Category Archives: ramblings

beliefs, current affairs, freedom of speech, ramblings

From Agincourt to WWII

This is a very lightly edited version of something I posted earlier today on Facebook, but I’m repeating it here as I feel it needs to be filed for posterity.
There’s an interesting perspective from Martin Kettle in today’s Guardian under the banner

It will soon be time to drop our oppressive remembrance rituals.
We can respect the fallen without wrapping ourselves in the flag,
as the Agincourt anniversary shows.

And I have to agree, especially as I see the BBC have already dusted off their never-ending supply of Remembrance Day poppies. Basically I’m with Evelyn Waugh who back in the 1930s described Remembrance Day as a disgusting idea of artificial reverence and sentimentality. Moreover I object to being subjected to what is now basically moral blackmail.
But note very clearly: I’m not saying be unpatriotic, not to remember and not to be grateful for the sacrifice others have made to protect our freedoms. I’m saying that the current public display of maudlin sentiment and obsequiousness associated with Remembrance Day (and everything around it) is nauseating and unnecessary and serves only to glorify war. Martin Kettle says it much better, and in much more measured words, than I can:

… if we are capable of thinking about Agincourt without wrapping ourselves in the flag, why not other later conflicts too? In three weeks’ time we will reach the climax of the annual military remembrance rituals. A century after the great war, these rituals have become more culturally hegemonic than ever before. Yet it is surely possible to respect the importance of history and to support events that bring peoples together while still feeling that … these particular rituals have now become unnecessarily oppressive.
At some point in the future … we will begin to let go of these rituals. One day, the head of state will no longer lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in November for the long-distant dead. One day, MPs and TV newsreaders will not feel the press of obligation to wear poppies on all public appearances …
For the present, people in public roles have little scope but to conform on such matters … we will be right to stop doing these things … and there is nothing inappropriate or disrespectful about suggesting that we would benefit from that time coming sooner rather than later.

We need to be looking and going forward, working for peace; not looking mournfully backward.

You can’t look forward and backward at the same time

beliefs, ramblings

Frustration and Greed

I was reading the latest on Brad Warner’s Hardcore Zen blog last evening — always worthwhile as Brad is eminently sensible and a Zen master.
He was writing about greed, especially greed for good.
And he nailed why it is that so many of us get frustrated that, while we can make a difference, we can’t make the huge difference that we know is needed. We are being greedy for the goodness we are striving after, and in Zen greed (any greed) is one of the “three poisons”.
Here’s the key extract of what Brad had to say. [My explanations in brackets.]

Greed … does not differentiate between good and bad. We’re used to the term greed being applied to things that are either bad for us or to things that are good or neutral except when over-indulged in … greed doesn’t just get directed towards bad things. You can also be just as greedy for good stuff, for things no one would ever say you shouldn’t want …
Back when I was an employee of Tsuburaya Productions [Japanese company who made the Godzilla films], I found myself getting really frustrated with how things were going. I was very dedicated to the company and I knew we could be doing much better than we were. I saw great opportunities for us internationally that we were just passing by because our management refused to see them or take steps to realize them.
During this time I went and saw Nishijima Roshi [his Zen teacher] and complained bitterly about the situation. Nishijima had been a businessperson most of his working life. He understood that side of things very well. I recall once telling him that Tsuburaya Productions was wasting its opportunities because it had no goals. I caught myself and said that I knew Zen was supposed to be goalless. He said, “Yes. But in business you must have a goal”.
So he got what I was saying that day about my frustrations with the company. But he said I needed to be satisfied with making small changes. Those small changes were important and eventually could lead to greater things. He didn’t exactly tell me not to be greedy, but that’s what he was saying.
The same attitude can be applied to the kinds of noble and important work a lot of people I meet are involved in. A lot of these people are terribly frustrated because they can’t seem to make the sweeping changes they know need to be made in order to fix the problems they’re working on. But many of these problems are global in scale …
It’s unrealistic to expect great changes to happen quickly. Getting greedy for good things only makes matters worse. We start getting angry and depressed, leading us to be unable to be effective in our important efforts to do what needs to be done.

