Lovely to see the forsythia in bloom
The trees are still not looking in the best of health
An interesting Weather Eye by Paul Simon back in February gave an interesting explanation
Because we have not been having really cold winters the trees have not been getting enough rest. So they look like anyone who just needs a good night’s sleep
The cold snap this year should have done them a lot of good
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
If
The reaction to insurers bonuses and bankers pensions is getting out of hand, beginning to look a bit like a moral panic
This crisis has been a long time coming & most of us were only too happy to grab our share while the going was good – only our fair share, what we had earned & what we were worth of course
And now we feel virtuous about not buying a new car or other needless gizmos or cheap clothes, or going out for a meal, while feeling fearfully sorry for those who lose the jobs they had making all this stuff or waiting at our table
I am as happy as any one to see arrogant money men getting their come- uppance, economists having to accept that their interpretation of the fundamental assumptions about how markets work are wrong
But I almost worry more about this pack mentality, even wonder if it doesn’t suit somebody, somewhere, to have us all looking the wrong way
And just what good would it do to get rid of Geithner or Myners at this stage? Who would you put in their place? Are we so blessed with people who are just raring to get into those jobs?
This crisis has been a long time coming & most of us were only too happy to grab our share while the going was good – only our fair share, what we had earned & what we were worth of course
And now we feel virtuous about not buying a new car or other needless gizmos or cheap clothes, or going out for a meal, while feeling fearfully sorry for those who lose the jobs they had making all this stuff or waiting at our table
I am as happy as any one to see arrogant money men getting their come- uppance, economists having to accept that their interpretation of the fundamental assumptions about how markets work are wrong
But I almost worry more about this pack mentality, even wonder if it doesn’t suit somebody, somewhere, to have us all looking the wrong way
And just what good would it do to get rid of Geithner or Myners at this stage? Who would you put in their place? Are we so blessed with people who are just raring to get into those jobs?
Tin we?
A headline writer had fun yesterday in The Times Business Section
CAN WE SURVIVE THE RECESSION? YES WE CAN
The article is about how we are turning back to canned food for economy, comfort & convenience; sales of sponge puddings up by nearly 10%, rice pudding by 5%. Some of Britain’s 14 can making plants are working 24/7 to keep up with demand, helping to keep 5,000 people in jobs
I do not know what a full environmental audit would show, but cans may well be the greener option; long shelf life without the need for warming or chilling the atmosphere (though humidity needs to be controlled). And of course a stash of tins in the store cupboard at home will keep you fed when the electricity goes off
I wonder if sales of can openers have risen too?
CAN WE SURVIVE THE RECESSION? YES WE CAN
The article is about how we are turning back to canned food for economy, comfort & convenience; sales of sponge puddings up by nearly 10%, rice pudding by 5%. Some of Britain’s 14 can making plants are working 24/7 to keep up with demand, helping to keep 5,000 people in jobs
I do not know what a full environmental audit would show, but cans may well be the greener option; long shelf life without the need for warming or chilling the atmosphere (though humidity needs to be controlled). And of course a stash of tins in the store cupboard at home will keep you fed when the electricity goes off
I wonder if sales of can openers have risen too?
Related post
Not ready for everything
Not ready for everything
Monday, March 23, 2009
It's not fair
The March wind doth blow and we shall have snow,
And what will poor hedgehog do then, poor thing?
She’ll rush to the barn to keep herself warm
And hide her head under the bed, poor thing.
And what will poor hedgehog do then, poor thing?
She’ll rush to the barn to keep herself warm
And hide her head under the bed, poor thing.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
How to fill in a crossword puzzle
These are the first & last verses from a poem by Vernon Scannell. Unfortunately I have not been able to find anywhere on the web which will provide the bits which I did not copy out when I first came across it
First adjust your spectacles & take your pen,
(A pencil will serve equally well) & pick the easiest clue:
Here you are: five letters down – “What is Man?”
Clown, Rogue, Beast, or even Saint would do.
…
The snag about these clues is the alternatives are endless.
Write in the words faintly because you may have to alter them,
And be warned. When the puzzle is solved, & like a satisfied lover
You lean back sighing & sleepy, then you will find
That the black squares hide the secrets you will never uncover
First adjust your spectacles & take your pen,
(A pencil will serve equally well) & pick the easiest clue:
Here you are: five letters down – “What is Man?”
Clown, Rogue, Beast, or even Saint would do.
…
The snag about these clues is the alternatives are endless.
Write in the words faintly because you may have to alter them,
And be warned. When the puzzle is solved, & like a satisfied lover
You lean back sighing & sleepy, then you will find
That the black squares hide the secrets you will never uncover
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Blogging child protection
It is all very well for Ed Balls to fume & fulminate about the failings in his empire, & for Lord Laming (a good man) to say “Just do it” but it seems to me that in pinning hopes on an integrated database they are literally attempting the impossible
It is not easy, particularly with only press reports to go on, to know exactly what anyone means these days by the word ‘database’, which seems to have become an all purpose term for any set of data held on a computer, no matter what the structure or formal query procedures
It is also true that database technology has moved on a long way since I last wrapped a wet towel round my head at midnight
But going on the comments I have seen or heard, the Integrated Childrens Database does seem to rely on breaking down information into byte size pieces with a record for each child
This inevitably involves much repetition & duplication. The way to reduce this would normally be to create different records at other levels eg family, household etc
This is challenge enough – I am thinking here of the way the Census is set up to provide a once a decade snapshot of the structure of the population
But to keep track of that part of the population which is, by definition, chaotic & unstable – that is what makes me think it impossible. Child P for example was 'involved' with his mother & father, a child minder, 2 other men & several siblings, & had 60 recorded contacts with health or social service professionals
And even if it is possible, writing & using the software to reassemble it all into meaningful information to answer questions such as “Where is this child now?” or “What is the history of the new man in Mum’s life?” – just takes too much time, time in which disasters will happen
Then it occurred to me that blogging might offer a more ‘natural’ structure for social workers & others who need to keep records & keep in touch, to share information
Blogging offers automatic addition of 2 important pieces of information to each report – time & author. It also uses narrative form, much more suited to the nature of the task, the ability for others to add their comments, & offers natural keyword searches
Of course it would need to use formally structured blogs set up by the institutions involved, with for example special ‘forms’ for different aspects of a case, & an official set of labels or tags & case numbers
It should also be relatively easy for a separate grade of officer – maybe called child protection analyst – to extract the information needed for more formal, management reporting as a separate exercise
It ought to be possible to implement relatively quickly, & to adapt as it goes along as use & needs develop
And those at the top of the management tree of the Integrated Childrens database should remember the golden rule: bygones must be bygones, it is never worth throwing good money after bad
It is not easy, particularly with only press reports to go on, to know exactly what anyone means these days by the word ‘database’, which seems to have become an all purpose term for any set of data held on a computer, no matter what the structure or formal query procedures
It is also true that database technology has moved on a long way since I last wrapped a wet towel round my head at midnight
But going on the comments I have seen or heard, the Integrated Childrens Database does seem to rely on breaking down information into byte size pieces with a record for each child
This inevitably involves much repetition & duplication. The way to reduce this would normally be to create different records at other levels eg family, household etc
This is challenge enough – I am thinking here of the way the Census is set up to provide a once a decade snapshot of the structure of the population
But to keep track of that part of the population which is, by definition, chaotic & unstable – that is what makes me think it impossible. Child P for example was 'involved' with his mother & father, a child minder, 2 other men & several siblings, & had 60 recorded contacts with health or social service professionals
And even if it is possible, writing & using the software to reassemble it all into meaningful information to answer questions such as “Where is this child now?” or “What is the history of the new man in Mum’s life?” – just takes too much time, time in which disasters will happen
Then it occurred to me that blogging might offer a more ‘natural’ structure for social workers & others who need to keep records & keep in touch, to share information
Blogging offers automatic addition of 2 important pieces of information to each report – time & author. It also uses narrative form, much more suited to the nature of the task, the ability for others to add their comments, & offers natural keyword searches
Of course it would need to use formally structured blogs set up by the institutions involved, with for example special ‘forms’ for different aspects of a case, & an official set of labels or tags & case numbers
It should also be relatively easy for a separate grade of officer – maybe called child protection analyst – to extract the information needed for more formal, management reporting as a separate exercise
It ought to be possible to implement relatively quickly, & to adapt as it goes along as use & needs develop
And those at the top of the management tree of the Integrated Childrens database should remember the golden rule: bygones must be bygones, it is never worth throwing good money after bad
Spring crunchy bits
Expensive Parmesan cheese has to be kept in secure displays in a supermarket in Bedford
British industry uses 6% less electricity than a year ago
Penguin profits rose to a recod £93 milion last year, helped by record sales of The Great Crash by JK Galbraith
Bank workers can no longer get redundancy insurance
The cost of syndicating bond issues has doubled
More men are wearing ties at work – dress down looks too unserious for serious times
Municipal car parks are producing dramatically less income for hard pressed city councils as people cut down their shopping trips
A 3rd pub in the village has become a Business Opportunity
Tolley's Tax Handbook has doubled in length since 1997
Legal & financial advisers earned £79 million (from taxpayers) from the Northern Rock debacle
Next years British International Motor Show - established 1903 - has been cancelled
The Chelsea Flower Show will have fewer showpiece gardebs [leave this misprint - Ed] this year
British industry uses 6% less electricity than a year ago
Penguin profits rose to a recod £93 milion last year, helped by record sales of The Great Crash by JK Galbraith
Bank workers can no longer get redundancy insurance
The cost of syndicating bond issues has doubled
More men are wearing ties at work – dress down looks too unserious for serious times
Municipal car parks are producing dramatically less income for hard pressed city councils as people cut down their shopping trips
A 3rd pub in the village has become a Business Opportunity
Tolley's Tax Handbook has doubled in length since 1997
Legal & financial advisers earned £79 million (from taxpayers) from the Northern Rock debacle
Next years British International Motor Show - established 1903 - has been cancelled
The Chelsea Flower Show will have fewer showpiece gardebs [leave this misprint - Ed] this year
Friday, March 20, 2009
Tactile laments
I stopped to look at one of the culverts yesterday – very well made with stone walls lining the water course. I think it may belong to the water authority & be connected to the reservoir– I have occasionally seen a man who looks like a water bailiff or some such, patrolling it in his waders
But not for some time, & it is looking in a bit of a sorry state, not least because it got badly damaged last year when one of the big old sycamores keeled over & smashed a part of the wall
There is quite a lot of stone & other debris lying in the water, but then I noticed that one looked a bit different. I changed my angle to get a better look – it is a lump of tactile paving. Someone holds it in the same sort of contempt as I do
But where could it have come from? None of the bits laid along the main road, when all local authorities had that mad frenzy this time last year (or was it the year before) in response no doubt to some government diktat, target or bribe, was missing
Then, with sinking heart, I realised that those bits where they had been digging up the pavement last week were not, as I had fondly hoped, a sign of the coming of the fibre optic, but yet more blister stuff in any last remaining spot where someone might be crossing ‘the roadway’ – including the bit just as you get to the yard at the side of the pub which is used as a car park – for about 3 cars. And just to add to the fun, it is right outside the gate of the house next door – someone will get their teeth rattled when they put the wheelie bin out
I thought the world had gone completely mad when I saw they were even marking out a space on what seemed like a random piece of pavement, until I realised there was a matching spot directly over the road
They are obviously marking a place for a pedestrian crossing near the bus stop!
No sign yet whether it is going to be controlled by traffic lights – I would have thought lines of sight, particularly for traffic coming towards the village, would have been insufficient. But then I still have not really got used to how efficient car brakes are these days – how quickly, quietly, & skid mark free, they can come to a stop
But not for some time, & it is looking in a bit of a sorry state, not least because it got badly damaged last year when one of the big old sycamores keeled over & smashed a part of the wall
There is quite a lot of stone & other debris lying in the water, but then I noticed that one looked a bit different. I changed my angle to get a better look – it is a lump of tactile paving. Someone holds it in the same sort of contempt as I do
But where could it have come from? None of the bits laid along the main road, when all local authorities had that mad frenzy this time last year (or was it the year before) in response no doubt to some government diktat, target or bribe, was missing
Then, with sinking heart, I realised that those bits where they had been digging up the pavement last week were not, as I had fondly hoped, a sign of the coming of the fibre optic, but yet more blister stuff in any last remaining spot where someone might be crossing ‘the roadway’ – including the bit just as you get to the yard at the side of the pub which is used as a car park – for about 3 cars. And just to add to the fun, it is right outside the gate of the house next door – someone will get their teeth rattled when they put the wheelie bin out
I thought the world had gone completely mad when I saw they were even marking out a space on what seemed like a random piece of pavement, until I realised there was a matching spot directly over the road
They are obviously marking a place for a pedestrian crossing near the bus stop!
