Recent links I liked
Hippocratic - A pithy summary of the problems of international meat trading. Though Horse d’oeuvres
shows that the scandal is fortuitously well-timed for some.
XKCD has been on steroids.
Keeping up is hard to do - for a member of the House of Lords.
The relationship between child’s play and scientific exploration – even babies test their hypotheses on observed evidence.
Google statistician Nick Chamandy knows that without becoming intimate with the raw data structure, and the many considerations involved in filtering, cleaning, and aggregating the data, the statistician can never truly hope to have a complete understanding of the data.
Thomas Gray & the Hermit Tradition
Mains didn’t show up in The Times (the London one) till 2003, then quickly became the accepted term in restaurant reviews. So truly, we have Giles Coren (Times restaurant critic since 2002) to blame for that.
Showing posts with label This and That. Show all posts
Showing posts with label This and That. Show all posts
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Windfall wedding
Windows & balconies with a view of Westminster Abbey are being sold for up to £100,000 – purely for the day of the Royal Wedding, according to a report in The Times.
This is not just a reflection of the price-of-everything mentality of our age. The Times of 1863 carried classified advertisements for windows which could give up to a dozen people a close-up view of the wedding of Prince Albert Edward (Edward VII-to-be) to Princess Alexandra, yours for a mere 30 shillings.
Cheap at twice the price – even a Second Class passage on a ship to New York would have set you back at least £12, & four years later people were complaining that "telegraphic messages" to the USA cost £10 for 20 words.
Mind you, the windows on offer in 1863 were only in Windsor, not the heart of London, since the wedding took place there in St George’s Chapel, as was the royal custom.
There were however great celebrations in London too, though the plan to illuminate St Paul’s was a failure.
Young Lucy Lyttelton (soon to become Lady Frederick Cavendish after her own wedding a year later) was present at St George’s, braved the crowds in London that night, & gave a breathless account of it all in her diary, not entirely sure that it had been ‘worth the hours of jam and wedge’.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Doing business with the enemy
An article by David Leonhardt on the Economix blog reports on a finding by The Center for Clean Air Policy in Washington that the growth in traffic has fallen behind the growth of GDP since the late 1990s.
I have not checked the UK figures, but I do remember how the traffic in London fell markedly in the recession of the early 1990s, & that this was put down largely to the loss of outsourcing work which meant that florists, cleaners, providers of technical services or directors lunches were no longer racing around in their small white vans.
This came as a welcome relief - traffic had increased unbearably during the late 80s boom, so that it was often quicker to walk in central London. I even remember one afternoon setting off to walk towards Piccadilly & the Royal Academy from Kensington High Street, expecting to hop on a bus when one came along. I moved faster than the traffic, to such an extent that the first Number 9 to pass did so as I approached the portals of Burlington House.
The contrast when the recession ended doubtless did much to quieten protests at the prospect of a congestion charge.
Is there any possibility that the reduced mileage in America reflects a reduction in speed because of environmental concerns? If there is anything in the assertion that time spent travelling is a constant, reductions in speed must lead to reductions in distance travelled.
I have not checked the UK figures, but I do remember how the traffic in London fell markedly in the recession of the early 1990s, & that this was put down largely to the loss of outsourcing work which meant that florists, cleaners, providers of technical services or directors lunches were no longer racing around in their small white vans.
This came as a welcome relief - traffic had increased unbearably during the late 80s boom, so that it was often quicker to walk in central London. I even remember one afternoon setting off to walk towards Piccadilly & the Royal Academy from Kensington High Street, expecting to hop on a bus when one came along. I moved faster than the traffic, to such an extent that the first Number 9 to pass did so as I approached the portals of Burlington House.
The contrast when the recession ended doubtless did much to quieten protests at the prospect of a congestion charge.
Is there any possibility that the reduced mileage in America reflects a reduction in speed because of environmental concerns? If there is anything in the assertion that time spent travelling is a constant, reductions in speed must lead to reductions in distance travelled.