This is something which hadn’t struck me before but on reflection is both correct and important. And it is something I (and probably many others) need to take on board.
Don’t be greedy for change. Yes, have a goal, but be prepared to progress towards it one small step at a time. “Softly, softly, catchee monkey.”

current affairs, freedom of speech, ramblings

So It's Two Fingers to You …

They just do not get it, do they!
According to today’s news feeds (for example here from the BBC) Rebekah Brooks is to return as chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper operations.
This is the woman who was acquitted (yes, OK, she was found not guilty) of phone hacking last year, having not known, or forgotten, large chucks of what was happening in her empire over a period of something like 10 years. Others were allowed to take the fall.
OK, I accept it is Murdoch’s right to appoint anyone he likes to his organisation (providing they fulfil the legal niceties). As Evan Harris of Hacked Off has observed (quoted in the Guardian a few days ago)

Mrs Brooks’s successful defence at trial was that she was such an incompetent executive that she was unaware of industrial-scale criminal wrongdoing in intercepting voicemails and bribing public officials, and unaware of the vast conspiracy to cover it up, despite her admitting to destroying millions of emails and putting the company’s reputation before cooperation with the police.

This doesn’t seem to be a very encouraging sign in one expected to lead an organisation — any organisation.
Moreover to me this also says much about the Murdoch empire’s total disregard for ethics and morality. As the shadow Culture Secretary and others have said (also in the Guardian) it sends a massive two fingers to the British public and, I suggest, a high-five to the wealthy and influential who seem to be able to can get away with almost anything they like.
However legal it is, they basically just do not seem to get how cynical this is.

current affairs, ramblings

The (Plastic) Pound in Your Pocket

The Bank of England is introducing plastic money. Specifically polymer banknotes. They start in the autumn of next year with a new £5 note, followed by a new £10 note in 2017. And, it has been announced today, a new £20 in 2020. Which will leave only the £50 note made from paper.


But why, oh why, does this take so long? The Bank essentially know the designs, the technology and the security features. So why is it not possible to have the new £10 and £20 notes next year along with the £5 note? Why does it take 5 years to create the new £20 note. This isn’t building a space shuttle; it’s essentially printing pieces of paper, albeit with some devilishly clever technology embedded.
I have never understood why it takes any public enterprise — central government, local government, Bank of England, the NHS; the list is endless — so long to accomplish anything. They’d never survive in a competitive marketplace.
Gawdelpus!

ramblings, words

Strange Conversations

About 30 years ago, the guy I shared an office with commented about “the strange conversations you people have over the dinner table”. This was, as I recall, occasioned by my mentioning that the previous evening Noreen and I had been ruminating upon the origins, and reasons for, the names animals were given in medieval times. You know: Reynard the Fox, Tib the Cat, Broc the Badger, and so forth.

Reynard the Fox

[Although it has to be said that Jim and I also had some curious conversations in the office; as you do when you are working in IT, you have a doctorate in Chemistry and your office-mate has a doctorate in medieval French, from a French university.]
And indeed Noreen and I do discuss some odd things over dinner. Last evening we wondered about the origin of the word kiosk.
Noreen suspected initially that it might be Arabic. I suggested possibly Hindi; and later wondered about Inuit.
And of course Noreen turns out to be right. Kiosk is indeed derived ultimately from the Persian. According to the OED:

From the French kiosque and Italian chiosco; after the Turkish kiūshk a pavilion; which is from the Persian kūskh, a palace or portico.

Secondarily to this the OED quotes as one of its sources (not the earliest, that’s 1625):

1 April 1717, Lady MW Montagu letter to Mrs Thistlethwayte: “In the public gardens there are public chiosks, where people go and drink their coffee, sherbet, etc.”

