Tweets for May 2023

Bio: Kazoo Academy & Barrel Organ Disco/Yorkshire Almanac/translator Romance & Germanic languages & Russian/old-style jazz trombone & vocals/brass bands/allotmenteer

Mon May 01 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 1 May 2023: Then: 1734: "The forwardest spring that ever was known in the memory of man" Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy, temperature 9°C (47°F), wind south westerly 5mph, visibility moderate, pressure 1014mb, humidity 96%, UV…
Mon May 01 15:39 An abiding image from Germany: cycling east from Emsbüren at 7:10 AM with 24 buns, I meet a blind lad tapping along the bike path to school. Even if the political will & budget existed in England (they don't), it would take 50 years to create that level of infrastructure & trust
Mon May 01 19:32 Following a surprise win (1.a4!) over HRH Johnny on the magnetic chess set in the bus to A'dam, the threenager has expressed an interest in playing the exotic gents on the XXXL game outside our central library: chess as anthropology
Mon May 01 19:35 Comment: Also, at Rotterdam CS: Erasmus - Ruimte scheidt de lichamen niet de geesten. Distance/space separates bodies, not spirits. Authentic? I read all the adages I could find years ago, but don't recall this one
Mon May 01 21:22 William Langland Piers Plowman B text "I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were, / In habite as an heremite unholy of werkes" is surely a bestiality joke, cleaned up by the "shepherde" in C
Mon May 01 21:35 Comment: MEC isn't convinced by sheep = shepherd
Tue May 02 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 2 May 2023: Then: 1817: Public unrest at Leeds regarding the efficacy of the smallpox vaccine 1844: The Bradford Observer reports that the borough's population has increased by 10% in two years Now: Weather for tonight: thick cloud,…
Tue May 02 10:01 First person out of a job is Ravikrishna, who thought he could write a better ad than a chatbot - note the Nordic language expansion
Tue May 02 22:15 Anyone got a reliable lambing algorithm?
Wed May 03 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 3 May 2023: Then: 1804: Settlement of an absurdly modest legal bill from Joseph Bentley of Bradford Now: Weather for tonight: clear sky, temperature 5°C (41°F), wind south easterly 7mph, visibility good, pressure 1029mb, humidity 88%,…
Wed May 03 10:15 The Netherlands decided not to privatize drinking water provision because there are no hills down which the extra leaks (UK rate = Dutch * 4) can romantically flow
Wed May 03 19:53 I only vote for candidates I've met, so it's Mr Goodall tomorrow
Wed May 03 20:20 Comment: But can I then use this to stop the birds eating all the currants in a couple of hours, as they did last year?
Thu May 04 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 4 May 2023: Then: 1643: The Royalists take Rotherham and begin a search for the preacher John Shawe 1698: In intense cold and lacking fodder, farmers at Halifax feed gorse to their livestock 1807: Lord Milton welcomes 10,000 to his…
Thu May 04 08:52 A profile of Johan V misses the extent to which eastern farmers can identify (in somewhat puzzled fashion) with him (& his eastern accent) as a fellow rebel against The Hague
Thu May 04 08:54 Comment: E.g. this extraordinary video - what happened at the vervolggesprek?!
Thu May 04 08:56 Comment: Alf left a huge roll, with no entangled skeletons
Thu May 04 11:25 Spring tragedy on Cardboard Hill: "But you promised me..."
Thu May 04 18:49 I guess the nursery is being satirical & republican in serving up free cake - tho probably not Marie-Antoinette's idea
Thu May 04 19:14 Infant's Dutch lessons: can now sing the (easy) chorus to Ik ben de BOB
Thu May 04 22:10 Comment: @TheUnstructor Guitar? What's wrong with a barrel organ?
Thu May 04 22:50 This ignorant peasant: Haven't read Morris "Yorkshire Through Place Names", but isn't his Old English suggestion of "sceap" wrong? That's the West Saxon (i.e. southern) form, when Northumbrian "scíp" (e.g. Lindisfarne Gospels) surely more likely
Fri May 05 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 5 May 2023: Then: 1546: Sir Henry Savile invites William Plumpton to a cockfight at Sheffield between Derbyshire, Lancashire and ... Hallamshire 1601: Margaret Hoby of Hackness (Scarborough) spends the day praising the Creator and…
Fri May 05 07:44 Another Dutch view. House-building quotas & HS2 would have had no downward impact on the Tory vote yesterday if realistic net zero/low NOx commitments had been writ in stone: all construction would have been halted judicially. But I've rather lost track of green conservatism.
