The first major battle of the Wars of the Roses was fought in 1459 in Blore Heath, Staffs. The Siege of Vienna began in 1529. Nintendo was founded in 1889. The earliest game system consisted of 48 brightly coloured rectangles of heavy paper (quaintly referred to as 'cards') which were used for something called Hanafuda. The union of Norway and Sweden was dissolved by the Treaty of Karlstad in 1905. Nikita Khrushchev began a visit to Iowa in 1959. In 1999, Qantas Airlines Flight 1 overshot the runway in Bangkok, causing minor injuries to 38 passengers. It is the worst crash in the 49 year history of the airline.
Born today: Euripedes (480-406 BC), Augustus Caesar (63 BC - AD 14), Kublai Khan (1215-1294), Walter Pidgeon (1897-1984), John Coltrane (1926-1967), Ray Charles (1930-2004), Bruce Springsteen (1949) and Cherie Blair (1954).
It is International Celebrate Bisexuality Day.
You might notice a link to a new blog in the upper right hand column -- I'm playing around here with martillo's suggestion of linked blogs. I'm thinking maybe it would be a good idea to leave this one pretty much the way it is and have people use the 2nd blog for more serious discussions with no set time limit. I'm going to send contributor invites to everyone for whom I have e-mail addresses. If I don't have an e-mail address for you and you would like to be a contributor, please e-mail me via my profile (click on my name at the top of this comment).
ReplyDeletePlease feel free (though you're not obligated) to make any suggestions about the 2nd site. Should we take turns putting up threads? Should we just leave it up to when something comes up that a contributor wants to discuss? I don't think anyone should feel pressured to write an original article -- starting point could quite easily be a link to something someone's read that they want to discuss or even just a quick "What do people think about X?"
Do you hate the name I chose? Have a suggestion for a better one? Want a dedicated blog for a particular thing (i.e., music clips/links, sport discussions, etc.)?
After the other place gets going a bit (if the other place gets going a bit), I could quite easily add a "Currently on Untrusted, too" box underneath the link, so that people can see easily from here what is being discussed over there.
Thanks, everyone!
Brilliant Montana! Just make sure this doesn't make more work for you.
ReplyDeleteI second annetan.
ReplyDelete"International Celebrate Bisexuality Day"
ReplyDeleteGuess that means one should flirt with men *and* women today. I, at least, will do my best!
Very interesting article on PFI. Of all the unspeakable goings on in this rancid country, PFI is probably the one that really makes me blood boil. I would sincerely welcome severe and medieval torture for those involved.
ReplyDeleteI would want to make the following by Vince my "observation of the day"
ReplyDelete"..Tax avoidance and evasion is unacceptable at the best of times but in current recession is utterly offensive. Every pound lost in revenue through avoidance and evasion has to be made up through higher taxes paid by others. It is now estimated by the government themselves that the extent of avoidance and evasion is around £22bn annually..."
Full article by Vince over in today's CiF.
I really must make an effort andf get the art of the direct link to article sorted.
If only I could persuade the Guard's feministas to include useful information like the above from Vince Cable, when they write.
ReplyDeleteIt would sit well in an article on the indisputable/inalienable right of lesbians/homosexuals and bi-sexuals to ride horses bare back.
Oh me, oh my, the world could be so much better informed with just a little more effort from some Guard ATL's.
So that's £22bn a year for the tax avoiders/evaders whilst NuLab pay attention to screwing the single parent/incapacity benefit/old age pensioners etc etc.
ReplyDeletePriorities, priorities - a record of which you no doubt feel proud Nu Labour.
Jay I hear what you say about PFI. There is fortunately plenty of space in which to corral those who need an encounter with Madame Guillotine to make their brains work better.
I see Jay got deleted on the Clanchy thread for asking if she was a parody rather than a real person. Unfortunately, she's all too real. I just posted this, no doubt soon to be deleted:
ReplyDelete"Coincidentally, there is an interview with Ms Clanchy in today's Horizon Review . (link) The necessity of hard-working professionals of having a cleaner/nanny (although Ms Clancy works from home) is highlighted by the following poignant exchange:
VB: How many days a week do you have for your writing now?
KC: Well, it depends on the children. I do get quite a lot of time, but it’s vulnerable to various pressures. There’s still a house to run. The children get ill, and when they’re ill, they need me.