I remark on this because the only other time I have come across Thistlethwaite as a name was Prof. Frank Thistlethwaite, Vice-Chancellor of UEA when I was a graduate student there in the early 70s.
But it isn’t just us. A few weeks ago when we met up with our friend Katy (plus under-age hangers on) for lunch the conversation fell to wondering about the origin of hunkey-dorey, meaning OK, good or even excellent. None of us knew, or even wanted to hazard a guess.
But trawling the intertubes it turns out that there is no agreed origin of the expression. The earliest reference seems to be in the US Civil War period collection of songs George Christy’s Essence of Old Kentucky of 1862. Not that this tells us the origin or reason; just when it is first recorded.
Looking further Word Detective turns up another, but suspiciously spurious, possible origin:

Probably the most oft-heard story about “hunky-dory” holds that there was, in the 19th century, a street in Yokohama, Japan, called “Honcho-dori.” It is said that Honcho-dori was the Times Square of Yokohama, and thus a favourite hangout of US sailors on shore leave. So popular did this street become among sailors, it is said, that “Honcho-dori” entered naval slang as “hunky-dory,” a synonym for “Easy Street” or a state of well-being and comfort.
Now, there actually is a “Honcho-dori” in Yokohama. (In fact, there’s one in many Japanese cities, because “Honcho-dori” translates roughly as “Main Street”.) But there are two problems with this story. One is that there is no direct evidence of any connection between the first appearance of “hunky-dory” around 1866 and US sailors in Japan or naval slang in general.
Problem number two is that a connection with “Honcho-dori” is somewhat unnecessary. English already had the archaic American slang word “hunk,” meaning “safe”, from the Dutch word “honk”, meaning goal or home in a game. To achieve “hunk” or “hunky” in a child’s game was to make it “home” and win the game. So “hunky” already meant OK.

But where the dory or dorey came from is, it seems, anyone’s guess. But then maybe it’s just a rhyming duplication like okey-dokey.
Yeah, the strange conversations you people have over dinner!

ramblings

Manspreading

Bear with me because this is in large part me thinking aloud. And no, I’m not being a male chauvinist dickhead; I’m genuinely trying to understand a (modern?) phenomenon.
Manspreading — when a man sits with his legs wide apart on public transport encroaching on other seats — has recently been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. So this seems a suitable point for some thoughts on the subject, which actually goes wider than public transport.
Men are always being castigated for sitting with their knees apart, taking up too much room and (supposedly) showing off their jewels — or they would be showing them off if they weren’t clad in OMG jeans. I agree this posture is ungainly and unattractive; nevertheless I’m as guilty as the next bloke.
I have a four-pronged theory as to why this is, and why men don’t — indeed can’t, comfortably — sit with their knees together as women (mostly) do. This is at least in part based on personal experience and observation.

  1. Yes, the dangly bits get in the way. This doesn’t help.
     
  2. And the dangly bits get in the way even more with our modern tight underwear and trousers, where there isn’t the jiggle room to adjust their position, whether manually or automatically.
     
  3. We’re all fatter than we were, and the fatter the thighs (and remember men are also generally larger than women) the harder to get the knees together. Our forebears may have been fitter and had better muscles, but they were not generally as fat as we are, hence they were more able to sit decorously — not that they always did, as evidenced below!
     

  4. All this is exacerbated by men’s pelvic anatomy. Women’s hips are placed further apart than men’s (for good child producing reasons), which means men are already having their thighs squash their dangly bits. But having the hips closer together also means it is harder to comfortably get those knees together — the thighs are angled outwards more (presumably to provide better stability) so getting the knees together puts significant additional strain on the muscles of the hips and across the lower back. Try it guys, and see how it stresses your lower back.
     
    You can see how this works in this photo …
     
    compare-thigh-angles

     
    Look at the angles of this couple’s thighs and the closeness of the knees. See how it is anatomically harder for the man to get his knees together. Just think about the tension in the muscles.

