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.
amusements, quotes

Monthly Quotes

Here be this month’s collection of recently unearthed quotes, amusing and thought-provoking …

Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fish-hooks or clay pots or grinding stones.
But no.
Mead said that the first sign of civilization in ancient culture was a femur that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts.
[Aleta Pearce on Twitter; 20 March 2020]

One cannot usefully legislate against an attitude or a belief, but one can legislate against criminal behaviour that might result from an attitude or a belief. Strong human rights protection in constitutions and laws [are] mechanisms to contain extremist tendencies.
[William Saunderson-Meyer; Thought Leader]

It is the duty of governments to protect their citizens from harm. It is not government’s task to protect its citizens’ sensitivities, however justifiable and acute, from peacefully expressed views, however bizarre.
[William Saunderson-Meyer; Thought Leader]

To censor thought or opinion is to limit our understanding of the world. If one cannot look critically at … historical events, the past remains frozen at an officially sanctioned moment in time. For history to credibly illuminate the present, it has to be open to continual academic revision.
[William Saunderson-Meyer; Thought Leader]

To help us all work together, remember that you have created your own reality and so has every other person you meet. Be willing to be curious about their story and to reflect on why this might be different to yours. Better still, try considering what you really know about the current situation and use this information to create several different stories.
[Prof. Patricia Riddell; The Conversation]

The whole experience of paying someone to inflict pain on you by pulling your pubic hair out by the roots is undeniably bizarre – but it’s also completely normalized and a fairly regular part of grooming for lots of women in the developed West. In plenty of cultures, pubic hair is seen as a symbol of fertility – some women in South Korea even have hair transplants on their vulvas, so celebrated is a thick and full bush.
[Lynn Enright; Vagina: A Re-Education]

Over tens of thousands of words, I have argued that we should all be much more open, much more honest, much more vocal about our vaginas and our vulvas and our genitals generally.
[Lynn Enright; Vagina: A Re-Education]

The virus doesn’t move, people move it. We stop moving, the virus stops moving, the virus dies. It’s that simple.

Sourdough starters are just Tamagotchi for early middle-age.
[Eric Lach on Twitter]

Having a great deal of expertise in one field does not prevent you from being a crackpot or menace in another. Let your studies teach you humility and an appreciation for hard-won knowledge, not intellectual vanity.
[Katie Mack on Twitter]

“The sun’s coming back again,” Moomintroll thought in great excitement. “No darkness, no loneliness any more. Once again I’ll sit in the sun on the verandah and feel my back warming …”
[Tove Jansson; Moominland Midwinter]

If Buddhism is true, it’s true because it offers us a way to take a look at a truth that existed before there was any Buddhism. If it doesn’t do that, then there is no reason to study Buddhism except, perhaps, as an academic discipline or a hobby. If Buddhism is all about believing in Buddhism, then Buddhism isn’t worth believing in.
[Brad Warner; Letters to a Dead Friend about Zen]

We can build peace through the revolution of small things, recognising the value of every human being … Yesterday, peace was our grandparents’ dream, today it is our responsibility to build it.
[Sophia Vinasco-Molina]

The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary. Things are kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervenes but because of a general tacit agreement that “it wouldn’t do” to mention that particular fact.
[George Orwell]

[The people] have abandoned the old, decent style of long, full garments for clothes which are short, tight, impractical, slashed, every part laced, strapped or buttoned up, with the sleeves of the gowns and the tippets of the hoods hanging down to absurd lengths … Women flowed with the tides of fashion in this and other things even more eagerly, wearing clothes that were so tight that they wore a fox tail hanging down inside their skirts at the back, to hide their arses.
[James Tait (ed), “Chronica Johannis de Reading et Anonymi Cantuariensis 1346-1367” in Rosemary Horrox, The Black Death; quoted in Going Medieval blog]

food+drink, ramblings

Recipe: Fruit & Frangipane Tart

Like many others during these times of woe I’ve been cooking more. Today was a baking day: as well as the headline Fruit & Frangipane Tart, we put together a small “jam” tart (using half a jar of very sticky mango compote), pineapple crumble (using fresh, rapidly ripening, fruit), and put some “spare” bananas in the dehydrator to dry. Anyway here’s the tart recipe …

Fruit & Frangipane Tart

This makes enough to fill a deep 23cm quiche tin (preferably one with a removable base) with a bit of pastry left over for the “jam” tart.

