Dreams with mandolins

I was dreaming that someone else (I can't remember who) and I were preparing a meal al fresco somewhere or other. I recall seeing cases of wine dug into the side of a hill, presumably to keep them cool. The other person was preparing salad, and asked me to find bowls. While I was looking for bowls, I saw a mandolin (the musical instrument) lying on the ground, and then I woke up.

I realised that yesterday, when reading thegrauniad Weekend magazine (I'm a bit late...) I read a recipe that required thinly sliced cucumbers; it said that "if you don't have a mandoline, slicing very thinly with a knife will have to do". (A mandoline, for the non-culinary, is a flat utensil with a blade that allows you to thinly slice things such as onions or cucumbers by sliding them down the surface over the blade.)

Amazing how your subconscious mind makes these connections, even if your conscious mind doesn't.

Lolcat?

This iz mah kitteh.

Today's Credit Card URL

Many of us have lots of credit cards, store loyalty cards, and the like, fattening our wallets. This product, about to be produced, claims to slim your wallet by allowing you to use one card to imitate all the other cards you have.

However, if we're talking about risks here, you have to share the characteristics of your cards with an outside agency, and keep the information in a wallet-sized device, accessible through fingerprint recognition. Imagine being frogmarched to the local ATM and forced to imitate all your cards for cash by swiping your (still-living-but-barely) finger on the device.

Priceless!

Today's Funny Encounter

My work mobile phone just went off...I answered, and a gentleman asked for me, and started into a spiel for placing someone here at TCS. I stopped him in the middle and said, "Sorry, I'm not the person to whom you should be speaking." He asked me whether I knew who the proper person for him to speak to was. I replied, "Haven't a clue."

His response: "Kevin Taclue? Could you spell that please?"

Of course, I should have let him call reception and ask for Kevin Taclue, but not being a total sadist, I repeated myself, "Haven't a clue" and he finally got it. I hung up laughing.

Today's Political Advertisement

...is (allegedly) from Idaho's Senior Senator, Mr. Foot Tapper.

( It's behind the cut for those not of a strong disposition. )

Time, ladies and gentlemen

For around a century people could find out the time by calling a phone number. But in 48 states of the US, this has stopped. Now, it's about to stop in California.

At the tone, it will be the end of an era.