More or Les (was Bloody Plurals)

[Ozzyjack]

The answer to this puzzle is another nursery rhyme, probably of 18th Century vintage - 3 6 4 5.  "The" in any clues should be ignored.

     

[auntiemo]

Hi Jack. Thanks for the birthday wishes. I must admit to "skipping through" the forum posts lately, and have just read the posts for this week...so belated was more than okay! Our history making downpour actually gave us 4.8mm in our neck of the woods, not nearly enough. So far we've avoided the fires....fingers crossed.
The Shuffle feature has had a bit of a workout lately to find the last word/s.......sometimes we just need a little help and I'm happy to accept it   

[2dognight]

You have to love Australia it is 45c and raining

[auntiemo]

Hi Carol. When I read your comment,  I recalled that having lived in Scotland and Melbourne before moving to Brisbane, I was almost 12 years old before I experienced "warm rain".  Rain had always meant cold and miserable. October rain in Brisbane was amazing! It took me 30 minutes to do the 10 minute walk home in the tropical downpour.

[mkenuk]

The answer to this puzzle is another nursery rhyme, probably of 18th Century vintage - .

...or possibly much older.
I didn't realise there were so many verses to it.

The rhyme has often been reprinted with illustrations, as suitable reading material for small children.
 The rhyme also has an alternative ending, in which the sparrow who killed cock robin is hanged for his crime. [from Wikipedia]

Really? Enough to give a child nightmares if you think about it!!

 

[Hobbit]

Hi Jack

It's still bucketing down here - enough for flood warnings.  When I was driving earlier I hit one or 2 huge puddles without realising how deep they were.   Left me quite disorientated for a few seconds   It's cold wet rain I'm afraid   Not the lovely warm rain enjoyed by Auntie Mo.

I was reading the news headlines while enjoying my morning cuppa.  I did read about the 2 young fireman.  Such an awful tragic loss.
I also read about ScoMo absconding on holiday to Hawaii with his family.  Probably not the best thing he could have done in the circumstances!

 

I suspect your puzzle is 'Who Killed Cock Robin'

I'm just going to enjoy a cheese & tomato sarnie & a cuppa & I will cogitate about my puzzle & return shortly.....

[Hobbit]

I'm back Jack!

I've tried to make it a bit tricky but I have a suspicion you'll find it a bit easy peasy
at
The word pattern is 3, 3, 2, 5, 8'1, 7 (you only want the second word of the last picture)

I'll leave you with a silly joke.  The rain's stopped & it's nearly sunny so I'm going out for stroll.

I was in Russia with my wife and the weather was a little bit weird. I insisted that it was rain, my wife insisted it was snow.
We decided to ask one of the Russian Communists there. I introduced myself and he said his name was Rudolph. I then asked about the weather. And he said it was clearly rain!
So I said to my wife:
"You see: Rudolph the red knows rain, dear.

Penx

[Ozzyjack]

I’m back too, Pen, it’s Smee 

More “silly” jokes”, please. I loved your Rudolph and your cartoons picking up on our political situation.

I think I have solved your puzzle but I will hold off saying what I think it is until others have had a chance to have a crack at it.

I woke up with leg cramps so I haven’t got off scot free from the sudden increase in temperature.  I have an effective cramp medicine, magnesium based, and I should be able to get back to sleep shortly.  My memory, not always reliable, is that we used to ease into summer so that by the time the hot weather came we were conditioned to it.

We are supposed to get to 41^oC. today so I expect to spend a lot time indoors, so I should have plenty of time to craft a proper post and puzzle then.

 

[Hobbit]

Evening Smee

I found the Rudolph joke by accident but I will search tomorrow & see if I can find any more.  I loved it too

I am slightly trepidated at what you're going to present me with tomorrow   41c sounds far too hot so I don't blame you staying indoors.
Enjoy a nicely chilled beer or 2 & try to


Smee2 

[Ozzyjack]

I didn't realise there were so many verses to it.
The rhyme has often been reprinted with illustrations, as suitable reading material for small children.
Enough to give a child nightmares if you think about it!!