Link
Growing Without Driving
Related post
The enemy
Growing Without Driving
Related post
The enemy
Monday, August 09, 2010
Owlism
An owl in the backyard last night could manage only a few piercing tu-whits.
Maybe it was just too young to woo.
Maybe it was just too young to woo.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
When writers play
Thinking about musical training, brain plasticity, & the links between music & language makes for a timely repeat for Radio 3’s When Writers Play (Series 2)
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Abbreviated purchases
When I was taking a close interest in supermarket receipts & VAT I started to take note of the strange abbreviations used for some items. I expect I knew what they were at the time, but many just leave me bemused now
Which makes me wonder what a Telegraph journalist would have made of them if my receipts were of as much interest as an MPs - or how many guilty secrets he might have missed
PEAR CONFERENCE LSE
TGR NDL THAI H&S
POTATOES BAKING LSE
GN TURKEY BREAST SLC
SAT TIMES
REDUCED
NEW RASP JELLY
EW PORK MEAL
D/RST I/COFFE
IND ROYALE 150G
Which makes me wonder what a Telegraph journalist would have made of them if my receipts were of as much interest as an MPs - or how many guilty secrets he might have missed
PEAR CONFERENCE LSE
TGR NDL THAI H&S
RDX BATH STRESS
AUSSIE CONDTNR
IND Q LORRAINE
SPARK LMN/LIME
MLLR AMR WAL&HNY
LUX C/RICE PUD
YV ORG W/M YGRTSGSTSTEM/BCORN
DE PURE INDULGE
FAVOURITE SEL
SURG SPIRIT
SGL STM CRT SS
PEAS/TRAD&PEA
HADD-CUMB
BTS ULT TOWEL
/BEET/TOM/CHRY
IND ROYALE
BASIC BRI
SA FT PWDR
GUINNESS ORGAL
AH SHRP PEA CUP SOUP
NATURAL WATER
STL TAB WTRPOTATOES BAKING LSE
GN TURKEY BREAST SLC
SAT TIMES
REDUCED
NEW RASP JELLY
EW PORK MEAL
D/RST I/COFFE
IND ROYALE 150G
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Talking of numbers
David Spiegelhalter, in an entertaining talk to the East Midlands group of the Royal Statistical Society (reported in the May edition of RSS News) estimated that “there are over 2,800 ways of phrasing two numbers if you consider options such as positive or negative, percentage or frequencies, relative or absolute numbers etc”
No wonder we haven’t got a proper handle on names for ratio numbers - yet
No wonder we haven’t got a proper handle on names for ratio numbers - yet
Friday, June 26, 2009
Toil and tears
Professor Mary Beard has provided a detailed guide to the marking of exam papers at the University of Cambridge: The plain man's guide to alphabetical marking
Whew!
I wonder if the results are that much fairer than they would be if Professor Smellie’s method were in use
Whew!
I wonder if the results are that much fairer than they would be if Professor Smellie’s method were in use
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Anonymity Anonymous
I am not completely convinced by The Times reasons for naming the Nightjack blogger.
It seems more like another shot in the battle between established & citizen journalists, a turf war in its way
I am very much on the side of organised, edited print journalism, I couldn’t do without my daily fix. But the press claims the right to protect sources - provided they know who they are – which has its sinister side. Exposing Nightjack in the way they have done seems like a ‘we know where you live’ warning to others who blog pseudonymously
Of whom I am one
In my case it is because, as The Times own literary editor wrote not so long ago, there is a certain freedom in anonymity
The freedom in part just comes from never having to answer the question Why did you write that?
