Trivia

First, Nancy Pelosi might be a good thing, but she is 80 and it is perhaps time that she stood down from first line diplomacy, particularly in a tricky area. One fight at a time.

Second, it would be better for the Conservative party (but worse for the Labour party) if Sunak were to concede to the truss at this point, thus avoiding a unseemly campaign, discreditable to all concerned, not to say the country at large. But will he? Would the truss do a deal to put him back in some big job?

Third, this year's triffids, last noticed at reference 1, expired while we were on holiday. They couldn't take the combination of heat and drought on offer. Overall rating: germination good, subsequent growth poor.

Fourth, there was a particularly egregious display of bad - not to say dangerous - behaviour by a cyclist in Epsom town centre this morning. All done up with helmet and Lycra, almost certainly a young or youngish man, sailing through at what seemed like about 30mph without any regard for the traffic lights at all. One startled elderly couple in the process of crossing at one of them.

Fifth, the hole noticed at reference 2 was filled yesterday morning, rather than Tuesday morning coming. We learn from neighbours that there has been a bit of watery activity in the area over the past few days, so perhaps we were lucky, getting onto the list just before it went into action.

Sixth and last, a fine display of gnomery on the Chessington Road, between the Ruxley Lane turning and Ewell West. Clearly a place to visit when we have suitable visitors.

PS 1: it seems that that valence of egregious was good rather than bad as little as 300 years ago. From the Latin for standing out from the flock - which is literally neutral. The standing out could be for a good quality or a bad quality, a good reason or a bad reason - or even something which was neither good nor bad. An accident. From where I had associated, wrongly, to the behaviour of the earth's magnetic field.

PS 2: the next day. More carelessness. I had read the dragon sign as 'nest' rather than 'fury' and only noticed my error this morning. Alternatively, another puzzle for my personal analyst to sort out for me: why this particular substitution?

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/week-five-plus.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/07/service.html.

Group search keys: tff, dragon, dragons, nest, fury.