Grant Hutchison's Blog, page 25

New Government Self-Isolation Advice

Well, there’s nothing like being in lock-down in your own house during an epidemic to put a crimp in the whole “oikofuge” thing. So the Oikofuge is at present forced to revive his dormant childhood oikotropism. Expect more posts about words and books and model-making for the next few months, and very little about walking … Continue reading New Government Self-Isolation Advice →

Corona

kɒˈrəʊnə Corona: a circular structure, or spiked circular structure, surrounding a central core Corona is the Latin word for a crown. And, after passing through French, it’s the origin of our word crown. In its original form, it’s used to designate all sorts of crown-like structures. The spiky protrusions from the capsule of the coronavirus … Continue reading Corona →

Hasegawa 1/48 SH-3H Sea King (Apollo Recovery SH-3D Conversion): Part 4

With the main bodywork of the aircraft completed last time, I finally got her standing on her undercarriage, in the form a set of ResKit resin wheels—slightly more detailed than the kit parts, with a nice open fork for the rear wheel. The kit parts for the undercarriage legs need a very slight modification. They … Continue reading Hasegawa 1/48 SH-3H Sea King (Apollo Recovery SH-3D Conversion): Part 4 →

Arthur C. Clarke: Three Early Novels

All human communities, wherever they may be in space, follow the same pattern. People were getting born, being cremated (with careful conservation of phosphorus and nitrates), rushing in and out of marriage, moving out of town, suing their neighbours, having parties, holding protest meetings, getting involved in astonishing accidents, writing Letters to the Editor, changing … Continue reading Arthur C. Clarke: Three Early Novels →

Morocco

Only a few years back, a voyage to Morocco necessitated long preparation: servants, guides, animals for riding, camping materials, much time, and therefore great fatigue and heavy expenses. Though the greatest care was taken, comfort, while moving or at rest, was non-existent, and travellers were sometimes exposed to very disagreeable adventures. Things have changed. Prosper … Continue reading Morocco →

Pettifoggery, etc

I think it is appropriate for me to admonish both the House managers and the President’s counsel in equal terms to remember that they are addressing the world’s greatest deliberative body. One reason it has earned that title is because its members avoid speaking in a manner and using language that is not conducive to … Continue reading Pettifoggery, etc →

Hasegawa 1/48 SH-3H Sea King (Apollo Recovery SH-3D Conversion): Part 3

At the end of the my previous post in this build log, I was just about ready to glue the big bits of fuselage together. Which went surprisingly well. The cockpit canopy comes in three sections, and that went less well—the side windows were awkward to align properly, and both of them made brief excursions … Continue reading Hasegawa 1/48 SH-3H Sea King (Apollo Recovery SH-3D Conversion): Part 3 →

Benjamin Dreyer: Dreyer’s English

This book [… is] my chance to share with you, for your own use, some of what I do, from the nuts-and-bolts stuff that even skilled writers stumble over to some of the fancy little tricks I’ve come across or devised that can make even skilled writing better. Benjamin Dreyer was a copy editor at … Continue reading Benjamin Dreyer: Dreyer’s English →

Apostrophe: Part 2

əˈpɒstrəfiː apostrophe: 1) A rhetorical device in which the speaker breaks off from discourse in order to address a person or thing, absent or present; 2) The sign ’, used to indicate omitted letters, or the possessive case In my previous post about apostrophes, I wrote about the use of the punctuation mark, and mentioned … Continue reading Apostrophe: Part 2 →

Helium

I had a photograph of my own to illustrate this post, but it was a bit rubbish. I was inspired to write about helium when I discovered the wreckage of a mylar-foil helium balloon, like the one pictured above, tangled in a gorse bush on the slopes of Newtyle Hill. It’s the second foil balloon … Continue reading Helium →