Ingredients: Pastry
400gm plain flour
200gm butter
50gm caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
Milk
Pinch of salt

Ingredients: Fruit
1-2 coffee mugs full of pre-cooked “stewed” fruit of your choice (I used stewed rhubarb)
Extra sugar to taste

Ingredients: Frangipane
200gm ground almonds (I ground up some flaked almonds in a coffee mill)
200gm butter
180gm caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
Zest of a lemon or orange
Generous tbsp vanilla essence

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 175°C.
  2. Make the sweet pastry according to your usual method adding the minimum amount of milk to make it bind together. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
  3. Roll out the pastry and line the greased flan tin. Blind bake for 15 minutes.
  4. While the pastry case blind bakes, get the fruit and frangipane together.
  5. If necessary, drain any excess liquid from the fruit (I put mine in a sieve for 5 minutes and drained out an eggcup of juice) and sweeten to taste.
  6. To make the frangipane put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat together until they form a smooth paste. As I need the exercise I did this by hand (the end result will be quite stiff) but with the right attachment you could do this in a food processor.
  7. When the pastry case is ready, remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before removing the baking beans. Turn the oven up to 180°C.
  8. Put a good layer of fruit in the pastry case and then a generous layer of frangipane (ie. all of it!).
  9. Return to the oven for 45-50 minutes until the frangipane is firm to the touch. If the frangipane is browning too much cover with a piece of foil.
  10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before trying to remove the tart from the tin. Serve as either cake or pudding.

Notes

  1. As I’m not a good pastry cook (hot hands and not enough practice) you may wish to follow your own preferred method for the pastry.
  2. The jammier the fruit is the better it will set in the cooked tart.
  3. I found this made about 25-30% too much pastry. Use the extra to make jam tart(s).
food+drink

Recipe: Aubergine Canoes

This is a typically Zen Mischief take on the much loved Imam Bayildi – although no self-respecting, Muhammad-fearing imam would touch my version!

As so often with my recipes, it is very forgiving and you can swap things in and out to a large extent – except maybe the aubergines! So it’s very much a “use what you have” dish and can easily be made vegetarian.

Oh, and sorry, no photo as it got eaten too quickly!

Serves 2 as a main course, or 4 as a starter

Ingredients
2 aubergines
1 small red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3-4 medium sized mushrooms, roughly chopped
2-3 soft tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 slices thick cut ham (or 4 slices of thin), roughly chopped
1-2 handfuls pine nuts
2-3 handfuls breadcrumbs (I used 2 chunks of day-old bread, blitzed in the food processor)
1 egg, beaten
generous handful chopped herbs (mint is best)
half small glass white wine or dry sherry
1-2 handfuls cheese, finely grated (I used ends of parmesan and cheddar)
Olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
2. Trim and wash the aubergines and cut in half lengthways. Scoop out a trough in the flesh (keep the flesh!) to make aubergine “dugout canoes” and brush with oil. Place in a greased ovenproof dish, cover with foil and put in the oven for about 20 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
3. Sweat the onion and garlic in a little oil in a frying pan until the onion is translucent. Add the chopped flesh from the aubergines and cook for 2-3 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Finally add the chopped tomatoes and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Add the pine nuts and continue cooking until the tomatoes are breaking down.
4. Tip the tomato mix into a mixing bowl and add the ham, breadcrumbs, egg, herbs and wine. Mix thoroughly and season.
5. Take the aubergines from the oven and fill the “canoes” with the stuffing mix. You can pile up the stuffing; if there’s still too much then pack it in the dish around the aubergines. Replace the foil and return to the oven for about 30 minutes.
6. Remove the foil, and check that everything is cooking well. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top and return to the oven, without the foil, for about a further 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted and browning and the aubergine is cooked.
7. Serve hot with crusty bread (if you feel the need for more carbohydrate) and maybe some home-made tomato sauce.

