Captain Oates

The Duke of Wellington was born in 1769 in the Kingdom of Ireland. Before 1801 Ireland was a separate state, ruled by England and latterly Great Britain. So the Duke of Wellington was more Irish than Oscar Wilde. (But less popular with some French, probably.)

Amanda's avatar? Thank you, HCW.

How come that one got away with it ?

A ....kangaroo! Do you have a photograph ?

Agreed! - if he did it.

Peter Malkin I reckon what he did was worth noting, but I had never heard of him until today. He has now also achieved a BBC obit. Does that mean he passes the famousness test?

That is a very good description of how a monotheistic (having one god) religion can deceive millions of people. The basis of religion is "faith" conveniently removing to necessity to provide proof that what the priests/prophets claim is actually true. Natural human curiosity looks for explanations for 'miracles', and human arrogance is such that even if we can't explain something scientifically, we claim to know that it is a work of 'god'. Giving ourselves this "religious" explanation is more palatable to us than simply acknowledging our ignorance. Ignorance is not the same thing as stupidity; assuming that we know all the answers is pretty close to stupidity, IMHO. Of course this leaves open the possibility that God exists!!! That seems fair enough, so long as it remains just a possiblilty. (There is also a rumour that Democracy exists! )

I believe you.

Here's an interesting one!

Third time lucky!

Amanda! You sound like a fairly capable person who can look after herself when push comes to shove. So where is your avatar? We have waited patiently (for a whole week!). With all the advice you have had, I can hardly wait to see what it will be. ??? A fox with a wooden leg and no lights ???

...and neither do you.

Congratulations Amanda! As I write this you are listed as top poster for today - three posts clear of Josco.

It's interesting that religion brings so much response from so many people, whether in favour or otherwise. There is some sort of power working in there. It's a mystery.

A google of gin and Ayrshire...

Lovely stuff! And now I have my very own little cut-out dragon.

As the menacing "Herman Scobie" in Charade George Kennedy is seen, having been drowned in the bathtub. Apparently that's the real George Kennedy in there, holding his breath...

How can you possibly get "bacchanalian" right and then bollux "buffoonery"? Bollux ? I get it... Use a word that doesn't exist, then no-one can say that you mis-spelled it! or did you mean bollix?

Update to the latest version of Firefox, it's 1.0 now. I already have 1.0 and it is splendid, although I have the impression that there were more extensions for previous versions. Perhaps it is Windows 2000 that is the problem, or the combination of the two??? More likely it's some gremlinny thing from the depths, deperate to find a reason to keep IE on the planet!

...but I may possibly leave before the bagpipe recital, if nobody minds.

I can't get it to run in Firefox; it goes bonkers and I end up with a record of 999999.99 - beat that! It works in IE, now that I have I had downloaded Japapnese but so far have managed to get below 0.70m

Any relation to Archibald Leach? In name only!

Portia?

As with a section of the population of Northern Ireland today, and indeed Wales, and Scotland (and a few other places too), I'm sure that not all the residents of Dublin at the time of Oscar Wilde's birth were 'proud to be British'. But at that time, technically they were British. (The Act of Union 1801, introduced the red diagonal cross of St. Patrick into the Union Flag). The historical facts are indisputable. The British government could claim allegiance from inhabitants of Ireland. On 1st Jan 1801, the Kingdom of Britain was merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (further modified in 1927 to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). So even in 1801 the name of Ireland was retained in the name of the new nation, enabling the islanders to claim to be "Irish" or "British". In a purely geographical sense, they still have that choice today. Perhaps Mr Josco has some inside information about Mr Wilde's preference in this matter? (It does seem likely that OW's mother would have chosen "Irish".) BTW - Haven't I seen a red diagonal cross somewhere on this forum ????

Probably one for the lawyers! According to Wikipedia, the term "British" can be used to indicate association with ....the British Isles - which include the whole of the island of Ireland. I would, personally, be rather cautious in describing a native of Dublin (of Irish parents and educated in Enniskillen and Dublin) as British, but it seems that the word "British" can, nevertheless, be applied to Oscar Wilde.