General Chit Chat

[Montreal Wanderer]

Today is Jour de la Marmotte - better known as Groundhog Day.
I've checked up and we haven't got any groundhogs. The wife suggested I could wait for a badger to emerge instead

We do have a groundhog (or woodchuck) in our garden and the sun is shining so he could see his shadow if he could get out of his burrow. There's a bit of snow on the front door. So that means six more weeks of winter. However we haven't really had winter starting yet. A green Christmas - lots of snow in New Year's Eve but that is melting away because of unseasonably warm temperatures. There may be something in this climate change stuff.

[Worthy4England]

So how much wood does a woodchuck chuck then? I've wondered about that one for years...

[Bruce Rioja]

Today is Jour de la Marmotte - better known as Groundhog Day.
I've checked up and we haven't got any groundhogs. The wife suggested I could wait for a badger to emerge instead

I saw six dead badgers at the sides of Northamptonshire dual carriageways today. Have they an epidemic (of alive ones) down there or summat?

[thebish]

Today is Jour de la Marmotte - better known as Groundhog Day.
I've checked up and we haven't got any groundhogs. The wife suggested I could wait for a badger to emerge instead

I saw six dead badgers at the sides of Northamptonshire dual carriageways today. Have they an epidemic (of alive ones) down there or summat?

some say there are folk shooting badgers and then chucking them by the road so they look like roadkill..

[Bruce Rioja]

Today is Jour de la Marmotte - better known as Groundhog Day.
I've checked up and we haven't got any groundhogs. The wife suggested I could wait for a badger to emerge instead

I saw six dead badgers at the sides of Northamptonshire dual carriageways today. Have they an epidemic (of alive ones) down there or summat?

some say there are folk shooting badgers and then chucking them by the road so they look like roadkill..

There was a dead deer near Corby, too.

[Montreal Wanderer]

So how much wood does a woodchuck chuck then? I've wondered about that one for years...

One suspects you really know the answer. It is along the lines of how oil could a gumboil boil etc.

[Bruce Rioja]

Well yes............ quite!

[TANGODANCER]

Who can fathom nature? It's pxssing down outside yet there's a magpie taking a bath in the bird bath in the back garden. ?

[thebish]

For all those moaning about the kidz of today having no grammar.....

1) Underline all the determiners in this sentence: "Two apple trees screened the open windows on one side."
2) Complete this sentence so that it uses the subjunctive form: "If I ____ to have one wish, it would be for good health."
3) Identify the verb form that is in the present perfect in this passage: "Rachel loves music and has wanted to learn how to play the piano for years. She was hoping for piano lessons, and was delighted when her parents gave her a keyboard for her birthday."
4) Is the phrase "where my father works" in this sentence a preposition phrase, a relative clause, a main clause or a noun phrase? "My baby brother was born in the hospital where my father works."


these being sample question for the new KS2 tests that children will have to complete aged 11.

I reckon that time taken at that age to master this will foster a real love of the language and inspire them on to great things...

[thebish]

(yes - I know Monty will have got them all right first time!)

[Worthy4England]

^^ Lolz.

[TANGODANCER]

Strange as it may sound, I actually learned more about descriptions of the English language from learning Spanish-
before that I just used everything automatically without needing to know what it was called.(now, I just use Google).

[TANGODANCER]

Over many years I've heard the gas works on Spa Road described as many things- "Iconic" not really being the best way to describe those miserable eddifices whilst taking deep breaths playing football on Queen's Park . I doubt anybody who remembers the smell in their prime will hardly be petitioning a "Save the gasworks" campaign.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/142 ... s_holders/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Credit to that there London though for what they did with a Victorian one..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ublic.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[TANGODANCER]

In honour of the demise of our gasworks, something I posted about three years ago on Trotter...

"From way,way back. To the tune of Galway Bay.

If you ever go across the Croal to Bolton
It may be at the closing of the day
You can sit and watch the moon rise over Breightmet
And watch the sun go down on Crompton Way

Oooon Crompton...... way......

The winds that blow across from Darcy Lever
Are perfumed by the gasworks as they blow
And the fans that go to watch the match at Burnden
Speak a language that the vicars do not know

They do not.... know...."

Happy days...

[Prufrock]

Strange as it may sound, I actually learned more about descriptions of the English language from learning Spanish-
before that I just used everything automatically without needing to know what it was called.(now, I just use Google).

Ditto Latin and Greek. No present perfect in either though, so that's no use!

Given no-one else has been brave enough so far, I very tentatively venture...

For all those moaning about the kidz of today having no grammar.....

1) Underline all the determiners in this sentence: "Two apple trees screened the open windows on one side."
2) Complete this sentence so that it uses the subjunctive form: "If I were to have one wish, it would be for good health."
3) Identify the verb form that is in the present perfect in this passage: "Rachel loves music and has wanted to learn how to play the piano for years. She was hoping for piano lessons, and was delighted when her parents gave her a keyboard for her birthday."
4) Is the phrase "where my father works" in this sentence a preposition phrase, a relative clause, a main clause or a noun phrase? "My baby brother was born in the hospital where my father works."


these being sample question for the new KS2 tests that children will have to complete aged 11.

I reckon that time taken at that age to master this will foster a real love of the language and inspire them on to great things...

And are they genuinely suggesting teaching all that to 11 year-olds? What a waste of time!

[thebish]

ha! bravo Pru!!

full marks!

[Prufrock]

Yeah, take that primary school kids!

But seriously, they're going to try to sit 11 year olds down and tell them about tenses? Jesus. Good luck with that.

[thebish]

Yeah, take that primary school kids!

But seriously, they're going to try to sit 11 year olds down and tell them about tenses? Jesus. Good luck with that.

before they are 11 - 11 is just when they get tested on it...

[Prufrock]

Is this my pal Nicky Morgan again? She is f*cking useless. Saw her tipped as a future leader the other day. Even Jezza might stand a chance of winning an election against her!

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Prise the tense out of this - Nicky Morgan is a cxnt