Seattle's Pike Place Market, the oldest continually operating farmer's market in the US, opened in 1907. Fantasmagorie, the world's first animated cartoon, was shown for the first time in Paris in 1908. An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale struck Montana in 1959. Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, the best selling jazz album of all time was released on the same day. In 1969, Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage. In 1999, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake shook Izmit, Turkey, killing 17,000. Quite a birthday list today: Maureen O'Hara, V.S. Naipaul, Robert deNiro, Nelson Piquet, Guillermo Vilas, Kevin Rowland, Robin Cousins, Belinda Carlisle, Sean Penn, Thierry Henry, William Gallas and Phil Jagielka. It is Independence Day in the Gabon and Indonesia.
Personal note about the photo: the shop with a flat awning on the corner at the right hand side (behind the dark red mini van) is a French-style bakery called Le Panier. The woman who runs the place is French and the recipes are all authentic. Best croissants I've ever had outside of France. It was my absolute favourite place to have coffee and people watch. This photo makes me homesick for Seattle.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...the birthday list.
ReplyDeleteTwo women featured. One who made a film career by draping herself around the manly shoulders of big leggy and the other-the epitome of boy-toy bimbodom.
Really Ms Wildhack...sort yourself out and stand up for your sisters.
BTH
ReplyDeleteYeah Montana. You big floozy
Another sign of Britain's class dominated society:
ReplyDeletePrince Charles attempting to suppress modern architects in favour of his favourites- Quinlan Terry et al. (Guardian front page today)
The useless parasite needs to be put down.
He kno NOTHING...
Dan, agreed, not content with the Chelsea Barracks disgrace he is sticking his oar in again. Such a simple little man. He is so thick he has resorted to spiritualism and general nonsense. We should take a leaf out the french books on how to deal with him.
ReplyDeleteHey, you Brits beheaded your king more than a hundred years before the French. You don't need *their* books for instruction.
ReplyDeleteSo here the writer complains (among other things) that the movie "Pearl Harbor" was not released as "Pearl Harbour" in th UK?
ReplyDeleteThis *has* to be ironic - especially, as the main complaint with regards to that movie is that it was released at all, no matter the title.
Incidentally, for those interested in what my grandfather did at the end of the war in West Africa (see UT posts passim) - it seems that one Member of Parliament at the time wasn't too pleased about it...
ReplyDeleteI'll see if I can look out the scans, they'll be on a CD somewhere at home.
"Hey, you Brits beheaded your king more than a hundred years before the French. You don't need *their* books for instruction."
ReplyDeleteThe people didnt behead the monarch, parliament did. That difference is still very much with us now.
Good stuff, Swifty. When are you putting the pics up?
ReplyDelete@Jay:
ReplyDeleteWhen I can find them, mate. May be a while...
This pay regulation talk is very interesting. Imposing a max ratio between top and bottom pay is a brilliant idea i think. But obviously by virtue of being good for the British people it is also a certainty never to make it anywhere near the statute books.
ReplyDeleteI've just been cross about Bob Ainsworth on that Editorial thread about Afghanistan. And a bit sweary too, so it might not stand for long.
ReplyDeleteWhat an utterly, utterly wretched Defence Secretary he is.
According to some of the more frothing lunatics across the pond we'll have the Taleban here in blighty, (in fact they're probably already here biding their time), in no time flat so you may get your wish Dan - royal beheadings in Trafalgar square.
ReplyDeletebtw - Panorama tonight is on Afghanistan - whether the military presence has improved the plight of women - think I already know the answer to that one.
SwiftyBoy
ReplyDeleteAisnworth ? I heard him on Radio 4 Today Programme at 8.15 or so, reciting the long discredited mantra that engagement in Afghanistan is due to the "direct threat" to these shores. Oh, and "there can never be enough equipment" was his opening gambit...
Almost made Hoon look dynamic. Almost.
Heard ainsworth this morning too - its so depressing swifty, listening to their trite bloody yapping. Where are the people who actually know what they're doing? Why do we put up with this shit?