There are things you cannot always say to the other people around you, because you do not want to hurt them by seeming to challenge their cherished views, or not to cause offence, or just not to be thought mad by them
I call it the I don’t like spaghetti problem
That seemingly innocuous statement of fact or preference would be a very rude thing to say if you had invited me round for a meal, which turned out to be a dish of your famous spag bol. So I would not say it
Who has not had the experience of remarking, just in the course of general conversation, that one does not like something or the other & being taken aback by the response of one of the others present – you would think aspersions had been cast on their first born
Then there is the old English injunction, never tread on the delicate grounds of money, religion or politics
There is a long tradition of anonymity for writers, for a whole variety of reasons. Quite why it should have prevailed in Victorian journalism, magazine fiction & of course novels (George Eliot) remains a bit of a mystery, though the tradition continued until surprisingly recently in The Times itself, & for all I know may still be the rule for the TLS
One good result of all this anonymity is that the detective work needed to establish who they ’really’ were provides lots of work for literary historians
Some authors adopt pseudonyms simply because they are too prolific – their publishers cannot or will not publish all they write – John Creasey & Elizabeth Linington for example
Or because they want to write in a completely different genre like Cecil Day Lewis
Anonymity comes with responsibility however. I try my level best not to presume upon anyone else’s privacy, to write about the lives or preoccupations of my family or of anyone not already in the public eye. I try not to be rude, (not even to those who ask for it!), to reveal secrets which have been entrusted to me, or to pass on lies or misinformation. Whether I succeed or not is a matter of opinion
I do not think that any writer or blogger can expect, or demand, to maintain their anonymity as of right unless some real danger is involved. If you want to write in secret keep a diary in a locked drawer, don’t show off on the internet
Nightjack & other police bloggers (as well as others whose real lives & points of view are often not well represented in the printed press) perform a useful & valuable service, one which it would be, on balance, a Bad Thing if lost, so it would be a pity if such people took fright at the legal ruling
Nightjack’s really big mistake was in letting his name go forward for the Orwell Prize & then accepting it by proxy. That really is trying to have it both ways, & was bound to get up someone’s nose
It seems more like another shot in the battle between established & citizen journalists, a turf war in its way
I am very much on the side of organised, edited print journalism, I couldn’t do without my daily fix. But the press claims the right to protect sources - provided they know who they are – which has its sinister side. Exposing Nightjack in the way they have done seems like a ‘we know where you live’ warning to others who blog pseudonymously
Of whom I am one
In my case it is because, as The Times own literary editor wrote not so long ago, there is a certain freedom in anonymity
The freedom in part just comes from never having to answer the question Why did you write that?
There are things you cannot always say to the other people around you, because you do not want to hurt them by seeming to challenge their cherished views, or not to cause offence, or just not to be thought mad by them
I call it the I don’t like spaghetti problem
That seemingly innocuous statement of fact or preference would be a very rude thing to say if you had invited me round for a meal, which turned out to be a dish of your famous spag bol. So I would not say it
Who has not had the experience of remarking, just in the course of general conversation, that one does not like something or the other & being taken aback by the response of one of the others present – you would think aspersions had been cast on their first born
Then there is the old English injunction, never tread on the delicate grounds of money, religion or politics
There is a long tradition of anonymity for writers, for a whole variety of reasons. Quite why it should have prevailed in Victorian journalism, magazine fiction & of course novels (George Eliot) remains a bit of a mystery, though the tradition continued until surprisingly recently in The Times itself, & for all I know may still be the rule for the TLS
One good result of all this anonymity is that the detective work needed to establish who they ’really’ were provides lots of work for literary historians
Some authors adopt pseudonyms simply because they are too prolific – their publishers cannot or will not publish all they write – John Creasey & Elizabeth Linington for example
Or because they want to write in a completely different genre like Cecil Day Lewis
