Having no destination, I am never lost.
[Ikkyu]
All posts by Keith
Ten Things: July
This year our Ten Things series – which surprisingly appears on the tenth of each month – continues concentrating on the amusing, both real and fictional. So this month we have …
Ten Silly Names of Real Companies
(I mean, if you didn’t know, how would you guess what they do?)
- 3663
- Amazon
- Apricot
- Conchango
- Solstice
- Goldfish
- Sodexo
- Virgin
- Yodel
- QinetiQ
Ancestral Byways
What did you do in the lockdown? I spent time with my ancestors!
There are always some unexpected places one gets taken by the ancestors and family history. This is one of those, and a connexion which I had never expected.
I have just acquired at auction a copy of A Display of Heraldrie by John Guillim; 4th edition from 1660; probably in its original binding (if not, it has been very carefully rebound).
John Guillim (c.1565–1621) was an antiquarian and officer of arms at the College of Arms. He was made Portsmouth Pursuivant Extraordinary in 1608, and Rouge Croix Pursuivant in 1618. Guillim’s A Display of Heraldry was first published in London in 1610, although there is some dispute about the original authorship. It was revised and reprinted a number of times up to 1724, with the fourth edition of 1660 generally considered to be the best of them. Samuel Pepys appears to have had a copy of the fifth edition in his library.
I’ve known this work for many years, having first seen a copy in Harrow School in the early 1980s (on a work visit!) – it was lying on a huge Cromwellian refectory table for anyone to browse. I’ve always coveted owning a copy. Somewhere around 20 years ago I acquired a fairly poor, rebound and damaged copy of the fourth edition, and have since been keeping my eyes open for a copy in good condition. At last I found one, and was very surprised to get it rather more cheaply than I expected.
And now we get to the family history bit, which I only discovered in the last couple of years!
As you’ll see on the title page the fourth edition is “Faithfully collected by FRANCIS NOWER Arms Painter (and Student in Heraldry) in Bartholomew Lane, London“.
There are two branches of the Nower (or Nowers) family. The senior branch is in Oxfordshire; the tomb of Sir George Nowers (died 1425), a companion of the Black Prince, is in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.
The junior branch was centred around Pluckley, Kent, and it from them I am descended by way of a string of younger sons of younger sons. Francis Nower (1624-1670) was indeed a herald painter who died tragically with his two infant daughters in a house fire in Bartholomew Lane, London in 1670. He’s not a direct ancestor, but he is my first cousin 10 times removed – ie. the grandson of my 10x great-grandfather, Joshua Nower, Yeoman of Pluckley (c.1555-1618).
That was totally unexpected! I didn’t know I had Nower(s) ancestors until a handful of years ago, and only found out about Francis Nower during the first lockdown last year. Catherine Nowers (born 1820) married into my paternal grandmother’s line. Luckily the Pluckley Nower(s) are well documented at least back to the early 16th century. And to think that my Marshall line appears to be nothing more exciting than AgLabs all the way down.
And the moral is? It’s worth doing your family history, and following all the lines, not just your father’s father’s father’s line. And follow the lines as far back as you can. You never know what delights – or skeletons; we’ve all got some of them too! – you’ll find.
Things to Think About: July
This year we’re beginning each month with a (potentially logical) oddity to think about, and to keep the brain cells active. This month:
Intentionally losing a game of rock, paper, scissors is just as hard as trying to win.
Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
Monthly Links
Welcome to this month’s edition of my links to items you may have missed the first time around. We’ve got a lot to pack in this month so let’s get going …
Science, Technology, Natural World
An interesting philosophical look at science points out that it can’t supply absolute truths about the world – the scientific method is based on continual questioning and revision – but it brings us steadily closer. [£££]
Here’s one guy who studies UFOs, mostly debunks them and doesn’t buy into all the hype.
A group of volunteers spent 40 days in a cave with no natural light or clocks. The group’s organiser explains why, and apparently many want to go back. [LONG READ]
New research suggests that the ancient Coelacanth can live for 100 years, rather than the previously thought 20 years.
But that’s nothing compared with some Bdelloid rotifers which have apparently survived 24,000 years frozen in Siberia.
How can I move on without an item on wasps? Here’s a simple guide to what is, and isn’t a wasp. [LONG READ]
Health, Medicine
An increased number of people have struggled with mental health over the last 18 months. Here’s one person’s guide to actually asking for help.
Medical researchers at University of East Anglia (my alma mater) are having thousands of men trial a home testing kit for prostate cancer.
