I hasten to add

In case you  think I May have a down on the besom for any Trumpish reasons it's "just poli'ical". In my defense I would point you in the direction of an inspirational character, the subject of a programme in the 'great lives series' of the British Broadcasting Corporation, Shirley Chisholm.
I proudly wore the badge, "Shirley Chisholm for President",  45 years ago, even though I did not have a pig in the race as my ancestors might have had it!

(Lost, lost! I have no idea what you are blethering on about. Lord save us... Ed)
Keep up there fella, as Commander Hastings would say. we are in for quite a ride.

A Poke in the Eye with a Sharp Chip!

Didn't I tell you this, so called, snap election is more about food than pictures! The puns and possibilities are endless. What joy! She May be a "BLOODY DIFFICULT WOMAN" or she May be an insecure geography graduate with a chip on her shoulder. The degree comes in useful, no doubt,  as she sCurries about the country from one group of the faithful to another. It is a bit like a Safari Supper for the Nasty Party. There are many reasons people visit food banks, hunger and a lack of money for food being just two of them. I'm sure that poke of chips would have tasted better with  Pickles but then where are your chums when you need them and the chips are down. Speaking of which I'm sure Phil (which one?) will help her out with the poke when she tires of the chips. Lynton Chrispy must be heaving a sigh of relief that she was not pictured with a bit of battered cod or an old haddock!
(Phwhat in god's name are you talking about??? I think this democracy stuff has finally got to your brain or what is left of it...Ed)

Read and Enjoy the Video!

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/02/theresa-may-liberal-democrats-defectors-south-west-stick-with-tories?

Food for thought and elections

It's that time again. Elections couldn't you just vote without them!

Our political food correspondent writes...
On the menu this election is a choice between 
Strong Glands Table Leadership or a Collation of Chaos

Now here's a little candle lit dinner that went a rye... too much sourdough?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/01/how-junckers-downing-street-dinner-turned-sour?

(Jaysus! Can you not give a bit of a warning when you are about to dash into production again. I was at the sister's looking after the wains when the alerty thing popped up on the old interweb. I nearly spilt me tea all over meself!...Ed)

Bushmills tea is that, without milk?

Indexing we trust? p91

Indexing - now there's a thing.
I bet you haven't given much thought to that while I've been absent from these pages or indeed the pages themselves have been absent. The Grauniad had a nice wee article  on indexing on National Indexing Day by Sam Leith. Undoubtedly a piece of crass propaganda for the Society of Indexers.  We might as well go back to the days of craft guilds, 99 year apprenticeships, permanent indentedness, free beer,  protectionism, pre-brexitism  and so called Trade Unions! It is however very interesting and, of course, contains a 404 for the link to the Society.
Deliberate?
(Do you think we might have an index on this blog? I could knock you up a passable index for a few sovs extra each week. Now we have to take the bairns off on holiday when the schools are out it can be very expensive, and we have been going for over 10 years...Ed)

Expletives -obscene
                  -expressing the negative, p 92

West Wing Mark II

A find in the podosphere. A Mr O'Bama has recently stood down from some job or other and I have not always been appreciative as I might have been! (I very much doubt that he even knew let alone gave a tinker's damn... Ed)
However, the link gives about 40 minutes of thoughts, banter, and a few flashes of what the progressive future might have involved (and hopefully may yet involve). I must say that my one moment of queasiness came when your man O'Bam was discussing what the hell happened if the USA defaulted on its debt. Jokes with the gang about minting a trillion dollar coin aside, nobody knew! You have to give it to him, he did keep the show on the road in some very difficult times. His analysis of how the Trumpet of massive investment in infrastructure will lead to a call much later for a roll back on welfare is very scary. A Mr Freedland, who scribbles for some lowbrow rags from time to time, had an equally scary scenario for this in, The Third Woman, his latest penny dreadful.

Reasons to be cheerful!

Given the winter of our discontents - the Americans have elected an eejit, we didn't get the chance to elect our eejit, The Wall of Shame etc.. Thought you might be interested in a little cheer,

You may have heard of Chris Thile or not, ditto for appreciating his music making but the smile on the face of Yo Yo at about 8 min. 30 sec. in the video says there are reasons to be cheerful.

Thanks to all the wonderful people who linked me through the Interweb, the Grauniad, NPR, to this.
Full disclosure:- I am not able to establish that cats were not harmed in the production of the instruments on which this music was played.
(I'm gutted, truly gutted! I will have to consider my position carefully, very carefully. I was always led to believe this was an animal friendly blog... Ed)
How come the cat never gets anyway near your tongue!

Tess of the Submarines. Maybe!

