Once Works Well was pure technology. Now it seeks merely to divert.
Pansy subjects - Verse! Opera! Domestic trivia! - are now commonplace.
The 300-word limit for posts is retained. The ego is enlarged

Tuesday 26 October 2010

Dreaming all the while of Hobe Sound

Oh joy! All the way from Hobe Sound, Florida (An address, I suspect, more glamorous than the place itself.) comes my XXXL Super Soft Henley nightshirt, coloured Forest Green and made in India. Discovered by The Crow who from now on can fulfil all my clothing needs.

As the arms suggest a US XXXL is a mite bigger than a British XXXL and covers the body weight range 251 – 310 lb (18 – 22.14 stones). To Rouchswalwe’s chagrin the Henley’s neckline plunges deeply enough to make undoing the cleavage buttons unnecessary. And before anyone concludes Yorkshire people go to bed in their socks this was purely a photographic session, thanks to Occasional Speeder. Mrs BB is broadly favourable and says I’m welcome to her bed thus clothed.

The PJs were unearthed at La Redoute, the mail-order company, by OS some days after The Crow’s email about Wittmann Textiles. My thanks to everyone whose spirited responses temporarily boosted declining interest in Works Well.

WORKS WELL’S WORLD Looked at your blog’s statistics recently? There’s a facility for eliminating the owner’s own hits, so who were the 36 others flitting untraceably through WW yesterday when only one comment was logged in? Odder still is a list of five of my posts, the oldest dating back July 29, 2008. These appear to be random and four record very modest numbers of pageviews, well below the average of 12 for all posts since WW was born. A world map reveals WW’s limited (but very select) audience with a tiny blob just south of Alaska; brief reflection identifies this as Vancouver, home of Marja-Leena , a very early WW link.

15 comments:

Sir Hugh said...

What are the elbow patches for?

The Crow said...

The Henley needs a teddy bear, tucked between right elbow bend and belly curve...a ginger colored bear, I'm thinking.

OS's jammies are a nice fit, and look very comfortable, to boot.

I visit frequently, usually during slow times at work, about the only time I have right now to sit and read. Don't always have time to respond, but I read what you write from beginning to end.

Allan Lloyd said...

Well, um, okay, yeah, I admit that I was there yesterday, but I can also prove I was home at the time. I have nothing else to say, so can I go now?

marja-leena said...

Hah, just south of Alaska am I? Never thought of it quite that way. I always wonder if readers, like me, who read the posts via the RSS feed are recognized by the stats. Of course, if I comment, I go right on the blog, so that's two hits.

Comfy nightshirt and PJs - should give you sweet dreams!

Julia said...

If you see someone from South Carolina, that's me on holiday, ducking in between crazy whirls of relative visits (so far, 70 or so sighted). I promise to catch up when back in Prague. Rumor has it the weather there is much more conducive to blog visiting.

Roderick Robinson said...

Sir Hugh: I assume they're for those who play snooker in their PJs. Except they're not perfectly positioned. Perhaps billiards, then.

The Crow: I associate adult male interest in teddy bears with sexual perversion. For all I know I may be a pervie but I'm not going to flag it in such an obvious way. Did a night in the nightshirt and found it "ruckled" (one of my mother's words) up so at some stage it will have to be trimmed into a PJ top. A pity. The fabric is soft and a good insulator and I quite like wearing it wandering round the house composing sonnets. However, yesterday evening was DVD rental delivery (The guy does designer stubble and is part of a macho golfing group) and I didn't care to open the door so garmented.

I wasn't really grumbling about the mysterious 35, just surprised. You might try reading my posts from the end to the beginning instead, it may improve them. I should never complain about lack of reader interest - it is quite clear where the solution lies.

FigMince: No you can't go home. I identify you as Keyser Söze and claim $A25 from the Brisbane Courier.

M-L: So techie of you - RSS feeds and all that. I Googled them and am still none the wiser. However I wonder if it's time I did something for humanity in the wider sense. Anyone visiting my profile will see that under Blogs I Follow there's a big fat zero. And yet it must be clear to some of you out there that there are blogs I follow - quite assiduously. Perhaps I should admit to this and be specific.

Julia: Seventy, that's a lot. Using my fingers and toes I might be able to come up with half that figure but I fear I apply a rather more pragmatic attitude. Just because I'm related to them doesn't mean to say I have to like them.

herhimnbryn said...

