Today is the first day of the new year, sunwise that is. And today many Nordics start their family rituals. You know the kinda thing: cosy booze-ups, loadza grub, sibling rivalry, risk of DUI and a hangover lasting until 31st December. How we laugh!
Anyway in the best possible spirit of the season old Backside and I thank all of you for another sun-year of good company and stimulating thoughts to brighten our duller days. And we wish you health and contentment for the year ahead.
To fund my interminable holidays I normally work at least two jobs. My secondary position, working as a professor’s assistant, is convenient and my pay is predictable. Despite its convenience, I do all work online and can thus work as effectively in Dorchester as I can in Sydney or even California where the job is actually based. However convenient it is it is Continue reading “Cretinism, Thy Name Is Academia.”
I’m in a bit of a spot. Last Friday I was asked to help design a new museum exhibit. It will have to be done quietly. The existing exhibit is extremely popular but it poses no shortage of challenges and problems. The concept is good. It is a recreated Pre-Contact village scene. However, it is an insect-infested curatorial nightmare. How can decades-old twigs, leaves and pine-needles be kept clean? Some parts of the display break all rules of contemporary artefact conservation such as 140-year-old baskets being allowed to collect dust in an unprotected area or animal hides being allowed to sit out and never be cleaned or maintained. Associated displays and information are hideously outdates. Grandparents remember using the displays that their young grand-children are now playing with when they were teenagers. Continue reading “I’m Chutney”
Have a look at this article and see if you can spot Britain’s ambassador to Zimbabwe. Dreadful, sycophantic dwarf.
http://www.herald.co.zw/live-blog-zanu-pf-national-peoples-conference-day-1/
The quality, if I can use that word, of some of Britain’s diplomatic staff is truly shocking. Ms Laing’s predecessor was even worse; a hypocritical bigot of the first order.
I need to have a rant.
The modern way of argumentation is getting on my wick.
People just love to try to win arguments by vilifying their opposition with labels. Some examples:
I think that using such extreme labels to try to win a discussion shows that one is already struggling to find honest logical arguments.
Was it always like this or is this something new?
A couple of things:
We went out for a meal yesterday evening. Sitting on the table to my left was a couple, man and woman (that needs specifying these days) of around 45-50. They appeared to be well dressed and professional people. To my right was another twosome, two older guys around 65-70.
The 50 year olds spent 98% of their time with their respective smartphones. Their conversation level was nil and I (after a couple of glasses of wine) almost burst out laughing at the sight of them thumbing their little screens for all they were worth. Now they could have been professional people who were still working, messaging colleagues, although it was well after 9m. (Spain …eat late….Janus…remember?). So I couldn’t resist leaning over and taking a sneak peek…yep…Facebook. He was updating his status on Facebook.
I glanced across to the two older guys. They had a litre of red wine and were very much enjoying the moment, chatting good food, a real social occasion.
It made me wonder. Did I have the past on my right and the future on my left? If so, I am glad that I am geting older. FOE suggested that the couple on my left would probably have just sat quietly staring at each other, had they not had their phones with them.
I guess most younger people would have found the situation quite normal and not even noticed that the phone couple hardly spoke to each other.
My other point for today is rather sad. I keep a Christmas list for cards and presents. It is quite handy when out doing the Christmas shopping, to remember who I still need to buy for. I keep the list in an excel sheet and just do a quick update each year. This year it was quite hard deleting all of the dead ones since last year.
What a brilliant week. First, Hamburg and Kiel rejected the Olympics and now Denmark voted “no” on ending their opt-outs from EU home affairs bollocks. The Danish result — 53pc against, 47pc for — comes despite the best efforts of the very mediocre Lars Løkke to convince Danish voters to support the “correct” decision, to borrow EU terminology.
This was forwarded to me by a friend. How true it is, not verifiable. But considering some of the footage of rioting immigrants en route probably not far out. I have no doubts that such news is being suppressed by governments as are mosque attacks.
“I have friends in Europe and one of them directed me to the following today. This is an
Eyewitness story from a doctor working in Germany at a Munich hospital, a retired physician
From the Czech Republic who went to work there because they needed additional help.
This is part of her email from Germany:
I came a cross a story that will surely warm CO’s heart and bring a broad smile across her face. The residents of Hamburg and Kiel have rejected the ghastly, 11-billion-euro white elepha Continue reading “And Hamburg Votes “Nein”.”
I know how much greengrocers apostrophe’s wind some people up, but I, too, have a pet peeve.
Whenever a pet, wild or farm animal is referred to in a magazine article, newspaper item or TV programme, the animal is referred to as “it”. This in spite of the pet having a name like “Fred” or “Bella”. I know it is quite possible that said pet might have been “done”, but surely they could be afforded the dignity of being addressed by their original gender.
Even more ridiculous is when a rampaging, escaped bull is described as “it” despite the very obvious evidence that the bull is a “he”!
It does annoy me. Anyone else got a similar pet peeve?
Boadicea's Chariot 
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