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

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]

current affairs, medical, personal, ramblings

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!

photography, pleasures

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.

[Click the images for larger views]

Lovage. We don’t normally think of umbellifers smelling good, but this is heavenly!
Buff Beauty Rose. This is rambling up our silver birch tree.
Some self-set Aquilegia.
This is a tiny common or garden Daisy growing in our lawn!
More Aquilegia.
And another Aquilegia.
amusements, memes

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

  1. Geisha Bottle (actually more likely Gaysha; East End 6-year-old; sister of Chardonnay-Madonna Bottle)
  2. Leena Stagarova (Soviet gymnast)
  3. Madeleine Cookie (pole-dancer/stripper)
  4. Mangoe Stikky (Jamaican rapper)
  5. Merkin Hick (American backwoodsman)
  6. Serge Tyde (Harbourmaster)
  7. Winnie Baygo (black American Country singer)
  8. Shaggy Mats (Australian gay male stripper)
  9. Sir Chiltern Waternut (retired diplomat)
  10. Revd Wakefield Sconce (Victorian rector; specialist in the propagation of primulas; pictured right)
food+drink, ramblings

Early Chilli Harvest

Today I have harvested the first of this year’s chillies: a dozen fully ripe Scotch Bonnets from the four plants on the study windowsill.

These are last years plants, and they’re getting cramped in a single 9-10 inch diameter pot! After they finished flowering last autumn I left them on the windowsill, and kept them watered. They continued to flourish as they were getting some warmth and good light, but not enough to keep flowering.

Then in late February I cut them back to about 10 inches. Within days they were growing new side shoots, and within a few weeks were flowering. They’re now good compact plants! Today’s harvest is the result.

These are two of last years crop;
this year’s have gone straight in the freezer

Although I’ve not repotted them, they have had their soil topped up and been given some feed. So with regular water and more feed, hopefully they’ll produce more flowers, and chilies, as the summer progresses. Hand pollinating the flowers is the best way to ensure a good crop – an old small watercolour brush is their best sex toy.

I might even try to keep them over another winter although they really will need repotting by then!

thoughts

On Privilege

Subsequent to my recent post on Living Like the Gentry, I’ve been thinking more about privilege, and as a generalisation I think there are at least two different types.

Innate Privilege. One is born into this. It would include things like: being white; family wealth; money being spent on posh schooling; being titled; family connections and networking.

Earned Privilege. This one acquires through one’s own efforts. This would include: making the most of educational opportunities; working to rise above family background; working hard to acquire good employment (with commensurate salary, pension etc.); learning to network.

By contrast there is also:

Dis-Privilege. This is usually largely accidental or lifestyle imposed, and would include: physical and mental disability; not being cis-gendered; being too openly LGBGT+; poverty (of money, accommodation etc.); low paid and/or insecure work; or just being born into insuperable Dis-Privilege.

 
Like all these things, this is a gross generalisation. There is a spectrum of privilege. These categories can, of course, overlap and there are always grey areas. For instance people with Innate (or Earned) Privilege could also be Dis-Privileged, through (for instance) disability (consider Stephen Hawking); the former often ameliorating the latter.

The biggest grey area is the large mass of the population who fall between Earned Privilege and Dis-Privilege. These are the people who have never worked to earn privilege but equally don’t have anything much going against them. Many are content just to bumble along (and in many ways who blames them) without engaging their brain; they can’t see that it is possible to bootstrap themselves into something better.** They are capable of thinking, but oh so often fail to stretch themselves to make the most of what they’ve been given – they tend to suffer what my late father would have called “poverty of mind”. Clearly that’s also a generalisation; many people do get out and use what they’ve got to improve themselves, even if that is only to be a plumber, taxi driver or seamstress – these people are just as valuable as dentists, wealth managers and lawyers; arguably they do more to keep the wheels turning.