No sign yet whether it is going to be controlled by traffic lights – I would have thought lines of sight, particularly for traffic coming towards the village, would have been insufficient. But then I still have not really got used to how efficient car brakes are these days – how quickly, quietly, & skid mark free, they can come to a stop
Forecasting technology
We usually think that technological inventions come out of a blue sky to change society. We less often think that inventions are a response to pent up demand
In Library Matthew Battles says that “the appetite for books in large quantities was already whetted by the time the printing press made its appearance”
In the years just before the railways came to Britain a stage coach left Manchester for London every 15 minutes, 24/7
It was not a comfortable journey. The only protection from the elements for outside passengers came from their sturdy woollen great coats, hats or blankets
When the stage got to Topley Pike the outside passengers had to get down - & sometimes they had to help push the conveyance up the hill
Few women travelled this way
You could fill whole libraries with books & academic papers which analyse the effects of the coming of the railways; I personally have never come across one which looks at the role played by the railway in the liberation of women – but then train spotting has always been a boys' thing
When the London to Manchester railway finally arrived, shop windows in Manchester were filled with popular pictures of mournful horses: What is to become of us?
In fact, as FML Thompson pointed out in The Rise of Respectable Society, there was a three- or fourfold increase in horse-drawn traffic on Victorian roads because of the railways' success in generating new traffic, for all the feeder services bringing freight & passengers to the railway stations were horse-drawn
In Library Matthew Battles says that “the appetite for books in large quantities was already whetted by the time the printing press made its appearance”
In the years just before the railways came to Britain a stage coach left Manchester for London every 15 minutes, 24/7
It was not a comfortable journey. The only protection from the elements for outside passengers came from their sturdy woollen great coats, hats or blankets
When the stage got to Topley Pike the outside passengers had to get down - & sometimes they had to help push the conveyance up the hill
Few women travelled this way
You could fill whole libraries with books & academic papers which analyse the effects of the coming of the railways; I personally have never come across one which looks at the role played by the railway in the liberation of women – but then train spotting has always been a boys' thing
When the London to Manchester railway finally arrived, shop windows in Manchester were filled with popular pictures of mournful horses: What is to become of us?
In fact, as FML Thompson pointed out in The Rise of Respectable Society, there was a three- or fourfold increase in horse-drawn traffic on Victorian roads because of the railways' success in generating new traffic, for all the feeder services bringing freight & passengers to the railway stations were horse-drawn
*****
Nay, … hast thou always worn clothes … rejoiced in them as in a warm movable House, a Body round thy Body, wherein that strange THEE of thine sat snug, defying all variations of Climate? Girt with thick double-milled kerseys; half buried under shawls and broadbrims, and overalls and mudboots, thy very fingers cased in doeskin and mittens … and, though it were in wild winter, dashed through the world, glorying in it as if thou wert its lord. In vain did the sleet beat round thy temples; it lighted only on thy impenetrable, felted or woven, case of wool
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Income or product
In his book, Butterfly Economics, Paul Ormerod dismisses as merely technical the difference between GDP & GNP
In the context of his argument this is fair enough, but I find myself wondering just how real is the difference these days
Back in the heady 1960s, the decade of independence, new countries, new economies, new development plans, the difference was far from technical
Put simply GDP (Gross Domestic Product) was the value of everything produced within a country
GNP (Gross National Product, more often called Gross National Income these days) was the total income of the people living in the country
Income from capital – rent, profits, dividends – was the main cause of any difference
In many countries the differences were not large, but generally speaking, in developing countries GNP was lower than GDP because more of their productive assets were owned by foreigners
In the UK, though the difference was shrinking rapidly, GNP was more than GDP
The definitions have not changed. I expect in these mobile days wages & salaries earned/sent abroad play a larger role but I cannot really begin to imagine where all those ginormous international financial (or credit) flows showed up in national accounts
Sadly I have not been able to find a source which makes it easy to make direct international comparisons
In the context of his argument this is fair enough, but I find myself wondering just how real is the difference these days
Back in the heady 1960s, the decade of independence, new countries, new economies, new development plans, the difference was far from technical
Put simply GDP (Gross Domestic Product) was the value of everything produced within a country
GNP (Gross National Product, more often called Gross National Income these days) was the total income of the people living in the country
Income from capital – rent, profits, dividends – was the main cause of any difference
In many countries the differences were not large, but generally speaking, in developing countries GNP was lower than GDP because more of their productive assets were owned by foreigners
In the UK, though the difference was shrinking rapidly, GNP was more than GDP
The definitions have not changed. I expect in these mobile days wages & salaries earned/sent abroad play a larger role but I cannot really begin to imagine where all those ginormous international financial (or credit) flows showed up in national accounts
Sadly I have not been able to find a source which makes it easy to make direct international comparisons
Wild life in the garden
My inner child still loves the Cautionary Tales of Hilaire Belloc especially those about Henry King, Lord Lundy, &, of course, Matilda
As an adult I would lose the will to live if forced to listen to a standard radio football phone in but Danny Baker’s brand of inspired lunacy is different. The stories he inspires the audience to tell!
This week one caller told of playing football in the garden as a child. One of the makeshift goalposts was provided by the mound which marked the grave of a lion. Which reminded me of these Belloc ditties
The Lion & The Tiger
The Lion, the Lion, he dwells in the waste,
He has a big head and a very small waist;
But his shoulders are stark, and his jaws they are grim,
And a good little child will not play with him.
The Tiger, on the other hand, is kittenish and mild,
And makes a pretty playfellow for any little child.
And mothers of large families (Who claim to common sense)
Will find a tiger well repays the trouble and expense.
Every mother, even of only one, has had her tiger moment
Lancelot Hogben - Dangerous Thoughts: Planning for Human Survival
As an adult I would lose the will to live if forced to listen to a standard radio football phone in but Danny Baker’s brand of inspired lunacy is different. The stories he inspires the audience to tell!
This week one caller told of playing football in the garden as a child. One of the makeshift goalposts was provided by the mound which marked the grave of a lion. Which reminded me of these Belloc ditties
The Lion & The Tiger
The Lion, the Lion, he dwells in the waste,
He has a big head and a very small waist;
But his shoulders are stark, and his jaws they are grim,
And a good little child will not play with him.
The Tiger, on the other hand, is kittenish and mild,
And makes a pretty playfellow for any little child.
And mothers of large families (Who claim to common sense)
Will find a tiger well repays the trouble and expense.
Every mother, even of only one, has had her tiger moment
*****
Every mother of 4 knows that a garden surrounded by a wall is worth all the labour saving devices yet invented
Lancelot Hogben - Dangerous Thoughts: Planning for Human Survival
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Things that we might meritoriously do to our targets
So far this year we have the example of Haringey social services, who had been given a top rating by OFSTED, & the Mid-Staffordshire NHS who had been given Foundation status.
Both had been meeting all their official targets
*****
Even herrings have targets now: 175,000 tons of fish are being ‘targeted’ to yield 17,000 tons of oil a year - Observer 14 March 1948
A coming & going man
Sam Dale, on Radio 4’s Book of the Week, is doing a very good job of making Chris Mullin sound just like Mr Pooter
In the stacks
I have just been reading Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles
Two quick things to mention here.
Arcimboldo’s 1566 portrait of The Librarian is new to me. What a lovely thing to be introduced to
Battles also claims that the first Europeans to adopt Arabic numerals were not, as we are usually told, the mathematicians, but book makers, scribes, those who index books – just as today the lines of a poem or text may be numbered, because nothing else available did the job so well
Now there’s a really interesting idea to play with
Related posts
My idea of heaven
My idea of heaven
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Oh please!
I thought I was mishearing Dr Waljit Dhillo on Woman’s Hour this morning
But no: a protein called kisspeptin triggers the cascade of biochemical changes that leads to puberty and turns children into hormonally challenged adolescents. It may also help to cure some forms of infertility
What I haven’t managed to find out yet is whether the name was given to the gene fortuitously (which would be funny), or whether it is a geneticist’s heavy handed idea of a joke
But no: a protein called kisspeptin triggers the cascade of biochemical changes that leads to puberty and turns children into hormonally challenged adolescents. It may also help to cure some forms of infertility
What I haven’t managed to find out yet is whether the name was given to the gene fortuitously (which would be funny), or whether it is a geneticist’s heavy handed idea of a joke
Related post
Indirect effects
The Kashiwazaki nuclear power plant was closed in 2007 because of earthquake damage, leaving Tokyo struggling to generate all the electricity it needs
Salmon stocks in the Shinano gawa (in the north of the island) dwindled. Investigations revealed that East Japan Railway (JR East) had been fiddling the meters
JR(East) had a permit to extract up to 317 tonnes of water per second from the Miyanaka dam for its hydro electric plant
The gauges were set never to read more than 317. The salmon were left with not enough water to swim in
The Japanese government have revoked JR’s permit
If an alternative source of 450 MW cannot be found, Japan’s legendary trains will no longer run on time
Salmon stocks in the Shinano gawa (in the north of the island) dwindled. Investigations revealed that East Japan Railway (JR East) had been fiddling the meters
JR(East) had a permit to extract up to 317 tonnes of water per second from the Miyanaka dam for its hydro electric plant
The gauges were set never to read more than 317. The salmon were left with not enough water to swim in
The Japanese government have revoked JR’s permit
If an alternative source of 450 MW cannot be found, Japan’s legendary trains will no longer run on time
So glad to have you back
This deceptively simple poem is another familiar from childhood. I particularly liked the bit about ice cream
The author, Thomas Carew, was a younger contemporary of John Donne. It is only today that I have found out that there is more to the poem than I knew
The Youthful Spring
Now that the winter’s gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes; and now no more the frost
Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream
Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;
But the warm sun thaws the benumb’d earth,
And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth
To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree
The drowsy cuckoo and the humble-bee.
Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring,
In triumph to the world, the youthful spring:
The author, Thomas Carew, was a younger contemporary of John Donne. It is only today that I have found out that there is more to the poem than I knew
The Youthful Spring
Now that the winter’s gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes; and now no more the frost
Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream
Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;
But the warm sun thaws the benumb’d earth,
And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth
To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree
The drowsy cuckoo and the humble-bee.
Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring,
In triumph to the world, the youthful spring:
Related post
Monday, March 16, 2009
The significance of curls
When I was doing O level biology (half a century ago) we were taught that the degree of curl in hair depended on the shape of the follicles – cork screw or straight. This was devastating news for one girl, who lived in hope that there was something she would be able to do, when she was a grown up, to straighten out permanently her unruly mop
Years later I saw some programme on tv which said actually it all depends on whether the hair shaft is elliptical or circular. Corkscrew follicles were not mentioned
I was wondering what evolutionary geneticists have to say According to Wikipedia it is all to do with UV light & vitamin D
It cannot be a single gene however, or why would ‘mixed race’ children have a mixture of textures on one head?
A good friend of the family came to visit me & my new daughter in hospital. The babies were in cots at the end of mum’s bed – mostly, at 2pm, fast asleep. But the baby directly opposite started to cry & so was picked up. My friend turned to look, & then turned back, a look of genuine horror & concern on his face
“Hedgehog,” he hissed, “That baby is bald!!!!”
A Vincentian, he had never seen such a young fair haired English baby before
I had been on HRT patches for about 4 years. I had just been to the hairdresser to keep my short hair in trim.
On Sunday morning my 5 year old neighbour came to the back door, early, soon after I emerged from the shower
What have you done to your hair?
