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 Ficticious Books from Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time
Ada Leintwardine; The Bitch Pack Meets on Wednesday
David Pennistone; Descartes, Gassendi and the Atomic Theory of Epicurus
Evadne Clapham; The Pistons of our Locomotives Sing the Songs of Our Workers (retitled as Engine Melody)
St John Clarke; Fields of Amaranth (see right)
Vernon Gainsborough; Bronstein Marxist or Mystagogue?
X Trapnel; Dogs Have No Uncles
Russell Gwinnett; The Gothic Symbolism of Mortality in the Texture of Jacobean Stagecraft
Quentin Shuckerly; Athletes Footmen
Mark Members; Kleist, Marx, Sartre, The Existential Equilibrium
Revd Salathiel Brightman; Attick and Roman Reckonings of Capacity for Things Liquid and Things Dry reduced to the Common English Mensuration for Wine and Corn
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 Obituary Euphemisms
Convivial: Habitually drunk
Gave colourful accounts of his exploits: A liar
A man of simple tastes: A complete vulgarian
A lively conversationalist: A crashing bore
An uncompromisingly direct ladies’ man: A flasher
A confirmed bachelor: Homosexual (see right)
She left no close relatives: A lesbian
Always had a twinkle in his eye: A drooling pervert
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 …
Something you want to do again next year? Survive.
What’s a bad habit you picked up this year? Sloth.
What are you excited about for next year? Nothing. I don’t do excitement.
If you could send a message to yourself back on your birthday last year, what would it be? The seat belt sign is on. Hold on tight. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Did you create any characters (in games, art, or writing) this year? If so, describe one. Serge Tyde. Harbourmaster of a small SW England town. French extraction (probably via his maternal grandmother). Very suntanned; always to be seen in shorts, and bare-chested in warm weather. Partial to a glass of red.
Also living in the same town is Sir Chiltern Waternut, retired diplomat.
Do you feel your age? Physically: always. Mentally: seldom (apart from depression).
Did your appearance change in anyway? Yes, hair cut even shorter than before.
What was your favourite article of clothing this year? Post a pic if possible? The Emperor’s new suit. A picture would definitely frighten the horses.
What was one nice thing you did for someone else? Online grocery shopping & delivery for Jean.
What was one nice thing you did for yourself? Good food.
Did anything happen that you were sure would change you as a person but it really didn’t? No.
Did anything happen to you that you were sure wouldn’t change you as a person but it did? No.
Pick three people who share your birthday and share what you know about them.
Harry Gordon Selfridge (1858-1947). American-English businessman who founded Selfridge’s Department Store.
Arthur Scargill (born 1938). English miner’s union leader who led the miners strikes in opposition to Prime Ministers Edward Heath (in 1972, 1974) and Margaret Thatcher (in 1984-85). Communist; activist; politician.
Brian Moore (born 1962). English rugby player who gained 64 caps as hooker.
Is anyone listed as being born on the same day as you (ie. the same year)? If so, what do you know about them?
Willie Maddren. English footballer and manager. Died 2000.
Philip Tartaglia. Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop of Glasgow.
List three people who died on your birthday and tell us what you know about them.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928). English novelist and poet. Like most of the writers of “classics” I was turned off his work at school.
Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966). Swiss sculptor and painter. Famous for his sculptures of extremely tall and slender figures.
Edmund Hillary (1919-2008). New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. On 29 May 1953 Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest.
List three notable events that took place on your birthday.
1787: William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two of the moons of Uranus.
1922: First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.
Tell us about a holiday that falls on your birthday.
Excepting a national day in Albania (which I have been unable to verify) the only holiday I can find on 11 January is the Japanese Kagami biraki which marks the end of the New Year holiday and the return to work. Although not a public holiday, it is widely celebrated.
Three Fears. No money. Being widowed. Dementia.
Three things I love. Sex. Warm sun. Quiet.
If you could live anywhere in the world, under any circumstances whatsoever, where would you go and what would your house be like?
A beach, somewhere warm and sunny all year. An unpretentious, spacious, but not over large, modern house with light décor, and big windows and/or patio doors. It needs to be close to all amenities. There’ll be several cats and a large well stocked koi pond, set in a mature garden which is secluded enough to allow nudity. I’ll need a gardener and a housekeeper.
Toodle Pip!
Eccentric looks at life through the thoughts of a retired working thinker
