quotes

June Monthly Quotes

Rather thin pickings in the way of quotes encountered this month.

In a sense, nothing in life is planned – or everything is – because in the dance every step is ultimately the corollary of the step before; the consequence of being the kind of person one chances to be.
[Anthony Powell; The Acceptance World]

Most dictionaries define happiness as “the feeling of being happy”. This has the bizarre quality of being correct while containing no useful information whatsoever.
[Dr Dean Burnett, Science Focus, May 2025]

People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason why the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used.
[Dalai Lama]

Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism.
[Carl Jung]

You can seem like a millionaire to one person and a homeless person to the next. The ants think you are a giant, and the trees don’t even notice you. You think you have a boring life, but the next person might be striving for your lifestyle. Comparison is the thief of joy, so stay kind and keep loving life. Life is all just a big game of perspective.
[unknown]

The general population doesn’t know what’s happening, and it doesn’t even know that it doesn’t know.
[Noam Chomsky]

Chocolate lines up planetarily with the sun. Chocolate is an octave of sun energy. In fact, it’s the energy of the centre of the sun.
[David Avacado Wolfe (b.1970)]

Such indeed is the respect paid to science, that the most absurd opinions may become current, provided they are expressed in language, the sound of which recals [sic] some well-known scientific phrase.
[James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)]

current affairs, history, memes

June Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

World Affairs

  1. Which political figure became Baroness of Kesteven? Margaret Thatcher
  2. What year was the United Nations established? 1945
  3. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus became the head of which United Nations agency in 2017? WHO (World Health Organisation)
  4. Who was US President in the year 2000? Bill Clinton
  5. What was the name of the treaty signed between the Allies and Germany that officially ended WWI? Treaty of Versailles
  6. The border between North Korea and South Korea is about 257km long and 4km wide. What is this buffer zone known as? Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ)

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.

books, memes, quotes

This Month’s Poem

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Trees
Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Find this poem online at Poetry Foundation

amusements, memes

Ten Things

This year our Ten Things column each month is alternating between composers and artists a century at a time from pre-1500 to 20th century. As always, there’s no guarantee you will have heard of them all!

Ten Artists Born in 17th Century

  1. Claude Lorrain
  2. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
  3. Willem van der Velde the Younger
    Willem van der Velde the Younger
    Calm: Fishing Boats under Sail
  4. Johannes Vermeer
  5. Wenceslaus Hollar
  6. Aelbert Cuyp
  7. Pieter de Hooch
  8. Antoine Watteau
  9. William Hogarth
  10. Peter Lely
current affairs, memes

June Quiz Questions

Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.

World Affairs

  1. Which political figure became Baroness of Kesteven?
  2. What year was the United Nations established?
  3. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus became the head of which United Nations agency in 2017?
  4. Who was US President in the year 2000?
  5. What was the name of the treaty signed between the Allies and Germany that officially ended WWI?
  6. The border between North Korea and South Korea is about 257km long and 4km wide. What is this buffer zone known as?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

history

June 1925

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

8. The Noël Coward comic play Hay Fever opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in the City of Westminster, England.

14. A significant German art exhibition of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement opened in Mannheim, with paintings by George Grosz, Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, Rudolf Schlichter and others.George Grosz, 'Ecce Homo', 1923

15. Born. Richard Baker, English broadcast journalist and author (d.2018)

24. The Five Sisters window at York Minster was dedicated to the women who lost their lives in the line of service during World War I

arts, books, personal

The Anthony Powell Society at 25

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7 Ormonde Gate, ChelseaOn a balmy early evening, on this day 25 years ago, six of us gathered at 7 Ormonde Gate, Chelsea, just across from the National Army Museum, at the invitation of Julian Allason.

Julian had the grand idea that we should celebrate English author Anthony Powell, who had died a couple of months earlier at the age of 94.

I was introduced to Powell’s magnum opus, A Dance to the Music of Time, in 1983 by my wife’s best friend from school. “You like Evelyn Waugh”, she said, “You might like Dance.” Powell soon became one of my heroes.

Since about 1993 I had been building a web presence for Powell. And in 1997, at the time Channel4 TV showed their 4-part dramatisation of Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time, I had started an email discussion list for Powell’s works. I was resisting suggestions that I should start a Society in Powell’s honour.

Julian was one of the early contributors to the email discussion list, along with our friend Stephen who was one of the six aforementioned. I dragged in my wife, N, and our friend Sue, who was (and still is) a professional conference and event organiser. Julian brought along his friend Catherine, a PR specialist. Experts were needed!

As Julian had said to me a couple of weeks before: “We must celebrate the man. We must have a conference.” Which is where discussion started on that fateful evening.

Being the ever practical project manager, I asked how we were going to achieve this. After all, I pointed out, we were six nobodies, we had no entrée into the literary world, we had no money, and frankly we stood little to no chance of getting useful big name sponsorship (organisations like Vodafone and The Daily Telegraph were mentioned).

Julian, great on ideas and not one to be thwarted, said that we had to have something on which to hang the conference. So at 19:30 under a huge portrait of Peter the Great, the response was …

“We hereby form the Anthony Powell Society”

OK, Julian, then you’re Chairman … and Keith you’re Secretary (which I remained for 18 years!).

But we still had no members and no money. Julian committed to fix us a bank account. We agreed that everyone then joined to the email discussion list (barely more than a couple of dozen people) was an honorary member until the end of the year – giving us time to organise a membership system.

And that conference? We held it at Powell’s alma mater, Eton College, the following St George’s Day. To this day I have no idea how we achieved that given that we were all also doing demanding professional jobs.

Since then the Society has achieved a lot: not least 10 international conferences and more than a few publications; we were awarded charitable status in 2003.
(On a personal note the Society has taken me to places, and introduced me to people, my wildest dreams couldn’t have conjured up.)

So today, after a lot of hard work, good luck, and almost against all expectations, the Anthony Powell Society celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Sadly Julian died a few years ago, so will not be here, at least in person, to see the fruit of his idea.

AP Soc logo

You can find out more about the Anthony Powell Society and its work at https://www.anthonypowell.org/. There is also a Facebook page and a YouTube channel.