ReplyDelete@Sheffpixie:
ReplyDeleteWhat we need at the moment is a person who has a clear vision for what the Forces should be, how many UK soldiers do we need there to ensure the "mission" can be carried out, how they should be equipped and set up for future wars... Ainsworth is emphatically not that person.
gab08 and dontstartme on the Tanya Gold-thread: Are they new ones? I thought I would have realized if there were other posters on CiF as, well, excentric as ultima and BTH.
ReplyDeleteHow Government Works - part the twenty third.
ReplyDeleteLONDON - Business secretary Lord Mandelson is leading a fresh campaign against illegal downloaders in the UK, days after meeting with Hollywood mogul David Geffen while on holiday in Corfu.
Mandelson is demanding that internet service providers be given new powers to suspend the accounts of web surfers who persistently download pirated music or films.
Parents risk £50,000 fines if their children are suspected of downloading illegal content under the proposed regulations.
Mandelson is under pressure to stem the tide of illegal downloading in the UK under targets set in the Digital Britain report -- due to be published next month -- calling for a 70% reduction of online piracy within a year.
Industry lobby efforts came in the form of David Geffen, who earlier this month, was seen dining with Mandelson while holidaying in Greece.
Geffen, an eminent figure in Hollywood and the music industry, has long been an outspoken critic of illegal file sharing.
A spokesman for Mandelson denied that he and Geffen discussed internet piracy or anything to do with the Digital Britain report during their meeting, and that the new regulations had been in development for "a matter of weeks".
Odd how these coincidences coalesce around Mandy, ain't it?
Swifty - Well of course the US music/Hollywood mogul interests are more important than anything that might be happening on the shop floor in the UK. Especially if you get good dinners that would probably feed a family of four for a week thrown in.
ReplyDeleteAnother one for Dan's hit list.
@Sheffpixie:
ReplyDeleteVery slippery character, Mandy. Likewise Geffen. I've read a few books about the Eagles etc, Geffen was very involved in all that country-rock, Laurel Canyon stuff at the turn of the 70s via his Asylum record label.
As ex-Byrd David Crosby of CSN (and Y, sometimes) once said of him: "He's a shark, but he's our shark".
I can well imagine Gordon Brown saying the same thing of Mandy.
'Is there a connection between the Bilderberg group and illuminated international free masonry?'
ReplyDeleteposed the troll
'now who went there recenty?'
'Look how two alleged leading attendees of the Build-a-borg group.... Con Clarke and Peter Muddlesome... 'on the so-called ''right'' and ''left'' of politics'... have suddenly come back into the fray'
ReplyDeleteposed the cynic
'To putschh for Euraso entry?'
said the bad speller
'And didn't George Hasbeen go to Greece recently too?'
posed the wikgeograher
'on yachts that move in mysterious ways?'
All this posing and cynicism is too much for a Monday morning.
ReplyDeleteSwifty - I can remember canvassing for labour when a student in the 60's. Many women here said the same sort of thing as in 'Oh I leave all that to my husband love'.
ReplyDeleteUsed leave muttering about people having thrown themselves under horses to get her a vote!
Things have improved a bit!
Re Afghanistan until there is peace women won't stand a chance and if that peace is under the Taliban they won't stand a chance either.
Short term its hopeless frankly.
@anne:
ReplyDeleteAfghanistan is shaping up to be the absolute opposite of a beacon of democracy, sadly. A black hole of democracy, or whatever the opposite of a beacon is.
We're caught in a nasty cleft stick mostly of our own devising, sadly. Bit like Saruman in the Lord of the - oh, never mind.
Swifty - yes, and those orcs are of our breeding too.
ReplyDelete@thauma:
ReplyDeleteWell, Pakistan's ISI bred them, mostly, with a little bit of help from our own CIA. In nasty old Mordor, or Pakistan as it's better known.
Taliban = US creation to try to counter the Soviets, yes.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the main problems with Afgh is the idea that a democracy is just a voting system, a police force and a law book. You cant impose democracy on a third world country with 7th century habits and power structures, they have to get there by themselves, if they choose to get there at all. The US encountered all manner of obstacles to democracy in Iraq, a far, far more advanced country than Afgh. If, as reports say, the Taliban are now enjoying strong local support then the goals of implementing democracy AND removing the Taliban are largely incompatible. What they hope to achieve in Afgh is beyond me. With the current economic climate as it is, the costs of staying out there surely cant be justified.