- I’ve just washed it
No you haven’t, it’s all curly
Sure enough, when I looked in the mirror, it was
I asked the hairdresser what she had done. Just the usual, she said
It got curlier
I tried a different hairdresser, explained the change. After she had had a good look she said: Are you sure you haven’t done anything? Well, it must be hormones then
And proceeded to tell me various hair raising stories, mostly pregnancy related
I still beleived the corkscrew theory. I could imagine my skin twisting
I asked the doctor if I could come off HRT just for a while just to see what happened
Osteoporosis, he said
The curls got tighter. I either had to buy an Afro comb or …
I remembered the time the pharmacist had accidentally dispensed some patches which were half my usual dose (the packets were identical except for the number 25 or 50). So back to the surgery. I want to step the dose down
My hair straightened out, quite quickly. Eventually I went back up to 50. My hair stayed straight
Are there still white people in this country who, given the opportunity, ask to be allowed to touch a black person’s hair? And express surprise to find it soft
One of the lesser arguments for the undesirability of inter-racial adoption was that white foster or adoptive mothers in this country in the 1960s did not understand ‘black’ hair. Which is true – few had any experience & there were few black hairdressers around
Part of the problem is that the way you have to pull on the hair in order to put it in bunches or plaits (never mind corn row) seems brutal. The only time I had to put up with such ‘torture’ was when my mother put in the rags for ringlets (which I loved) for special occasions. And well worth it, I thought
But the misunderstanding works both ways. The most highly qualified hairdresser, skilled in the arts of straightening or weave, does not understand ‘white’ hair either
In particular, they do not understand the need for preliminary vigorous rubbing with a towel. I have sat for an hour under the dryer hood with my long hair wrapped round jumbo rollers. And still it was not dry
Last week I was in the coffee shop. Could not help but overhear some of what was clearly a family conference. Mum, gran, older sister; young sister suspended from school until the purple grew out of her hair
My best friend’s brother was suspended from school when, for a bet, he shaved all the hair off his head
It was the late 60s – the heady days of Black is Beautiful
Our office manager – a stunningly elegant woman – wore her hair short & straight & dyed a dark auburn. Some suspected a wig, that underneath she had what was called ‘hard’ hair, so tightly curled that it provides only sparse cover
A traitor to the cause, in other words
It started with what was probably meant to be mild teasing from two of the young firebrands in the office. The rest of us joined in the defence: True freedom is when anyone can wear their hair any way they please
Somehow it went from what counted as ‘natural’ (and therefore allowable) hair styles to whether women should wear tights And ended up nearly out of control on the subject of whether men should be allowed to wear socks
And so it goes on. Since time began, & probably until it ends
The physical significance of the curl of a vector field is the amount of "rotation" or angular momentum of the contents of given region of space. It arises in fluid mechanics and elasticity theory.
Years later I saw some programme on tv which said actually it all depends on whether the hair shaft is elliptical or circular. Corkscrew follicles were not mentioned
I was wondering what evolutionary geneticists have to say According to Wikipedia it is all to do with UV light & vitamin D
It cannot be a single gene however, or why would ‘mixed race’ children have a mixture of textures on one head?
*****
A good friend of the family came to visit me & my new daughter in hospital. The babies were in cots at the end of mum’s bed – mostly, at 2pm, fast asleep. But the baby directly opposite started to cry & so was picked up. My friend turned to look, & then turned back, a look of genuine horror & concern on his face
“Hedgehog,” he hissed, “That baby is bald!!!!”
A Vincentian, he had never seen such a young fair haired English baby before
*****
I had been on HRT patches for about 4 years. I had just been to the hairdresser to keep my short hair in trim.
On Sunday morning my 5 year old neighbour came to the back door, early, soon after I emerged from the shower
What have you done to your hair?
- I’ve just washed it
No you haven’t, it’s all curly
Sure enough, when I looked in the mirror, it was
I asked the hairdresser what she had done. Just the usual, she said
It got curlier
I tried a different hairdresser, explained the change. After she had had a good look she said: Are you sure you haven’t done anything? Well, it must be hormones then
And proceeded to tell me various hair raising stories, mostly pregnancy related
I still beleived the corkscrew theory. I could imagine my skin twisting
I asked the doctor if I could come off HRT just for a while just to see what happened
Osteoporosis, he said
The curls got tighter. I either had to buy an Afro comb or …
I remembered the time the pharmacist had accidentally dispensed some patches which were half my usual dose (the packets were identical except for the number 25 or 50). So back to the surgery. I want to step the dose down
My hair straightened out, quite quickly. Eventually I went back up to 50. My hair stayed straight
*****
Are there still white people in this country who, given the opportunity, ask to be allowed to touch a black person’s hair? And express surprise to find it soft
One of the lesser arguments for the undesirability of inter-racial adoption was that white foster or adoptive mothers in this country in the 1960s did not understand ‘black’ hair. Which is true – few had any experience & there were few black hairdressers around
Part of the problem is that the way you have to pull on the hair in order to put it in bunches or plaits (never mind corn row) seems brutal. The only time I had to put up with such ‘torture’ was when my mother put in the rags for ringlets (which I loved) for special occasions. And well worth it, I thought
But the misunderstanding works both ways. The most highly qualified hairdresser, skilled in the arts of straightening or weave, does not understand ‘white’ hair either
In particular, they do not understand the need for preliminary vigorous rubbing with a towel. I have sat for an hour under the dryer hood with my long hair wrapped round jumbo rollers. And still it was not dry
*****
Last week I was in the coffee shop. Could not help but overhear some of what was clearly a family conference. Mum, gran, older sister; young sister suspended from school until the purple grew out of her hair
My best friend’s brother was suspended from school when, for a bet, he shaved all the hair off his head
*****
It was the late 60s – the heady days of Black is Beautiful
Our office manager – a stunningly elegant woman – wore her hair short & straight & dyed a dark auburn. Some suspected a wig, that underneath she had what was called ‘hard’ hair, so tightly curled that it provides only sparse cover
A traitor to the cause, in other words
It started with what was probably meant to be mild teasing from two of the young firebrands in the office. The rest of us joined in the defence: True freedom is when anyone can wear their hair any way they please
Somehow it went from what counted as ‘natural’ (and therefore allowable) hair styles to whether women should wear tights And ended up nearly out of control on the subject of whether men should be allowed to wear socks
*****
And so it goes on. Since time began, & probably until it ends
*****
The physical significance of the curl of a vector field is the amount of "rotation" or angular momentum of the contents of given region of space. It arises in fluid mechanics and elasticity theory.
Links
The feelings of others
Last week I found myself thinking about the painter Georgia O’Keefe
There was an exhibition of her works at the Hayward Gallery in the early 90’s.
I remember it especially for some simple charcoal sketches, more than for her well known flower paintings,
One in particular, the catalogue said, she had always been reluctant to exhibit
It would hurt the feelings, she said, of the friend whose (unflattering) portrait it was
To anybody else, it was just a line
It was the fuss over the Julie Myerson book which brought that to mind
There was an exhibition of her works at the Hayward Gallery in the early 90’s.
I remember it especially for some simple charcoal sketches, more than for her well known flower paintings,
One in particular, the catalogue said, she had always been reluctant to exhibit
It would hurt the feelings, she said, of the friend whose (unflattering) portrait it was
To anybody else, it was just a line
It was the fuss over the Julie Myerson book which brought that to mind
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Faith in budgets
“One government project executive has told Computer Weekly that budgeting in government is a game: if the Treasury and the department in question want the scheme approved, they turn a blind eye to irrationally low initial estimates of the cost and the timescales”
There is absolutely nothing new in the idea of Fantasy Budgets in government
In my time I have dealt with a budget which, year after year, contained provision for a large investment project which would never go ahead. Its appearance was vital to keep, literally, the peace, since it would bring benefit to a group who felt themselves hard done by, but unfortunately it did not fall into the ‘area’ of any of our aid donors
Back then Aid Donors each had their own ‘areas’ which they would be willing to finance: one country did planes, another Pure Water Supply, another roads etc
Each donor organisation had their own rules for how projects should be assessed for economic viability. In one particular case a project which I had (in accordance with the appropriate manual) analysed failed to meet the funding criteria. Oh that’s OK, they said, just change the discount rate to give the required answer
But I treasure one memory above all
An awful lot of work had gone in to one mega project dear to the prime minister’s heart. Despite all best efforts the proposal could not be formulated in a way which even approached financial viability
The governor of the central bank attended the meeting at which the project team broke the bad news to the prime minister
Are you telling me we can’t do it? he thundered, as we quailed. You disappopint me, I expected better of you all
Well, prime minister, said the governor, there is no doubt what all the technical analysis is telling us, that just has to be accepted. But there is always one thing you could rely on if you really wish to go ahead
Yes?
The governor, a devoted catholic, offered ‘The eye of faith’
I think the prime minister found that he had lost the sight in that eye
There is absolutely nothing new in the idea of Fantasy Budgets in government
In my time I have dealt with a budget which, year after year, contained provision for a large investment project which would never go ahead. Its appearance was vital to keep, literally, the peace, since it would bring benefit to a group who felt themselves hard done by, but unfortunately it did not fall into the ‘area’ of any of our aid donors
Back then Aid Donors each had their own ‘areas’ which they would be willing to finance: one country did planes, another Pure Water Supply, another roads etc
Each donor organisation had their own rules for how projects should be assessed for economic viability. In one particular case a project which I had (in accordance with the appropriate manual) analysed failed to meet the funding criteria. Oh that’s OK, they said, just change the discount rate to give the required answer
But I treasure one memory above all
An awful lot of work had gone in to one mega project dear to the prime minister’s heart. Despite all best efforts the proposal could not be formulated in a way which even approached financial viability
The governor of the central bank attended the meeting at which the project team broke the bad news to the prime minister
Are you telling me we can’t do it? he thundered, as we quailed. You disappopint me, I expected better of you all
Well, prime minister, said the governor, there is no doubt what all the technical analysis is telling us, that just has to be accepted. But there is always one thing you could rely on if you really wish to go ahead
Yes?
The governor, a devoted catholic, offered ‘The eye of faith’
I think the prime minister found that he had lost the sight in that eye
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Genes & generations
The main point of the post about the life of Darwin in poems was going to be, until I got sidetracked, about generations
Ruth Padel is Darwin’s great-great-granddaughter. Her grandmother, Nora Barlow is remembered with great affection in her preface to the poems
I was wondering if Nora might have met Darwin, but alas no, for she was born in 1885, 3 years after her grandfather’s death
My own great-great-grandmother, born in 1867, died in 1970. I can remember only one visit to her house, a cold (but not damp) place full of looming large pieces of furniture & smelling of polish, but strangely have no memory of what she looked like
I once mentioned her to a friend, who sort of gulped then said: My grandfather was born in 1855!
We looked at each other & tried to get to grips with this extraordinary difference (her grandfather married late & was 55 when her father was born; I come from a long line of teenage mothers)
As far as I know historical demographers still believe that the average length of a human generation in recorded history has remained pretty constant at around 25-30 years.
This surprises those who think that people used to start their families at a very young age – maybe 12 or 13. But the date of birth of your first child is not the determining factor. In order for there to be generations, there must be grandchildren, so at least one of your children must survive long enough to have a child of their own. Childhood mortality, as much as maternal age, determines the average generation length
On average therefore there are only about 50 ancestors standing on the direct maternal or paternal lines which link us back to the fall of the Roman Empire, though the further back you go the more likely it is that the maternal & paternal lines will curl round each other in a complicated braid or plait
When I was introduced to ‘drunken walks’ as an undergraduate one of the standard questions we were set was about the expected time before the ‘extinction’ of a family. (We were still in Neanderthal times, so a family was deemed to die out with the generation which contained no son who would carry on the family name)
I cannot remember the details, & I certainly do not care to try & work them out again now, but the length of time was surprisingly short
In modern times in this country fertility has been analysed with respect to the female line, since we do not have detailed records of paternity. Last time I looked, the average generation length was about 27, though I expect it has lengthened a bit since then
In genetics generally, & population genetics in particular, there seems usually to be an assumption that generations & genes move together, more or less in a phalanx across time – essentially assuming that cross sectional is the same as longitudinal analysis
Although this is obviously mathematically convenient, the truth may have more in common with the way the sea breaks upon the shore, with some ripples moving up the beach more quickly than others
If it were possible, it would be interesting to explore what, if any, are the implications of allowing generation length to vary
Ruth Padel is Darwin’s great-great-granddaughter. Her grandmother, Nora Barlow is remembered with great affection in her preface to the poems
I was wondering if Nora might have met Darwin, but alas no, for she was born in 1885, 3 years after her grandfather’s death
My own great-great-grandmother, born in 1867, died in 1970. I can remember only one visit to her house, a cold (but not damp) place full of looming large pieces of furniture & smelling of polish, but strangely have no memory of what she looked like
I once mentioned her to a friend, who sort of gulped then said: My grandfather was born in 1855!
We looked at each other & tried to get to grips with this extraordinary difference (her grandfather married late & was 55 when her father was born; I come from a long line of teenage mothers)
As far as I know historical demographers still believe that the average length of a human generation in recorded history has remained pretty constant at around 25-30 years.
This surprises those who think that people used to start their families at a very young age – maybe 12 or 13. But the date of birth of your first child is not the determining factor. In order for there to be generations, there must be grandchildren, so at least one of your children must survive long enough to have a child of their own. Childhood mortality, as much as maternal age, determines the average generation length
On average therefore there are only about 50 ancestors standing on the direct maternal or paternal lines which link us back to the fall of the Roman Empire, though the further back you go the more likely it is that the maternal & paternal lines will curl round each other in a complicated braid or plait
When I was introduced to ‘drunken walks’ as an undergraduate one of the standard questions we were set was about the expected time before the ‘extinction’ of a family. (We were still in Neanderthal times, so a family was deemed to die out with the generation which contained no son who would carry on the family name)
I cannot remember the details, & I certainly do not care to try & work them out again now, but the length of time was surprisingly short
In modern times in this country fertility has been analysed with respect to the female line, since we do not have detailed records of paternity. Last time I looked, the average generation length was about 27, though I expect it has lengthened a bit since then
In genetics generally, & population genetics in particular, there seems usually to be an assumption that generations & genes move together, more or less in a phalanx across time – essentially assuming that cross sectional is the same as longitudinal analysis
Although this is obviously mathematically convenient, the truth may have more in common with the way the sea breaks upon the shore, with some ripples moving up the beach more quickly than others
If it were possible, it would be interesting to explore what, if any, are the implications of allowing generation length to vary
Related post
Friday, March 13, 2009
To kiss or not to kiss
The Court Circular can have the same soothingly hypnotic effect as the shipping forecast
The precision of precedence
The punctiliousness of the wording
The dimly glimpsed significance of the rituals
Sometimes I find myself wondering: Why do they do that?
