Author: janus

I'm back......and front - in sunny Sussex-by-the-sea

Top marks to Anne

Not known for sycophantic reportage, I celebrate ‘young’ Anne for her diligence: 179 days’ duty in 2016. The PoW has put in 139, also highly creditable.

So what? I hear. Well, by sad contrast, the totally dependent Crown Prince of DK has managed to get out of bed barely 50 times and unlike Prince William, has no day job.

By ‘dependent’ I mean the local royals have no family wealth at all. They receive state funds every year to conduct their lazy lives and sponge on ‘friends’ who include them in their luxurious life-styles, here and abroad.

Resolved

It’s best to keep new year’s resolutions to oneself. That way, breaking them inspires least hilarity or contempt in others. Backside’s irritating irony would always be too much for me. But for all that, I can reveal I am resolved to kill the gadfly which my other head too often allows me to employ at others’ expense. I will brave his efforts to persuade me to harness a new one whenever I feel the urge. So! That’s done. And yes, I feel better already and hope that you, friends, will let us know how you intend to conduct yourselves in 2017. Or have you resolved to tell nobody?

A view from a non-Yank

While CT and CO are recovering from their culinary delights of yesterday, I’m asking myself why right-leaning US folk have such a dislike of Obama.

To many folk on this side of the Pond, he has shown a humanity sadly lacking among Presidents. He has tried to introduce affordable healthcare for all; he has refused to be sucked into the pro-Israel nonsense peddled throughout the Big Money clan; and he  refuses to accept the pathetic excuses for fire-arm ownership.

But I suspect there is a simpler reason: he is black, a proud family man of significant if not stellar education and he is sincere. Qualities hated by the red-neck tendency.

He will now be blamed for everything Trump disapproves of. And the gullible meeja will be delighted to give Trump credit where it is not deserved.

I’m sure I’m in for heavy incoming fire before the end of Boxing Day. But hey! That’s what Xmas is for, innit?

 

Seasonal cheer please, everybody!

xmas-cartoon

If only ! I hear you say! To witness the bad-tempered shoppers and manic motorists, one would never guess the intended mood of the winter holidays. Danes are always spacially unaware in crowds; the only space of interest is their own, as of right. And now their rudeness is compounded by a desire to grab the very items other foragers are examining. But soft! Here in the backwoods the deer are still keeping their distance, blissfully ignorant of the seasonal fun the hunters will soon be sharing with them.

So despite everything, friends, my close companion Backside joins me in wishing you and yours whatever respite you seek for yourselves these dark days. I’ve told him there’s so much to be positive about. (No reply.)

 

Evening all!

Morse would have approved, I’m sure. All bobbies in southern GB will soon have to have degrees to join the force (sorry, service).

And they will akshully undergo training. Yes, really. Come on, you say, how hard can it be? Well, allegedly, they have to learn things to qualify for protecting us. Like doctors and the military, it is said.

Well I never! And not a firearm in sight.

Well, is that her strategy?

Ms May is reputed to have given BoJo enough rope to hang himself with his appointment as Foreign Sec, realising that his outspoken style ill-fitted him for diplomacy. He always was a ‘ready, fire, aim’ kinda fella. So while David and Liam get on with Brexit, the nation’s favourite demagogue keeps on digging, more or less out of harm’s way for now. He will of course blot his copybook big-time very soon, so we will see if the PM will act.

But please, Ma’am, don’t bring back George Osborne! (Although who else could make a decent job of the Foreign Office?)

Mind your brassicas

They are the Marmite of veggies, the bane of bairns. And I love ’em.

Their growers have their own association (as you do) who are campaigning against boiling the little critters. Steam, stir-fry or microzap, they insist.

But I humbly suggest an easier way to max their flavour. Take a shallow dish, drizzle ’em with extra virgins, cover with foil and bake in the oven with the roast. Say 15 or 20 minutes – to taste. Crisp or not, you decide. And it’s true, sprouts improve with frost and don’t mention Brussels.

It’s getting darker

We are all ‘acclimating’ (Am.) to Trump’s regime. The twitting, undiplomatic rookie marches on, in anticipation of his inauguration. But soft! What darkness intrudes, stage left? It is the Prince of Darkness himself, the CIA chief! Even before the new Pres is in res (c Backside 2016) the Dark Side is warning him to play their game, not to upset their apple-cart.

Excuse me, but don’t the numerous security services report to the White House?