Anonymity comes with responsibility however. I try my level best not to presume upon anyone else’s privacy, to write about the lives or preoccupations of my family or of anyone not already in the public eye. I try not to be rude, (not even to those who ask for it!), to reveal secrets which have been entrusted to me, or to pass on lies or misinformation. Whether I succeed or not is a matter of opinion
I do not think that any writer or blogger can expect, or demand, to maintain their anonymity as of right unless some real danger is involved. If you want to write in secret keep a diary in a locked drawer, don’t show off on the internet
Nightjack & other police bloggers (as well as others whose real lives & points of view are often not well represented in the printed press) perform a useful & valuable service, one which it would be, on balance, a Bad Thing if lost, so it would be a pity if such people took fright at the legal ruling
Nightjack’s really big mistake was in letting his name go forward for the Orwell Prize & then accepting it by proxy. That really is trying to have it both ways, & was bound to get up someone’s nose
Thursday, June 18, 2009
The right to a nationality
A framed copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been hung in a prominent position on the library wall – poster size, dark red lettering on a bright yellow background. Donated by the local branch of the United Nations Association
That took me back. I used to go to meetings of the student arm locally as a sixth former, & although I do not think there was a formal link I associate it in my mind with the Council for Education in World Citizenship which used to organise sixth form conferences in London which a group of us excited provincials attended one year
Re-reading the Declaration after all this time, the one bit that really took me by surprise was Article 15.1: Every one has the right to a nationality
Short & to the point. But it begs so many questions
A number of my friends have faced one of these questions – mostly because they were born in a place which was then a colony of the British Empire. Independence brought with it surprises, some of which were unwelcome, about what the new rules said was their nationality
Much later I also knew one boy who was born stateless: not Empire this time, but the decline in marriage & the increase in opportunities for young people to travel were responsible
But what is nationality?
It usually depends first & foremost on where (& when) one was born
Your two parents may come into it too, in the form of their legal relationship to each other & also, in turn, where (& when) they were born
Then grandparents may count too, even if it’s only one of them (the one in the male line)
And finally the rather more amorphous concepts of language, ethnicity, religion, culture, history & belonging may carry weight
But most of all, nationality demands a nation
Which is what the United Nations rather takes for granted
That took me back. I used to go to meetings of the student arm locally as a sixth former, & although I do not think there was a formal link I associate it in my mind with the Council for Education in World Citizenship which used to organise sixth form conferences in London which a group of us excited provincials attended one year
Re-reading the Declaration after all this time, the one bit that really took me by surprise was Article 15.1: Every one has the right to a nationality
Short & to the point. But it begs so many questions
A number of my friends have faced one of these questions – mostly because they were born in a place which was then a colony of the British Empire. Independence brought with it surprises, some of which were unwelcome, about what the new rules said was their nationality
Much later I also knew one boy who was born stateless: not Empire this time, but the decline in marriage & the increase in opportunities for young people to travel were responsible
But what is nationality?
It usually depends first & foremost on where (& when) one was born
Your two parents may come into it too, in the form of their legal relationship to each other & also, in turn, where (& when) they were born
Then grandparents may count too, even if it’s only one of them (the one in the male line)
And finally the rather more amorphous concepts of language, ethnicity, religion, culture, history & belonging may carry weight
But most of all, nationality demands a nation
Which is what the United Nations rather takes for granted
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Memento mori
Picking out a pen from the pen pot yesterday I discovered that it was a freebie (as are most of them, these days, what with charities & all). I think I must have picked it up from where somebody else had left it on a library table
It is smarter than the average freebie – thick white plastic, a bit designed & aerodynamic
Tasteful, discrete navy blue writing down the side: Royal Bank of Scotland BMW Williams F1 Team Official Sponsor
I think I may wrap it in acid free tissue & pack it away. Even if it is not, & never will be, worth anything, it can serve as reminder to the children