Why do ‘Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Slovenia’ and the ‘Governor of Anguilla’ kiss hands upon their appointment, but not the ‘British High Commissioner to the Republic of Malta’
Is it to do with sex? (Guess which one is a woman)
Or some deeply significant, though obscure, constitutional point
The precision of precedence
The punctiliousness of the wording
The dimly glimpsed significance of the rituals
Sometimes I find myself wondering: Why do they do that?
Why do ‘Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Slovenia’ and the ‘Governor of Anguilla’ kiss hands upon their appointment, but not the ‘British High Commissioner to the Republic of Malta’
Is it to do with sex? (Guess which one is a woman)
Or some deeply significant, though obscure, constitutional point
Land of waters
I have just started to read Ruth Padel’s Darwin: A Life In Poems
I was a bit hesitant, fearing they might turn out an overhyped disappointment, a bit like Poet Laureate poems for official occasions.
Anything but, a real tour de force.
I am particularly impressed by the way the words of Darwin (& others) are incorporated into the poems, so that they seem like a real collaboration of different voices
I got a bit irritated & had to put it down –(oh, do get over such pettiness) – when she ended the section on John Edmonstone (the freed slave from Guiana who taught Darwin taxidermy) with
“he sees a harvest moon. A shadow-bruised melon
as over the Amazon”
as if that had something to do with Edmonstone. The Amazon does not flow in Guyana
Mind you, Edmonstone was born in the C18th when Guiana was not Guyana either. But the book written by Charles Waterton (the plantation owner who gave Edmonstone his freedom) specifies a trip “through the wilds of Demerara and Essequibo, a part of ci-devant Dutch Guiana, in South America” - nowhere near the Amazon
But then I discovered that these days ‘The Amazon’ covers much more than just the river
Not unlike Sir Walter Raleigh’s “large, rich & beautiful empire of Guiana”
The name of the modern country, Guyana, which occupies a small proportion of the coast of the Guianas, was derived from an Amerindian word meaning Land Of Many Waters, but that of the original spelling remains in dispute
It certainly means something much broader than a single, albeit most important, river, the Amazon, which has been adopted by modern romantics, Greens & climate change campaigners – who of course focus on the trees more than the waters
If I were back in the deeply Freudian 1960s I might worry about the subconscious of those who prefer to associate themselves, romantically, with a race of mythic warrior women, whose name supposedly derives from the Greek for 'without a breast', to describe the sacrifice they were prepared to make in order to wield the bow more efficiently.
I was a bit hesitant, fearing they might turn out an overhyped disappointment, a bit like Poet Laureate poems for official occasions.
Anything but, a real tour de force.
I am particularly impressed by the way the words of Darwin (& others) are incorporated into the poems, so that they seem like a real collaboration of different voices
I got a bit irritated & had to put it down –(oh, do get over such pettiness) – when she ended the section on John Edmonstone (the freed slave from Guiana who taught Darwin taxidermy) with
“he sees a harvest moon. A shadow-bruised melon
as over the Amazon”
as if that had something to do with Edmonstone. The Amazon does not flow in Guyana
Mind you, Edmonstone was born in the C18th when Guiana was not Guyana either. But the book written by Charles Waterton (the plantation owner who gave Edmonstone his freedom) specifies a trip “through the wilds of Demerara and Essequibo, a part of ci-devant Dutch Guiana, in South America” - nowhere near the Amazon
But then I discovered that these days ‘The Amazon’ covers much more than just the river
Not unlike Sir Walter Raleigh’s “large, rich & beautiful empire of Guiana”
The name of the modern country, Guyana, which occupies a small proportion of the coast of the Guianas, was derived from an Amerindian word meaning Land Of Many Waters, but that of the original spelling remains in dispute
It certainly means something much broader than a single, albeit most important, river, the Amazon, which has been adopted by modern romantics, Greens & climate change campaigners – who of course focus on the trees more than the waters
If I were back in the deeply Freudian 1960s I might worry about the subconscious of those who prefer to associate themselves, romantically, with a race of mythic warrior women, whose name supposedly derives from the Greek for 'without a breast', to describe the sacrifice they were prepared to make in order to wield the bow more efficiently.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Moral education
There are quite a lot of poems by C Day Lewis in my commonplace books, mostly the more personal ones about relationships
This one longs for a return to something like hero worship, & has an epigraph from AN Whitehead, another favourite
Moral
“Moral education is impossible apart from the habitual vision of greatness” A N Whitehead
Saints & heroes, you dare say,
Like unicorns, have had their day.
Unlaurel the compulsive tough!
All pierced feet are feet of clay.
Envy - & paucity – of what
Men lived by to enlarge their lot,
Diminishing your share in them,
Downgrade you & not the great.
The saint falls down, the hero’s treed
Often, we know it. Still we need
The vision that keeps burning from
Saintly trust, heroic deed.
Accept the flawed self, but aspire
To flights beyond it: wiser far
Lifting our eyes unto the hills
Than lowering them to sift the mire
That comes from C Day Lewis collection ‘The Room & Other Poems’ published in 1965, so just after the beginning of the age of television satire & aggressive interviewing. Now that we have had the misery memoir as well, it is high time we got back to a bit of innocent hero worship
This one longs for a return to something like hero worship, & has an epigraph from AN Whitehead, another favourite
Moral
“Moral education is impossible apart from the habitual vision of greatness” A N Whitehead
Saints & heroes, you dare say,
Like unicorns, have had their day.
Unlaurel the compulsive tough!
All pierced feet are feet of clay.
Envy - & paucity – of what
Men lived by to enlarge their lot,
Diminishing your share in them,
Downgrade you & not the great.
The saint falls down, the hero’s treed
Often, we know it. Still we need
The vision that keeps burning from
Saintly trust, heroic deed.
Accept the flawed self, but aspire
To flights beyond it: wiser far
Lifting our eyes unto the hills
Than lowering them to sift the mire
That comes from C Day Lewis collection ‘The Room & Other Poems’ published in 1965, so just after the beginning of the age of television satire & aggressive interviewing. Now that we have had the misery memoir as well, it is high time we got back to a bit of innocent hero worship
Red nose bag lady
I popped into the £ store yesterday (incense & spring socks). I was quite surprised when they were put into what seemed to be a Red Nose carrier bag
It was one of the Asian run stores not one of the larger quoted chains, but then the sources of their bags are as various as the rest of their stock, their marketing skills a match for any of the big companies with their executive bonuses & MBAs
When I got home & put my glasses on I saw that, in fact, it was a redundant Woolworths Big Red Book bag
There’s a moral in here somewhere, just not sure what it is
It was one of the Asian run stores not one of the larger quoted chains, but then the sources of their bags are as various as the rest of their stock, their marketing skills a match for any of the big companies with their executive bonuses & MBAs
When I got home & put my glasses on I saw that, in fact, it was a redundant Woolworths Big Red Book bag
There’s a moral in here somewhere, just not sure what it is
Related post
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Where are the missing schools?
An article in Monday’s Times by Alexandra Frean contained the following:
“Last year 38 per cent of students achieving straight As at A level were at fee-paying schools, compared to 28 per cent at comprehensives and 16 per cent at grammar schools”
Since that adds up to 82% my first reaction was “Not Again! When will journalists, subs, revise editors, the lot of them, start to be as pernickety about percentages as they are about apostrophes? !!!****”
But other information given in the article made me think that in this particular case all those concerned did know which way up they were
So then the question becomes what are these institutions which produce 18% of students who get straight As at A level?
The answer presumably is sixth form or FE colleges
“Last year 38 per cent of students achieving straight As at A level were at fee-paying schools, compared to 28 per cent at comprehensives and 16 per cent at grammar schools”
Since that adds up to 82% my first reaction was “Not Again! When will journalists, subs, revise editors, the lot of them, start to be as pernickety about percentages as they are about apostrophes? !!!****”
But other information given in the article made me think that in this particular case all those concerned did know which way up they were
So then the question becomes what are these institutions which produce 18% of students who get straight As at A level?
The answer presumably is sixth form or FE colleges
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Googleisms
In the Land of Google are to be found many small & unexpected treasures for your surprise & delectation
Among those I have found this week:
Wanting to go to my cloud, I typed ‘docs’ into the main Google search box. On the results page, over to the right, was a link to a website offering to show me how to find a doctor in Stockport, complete with maps
Put “rakel tongue” into the search box & you will find links to a variety of useful medical information on diseases of the tongue written or edited by Robert E Rakel MD
“Gol” is, in some languages, the word for “GOAL!!!!!” Especially when scored by a soccer player
The results page for a search for ‘Downloading My Brain’ may solicitously enquire “How old is your brain?”
Among those I have found this week:
Wanting to go to my cloud, I typed ‘docs’ into the main Google search box. On the results page, over to the right, was a link to a website offering to show me how to find a doctor in Stockport, complete with maps
Put “rakel tongue” into the search box & you will find links to a variety of useful medical information on diseases of the tongue written or edited by Robert E Rakel MD
“Gol” is, in some languages, the word for “GOAL!!!!!” Especially when scored by a soccer player
The results page for a search for ‘Downloading My Brain’ may solicitously enquire “How old is your brain?”
Abbreviated language
Heard Will Self on the radio this morning speculating about the possibility of writing poetry in txt
I don’t text myself - my thumb ain’ able with tha’
But it reminded me of a popular poem of my youth*
YYUR
YYUB
ICUR
YY4ME!
Telegraphese has not lasted as a form of written language though it produced a few memorable quotes & jokes – notably General Napier’s “Peccavi”
There was no phone service which could be used to inform my husband when he became a father for the first time. We were still in the delivery room when my mother arrived & one of her first concerns was how to word the telegram which, while considerably less than the £10 for 20 words of 1867, was still expensive enough
I suggested “You have a kettle without a spout”, based on what was supposedly the popular way to announce the birth of a son to soldiers on active duty during WWII
My mother did not even deign to reply
Secretly I was very impressed by her “Mother & daughter well”
I don’t text myself - my thumb ain’ able with tha’
But it reminded me of a popular poem of my youth*
YYUR
YYUB
ICUR
YY4ME!
Telegraphese has not lasted as a form of written language though it produced a few memorable quotes & jokes – notably General Napier’s “Peccavi”
There was no phone service which could be used to inform my husband when he became a father for the first time. We were still in the delivery room when my mother arrived & one of her first concerns was how to word the telegram which, while considerably less than the £10 for 20 words of 1867, was still expensive enough
I suggested “You have a kettle without a spout”, based on what was supposedly the popular way to announce the birth of a son to soldiers on active duty during WWII
My mother did not even deign to reply
Secretly I was very impressed by her “Mother & daughter well”
Related post
I love radio transmitters
* Translation:
Too wise you are
Too wise you be
I see you are
Too wise for me!
I love radio transmitters
* Translation:
Too wise you are
Too wise you be
I see you are
Too wise for me!
Monday, March 09, 2009
Political managers
Matthew Parris wrote a piece for Saturday’s Times which expresses the hope that we may be about to see the end of managerial politics
“No more devoted follower of the blinkered cult has arisen than our present Prime Minister” he said.
Which reminded me again of the Auden poem, the last lines of which now seem to offer another clue to the Brown psychology
There has been much comment recently on his apparent inability to proffer the slightest apology for his role in what has happened to the economy
I am not actually an advocate of prime ministerial apologies – which reached their nadir when the last one apologised for the Irish Famine
But is it possible that Gordon Brown thinks that we might start feeling sorry for him, were he to apologise?
And that that is the idea which he really cannot stand
“No more devoted follower of the blinkered cult has arisen than our present Prime Minister” he said.
Which reminded me again of the Auden poem, the last lines of which now seem to offer another clue to the Brown psychology
There has been much comment recently on his apparent inability to proffer the slightest apology for his role in what has happened to the economy
I am not actually an advocate of prime ministerial apologies – which reached their nadir when the last one apologised for the Irish Famine
But is it possible that Gordon Brown thinks that we might start feeling sorry for him, were he to apologise?