Hi Mike,

Another interesting bit of trivia:

In 1861, taxidermist Walter Potter staged the Death of Cock Robin with 98 different species of embalmed birds. The tableau accurately recreated each stanza of the rhyme. In the tableau, like in other illustrated versions, a bull can be seen pulling the bells for the service. It is very likely that the bull was originally supposed to be a “bullfinch”, and therefore a bird like the rest of the mourners.

I read somewhere that many nursery rhymes started as political propaganda and were not produced for the amusement of children.

The stories behind these nursery rhymes are not child friendly as well

[mkenuk]

It's a subject I was quite interested in at one time.

Some of the best known rhymes ('Georgy Porgey' [various spellings] and 'The Grand Old Duke of York' for example) are obviously political in origin, as is 'Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary' (probably Mary Tudor).
There is a lot of speculation about the identity of Humpty Dumpty and Little Jack Horner.

My copy of 'Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes' unfortunately vanished long ago, but that remains a mine of interesting information for anyone who is interested.

[Ozzyjack]

Smoke Haze

Hi Pen,

I took a photo of the smoke haze from the front of our house this morning  but it was more impressive to the naked eye than it was in the photo.  I shouldn't be surprised at the amount of smoke here when you consider  how extraordinary this is.

The village of Hill Top which is 10 miles from us has been told it is too late to leave and to seek shelter.

Nursery rhymes seem to be going well.  This next one was not recorded until the nineteenth century, but the  Scottish version has led some to conclude that it refers the time of the Crusades.
Five words   3    4     5     2      4 3.  

Hints: For the two people, both famous but no longer living, you only need their first names. If you have a choice between greater and lesser, go big.  It is also the title of a book written in 1974 with the following story-line

As a child Alec, heir to the big house and only son of a bitter marriage, formed a close friendship with Jerry, a village boy who shared his passion for horses. In 1914 both enlisted in the British Army - Alec goaded by his beautiful, cold mother to fight for King and Country, Jerry to learn his trade for the Irish Nationalist cause.

It might be worth a read.

     

I am not sure whether Australian humour is funny or sad.

   

At 4.15 pm it was within a decimal point of getting to 41^oC with 9%humidity.  By 5.00 pm it was 22^oC with 55%humidity.  Overnight the minimum is predicted to be 11^oC.  You gotta love the Southern Highlands.

[Hobbit]

Hi Jack

The pictures were extraordinary.  It's a bit worrying that it seems to be getting closer to you.  Had you considered decamping to A's for a time?  What's it like in Canberra at the moment?  I suppose the thing is you don't particularly want to leave your home & there's no telling how long it's going to last.  I really wish with all my heart I could send you some of the persistent rain we've been having.

Zoe & I have just solved your puzzle.  Very ingenious   'How Many Miles to Babylon'  Took us quite some time I can tell you   I haven't had time to do you one in return as I have to go & "ping" a couple of curries  
I did find you a few rather naff jokes & will (with a bit of help ) sort you a challenge tomorrow.

It’s hard to find a funny chemistry joke any more.
All the best Argon.

My laptop was making funny noises today, it sounded like it was singing...
Probably because it's a Dell

A woman passes out while giving birth to her twins leaving her immature, witty brother to name them.
She wakes up and immediately asks her brother what he named her new born girl. He replies,"Denise". Surprised she says,"That's a beautiful name, what about my baby boy"? He responds with a grin from ear to ear, "Denephew"

A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment.
Suddenly the man realized that he would need his wife to wake him up at 5:00 am for an early morning business flight.
Not wanting to be the first to break the silence, the man wrote on a piece of paper, " please wake me up at 5:00 am", and put it where his wife could see it.
The next morning he woke up only to find that it was 9:00 am, and he had missed his flight.
Furious, he was about to go see why his wife hadn't woken him when he found a paper next to the bed.
It said, " its 5:00 am, wake up"

I thought the Australian jokes were funny I particularly liked the cricket one!

