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Tim J

@timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy

I used to play in too many orchestras, and currently play in none. I'm interested in many things, often science, language or music related. I like words (especially […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mastodon.social/@timtfj, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

Posts Replies Media

Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/10/2026

Arrived today. :-) (cc @katherine_montalto)

Book cover.

The Book Makers
A History of the Book in 18 Remarkable Lives
Adam Smyth

The cover is printed entirely in black and red, on cream-coloured card. The title and author are surrounded by two-colour pictures, in linocut style representing various activities related to books and their production.

Contents page. 11 chapters, each covering a different aspect of printing and book production and featuring one or two people connected with it. For example:

Printing: Wynkyn de Worde (d. 1534/5)
Binding: William Wildgoose (fl. 1617–26)
Paper: Nicolas-Louis Robert (1761–1828)

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Found on my phone while looking for something else. It was sent to me a few years ago. Det er på norsk, but you might be able to guess the gist of what's happening without knowing the language. "What is snowboard in English?"

Screenshot of an online chat in Norwegian. Two of the participants want to know what the English equivalent of the Norwegian word "snowboard" is. Those of the others who aren't laughing are trying to tell them that it's exactly the same in English, but their message is not getting across. At all.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

A few forms of "enough". The full list in the OED entry is several times as long. Thankfully "enoȝ" *is* one of them. These are just ones from Middle English.

If I counted correctly, 101 variants of "enough" used in Middle English, many looking quite outlandish to modern eyes

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026

Vindicated! Mediæval. (And on another page, archæology.) (Change it to mediaeval and then medieval, and next thing you're missing a whole syllable out and saying "medeval".) Admittedly the dictionary is from 1923, but I won't mention that.

Column of entries from Cassell's English Dictionary, 1923, including an entry for "mediæval" using the character æ.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/06/2026

Comparison with 2022. The peak with the blob on top is the 103°F forecast for July 11th this year. The fainter, slightly lower one is the insanely hot (102°F) day we had in 2022. (Just Fahrenheit this time. I'm getting tired of doing everything twice.)

Temperature graph for 2026 up to July 12th (actual temperatures so far plus 15 days of forecast), overlaid on the equivalent graph for the whole of 2022.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/06/2026

Just when it's starting to "cool" down a bit, I look at the 15-day forecast . . . 😬

Temperature graphs (and various other details) for the next 15 days. Daytime temperatures are around 21–22 °C for the first 9 days, but then start climbing, peaking at 39 °C on July 11th.

Temperature graphs (and various other details) for the next 15 days. Daytime temperatures are around 66–72 °F for the first 9 days, but then start climbing, peaking at 103 °F on July 11th.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/04/2026

@futurebird Is it anything to do with this?

A pack of 16 AAA batteries. It has a prominent yellow sticker bearing the words:

Security Protected

Please remove prior to putting in microwave

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/12/2025

[Alt-text is quite long and largely in Middle English.] English spelling has definitely gone downhill since 1400. #MiddleEnglish #OED #language

Part of the OED entry for "ablative", with examples from 1400 to 1612. The spelling is a thing of beauty.

c 1400 When we haf a reson witouten a verbe we sal sette it in þe ablatif case absolute.

c 1450 What case wyll the comparatyf degre haue aftur hym? An ablatyf case of eyther noumbre wythoute a preposicion.

a 1504 All adiectyues in the plurel nombre hath one voyce for all gendres in the datyf and the ablatyf case.

1520 Somtyme hit is put in the ablatyue case absolute.

1612 A. The Ablatiue case absolute. Q. What meane you by absolute? A. Without other gouernment.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/11/2025

Um. Spending less than £10 for a "128 GB" "Sandisk" MicroSD card wasn't a good idea, was it? (Worse, I got two and they're both the same.) And since the cards are presumably either fake or rejects, I don't think I should treat them as safely usable 96 GB ones either.

Windows "prooerties" dialog box for one of the cards. The capacity is shown as 87.8 GB. Usually it's 119 GB, so this is 31 GB less than it should be.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2025

Well. I never thought I'd need to add the third of these, but it's just happened. Somehow the "u" takes it over the line from painfully annoying to excruciating. (I hate these phrases so much. Using any of them kills the funniest of jokes stone dead in a […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Screenshot of a filter:

Pun wrecking

3 keywords
see what I did there, see what you did there, see what u did there

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