Category: General

A Novel or Verbal Pornography?

In a rare moment of ambition I have started to read ahead for one of my classes. That in itself shouldn’t be too surprising as both the professor and subject matter are the dog’s bollocks. The reading assignments are generally fairly easy to get through, if not on occasion infuriating. The current book, however, has struck me as a bit over the top.

It is a novel. It is a very recent novel that was only published last year in the UK and this year in the US. The infuriating bit is that it had the potential of being an excellent book. The novelist, Lola Shoneyin, clearly has talent. The characters are interesting, well-developed, and believable. The story itself is well-written and believable.

It’s just too graphic. The writer ruined her novel by getting wrapped up in the most minute details of sexual intercourse. I don’t want to sound too stuffy, but it seems that sex, if treated too frankly and graphically, just turns into complete and absolute filth. That’s how this strikes me — three pages graphically describing masturbating to pornography, two-to-three pages every other chapter describing in detail the sex life of a polygamous Hausa household.

Whenever the author stays on the subject of human relations other than sexual, it’s actually quite interesting — especially since she does delve into the lesser aspects of human nature and the frequent jealousy/hatred that arises in great depth.

This isn’t the only time that a more contemporary novel has, at least in my opinion, been ruined by gratuitous sexuality.

Am I alone in thinking this?

I’m the judge!

Lawyers should never ask a Mississippi grandma a question if they aren’t prepared for the answer.

In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand. He approached her and asked, ‘Mrs Jones, do you know me?’ She responded, ‘Why, yes, I do know you, Mr Williams. I’ve known you since you were a boy, and frankly, you’ve been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you’re a big shot when you haven’t the brains to realize you’ll never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.’

The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, ‘Mrs Jones, do you know the defence attorney?’

She again replied, ‘Why yes, I do. I’ve known Mr Bradley since he was a youngster, too. He’s lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. He can’t build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him.’

The defence attorney nearly died.

The judge asked both counsellors to approach the bench and, in a very quiet voice, said,
‘If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I’ll send you both to the electric chair.’

The British and American militaries in Germany.

As promised, this is my view of Germany and the US/UK/France military presence/occupation.

After WWII ended, Germany was levelled. There was no government and very few institutions were left functioning. Even before the war had started, Germany was being torn apart by the fanaticism of the Nazi regime. Even though decades and generations have passed, Germany is only a shadow of what it used to be. After the war, some sort of military occupation/rule was necessary. Heaven knows what would have happened had there been a complete power vacuum. After 1948, however, things began to change. Germany was again an independent country, albeit with major foreign military presences.

There wasn’t much hostility to it. Most Germans were glad that the former regime was gone and that it was never coming back. Most West Germans (myself included) were glad that we had the British and Americans around. Both were infinitely preferable to the Soviets. Both the UK and USA were there with the permission of the German government, and both were generally well received. A number of German women were especially fond of the Americans, many of them wound up marrying US serviceman and leaving the country for a time. Even though it often didn’t turn out well…

Continue reading “The British and American militaries in Germany.”

And that’s when – 5

Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my lunch, and slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the boat up to the van, and proceeded to back out into a torrential downpour. The wind was blowing 50 mph, so I pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the weather would be bad all day.

I went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back into bed. I cuddled up to my wife’s back, now with a different anticipation, and whispered, “The weather out there is terrible.”

My loving wife of 5 years replied, “And, can you believe my stupid husband is out fishing in that?”

And that’s how the fight started…

It was a hot night in Budapest

It was a hot night in Budapest

We have just returned from a few days in Budapest, our feet are all but done in from walking everywhere, but it is the best way to see a City.
The City is cleaner than London on the whole, the people very friendly and the food is delicious. Lots of Turkish influence so paprika, light stews scrummy cakes and good beer. We ate cat fish, pike, veal, beef and chicken so a wide variety of food for all tastes.
I cannot fault the place, but the language is indecipherable, not European nor Turkish but a mixture of everything out there. Prices are low with a good meal and beers and coffees around £30 for 2, entrance to sites about £5 each.
We stayed at the New York Palace, Boscollo, bloody hell what a place, more like a stately home than a hotel, it was built in the 1850’s as an American Insurance company’s office in Hungary, talk about splendour as for breakfast enough to feed an army. Continue reading “It was a hot night in Budapest”