14 Comments on “Heroic Thinkers and Gardeners”   rss feed

1. Mugizi Rwebangira on Oct 17th, 2005 at 10:49 am

   On a somewhat related note, I recently saw Serenity (by Joss Whedon of Buffy and Angel fame) and I really enjoyed it.

   Contrary to what some people think, you do NOT need to know any background before you see it as everything relevant from the TV show is explicated.

   Longer(but spoiler free) review on my blog.

   I am not sure if I would really call it sci-fi, but if you’re a sci-fi fan I think you’ll like it.

2. janet on Oct 17th, 2005 at 2:40 pm

   I went to see Curse of the Were-Rabbit with some friends while my husband was away on a work-related trip, but I told him that I was sure I would be happy to see it with him again. So far, though, we’ve been foiled in our attempts to see it: the first time we mis-read the theater schedule and arrived too late, and the second time we got there just before showtime, only to find out that it was sold out. (This at our tiny local theater that has couches instead of regular seats and has “baby night” on Tuesdays — a fine custom that allows parents of young babies to get out to see a movie without annoying unsuspecting child-free movie-goers.)

   I asked our local cheese-monger about Stinking Bishop, and he said that he doesn’t carry it, but that he’s tasted it. It sounds kind of like the durien of cheeses: if you can endure the smell and the texture to get some in your mouth, it tastes really good, and can even be addictive.

3. SteveM on Oct 17th, 2005 at 5:26 pm

   lol. Yes, that’s my idea of a humane rodent trap:) How does it work? Knowing Wallace and Gromit it will probably be pure genius of course.

4. Clifford on Oct 17th, 2005 at 5:31 pm

   SteveM: Funny that we were talking about that on the other post just hours before, eh? I had no idea that was what the film was about, so when they started talking about traps and whether they were humane or not, I had to work hard not to laugh out loud in the movie theatre at the irony. It’s worth seeing. The attempt at a solution to the problem does not involve black holes, but is still quite amusing….

   Cheers.

   -cvj

5. janet on Oct 18th, 2005 at 1:22 pm

   I just wanted to note that all animated characters seem to knit Continental style, rather than English.

6. Clifford on Oct 18th, 2005 at 8:14 pm

   janet.. might you expand a bit? Not sure what you mean. Are you talking abotu the knitting patterns on Wallace’s jumper? no….

   -cvj

7. janet on Oct 18th, 2005 at 11:02 pm

   Sorry, I guess that was a bit obscure. I was thinking of the scene where Gromit is sitting in the truck, nervously knitting. It reminded me of the scenes in “The Triplets of Belleville” (don’t know if you’ve seen it) where the grandmother is sitting and worriedly knitting.

   Anyway, when you’re knitting English style, the yarn is held in the right hand, and you make each stitch by wrapping the yarn around the right needle. Knitting Continental, you hold the yarn in the left hand, using one finger to hold it taut, and make each stitch by wrapping the tip of the right needle around the yarn. There’s more to it than that, obviously, but that’s the basic difference. (The results are essentially the same — you can’t tell from looking at a piece of knitting which method was used.) English is easier for most people when they’re just starting out, but Continental, once you learn how, is more efficient and faster because you don’t have to move your right hand from the needle to the yarn and back again for each stitch. Gromit must have been knitting Continental because he was keeping his paws on the needles; if he’d been knitting English, his right paw would have been moving around visibly. Same thing with the grandmother in the Triplets of Belleville.

   But I’m being a bit facetious — I doubt that the animators had any of this in mind.

8. Clifford on Oct 18th, 2005 at 11:07 pm

   Ah! I see. I actually have been known to knit from time to time, and I did not know there was a continental style!

   But I much prefer crochet. I love it, in fact. Wish I had time for it these days.

   -cvj

   P.S. I love “Belleville Rendevous”, or “The Triplets of Belleville” (see our earlier chat about title changes….).

9. janet on Oct 18th, 2005 at 11:56 pm

   Yes, I don’t know why they changed the title of “Belleville”; I gather in Britain it came out with the title directly translated from the French. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I realize Gromit and the Belleville Rendezvous grandmother have in common. They don’t speak, but communicate volumes; they’re loyal and determined; they’re extremely competent in the midst of chaos and confusion.

   I have a long public transport commute, and I sometimes spend all or part of it knitting (right now I’m working on a tea cosy — I’m sure Gromit would approve). My commute is my reading and knitting time, and on the occasional days when I drive to work, I really miss it. My grandmother taught me to crochet, but I haven’t done any crocheting since I was about 10, so I think I would have to relearn how to do it.

10. Clifford on Oct 19th, 2005 at 12:12 am

    Oh, you’ll pick it right back up in no time. It’s got a great structure to how it works and I like the fact that you don’t need two separate needles (like with knitting), just the one hook…..even with the clever double-ended single-needle devices for knitting, I’m less attracted to it for that reason. Although it is rather nice too.

    The other one I miss is macrame. That was great too. But crochet is the best for rapidly spreading spirals or other symmetrical decorative patterns. I think maybe I’ll just take a month off one day and hide and do nothing but crochet. Ahhhh…..I just love the thought of doing that.

    Your observation about Gromit and Grandma is spot on!

    -cvj

11. janet on Oct 19th, 2005 at 11:06 am

    Clifford — It just occurred to me that you would probably love this:

    http://www.maa.org/mathland/mathtrek_04_19_04.html

12. Clifford on Oct 21st, 2005 at 12:22 am

    janet: Thanks, it was great! -cvj

13. Athena on Oct 21st, 2005 at 10:53 pm

    Janet, that link was great, and it reminded me of this way to knit stripes:

    http://www.fuzzygalore.biz/articles/fibonacci_seq.shtml

    If you’re into knitting with different colors, using a Fibonacci sequence can be a fun way to vary the pattern.

14. Pingback from Big Ears | Cosmic Variance on May 26th, 2006 at 7:10 pm

    [...] I hope you’ve seen the Wallace and Gromit movie “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit”. W+G have to catch a giant rabbit, which has been terrorizing lots of English vegetable gardens, etc, etc. Mayhem follows, and much hilarity, all very cleverly executed…. I blogged about it some time ago, and you can see some of the pictures of the models and sets that they had on display at the showing in that post too. [...]

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