After a few rounds with the doughty Mr Marr yesterday Tess had avoided saying yes no or even Maybe to direct questioning as to what she  knew and when she knew it. We had dropped a b.....k or even a rocket when the lads were on their nuclear hols off Florida. This would be  before the common people were asked to detrouser  billions of pounds for renewing Trident. Well, you can judge for yourselves if she was being forgetful, vague or a squirming politician.
What intrigues me is the kinetics of the thing. I have it on good authority, The Beeb News Corp, usually quite reliable, that our lads were sunning themselves 200 miles from the coast of Florida when this came to pass. Mr Wikipedia assures me that after huffing and blowing for about 2 mins. a Trident rocket reaches a flight speed of 13,600 miles per hour( Eat your heart out Southern Rail) So if I inquire of my calculator how long it would take to travel  from the the good sub Tessa Maybe and land on the  Sunshine State, the answer is less than three minutes and counting down... ( It would give all those snowbirds a fright too, poor dears, as they are sat around the aircon singing the state song - Old Folks at Home. My geography is a bit sketchy but didn't I hear that Cuba is only 100 miles or so from Florida... Ed)
I heard the same also!

Avid for crime(reading)

I may have mentioned before that I have read without benefit of a book group for many, many years.
However, I joined a small group a few years ago. The advantages are that it is sponsored by a public library which provides a room and about a dozen volumes of the same book each month. Our convenor, a calm and well organised woman (peace and many blessings be upon her) provides us with a wide selection of crime novels  for us to enjoy throughout the year and discuss if we feel so inclined.  The group has men as well as women in it, it does not follow a rigid pattern for contributions, members come and go and we do not have to 'speak up and shame the devil' if we do not wish. Occasionally, we get a stinker usually because a book has been suggested to our group from outside. I always make notes as a commitment to the group and the activity. Here is one from last year.

Mary Higgins Clark - The Lost Years
Notes

Pope finds Thank You note from Jesus. Decides to burn it. Monk feels this is blasphemous. Murder ensues through 5 centuries.
Mariah thinks her dad has found the letter and her mum has killed him. After a bit of twoing and throwing Mariah saves the day, the letter and managed a weak smile as she watched Richard running toward her (Who he? Oh never mind!)... Mariah  felt a sudden peace, a peace that was beyond understanding, fill her being.
Turned out nice again!

Frankie and Johnny

So they weren't lovers after all!
I read in my Grauniad today:-
Split in lay order after senior official was dismissed over distribution of free prophylactics and the Holy See hierarchy sought to intervene.
 (Those subs get away with murder. Split and prophylactics in the same sentence. Fast cars, big cigars, even faster women. They probably wear red white and blue braces. How unlike the code of conduct and dress code of our own humble publication...Ed)
Not many people would wear braces to hold their pjs up, I grant you. 

Energy raw in beak and claw!

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures this year, the subject is energy. Catch the last one this evening Beeb4 20:00 or on the EyePlayer thereafter.
Out for our walk on  Sunday we were entranced for about 20 minutes watching a buzzard working the ground around a small river and large field bordered by woods. There was a stiff breeze and the seeming lack of effort that it took to glide over the area looking for its xmas dinner made me think again "it's the energy stupid". What a marvel of energy it is. Precision hunting machine, power pack attached with renewable energy storage. Amazing what you can do with the old proton pump! Still the poor thing did not get its dinner while we were about.
(Probably too polite to tuck in while you heathens were watching...Ed)

Fiat Lux and a lot more!

Thanks to the excellent Carbon Commentary Newsletter of Chris Goodall a good news video. A P2P Solshare Microgrid Installation in Mymensingh.  When the clowns have escaped from the circus we need a little balance. A good friend has been advised by his US relatives that on January 20th next year the clock will be turned back 60 years. I would say nearer 90!
Best wishes to all (?) our readers and a peaceful New Year.

(Is that it? are we going to be swamped in all this U tubeyfacebookytwittery socialistmedianonsense now...ED?)

Have a good holiday but take care there is a man out there who promises to drain the swamp.

Streaming but not Cold

Now here's a thing. Some of us oldies may be old, very old, but it does not necessarily mean that we always associate the word streaming with the word cold. The World Wide interWeb of Wonders does provide some truly marvellous things, as this article in the Grauniad shows. 
That's what I call neat.
I am still of the opinion, though,  that the accordion is an outdoor instrument despite having a 'connected' party who is a superb instrumentalist and musician; you know who you are! Number ten is a family favourite. Many a long journey, spiritual and physical, has been sustained and enlivened by the McGarrigles' Swimming Song.
(Is that the one about swimming in unsafe places in a lack of suitable attire...Ed?)
I'm a self-destructive fool!

