All posts by Keith

I’m a controversialist and catalyst, quietly enabling others to develop by providing different ideas and views of the world. Born in London in the early 1950s and initially trained as a research chemist I retired as a senior project manager after 35 years in the IT industry. Retirement is about community give-back and finding some equilibrium. Founder and Honorary Secretary of the Anthony Powell Society. Chairman of my GP's patient group.
personal

My 2019 in Summary

Traditionally at this time I look back at my achievements and engagement (or, more accurately the lack of it) over the past year.

At the risk of having a stuck record, it’s been a strange year with significant amounts of work and depression which obstinately refuses to lift even during the summer months. This has meant a number of things have been binned along the way (or just ignored), which overall means I don’t feel I’ve achieved anything much, at least by my exacting standards. So here’s the summary …

At the beginning of the year I posted 10 Things I Want To Do in 2019. The results are in and I’ve done appallingly badly this year.

  1. Reduce waste/rubbish/clutter and recycle as much as possible. DONE; although not enough clutter cleared.
  2. Do something not done before and go somewhere not been before. DONE; hit both in one go by attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace. I also made a trip to look at the Eleanor Crosses at Hardingstone and Geddington.
  3. Spend less money. FAIL; if for no other reason than we did a lot of work on the house, and had to replace a significant amount of technology.
  4. Have a monthly day out. FAIL; I think we managed 4 or 5.
  5. Regular meditation. FAIL; tried but just unable to make it stick.
  6. Do a bigger share of the cooking and shopping. FAIL; this one largely down to the depression rather than a lack of will.
  7. Get back to taking more photographs. FAIL; depression again, and the lack of days out.
  8. Be drawn/painted/photographed nude (by someone not family). FAIL; I wasn’t at all sure this was likely to be achieved.
  9. Do more family history; unlock the mid-18th century block in Marshall line. FAIL; did quite a bit of family history in the first part of the year but then tailed off; and have been totally unable to breach that brick wall.
  10. Increase/develop teamwork between our GP practice and the patient group. FAIL; I keep chipping away at this but the doctors won’t take the bait.

OMG! That a miserable 2/10. That is a bad, bad year! Or was I too overambitious? No, it was a bad year!

Looking at the year through the usual 25 questions is a bit more of a mixed bag …

1. What did you do that you’d never done before?
a. Attended a Buckingham Palace Garden Party.
b. Had posh afternoon tea at London’s Rubens Hotel.
c. Celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
How can I keep something I never did?

3. What would you like to have in 2020 that you lacked in 2019?
Health, wealth and wisdom; peace and tranquility.

4. What dates from 2019 will remain etched upon your memory?
a. Wednesday 15 May: Buckingham Palace Garden Party.
b. Wednesday 9 October: Trip to Hardingstone & Geddington.
c. Monday 4 November: Tea at the Rubens Hotel.

5. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No, nothing new this year!

6. What was the best thing you bought?
Tom to do more decorating.
Champagne.

7. Where did most of your money go?
Into other people’s pockets.

8. What did you get really, really excited about?
Nothing. No not even going to Buckingham Palace. I don’t do excitement, just like I don’t do panic and crisis.

9. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a. happier or sadder? Sadder; it’s the depression.
b. thinner or fatter? Maybe very slightly thinner.
c. richer or poorer? Definitely poorer due to all the work on the house.

10. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Sitting in the sun in the garden.

11. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Staring at a computer screen.

12. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Surviving.
Getting the proceedings of the 2018 Anthony Powell Conference published – and mighty fine they are too!

13. What was your biggest failure?
The depression.
Not drinking more champagne.

14. How many one-night stands?
Zero.

15. What was your favourite TV program?
I’ve watched hardly any TV all year – it is such a load of garbage. So yet again the pick has to be the RI Christmas Lectures.

16. What was the best book you read?
Jen Gunter; The Vagina Bible
Anthony Powell, King Arthur and Other Personages

17. What did you want and get?
New PC and new mobile phone – isn’t that just so sad!

18. What did you want and not get?
I’m still waiting for that big lottery win.

19. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
a. Cancellation of Brexit.
b. That big lottery win.

20. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2019?
Distressed casual.

21. What kept you sane?
Nothing – I’m beyond redemption.

22. Who did you miss?
My mother.

23. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2019:
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.

24. A quote or song lyric that sums up your year:
“You bustle around tutting and narrowing your eyes, in the manner of a dog territorially pissing on a lamppost.”
[Emma Beddington]

25. Your hopes for 2020
Cancellation of Brexit – well no-one said it had to be realistic.

Overall Result: STILL REQUIRES MUCH IMPROVEMENT

But enough of me. How was your 2019? And what are your hopes for 2020?

amusements, memes

January

We’re beginning every month this year with a haiku (or a longer poem made of haiku) relevant to the month.

January Thoughts

January’s start …
I hibernate in my cave
with bare thoughts

January’s end …
may February’s groundhog
see its shadow

[Andrea Dietrich]

All the poems can be found online at http://www.haikupoemsandpoets.com.

amusements, words

100 Day Challenge: Words #12

Episode eleven (days 56 to 60) of my 100 day challenge to find words I don’t know. I’m scraping words from https://randomword.com/ and each day picking one that I find interesting and which is also in the OED.

Day Date Word Meaning
56 Thursday 26 December selenocentric having relation to the centre of the moon or to the moon as a centre
57 Friday 27 December chambranle an ornamental frame around the top and sides of a door, window, or fireplace
58 Saturday 28 December circumjacent ** bordering on every side, surrounding
59 Sunday 29 December jumentous resembling that of a horse, specifically of urine
60 Monday 30 December quoiceneck grey shale or clay with an iridescent surface

** My favourite of the words presented.

Next episode in a few days!

amusements, environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

And for the last time in 2019, here’s our monthly round-up of links to items you may have missed.

Science, Technology, Natural World

There are lots of Rose-Ringed Parakeets in London (far from their native home in Northern India). How did they get here? The legend is that they were released by Jimi Hendrix, but they’ve been around a lot longer than that. Two reports on the latest investigation from the BBC and The Oldie.

A fossil forest has been found in New York State, and it is the oldest one known.

Now to one of my favourite subjects: wasps. Just what is the point of wasps?

There’s a new formula for converting your dog’s age into human years. [£££]
But note: it is different for cats.

Health, Medicine

There is a significant resurgence of measles with a number of countries, including the UK, losing their measles-free status.

A very small number of people have a mystery illness which causes a fever every few weeks, but finally the cause has been identified. [£££]

In the stomach, the mind, or the brain? Migraine’s causes and remedies have been debated for 2,000 years. [LONG READ]

Medical science has traditionally neglected women’s health, and still does. Why does medicine have a gender problem?

Environment

Now here’s an idea: reintroduce national service and use the victims to do environmental and conservation work.

How often do you mow your lawn? There’s a good chance the answer is “too often”, because less frequent mowing can help wildlife.

Social Sciences, Business, Law

We’ve heard of environmental rewilding, well now here’s political rewilding: the antidote to our current malaise of the demagogues.

Art, Literature, Language

Japanese artist Masayo Fukuda hand-cuts intricate images from a single sheet of paper.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Here are ten English archaeological finds of the last decade.

Archaeologists do keep pushing the boundaries. In Indonesia they’ve now found the earliest known cave art by modern humans.

And in Greece archaeologists have unearthed gold-lined Mycenaean royal tombs.

2020 is the 850th anniversary of the assassination of Thomas Becket, and it will be a year of commemorative events, culminating in a major exhibition at the British Museum.

Prince Albert is usually blamed for introducing the Christmas tree, but it is likely to be much older than that. One early instance dates from 1419 in Freiburg.

So, apart from the obvious, what went on in a medieval brothel? Well, it often wasn’t pleasant. [LONG READ]

An academic has discovered annotations by Elizabeth I on a document in Lambeth Palace Library.