ReplyDeleteMujahadeen = US creation to try to counter the Soviets.
ReplyDeleteTaliban = spontaneous creation but aided by Pakistan/CIA to try to counter the Soviets and bandits on AfPak border.
Apparently.
swifty
ReplyDeleteI thought the Taliban were the bandits on the AfPak border. In fact, aren't they all pretty much interchangeable depending on who/what might be most advantageous to them at any given time?
And isn't this one of the reasons it's impossible to 'know' you're enemy - as they change all the time.
sorry 'your' enemy...thats me dead come the grammatical revolution.
ReplyDelete@Sheffpixie:
ReplyDeletethats me dead...
That's you twice deaded, I'm afraid. Drag her bullet-riddled corpse out of here, Commissar Lord Summerisle.
Cruel Swifty...Are we not allowed the vernacular?
ReplyDelete@Comrade Sheffpixie:
ReplyDeleteAre we not allowed the vernacular?
You are, comrade, you are - what you are not allowed is the lack of an apostrophe in "that's". Our glorious revolution would crumble if we allowed such inverse-greengrocer-ist errors.
I really am dead meat aren't I Swifty - I didn't even notice the lack of an apostrophe in 'thats'
ReplyDeleteComrade Sheffpixie, it is the will of the People's Court of Correct Grammar and Orthography that you are to be sent to Correctional Facility No. 249 (Grange Hill) where comrades McClusky (Bridget) and Bronson (Maurice) will instruct you in the correct use of apostrophes, question marks and full stops.
ReplyDeleteShe had it coming.
ReplyDeleteSwifty, the People's Court are a bunch of splitters, Sheffpixie is welcome to join the Popular Court!
ReplyDelete(Which, so far, admittedly, comprises just me.......)
And as for you, comrade colinthestoat - where in the approved texts is there mention of names being permitted lower-case initial letters? Lower-case letters in names are the sign of a recidivist and a minuscule-ist backslider, and are forbidden in the new order of our glorious revolution.
ReplyDeleteI find you guilty of the crime of non-majusculisation, and sentence you to a life of hard spelling.
Ah comrade Dotterel, the Spellitburo will deal with you later.
stoaty - Where have you been? And thanks so much for your solidarity & support compadre.
ReplyDeleteOh shit....have I started a schism? But thank you kindly Dotterel.
Swifty - hmm - sounds like an old English teacher of mine, Sister Pauline Mary, may have been a judge in the People's Court of Correct Grammar and Orthography (note correct positioning of apostrophe) - She was very keen on spanking naughty girls who couldn't punctuate.
Swifty,
ReplyDeleteThey'd have to spell my full name first ;-)
Swifty,
ReplyDeleteYou have obviously never heard of modesty, comrade.
Sheff, I have been poncing about on MyT under an assumed name.
Minuscule-ist Backsliders
ReplyDeleteGood name for a band...
Citizen Splitter,
ReplyDeleteYeah, if anybody could say it.
We minusculists don't need to compensate for inadequacy by making ourselves look bigger than we really are.
ReplyDelete'Lower-case letters in names are the sign of a recidivist and a minuscule-ist backslider, and are forbidden in the new order of our glorious revolution.'
ReplyDeleteDamn I liked e e cummings
Seem to remember that in the old days Ciffers were only allowed lowercase letters in names. A proud tradition that I intend to keep up.
ReplyDeleteYou will be wanting me to put an 'e' after stoat next.
"Lower-case letters in names are the sign of a recidivist and a minuscule-ist backslider, and are forbidden in the new order of our glorious revolution."
ReplyDeleteI'd have to agree. They have, to my mind at least, always betrayed a certain clumsiness, a lack of due respect for aesthetic merit, or even common decency for that matter...
Bidisha alert.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair to her, this time the column's quite a decent read.
"You will be wanting me to put an 'e' after stoat next."
ReplyDeleteThat could lead to mispronouncing your voles...
Oh noes. I'm *flawed*.