HSL High Speed Library

Books, people, time and it's Bliss!
I don't know if any books were harmed in the process of making this short video from the Grauniad.
As Lenin once famously said when he worked at Salford Public Library "You can't have book, Tovarish, unless I stamp on it!"
(I didn't know Vlad was on the council payroll at Salford. Was he there long...Ed?)

As long as it takes to make an omelette.

Bloody Hell

I've just finished 'His Bloody Project' by Graeme Macrae Burnet. A supposed collection of found documents. It has left me with a very strong sense of place, character and society. There is, as described in the Grauniad review ...

...a healthy dose of Kafka as well as Flann O’Brien in Roderick’s account of laboriously gathering seaweed from the shoreline with his father to spread on the fields, then being forced by Lachlan [The Parish Constable] to return it to the sea because they lack the laird’s permission to use his property. When they summon up the courage to seek clarification of the rules that govern their lives, they are told “that a person wishing to consult the regulations could only wish to do so in order to test the limits of the misdemeanours he might commit”. ...

Shades too of Gunn's Green Isle of the Great Deep but the lasting impression I shared with the reviewer was wondering about the reliability of the perspectives that the 'documents' had provided and the other crimes that may have taken place.

(Did Roderick have a poor mouth on him then...Ed?)

I thoroughly enjoyed wading through the misery and misdirection!

The Third Programme

As was, is 70 years old, aint we all (nearly) dearie!
Charlotte Higgins in the Grauniad  makes a plea

"Furthermore, if the bulldozers came for Radio 3, I would be lying in front of them. To my dying breath I would assert its fundamental importance to Britain and its profound contribution to the country – not just by way of the musical life it has supported and grown, especially through its commissioning of composers, but also through a significant relationship with drama and documentary."

Move over Charlotte! Is there room in front of that bulldozer for someone who has delighted in the sound of the Shagbut, Minikin and Flemish Clacket ever since he first heard them  see R3.


At 23.45

SCHOLA POLYPHONICA NEASDENIENSIS Peter Weevil and John Throgmorton (shagbut) Tatiana Splod (minikin) René Carter-Thomson and H. B. Hogg (Flemish clacket) Introduced by HUGO TURVEY
Hucbald the Onelegged (of Grobhausen: fl ?1452) Instrumental Rondo: Haro! Poppzgeyen ist das Wieselungenslied

Take heed "Mother Theresa" where you wield that bulldozer.  I saw a Prime Minister who had an unfortunate accident with a Shagbut and fell into a Flemish Clacket. It was not at all nice, but very interesting!

 (Did old JSB not write a few pieces for the minikin there...Ed?)

The Bright Web!

An excellent book provided, once again, by the stakhanovites in Suffolk Libraries. The Switch by Chris Goodall.

It's the energy stupid!

IMHO a good overview of the present state of solar energy providing a sustainable supply for our needs in the future. It includes a down to earth (sorry) review of costs and implementation.  He considers  financing, the normalising of demand, the use of the web for this and what to do when some ejit says the sun don't shine all the time! (That's easy, turn the lights on...Ed!)

His website provides lots of interesting facts and figures including an analysis of energy supply and storage for the Island of Gigha!  You did want to know didn't you? There is also a weekly newsletter, if you are so minded.

(Ah for the love of Mike will you give us a break from all this happy, clappy, Corbinista, wooly, sock and brown rice eco-communmitarianism...Ed)

Come on! Spark up princess, anyone would think you had pneumonia! 

Cygnet Ring

Not even wrong

A idea contained within an article in the Grauniad  about the possible negative effects of always being right.  Towards the end of the piece  one of those ideas forces you to say - Why didn't I think of that or if you did why didn't I get off my a**e and do it?
Sabine Hossenfelder   has set up a service  wherebye you get a consultation with a quantum mechanic for fifty dollars a pop.

(Did I mention that once upon a time I was involved in sourcing some livestock for a famous scientist.  Erwin Schrodinger, since you ask. As I am no great shakes in the physics department my contribution was in designing and producing the advertisements in the Dublin Press...Ed)

What did it say? Cats! Wanted dead or alive.

Glad to Bee Gay

Border Crossings

An Item on the LRB Blog about the famous Seamus, his finely honed sense of mischief and barriers to humanity. 
As we know he has not passed on but lives quietly, a suitable presence in the fens, a miasmic curate in some forgotten pub!

"To educate the English" Now there's a thought.
(Do you think they might build a wall? I know a few fellas who could do with a bit of work. The construction business has been on the down for a while now and the family connection would ensure it was done to spec and on time...Ed)
by their walls ye shall know them!