apologies

a) The last post was embarassingly badly written. I'm going to change it, but if you read the original version... sorry.
b) I got the cream pot phrase totally wrong. It's actually "pendre de crémaillaire," and a crémaillaire is not a cream pot but one of those big iron hooks you hang in the fireplace to warm soup or stews or whatever.
c) I'm a bad speller.