ReplyDeleteI'm MsChin here & mschin on CiF
MsC
ReplyDeleteYou're lucky - comrade Swifty's Spellitburo has cast me into outer darkness having shot me first and all for the want of a weeny apostrophe.
"all for the want of a weeny apostrophe."
ReplyDeleteThat's all some of us have... and how you sneer in your embourgoisement !
BW - "in the voice of Al Pacino" - ROTFLMFAO!
ReplyDeleteOh splifferweed - did I hurt your feelings? Didn't mean to :-(( - and you know thosel ancient Greeks who loved beauty above all things, greatly admired the smaller apostrophe - the larger variety being considered very vulgar.
ReplyDeletethanks thauma !
ReplyDelete... it actually happened to me...
%-(
Long time a go though...
Apology accepeted Sheff; as well you know, I am a serial fetishiser of the small colon.
ReplyDeleteOr is that George Michael ?
If it helps, I love Al Pacino. Probably just the right sort of talking-to needed.
ReplyDeleteMe too. He was the Glengarry Glen Ross character.
ReplyDeleteSpellbinding !
No Orthography without Pedantry!
ReplyDeleteYou will all be up against the wall when the revolution arrives.
Evening all.
ReplyDeleteColin Van der Stoate.
Liberté, sororité, égalité! (Mais seulement pour les femmes, bien sûr.)
ReplyDelete... and you know those ancient Greeks who loved beauty above all things, greatly admired the smaller apostrophe
ReplyDeleteWhen you consider where they were renowned for sticking their apostrophes, that doesn't surprise me.
LordS - another LOL for you!
ReplyDeleteWe are a bit quiet on here tonight compared to last night - are some of us suffering the effects? (I think I might be.)
Well I'm off for another pernod and last Thursday night'ss episode of the Bill. J'aime Les Flics Cockney !
ReplyDeleteWe are mightily pleased to note that the impudent upstarts of yestereve have taken note of our power and majesty and have not returned to trouble our royal sensibilities.
ReplyDeleteOr it could be that our royal secret police hath discovered the malefactors and dealt with them accordingly.
As the council are intent on gentrification of my once rough old town, I have decided that I might as well go along with it.
ReplyDeletestoaty
ReplyDeleteYep, resistance to redevelopment is useless.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/aug/13/squirrel-canada-holiday-snap
ReplyDeleteHahahaha
LordS
ReplyDeleteI'll have you know that what you suggest was frowned upon by Greek polite society. Their prefered method was intercrural.
This was often performed in the gymnasium after a good work out and an oil scraping, often in rows. The beloved (eronomos) gently resting his head on the lovers (erastai) shoulders whilst being thrust at between the thighs. No man of honour would consider kneeling before another man apparently. at least this was the ideal.
According to Plato in the Sympsium Pausanias was a bit po faced about it all but I think that was because he was a stingy old bastard who didn't like forking out for pressies for the lads.
Stoaty
ReplyDeleteVery elegant stoaty, although you might fall foul of BW's embourgoiseification theory.
Sheff,
ReplyDeleteI care not one jot for that young fool's predjudices madam. I is toffed up now.
Interesting, Sheff, I did not know that!
ReplyDeleteI have just committed a punctuation error.
ReplyDelete*commits seppuku*
Have to say it suits you stoaty.
ReplyDeletePerfumed ponce.
ReplyDeletestoaty the toff, a dapper gent.
ReplyDeleteYep, suits him!
BW
ReplyDeleteYou jealous again?
Flying visit on return from Cornwall.
ReplyDeleteGreat holiday marred mainly by various car problems.
GF still somewhere between Reading and London being towed by RAC.
Better go now, kids still demanding attention.
Intend to chill out with a bottle of wine and Miles' 50 year old master-piece later...
andysays
ReplyDeleteGet the kids off to bed & get sozzled with the GF when she gets in.
MsChin
ReplyDeleteSeconded ! Have a good evening andysays, hope GF ain't too frazzled.
Nite you bums.
Test2
ReplyDelete@ Andysays
ReplyDeleteHope GF back safe.
Part one is accomplished; part two will be completed once she's had a bath.
ReplyDeleteNormalish andysays service may resume tomorrow or the next day when we've sorted out the wreckage of our holiday.