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Hi, doglet!
The dictionary sounds like a good redicscovery! I hope you enjoy browsing through it. I'm enjoying going through my new Brewers.
I would have thought that the delivery men bringing your new dishwasher would have removed the old one for you? it must be difficult for your husband to shift it on his own?
I bet you're looking forward to being relieved of dishwashing duties- or have got your husband doing that?!
We've never had a dishwater- funnily enough, it isn't something I've ever felt the need of having. I don't mind doing the washing up.

Rusty, I've checked my Scots school dictionary and also the Online Scots Dictionary and neither of them have 'pike' meaning to sneak a look. We will all have to use the word more often so that it passes into common usage - and then it will get an official mention.

Hello, Elle!
Have you ventured out again?

Oil on troubled waters!
No. My books are not helpful.
My idioms book mentions Pliny (who?) and Brewers mentions Bede, and a vial of oil, but nothing approaching a reasonable answer.
I do not have a dishwasher, too.

Hi elle

The delivery man will only take the old machine if is outside the house so we didnt have much option but to move it,he has a porters barrow which was very useful..My dog rescue friend has just told me that have taken in 20+ minature poodles!!!! Glad I dont live so close anymore,they look very sweet and I think they are hoping people will take 2

Malone, this is the nearest I can get to the meaning of "piking" in my local slang/dialect.
From Collins Dictionary.
Pike. British slang.
The practice of deriving sexual pleasure from watching strangers have sex in parked cars and other secluded but public places.

Time to forget it, I think!
Hope Elle's travelling people move on soon!

Hi rusty

I thought sex in a public place was called dogging

I'll take your word for that, Doglet.

Hi, Rusty!
Now, oil on troubled waters......
My 'old' Brewers strangely enough offers answers......it isn't in my 'new' one! (another reason for maybe keeping both volumes?)
There is too much to include it all, but briefly....."To pour oil on troubled waters "is to soothe the troubled spirit."
The origin of the phrase is mentioned by the Venerable Bede (you mentioned him?).
St Aidan gave his blessing to a young priest who was to set out by land , but return by water, to convoy a young maiden to be the bride of King Oswin or Oswy.
St Aidan gave the young man a cruse of oil to pour on the sea if the waves became stormy.
A storm did arise, and the young priest ,by pouring oil on the waves, did in fact reduce them to a calm.
Bede says that he had this story from "a most creditable man in Holy Orders."
But St. Aidan died in 694, and Bede died in 735??!
You also mentioned Pliny? Where does he fit in?

Hello, Elle,
Well, I think the story about Bede is preposterous, and Pliny should have more sense.
This is interesting, however, about an experiment in Clapham.
http://www.deepseanews.com/2010/06/pouring-oil-on-troubled-waters/

I still prefer Simon and Garfunkel's solution, though.

Hi, Rusty!
There are various stories about oil being poured on stormy seas in an effort to effect rescue from doomed ships.
Rosalind was saying earller that she came across this, too, when doing some research.
The theory seems to be that the surface tension of the oil calms the rough waves, like forming a thin skin across the surface.
There are many different versions of this phenomenon. I've read about Bede and about Pliny.....
I know very little about it, though, I'm afraid.
Like you, I think I'll go with Simon and Garfunkel's solution! I love that song!
Did you find time to do your crossword today?