not li'l lord at the New Monkey Enclosure with Big Jim.

since roly, bless him, likes the

dreich rainy sleet wind dragon

which is: --november, finland--

then that's good enough for me too.

and "brown squirrels" are red squirrels, it turns out

Aha. Ground squirrels hibernate, tree squirrels live in trees and don't hibernate and their home is called a nest and is either made in a tree-hollow or from leaves and has an escape route in case of attack.

And tree squirrels are not "true hibernators". Maybe because although they hide from the cold in their snug wee nests they don't have the same fat-burning and sleep patterns as the gophers. <-- a made up explanation, deckchair rating:

plausible to most non-botanists

Also interesting to note is that much as their saskatchewan cousins do hibernate in winter, so desert ground squirrels go into torpor marky paws mode to escape the summer, and that this analogous summer process is called:

estivation

But is the ground burrow only valid for gophers (ground squirrels)?

What about flying squirrels, do they have cloud-burrows?

Or grey or brown squirrels?

getting tricky again.

there we go, squirrel questions answered by this helpful page on the Saskatchewan schools website (Canada).

So they live in dens or burrows which they make in the ground.

They must do that work in the summer, since they hibernate and since ground is easier to burrow when it's not frozen. (<-- a corollary).

Where do squirrels live?

"In the woods". As joey says in that friends-sketch. but does the hibernating place have a name? And is it a hollowed out area of a tree or what?

Not much infallible omniscience surrounding squirrels right now. check the internet to see if it has something to say on this question.

Subject: the greatest footballer around today

is: Zinedine Zidane. Not just my opinion either.

You have to wonder at Ericsson's judgement/agenda, not including Zizou in his top three.


Ode to Zizou
----------------

Zidane hovers
craftily
balanced yet
unbalancing
disruptive yet
complete


----------------


Alex Ferguson on my choice for "best English player" (Paul Scholes):

"even when we're winning we miss him".

been here in the office for 6 hours already. plus train journey. plus walk to station plus bleary-eyed stumbling around trying to get dressed, minimise bad hair start, not iron anything, not have time or ingredients for breakfast.

oh, floor
get down
be ready
let me resume my life of leizhure

tired. up at 7am. not a deckchair start time. can't escape home for mid-afternoon nap either.

all this just for a new floor. when will normal working hours resume? no long sleep till thursday morning.

time to see what Teacakes is up to

Stuttgart v Chelsea
Porto v Manchester United
Real Sociedad v Lyon
Celta Vigo v Arsenal
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
Sparta Prague v Milan
Deportivo la Coruna v Juventus
Lokomotiv Moscow v Monaco

Porto are quite good so that's ok.

Hopefully the custom of referring to football teams in the plural will survive the conspiracy to use "is". "Porto is quite good" - removes the sense of a team being a group of many people.

Save us from the "soccer" conspiracy too. We play football, with our feet.

JimF has just enlightened me on his use and etymology of the phrase: "I don't say anything". Something about Hemingway starting it and Bret Easton Ellis taking it and overusing it.

I haven't read anything by this Ellis guy, so i'm unable to comment infallibly on this information. So, official Deckchair Rating:

Plausible

Champions League draw underway...

Let's hope for Man U v. Brazil. Or at least Bayern, anything to make them a little less smug...

oh, Scott Murray has the wrong time for the draw. A very funny "minute-by-minute" report writer. As is Sean Ingle.

So there we have it, a blog commentary on the stylistics of some exponents of the minute-by-minute form of bloggery. Wow, the metapossibilities of the media age are really washing over me now. It's great yeah.

Infallibility should make an appearance now and then. Especially given that the Deckchair Master knows so many practitioners, and is or can be one of them, though with those gaps of ambiguity beginning to yawn ever larger, and Andy, ever larger, beginning to yawn.

At this point i would like to declare my debt to Tommi Chops - for the infallibility shown and developed, not to mention visionary support and active thoughtfulness.

And to Stu, for showing by doing the noble ways to live.

And of course thanks to andy. thanks petal - hope we're having all the luck we need.

So i suppose we'll see if this "Blogging" thing is a means or more of an end in terms of the Deckchair Approach.

strategic and practical approach to getting through the working day with minimal effort and maximum efficiency, efficacy, and so on?