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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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LONDON (Reuters) - More than 200 years after they went out of fashion in Britain, professional hermits are back in the job market A newspaper advertisement seeking a resident hermit for the stately Shugborough Home in Staffordshire, central England, has prompted a flood of replies from men eager to ditch stressed-out modern life for a spot of peaceful cave-dwelling. "There have been a few hermits in Britain since their heyday but they've usually just been recluses and loners. This is the first time the job of a resident hermit has been advertised in more than 250 years," organizer Corinne Caddy told the Daily Express.
"(We) have been stunned by the number of applications we have received. It seems there are lots of people out there who just want to be a professional hermit," she said.
The successful applicant will be expected to live in a cave on the grounds of the estate and abandon human contact, except for scaring visitors -- and will probably have to give up shaving and bathing as well.
Artist Anna Douglas, who came up with the idea to highlight National Heritage Week, told the paper that it had been very fashionable in the 18th century to have a hermit living in a remote corner of an estate.
Hermits were always men and were paid handsomely in return for being tied to a five-year contract.
"We are keen to see whether we can recreate this fashion and whether people are equally eager to escape from the pressures of everyday life as they were in the 18th century," Douglas said.
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OK UKrs. Here's your chance.
TEd
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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This is all very well, TEd, but I need more information before I apply:
First, about the cave - is it hermitically sealed?
The advert also begs the question of whether or not I provide my own bowl.
Will my shirt be hair conditioned?
If I get the sack, what happens to my sack-cloth?
If I'm to live in solitude, who is to sign my time-sheet?
Which Union negotiates my pay and conditioning?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Which Union negotiates my pay and conditioning?
wouldn't that be The Union, Jack?!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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You guys are a barrel of laughs.  What I wanna know is, who's gonna complete the limerick? And thanks, TEd, for validating this news in black and white. We heard it on the radio (NPR, of course [ahem]) this morning but it was too early to take in fully....
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I think they only negotiate for the hermits who sit at the top of flag poles.
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Who had a dead whore in his cave
She was rotten as hell
And beginning to smell,
but think of the money he'd save.
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'd give you a styli(t)zed response, but I don't want you kept up in the air. You'll just have to sleep without a pillar.
I think you get the essenes of where this is going.
TEd
PS
"begs the question"???
Ahem!
TR
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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"begs the question"???
Ahem!
Arright. Let's hear a definition of beg that fits what you want it to mean in the phrase begging the question and then show another common use of that definition.
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veteran
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veteran
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Hmmm, couldn't find many backup references, TEd - even the BBC let me down. Don't know what I pay my license fee for!  However, Ananova ( http://makeashorterlink.com/?N2BA12971) provides a little further information - notably that hermits are "usually actors", and that the job is advertised in the luvvies' rag, The Stage. I'm sure that "hermit actor" is an oxymoron; but I might be thinking epsilon minus semi-moron.  Have to say I'd enjoy the scaring people bit. Only those pesky kids and their dog would be bound to spoil it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hermits were always men and were paid handsomely
And if the man was ugly?...
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