It is smarter than the average freebie – thick white plastic, a bit designed & aerodynamic
Tasteful, discrete navy blue writing down the side: Royal Bank of Scotland BMW Williams F1 Team Official Sponsor
I think I may wrap it in acid free tissue & pack it away. Even if it is not, & never will be, worth anything, it can serve as reminder to the children
Grammar school boys
I noticed that Sir Clive Granger, Nobel Laureate “for methods of analyzing economic time series with common trends (cointegration)" who sadly died last month, went to West Bridgford Grammar School
“My first lucky break was in 1946 when my father returned from the war and his job took him to Nottingham. He bought a nice house in a middle-class suburb called West Bridgford and I would cycle many miles each day to and from the Grammar School, which was middle sized”
Where he overlapped with Malcolm Bradbury, who was there from 1943 to 1950
Not bad for one middle-sized Grammar School
“My first lucky break was in 1946 when my father returned from the war and his job took him to Nottingham. He bought a nice house in a middle-class suburb called West Bridgford and I would cycle many miles each day to and from the Grammar School, which was middle sized”
Where he overlapped with Malcolm Bradbury, who was there from 1943 to 1950
Not bad for one middle-sized Grammar School
Related post
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Procedures
Of course procedures are necessary
But the best ones are not obvious, or even visible. Things are just there when you need them, or happen as & when they should. Like an iceberg it’s mostly below the surface, even if it is paddling as frantically as a duck
Of course when you are new to a job or move to a different organisation you need to learn the procedures. But after a bit they just come naturally, part of the flow of your work
Or take surgical procedures. Done well, you hardly know you had them, except the pain has gone. With good modern techniques, in competent hands, you hardly even bear the scar
You can have too much of a good thing – like certain sorts of cosmetic surgery
Sometimes it has to be brutal, leading to permanent disfigurement or disability: head or neck cancer, gangrenous limbs. But at least you are alive, & can adapt
In the wrong hands the results can be disastrous & you might even prefer to be dead. Especially if it turns out that the diagnosis was wrong& you didn’t even need the surgery in the first place, or they operated on the wrong side
Those disastrous surgeons who come to our attention always have 2 things in common: incompetence & over-weaning arrogance
And they just forgot – or never understood – that procedures are there for people. The people are not there just to have your procedures imposed upon them
But the best ones are not obvious, or even visible. Things are just there when you need them, or happen as & when they should. Like an iceberg it’s mostly below the surface, even if it is paddling as frantically as a duck
Of course when you are new to a job or move to a different organisation you need to learn the procedures. But after a bit they just come naturally, part of the flow of your work
Or take surgical procedures. Done well, you hardly know you had them, except the pain has gone. With good modern techniques, in competent hands, you hardly even bear the scar
You can have too much of a good thing – like certain sorts of cosmetic surgery
Sometimes it has to be brutal, leading to permanent disfigurement or disability: head or neck cancer, gangrenous limbs. But at least you are alive, & can adapt
In the wrong hands the results can be disastrous & you might even prefer to be dead. Especially if it turns out that the diagnosis was wrong& you didn’t even need the surgery in the first place, or they operated on the wrong side
Those disastrous surgeons who come to our attention always have 2 things in common: incompetence & over-weaning arrogance
And they just forgot – or never understood – that procedures are there for people. The people are not there just to have your procedures imposed upon them
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
The connection between nature & nurture
My eye was caught by a phrase in a report from Julius Cavendish in Helmand Province: “Amid the rose bushes & machine-gun towers …”
This evoked the memory of a vivid headline from the Falklands War: “Dug in behind the lupins, Stanley waits” & I read on
And so I learned another fascinating fact
The leader of the ‘host of British civil servants … on hand to fill the political vacuum’ is 40-something Hugh Powell, dubbed by unnamed sceptics ‘the Viceroy of Helmandshire’
Tipped as a future aide to fellow Old Etonian David Cameron
Son of Lord (Charles) Powell, Mrs Thatcher’s Private Secretary & Lady (Carla) who recently played host to Lady Thatcher on the trip during which she met the Pope
Nephew of Jonathan, Tony Blair’s erstwhile Chief of Staff in Downing Street
And also of Sir Christopher, who disliked the limelight, despite having been head of a major advertising agency & sometime adviser to the Labour Party
