What I Learnt Today

I”m sure that you are a genius.

Moron Test gives you the chance to prove it.

The App Moron Test was developed by three friends at DistinctDev – and has been in the bestselling list of iPhone games for two years!

You demonstrate your intelligence by selecting the correct option in a series of questions. Simple enough – but the questions get more and more deceptive. Three strikes – and back to the beginning you go.

Warning – the game is surprisingly addictive, and the questions are tricky enough to give you a sense of accomplishment when you finish the five sets.

Millie and Will, of course, both thrashed me.

Chim chiminey chim chiminey chim chim cheroo 

I does what I likes and I likes what I do 

Today I’m a screever and as you can see 

A screever’s an artist of highest degree 

And it’s all me own work 

From me own memory”

–    Bert – Mary Poppins

A Screever is an artist who draws pictures on pavements, as with colored chalks, earning a living from the donations of spectators and passersby.

Street Painiting has a long and distinguished history, dating from at least 16th Century Europe. Wikipedia describes The Italian I Madonnari, itinerant artists, many of whom had been brought into the cities to work on the huge cathedrals. When the work was done, they needed to find another way to make a living, and thus would often recreate the paintings from the church onto the pavement. Aware of festival and holy days in each province and town, they traveled to join in the festivities to make a living from observers who would throw coins if they approved of the artist’s work.

Whereas traditional street painting consisted of  recreations of famous masterpieces, the more recent trend is to use a ‘Trompe-l’œil’ to produce 3D images.

The Saratosa Chalk Festival is the largest Streep Painting Festival in the US.

How about these Lego ‘terracotta warriors’.

Some other works from Saratosa by artist Maleanie Stimmel.

I don;t know if any of the pictures at Saratosa had the feature of Berts pictures – you could jump inside them and travel to different worlds.

As long as it doesn’t rain.

You say either and I say either, You say neither and I say neither

Either, either Neither, neither, Let’s call the whole thing off.

You like potato and I like potahto, You like tomato and I like tomahto

Potato, potahto, Tomato, tomahto, Let’s call the whole thing

–   Louis Armstrong

What I Learnt On 5th November in other years

5th November 2013 The Awe of Understanding and the Wide-eyed Pursuit of Cool Ideas

When a friend calls to me from the road 

And slows his horse to a meaning walk, 

I don’t stand still and look around 

On all the hills I haven’t hoed, 

And shout from where I am, What is it? 

No, not as there is a time to talk. 

I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground, 

Blade-end up and five feet tall, 

And plod: I go up to the stone wall 

For a friendly visit. 

– Robert Frost, “A Time to Talk”