The coalman finally arrived today, so now I have a quarter of a ton of the beautiful black stuff looking resplendent in its bay in the shed. That should last me 6-8 weeks.
It was very well timed*. The weather has turned a lot milder today. The snow is melting rapidly and it’s even raining. But they do say it’s going to turn much colder again from Monday, so it’s nice to know I don’t have to ration the coal when it does.
And a revelation: I had an unusually high number of visits overnight, and Feedjit tells me that at least three of them found me by searching ‘mighty fuehrer of the sausage people,’ or similar wording. I was under the impression that I’d been made privy to a little-known fact, but it seems the phrase is better known than I thought. That’s the problem with standing apart from the world and observing it. You get a much better overview that way, and sometimes see some surprising things, but occasionally you miss the odd detail here and there.
*This is an ironic statement, in case you didn't know.
8 comments:
Yay! I thought about you and your coal yesterday. A train carrying tons and tons of coal passes by my house numerous times a day. I'll post a pic on my blog to show you how close it is.
Oh yeah... funny stuff about the sausages and weiners... i mean fuhrers.. i mean penises...
I remember when I was a kid that coal sometimes used to come in big lumps three or four times the size of a baseball. One of my jobs was to take a hammer and break it into smaller pieces so it would burn better. I didn't have a suit with arrows on, though.
I think I'll make a post about that word beginning with 'p.' Never liked it.
Hooray for coal! You can now be (somewhat) warm!
I do miss coal fires. I don't know a single person who burns coal in the states. We always had coal with turf in Ireland, and the smell and warmth of it is quite possibly one of the biggest things that I miss.
The burning of coal is largely restricted to the countryside now in Britain. New houses have been built without chimneys for at least forty years, and older houses in urban areas have mostly had their chimneys blocked. Those few that survive have to use 'smokeless' fuel by law, which is very expensive.
It's largely the same here. I don't know what the restrictions on coal are, but I know that most houses in cities are built without hearths now. There are a lot of old early 1900's/late 1800's apartments around school, beautiful old buildings and rooms, that have nice, big stone and brick fireplaces, but law prohibits the use of fireplaces in multi-family housing.
Is the "smokeless fuel" the same as the briquettes in Ireland (which are basically very densely machine-compressed turf) or are they the little fake-coal-looking-things? I refuse to live in a home without a hearth, there's nothing like it in the winter.
Smokeless fuel is real coal that’s undergone a process to remove large quantities of something-or-other. Tar, I expect. The result is that it burns with very little smoke. The law was introduced back in the 60’s I think, in response to illnesses and even deaths caused by smog (smoke+fog) that used to be common in densely packed towns and cities. These are the famous London ‘pea soupers.’ The two together produce a chemical reaction that can be highly injurious to health (I think it has something to do with sulphuric acid.) It’s a lot more expensive than ordinary coal, but fortunately the law doesn’t apply in the countryside where dwellings are much more scattered.
Interesting that you use the generic term ‘hearth,’ whereas we would use ‘fireplace.’ I have a theory! Another one?!
Interesting! I never knew. Sounds like a good reason for outlawing it to me.
Hearth sounds more homey. I see fireplace as the actual thing-the hole in the wall where you put fuel to burn, while hearth seems to have more of the intangible qualities of a fireplace attached to it. Here goes my brain working in it's own little way.
níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin
There's no hearth like your own hearth.
Theories are welcome!
It's the other way round with us. The generic term is 'fireplace' because it's a place to have a fire.
It seems to me that 'fireplace' is the more pragmatic choice - maybe that's more typical Anglo-Saxon. Using 'hearth' as the generic term feels more centred on the idea of family, since the hearth is the bit that juts into the room, and around which the family gather at night. Hence, 'hearth' suggests a mentality more focussed on people, whereas 'fireplace' is more focussed on function.
That's my theory, for what it's worth.
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