REMEMBER the panic over the "millennium bug", when computers everywhere were expected to go haywire on January 1st, 2000, thanks to the way a lot of old software used just two digits to represent the year instead of four? Doomsters predicted all sorts of errors in calculations involving dates when the clocks rolled over from 99 to 00. In the event, the millennium dawned without incident. That may have been because of the draconian preparations undertaken beforehand. Or perhaps, as many suspected, the problem was grossly exaggerated in the first place, as it often happens. Certainly, the computer industry made a packet out of all the panic-⁠buying of new hardware and software in the months leading up to the new millennium. And who would blame them for this? Business is business.

Well, something similar is about to happen in the months ahead. This time, the issue concerns the exhaustion of Internet addresses  — those four numbers ranging from 0 to 255 separated by dots that uniquely identify every device attached to the Internet. According to Hurricane Electric, an Internet backbone and services provider based in Fremont, California, the Internet will run out of bulk IP addresses sometime next week  — given the rate addresses are currently being gobbled up.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) will then have doled out all its so-⁠called "slash-⁠eight" blocks of addresses to the five regional Internet registries around the world. In turn, the registries are expected to have allocated all their remaining addresses to local network operators by October at the latest. After that, any organization applying for new addresses will be told, "Sorry, none left".

The issue is real and has been a long time in the making. The Economist first warned about it ten years ago. The problem concerns the address space of the existing version of the Internet protocol (IPv4), which is only 32 bits wide. The total number of binary addresses possible with such an arrangement is 4.3 billion. Back in the 1980s, when the Internet connected just a couple of dozen research institutes in America, that seemed like a huge number. Besides, the Internet was thought at the time to be just a temporary network anyway.

But with the invention of the Web in 1990 came an explosion in popular demand. It was soon clear that it was only a matter of time before the Internet would exhaust its supply of addresses. Work on a replacement for IPv4 began in the early 1990s, with IPv6 finally being made available around 1998. By giving the new internet version an address space of 128 bits, the designers pretty well guaranteed that it would not run out of unique identifiers for decades, or even centuries, to come.

Two raised to the 128th power is an astronomical number. That will come in handy when the "Internet of things" becomes a reality. Already, some two billion people have access to the Internet. Add all the televisions, phones, cars and household appliances that are currently being given Internet access  — plus, eventually, every book, pill case and item of inventory as well  — and a world or two of addresses could easily be accounted for. And yet, the solution of any problem begins with its verbalization. We are forewarned and it means  — forearmed.

REMEMBER the panic over the "millennium bug", when computers everywhere were expected to go haywire on January 1st, 2000, thanks to the way a lot of old software used just two digits to represent the year instead of four? Doomsters predicted all sorts of errors in calculations involving dates when the clocks rolled over from 99 to 00. In the event, the millennium dawned without incident. That may have been because of the draconian preparations undertaken beforehand. Or perhaps, as many suspected, the problem was grossly exaggerated in the first place, as it often happens. Certainly, the computer industry made a packet out of all the panic-⁠buying of new hardware and software in the months leading up to the new millennium. And who would blame them for this? Business is business.

Well, something similar is about to happen in the months ahead. This time, the issue concerns the exhaustion of Internet addresses  — those four numbers ranging from 0 to 255 separated by dots that uniquely identify every device attached to the Internet. According to Hurricane Electric, an Internet backbone and services provider based in Fremont, California, the Internet will run out of bulk IP addresses sometime next week  — given the rate addresses are currently being gobbled up.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) will then have doled out all its so-⁠called "slash-⁠eight" blocks of addresses to the five regional Internet registries around the world. In turn, the registries are expected to have allocated all their remaining addresses to local network operators by October at the latest. After that, any organization applying for new addresses will be told, "Sorry, none left".

The issue is real and has been a long time in the making. The Economist first warned about it ten years ago. The problem concerns the address space of the existing version of the Internet protocol (IPv4), which is only 32 bits wide. The total number of binary addresses possible with such an arrangement is 4.3 billion. Back in the 1980s, when the Internet connected just a couple of dozen research institutes in America, that seemed like a huge number. Besides, the Internet was thought at the time to be just a temporary network anyway.

But with the invention of the Web in 1990 came an explosion in popular demand. It was soon clear that it was only a matter of time before the Internet would exhaust its supply of addresses. Work on a replacement for IPv4 began in the early 1990s, with IPv6 finally being made available around 1998. By giving the new internet version an address space of 128 bits, the designers pretty well guaranteed that it would not run out of unique identifiers for decades, or even centuries, to come.

