My word of the week: Inspissate
Meaning: To thicken
Correct Usage: “This gravy needs to be inspissated.”
Incorrect Usage: “Somebody’s inspissated in the gravy.”

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I got to go out in a double at rowing last night. That’s a boat with two people, each with two oars. Rather exciting, as we were in a pretty narrow shell (about 14″ at its widest point, which is narrower than I am), but extremely good fun. Only one blister from the session, which is a new record, though the back of my right hand is scratched where my left hand would scrape across it (a function of rowing with two oars).

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When I am Lord High Commander of All, one of my first acts will be to introduce a minimum age requirement for high-coverage beards. Soul patches are great. Goatees? Lovely. That strange Dutch chin-strap thing? Well, not for me, but help yourself. But large beards, beards that cover not just the edges of a face but the neck and cheeks, they should be confined to men (and I’m very strict on that part too) over 40. And slightly greying, if possible.

As a guide, this is fine, this is not. Or this. Oh, and this entire site is terrifying.

And yes, I’m well aware that this is probably a deep psychological neurosis based in my inability to pass through puberty and grow such adornments myself. But don’t let that stop you posting good-natured abuse below.

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I read with interest an article on the documentary film “Super Size Me“. From the article:

“The ads and the McDonalds website feature Guy Russo, the firm’s Australian chief, accusing film-maker Morgan Spurlock of distorting the facts.

He says Spurlock ate as much McDonalds food in 30 days as nutritionists say should be eaten in eight years.”

Now remember, that’s from the McDonald’s chief in Australia (don’t worry, I read it as chef too. As if!)

From the film’s website we get the following rules:

1) No options: he could only eat what was available over the counter (water included!)
2) No supersizing unless offered
3) No excuses: he had to eat every item on the menu at least once

Let’s do the math. I’ll assume that, as part of trying to get through the menu, plus the supersizing, Spurlock ate twice as much each meal as he should have (that’s a pretty generous assumption for McDonald’s, but I’m a nice guy), and that he ate 3 meals per day. Over the course of 30 days, therefore, he ate 180 McDonald’s meals, which McDonald’s say is enough for 8 years. Firing up the calculator, that works out as a maximum of 1 meal every 16 days.

Let me repeat that. McDonald’s themselves say that if you eat at their establishments once every two weeks, THAT’S TOO MUCH.

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I had a small crash this weekend. I was coxing a men’s eight (translation: I was steering a big rowing boat) with an experienced bow pair (translation: the people up at the other pointy end knew what they were doing) and 6 novices (translation: everyone else didn’t). As we came in to the dock I screwed up somewhat and we hit the corner. Somewhat understandable given that I’m sitting at the other end of a 60 foot long boat that’s 2 feet wide at most and all-up weighed as much as a car. On the other hand I should have known better, and given that it also costs as much as a reasonable car it was a little sobering. Fortunately we only bent a bolt and scratched the side a bit.

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