Notes
1. Optional additions to the stuffing mix: Worcester sauce, chopped olives, chilli flakes (or finely chopped fresh chilli).
2. This will also eat well cold.

amusements, memes

Ten Things: April

This year our Ten Things series, on the tenth of each month, is concentrating on things which are wackier than usual, if not by much. From odd road names to Christmas carols by way of saints and scientists. So here goes with April; and for Easter I thought we should have …

Ten 16th Century English Composers

  1. William Byrd (born c.1540) (right)
  2. Thomas Tallis (born c.1505)
  3. Christopher Tye (born 1505)
  4. Orlando Gibbons (born 1585)
  5. Thomas Weelkes (born 1576)
  6. John Wilbye (born 1574)
  7. Peter Philips (born 1560)
  8. Thomas Tomkins (born 1572)
  9. John Shepperd (born 1515)
  10. John Dowland (born 1563)

If you’re interested to know more, all have Wikipedia entries.

current affairs, personal, ramblings

Horrible Times 6

I’ve now been in lockdown since midday on 12 March, when I got home from my annual diabetic eye check (which I was surprised wasn’t cancelled). That’s 24 days and counting. I thought I’d just make a few brief notes about the good and the not so good recent happenings.

Not So Good

  1. Being in a higher risk category, which brings on fearfulness and self-isolation.
  2. Being unable to do a supermarket shop, because our decent supermarkets are either a bus ride or a taxi ride away (‘cos we don’t drive), and that feels too risky for either of us.
  3. The total inability to book a supermarket delivery, any supermarket delivery. And when you do, 50% of what you order isn’t available.
  4. The almost total absence of some commodities like bread flour and long-life milk.
  5. An inability to sign up for a “veg box” delivery.
  6. The nice sunny weather means I shall have to do some gardening, as much as my back will allow …
  7. … because the garden is untidy and is threatening to get away from us while we can’t get anyone to work on it.
  8. Two (Arab-looking) guys wandering down the road this morning shoulder to shoulder, the younger wearing a mask and talking to his mobile. Totally oblivious to what 6 feet is.
  9. The government’s pathetic response to the crisis: too little, too late; inadequate support for healthcare workers; delayed lockdown; stupidity of expecting herd immunity; inadequate self-isolation advice for the infected; almost complete absence of testing, so they’ve no clue what is actually happening … it goes on …
  10. All of that covered by wall-to-wall rolling TV news (which I’m mostly ignoring).
  11. I’m missing my fortnightly massage: it does keep my damaged back working but it is also enjoyable socially too.
  12. I know I’m not someone who is always out and about, but even so being forced to stay grounded is somewhat wearing.
  13. The inability to rise above (or kill off) all the stupid things I (feel I) have to do so I can sit and relax and read.
  14. A feeling of vulnerability and impending doom. Suddenly one realises one is all too mortal. And I’m unable to get my head round what it’ll be like not to be here, and not to be able to do the things I am doing.
  15. And then one feels like a helpless mesmerised rabbit in the headlights due to the stress and anxiety which feed the depression – rinse and repeat.