Two raised to the 128th power is an astronomical number. That will come in handy when the "Internet of things" becomes a reality. Already, some two billion people have access to the Internet. Add all the televisions, phones, cars and household appliances that are currently being given Internet access  — plus, eventually, every book, pill case and item of inventory as well  — and a world or two of addresses could easily be accounted for. And yet, the solution of any problem begins with its verbalization. We are forewarned and it means  — forearmed.

REMEMBER the panic over the "millennium bug", when computers everywhere were expected to go haywire on January 1st, 2000, thanks to the way a lot of old software used just two digits to represent the year instead of four? Doomsters predicted all sorts of errors in calculations involving dates when the clocks rolled over from 99 to 00. In the event, the millennium dawned without incident. That may have been because of the draconian preparations undertaken beforehand. Or perhaps, as many suspected, the problem was grossly exaggerated in the first place, as it often happens. Certainly, the computer industry made a packet out of all the panic-⁠buying of new hardware and software in the months leading up to the new millennium. And who would blame them for this? Business is business.

Well, something similar is about to happen in the months ahead. This time, the issue concerns the exhaustion of Internet addresses  — those four numbers ranging from 0 to 255 separated by dots that uniquely identify every device attached to the Internet. According to Hurricane Electric, an Internet backbone and services provider based in Fremont, California, the Internet will run out of bulk IP addresses sometime next week  — given the rate addresses are currently being gobbled up.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) will then have doled out all its so-⁠called "slash-⁠eight" blocks of addresses to the five regional Internet registries around the world. In turn, the registries are expected to have allocated all their remaining addresses to local network operators by October at the latest. After that, any organization applying for new addresses will be told, "Sorry, none left".

The issue is real and has been a long time in the making. The Economist first warned about it ten years ago. The problem concerns the address space of the existing version of the Internet protocol (IPv4), which is only 32 bits wide. The total number of binary addresses possible with such an arrangement is 4.3 billion. Back in the 1980s, when the Internet connected just a couple of dozen research institutes in America, that seemed like a huge number. Besides, the Internet was thought at the time to be just a temporary network anyway.

But with the invention of the Web in 1990 came an explosion in popular demand. It was soon clear that it was only a matter of time before the Internet would exhaust its supply of addresses. Work on a replacement for IPv4 began in the early 1990s, with IPv6 finally being made available around 1998. By giving the new internet version an address space of 128 bits, the designers pretty well guaranteed that it would not run out of unique identifiers for decades, or even centuries, to come.

Two raised to the 128th power is an astronomical number. That will come in handy when the "Internet of things" becomes a reality. Already, some two billion people have access to the Internet. Add all the televisions, phones, cars and household appliances that are currently being given Internet access  — plus, eventually, every book, pill case and item of inventory as well  — and a world or two of addresses could easily be accounted for. And yet, the solution of any problem begins with its verbalization. We are forewarned and it means  — forearmed.

REMEMBER the panic over the "millennium bug", when computers everywhere were expected to go haywire on January 1st, 2000, thanks to the way a lot of old software used just two digits to represent the year instead of four? Doomsters predicted all sorts of errors in calculations involving dates when the clocks rolled over from 99 to 00. In the event, the millennium dawned without incident. That may have been because of the draconian preparations undertaken beforehand. Or perhaps, as many suspected, the problem was grossly exaggerated in the first place, as it often happens. Certainly, the computer industry made a packet out of all the panic-⁠buying of new hardware and software in the months leading up to the new millennium. And who would blame them for this? Business is business.

Well, something similar is about to happen in the months ahead. This time, the issue concerns the exhaustion of Internet addresses  — those four numbers ranging from 0 to 255 separated by dots that uniquely identify every device attached to the Internet. According to Hurricane Electric, an Internet backbone and services provider based in Fremont, California, the Internet will run out of bulk IP addresses sometime next week  — given the rate addresses are currently being gobbled up.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) will then have doled out all its so-⁠called "slash-⁠eight" blocks of addresses to the five regional Internet registries around the world. In turn, the registries are expected to have allocated all their remaining addresses to local network operators by October at the latest. After that, any organization applying for new addresses will be told, "Sorry, none left".

The issue is real and has been a long time in the making. The Economist first warned about it ten years ago. The problem concerns the address space of the existing version of the Internet protocol (IPv4), which is only 32 bits wide. The total number of binary addresses possible with such an arrangement is 4.3 billion. Back in the 1980s, when the Internet connected just a couple of dozen research institutes in America, that seemed like a huge number. Besides, the Internet was thought at the time to be just a temporary network anyway.

