Taps and Baptists

[Bmblbzzz]

[Mick Harper]

I do not understand your reference to 'vivas'. Neither of the American universities from whom I purchased doctorates mentioned them. I cannot speak for the authors but the passages you quote seem to me to be of more than ordinary perspicacity so perhaps you could spell out with greater clarity the source of your unease.

[TisILeclerc]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_Viva

A megalithic form of transport. Recently re vived to vie with the glorious Skoda.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/vauxhall/viva

It has shrunk over the intervening years.

In the academic sense I believe viva is the process whereby Oxford Dons and related species are brought out of hibernation to test if they are still alive. They are revived for the ordeal with bottles of Port. Or so I've been told.

[Boreades]

I'm feeling distressed. I've read the whole of TME and found no whisky.

It's especially distressing that it reminds me of the last time I had the same feeling. It was when visiting a certain part of Scotland on a Sunday, and the only place I could get lunch was a Temperance Hotel.

[TisILeclerc]

As a bonny fido traveller you could have got into any hotel on a Sunday. There may not have been any food but you should have got a drink.

In the good old days when hotels were the only thing alive on a Sunday the bus companies did a roaring trade.

Tourists from Dundee would set off for the fair city of Perth and half way there would pass buses coming the other way full of Perth travellers anxious to have a look at Bonnie Dundee and her wonderful hotels.

All bonny fido travellers you see. Laws have corners for the determined to get around.

[TisILeclerc]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37443204

And just in time for the ignobel prizes for academic achievement.



And here's the picture of one of the lucky winners with friend. Not sure which is which.

I kid you not he is acting the goat.

[Boreades]

[TisILeclerc]

And when you get to a certain age it can take half an hour or more. Several times a night.

[Bmblbzzz]

Well that's cleared that up then. ::-) Clearly the most important reference in that chapter was Castor and Pollux (no, I can't give a page reference for that, because the book's gone back to the library now).

[Mick Harper]

Ignore those two, they are the bane of the site. You must have some point in mind. This is our book you're talking about. It's important to us.