Good

  1. All the valiant and heroic NHS people, transport workers, and food supply-chain workers who are putting themselves at risk to help people and keep things moving.
  2. There’s certainly a sense of history: that we’re living through an historic period much like the Black Death (1349) or the Great Plague of London (1665) and beginning (but only beginning) to understand what it must have been like then. Yes that’s macabre, but also interesting and in a way rather fun.
  3. The quiet! It is just so quiet: no traffic noise, no planes in/out of Heathrow, not even many screaming kids. If you added back in a few mooing cows and whinnying horses this must be much like it was 600 years ago.
  4. Add to that the light and air quality. The lack of traffic, planes etc. has really reduced the pollution. The air is fresh, clear and not smelling of diesel and kerosene. And the light is bright, almost with that special clear quality one is used to seeing in East Anglia.
  5. The friend, who despite being an NHS worker with an elderly mum, is helping us by getting the odd few provisions and a bunch of flowers.
  6. One of the supermarkets (which I won’t name) seem to have decided (how?) that I’m on the vulnerable list for deliveries. This could be useful.
  7. Meanwhile Noreen has been able to get to the (pretty rubbish) local shops for the odd essentials.
  8. At the beginning of all this I had managed to book several Waitrose deliveries and have struck lucky with the odd slot ere and there – so we’re doing OK for food.
  9. It’s a lovely warm sunny Spring day today (Sunday) and the week promises to be largely the same. That means the garden is getting green and the apple blossom is coming out.
  10. As of writing this we’re both still healthy.

photography, pleasures

Horrible Times 5

And it goes on, and on, and on … and t will do for a long time. So I thought we’d have something to cheer us up.

It’s a lovely sunny, warm Spring day, and this tulip was flowering in the planter outside our back door:

Tulip
Click the image for a larger view
history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

In the middle of these interesting times we’re living in, we bring you a diversion by way of our round-up of links to items you may have missed this month. And I promise it is Coronavirus-free.

Science, Technology, Natural World

The Rainfall Rescue Project are looking for (online) volunteers to help transcribe old rainfall records from the handwritten sheets, so they are digitised and useable for in depth research.

We thought we understood it, but rock samples brought back by the Apollo moon missions are reopening debate about how the moon formed. [£££££]

It seems that people who get lost in the wild follow strange but predictable paths. [£££££]

Dust is often not what you think, especially in museums.

A brief look at five dinosaurs which, once upon a time, roamed the British Isles.

The smallest known dinosaur skull has been found in a piece of amber.

Crows understand death, at least death of a fellow crow, but can we work out what they’re actually thinking?

Now, while we’re all in solitary confinement, is a good time to take up birdwatching: there’s a surprising number of birds go past your window and they’re not all sparrows and pigeons.

If they share a vase, daffodils kill other cut flowers. Here’s why.

Health, Medicine

Copper is great at killing off microbes (it’s been used in horticulture and viniculture for centuries) and yet in a medical context the more inert stainless steel is preferred.

A small number of women are born with the rare MRKH Syndrome, where they lack a vagina and possibly other internal reproductive organs.

We all know about tree rings giving information about the growth of the tree, but it seems our teeth also document our life’s stresses.

Environment

A small Japanese village is leading the way into our carbon-neutral future, but it ain’t easy.

The Guardian gives us fifty simple ways to make life greener. [LONG READ]

Social Sciences, Business, Law

Many of us like to belief we have free thought uninfluenced by others; but can we ever be a truly independent thinker?

Art, Literature, Language

Aubrey Beardsley is one of many artists whose has work been suppressed for obscenity, and is the subject of a new exhibition at Tate Britain (assuming museums are ever allowed to reopen). [LONG READ]

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

A new study reports that a supposedly important collection of Dead Sea Scroll fragments are all fakes.

Archaeologists suggest that a collection of bones found in Kent church likely to be of 7th-century saint

Drake’s Island in Plymouth Sound is to be opened up and get its first visitors in 30 years.

London

London blogger Diamond Geezer takes a look at the genesis of London numbered postal districts.

Lifestyle, Personal Development

And finally … Should ladies’ loos provide female urinals, and would they be an answer to the queues for the loos?

