Pig (2019, 2007)

Cashews

Over Christmas we were wondering why it is that none of us could picture a cashew shell (whereas most other nuts can be bought in their shells). Cashews - the true fruit of the cashew tree grow attached to a false or accessory fruit, known as the cashew apple (though it looks more like a pepper in shape). The cashew apple is edible and very sweet, but difficult to transport (presumably why we don't ever see them in the UK).

Cashew nuts themselves are surrounded by a double shell. The nut is found on the end closest to the cashew apple. The other end is honeycombed with cells that contain a toxic fluid called cardol that blisters the mouth. For many years, the cashew was referred to as the blister nut.

Isaac Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics

Having watched I, Robot last night I thought I'd put these up on the blog today.

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Leaders of the Soviet Union

• Vladimir Lenin (really Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov) (1922-1924)
• Josef Stalin (really Joseph Vissarionovich Jugashvili ) (1927-1953)
• Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkof (Chairman of the council of ministers under Krushchev from 1953-1955)
• Nikita Sergeyevitch Krushchev (1953-1964)
• Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (1964-1982)
• Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (1982-1984)
• Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko (1984-1985)
• Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (1985-1991)