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.
quotes

Quotes

Another of our irregular round-ups of quotes which have interested or amused …

My religion is simple. My religion is kindness.
[The Dalai Lama]

Earth has boundaries, but human stupidity is limitless.
[Gustave Flaubert]

Women and cats will do as they please. Men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.
[anon]

The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.
[Marilyn Monroe]

I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.
[Harry S Truman]

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it’s important.
[Eugene McCarthy]

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
[Albert Einstein (allegedly)]

The ultimate source of my mental happiness is my peace of mind. Nothing can destroy this except my own anger.
[Dalai Lama]

It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.
[Leonardo da Vinci]

She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.
[Annie Dillard]

And I still like …

These ambiguities, redundancies, and deficiencies recall those attributed by Dr Franz Kuhn to a certain Chinese encyclopaedia entitled Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge. On those remote pages it is written that animals are divided into (a) those that belong to the Emperor, (b) embalmed ones, (c) those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those that are included in this classification, (i) those that tremble as if they were mad, (j) innumerable ones, (k) those drawn with a very fine camel’s hair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) those that have just broken a flower vase, (n) those that resemble flies from a distance.
[Borges; Essay “The Analytical Language of John Wilkins”]

beliefs, nudism

Dress

Seen today on Facebook …

How to dress for your shape: are you human-shaped? play up your confidence and natural sex appeal by wearing whatever the fuck you want.

Life Tip: As the weather gets warmer, continue to wear whatever the fuck you want. Flaunt everything or keep it cool under cover. Dress to make yourself feel rad.

How to get a bikini body:put a bikini on your body

Want sexy own-the-beach summer legs? shave, or don’t because they’re your fucking legs.

The only thing to add is: Or wear nothing at all! ☺

beliefs, nudism

On the Offensiveness of Vaginas

A few days ago Naturist Vision fired a loud warning shot across the bows of all of society. In a post entitled Vaginas and Nudity the author points out that words such as “vagina”** must not be ostracised from the vocabulary just because a few puerile prudes deem it offensive. It’s a short article, but here is it’s essence:

[…] Michigan State Representative Lisa Brown’s use of [vagina] led to her censure. In the aftermath a state representative declared the word “vagina” so offensive that he wouldn’t say it in mixed company.

Now [a male] Idaho High School science teacher […] is being investigated for saying “vagina” during a sophomore science class […]

[…] it is time for us to pay attention. That our society finds the proper term for any body part offensive suggests we need to redouble our efforts to educate the public about body acceptance. That the “offensive” word refers to a specifically feminine body part is more evidence of the misogyny [in] our society.

We must find a way to normalize words that describe our bodies. Teaching our children to refer to their genitals as “wee wee” or “pee pee” […] is a huge mistake. Bowing to a misinformed public who prefers not to hear words like “penis” and “vagina” is another.

The underlying message is that women are bad, sex is bad and our bodies are bad. Turning the vagina into [something] whose name shall not be spoken can only have disastrous effects on our society as a whole […]

[…]

It stands to reason that if people are offended simply by hearing the word “vagina” they certainly wouldn’t want to see one live and in person!

OK, so this is religiously prudish America and the post is partly about the loss of rights to nudity and nudism. That makes the general thrust no less apposite, in America or the UK, or indeed anywhere else.

It is becoming increasingly important, as I observed again the other day, that nudity and sexuality are normalised, not marginalised and criminalised, and that this would actually be to the benefit of the whole of society.

** For now we’ll gloss over the fact that most times folks use “vagina” they actually mean “vulva”.

food+drink, ramblings

National Bread Week

Where would we be without bread? In one form or another, bread consumed by very many people the world over, so eating it during National Bread Week (16-22 April) is something most of us will do without even thinking about it.


Whilst no-one is absolutely sure when the first bread was made, man has been eating it in some form since 10,000 BC. Certainly the ancient Egyptians were making leavened (raised) bread with yeast by 3000 BC and it is thought that the workers who built the pyramids were paid in bread. Not surprising therefore bread has earned the title “staff of life”. Indeed, for many throughout the ages, bread has been a staple of their diet and so important, that laws concerning bread have existed for hundreds of years.

The purpose of National Bread Week is to celebrate the ‘roll’ that bread plays in our daily diet. The week will help to promote the nutritional benefits of bread and raise awareness of its part in a healthy balanced diet.

Having said that if you want to find more information or events you’ll have to do some searching as there appears to be no central website — which is missing a big trick!

amusements, ramblings

5th Annual Tweed Run, London

This Saturday, 13 April, sees the 5th Annual Tweed Run through London.

It is a celebration of old fashioned values as up to 400 ladies and gentlemen cycle through central London in high fashion and on a range of antique velocipedes.

You need permission to cycle along with them – and all the tickets have been allocated. Although the exact route is not published in advance (why?) the following viewing points are suggested (times are approximate):

12:00 Marylebone High Street
12:30 Regent Street / Savile Row
13:00 Piccadilly Circus
13:30 Houses of Parliament
14:00 Trafalgar Square


More information on the Tweed Run website at http://tweedrun.com/.

words

Word: Novate, Novation

Novate

To replace by something new; specifically in law, to replace by a new obligation, debt, etc.