Religious and secular celebration of Christmas was forbidden by the English Puritan republic, but not entirely successfully. [LONG READ]

London

There’s a very elderly eagle in Croydon.

The Greek god Priapus, protector of gardens, fruit plants, livestock … and male genitals, is an unlikely subject for a statue in the discrete streets of Pimlico.

Food, Drink

Peru, as we all know, is the home of the potato, and they have a potato museum which conserves well over a thousand varieties and could be important in breeding the plants to handle climate change.

Haggis is a traditional Scots food. Or is it? [LONG READ]

Lifestyle, Personal Development

So how do couples stay together long-term? Understanding the other person is trying to do their best is important.

John Horgan in Scientific American investigates whether mysticism can help us solve the mind-body problem.

Naked therapy is a (non-sexual) treatment to help people become more comfortable with their bodies.

How the tattoo became fashionable in Victorian England. [LONG READ]

And, oh dear, it seems the codpiece is back in fashion.

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

And finally … In Turkey there’s a bee which builds its nests out of flower petals. and they’re stunningly beautiful.

That’s all for now, folks. The Fates permitting, we’ll be back in January. Meanwhile a happy New Year to everyone!

amusements, pleasures

Amusements of the Year, 2019

Here’s my usual round-up of things which have amused me during the year. Yet again, this has not been a vintage year. So here are the pick of this year’s sparse fruit.

Product of the Year
This is one of the few categories which has done well this year, with quite a few contenders. It has been almost impossible to separate the top five:

ToppCock Silver Hygiene for Man Parts with Odor Neutralizer
Yes, lads, a deodorant for your dangly bits. Buy it on Amazon.

Frisky Light Up Fidget Spinner Anal Plug
It’s what it says on the tin. Again, buy it on Amazon.

 

Unicum Zwack
Yes, I’m afraid we’re still being disreputable, except that this one is a Hungarian liqueur which can be obtained from The Drink Shop.

Cowshed Cow Pat Moisturising Hand Cream
This one’s specially for the girls. Again it may be procured from Amazon.

Walkers Crisps: Brussels Sprout Flavour
As if Brussels Sprouts weren’t bad enough with turkey, Walkers now make special Sprout flavoured crisps. I can hardly wait!

 

Headline
Well, of course, we had to exclude every thing to do with Brexit and the nonsense of the General Election. And that left us with these two winners:

Halal holiday bookings soar as Muslims opt for the Med
From the Guardian, 10 March 2019.

Five hundred goats save the Ronald Reagan library from wildfires
Again from the Guardian, this time on 31 October 2019.

Plonker of the Year
Leaving aside Boris Johnson, there was only ever going to be one winner here:

Jacob Rees-Mogg for this comment on Twitter: The vassal state must not be replaced by penal servitude.

Magazine / Newspaper Title
This year’s award for the best magazine or newspaper title has to go to the Olive Oil Times. Next year the Popeye Times perhaps?

Auction Item
As regular readers will know, we love the strange things which people sell at auctions. This year’s superlative has to be from our local auction house in July:
A pair of designer novelty Christmas trees made from scouring pads on silver plated bases

Personal Name
The winners here are a pair of twin girls born in early December to Peter Florence and his partner: Lark Win Florence and Winter Glad Florence.

Organisation Name
Our winner here is the fucking wonderful Whitstable Profanity Embroidery Group.

Place Name
And, yes, we’re keeping the vein of profanity for this year’s place name winner:
Katies Crotch Road in Maine.

Oxymoron
The accolade for this year’s best oxymoron goes to … Hot Coolant which I spotted as a label by a filler cap on a Chiltern Rail train.

Animal
So now to our animal of the year, where we have two winners but for different reasons.

First place goes to Wisdom the Laysan Albatross who is the world’s oldest known wild bird at 68 years old, and who has produced 30 chicks.