Hurrah! Now I feel you should find yourself a sleeping cap a la Ebenezer Scrooge.

Avus said...

You are always one of the first on my visit list, BBB and always perused and pondered. However, I only announce myself if I have anything to say.

I can understand your reluctance about meeting folk on the doorstep so clad. Back in the heady early '70s I seem to remember a dark green kaftan that I wore, relaxing, about the house - but I never answered the door in it.

Roderick Robinson said...

HHB: The resemblances with Scrooge don't end there.

Avus: It must have seemed as if I was whingeing. I wasn't. I appreciate -and am astonished by - the responses I get. And, as I said to the Crow, if the responses fall off the most likely fault is at this end, not out there.

I'm interested that we share some of the same reluctances about clothing. I'm off to a Bach concert this evening and I guarantee I will be the shabbiest person in the audience. This is not accidental. I need to be comfortable when listening to music and I like to be seen taking a stand in the interests of comfort.

Unknown said...

Both garments seem to have the potential to be worn all the time -infinitely comfortable and without a doubt respectable. The gown would not be out of place in The Bloggers Retreat. Hey, that isn't a challenge!

Hattie said...

I hope you are not really decapitated but just shy.
Nice jammies.

Rouchswalwe said...

Oh! The colour is wonderful. Deep, rich like an autumn night. The roomy sleeves and V-neck are very nice. Worth the wait!
There just aren't enough hours in the day here at this end, but the blogs help keep me going and I read them when I can. I just don't always have the brain power to leave a lucid comment, so figure that silence is preferable to quatsch.

Roderick Robinson said...

Plutarch: I never respond to challenges anyway.

Hattie: Decapitation was intentional. If I can't attract interest by what I write, I am unlikely to do it by revealing my face.

RW (zS): Oh cor, I wasn't accusing anyone. In fact, given what I know about your domestic situation, I order you to take two-week break from Works Well (although, heh-heh, I can't guarantee there won't be references to you.)

Lucy said...

Very nice, I hope you are not going to cut it down or anything like that. A teddy bear might also indicate a posh alcoholic of the Sebastian Flyte type, but you'd probably rather be thought a pervert.

I am happy to say that yours is consistently one of my main referring URLs. The post that gets more visits by miles than any other, both on a weekly and all time basis, is the guest post my brother wrote about cats ages ago. This is rather puzzling, I can only assume their are cat lovers glued to their screens day and night googling 'cats' and trawling through the billions of results they get. It kind of annoys me a bit, and I'm almost inclined to take it down just to spite them, but can't quite bring myself to, because a) that would be unfair on my bro, and b) it would about cut my stats down by half.

An interesting blip in the system was revealed to me by chance. Go to settings and turn on the 'show links to this post' function - I can't remember quite where it is but it's not difficult to find. Nothing seems to happen except, when you next post, before you publish the post, preview it (this may not be an option if you are on the old post editor, mind...) and at the end of the previewed post you will find links back to everyone who has linked to your blog in the past. Fascinating, people I never know existed! However, no one who specifically linked to the 'cats' post, so the mystery not solved.

Roderick Robinson said...

Lucy: Apart from the fact that people condemned to burn at the stake (eg, The Name of the Rose) wore something similar, there is this further problem of "ruckling up" when I slide under the bedclothes. I taxed Mrs BB on the matter and she says she doesn't care (about her nightdresss ruckling up) but I fear this may turn out to be a deal-breaker for me. The matter is probably psycho-pathological and deeply embedded; as a school-child I was so keen to get into long trousers that I am now programmed to expect tubes of fabric round my legs. Nor, re the teddy, do I wish our connubial bed to become a threesome.

I am gratified by your WW visits and it must be more than obvious I reciprocate. To the point where I worry about importunacy (the noun doesn't exist but should). Thus when you do a mainly photos post I can sit back and remain silent, having already rung the carillon on this talent of yours enough in the past. I realise that photography is secondary to a pleasant walk and/or a visit to somewhere new but my greatest admiration was for that artfully cropped series you did on the modern buildings in some otherwise desolate industrial estate. Worthy of AJ.

The cats piece I remember and while it deserved attention, other posts have deserved more. As to the backwardly-spiralling links there's something similar to be obtained from clicking Comments in the behind-the-scenes user's access to the blog, the name of which I always forget.