But with the invention of the Web in 1990 came an explosion in popular demand. It was soon clear that it was only a matter of time before the Internet would exhaust its supply of addresses. Work on a replacement for IPv4 began in the early 1990s, with IPv6 finally being made available around 1998. By giving the new internet version an address space of 128 bits, the designers pretty well guaranteed that it would not run out of unique identifiers for decades, or even centuries, to come.

Two raised to the 128th power is an astronomical number. That will come in handy when the "Internet of things" becomes a reality. Already, some two billion people have access to the Internet. Add all the televisions, phones, cars and household appliances that are currently being given Internet access  — plus, eventually, every book, pill case and item of inventory as well  — and a world or two of addresses could easily be accounted for. And yet, the solution of any problem begins with its verbalization. We are forewarned and it means  — forearmed.

REMEMBER the panic over the "millennium bug", when computers everywhere were expected to go haywire on January 1st, 2000, thanks to the way a lot of old software used just two digits to represent the year instead of four? Doomsters predicted all sorts of errors in calculations involving dates when the clocks rolled over from 99 to 00. In the event, the millennium dawned without incident. That may have been because of the draconian preparations undertaken beforehand. Or perhaps, as many suspected, the problem was grossly exaggerated in the first place, as it often happens. Certainly, the computer industry made a packet out of all the panic-⁠buying of new hardware and software in the months leading up to the new millennium. And who would blame them for this? Business is business.

Well, something similar is about to happen in the months ahead. This time, the issue concerns the exhaustion of Internet addresses  — those four numbers ranging from 0 to 255 separated by dots that uniquely identify every device attached to the Internet. According to Hurricane Electric, an Internet backbone and services provider based in Fremont, California, the Internet will run out of bulk IP addresses sometime next week  — given the rate addresses are currently being gobbled up.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) will then have doled out all its so-⁠called "slash-⁠eight" blocks of addresses to the five regional Internet registries around the world. In turn, the registries are expected to have allocated all their remaining addresses to local network operators by October at the latest. After that, any organization applying for new addresses will be told, "Sorry, none left".

The issue is real and has been a long time in the making. The Economist first warned about it ten years ago. The problem concerns the address space of the existing version of the Internet protocol (IPv4), which is only 32 bits wide. The total number of binary addresses possible with such an arrangement is 4.3 billion. Back in the 1980s, when the Internet connected just a couple of dozen research institutes in America, that seemed like a huge number. Besides, the Internet was thought at the time to be just a temporary network anyway.

But with the invention of the Web in 1990 came an explosion in popular demand. It was soon clear that it was only a matter of time before the Internet would exhaust its supply of addresses. Work on a replacement for IPv4 began in the early 1990s, with IPv6 finally being made available around 1998. By giving the new internet version an address space of 128 bits, the designers pretty well guaranteed that it would not run out of unique identifiers for decades, or even centuries, to come.

Two raised to the 128th power is an astronomical number. That will come in handy when the "Internet of things" becomes a reality. Already, some two billion people have access to the Internet. Add all the televisions, phones, cars and household appliances that are currently being given Internet access  — plus, eventually, every book, pill case and item of inventory as well  — and a world or two of addresses could easily be accounted for. And yet, the solution of any problem begins with its verbalization. We are forewarned and it means  — forearmed.

REMEMBER the panic over the "millennium bug", when computers everywhere were expected to go haywire on January 1st, 2000, thanks to the way a lot of old software used just two digits to represent the year instead of four? Doomsters predicted all sorts of errors in calculations involving dates when the clocks rolled over from 99 to 00. In the event, the millennium dawned without incident. That may have been because of the draconian preparations undertaken beforehand. Or perhaps, as many suspected, the problem was grossly exaggerated in the first place, as it often happens. Certainly, the computer industry made a packet out of all the panic-⁠buying of new hardware and software in the months leading up to the new millennium. And who would blame them for this? Business is business.

Well, something similar is about to happen in the months ahead. This time, the issue concerns the exhaustion of Internet addresses  — those four numbers ranging from 0 to 255 separated by dots that uniquely identify every device attached to the Internet. According to Hurricane Electric, an Internet backbone and services provider based in Fremont, California, the Internet will run out of bulk IP addresses sometime next week  — given the rate addresses are currently being gobbled up.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) will then have doled out all its so-⁠called "slash-⁠eight" blocks of addresses to the five regional Internet registries around the world. In turn, the registries are expected to have allocated all their remaining addresses to local network operators by October at the latest. After that, any organization applying for new addresses will be told, "Sorry, none left".