Innate Privilege is there regardless of what one does. These people tend to be the cream rising (effortlessly) to the top of the heap. However through effort they can ameliorate it, “humanise” themselves, and become more in tune with the populous at large. Many do ameliorate their privilege, but equally many cash in, mercilessly and selfishly milking the system for all they can get – think Boris Johnson, David Cameron or Jacob Rees-Mogg.

The lower echelons of Earned Privilege is where Noreen and I are. We both come from humble origins, without wealth or connections to pull us up the ladder. But we’ve had good (free, state) education, made as much of it as we can, learned to think for ourselves, and consequently had decent, though not high-flying or insanely lucrative, jobs. While we’re not wealthy, we are fairly comfortable. What our Victorian forebears would have considered solidly middle class.

All this sort of, very roughly, meshes with the traditional view of the British class structure:

  • Those with Innate Privilege tend to be the Upper and Upper Middle Classes.
  • Those with Earned Privilege are likely to be the majority of the Middle Class.
  • The great bulk of the ordinary population would be the Working and Lower Middle Classes.
  • While the Dis-Privileged would be the Under Class and the lowest reaches of the Working Class.

Whatever any state might do to level this playing field (in terms of wealth, or whatever) there always will be this type of stratification. The intelligent and more intellectually able will always rise towards the top – because they can. And the more physically able will be the valued artisans.

Is this stratification wrong? Well maybe; it all depends on one’s modus vivendi. Clearly there is something wrong if the “uppers” do nothing but play their privilege for their own benefit and to Hell with the plebs; equally if the “lowers” despise and set out to arbitrarily demonise the “uppers”. But people from all layers of society can (and do) do much good while working within the system. One doesn’t have to like, or agree with, the system to be able to work within it and to overcome its failings; or indeed to try to change or dismantle it.

While one doesn’t like privilege, especially Innate Privilege, it’s here. And it ain’t going away real soon, or real easy. However much we’d like it to.

** Remember, as Robert Heinlein is quoted as saying: “There are perhaps 5% of the population that simply can’t think. There are another 5% who can, and do. The remaining 90% can think, but don’t“.
Or according to Thomas Edison: “Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think“.

food+drink

Very Garlicky Poussin

Last weekend I decided we would have the traditional “Chicken with 40 Pieces of Garlic”. But of course I had to do it my way!

We didn’t have a whole chicken, but we did have a pair of good, corn-fed, poussins. We find one 500g poussin nicely serves the two of us, so with two we always have one for cold the next day.

I started with Felicity Cloake’s recipe from the Guardian, and adapted, and simplified, it to suit. This is what I did …

Very Garlicky Poussin

3 large heads of garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
2 Poussin (about 500g each)
Salt and pepper
Large bunch fresh thyme
350ml white wine or vermouth (or a mix of wine and water)
Cornflour (optional)
Knob of butter (optional)

  1. Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6.
  2. Separate the garlic into individual cloves, and peel them. (You should have about three dozen cloves, but feel free to use more if you wish.) Put aside 6-8 smaller cloves and about half the thyme.
  3. Put the oil in a hob-friendly casserole which is just big enough for the two poussins, and put on a high heat.
  4. Season the poussins, then brown them on all sides as best as you can.
  5. Set the poussins aside and stuff the reserved garlic and thyme in the body cavities.
  6. Turn down the heat to medium, add the garlic and thyme to the pot, coat in the oil, cook for a couple of minutes and season.
  7. Add the wine and the poussins.
  8. Bring the liquid to a simmer, cover the pot and put in the oven for about 30 minutes.
  9. Take off the lid and roast the poussins uncovered for another 15 minutes (or longer until done) to brown the skin slightly.
  10. Set the poussins aside to keep hot and rest.
  11. Return the pot to the hob and bring up to a simmer. Remove as many of the thyme stalks as possible with a slotted spoon.
  12. While reducing the liquid, mash the garlic into the sauce (a stick blender is easiest, but don’t spray hot liquid everywhere!) and season to taste. You want to end up with a garlic gravy/sauce, so thicken with a little cornflour and a knob of butter if you wish.
  13. Serve the poussins with steamed vegetables of your choice, either jacket or steamed new potatoes, and the sauce on the side.