This evoked the memory of a vivid headline from the Falklands War: “Dug in behind the lupins, Stanley waits” & I read on
And so I learned another fascinating fact
The leader of the ‘host of British civil servants … on hand to fill the political vacuum’ is 40-something Hugh Powell, dubbed by unnamed sceptics ‘the Viceroy of Helmandshire’
Tipped as a future aide to fellow Old Etonian David Cameron
Son of Lord (Charles) Powell, Mrs Thatcher’s Private Secretary & Lady (Carla) who recently played host to Lady Thatcher on the trip during which she met the Pope
Nephew of Jonathan, Tony Blair’s erstwhile Chief of Staff in Downing Street
And also of Sir Christopher, who disliked the limelight, despite having been head of a major advertising agency & sometime adviser to the Labour Party
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Stranger danger
It was shortly after 6 on Saturday evening, coming out of Asda whence I had popped for the last item on the holiday weekend shopping list
Just ahead of me – as they had been in the check out queue – mum & a delightful, well behaved 3 year old
Mum got on to the escalator but the 3 year old’s nerve failed at the last moment
It was too soon for panic as both tried to assess the situation – child stranded, mum beginning her slow descent, just too far away to reach out a reassuring hand. But you could feel the wail beginning to rise
****
I can remember exactly the same thing happening to me at the same age
We were on an exciting shopping trip to the city – possibly my first ever. Escalators – especially down ones – were rare anyway: this one, in the city’s smartest department store, Affleck & Brown, was itself a thing of wonder & comment, & certainly the first I had ever encountered
Mummy, carrying my baby sister, stepped on. I did not know how to. I really did wail
It was a lady in a very 1940s hat who rescued me
*****
We used to be warned: NEVER TAKE SWEETS FROM A STRANGER
These days it is the child who is the stranger
Just ahead of me – as they had been in the check out queue – mum & a delightful, well behaved 3 year old
Mum got on to the escalator but the 3 year old’s nerve failed at the last moment
It was too soon for panic as both tried to assess the situation – child stranded, mum beginning her slow descent, just too far away to reach out a reassuring hand. But you could feel the wail beginning to rise
****
I can remember exactly the same thing happening to me at the same age
We were on an exciting shopping trip to the city – possibly my first ever. Escalators – especially down ones – were rare anyway: this one, in the city’s smartest department store, Affleck & Brown, was itself a thing of wonder & comment, & certainly the first I had ever encountered
Mummy, carrying my baby sister, stepped on. I did not know how to. I really did wail
It was a lady in a very 1940s hat who rescued me
*****
It is absolutely true – these days one hesitates before interfering in any sort of way with someone else’s child
But I could not just brush past the little girl. So I said, quietly & conversationally so as not to alarm her further: Do you want to hold my hand?
A quick reaction of surprise & assessment as she looked round to see who I was. The she just put her hand in mine
My heart did a tiny flip – such trust. And I realised what a very long time it was since I had held the hand of a small child
The next moment my heart did a bigger thump. Now I, shopping bag in the other hand, was the one who had nothing to hold on to. A doddery old lady who cannot, on a bad day, step off a curb without support
There was a brief flash visualisation of a foot planted firmly & securely on a moving step &, with only a slight backward sway we were safe
The little girl seemed happy to hold my hand until we reached the bottom but I was feeling mortified by stupidity & let her go, saying Do you want to go down to Mummy now?
After a hesitant, testing first step she realised she could do it & walked carefully but confidently the half dozen steps to mum.
In retrospect a good idea, one that will build her confidence for next time
Mum said a nice but unfussy thank you to me & that basically was that
But now I have another reason to remember to think before I stop to help a child
But I could not just brush past the little girl. So I said, quietly & conversationally so as not to alarm her further: Do you want to hold my hand?
A quick reaction of surprise & assessment as she looked round to see who I was. The she just put her hand in mine
My heart did a tiny flip – such trust. And I realised what a very long time it was since I had held the hand of a small child
The next moment my heart did a bigger thump. Now I, shopping bag in the other hand, was the one who had nothing to hold on to. A doddery old lady who cannot, on a bad day, step off a curb without support
There was a brief flash visualisation of a foot planted firmly & securely on a moving step &, with only a slight backward sway we were safe
The little girl seemed happy to hold my hand until we reached the bottom but I was feeling mortified by stupidity & let her go, saying Do you want to go down to Mummy now?