The issue is real and has been a long time in the making. The Economist first warned about it ten years ago. The problem concerns the address space of the existing version of the Internet protocol (IPv4), which is only 32 bits wide. The total number of binary addresses possible with such an arrangement is 4.3 billion. Back in the 1980s, when the Internet connected just a couple of dozen research institutes in America, that seemed like a huge number. Besides, the Internet was thought at the time to be just a temporary network anyway.

But with the invention of the Web in 1990 came an explosion in popular demand. It was soon clear that it was only a matter of time before the Internet would exhaust its supply of addresses. Work on a replacement for IPv4 began in the early 1990s, with IPv6 finally being made available around 1998. By giving the new internet version an address space of 128 bits, the designers pretty well guaranteed that it would not run out of unique identifiers for decades, or even centuries, to come.

Two raised to the 128th power is an astronomical number. That will come in handy when the "Internet of things" becomes a reality. Already, some two billion people have access to the Internet. Add all the televisions, phones, cars and household appliances that are currently being given Internet access  — plus, eventually, every book, pill case and item of inventory as well  — and a world or two of addresses could easily be accounted for. And yet, the solution of any problem begins with its verbalization. We are forewarned and it means  — forearmed.

REMEMBER the panic over the "millennium bug", when computers everywhere were expected to go haywire on January 1st, 2000, thanks to the way a lot of old software used just two digits to represent the year instead of four? Doomsters predicted all sorts of errors in calculations involving dates when the clocks rolled over from 99 to 00. In the event, the millennium dawned without incident. That may have been because of the draconian preparations undertaken beforehand. Or perhaps, as many suspected, the problem was grossly exaggerated in the first place, as it often happens. Certainly, the computer industry made a packet out of all the panic-⁠buying of new hardware and software in the months leading up to the new millennium. And who would blame them for this? Business is business.

Well, something similar is about to happen in the months ahead. This time, the issue concerns the exhaustion of Internet addresses  — those four numbers ranging from 0 to 255 separated by dots that uniquely identify every device attached to the Internet. According to Hurricane Electric, an Internet backbone and services provider based in Fremont, California, the Internet will run out of bulk IP addresses sometime next week  — given the rate addresses are currently being gobbled up.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) will then have doled out all its so-⁠called "slash-⁠eight" blocks of addresses to the five regional Internet registries around the world. In turn, the registries are expected to have allocated all their remaining addresses to local network operators by October at the latest. After that, any organization applying for new addresses will be told, "Sorry, none left".

The issue is real and has been a long time in the making. The Economist first warned about it ten years ago. The problem concerns the address space of the existing version of the Internet protocol (IPv4), which is only 32 bits wide. The total number of binary addresses possible with such an arrangement is 4.3 billion. Back in the 1980s, when the Internet connected just a couple of dozen research institutes in America, that seemed like a huge number. Besides, the Internet was thought at the time to be just a temporary network anyway.

But with the invention of the Web in 1990 came an explosion in popular demand. It was soon clear that it was only a matter of time before the Internet would exhaust its supply of addresses. Work on a replacement for IPv4 began in the early 1990s, with IPv6 finally being made available around 1998. By giving the new internet version an address space of 128 bits, the designers pretty well guaranteed that it would not run out of unique identifiers for decades, or even centuries, to come.

Two raised to the 128th power is an astronomical number. That will come in handy when the "Internet of things" becomes a reality. Already, some two billion people have access to the Internet. Add all the televisions, phones, cars and household appliances that are currently being given Internet access  — plus, eventually, every book, pill case and item of inventory as well  — and a world or two of addresses could easily be accounted for. And yet, the solution of any problem begins with its verbalization. We are forewarned and it means  — forearmed.

Let me tell you what happened once when my dear Uncle Podger decided to hang a picture on the wall. He told us not to 30 ______ and just watch him do it. He said he would do it by himself. Well, he came up to the picture which was waiting to be put up in the dining room and took it. But suddenly it fell down and the glass 31 ______ into pieces and he cut his finger. He started to 32 ______ his handkerchief but couldn’t find it because he had put it in his coat and none of us knew where his coat was.

‘Six of you!’ Uncle Podger exclaimed, ‘and you cannot find the coat that I put down only five minutes ago!’ But then he got up from his chair and found that he had been sitting on his coat the whole time. ‘Oh, you can stop your 33 ______. I’ve found it myself!’

