There are several headstones in Crail cemetery which resemble Commonwealth War Graves ones but are in grey rather than cream/white.

Both the following two men died on 23^rd November 1918, hence after the armistice:-

Lieutenant Clarence Reginald Mundy

Air Mechanic F Green

A differently shaped headstone is for an RAF man, Second Lieutenant Cecil Sealey Davis, killed while flying at Crail in May 1919.

There are also graves for a Navy Reserve seaman, who died on 16^th March 1918, and an air cadet who died in December 1918.

R Watson, Seaman, RNR

Flight Cadet J A Scarratt

My birthday is the day before Christmas.

I don’t usually get one big present but rather small ones two days in a row.

Here’s a photo of what my eldest son gave me for my birthday this year.

An old Quality Street tin.

You’d be excused for thinking I’d be miffed but I was actually delighted. In addition to the nostalgia trip the tin provided it added to my collection of old tins, which I mentioned a few years ago.

And he did fill it:-

He also gave me the latest Pink Floyd CD. (I’m not into downloads.)

There is a plaque in Linlithgow which commemorates the birth of Starfleet Master Engineer Montgomery Scott, aka Scotty from Star Trek.

Here’s a photo of it.

You’ll note he was born in 2222.

Edited (12/8/24) to add. I believe the museum this plaque was situated in has closed or moved.

I was in St Andrews at the back end of September and spotted this on the pavement in south South Street. I don’t think I’d noticed it before. Is it relatively new?

It is Gregory’s Meridian line.

A plaque on the wall gives more information.

James Gregory looks to have been one of the 17th century’s greatest scientists. A meridian, Calculus, the diffraction grating and a type of telescope?

We were in Buckingham on a Saturday morning. There was a market. Some of it was vegetables and fruit etc but further on towards the old jail there were several stalls selling antiques/junk etc. A couple of them were bookstalls. The good lady bought a watering can with a hole in it – to use as a planter – and four books. She also persuaded me to buy The Splendid Book for Boys, typical 1950s boys book fare, whose cover I show below along with the two (facing) Contents pages which I had to scan separately as together they were too big to fit the scanner.

Nice space rocket!

When I get round to reading the book I’ll also post the interior ilustrations of the SF story.

Many Fife coastlines bear the marks of past coal mining. A ribbon of coal particles can be found on Kirkcaldy and Burntisland beaches, whether washed there from mines or eroded from rocks I don’t know..

At Lower Largo the deposits are larger. Here are some seen through the shore barrier.

And these are lumps.

The industrial landscape of Methil can be seen from Lower Largo beach, wind turbines, oil rigs and all.

About a month ago we went for a walk along the beach at Lower Largo in Fife. Old railway sleepers held together by well-rusted iron struts form a barrier to help shore up the … err.. shore.

There is the semblance of a face on the second sleeper from right here.

The texture of the rusted supports was interesting.

In this one the iron has almost reverted back to ore. It looks very like samples of haematite I have seen.

From yesterday’s Guardian cryptic crossword:

Leading Tory: “I have come last in poll, schooling ultimately a fiasco” (7, 4)

Answer:- Michael Gove

For those of you who have difficulty decoding such things the clues have a definition part – here “Leading Tory” – and another part which guides you towards the answer. Here the word fiasco tells you to make an anagram of previous letters, specifically “I have come”, the last letter of the word poll, “l”, and the ultimate letter of schooling, “g”.

What makes the clue particularly delightful is that its last three words describe the gentleman concerned’s tenure as Secretary of State for Education down south.

There was a brilliant cryptic crossword clue in today’s Guardian.

It read:-
Leading Tory: “I have come last in poll, schooling ultimately a fiasco” (7, 4)

I was flummoxed to begin with; it wasn’t until I got the down clue that connected with the first letter of the seven letter word (M) that I got it.

Answer tomorrow.

I have a problem with the novel I’m reading just now.

It’s nothing to do with the subject matter, nor the writing.

It’s the title, Jack Glass.

For a Scot my age those two words conjure up mostly an image of a rabid Presbyterian preacher with black hair and goatee beard, rejoicing (I use the word advisedly) in the title of Pastor Jack Glass. Even when he came to wide public notice (late 1960s? early 1970s?) that Pastor tag seemed impossibly archaic.

Due to his anti-Catholic stance Glass was regarded as Scotland’s answer to Ian Paisley. He vehemently opposed the then Pope’s visit to Scotland in 1982. Given Paisley’s later taking part in government along with Sinn Fein in the Northern Ireland Assembly Glass would perhaps have looked on Paisley as some sort of apostate (if he would ever have allowed such a Latinate word to describe any of his attitudes.) Glass, though, died ten years ago. So it goes.

None of this is likely to have impinged on the author of Jack Glass the novel, as he, Adam Roberts, was born in Croydon. I doubt if even his time studying English at the University of Aberdeen would have been troubled by knowledge or thoughts of the pastor, who, as far as I am aware, was never a household name south of the border. It is, though, a reminder of how cultural specificities can alter perspectives.