Meanwhile there’s a new blood test to detect 50 different cancers, often years before they’re obvious. The NHS is currently running an big trial to see how the test performs in the clinic.
[TRIGGER WARNING]
Here two women talk about their experience of female genital mutilation (FGM).
Sexuality
It’s worrying that a survey has found many Britons cannot name all parts of the vulva. What a sad indictment of our pathetically puritanical attitudes and sex education.
Nevertheless hot sex is back on this summer.
Environment
Britain’s largest grasshopper, the Large Marsh Grasshopper, is being bred in captivity and released into some of its former East Anglian habitats.
I’ve always said that renewable energy isn’t the environmental no-brainer it seems. Here’s one example of why: destructive lithium mining.
Art, Literature, Language
A new biography of William Blake offers a glimpse into the artist and poet’s visionary mind.
There’s also about to be a new edition of a 400-year-old self help book, Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy.
A random walk through the English Language can produce curious and intriguing results. [£££]
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Chinese archaeologists have unveiled some remains of a supposed new hominin, nicknamed “Dragon Man”. Could he be a mysterious Denisovan? Or (perhaps more likely) a hoax?
Meanwhile new clues appear to show that people reached the Americas around 30,000 years ago, rather earlier than previously thought.
Researchers are now suggesting Iron Age people were emotionally attached to their possessions. Well, surprise!
The Roman Empire was not such a good place: a shackled skeleton is thought to be rare evidence of slavery in Roman Britain.
Dr Eleanor Janega, of Going Medieval, has a new book out: a graphic look at medieval history, which debunks most of our misconceptions. Here’s a sneak preview.
It seems the medieval fashion for very pointy shoes created an explosion of bunions. The same team have shown that victims of the Black Death were often buried with considerable care, contrary to our usual expectations.
Dr Eleanor Janega, again, looks at sex work in medieval times, and where it was allowed to happen, with special reference to London.
London
More up to date here’s an article on some 18th-century grottoes which can still be found in and around London.
IanVisits asks whether the pantograph could make a return to London’s buses, if nly in a restricted way.
From sharks to seahorses: six species you probably didn’t know were swimming in the Thames.
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
A new “pop-up” women’s urinal, the Peequal, could help reduce queues for the loo.
People
Magawa the mine-detecting rat has retired after 5 years hard work in Cambodia.
Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!
And finally, we can’t end without a look at some of the bizarre entries in Cuprinol Shed of the Year.
Monthly Quotes
Welcome to this month’s collection of quotes gleaned from my delvings into obscure knowledge.
We are self-centred and selfish, but we need to be wisely selfish, not foolishly so. If we neglect others, we too lose. We have to support others. We can educate people to understand that the best way to fulfil their own interest is to be concerned about the welfare of others.
[Dalai Lama]
There are no ends in administration. Only loose ends. Administration is eternal.
[https://twitter.com/YesSirHumphrey/status/1394387572533743621?s=09]
England’s response to this public health crisis has been characterised by a lack of transparency – or, even worse, a deliberate suppression of material that is at odds with the Government’s narrative.
[Editorial in British Medical Journal; https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/05/28/the-uks-response-to-new-variants-a-story-of-obfuscation-and-chaos/]
Johnson is after all the most accomplished liar in public life – perhaps the best liar ever to serve as prime minister. Some of this may have been a natural talent – but a lifetime of practice and study has allowed him to uncover new possibilities which go well beyond all the classifications of dishonesty attempted by classical theorists like St Augustine. He has mastered the use of error, omission, exaggeration, diminution, equivocation and flat denial. He has perfected casuistry, circumlocution, false equivalence and false analogy. He is equally adept at the ironic jest, the fib and the grand lie; the weasel word and the half-truth; the hyperbolic lie, the obvious lie, and the bullshit lie.
[Rory Stewart, former Tory MP and minister]
Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
[Terry Pratchett]
There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.
[William James, American philosopher]
Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
[Joseph Campbell]
Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.
[George Bernard Shaw]
Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.
George Burns, American comedian]
Who also said …
Sex after 90 is like trying to shoot pool with a rope. Even putting my cigar in its holder is a thrill.
The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.
[Mark Twain]
The Bible is the charter of women’s serfdom, and, as a consequence, of man’s degradation. It, like all superstitious God-books, is the outcome of ignorance ruled by selfishness.
[Lady Florence Dixie, 1855-1905]
Religion says this is the law of God; I say it is that of man. Superstition declares it to be a divine ordinance; I maintain it is a barbaric one. Superstition and barbaric law go hand in hand. It is the former which creates the latter.
