Piglet Cuckoo MP beer

• In Polish, the word for please is proszę, which the British cannot distinguish in pronunciation from prosię, meaning piglet. How many times have I walked into a Polish bar and said "Two beers, piglet!"?
• In Welsh, the word for beer is cwrw (do remember that w is a vowel). A cuckoo is, unsurprisingly, cwcw, which is a distressingly close thing.
• The Greek for beer is μπύρα, which is bloody confusing for the linguistically inept mathematician who knows the letters, but not that mu and pi combine to give a b. So actually, they call it beer.

One might have assumed that linguistic Darwinism would have assured that all words relating to beer and its purchase would be unambiguous and easily understood by all: I favour calling it "beer" everywhere.

(The Polish for cuckoo is kukułka.)

Safle bws encore

I have in the past had cause to remark on the bus-stops of Aberystwyth:

• For data capture of, inter alia, passenger mass
• As unusual and rare sights in the cityscape

Now - to my surprise and delight, the rarest of events just outside my own house! Over a period of months, the authorities [sic] have erected a fine new stop some 25 yards east of the previous; nobody is sure why. Endless hours of fun are to be had watching putative customers deciding which one actually works - the same confusion afflicts the bus drivers.

We know of no plans ro remove the "old" one.

The best pub in Llandudno

We travel to Llandudno, a town of over-high buildings where the model aeroplane enthusiasts dress their craft as seagulls and rare cable-hauled trams run amok in the streets.

Those habitual liars Trip Advisor tell you the best pub in town is a place I will not name, to avoid risk of libeling. With minimal effort we found two contenders in The Cottage Loaf and The Albert - who knows how many more and better there may actually be?

They also undersing one of the country's most exceptional ancient monuments where you can see blissfully happy people excavating malachite, to impede the parking of cars.

The Fields Medal, Goldbach, Twin Primes and fraud

A wonderful month for number theorists: the Weak Goldbach Conjecture is proved [Helfgott], and an enormous inroad is made to the Twin Prime Conjecture [Zhang]. Neither advance owes anything to me.

Kevin then posed an interesting question: is the Fields Medal awarded in the year of the work that merits it? If so, wouldn't you be pissed off to make an advance of huge stature to be pipped by someone else?

I'll delay my publication of a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis until next year, just in case.

More productively, we thought about manufacturing a facsimile of a Fields Medal using the underused 3D printer in Gwyddoniaeth Gyfrifiadurol at Prifysgol Aberystwyth and taking it turns to wear it during excursions to the pubs of Aber.

Kevin, incidentally, is runner-up in the World Outdoor Cribbage Championship.

A tasteful question about M Thatcher's demise

In some parts of the world, care is taken to ensure that places closely associated with less popular ex-leaders do not evolve into shrines attended by the misguided.

Is it true that Grantham is to be demolished?

Mulholland Boyle Leeds Paediatric Surgery Admirals Earl of Orrery

On the BBC this morning, Greg Mulholland MP said (I paraphrase), "Roger Boyle needs to account for his actions".

He meant the other one.

I think. For the record, he is "Professor Sir Roger Boyle", while I am "Visiting Professor Boyle", an eternal disappointment to my sisters. If this baffles you, compare the issue with the hierarchy of Admirals.

(I'm fairly sure Mulholland wasn't referring to the other other one, or indeed his son, also blessed with my name.)

Refugees and the Ace Cafe

There is a route from mid-Kent to West Wales that takes in Liverpool Street station and Stonebridge Park. While not the most direct, it affords two sightseeing opportunities.

1. The Kindertransport memorial at Liverpool Street is only 7 years old: it commemorates the welcoming into Britain of large numbers of Jewish refugees - predominantly children - very shortly before WW2 began. A slick operation saw some thousands received who would very probably otherwise have perished.

   In truth, the sculpture of some children with their few belongings I did not find very striking, but there's no denying the strength of the sentiment.

   

   As Andrea Hammel noted, "How would it be if 10000 refugee children turned up in the UK today? What would their welcome be?". The Daily Mail would surely have a view.

2. 2013 marks the 75th anniversary of the Ace Cafe beside the North Circular at Stonebridge Park: it's famous for being, still, a bikers'/drivers' caff in just the place where such a thing is needed.

   Inside, the experience is of a place that is a monument to itself rather than a cafe, but it's still fun. It's deplorably tidy and clean, with far too many notices promoting Safety (and a few promoting Health). Holding a train ticket from Ashford to Aberystwyth, I had to do some talking to be allowed to alight at the Stonebridge rail station, but it was well worth it. You get a cracking view of the N Circ, and the pointless Wembley Stadium.

   If I'd really been in the groove, I'd have had bacon and eggs &c &c, but actually settled for a pint of Beck's Vier and meatballs in spaghetti (on logo'ed china).