Hence …

Novation

1. The introduction of something new; a change, an innovation. (Scots, obsolete)
  
2. The substitution of a new debtor, creditor, contract, etc. in place of an old one.


I’ve most commonly encountered novation in the second sense and in the situation of company acquisitions etc. X has a contract to provide a service to Y; when X is bought by Z the contract with Y is novated from X to Z, but only by mutual agreement of the parties through a legal process. It applies equally to company contracts and to moving your bank account during a take-over/acquisition.

The earliest use recorded by the OED is from Speed’s History of Great Britain of 1611.

ramblings

National Gardening Week

Continuing the gardening theme from National Beanpole Week, 15-21 April is designated National Gardening Week.

The benefits of gardens and gardening are felt by many millions of people every day. Gardening protects our environment, strengthens communities, helps children learn and contributes to happy, healthy lives.

Through National Gardening Week, thousands of people across the country come together to help keep Britain beautiful by sharing and celebrating everything about gardens and gardening.

National Gardening Week is run by the Royal Horticultural Society along with half a dozen major sponsors. The RHS are organising many events around this year’s themes of horticultural careers and planting for wildlife.

There’s more information on The NGW website at www.nationalgardeningweek.org.uk.

beliefs, current affairs, nudism, ramblings

Kids and Nudity

I’m getting increasingly worried about society’s attitude towards children and nudity. Both allowing kids to see adults nude and adults to see children nude.

Neither is actually a problem, but society is making it into one.

There’s an interesting opinion piece by Laura over at Catharsis under the title Why NOT Being Naked In Front Of Your Kids Is Weird:

[A] single father, recently found himself under Child Protective Services investigation after some mothers of his 6-year-old son’s friends reported him for showering with his child.

These mothers apparently think because the dad showers with his son, he’s a pedophile. NOT because the kid reported his dad touched him inappropriately or because the kid reported his dad demanded to be touched inappropriately by his son.

Simply because the dad showered with his 6-year-old son. Period.

You know what I think about that? I think that’s bullshit. And I think anyone who takes an innocent act like being naked around a child to the level of pedophilia ought to be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

There are real cases of sexual abuse out there — cases of children being seriously harmed by the adults around them. THERE ARE REAL PREDATORY ABUSERS OUT THERE SCARRING CHILDREN PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY. Simply because a parent is naked in front of his children does NOT make him an abuser, and threatening a parent’s custody of his child with no evidence of such activity is both negligent and irresponsible.

(Emphasis in the original.)

Which, of course, is absolutely right.

OK, so that’s in America. But we’re very little different in this country.

I am concerned at the vilification of artist Graham Ovenden for his portrayal of naked children. OK, Ovenden has recently been convicted of inappropriate conduct with some girls many, many years ago. I don’t know how much abuse, if any, really did occur; I wasn’t there at the time, I wasn’t at the trial and I haven’t seen the evidence only some of the press reports. But the very fact that an artist can be pilloried in the way he has, so long after the event, and when he appears to have taken care that children he was drawing/painting were chaperoned, is deeply worrying. The fact that the charges relate to events 30-40 years ago, and in large part it seems to be the girls’ word against Ovenden’s, smacks of trumped up complaints and something which probably should never have got to court. Although as I say I’ve not followed the details closely, so I may be wrong. But it has been enough to set my alarm bells ringing.

That’s not to condone paedophilia; far from it. As Laura says (above) there are predatory abusers out there; and it is right that where there is sufficient evidence they are brought to justice. But I worry that we are straying into witch-hunt territory, where merely making an allegation is enough for a conviction and that having to provide evidence and to prove a case “beyond reasonable doubt” has gone by the board. This is gutter-press, mob justice.

Merely painting, drawing or photographing a child naked, or showering with a child (yours or anyone else’s) does not constitute paedophilia. Just as a mixed, nude, adult sauna (the norm in Scandinavia!) does not ipso facto mean there is sexual abuse.

We are rapidly approaching the stage where it will be a criminal offence for anyone to see any child nude at any time: parents will not be allowed to bath their newborns; and doctors will not be able to examine child patients. Clearly this is a nonsense and would lead to a major deterioration in health.

As I have observed before nudity and sexuality need to be normalised, not marginalised and ciminalised. I have always maintained that if we had a healthier understanding and acceptance of desires, sexuality, nudity and our bodies it would have far reaching positive effects on our health and our attitudes. Bring children up to understand their bodies, their sexuality and to accept nudity as something normal and they will be more balanced as individuals; more able to discuss their inner feelings and worries; more at ease discussing their medical problems with their doctor. All of which has to be good, if only in terms of catching serious disease earlier and when it is more easily, and more cheaply, treated. But I believe it would also be of great benefit psychologically.