Oh, and reading some of Larkin's poems is apparently useful to Ms Clancy
because 'they’re still very recognisably about these children’s lives in a way that very few poets are, because they’re about working class people’s lives. I found him very helpful in Romford!' "
She still reckons she's a feminist. What do you think?
scherfig - was she reclining on a chintz sofa with a lavender-scented hankie delicately pressed to her nose whilst she delivered these pearls?
ReplyDeleteIt's not easy being a poet and a full-time mum, though, as Kate has recently explained in her wonderful poem On Glogogda:
ReplyDeleteI have no time
To write my verse
For Tarquin's ill
And Teddy's worse
And now the cleaner's
Stay is over
And Nanny's off
Back to Slobdova.
This writing lark
Is hard enough
Without Glogogda's
Parting huff
She told me
"I no want to stay
You want a monkey
Nuts you pay"
I better off
In old country
I may be poor
But I be free"
I just can't
Work her out at all
Noblesse obliged
She won't play ball
My husband said
He kinda missed her
And "rather her
Than a self-absorbed, useless, up-her-own-arse Guardianista!"
Swifty - a gem!
ReplyDeleteThauma - loved it...
ReplyDelete"..she reclining on a chintz sofa with a lavender-scented hankie delicately pressed to her nose whilst she delivered these pearls.."
It was constructs like that that led me to me living in a caravan alone with two dogs.
Actually we can learn each from the other when 'our lass'now visits me in my shed on wheels
she always brings a lavender soaked hankie with her. And for my part I have a bag of them available lest my love forget hers.
I'll have you teaching yet.
Regards.
Deano - I live alone with one dog. It's the only sensible way to live.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't stand the smell of artificial lavender.
Pleased to see you Swifty - to have lost you too would have been a sadness. And a dreadful waste.
ReplyDeleteI can now fuck off with my dogs for a walk confident in the knowledge that you will encourage class contributions to this worthwhile thread.
Life really is too short to have stand around attempting to 'earth' my own dongle so that I can post here to drown out an awkward silence.
I prefer to read others than to write here myself.
You swifty have been AWOL - that's an extra day in the teaching compound for you.
Swifty, you should lay off the DH Lawrence, mate. You're starting to sympathise with the working classes. Take two John Betjeman poems three times a day, and come back in a week.
ReplyDeleteThamua
ReplyDeleteNothing artificial 'bout my lavender hankies - I avoid any contribution to the pharmas by stealing real lavender from well stocked gardens not far from my field.
That dog of yours a beagle or somesuch?
You're quite right scherf, don't know what came over me, sorry about that. Bloody oiks, frightful people.
ReplyDeleteThough I should add my batman Reilly was a thoroughly decent chap, no breeding whatsoever, insurance clerk or some such, always holding the port bottle upside down, but absolutely reliable in a tight spot and jolly happy to jump on a whizz-bang when the time came and it was him or me.
Anyway, see you in a week or so, work calls...
Superb, Swifty, that should be on CIF, and should be comment of the day.
ReplyDeleteCant believe they deleted my parody comment, so bloody po faced, it was a nothing comment.
Deano, she's a treeing walker coonhound.
ReplyDeleteThauma - a fucking cross between a greyhound and a beagle.
ReplyDeleteI am in love with you girl - what taste in animals you have.
Mungo is a cross between a canine Frederick Furnival and an Otterhound with a little....... which all adds.........to a non Germanic and certainly non German speaking .... and .......to that extraordinary....William Morris workpiece(s) adoring...............thing.............................................................................called a natural UT fan.
But what the hell can you expect from a beast from the dogs home - with one way hearing.
Now Swifty's back I'm away
Deano - Furnival/otterhound cross: LOL!
ReplyDeleteThe TWC is definitely a large part foxhound and part mystery hound. I'd guess Mystery Hound had a lot of bloodhound in him.
I am crass - I am ignorant - I am not Kennel Club registered...............
ReplyDeleteI should have said Mungo is a Furnival/Beaverhound cross..
Mungo shares the flapping (Biggles helmet ears)... when he is in pursuit of ............what it is that pleases his wild, wild imagination. i suspect it's not far removed from your posh dog Thauma.
The bastard woke me the other night. I went, as older men frequently do in search of a pissing place (it's an ageing G spot thing - ladies).
Who the fuck wants a dog who can't decide if he wants to fart or gargle the French National Anthem. I phoned the dogs home - they said "you wins some but not all"
I'll keep the tosser but ..............
