Odds and Real Sods

Whilst having a walk around Lower Heswall the other day I came across some Ear Fungus on a log. Auricularia auricula-judae is also commonly known as Judas's Ear fungus or Jew's Ear, the name from which it derives the "judae" in its scientific name, or as the Jelly Ear fungus. It was said that Judas hanged himself on an elder tree and the fungus is usually found on Elder or Ash. The term 'Jew's Meat' was also a deprecatory term used for all fungi in the Middle Ages.




As I get older I like change less and less. It is incredibly minor in the great scheme of things but Amanda Hamilton is leaving ‘Something for the Weekend’ and I am sorry about that. The chemistry between the three of them – Amanda, Simon Rimmer and Tim Lovejoy – makes for a most entertaining Sunday morning show and it will take a new girl a while to build up that rapport. And, as Amanda said, pity the girl who has to sit and listen to the boys talking football all the time!

And yes, the man is complaining about comments again. I have this Chinese commenter whose comments have the same glyphs each time and therefore are obviously not relevant to any particular post. When I clicked on their blog name I was led to an obscene website. So I decided to report them to Google.

The relevant Google page says choose which type of abuse you wish to complain about. So you do that and go to another page. Eventually you get to one which says ‘click on the report abuse tab at the top of the person’s blog’. But the site that clicking on their name leads to is not a blog but a website so you can’t do that. OK, Google says ‘If you cannot do that ‘click here’ for a report abuse form’. You click there and it takes you back to the initial report abuse page which says choose which type of abuse.... (Puts pillow over face so he can scream without waking whole neighbourhood.)

Please don’t get me wrong, I love getting comments and it is worth the effort of rejecting the abusive, obscene and advertising but that doesn’t stop them from driving me up the wall.... So, for the moment, I have re-introduced a CAPTCHA (word verification) stage. I apologise to those who find these a nuisance but I want to see if it discouarges some of the idiots.

Despite having used it in cooking for years it was only today that I found out what Allspice is. I always thought it was a mix of spices like Chinese Five Spice.

Actually the spice comes from the berries of the tree Pimenta dioica. It takes its name from its aroma which smells like a combination of spices, especially cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg. In much of the world, allspice is called pimento because the Spanish mistook the fruit for black pepper, which the Spanish called pimienta. This is especially confusing since the Spanish had already called chillies pimientos. In the eighteenth century it was called English Spice because of its popularity in this country. For more about Allspice see the useful and interesting Encyclopedia of Spices.