So now let the sensible debate begin, and hopefully we’ll have some scientists prove me wrong (or even right).

amusements, history, ramblings, topographical

Oddity of the Week: Monorail

According to the Monorail Society website, the first ever passenger carrying monorail was in my home town, at Cheshunt:

1825 — Cheshunt Railway
The first passenger carrying monorail celebrated a grand opening June 25th, 1825. It had a one-horse power engine … literally. Based on a 1821 patent by Henry Robinson Palmer, the Cheshunt Railway was actually built to carry bricks, but made monorail history by carrying passengers at its opening.


And I’m pleased to have been on the world’s oldest monorail which is still in operation: the Wuppertal Schwebebahn (above) which is also the only public passenger carrying dangling railway. It is certainly an interesting ride.

personal, ramblings

My ABCs

I haven’t done an ABC meme for a long time, so when Andrew Baker posted one on Facebook last week, well how could I resist. So here goes …
A — Age: 64
B — Biggest Fear: Poverty
C — Current Time: 11.11
D — Drink You Last Had: Tea
E — Easiest Person To Talk To: Noreen
F — Favourite Song: Pink Floyd, Learning to Fly
G — Grossest Memory: Finding a stillborn foetus on the front garden path a few years ago. About 3 inches long it looked dog-like; definitely not human (thank heaven).
H — Hometown: Waltham Cross
I — In Love With: Noreen
J — Jealous Of: (Assuming you mean jealous and not envious) my money
K — Killed Someone: Not that I know of
L — Longest Relationship: 37 years
M — Middle Name: Cullingworth (my mother’s maiden name — it’s from the village in Yorkshire)
N — Number Of Siblings: Zero
O — One Wish: Three more wishes
P — Person Who You Last Called: Tom
Q — Question You’re Always Asked: When is the next meeting?
R — Reason To Smile: Pretty girls, especially in summer
S — Song You Last Sang: Hymn “All People that on Earth do Dwell” (at my mother’s funeral)
T — Time You Woke Up: 0700 hrs
U — Underwear Colour: Nude
V — Vacation Destination: What’s a vacation?
W — Worst Habit: Procrastination
X — X-rays You’ve Had: Left hand, right foot, sinuses (at least twice), full dental and lots of run of the mill dental, large intestine (twice, and a scan), stomach, both knees (scan), kidneys
Y — Your Favourite Food: Curry
Z — Zodiac Sign: Capricorn
And no, I’m really not going to nominate anyone for this; but play along if you want to — just leave a link to yours in the comments so we can all laugh along!

books, personal, ramblings

4 Daily Poems #4

1 Comment

And so to the last of my poem a day for four days challenge.

The Rolling English Road
(GK Chesterton)
Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.
I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire,
And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire;
But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed
To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made,
Where you and I went down the lane with ale-mugs in our hands,
The night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin Sands.
His sins they were forgiven him; or why do flowers run
Behind him; and the hedges all strengthening in the sun?
The wild thing went from left to right and knew not which was which,
But the wild rose was above him when they found him in the ditch.
God pardon us, nor harden us; we did not see so clear
The night we went to Bannockburn by way of Brighton Pier.
My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,
Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,
But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,
And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death;
For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.

My final three nominees to perpetuate the meme are: Keeley Schell, Sue Lubkowska and Peter Kislinger.

books, personal, ramblings

4 Daily Poems #3

1 Comment

And so we come to the third of my four daily poems challenge. Today I thought we’d have a couple of Limericks.

The Limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical,
But the good ones I’ve seen
So seldom are clean,
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.
There was a young queer of Khartoum
Took a lesbian up to his room,
And they argued all night
As to who had the right
To do what, and with which, and to whom.
To his bride, said the lynx-eyed detective,
“Can it be that my eyesight’s defective?
Or is your east tit the least
Bit the best of the west?
Or is it a trick of perspective?”

And today’s three lucky nominees are: John Potter, Jill Weekes and Kevin Bourne.