And that that is the idea which he really cannot stand
A bad taste in the mouth
The Monty Hall problem is one oft quoted by fundamentalist economists to ‘prove’ that mere humans cannot recognise a rational course of action when it is staring them in the face
It is based on a familiar kind of television game show. The contestant is offered three locked boxes, in one of which lurks a valuable prize. The other 2 contain mere trinkets. The contestant gets to choose which box to unlock
The twist is that Monty Hall the quiz master first opens one of the others to reveal - a trinket (he of course knows what is in each box)
And offers the contestant a chance - change their mind or stick with the original choice
Which box should a rational contestant choose?
The economist’s answer is that a rational man would always change his mind & go for the box which Monty did not open, because the odds are 2 to 1 that the prize lurks in there
There are several ways of working out this ‘correct’ answer.
There was a 1/3 chance that the contestant chose the right box in the first place, so there were 2 chances in 3 that the prize was in one of the other boxes, at least one of which must contain a trinket. The fact that Monty revealed the trinket does not alter the original 1/3 probability that the first box the contestant chose contains the prize versus 2/3 that it did not
For those who really need some convincing it is quite a good idea to take the frequentist approach of listing all the possible outcomes
Many people might think it ought to be 50:50, because at that stage of the game the original box either does, or does not, contain the prize, & the same applies to the box which Monty did not open
The producers of the show, or those who finance it, must hope that most contestants will stick with their original choice, for they will pay out less in the long run of the show
If contestants could get together to agree a strategy they might agree always to change their mind, & divi up the winnings afterwards – though this would require a large degree of trust between them
In reality however each contestant gets only one chance at the game. This is not the long run, it is now or never. Maybe this is the one time in 3
And in a sense the 50:50 assessment is right – he is either right or he is wrong, he picked the prize first time or he did not
If he just chose wrong first time, well that is just the luck of the draw, the rub of the green, plain bad luck
If it does turn out that he was right first time, but that Monty persuaded him to change his mind, then there is a very real chance that the contestant will feel that he was tricked, bamboozled, somehow talked out of his prize
Maybe the rational economist knows that he was right to change his mind
Funnily enough scientists have discovered that the feeling of being cheated evokes the same revulsion response as foul-tasting food & drink. They even have an evolutionary explanation for it
So unless the economist knows he can resist the feeling of being cheated, even when his friends make a point of sympathising with him, why then he is a rational masochist
Because Monty knew all along - there's the rub
It is based on a familiar kind of television game show. The contestant is offered three locked boxes, in one of which lurks a valuable prize. The other 2 contain mere trinkets. The contestant gets to choose which box to unlock
The twist is that Monty Hall the quiz master first opens one of the others to reveal - a trinket (he of course knows what is in each box)
And offers the contestant a chance - change their mind or stick with the original choice
Which box should a rational contestant choose?
The economist’s answer is that a rational man would always change his mind & go for the box which Monty did not open, because the odds are 2 to 1 that the prize lurks in there
There are several ways of working out this ‘correct’ answer.
There was a 1/3 chance that the contestant chose the right box in the first place, so there were 2 chances in 3 that the prize was in one of the other boxes, at least one of which must contain a trinket. The fact that Monty revealed the trinket does not alter the original 1/3 probability that the first box the contestant chose contains the prize versus 2/3 that it did not
For those who really need some convincing it is quite a good idea to take the frequentist approach of listing all the possible outcomes
Many people might think it ought to be 50:50, because at that stage of the game the original box either does, or does not, contain the prize, & the same applies to the box which Monty did not open
The producers of the show, or those who finance it, must hope that most contestants will stick with their original choice, for they will pay out less in the long run of the show
If contestants could get together to agree a strategy they might agree always to change their mind, & divi up the winnings afterwards – though this would require a large degree of trust between them
In reality however each contestant gets only one chance at the game. This is not the long run, it is now or never. Maybe this is the one time in 3
And in a sense the 50:50 assessment is right – he is either right or he is wrong, he picked the prize first time or he did not
If he just chose wrong first time, well that is just the luck of the draw, the rub of the green, plain bad luck
If it does turn out that he was right first time, but that Monty persuaded him to change his mind, then there is a very real chance that the contestant will feel that he was tricked, bamboozled, somehow talked out of his prize
Maybe the rational economist knows that he was right to change his mind
Funnily enough scientists have discovered that the feeling of being cheated evokes the same revulsion response as foul-tasting food & drink. They even have an evolutionary explanation for it
So unless the economist knows he can resist the feeling of being cheated, even when his friends make a point of sympathising with him, why then he is a rational masochist
Because Monty knew all along - there's the rub
Sunday, March 08, 2009
All that I have
This is a poem to make even strong men weep. Like many others I first heard it 50 years ago being recited to Virginia McKenna in the film Carve Her Name With Pride, & have never forgotten it
I have been racking my brains, without success, trying to think of another purely monosyllabic poem. Perhaps that is the reason it appeals so powerfully to men
It was written by Leo Marks
The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours
A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours
I have been racking my brains, without success, trying to think of another purely monosyllabic poem. Perhaps that is the reason it appeals so powerfully to men
It was written by Leo Marks
The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours
A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours
Link
Saturday, March 07, 2009
A moderately amusing statistical anecdote
I usually draft what I write in Word, because it is what I am used to & because it gives me the nearest I can get to a nice blank page of A4, which is what I was used to writing on for most of my life. Somehow the words flow better & I can judge how it ‘looks’ – even though it will look completely different when it gets transformed into Blogger or Google Reader or ….
Just as manuscript used to when it got typed out – goodness, imagine that somebody else had to do your typing for you!
And then different again when (if) it got into print – astonishing how such a great pile of typescript shrinks to such a slender volume
I tend to make use of Word’s autocorrect because I am such a rotten typist. It is worth the chore of having to say, sometimes, Stop it! Undo Automatic Capitalization! (which is especially likely if I have been typing out verse by one of our more modern poets)
I did not realise until last night that this kind service extended to the Greek alphabet, though I suppose it is only logical
I had been writing about something vaguely statistical & needed a σ, something I also know how to do in Word
I spotted, only just in time, that Word had kindly changed my σ into a Σ
Speaking of which, I am ashamed to confess how old I was when I realised that ∫ is simply the old extended S, the one that gives rise to so many jokes when pronounced as an f instead
Just as manuscript used to when it got typed out – goodness, imagine that somebody else had to do your typing for you!
And then different again when (if) it got into print – astonishing how such a great pile of typescript shrinks to such a slender volume
I tend to make use of Word’s autocorrect because I am such a rotten typist. It is worth the chore of having to say, sometimes, Stop it! Undo Automatic Capitalization! (which is especially likely if I have been typing out verse by one of our more modern poets)
I did not realise until last night that this kind service extended to the Greek alphabet, though I suppose it is only logical
I had been writing about something vaguely statistical & needed a σ, something I also know how to do in Word
I spotted, only just in time, that Word had kindly changed my σ into a Σ
Speaking of which, I am ashamed to confess how old I was when I realised that ∫ is simply the old extended S, the one that gives rise to so many jokes when pronounced as an f instead
Link
Things on top
Katherine Whitehorn gave an interesting Point of View about Women on Top last night
But oh dear! “And of the journos who were low paid, 29% were women, only 16% men”
I wonder what the other 55% were? Martians?
I suspect women were both bottom & top in the 29% calculation
But oh dear! “And of the journos who were low paid, 29% were women, only 16% men”
I wonder what the other 55% were? Martians?
I suspect women were both bottom & top in the 29% calculation
Previously in favourite quotations (6)
Facts are stubborn, wilful things. You can arrange them in either logical or chronological order, but very seldom at the same time in both – TS Ashton
I am not old enough to cope with age - Vernon Scannell
Maths is a language, not the language, & its symbols can be explained in other idioms - Natalie Angier
A fundamental rule of journalism demands the insertion of murders - WA O'Connor: A History of the Irish People, 1884
This year’s BBC Proms season is practically oestrogen-soaked, with new works by five bona fide women – Neil Fisher
There are only about 30 people on the planet capable of diagnosing the problem when huge, complex, real-time systems crash - The Times
A judge can decide in accordance with an article of law or according to his intimate convictions; but the one thing he cannot do is fail to decide - Alain Desrosieres
Quarrels would soon be over if all the faults lay on one side - La Rochefoucauld
Mathematics is a way of describing the universe but not necessarily of understanding it - Kip Hodges
The road to unhappiness is counting other people's money - Michael Hintze
There is no culture without a creation myth & Darwinian evolution is ours - Laurence Hurst
It is more shameful to distrust ones friends than to be deceived by them - La Rochefoucauld
Shakespeare has no heroes; he has only heroines - John Ruskin
Science is about creating the alphabet. With art you are creating the words - Marc Quinn
There are plenty of people for whom Oxbridge success represents the high point of their lives - Andrew Brown
If a book does not make its own scope & purpose plain in the course of some 600 pages its author need not try to make them plainer in a preface - Duke of Argyll
I am not old enough to cope with age - Vernon Scannell
Maths is a language, not the language, & its symbols can be explained in other idioms - Natalie Angier
A fundamental rule of journalism demands the insertion of murders - WA O'Connor: A History of the Irish People, 1884
This year’s BBC Proms season is practically oestrogen-soaked, with new works by five bona fide women – Neil Fisher
There are only about 30 people on the planet capable of diagnosing the problem when huge, complex, real-time systems crash - The Times
A judge can decide in accordance with an article of law or according to his intimate convictions; but the one thing he cannot do is fail to decide - Alain Desrosieres
Quarrels would soon be over if all the faults lay on one side - La Rochefoucauld
Mathematics is a way of describing the universe but not necessarily of understanding it - Kip Hodges
The road to unhappiness is counting other people's money - Michael Hintze
There is no culture without a creation myth & Darwinian evolution is ours - Laurence Hurst
It is more shameful to distrust ones friends than to be deceived by them - La Rochefoucauld
Shakespeare has no heroes; he has only heroines - John Ruskin
Science is about creating the alphabet. With art you are creating the words - Marc Quinn
There are plenty of people for whom Oxbridge success represents the high point of their lives - Andrew Brown
If a book does not make its own scope & purpose plain in the course of some 600 pages its author need not try to make them plainer in a preface - Duke of Argyll
Previously in Favourite Quotations
Friday, March 06, 2009
Out of the shadows
The summer before last I was walking through the shopping centre one evening. It was after half-past-five – most of the shops had closed but there were still quite a few people about
My attention was caught by a little girl, who could not have been very much more than a year old, running along (tottering? teetering?) up ahead. Mum was behind her, a young African woman. I say African advisedly – you could tell by the way she dressed & walked & I doubt that, these days, anyone who had lived in England long enough to learn about paranoid parenting would be so relaxed about such a small child running on so far ahead, even though the area is completely traffic free
The little girl was clearly delighted with herself & you could sense her concentration – just staying upright, I assumed. Until I gradually caught up & could see that her concentration was fixed to something on her right
Just as I realised that she had found her shadow, the little girl made another discovery – the shadow’s arm moved up if she waved. And then, even better, she could make the shadow spread its fingers too!
I felt a wave of memories, of having just the same sort of fun on sunny days long, long ago. Mum was too far away to speak to without shouting, but I turned to share a smile
And remembered Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem, which seems to me an almost perfect poem for children (I have taken the liberty of making one tiny change to bring it in to the C21st)
I Hava A Little Shadow
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow -
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an indiarubber ball,
And he sometimes goes so little that there's none of him at all.
He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close behind me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to mummy as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
My attention was caught by a little girl, who could not have been very much more than a year old, running along (tottering? teetering?) up ahead. Mum was behind her, a young African woman. I say African advisedly – you could tell by the way she dressed & walked & I doubt that, these days, anyone who had lived in England long enough to learn about paranoid parenting would be so relaxed about such a small child running on so far ahead, even though the area is completely traffic free
The little girl was clearly delighted with herself & you could sense her concentration – just staying upright, I assumed. Until I gradually caught up & could see that her concentration was fixed to something on her right
Just as I realised that she had found her shadow, the little girl made another discovery – the shadow’s arm moved up if she waved. And then, even better, she could make the shadow spread its fingers too!
I felt a wave of memories, of having just the same sort of fun on sunny days long, long ago. Mum was too far away to speak to without shouting, but I turned to share a smile
And remembered Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem, which seems to me an almost perfect poem for children (I have taken the liberty of making one tiny change to bring it in to the C21st)
I Hava A Little Shadow
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow -
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an indiarubber ball,
And he sometimes goes so little that there's none of him at all.
