current affairs

Greece without a Paddle

Greece has been shafted. Whatever the outcome of the farce unravelling in Brussels, the Greeks are stuffed, like so many dolmades. Austerity upon austerity and a collapsing economy if they agree to another bailout. Total chaos, a collapsed economy and international ruin if they don’t get a bailout and leave the Eurozone (even if only temporarily).
If you want to understand more about the international machinations which have brought this about then read this by George Monbiot for the Guardian last Tuesday, and this by Heather Stewart in yesterday’s Guardian. Do go and read them.
I’m not going to try to summarise them articles here except to say that international debt is out of control and pretty much every country in which the IMF has intervened has been largely destroyed.
Gawdelpus!

quotes

Quotes

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Another collection of quotes, both interesting and amusing, gathered over recent weeks.
The better half applied hot soapy water to it, as is her way with things she encounters. It is the same as tom cats pissing on them, a way of taking ownership — but much more hygienic.
[Robin Bynoe]
We’ve been taught a woman’s body will cause men to sin. We’re told that if a woman shows too much of her body men will do stupid things. Let’s be clear: A woman’s body is not dangerous to you. Her body will not cause you harm. It will not make you do stupid things. If you do stupid things, it is because you chose to do stupid things.
[Nate Pyle, How to See a Woman: A Conversation Between a Father and Son]
This is a filthy people, wallowing in vice. Of all peoples it is the least instructed in the rudiments of the Faith. They do not yet pay tithes or first fruits or contract marriages. They do not attend God’s church with due reverence.
[Giraldus Cambrensis, History and Topography of Ireland, III.98 AD 1185]


Wine is sunlight held together by water.
[Galileo]

When asked by my 11 year old last week what Quantum Physics was about, I was able to answer: ‘It’s exactly like a mille feuille, but in space.’  She said: ‘What’s a mille feuille?’ To which I responded: ‘It’s like a vanilla slice, but in universal terms I am sure there’s no icing on it, and I’d go for confectioner’s custard over cream. It holds the space time continuum together better. Are we clear now?’ To which she responded: ‘Yes.’
[Katy Wheatley at Katyboo1’s Weblog]
The elephant is a dainty bird
It flits from bough to bough,
It makes its nest in a rhubarb tree,
And whistles, like a cow.
[No-one seems to know the author, although many are suggested]
The state has an interest in preventing us from thinking independently, and it cultivates and exploits our worst tendencies in order to do so, for grownup citizens are more trouble than they’re worth … We all suffer from the fact that we have no appealing models of adulthood — young people who fear that there’s nothing to look forward to as well as older people who fear they need to resign themselves to being able to do nothing interesting or meaningful after a certain point in their lives. It is this view that is profoundly unhealthy.
[Susan Neiman, quoted by Brad Warner at Hardcore Zen]
The real sign of maturity is when you can actually be who you are rather than what someone else thinks you ought to be.
[Brad Warner at Hardcore Zen]
It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong.
[Henry Longfellow]
You have to accept the fact that some people will always stay in your heart, even if you are already gone in theirs.
[Unknown]
… ethics based on external reference points like religion or philosophy will always be inferior to the ethical system I cultivate myself through thinking, reflection, and cultivating empathy.
[Gesshin Greenwood at That’s So Zen]
Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
[Charlie Chaplin]

amusements, medical

Ten Things #19

This month’s “Ten Things” is a bit more unusual. There are many strange diseases out in the wild and some are weirdly named, so I bring you …
Ten Oddly Named Diseases (with the animal/plant affected in parenthesis)

  1. Astrakhan Spotted Fever (humans)
  2. Flaccid Trunk Disease (elephants)
  3. O’nyong-nyong fever (humans)
  4. Whirling Disease (trout)
  5. Lime Witches’ Broom Phytoplasma (citrus trees)
  6. Wobbly Possum Disease (possums)
  7. Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (humans)
  8. Huanglongbing (citrus trees)
  9. Motley Dwarf Disease (carrots)
  10. Corridor Disease (bovines)
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!

arts, personal, photography

Weekly Photograph

This week I’m going to cheat a bit for my weekly photograph. What I give you is a scan of one of my mother’s watercolours: one painted during the war when she was Warden of Leatherhead YHA. It’s interesting to compare this with her later work, as shown in my earlier post about Dora’s funeral, and see how her technique and style changed over the years.

window-yha-2
Dora Marshall, Bedroom Window, YHA Leatherhead (The Old Rising Sun)
Watercolour, 30×22.5cm, ca. 1944
Click the image for a larger view

Painting © Dora Marshall, 1944

books, personal, ramblings

4 Daily Poems #4

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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

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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.