Then after an hour was spent in tying up his finger Uncle Podger wondered where the hammer had disappeared to. And while everybody was trying to get the hammer he was standing on the chair saying: ‘Well, I want to know if you are going to 34 ______ me here all evening!’

Finally the hammer was found, but we noticed that the nail which he had prepared was lost. And, of course, Uncle Podger didn’t keep 35 ______ while he was waiting for another nail to be brought. We heard all he had to say about our habit of losing all the things he needed.

When the picture was hanging on the wall at last, everybody looked very 36 ______, all except Uncle Podg er, who was lively as ever. Aunt Maria remarked that if Uncle Podger wanted to do a job like that again, she would spend a week with her mother until it was over.

Let me tell you what happened once when my dear Uncle Podger decided to hang a picture on the wall. He told us not to 30 ______ and just watch him do it. He said he would do it by himself. Well, he came up to the picture which was waiting to be put up in the dining room and took it. But suddenly it fell down and the glass 31 ______ into pieces and he cut his finger. He started to 32 ______ his handkerchief but couldn’t find it because he had put it in his coat and none of us knew where his coat was.

‘Six of you!’ Uncle Podger exclaimed, ‘and you cannot find the coat that I put down only five minutes ago!’ But then he got up from his chair and found that he had been sitting on his coat the whole time. ‘Oh, you can stop your 33 ______. I’ve found it myself!’

Then after an hour was spent in tying up his finger Uncle Podger wondered where the hammer had disappeared to. And while everybody was trying to get the hammer he was standing on the chair saying: ‘Well, I want to know if you are going to 34 ______ me here all evening!’

Finally the hammer was found, but we noticed that the nail which he had prepared was lost. And, of course, Uncle Podger didn’t keep 35 ______ while he was waiting for another nail to be brought. We heard all he had to say about our habit of losing all the things he needed.

When the picture was hanging on the wall at last, everybody looked very 36 ______, all except Uncle Podg er, who was lively as ever. Aunt Maria remarked that if Uncle Podger wanted to do a job like that again, she would spend a week with her mother until it was over.

Let me tell you what happened once when my dear Uncle Podger decided to hang a picture on the wall. He told us not to 30 ______ and just watch him do it. He said he would do it by himself. Well, he came up to the picture which was waiting to be put up in the dining room and took it. But suddenly it fell down and the glass 31 ______ into pieces and he cut his finger. He started to 32 ______ his handkerchief but couldn’t find it because he had put it in his coat and none of us knew where his coat was.

‘Six of you!’ Uncle Podger exclaimed, ‘and you cannot find the coat that I put down only five minutes ago!’ But then he got up from his chair and found that he had been sitting on his coat the whole time. ‘Oh, you can stop your 33 ______. I’ve found it myself!’

Then after an hour was spent in tying up his finger Uncle Podger wondered where the hammer had disappeared to. And while everybody was trying to get the hammer he was standing on the chair saying: ‘Well, I want to know if you are going to 34 ______ me here all evening!’

Finally the hammer was found, but we noticed that the nail which he had prepared was lost. And, of course, Uncle Podger didn’t keep 35 ______ while he was waiting for another nail to be brought. We heard all he had to say about our habit of losing all the things he needed.

When the picture was hanging on the wall at last, everybody looked very 36 ______, all except Uncle Podg er, who was lively as ever. Aunt Maria remarked that if Uncle Podger wanted to do a job like that again, she would spend a week with her mother until it was over.

Let me tell you what happened once when my dear Uncle Podger decided to hang a picture on the wall. He told us not to 30 ______ and just watch him do it. He said he would do it by himself. Well, he came up to the picture which was waiting to be put up in the dining room and took it. But suddenly it fell down and the glass 31 ______ into pieces and he cut his finger. He started to 32 ______ his handkerchief but couldn’t find it because he had put it in his coat and none of us knew where his coat was.

‘Six of you!’ Uncle Podger exclaimed, ‘and you cannot find the coat that I put down only five minutes ago!’ But then he got up from his chair and found that he had been sitting on his coat the whole time. ‘Oh, you can stop your 33 ______. I’ve found it myself!’

Then after an hour was spent in tying up his finger Uncle Podger wondered where the hammer had disappeared to. And while everybody was trying to get the hammer he was standing on the chair saying: ‘Well, I want to know if you are going to 34 ______ me here all evening!’

