[pen and all reducers] I've just finished a 60-hour week [I know it's not a lot by some standards but it was very intensive sort of work] so it's great to have time to catch up with the Morniverse. It's also quite exciting to see a reference to Rugbypilging in May. I'm going to cut out butter for the next six weeks in an attempt to rid myself of this blubbery lump around my middle. Oh yes - I'm also aiming to drink a couple of litres of water a day.

As it happens, I'm also on a diet, and so far I've lost a little over a stone.

Although I am drinking a remarkable amount of water, I am not on a diet, and you really do NOT want to know how much oil there is in a biryani, as taught to me by a nice Iraqi woman. Further investigations of regional cuisine will be undertaken soon.

Here's a cheering thought: when the Allied forces liberated the concentration camps, they found no fat people. Therefore, it is possible.

As symptoms of too much online MC go, I think starting a page of notes with the title "Slap this jammy factor" must count as one of them.

[Raak] Yes, I guess it's all a matter of concentration. Where do you find a Japanese or Nazi prison guard when you need one? (And if I might say so, you speak like the enviably skinny person you are... :op)

I just found The Encyclopaedia Morningtonia here: http://www.satiche.org.uk/satiche/sat-0207.htm. Have I not been following the chat, or did anyone know?

[pen] It was mentioned in the Morniverse a while ago. It seems to have added an acknowledgement of its source since then, but the URL of course doesn't work.

I was looking at an old marriage certificate (circa 1942) at work today, and noticed that the the bride (aged 18) was described as a "spinster"! I never realised that applied to any unmarried woman (unless she was thought old to be unmarried at 18).

All first time brides were known as 'spinsters' [and possibly may still be so - but I haven't got married for a while so I don't know] and their age had nowt to do with it. It's interesting how the word now [to those aged 30 and younger]conjures up an image of a a lady past her prime.

... whereas batchelor, the gender opposite, conjures up an image of the footloose and fancy-free young blade. Life's a b*gger really, for us girlies.

Surely not! A spinster, just like a bachleor, is someone of marriagable age (definition liberal) who isn't? I have never thought of it as otherwise.

(Chalky) You don't need to be under 30 to think of a spinster as unmarried and no chicken. The word was a bit old-fashioned even in my childhood (40's - 50's), and mildly derogatory. Its original meaning was "female spinner" (of yarn). This was presumably thought a proper way for unmarried ladies of a certain age to occupy their time, in the absence of vibrators, though who knows.