Take care, everyone, and stay safe!

amusements

Auction Amusements

I thought we should have a little diversion from these interesting times we’re living in. And it is a while since we had a selection of the idiosyncrasies which turn up at out local auction house. So here’s a collection from the last three sales. As always it is not just the odd which amuses but the strange things which get up together as a lot.

A quantity of mixed items including an espresso Magimix, an indoor fountain, a Siemens espresso maker designed by FA Porsche, a Veuve Clicquot wine cooler, a Vice Versa knife box, wooden tray, plastic champagne glasses in stand, a Moulinex Blender 2, an aquarium, BaByliss hair dryer.

A mixed lot including aluminium pots and pans, Oriol zoom binoculars 30 x 60, a gas mask, an Aqua Vac, Precision LED magnifying glass, watering can, aluminium bowls, camping gas bottle, a mixer, umbrellas, painters’ tools and a fishing rod; many appear to be unused in boxes.

A mixed lot including a picture of a Rolls Royce made up from watch parts, a wooden framed barometer, a painted ostrich egg, a set of steak knives and forks on a tray, a small quantity of CDs, a small quantity of foreign coins, a resin figurine of a bird etc.


Antique taxidermy: a kestrel with bird prey, under glass dome on wooden base


A mid-18th century English delft flower brick, delicately painted in blue with a figure on a bridge between buildings

A fruit box containing an extensive number of cigarette lighters including Ronson and Zippo, an old mahogany box containing Victorian brass and steel geometry equipment, a colourful pottery pot decorated with eels and squid and two glass pint pots.

A box of pipes including briar, some unused, one in a carry box, a carton of old briar pipes one unused by Falcon, foreign coins, an original box of cowry shell counters for games, a button-hook and shoe-horn with silver handles, a dagger paper-knife and a collection of old cut-throat razors in a velvet pouch, old scissors, wrist watches, a scout dagger, etc.

A wooden box containing a collection of call girl telephone cards and a child’s crocheted matinee jacket, socks and slippers and a silver-plated and mother-of-pearl baby rattle.

I feel sure there’s a rather sordid story within this juxtaposition.

A carton including a number of Beryl Cook calendars, a quantity of legal documents, a postcard book Vues d’Ypres, a quantity of unused gilt metal buttons some of them Naval others with enamelled Scales of Justice, an original Tiddlywinks box and contents, a silver-plated copper coffee pot, an old Williams Deacon’s Bank savings box, office stamps, a pipe, 19th century corkscrew, etc.

A mixed lot including a Polaroid camera, a Seasmoke Rigid drill, a Sony Handycam, a kitchen wall-light, an Xtreme torch, a folding desk lamp, carbon-monoxide alarm, a brass dog doorstop, a frog telephone.

A quantity of glassware including two glass ceiling shades, sherry and wine glasses, a box of vintage tools including spanners and saws, two aluminium cooking pots, a sundial, etc.

A life size model of Elvis Presley seated on a stool playing his guitar.

Apart from wondering why one would want a life-size model of Elvis, how does a stool play a guitar?


Two vintage My Pet Monster stuffed toys – one the pet monster and also the monster’s pet, by Amtoy, and a small quantity of records


A glazed cabinet of stuffed and mounted birds including kingfisher, snipe, golden oriels, and flycatchers

A small mixed lot, including a soda syphon, Chinese-style lamp base, a garniture of Art Deco vases, some silver plate, a model car and a tail coat etc.


An antique set of bagpipes with lignum vitae pipes, contained in a pine box


A scratch-built wooden model of ‘HMS Victory’, fully rigged and with furled canvas


A reproduction horse armour chanfron with armorial escutcheon, mounted on a board

No I didn’t know what a chanfron was either! I knew about horse armour, but not what the individual pieces were called.

And we end with two rather steampunk items …


A modern German skeleton clock by Franz Hermle, under conical glass cover on wood base


An elaborate Victorian writing slope in burr walnut and cut brass, fitted with a stationery cabinet and glass inkwells

Be good, and stay safe!