Finally the hammer was found, but we noticed that the nail which he had prepared was lost. And, of course, Uncle Podger didn’t keep 35 ______ while he was waiting for another nail to be brought. We heard all he had to say about our habit of losing all the things he needed.

When the picture was hanging on the wall at last, everybody looked very 36 ______, all except Uncle Podg er, who was lively as ever. Aunt Maria remarked that if Uncle Podger wanted to do a job like that again, she would spend a week with her mother until it was over.

Let me tell you what happened once when my dear Uncle Podger decided to hang a picture on the wall. He told us not to 30 ______ and just watch him do it. He said he would do it by himself. Well, he came up to the picture which was waiting to be put up in the dining room and took it. But suddenly it fell down and the glass 31 ______ into pieces and he cut his finger. He started to 32 ______ his handkerchief but couldn’t find it because he had put it in his coat and none of us knew where his coat was.

‘Six of you!’ Uncle Podger exclaimed, ‘and you cannot find the coat that I put down only five minutes ago!’ But then he got up from his chair and found that he had been sitting on his coat the whole time. ‘Oh, you can stop your 33 ______. I’ve found it myself!’

Then after an hour was spent in tying up his finger Uncle Podger wondered where the hammer had disappeared to. And while everybody was trying to get the hammer he was standing on the chair saying: ‘Well, I want to know if you are going to 34 ______ me here all evening!’

Finally the hammer was found, but we noticed that the nail which he had prepared was lost. And, of course, Uncle Podger didn’t keep 35 ______ while he was waiting for another nail to be brought. We heard all he had to say about our habit of losing all the things he needed.

When the picture was hanging on the wall at last, everybody looked very 36 ______, all except Uncle Podg er, who was lively as ever. Aunt Maria remarked that if Uncle Podger wanted to do a job like that again, she would spend a week with her mother until it was over.

Let me tell you what happened once when my dear Uncle Podger decided to hang a picture on the wall. He told us not to 30 ______ and just watch him do it. He said he would do it by himself. Well, he came up to the picture which was waiting to be put up in the dining room and took it. But suddenly it fell down and the glass 31 ______ into pieces and he cut his finger. He started to 32 ______ his handkerchief but couldn’t find it because he had put it in his coat and none of us knew where his coat was.

‘Six of you!’ Uncle Podger exclaimed, ‘and you cannot find the coat that I put down only five minutes ago!’ But then he got up from his chair and found that he had been sitting on his coat the whole time. ‘Oh, you can stop your 33 ______. I’ve found it myself!’

Then after an hour was spent in tying up his finger Uncle Podger wondered where the hammer had disappeared to. And while everybody was trying to get the hammer he was standing on the chair saying: ‘Well, I want to know if you are going to 34 ______ me here all evening!’

Finally the hammer was found, but we noticed that the nail which he had prepared was lost. And, of course, Uncle Podger didn’t keep 35 ______ while he was waiting for another nail to be brought. We heard all he had to say about our habit of losing all the things he needed.

When the picture was hanging on the wall at last, everybody looked very 36 ______, all except Uncle Podg er, who was lively as ever. Aunt Maria remarked that if Uncle Podger wanted to do a job like that again, she would spend a week with her mother until it was over.

Let me tell you what happened once when my dear Uncle Podger decided to hang a picture on the wall. He told us not to 30 ______ and just watch him do it. He said he would do it by himself. Well, he came up to the picture which was waiting to be put up in the dining room and took it. But suddenly it fell down and the glass 31 ______ into pieces and he cut his finger. He started to 32 ______ his handkerchief but couldn’t find it because he had put it in his coat and none of us knew where his coat was.

‘Six of you!’ Uncle Podger exclaimed, ‘and you cannot find the coat that I put down only five minutes ago!’ But then he got up from his chair and found that he had been sitting on his coat the whole time. ‘Oh, you can stop your 33 ______. I’ve found it myself!’

Then after an hour was spent in tying up his finger Uncle Podger wondered where the hammer had disappeared to. And while everybody was trying to get the hammer he was standing on the chair saying: ‘Well, I want to know if you are going to 34 ______ me here all evening!’

Finally the hammer was found, but we noticed that the nail which he had prepared was lost. And, of course, Uncle Podger didn’t keep 35 ______ while he was waiting for another nail to be brought. We heard all he had to say about our habit of losing all the things he needed.

When the picture was hanging on the wall at last, everybody looked very 36 ______, all except Uncle Podg er, who was lively as ever. Aunt Maria remarked that if Uncle Podger wanted to do a job like that again, she would spend a week with her mother until it was over.