Posh? You've not seen the highly uncouth way she drinks. It can be heard miles away and leaves embarrassing droplets (mini-lakes, more like) around the bowl. I have tried to teach her to take small, silent sips whilst crooking her dew claw but she is incorrigible.
ReplyDeleteThen there is the highly anti-social affinity for fox shit.
So compared to all that, I'd say a flatulent-cum-gargling Marseillaise isn't too bad, really.
Brilliant poem, Swifty!
ReplyDeletex and a bit....
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"So compared to all that, I'd say a flatulent-cum-gargling Marseillaise isn't too bad, really."
ReplyDeleteThe bastard - I wrote your wisdom - in large RED LETTERS - on high quality art card.
I put it before his eyes - he farted a disapproval - if I can't get this right...........
I may have to remove to Eire.
That's 2 x
Ah, it's a lovely land, to be sure.
ReplyDeleteI kinda have thought so young miss.
ReplyDeleteLots of folf I like to read are being being diverted elsewhere
Lets not loose each other - I am so very fond of you all
Want to listen to some complex music - listen to the Benedictus on the Armed Man CD.
Come on team UT we hang together or we hang alone.
If there was a mirror on the wall in your home - you would see me walk uncomfortable
ReplyDeleteI am fucking outraged.
Yo, deano!
ReplyDeleteCelebrate Bisexuality day?
ReplyDeleteThat's just taking the piss. I have enough trouble pulling on the 364 Celebrate Heterosexuality days. I NEED that extra day !!
LordS - just think, today you can double your chances of pulling.
ReplyDeleteQuite right, thauma: a shag's a shag when all's said and done.
ReplyDeleteFair point, thauma. But with odds like that I'm not sure a hunk like me would make it to the front gate!
ReplyDeleteTrue, you'd probably be attacked by a mob of angry villagers worried about the virtue of their young lads.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant. I've always wanted to be attacked by a mob of angry villagers
ReplyDeleteLordS - that's nothing. You should see what we do to planning committees in our village.
ReplyDeletePlus that wolf howl sounded like a very emasculated version of my dog. I'm willing to rent her out for sound effects for a large fee.
LordS - quite a lot of their time they're more of an ambling or bemused mob than an angry one. Damn good though - a brilliant parody of Brooks' documentary on Frankenstein.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to parody Mel Brooks? How many traditional westerns did Hollywood make after Blazing Saddles? Even Clint Eastwood opted for the anti-hero stance in the 70s and 80s.
ReplyDeleteIt's arguable that the Western was destroyed by Brooks and the Vietnam War for 20 years, until Kevin Costner made Dancing with Wolves, and then Eastwood made Unforgiven. But even then, the storylines, the moral standpoints, were different from what John Ford and John Wayne, had been making from 1953-73.
Off topic, and arguable, but worth a thread...Westerns reflect social and political attitudes. Discuss.
Hank, I'd be interested in such an article, and there are quite a few folks here who also like movies. Why not write one? Start with 'Birth of a Nation' perhaps (although not strictly a Western?) and maybe try to include 'Little Big Man'.
ReplyDeleteThat could be fun, and if anyone disagreed with you, you could just string 'em up.
Thaumaturge, LordS,
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly tame clip the villagers give the impression that they could have been stopped by a well modulated:
"go away" and the Wolfman was not unlike how I imagine deano to be.
Yes, do it Hank! Don't forget Soldier Blue and Pat Garret and Billy the Kid...
ReplyDeleteThis is an entertaining Guardian series. There's a few westerns in there too.
ReplyDeletereel history
'Off topic, and arguable, but worth a thread...Westerns reflect social and political attitudes. Discuss.'
ReplyDeleteOh yes please - Peckinpah's Pat Garret was a riposte to John Wayne's Chisum - Wayne portrayed Chisum as a noble frontier boss, Peckinpah gave us a dark lord of unbridled capitalism.
Brownlow's The War, The West and the Wilderness is a fascinating book. Early westerns were often fiercely naturalistic, featuring real bandits such as the Daltons and the madcap Al Jennings.
Birth of a nation - not a western but of great historical import. It brought the Ku Klux Klan back to life, with its celebration of the proud Scottish spirit, fiery crosses and so on. The Klan used Braveheart in the same way when it came out - indeed fascists all over the world still use Braveheart as a portrayal of a proud, free people standing up for 'freedom'.
Hmm, sounds like you'd write a better blog on Westerns, Edwin. You do that one and I'll do one on post-Watergate conspiracy thrillers!
ReplyDelete