And then there’s the wonderfully named Alston’s singing mouse, Scotinomys teguina

Sport
Having said this isn’t a vintage year, I again find myself having to declare a group with two winners. So this years joint winners of sport of the year are: Unicycle Hockey (basically Ice Hockey on unicycles) and Mule Dressage. In both cases one is left asking “Why?”.

Do what?
There are five winners in this year’s competition to make one say “WTF?”.

I would favor to call together among anyone sympathetic to pursuing higher tangled community subjects as regards our line of work, associate me through my web page conceding that you think the same.
[Hat-tip: Chris Comley on Facebook, 21 January 2019]

… light is known to be fuzzy at the quantum level. With the help of a team in Australia, researchers are sharpening the light by squeezing the fuzziness.
[From BBC News]

This book examines literary representations of hyperlocal spaces that subvert the idea of grounded and organic spatial identities. Figures such as the pond, the scientific particle, and Wedgwood creamware often go unnoticed, but they exemplify important shifts in culture and aesthetics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Hyperlocal in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Literary Space argues that these objects, as well as locations such as alcoves in remote shires, city inns, and mountain retreats, were portrayed by writers in the late eighteenth and early-to-mid nineteenth centuries as gambits that challenged cultural hegemonies. It shows that the hyperlocal space or object, though particular, reaches beyond itself, affording an elasticity that can allow those things that seem beneath notice to reveal broader cultural significance.
[The blurb for Nicholas Birns, The Hyperlocal in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Literary Space]

We introduced a control groups for this treatment group as one each for the three treatment groups too.
[Hat-tip: Steve Olle]

Y’all need to remember that heteronormative whiteness is the discursive cultural mechanism by which an oppressive hegemonic discourse of phallogocentrism serves to delegitimise a black/homoexclusive modality and reinscribes a proxi-fascist rearticulation of power structures.
[Titania McGrath on Twitter]

OK, so that’s all for this 2019 edition. We’ll be looking out for brilliance again next year; contributions are always welcome. Let’s see if we can make it a vintage year!

amusements, words

100 Day Challenge: Words #11

Episode eleven (days 51 to 55) of my 100 day challenge to find words I don’t know. I’m scraping words from https://randomword.com/ and each day picking one that I find interesting and which is also in the OED.

Day Date Word Meaning
51 Saturday 21 December ushabti figurine of deceased person placed in Egyptian tomb
52 Sunday 22 December lysarden a wind instrument of the cornett family, predating the serpent
53 Monday 23 December yellowplush ** a footman, especially one who wears breeches made of yellow plush; an underling; a lackey
54 Tuesday 24 December byrnie coat of mail or breastplate
55 Wednesday 25 December guyot a flat-topped, submarine mountain

** My favourite of the words presented.

Next episode in a few days!

amusements, links, pleasures

To Keep You Amused …

Just in case anyone is at a loose end over the holidays, the Guardian has printed the King William’s College 2019 GKP, as it has every year since 1951. This is the general knowledge paper 2019-20, the 115th issue, sat by the pupils of King William’s College, Isle of Man.

According to Wikipedia: Since 1904, the College has set an annual general knowledge test, known as the General Knowledge Paper (GKP). The pupils sit the test twice: once unseen on the day before the Christmas holidays, and again when they return to school in the New Year, after spending the holiday researching the answers. It is well known to be highly difficult, a common score being just two correct answers from the list of several hundred. The best scores are 40 to 50 for the unseen test and about 270 out of 360 for the second sitting.

The quiz is always introduced with the Latin motto Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est, “To know where you can find anything is, after all, the greatest part of erudition.”

You can find this year’s GKP at https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2019/dec/24/king-williams-college-quiz-2019 or https://www.kwc.im/uploads/gkp-questions-2019-20.pdf.

As usual I shall not be getting 100% as tonight’s bedtime reading.

amusements, arts, science

Advent Calendar 24


An Advent Calendar of Notable Scientists
Leonardo da Vinci


Image from Wikipedia

An Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, palaeontology, and cartography. He is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualized flying machines, a type of armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, an adding machine, and the double hull.