After a hesitant, testing first step she realised she could do it & walked carefully but confidently the half dozen steps to mum.
In retrospect a good idea, one that will build her confidence for next time
Mum said a nice but unfussy thank you to me & that basically was that
But now I have another reason to remember to think before I stop to help a child
We used to be warned: NEVER TAKE SWEETS FROM A STRANGER
These days it is the child who is the stranger
Links
Monday, May 25, 2009
Deja vu
May 16th —The poor Westminster bank where all Meriel's kitchen money and other charities bank, has shut up like the others. . . .
June 22nd—rumours run wild: resignation, dissolution, and a vote of confidence being all on the cards.
June 26th—The [government] has resigned; and now we shall see what sort of hash the Tories will make of things. The war … is regularly afoot
History repeats itself
Crises are there to be survived – we are still here, despite the alarms of 1866, as reported in the above extracts from the Diaries of Lacy Lucy Cavendish
June 22nd—rumours run wild: resignation, dissolution, and a vote of confidence being all on the cards.
June 26th—The [government] has resigned; and now we shall see what sort of hash the Tories will make of things. The war … is regularly afoot
History repeats itself
Crises are there to be survived – we are still here, despite the alarms of 1866, as reported in the above extracts from the Diaries of Lacy Lucy Cavendish
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Sibling Rivalry
BBC Radios 4 & 5 will regularly inform us in their news bulletins that news was made by someone or the other speaking on “the Today programme” or even “talking to Victoria”
I first noticed another phenomenon when the Sony awards were announced last week
No programme on Radio 4 seemed to mention any of the awards won by Radio 5 – particularly not the Breakfast Show one, & not even the one for Simon Mayo & Mark Kermode
And vice versa
Then this morning the Victoria Derbyshire show replayed most of Jim Naughtie’s interview with Eric Cantona from the Cannes Film Festival
Well they replayed the answers, but voiced the questions themselves, called it merely a “BBC interview”
Not surprising that Radio 5 wanted it, since Cantona had “not ruled out”
the possibility that he might one day return to Manchester United – as manager
Children, children, please. Just play together nicely
I first noticed another phenomenon when the Sony awards were announced last week
No programme on Radio 4 seemed to mention any of the awards won by Radio 5 – particularly not the Breakfast Show one, & not even the one for Simon Mayo & Mark Kermode
And vice versa
Then this morning the Victoria Derbyshire show replayed most of Jim Naughtie’s interview with Eric Cantona from the Cannes Film Festival
Well they replayed the answers, but voiced the questions themselves, called it merely a “BBC interview”
Not surprising that Radio 5 wanted it, since Cantona had “not ruled out”
the possibility that he might one day return to Manchester United – as manager
Children, children, please. Just play together nicely
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Deep history
Jeremy Black introduced the idea of Deep History to the discussion of the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 which was the subject of In Our Time today
Deep history has profound effects on a country or society, somehow informs actions & reactions to events & policies over the centuries. Last week’s In Our Time topic- Magna Carta – works like that for this country. The medieval relationship between the Hapsburg & Ottoman Empires informs the way Austrians react to the proposed extension of EU membership to Turkey in a way that Brits just cannot fully understand
And the idea must surely be related to the idea of national Cultural stereotypes
Deep history has profound effects on a country or society, somehow informs actions & reactions to events & policies over the centuries. Last week’s In Our Time topic- Magna Carta – works like that for this country. The medieval relationship between the Hapsburg & Ottoman Empires informs the way Austrians react to the proposed extension of EU membership to Turkey in a way that Brits just cannot fully understand
And the idea must surely be related to the idea of national Cultural stereotypes
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Privy goings on
Quentin Letts took a witty but thought provoking look at one of Britain's oldest institutions, the Privy Council on Radio 4 on Tuesday morning. He even mentioned Pricking the List
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