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Baader-Meinhof phenomenon of the week: the phrase “mud room”, which appeared in Reacher (Amazon Prime Video) and also somewhere else. Apparently it’s a room, like a hallway, where you take off your shoes before continuing into a house. I wondered if it was an Americanism, or just a neologism, so I looked at the Google Books Ngram Viewer and I don’t know – it peaked in Britain in 2016 but continues to grow in use in the US.
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Reacher is OK, but I’m not that bothered about finishing watching it. I’ve not read any of the books, but even I know that the titular guy is supposed to have body parts the size of frozen chickens or something, so this actor is better-cast than little Tommy Cruise from the films which I haven’t seen either.
Reacher, of course, is so named because he’s tall enough to get things from the upper shelves of the aisles of supermarkets. But I find that’s less of a problem than other issues of ergonomics: I can reach, but it’s a struggle to extract the product from the shelf, either the shelves are too close together or the tins or boxes are stacked too tall. Worse still, the shelf of tea in Tesco Express is behind a piece of perspex, perhaps to stop the boxes of tea falling on the floor, but the perspex is too tall so you have to pull the tea out through a too-narrow gap, damaging the box.
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Other Baader-Meinhof phenomenon: “bucket hat”. I’ve worn such a style of hat before, but never knew it had a name. Cool story.
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Stormy old weather. The politically correct mob closed the park, probably (I didn’t go to check, stayed indoors during the blowiest part of the day, because I could, like a sensible person). The Big Jet TV craze was fun, but when I revisited their live stream on Sunday there were a mere several thousand people watching, pfft – such is the transience of celebrity.
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Had a little ear infection last week, the left ear for a change. It has healed of its own accord, which is a joy.
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Made a “tea loaf”, which sits somewhere at the intersection of cake and bread. The first step is to soak dried grapes in Earl Grey tea, which sounds a bit like a wind-up. The result was nice but not as nice as buying a fruity bread from a shop.