    

Toodle Pip
Pen

[Ozzyjack]

Hi Pen,

The bushfire situation here has improved markedly overnight.  The danger classification has been reduced from Emergency to Watch and Act.  It is a cool day here and the breeze is steady from the south-east which will move the closest fire away from us.

This doesn’t mean that the fire danger is over.  The NSW Fire Commissioner has warned that the high fire danger in the State will remain for several months unless we get substantial rain - which is not likely.

As history shows, Canberra is not immune from the threat of bushfires:

On 18 January 2003, a combination of extreme weather conditions (high temperatures of above 37 ºC, low humidity, lightning strikes and strong gusty winds) caused multiple bushfires to break out in the Kosciuszko and Namadgi National parks surrounding Canberra.

On 18 January, two fire fronts combined to create a 25 km fire front and wind gusts of up to 65 km per hour propelled the fire towards Canberra. The Chief Minister declared a state of emergency at 2.45 pm and the firestorm hit the outer streets of Duffy at approximately 3 pm, and soon reached the suburbs of Rivett, Chapman, Kambah, Higgins, Hawker and Cook.

Four people were killed by the fires, more than 435 people were injured and there were 5000 evacuations. Approximately 160,000 hectares were burnt which equated to almost 70 per cent of the ACT's pasture, forests and nature parks including Namadgi National Park, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and all government pine forest west of the Murrumbidgee River Stromlo pine plantation. There were approximately 488 houses destroyed and many more were damaged.

We were renting in Sydney at the time.  Our house in Curtin was not damaged and, in the next six months, the value of the property increased substantially as a result of the housing shortage.  We were able to sell up and buy a better place in the Southern Highlands.

That’s probably enough for now, I’ll work on a fun post later in the day.

[Ozzyjack]

It’s Smee again, Pen.

Before he came to Bowral, Blue used to manage a sheep station out the back of Bourke.

He decided he needed to hire a roustabout to do the routine jobs around the station and so he went to the Bourke office of the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) to see if they had someone suitable on their books,  The CES bloke said he had just the guy, a likely lad named Boofhead who should go a long way.

Blue took Boofhead out to the property and told him his first job was to finish a half-built a fence.  Blue said 'I would like you to extend it for another kilometre but leave a hole just here to let my daughter through to milk the goat'.

So he went away and came back later. 'Bloody Hell' Blue said 'you forgot to leave the hole in the fence, I'll have to give you something less complicated'.

So he took him off to the sheep shed where there were three rams.  He said 'I want you to shear these rams but make sure that when you do that you do not disturb my wife's Persian cat sitting over there on the bench'.

So he came back later and found that Boofhead had sheared everything, including the cat. ‘Bugger me' Blue said 'I'll have to find you something more suited to your ability'. So he took him to the wood heap and said 'I would like you to split all this wood into suitable widths, but make sure that when you do it you look out for my prize winning rooster who runs around here in the afternoon'.  

When he came back he found that all the wood was split and the rooster had lost a leg. Blue said, 'I know that they think you are a likely lad, but I am going to take you back to Bourke because you are no good for me out here'.

So he took him back to Bourke and he said to the CES bloke 'How did I get this Roustabout from Hell from your branch, he is absolutely useless.'

To which the CES bloke replied 'I thought that he was a likely lad'.

'Likely Lad you might say' said the outraged Blue, 'but he blocked up my daughter's hole, he shaved my wife's pussy and he cut a foot off my cock!'


   




The clues to this challenge are the titles of two novels by a 19th Century English Author.   The second Novel has been called the first modern English detective novel.  Surnames are the order of the day;  In the first set, you are looking for her real name not her stage name.

Four words 3 5 2 5   AND  two words 3     4 5  

The answer to the challenge is what is the name of the author?

     

 

P.S.  Your punny jokes and Microwave cartoons were great