He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close behind me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to mummy as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
Related Post
Links
Fuzzy fuzzy wuzzy
Still pondering off & on about whether any more childish names might be considered racist – today if not then
Well I would be very careful, at least, about Fuzzy Wuzzy
Some definitely think it derogatory
Curiously in its origin as a racial term, it referred to Arab tribes in the Sudan
The fact that Kipling wrote a poem with that title probably does not help, at least in the eyes of those who consider Kipling to be an unreconstructed & unreconstructable, imperialist
The Fuzzy Wuzzies often featured in Boys Own Adventure stories, some of which I read as a child if there was nothing better to hand. They might also have figured in playground games as an alternative to cowboys & Indians
If memory serves, the term was also used in the film Zulu
In all these uses however I do not think you can say the term was derogatory, more like a nickname, even perhaps a pet name. They were considered worthy opponents, to be respected as such, even though war is war
There is also the nursery rhyme
Curiously, the version, available on various websites does not match the one I knew, which goes:
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Fuzzy Wuzzy did not care
Because he wasn't fuzzy,
Wuzzy?
Fuzzy wuzzy bare!
(The last word to be said very loud, accompanied by much tummy tickling, if the child is very small)
All the other versions miss out the bit about how he ‘did not care’ – perhaps because it is considered unkind to men with a comb over or toupé?
However, according to one web site, it is not a traditional nursery rhyme at all, but a popular song from 1944 by Al Hoffman, Milton Drake and Jerry Livingston
I do not doubt that there are plenty of people who have been at the receiving end of the term used in a way which was definitely meant to hurt & insult - particularly perhaps those growing up in the UK in the 1970s & 1980s & the age of the Afro hair style. (I wonder if anyone ever applied it to Kevin Keagan?)
So, definitely best left, at least for the time being, unless you are very sure your companions will understand if you need it & no other term will serve in the context
I would not avoid using the nursery rhyme game however; this ultimately deserves to be uncoupled completely from any racial connotations & become just good word play
Well I would be very careful, at least, about Fuzzy Wuzzy
Some definitely think it derogatory
Curiously in its origin as a racial term, it referred to Arab tribes in the Sudan
The fact that Kipling wrote a poem with that title probably does not help, at least in the eyes of those who consider Kipling to be an unreconstructed & unreconstructable, imperialist
The Fuzzy Wuzzies often featured in Boys Own Adventure stories, some of which I read as a child if there was nothing better to hand. They might also have figured in playground games as an alternative to cowboys & Indians
If memory serves, the term was also used in the film Zulu
In all these uses however I do not think you can say the term was derogatory, more like a nickname, even perhaps a pet name. They were considered worthy opponents, to be respected as such, even though war is war
There is also the nursery rhyme
Curiously, the version, available on various websites does not match the one I knew, which goes:
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Fuzzy Wuzzy did not care
Because he wasn't fuzzy,
Wuzzy?
Fuzzy wuzzy bare!
(The last word to be said very loud, accompanied by much tummy tickling, if the child is very small)
All the other versions miss out the bit about how he ‘did not care’ – perhaps because it is considered unkind to men with a comb over or toupé?
However, according to one web site, it is not a traditional nursery rhyme at all, but a popular song from 1944 by Al Hoffman, Milton Drake and Jerry Livingston
I do not doubt that there are plenty of people who have been at the receiving end of the term used in a way which was definitely meant to hurt & insult - particularly perhaps those growing up in the UK in the 1970s & 1980s & the age of the Afro hair style. (I wonder if anyone ever applied it to Kevin Keagan?)
So, definitely best left, at least for the time being, unless you are very sure your companions will understand if you need it & no other term will serve in the context
I would not avoid using the nursery rhyme game however; this ultimately deserves to be uncoupled completely from any racial connotations & become just good word play
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Youth never learns
I think most of us would gulp now at the idea of “Pert Sylvia” talking of “wedlock-scenes” even though she has barely “entered in her teens”
(And be surprised to see that word used in the C18th when ‘everybody knows’ that teenagers were only invented after WWII)
But the C18th psychology seems only too applicable today
Wedlock was presumably pretty soon followed by motherhood, the price you pay, perhaps the price worth paying, compensation or even a gift
If even those awe-ful words, “Til death do part” were not enough to deter her, what hope can we have that “sex & relationship education” will deter her modern counterpart from dreams of motherhood, when school & life seem to have so few other satisfactions to offer
These days she can dispense with the lock since the state will always provide for the child
Early Thoughts on Marriage
Those awful words “Til death do part”
May well alarm the youthful heart:
No after-thought when once a wife;
The die is cast, and cast for life;
Yet thousands venture every day
As some base passion leads the way.
Pert Sylvia talks of wedlock-scenes,
Though hardly entered on her teens;
Smiles on her whining spark, and hears
The sugared speech with raptured ears;
Impatient of a parent’s rule,
She leaves her sire, and weds a fool;
Want enters at the guardless door,
And Love is fled, to come no more.
Attend, my fair, to wisdom’s voice,
A better fate shall crown thy choice.
A married life, to speak the best,
Is all a lottery contest:
Yet if my fair-one will be wise,
I will ensure my girl a prize;
Though not a prize to match thy worth,
Perhaps thy equal’s not on earth.
‘Tis an important point to know,
There’s no perfection here below.
Man’s an odd compound after all,
And ever has been since the Fall.
Say, that he loves you from his soul,
Still man is proud, nor brooks control.
And though a slave in love’s soft school,
In wedlock claims his right to rule.
The best, in short, has faults about him,
Nathaniel Cotton (1705-1788)
Link
(And be surprised to see that word used in the C18th when ‘everybody knows’ that teenagers were only invented after WWII)
But the C18th psychology seems only too applicable today
Wedlock was presumably pretty soon followed by motherhood, the price you pay, perhaps the price worth paying, compensation or even a gift
If even those awe-ful words, “Til death do part” were not enough to deter her, what hope can we have that “sex & relationship education” will deter her modern counterpart from dreams of motherhood, when school & life seem to have so few other satisfactions to offer
These days she can dispense with the lock since the state will always provide for the child
Early Thoughts on Marriage
Those awful words “Til death do part”
May well alarm the youthful heart:
No after-thought when once a wife;
The die is cast, and cast for life;
Yet thousands venture every day
As some base passion leads the way.
Pert Sylvia talks of wedlock-scenes,
Though hardly entered on her teens;
Smiles on her whining spark, and hears
The sugared speech with raptured ears;
Impatient of a parent’s rule,
She leaves her sire, and weds a fool;
Want enters at the guardless door,
And Love is fled, to come no more.
Attend, my fair, to wisdom’s voice,
A better fate shall crown thy choice.
A married life, to speak the best,
Is all a lottery contest:
Yet if my fair-one will be wise,
I will ensure my girl a prize;
Though not a prize to match thy worth,
Perhaps thy equal’s not on earth.
‘Tis an important point to know,
There’s no perfection here below.
Man’s an odd compound after all,
And ever has been since the Fall.
Say, that he loves you from his soul,
Still man is proud, nor brooks control.
And though a slave in love’s soft school,
In wedlock claims his right to rule.
The best, in short, has faults about him,
If few those faults, you must not flout him.
Nathaniel Cotton (1705-1788)
Link
Related post
Teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy
First name terms
Gordon Brown kept calling the president ‘Barack’ in a clip I heard yesterday
Well, isn’t that just the modern informal British way?
Only if he calls the Queen ‘Liz’ – or ‘Lilibet’, just to prove he knows what real intimates call her, or used to when she was a child
Of course there are precedents. John Major determinedly called the father of George W plain folksy George. Mind you, he was making him a gift of a cricket bat at the time
It makes me cringe. It’s just plain rude & ignorant
Americans maintain the courtesy, even when their president is an ex
Well, isn’t that just the modern informal British way?
Only if he calls the Queen ‘Liz’ – or ‘Lilibet’, just to prove he knows what real intimates call her, or used to when she was a child
Of course there are precedents. John Major determinedly called the father of George W plain folksy George. Mind you, he was making him a gift of a cricket bat at the time
It makes me cringe. It’s just plain rude & ignorant
Americans maintain the courtesy, even when their president is an ex
Link
Related post
GOL's revenge
I feel as if I am peering through fog, writing in mud. My throat is sore, my head full of cotton wool
I have half term flu
Perhaps I am being antisocial, coming to the library. But it is just a Grumbly Old Lady’s revenge
I have half term flu
Perhaps I am being antisocial, coming to the library. But it is just a Grumbly Old Lady’s revenge
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Arm in arm
When did you last see a couple walking along arm in arm?
It is one of those things which just seem to have gone completely out of fashion. You still see people holding hands, or with arms draped round each others shoulders, so it cannot just be distaste for public shows of intimacy
Perhaps feminism has something to do with it – there’s just too much of a hint of the little woman who needs support?
Or maybe it was the fashion for handbags which made it too awkward
It is one of those things which just seem to have gone completely out of fashion. You still see people holding hands, or with arms draped round each others shoulders, so it cannot just be distaste for public shows of intimacy
Perhaps feminism has something to do with it – there’s just too much of a hint of the little woman who needs support?
Or maybe it was the fashion for handbags which made it too awkward
Life events
There was a discussion on the radio the other evening about the morality or propriety of major events which are only live ‘as if’ – the classic music performance at the Obama inauguration was one of those discussed. Lesley Garrett took a particularly hard line – if the audience have paid for live that is what they should get, warts & all
I was thinking this is all a bit too precious, when I remembered The Beatles
Our response to the shocking rumour that The Beatles did not actually sing live on stage any more was simply to refuse to believe it. Even when it was more or less admitted – it had become impossible for the Fab Four to hear each other because of the volume of screaming from the audience – we preferred just to pretend it was not so
One evening back then I emerged from the tube station on Holborn Kingsway at about 7pm one Friday evening to be met by an astonishing sight: hundreds & hundreds of little girls running about in a state of near hysteria
Turned out that The Beatles had been appearing on Ready Steady Go which went out live each week from the basement studios at the corner of Aldwych & Kingsway
The building later became the home of the General Register Office Indexes of Births Marriages & Deaths which had been moved out of nearby Somerset House, & became familiar to many as St Catherine’s House, the place to go if you needed a copy of your birth certificate
The explosion of interest in Family History meant that larger premises were needed & so the Family Records Centre was set up near Sadler’s Wells
Even that is no more. The general public can consult the records these days only ‘as if’ live on microfiche in a few centres. Otherwise they exist in the virtual world of the internet
And nobody would let hundreds of little girls go out unaccompanied in Central London on a dark evening
I was thinking this is all a bit too precious, when I remembered The Beatles
Our response to the shocking rumour that The Beatles did not actually sing live on stage any more was simply to refuse to believe it. Even when it was more or less admitted – it had become impossible for the Fab Four to hear each other because of the volume of screaming from the audience – we preferred just to pretend it was not so
One evening back then I emerged from the tube station on Holborn Kingsway at about 7pm one Friday evening to be met by an astonishing sight: hundreds & hundreds of little girls running about in a state of near hysteria
Turned out that The Beatles had been appearing on Ready Steady Go which went out live each week from the basement studios at the corner of Aldwych & Kingsway
The building later became the home of the General Register Office Indexes of Births Marriages & Deaths which had been moved out of nearby Somerset House, & became familiar to many as St Catherine’s House, the place to go if you needed a copy of your birth certificate
The explosion of interest in Family History meant that larger premises were needed & so the Family Records Centre was set up near Sadler’s Wells
Even that is no more. The general public can consult the records these days only ‘as if’ live on microfiche in a few centres. Otherwise they exist in the virtual world of the internet
And nobody would let hundreds of little girls go out unaccompanied in Central London on a dark evening
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Disarray
I think it is (just about) possible to interpret as a favour to us all Harriet Harman’s threat, on the Andrew Marr programme to change the law to claw back Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension
By making so stark & clear just what would have to be done she may have succeeded in making everybody think: Whoa there. Who will they come for next?
You could also say that she very neatly fingered the prime minister ‘who has said it is not acceptable so it will not be accepted’
Then on Monday Ed Balls was on Radio 5 sympathising with a listener whose second child had failed to win a place at the same secondary school as the first. As a parent, I think you're right - siblings ought to be able to go to the same school
But not me guv, as secretary of state I don't make the rules for each local authority, though I'm going to put an end to this lottery nonsense if that's what the person I have asked to look into it for me recommends
And no, he couldn't comment on what Harriet had said because he had spent Sunday mugging up the school admission rules ready for his appearance on this programme ...
Post script One of the best comments I heard - sorry, did not catch the name - was "We spent centuries getting rid of the Divine Right of Kings. We are not about to replace it with the Divine Right of Harriet"
By making so stark & clear just what would have to be done she may have succeeded in making everybody think: Whoa there. Who will they come for next?
You could also say that she very neatly fingered the prime minister ‘who has said it is not acceptable so it will not be accepted’
Then on Monday Ed Balls was on Radio 5 sympathising with a listener whose second child had failed to win a place at the same secondary school as the first. As a parent, I think you're right - siblings ought to be able to go to the same school
But not me guv, as secretary of state I don't make the rules for each local authority, though I'm going to put an end to this lottery nonsense if that's what the person I have asked to look into it for me recommends
And no, he couldn't comment on what Harriet had said because he had spent Sunday mugging up the school admission rules ready for his appearance on this programme ...