This was really yummy and appreciated not just by us, but also by the cats who came begging! It was finger- and paw-licking good!

amusements, memes

Things to Think About: June

This year we’re beginning each month with a (potentially logical) oddity to think about, and to keep the brain cells active. This month:

Maybe oxygen is slowly killing you and it just takes 75-100 years to fully work?

Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

environment, history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Links

OK, guys & gals. Hold tight for this month’s ride through my links to items you may have missed the first time around.

Science, Technology, Natural World

We know surprisingly little detail about the landscape of our oceans as relatively little has been systematically surveyed, but now scientists have identified and accurately measured the depth of the deepest hole in each of the planet’s five oceans.

Two items on our friends the wasps. First in the Guardian on the importance of wasps. And secondly from Prof. Seirian Sumner of UCL on why she loves wasps and on their importance [LONG READ].

While on insects, an Australian school has been treated to the rare sight of a Giant Wood Moth – and yes, they really are huge!

In another pair of articles in New Scientist [£££] and Scientific American [£££] ecologist Suzanne Simard talks about discovering the hidden language of trees and how they communicate with each other.

A look at the chemistry of the fragrant flowers of viburnum.

Pharmaceutical chemist Derek Lowe takes a look at the how our genes are littered with apparently junk DNA.

We’re regularly told that red wine is good for us and it’s all down to a chemical called resveratrol. (Actually I’d maintain all wine is good for us!)

Health, Medicine

Many women have problems with the symptoms of the menopause. Journalist Kate Muir investigates the social impact, and what could (and should) be done to help.

While on women’s health, the Guardian‘s Emine Saner investigates the (apparently) new focus on the pelvic floor. (Hold on! What’s new here? Haven’t we known about this for several decades?)

Sexuality

So in these days of Covid concern, is oral sex safer than kissing, and other questions about dating?

In which a couple of young people talk about being polyamorous.

At the other extreme several young people talk about being asexual.

Environment

From the outside you’d not think that the River Thames is one of the cleanest rivers in the world, so how come it looks so awful.

One London woman has “adopted” three urban foxes who visit her garden, and they’re confident enough to let her touch them. (We don’t actually advise doing this, guys & gals; remember they’re wild animals with a nasty bite!)

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Archaeologists claim to have identified the oldest known tattooing tools at an ancient site in Tennessee.

Back in Europe archaeologists think they may have identified one of the victims of Vesuvius at Herculaneum as a rescuer.

Back at home, we all know the legend about Lady Godiva; it seems it is all based on the real early medieval countess Godgifu.

And in another investigation it has been concluded that the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset was created in Anglo-Saxon times.

Medievalist Dr Eleanor Janega gave a short talk on the Black Death. [Video]

And Dr Eleanor Janega has also devised a new (pub?) game: Annoy a Medievalist Bingo.

Tudor historian Prof. Suzannah Lipscomb discovers what it is really like to wear early Tudor women’s clothes.

London

Still in historical context, the Tower of London’s baby raven has been named after a Celtic goddess in a “brilliantly ridiculous” ceremony.

Back down on the ground, London Reconnections takes a look at vehicle design, with special reference to that done for (the various guises) of London Transport.

Food, Drink

What do you mean, you didn’t know avocados are good for you? Here are five reasons you should eat avocado every day. (Disclosure: yes, I do!)

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

You know I’m not going to miss out on a chance to mention naturism … so here’s another look at why we’re better off unclothed. (Disclosure: yes, I am.)

People

Don’t underestimate or write off shy people: one such looks at how it has actually been a big benefit.

In other news, the Heritage Crafts Association has added hand kilt-making and glass eye making to list of the UK’s endangered crafts

And finally … from sewage works to cemetery, Guardian columnist Emma Beddington writes enthusiastically about the bleak local places in which we’ve found solace during lockdown.