Since when did anybody say "the proof is in the pudding"?

The saying is, and always has been, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating". Just so long as you understand that the word proof can mean "test" as well as "demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt" then that's fine.

The proof is in the pudding is, however, total nonsense.

Wow! Those cars were frankly terrible when they were introduced, but there are still people who want to buy a new one? Why would you do that?

And if this were anywhere outside the "civilized" west we'd have western campaigners wanting the practice banned.

That truck is clearly right hand drive. Why would a Russian truck be RHD?

I have to say that most of the truly competent women I know wear little or no makeup for work.

@Will L & @ted so what? It's still pretty damned clever.

I'd reach for the plasma cutter every time, but then I don't have to do small holes.

"The original Frankenstein’s monster wasn’t Boris Karloff -it was (believe it or not) a character created by a 19-year-old author named Mary Shelley …more than 190 years ago."

Oh now come on, surely everybody knows that?

Furthermore many scholars think that it was far from a solo effort. Many believe that it was a team effort for which Shelley was given the credit.

Whoops missed a bit, that should have read:

"here in the UK to give incorrect information to the registrar when notifying a birth or death is an offcence"

@Sindigo I don't know about where you live, but here in the UK to give incorrect information to the registrar when notifying a birth or death. It would also be your parents responsibility to notify the registrar. So how did you end up with the wrong birth date on your certificate?

@algomeysa, except you don't know much biology do you. You'd be looking at a date of actual conception approximately two weeks later than January 31st. Or to put it another way, Valentines day.

Oh yeah, and @Biffswellington don't you get that inverse snobbery is as bad as snobbery. And what makes that sort of comment even more stupid is that cheese started out as peasant food.

Just picked this up so sorry I'm late to the party. "Boak" is a slang word I've only ever come across in the Emerald Isle. That and the handle would lead me to suspect that Paddywhack is an Irishman. So not British then.

Stange that people took so much offence at his comments. The way I read his post was to say that the problem with this processed cheese is not that it's necessarilly bad, but that it isn't actually cheese. I had a similar experience with milk. I was raised out in the country and the first time I tasted supermarket milk when visiting relatives I handed the glass back to my aunt because I thought there was something wrong with it. It simply wasn't what I thought of as milk. I got used to drinking it, but I still think of it as supermarket milk rather than milk. I remember my wife's reaction on tasting unpasterised milk, so it works both ways.

It's just like that reaction you get as a child the first time you taste lemonade. I remember handing a glass of lemonade to my son when he was small. You could tell from the look on his face that he had been expecting water and he got a totally different flavour and fizz too. He clearly did not like it. It wasn't long before it was his favourite drink.

I'm not saying that Pat above would end up thinking of "American Cheese" as his favourite cheese, but I'm sure he could get used to eating it if he tried it without expecting it to taste like farmhouse cheese.

That's really going to work isn't it? The likely reaction is that he has just made his business even more of a target.

My hamsters have always prefered a ball. They can steer that where they choose.

@Madbiker Wolf if you'd done any sort of research you would know how wrong you are.

For a start, although it is now generally accepted that when Hartnell changed to Troughton it was a regeneration, it has been stated in some official sources that this was not a regeneration, but a rejuventation. So there's one Doctor they can add to the apparent limit of 13.

From Troughton to Pertwee the timelords forced a "change of appearance" upon the Doctor. It wasn't referred to as a regeneration at the time, so the writers can use that to increase the number of Doctors to 15 should they so choose.

And of course we also know the Master ran out of regenerations and simply took over another body. So that would mean that in theory the Doctor could go on living forever simply by taking over a new body. And he was also offered a complete new cycle by the High Council. So the limit of 12 regenerations would not appear to be a natural one, but something imposed by the High Council. If you were a writer in need of a get out you could assume that there being no High Council there is no longer a limit to a time lord's regenerations.

We all know that the Doctor lies (rule one), but he claimed recently that he can regenerate 507 times. The Doctor is far from consistent in this respect. In the Five Doctors Hartnell's Doctor states that he is the original, but in the fourth Doctor adventure The Brain of Morbius during contest of the mind the Doctor generates images of what are apparently his previous incarnations. We see the three faces we are expecting and many more besides, suggesting that Hartnell's Doctor was perhaps not the original after all. Like many aspects of the lore of time lords this is never explained in the series.

When the fifth Doctor is almost convinced to give up his remaining regenerations to save his companions he says he would cease to be a time lord as a result. Before River Song gives up her remaining regenerations to save the Doctor it is stated that the Doctor's regenerative cycle was suspended. It is not explained whether, as a result of River's intervention, the Doctor's regenerative cycle has been restored and whether or not the Doctor has reveived River's ten remaining lives. Always assuming, of course, that River has the standard (if so it is) 13 lives. Only being part timelord she may have a different number of regenerations. As such we are now totally in the dark as to how many regenerations the Doctor has left - even if we accept that before Let's Kill Hitler he had two left (and I don't).

As an aside don't assume that "the fall of the eleventh" refers to the eleventh doctor. Nobody has clearly stated that it does, it could be many things. How about the fall of the Eleventh Cyber Legion, for example. Assume nothing.

Go back through the Doctor who canon and you will find all sorts of contradictions around the number of regenerations. If you include all the works which are not considered canonical there are many more. I could go on boring you with the detail, but I won't as I consider the point to be made. Nobody, not even you, knows how many times the doctor can regenerate.