[Lady Florence Dixie, 1855-1905]
Horrible Times 22: Lockdown 450
In this instalment … Today, Saturday 19 June 2021, is day 450 of lockdown for us.
And still not a lot has really changed since I last reported on Day 400
So why don’t we get the “bad” news over first?
- In the last 50 days I’ve managed to get off the premises just twice. Once for part 2 of my annual diabetes check-up & shingles vaccination, and secondly for an optician’s appointment. That makes a grand total of just 9 “outings” in 450 days. Which is quite pathetic really, although rather understandable.
- I managed to miss the partial eclipse of the sun on 10 June. I don’t remember when we last had clear skies, at a sensible time, for any astronomical phenomenon.
- We’ve had two friends in hospital. One with heart problems, which have needed a pacemaker fitted; the other with a broken leg (luckily not a hip).
- In other medical news I got a talking to by my diabetic nurse for letting my blood glucose control slip somewhat over the last year, and not losing any weight. Moral 1: must try harder. Moral 2: the medical profession need to understand quality of life.
- And of course our pathetic government has delayed removing all Covid restrictions. I have to say I think this is the right decision, given the apparent extra transmissibility of the Covid delta variant. However it is entirely of the government’s own making: they could have nipped this in the bud by introducing travel restrictions to/from India in early April rather than waiting 3-4 weeks. But then this is entirely consistent with their whole approach.
In more positive news …
- We’ve had a mini heatwave, which is rather a nice change from the cold wet weather which preceded it.
- And the good weather has enabled us to get our runner beans planted, as well as a selection of salad leaf veggies. Nothing to harvest yet a while although I have harvested the first dozen chillies from last year’s plants (on the study windowsill) which I overwintered.
- The good weather has also brought the roses into bloom. The garden is a riot of roses at the moment, including a dog rose flowering right at the top of our mature silver birch tree. Walking down the garden there is a heavy scent of roses.
- Having found a very dead Rose Chafer on the patio table, I was finally impelled to buy a macro lens for my camera so I can take more/better close-ups. So far this has mostly meant flowers.
- As well as splashing out money on a new lens I also bought two paintings by Adrian Daintrey at auction. For security reasons I’m obviously not going to post them here, but members of the Anthony Powell Society will find out more in due course (as Daintrey was a friend of Powell’s).
- And finally, I’ve been doing quite a bit of work on my family history. I’ve especially been trying to unravel the Marshalls back in the late 17th and early 18th centuries around the Weald of Kent. I have a brick wall there in my father’s line; I’m sure there are connexions between all those I’ve found, but currently I’m unable to prove it – or satisfactorily work out exactly who is related to who. It doesn’t help that the men are all called Stephen, Thomas or William. The one guy with an easily identifiable name, Reynolds Marshall, seems to parachute in from nowhere in the late 17th century. It’s a tangled web which should be solvable, but for the fact that back then parish records were patchy and often haven’t survived. And along the way you get diverted down some (usually irrelevant) rabbit holes – so just who was the rather improbably named Samuel Drawbridge? Such are the joys of family history!
So what happens next? Well who knows. By the time of my next report at day 500 we’ll either have had all restrictions lifted and told we can go back to (some approximation to) normality, or we’ll be deep in another wave of Covid cases. Or, the pessimistic side of me suggests it might be both of those.
We’re not even in the lap of the gods, but the whim of our government. Gawdelpus!
Quote: Worry
Don’t ever worry about yourself, you are the way you are because you were meant to do what you are meant to do.
Garden Flowers
Suddenly in the last week or so, our garden is awash with flowers – especially roses. And I’ve been playing with the new macro lens for my “proper” camera. Here are the first few results.
Ten Things: June
This year our Ten Things series – which surprisingly appears on the tenth of each month – continues concentrating on the amusing, both real and fictional. So this month we have …
Ten Characters I Invented
- Geisha Bottle (actually more likely Gaysha; East End 6-year-old; sister of Chardonnay-Madonna Bottle)
- Leena Stagarova (Soviet gymnast)
- Madeleine Cookie (pole-dancer/stripper)
- Mangoe Stikky (Jamaican rapper)
- Merkin Hick (American backwoodsman)
- Serge Tyde (Harbourmaster)
- Winnie Baygo (black American Country singer)
- Shaggy Mats (Australian gay male stripper)
- Sir Chiltern Waternut (retired diplomat)
- Revd Wakefield Sconce (Victorian rector; specialist in the propagation of primulas; pictured right)