Lies, damned lies, and...

Well, you know what comes next.

Statistics.

I really don't know why I have it in my head that that phrase was coined by the Duke of Wellington whereas I really know full well that it was Mark Twain.  Not that it matters one jot - for the purposes of today's blether - who coined the phrase.  It just seems apt if it were the noble Duke, the victor of Waterloo, the anniversary of which battle occurs tomorrow.  But enough.

In a few idle moments before lunch this morning I was glancing back at my blog to see what I was blethering on about this time last year, and the year before, and the year before that.  Now, I'm not one for turning up the stats very often.  I know that there are a small handful of people who hang on every word I write sometimes check in to see what crap in spewing from my brain, but on this day last year - or maybe it was the year before - or maybe it was another day completely.  Anyway, I nearly fell off my chair when I spotted that one post had attracted no fewer than 1098 page views!  On checking out the post, I rather wished I had not written it as it smacked a little of self-pity.  But the second half was a little amusing and I will repeat it here for the benefit of those who missed it the first time round (which I now find was in August 2012).  Here it is:

It's quite common to see signs warning of new road layouts when there has been no change in the road for two years or more.  Both in England and in France one sees signs on motorways advising that services are now fully open or there is a new restaurant.  Those signs seem to stay there for years and years.  But this must be one of the oldest obsolete signs in the country if not the world.  It dates from 1828 and is on the bridge at Sturminster Newton, Dorset.

Pic by Steinsky from Wikipedia.