Mother o' god

First chortle of the morning: apparently you can get a Virtual Rosary for the Palm Pilot! You tap on one of the beads and an illustrated prayer appears. When you're finished you tap the "Amen" button.

Read all about it. Or go to the Virtual Rosary website. Or to the Palm review at Catholicmothers.com.

(Disclaimer: I've nothing against prayer. I just find the idea of tapping an "Amen" button screamingly funny.)

Bally elephant wouldn't die

I bought my new phone on 24 April - that is, two weeks ago today - and it's only now beginning to complain of hunger. (It's been whimpering "Mum! Battery Lo-owww!" since this morning, but as of this writing it aten't dead.)

Truly, technology has moved on since I last upgraded.

Words you will never need, no. 13243

Never let it be said that my work is irrelevant! From today's proof: homoioteleuton.

Anyone? Anyone?

Yes, that's right, it's the phenomenon of similar endings in words that are near each other or that perform parallel functions in a sentence. It can cause havoc in your medieval scribal workshop, you see, as the scribe's attention alternates between original and copy, leading to skipped phrases and all sorts of carry on.

Read all about it.