Post script One of the best comments I heard - sorry, did not catch the name - was "We spent centuries getting rid of the Divine Right of Kings. We are not about to replace it with the Divine Right of Harriet"
The real university scandal
It is beginning to look as if the BBC is having a nervous breakdown
There are two real scandals behind the University Challenge fiasco
First the BBC production/commissioning process which demands that the filming be spread over 2 academic years. (It is not clear what is supposed to happen if a team member, unexpectedly perhaps, has to leave college before the final round – does the whole team have to withdraw or are substitutes allowed?)
But the real scandal is that, according to reports, a young man got a first class degree in chemistry but failed to get funding for a PhD. So he went off to study accountancy instead
That is just what we need to rebuild our economy for the future
There are two real scandals behind the University Challenge fiasco
First the BBC production/commissioning process which demands that the filming be spread over 2 academic years. (It is not clear what is supposed to happen if a team member, unexpectedly perhaps, has to leave college before the final round – does the whole team have to withdraw or are substitutes allowed?)
But the real scandal is that, according to reports, a young man got a first class degree in chemistry but failed to get funding for a PhD. So he went off to study accountancy instead
That is just what we need to rebuild our economy for the future
Related post
Monday, March 02, 2009
Guard thy rakel tongue
I took down the Oxford Book of Children’s Verse from the shelves at the weekend, on the hunt for something
It’s not something I take down often, if at all, since acquiring it in the 1970’s. Much of the verse seemed disappointingly admonitory to me
So I was rather pleasantly astonished to see the first poem in the book, since we have been subject to so much news & debate about what we may or may not say these days
And it uses a lovely word from my childhood, used in the phrase Many a mickle maks a muckle
It is called Controlling The Tongue, by Geoffrey Chaucer
My son, keep well thy tongue, & keep thy friend.
A wicked tongue is worse than a fiend;
My son, God of his endless goodness
Walled a tongue with teeth & lips eke, [also]
For man should him avise what he speak. [consider]
My son, full oft, for too much speech
Hath many a man been spilt, as clerkes teach; [ruined]
But for little speech avisely
Is no man shent, to speak generally [harmed]
My son, thy tongue shouldst thou restrain
At all time, but when thou dost thy pain
To speak of God, in honour & prayer
The first virtue, son, if thou wilt lere [learn]
Is to restrain & keep well thy tongue;
Thus learn children when that they been young.
My son of muckle speaking evil-avised,
Where less speaking had enough sufficed,
Cometh muckle harm, thus was me told & taught.
In muckle speech sin wanteth nought
*WOST THOU WHEREOF A RAKEL TONGUE SERVETH?
Right as a sword forcutteth & forcarveth
An arm a-two, my dear son, right so
A tongue cutteth friendship all a-two
*Do you know what a rash & hasty tongue is good for?
So next time I hear someone use sexist, racist, ageist, heightist or any other -ist language in my presence, instead of accusing them of an ISM I shall simply ask that they please guard their rakel tongue
It’s not something I take down often, if at all, since acquiring it in the 1970’s. Much of the verse seemed disappointingly admonitory to me
So I was rather pleasantly astonished to see the first poem in the book, since we have been subject to so much news & debate about what we may or may not say these days
And it uses a lovely word from my childhood, used in the phrase Many a mickle maks a muckle
It is called Controlling The Tongue, by Geoffrey Chaucer
My son, keep well thy tongue, & keep thy friend.
A wicked tongue is worse than a fiend;
My son, God of his endless goodness
Walled a tongue with teeth & lips eke, [also]
For man should him avise what he speak. [consider]
My son, full oft, for too much speech
Hath many a man been spilt, as clerkes teach; [ruined]
But for little speech avisely
Is no man shent, to speak generally [harmed]
My son, thy tongue shouldst thou restrain
At all time, but when thou dost thy pain
To speak of God, in honour & prayer
The first virtue, son, if thou wilt lere [learn]
Is to restrain & keep well thy tongue;
Thus learn children when that they been young.
My son of muckle speaking evil-avised,
Where less speaking had enough sufficed,
Cometh muckle harm, thus was me told & taught.
In muckle speech sin wanteth nought
*WOST THOU WHEREOF A RAKEL TONGUE SERVETH?
Right as a sword forcutteth & forcarveth
An arm a-two, my dear son, right so
A tongue cutteth friendship all a-two
*Do you know what a rash & hasty tongue is good for?
So next time I hear someone use sexist, racist, ageist, heightist or any other -ist language in my presence, instead of accusing them of an ISM I shall simply ask that they please guard their rakel tongue
Related post
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Not knowing what I love
These are the first 2 verses of Anne Ridler’s poem, Choosing a Name, which powerfully captures the feelings on giving birth
My little son, I have cast you out
To hang heels upward, wailing over a world
With walls too wide.
My faith till now, & now my love:
No walls too wide for that to fill, no depth
Too great for all you hide
I love, not knowing what I love,
I give, though ignorant for whom
The history & power of a name
I conjure with it like a novice
Summoning unknown spirits: answering me
You take the word, & tame it.
Anne Ridler can be heard reading the poem at The Poetry Archive
My little son, I have cast you out
To hang heels upward, wailing over a world
With walls too wide.
My faith till now, & now my love:
No walls too wide for that to fill, no depth
Too great for all you hide
I love, not knowing what I love,
I give, though ignorant for whom
The history & power of a name
I conjure with it like a novice
Summoning unknown spirits: answering me
You take the word, & tame it.
Anne Ridler can be heard reading the poem at The Poetry Archive
Related post
The law of pots
I was under the impression that there are very strict laws about what anyone can do or not do with their pension pot once they have got it
Partly as a quid pro quo for the favourable tax treatment. Partly for our own good, to stop us going mad & splurging a lump sum rather than parking it safely in an annuity which will keep us as long as we shall live
Or did Gordon Brown change the rules when he conducted that raid on pension funds
And will he have to change them to have any hope of getting his hands on the one which is now in the name of Fred the Shred
Partly as a quid pro quo for the favourable tax treatment. Partly for our own good, to stop us going mad & splurging a lump sum rather than parking it safely in an annuity which will keep us as long as we shall live
Or did Gordon Brown change the rules when he conducted that raid on pension funds
And will he have to change them to have any hope of getting his hands on the one which is now in the name of Fred the Shred
Saturday, February 28, 2009
The thingness of things
I was reading Paul Ormerod’s Butterfly Economics, looking at some 3-dimensional plots of Lorenz equations, when I was struck by the thought: There is no such thing as the economy
Shades of Mrs Thatcher on society! Actually I rather agreed with her, thinking that she meant as a thing distinguishable as an entity in its own right, independently from human modes of perception
On these plots only the US GNP (not GDP) showed the glimmer of a structure which could be captured by mathematical equations. Amidst all the intellectual agonising over whether new models can be developed which capture adequately the risks in the market for credit, perhaps we should also be thinking about the concept of the economy as a meaningful entity for analysis
Perhaps the US comes closest to a structure simply because it is so big and diverse. Not just in climate & natural resources but, up to a point, in local laws. Relatively unrestricted movement of people (both in retirement & in labour) as well as capital. Allows the law of error or the law of large numbers more scope
The Economy is something usually tied to a nation state. We sometimes talk of The European Economy, but rarely of the South American Economy. And usually we talk about the Asian economies
When did we get a UK economy? Did Gladstone ever use the word?
Interestingly, although the OED has a quote from the 1712 Spectator: “In the Dispositions of Society, the civil economy is formed in a chain as well as the natural”, which refers to the organisation of human society as a whole, it is only at the end of the 19th century that we get the definition
“ The organization or condition of a community or nation with respect to economic factors, esp. the production and consumption of goods and services and the supply of money (now freq. with the); (also) a particular economic system”
The earliest recorded usage comes from the 1892 Journal of Political Economy 1 137: “Taxes are still the main support of the State's economy”
The second known citation comes from our own Journal of the Royal Statistical Society of 1924: “The importance in our nation's economy of, say, cotton or wool”
The earliest recorded use of the term macroeconomics, according to the OED, is found in The American Economic review of 1945: “Across the distinction between statics and dynamics cuts another one: that between aggregative or ‘macro’-economics, and the ‘micro’-economics of a single firm or household”
To be continued
Links
http://timharford.com/2009/02/some-recession-experiences-are-more-equal-than-others/
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pic/
Shades of Mrs Thatcher on society! Actually I rather agreed with her, thinking that she meant as a thing distinguishable as an entity in its own right, independently from human modes of perception
On these plots only the US GNP (not GDP) showed the glimmer of a structure which could be captured by mathematical equations. Amidst all the intellectual agonising over whether new models can be developed which capture adequately the risks in the market for credit, perhaps we should also be thinking about the concept of the economy as a meaningful entity for analysis
Perhaps the US comes closest to a structure simply because it is so big and diverse. Not just in climate & natural resources but, up to a point, in local laws. Relatively unrestricted movement of people (both in retirement & in labour) as well as capital. Allows the law of error or the law of large numbers more scope
The Economy is something usually tied to a nation state. We sometimes talk of The European Economy, but rarely of the South American Economy. And usually we talk about the Asian economies
When did we get a UK economy? Did Gladstone ever use the word?
Interestingly, although the OED has a quote from the 1712 Spectator: “In the Dispositions of Society, the civil economy is formed in a chain as well as the natural”, which refers to the organisation of human society as a whole, it is only at the end of the 19th century that we get the definition
“ The organization or condition of a community or nation with respect to economic factors, esp. the production and consumption of goods and services and the supply of money (now freq. with the); (also) a particular economic system”
The earliest recorded usage comes from the 1892 Journal of Political Economy 1 137: “Taxes are still the main support of the State's economy”
The second known citation comes from our own Journal of the Royal Statistical Society of 1924: “The importance in our nation's economy of, say, cotton or wool”
The earliest recorded use of the term macroeconomics, according to the OED, is found in The American Economic review of 1945: “Across the distinction between statics and dynamics cuts another one: that between aggregative or ‘macro’-economics, and the ‘micro’-economics of a single firm or household”
To be continued
Links
http://timharford.com/2009/02/some-recession-experiences-are-more-equal-than-others/
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pic/
February crunchy bits
The skies are clearer - flights in British airspace were down 10% in January
Tesco received 1000 applications for 200 jobs in their new Liverpool store
Once-wealthy city workers are back in court trying to renegotiate bonus-dependent divorce settlements
Long stemmed red roses for Valentines Day were much cheaper this year
Long haul passengers flying from Gatwick were down 25% last month
The price for a permit to emit a tonne of carbon dioxide has fallen from €35 last July to €9 today
Nearly half of China’s toy factories have closed
Balmain jeans, £1000 a pair, are now available in British stores
More Americans are coming forward as (paid) blood donors
A big accountancy firm is offering the opportunity for staff to downsize & have a better work life balance by working (& being paid for) only 4 days a week
No Ladas are being made in Russia
Newspaper advertising is down by a fifth
Private investors in Japan are putting their faith in platinum & palladium bullion & coin
A gold plated Aston Martin with platinum & palladium bumpers comes up at auction next month
Tesco received 1000 applications for 200 jobs in their new Liverpool store
Once-wealthy city workers are back in court trying to renegotiate bonus-dependent divorce settlements
Long stemmed red roses for Valentines Day were much cheaper this year
Long haul passengers flying from Gatwick were down 25% last month
The price for a permit to emit a tonne of carbon dioxide has fallen from €35 last July to €9 today
Nearly half of China’s toy factories have closed
Balmain jeans, £1000 a pair, are now available in British stores
More Americans are coming forward as (paid) blood donors
A big accountancy firm is offering the opportunity for staff to downsize & have a better work life balance by working (& being paid for) only 4 days a week
No Ladas are being made in Russia
Newspaper advertising is down by a fifth
Private investors in Japan are putting their faith in platinum & palladium bullion & coin
A gold plated Aston Martin with platinum & palladium bumpers comes up at auction next month
Friday, February 27, 2009
Family values
We are a multicultural family
I am a mongrel, though not a true one
When I was at Junior School we all wanted to be able to call ourselves a true mongrel – the idea was quite current
Mongrels were highly desirable. Only effete snobs with more money than sense would want to pay out good money for a dog. Certainly not for one that was overbred, inbred & temperamental. Not when there were plenty of dependable, unpretentious, friendly mongrels looking for a good home
In terms of us children, a true mongrel was one who could claim English, Welsh, Scottish & Irish blood. I came close but, although I was conceived in Snowdonia, nobody in the family could think of any Welsh ancestors
My grandsons, these days, might quite like to call themselves mutts – I have not asked
Their father, sometimes, likes to close down an argument by saying: I am right because I am the wog in this family
He tells me that he had never heard of it until I mentioned what ‘everybody knew’ – also when I was at junior school – that WOG is an acronym for Wily Oriental Gentleman
The authorities – OED, Chambers - dispute this & all other acronymic etymologies, without coming up with any convincing one themselves, though all are agreed that it was first used of Arabs
In my childish mind at least I was sure it meant Chinese – it somehow linked well with the Yellow Peril which used to scare people so much so long ago
My son in law is neither Arab nor Chinese, but he does count as oriental
There was also a well known saying: Wogs begin at Calais. Wikipedia says that this was first used Of Winston Churchill by a fellow MP in 1949
It was not a statement of fact, but a way of pouring scorn on people with a certain cast of mind or small minded set of beliefs. The sort who, faced with a dish of Spaghetti Bolognese, would say: I can’t eat this foreign muck; who was more afraid than Dracula of garlic: Ugh! The Paris Metro reeks of it
I am a mongrel, though not a true one
When I was at Junior School we all wanted to be able to call ourselves a true mongrel – the idea was quite current
Mongrels were highly desirable. Only effete snobs with more money than sense would want to pay out good money for a dog. Certainly not for one that was overbred, inbred & temperamental. Not when there were plenty of dependable, unpretentious, friendly mongrels looking for a good home
In terms of us children, a true mongrel was one who could claim English, Welsh, Scottish & Irish blood. I came close but, although I was conceived in Snowdonia, nobody in the family could think of any Welsh ancestors
My grandsons, these days, might quite like to call themselves mutts – I have not asked
Their father, sometimes, likes to close down an argument by saying: I am right because I am the wog in this family
He tells me that he had never heard of it until I mentioned what ‘everybody knew’ – also when I was at junior school – that WOG is an acronym for Wily Oriental Gentleman
The authorities – OED, Chambers - dispute this & all other acronymic etymologies, without coming up with any convincing one themselves, though all are agreed that it was first used of Arabs
In my childish mind at least I was sure it meant Chinese – it somehow linked well with the Yellow Peril which used to scare people so much so long ago
My son in law is neither Arab nor Chinese, but he does count as oriental
There was also a well known saying: Wogs begin at Calais. Wikipedia says that this was first used Of Winston Churchill by a fellow MP in 1949
It was not a statement of fact, but a way of pouring scorn on people with a certain cast of mind or small minded set of beliefs. The sort who, faced with a dish of Spaghetti Bolognese, would say: I can’t eat this foreign muck; who was more afraid than Dracula of garlic: Ugh! The Paris Metro reeks of it
Related post
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Our business
Chris Mullin has been publishing his diary as a New Labour Minister. Very dispiriting
By his own admission, Mullin is one of those people completely unsuited to such a role – many otherwise good politicians have suffered similarly
But it is the tale of the battle over the charges for his Government Car Service which got to me most of all
It mirrors my own feelings when I, not too long ago, was curious enough to follow up a press advert for a job as a Business Support Officer in a ministerial Private Office.
