DavyR

Sometimes used in court as a defence against a murder charge - "Yes, your honour, I did cosh the victim over the head, but had no way of knowing about their congenitally thin cranium. Someone with a normal skull would merely have been stunned, which was, of course my intention in delivering the blow." Edited to say - Whoops, sorry - crossed with Steve's reply.

The nurse who took her own life disclosed nothing, as far as I recall - she simply put the hoaxers through to another nurse, who did comment on the condition of the Duchess. It was obvious from the first nurse's accent that she wasn't English and so less likely to recognise that a stupid prank was being played. Tragic.

The word you were looking for is "earworm", Cory - You really don't want an earwig in your head! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earworm

Another possible relation?

I used to, back in the early '80s - mostly 25mm fantasy wargaming stuff. I've still got a load of figures (some unpainted) in a box up in the loft! Some of the metal miniatures from those days sell for a fair bit of money on eBay now, as it appears the cost of the metal has caused many of the manufacturers to switch to plastic.

I remember reading advice donkey's years ago in one of the angling weeklies that the wool on the Ondex should be closely trimmed, or the hooks would rust due to retained moisture. Anyone ever found that to be the case? I imagine the more recent incarnations of the Ondex have stainless hooks anyway?

Old books on fishing often included advice on how to "scour" worms for the hook and that advice usually advocated the use of moss. I think it applied exclusively to lobworms and I'm not sure it would have any effect on other types of worm. I thought the practice of "scouring" worms had more or less died out anyway - or is it one of those angling fashions that comes around every now and then?

I think its value is more that it's full of worm amino acids, courtesy of the mole's diet.

And what sort of Mid-Atlantic parlance do you call that?

I knew they reminded me of something! When I was on holiday in Ireland a few years ago, this seemed to be on RTE all the time: http://www.irishpaintmagic.com/ One of Bob Ross' disciples, apparently!

Very impressive - but why has it suddenly become fashionable to decorate practical (and vulnerable) items of tackle in this way? I could more easily see the point of decorating a float case, box, or tube than the floats themselves.

The bear was the real star of that show - him and Captain Weird.

Yes, although some unscrupulous types also use the phrase to mean a rod used in addition to the number allowed by the fishery rules, or one not covered by the rod licence(s) carried by the angler!

Not necessarily - most canal fish appear to be fairly nomadic. Certainly on the Macc Canal it doesn't seem to matter too much where you fish - the patrolling shoals will home in on your feed, so long as you keep trickling it in. Holding a shoal (especially a bream shoal) once you've got one in front of you can be difficult, though. If you start catching bream and you want to catch more (not everyone does, especially dedicated roach anglers), it can pay to up the feed rate and maybe put in a bit of groundbait as well as your loose offerings. Not much use if you have boats regularly churning up your swim, of course, but a good ploy for evenings (especially in the summer, when most of the boat people have gone to the pub).