Duties include “Providing support to the budget officer on financial and accounting issues in Private Office. This includes preparing invoices for payment… “ (? For what?)
Job criteria include “Knowing the business”
“The post holder will understand and respond to the needs of their key customers … to fully support the Business Team and … ensure internal Private Office guidance is up to date and ready for use at a moment’s notice”
I wonder how long the language of business will be seen as appropriate to public service?
By his own admission, Mullin is one of those people completely unsuited to such a role – many otherwise good politicians have suffered similarly
But it is the tale of the battle over the charges for his Government Car Service which got to me most of all
It mirrors my own feelings when I, not too long ago, was curious enough to follow up a press advert for a job as a Business Support Officer in a ministerial Private Office.
Duties include “Providing support to the budget officer on financial and accounting issues in Private Office. This includes preparing invoices for payment… “ (? For what?)
Job criteria include “Knowing the business”
“The post holder will understand and respond to the needs of their key customers … to fully support the Business Team and … ensure internal Private Office guidance is up to date and ready for use at a moment’s notice”
I wonder how long the language of business will be seen as appropriate to public service?
Related post
Tips for today
Tony Collins gives Top tips for project managers on his IT blog
My two favourites are “Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it” and, naturally for someone with my favourite aphorism, “You understood what I said, not what I meant”
Coincidentally I was recently rereading some variations on Murphy’s law from Paul Dickson’s 1978 book The Official Rules
If not controlled, work will flow to the competent man until he submerges – Charles Boyle of NASA
Science is truth: don’t be misled by facts – Anon
When an error has been detected & corrected it will be found to have been correct in the first place – Anon
Seven eighths of everything cannot be seen – Anon
Where you stand depends on where you sit – Rufus Miles
ANOTHER OF MURPHY’S LAWS: It is impossible to make anything foolproof, because fools are so ingenious – Anon
And a few which seem to have been applied too readily in the years leading up to the credit crunch:
CANADA BILL JONES MOTTO: It is morally wrong to allow suckers to keep their money
The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights – J Paul Getty
MERRILLS MAXIM OF INSTANT STATUS: In a democracy you can be respected though poor, but don’t count on it
The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet – Damon Runyon
My two favourites are “Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it” and, naturally for someone with my favourite aphorism, “You understood what I said, not what I meant”
Coincidentally I was recently rereading some variations on Murphy’s law from Paul Dickson’s 1978 book The Official Rules
If not controlled, work will flow to the competent man until he submerges – Charles Boyle of NASA
Science is truth: don’t be misled by facts – Anon
When an error has been detected & corrected it will be found to have been correct in the first place – Anon
Seven eighths of everything cannot be seen – Anon
Where you stand depends on where you sit – Rufus Miles
ANOTHER OF MURPHY’S LAWS: It is impossible to make anything foolproof, because fools are so ingenious – Anon
And a few which seem to have been applied too readily in the years leading up to the credit crunch:
CANADA BILL JONES MOTTO: It is morally wrong to allow suckers to keep their money
The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights – J Paul Getty
MERRILLS MAXIM OF INSTANT STATUS: In a democracy you can be respected though poor, but don’t count on it
The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet – Damon Runyon
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
More fallout from Baby P
A small paragraph in the paper reports that a GP has been suspended by the General Medical Council over the case of Baby P, despite the fact that he had twice referred the baby to hospital because of his concerns. No doubt we shall find out more in due course
Is it overly sensitive of me to note that none of the 3 professionals who have, to our knowledge, been disciplined in some fashion, is of an English background? Or is this just a result of London’s, & particularly Haringey’s, multicultural make up
The other outcome that does not seem to have excited much comment in the general media is that the newly appointed head of Haringey’s children’s services is required to report to Ed Balls every month
Although there are precedents for government ministers to have power to intervene directly in the management of local authority services, the examples I can think of all required a defined parliamentary procedure to be gone through first
Is it overly sensitive of me to note that none of the 3 professionals who have, to our knowledge, been disciplined in some fashion, is of an English background? Or is this just a result of London’s, & particularly Haringey’s, multicultural make up
The other outcome that does not seem to have excited much comment in the general media is that the newly appointed head of Haringey’s children’s services is required to report to Ed Balls every month
Although there are precedents for government ministers to have power to intervene directly in the management of local authority services, the examples I can think of all required a defined parliamentary procedure to be gone through first
Related post
Wheat is the colour
Aasmah Mir presented an interesting programme on skin lightening on Radio 4. Although there was at least one interviewee who wanted to blame it all on western colonial imperialism, broader & more interesting lines were pursued as well
One small point of language really intrigued me. Aasmah & her Asian interviewees expressed their distaste for the word wheatish, on the grounds that it sounds awful, as well as what it represents. I wonder where this comes from? Could it be a British Asian coinage or possibly Pakistani rather than Indian? The word I remember from marriage adverts in the Indian press was wheaten, which is at least euphonious
One small point of language really intrigued me. Aasmah & her Asian interviewees expressed their distaste for the word wheatish, on the grounds that it sounds awful, as well as what it represents. I wonder where this comes from? Could it be a British Asian coinage or possibly Pakistani rather than Indian? The word I remember from marriage adverts in the Indian press was wheaten, which is at least euphonious
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Aretha Franklin’s Hat
There was an item about the Stephen Jones exhibition of hats at the V&A on Womans Hour this morning
He told of how they had tried to include Aretha Franklin’s inauguration hat, but had received the same polite refusal that she had given to the Smithsonian: The hat was such a precious symbol to her of the significance for African-Americans of the Obama election, & of the tremendous honour of being invited to sing, that she could not bear to let it go to where she could not look at it every day
I do hope that that is the truth, that she is not just deeply hurt by the reaction she got from the so-called fashion experts, which reminds me so much of how English people used to react to West Indian migrants & their children dressed up for church in the 1950s. How could they expect to be welcomed in to the congregation, dressed like that?
He told of how they had tried to include Aretha Franklin’s inauguration hat, but had received the same polite refusal that she had given to the Smithsonian: The hat was such a precious symbol to her of the significance for African-Americans of the Obama election, & of the tremendous honour of being invited to sing, that she could not bear to let it go to where she could not look at it every day
I do hope that that is the truth, that she is not just deeply hurt by the reaction she got from the so-called fashion experts, which reminds me so much of how English people used to react to West Indian migrants & their children dressed up for church in the 1950s. How could they expect to be welcomed in to the congregation, dressed like that?
Related post
Staying in power
Sometime in the mid 1980s I was, as one does, idly flicking through the monthly edition of Economic Trends. Actually I didn’t at all, usually, it was one of those things which passed rapidly from in tray to out tray
But they had just recently acquired the technology to put a graph at the top of each page – a simple black & white line graph to display the main features of the table
One does not expect drama in such things, so I was surprised to see any. But there was a graph with one line which took a steep plunge to the bottom while another took its place at the top. In fairly short order the two lines reverted to their normal points on the scale
The table showed fuel used in electricity generation. The line which plunged down represented coal, its place usurped by oil. The graph showed vividly how we got through the miner’s strike without any major power cuts
Some years later I saw a tv programme which told how a then junior minister, Nigel Lawson, had been sent to the Department of Energy by Margaret Thatcher with a specific brief to ensure that in any confrontation with the unions (which just about everybody expected sooner or later) the miners would not be in any position to inflict the kind of humiliation endured by the Heath government in the 3 day week of 1974. Appropriate plans were laid. Nigel Lawson later became Chancellor of the Exchequer
That may have been the last time any British government took a serious strategic look at energy supply, rather than ducking its responsibilities & hoping that the nasty problems of nuclear & the touchy feely windmill brigade would somehow sort themselves out
And yet, during the recent cold snap, we depended on coal for more than half the electricity we were so grateful to receive. The computers, the telly, the hot water & the microwave all pluckily kept going (for the most part) to keep us fed & warm
We had another power cut on Monday morning. This was clearly due to some very local interruption to supply. It lasted for at least 4 hours, at which point I had to go out, having managed only an old fashioned sponge down wash. Sorry about that folks, but it was like going back to the good old days, along with all the wartime recipes for left overs which are being so enthusiastically resurrected
If we get through the banking crisis relatively unscathed we will probably soon find that it is not just the flow of credit which maintains our way of life
But they had just recently acquired the technology to put a graph at the top of each page – a simple black & white line graph to display the main features of the table
One does not expect drama in such things, so I was surprised to see any. But there was a graph with one line which took a steep plunge to the bottom while another took its place at the top. In fairly short order the two lines reverted to their normal points on the scale
The table showed fuel used in electricity generation. The line which plunged down represented coal, its place usurped by oil. The graph showed vividly how we got through the miner’s strike without any major power cuts
Some years later I saw a tv programme which told how a then junior minister, Nigel Lawson, had been sent to the Department of Energy by Margaret Thatcher with a specific brief to ensure that in any confrontation with the unions (which just about everybody expected sooner or later) the miners would not be in any position to inflict the kind of humiliation endured by the Heath government in the 3 day week of 1974. Appropriate plans were laid. Nigel Lawson later became Chancellor of the Exchequer
That may have been the last time any British government took a serious strategic look at energy supply, rather than ducking its responsibilities & hoping that the nasty problems of nuclear & the touchy feely windmill brigade would somehow sort themselves out
And yet, during the recent cold snap, we depended on coal for more than half the electricity we were so grateful to receive. The computers, the telly, the hot water & the microwave all pluckily kept going (for the most part) to keep us fed & warm
We had another power cut on Monday morning. This was clearly due to some very local interruption to supply. It lasted for at least 4 hours, at which point I had to go out, having managed only an old fashioned sponge down wash. Sorry about that folks, but it was like going back to the good old days, along with all the wartime recipes for left overs which are being so enthusiastically resurrected
If we get through the banking crisis relatively unscathed we will probably soon find that it is not just the flow of credit which maintains our way of life
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)