Fri May 05 07:47 The courgettes could do with some heavy rain tomorrow morning
Fri May 05 07:53 Comment: @ourellen @Flissej I'd try to flog you a kazoo, but I think the music-maths link is correlation, not causation
Fri May 05 13:56 Indian dad down the playground: - Why I didn't vote for Abdul Hannan? It's a mixed neighbourhood, but all the election workers we saw were Pakistanis. What about you? - There was no backstory to him, so I was worried he was Dan Hannan's long-lost twin.
Fri May 05 14:06 Comment: @classnotcrass @WDehandschutter @eurostarbe @EurostarUK @Eurostar It's a joke about his drinking
Fri May 05 20:34 The infant thinks Karl is brilliant
Fri May 05 20:44 Comment: @LeedsTours Spanish cities, infested with (the remains of) monasteries - same state-within-a-state thing
Fri May 05 20:49 Comment:
Fri May 05 21:12 The Gingerbread Man is about to get wilder
Sat May 06 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 6 May 2023: Then: 1800: A wheat riot at Leeds market Now: Weather for tonight: mist, temperature 8°C (46°F), wind south easterly 4mph, visibility moderate, pressure 1012mb, humidity 98%, UV risk 0/11, pollution low (mid-Yorkshire)Sun:…
Sat May 06 12:08 Infant curiosity about Charlie boy's sexy oil boob rub from the archbish is inhibiting her learning 'When Adam delved and Eve span' Off in a mo to crush slugs & other parasites on the nation
Sat May 06 15:57 F tells a gent not of this land that I am an organ-grinder. "Ah, you make sausages?!"
Sat May 06 21:10 Infant lulls mummy to sleep, climbs over her, & emerges with the line that Madness videos are fine
Sun May 07 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 7 May 2023: Then: 1698: Knots of eels almost as big as horses in the River Went near Doncaster Now: Weather for tonight: drizzle, temperature 11°C (51°F), wind north easterly 5mph, visibility moderate, pressure 1014mb, humidity 97%, UV…
Mon May 08 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 8 May 2023: Then: 1154: The wooden bridge over the Ouse collapses under the crowd welcoming Archbishop William of York back from Rome 1849: Amid revelations of fraud at the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, Richard Nicholson,…
Mon May 08 09:54 Comment: @petersymon Still quite favourable to stopping building altogether - the current Dutch approach thanks to rash govt promises & legal enforcement People going on about low-carbon cement - it's high limestone = more destruction of limestone landscape so people may visit limestone landscape
Mon May 08 19:06 Comment: @petersymon That's the market/markt taken from the belltower of the New Church/Nieuwe Kerk. Hugo has wandered over the years, and when on Thursday lunchtimes I used to lean up against him & eat fried fish he was in the middle of the market, which seems more logical to me.
Mon May 08 21:03 Comment: @petersymon Mr Sitte is new to me. I suppose I should thank you.
Mon May 08 21:28 Odysseus & Polyphemus as bedtime H&S warning re danger of fooling around with sticks. My Odyssey is recalled from childhood & the great Charles Lamb's Adventures of Ulysses, which lay around in a probably between-wars lightly illustrated edition - later than Joyce's
Mon May 08 21:30 Comment: From an 1827 edition
Mon May 08 21:47 A belief now that every minor failure is demonstration of a fundamental British inability to manage anything. Goes in waves e.g. death (when?) of the 1950s blind belief (even among lawyers) in the superiority of English law
Mon May 08 22:04 Langthwaite sounds good
Tue May 09 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 9 May 2023: Then: 1622: Leeds corporation legislates against street life on the Sabbath 1757: John Wesley rides into Huddersfield and meets the wildest people he ever saw in England Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature…
Tue May 09 15:41 - I'm not friends with RW any more. - What happened? World-weary shrug: - I guess we both changed.
Wed May 10 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 10 May 2023: Then: 1701: Leeds corporation members and functionaries "except old Mr Hargreave" are ordered to dress appropriately Now: Weather for tonight: clear sky, temperature 7°C (45°F), wind westerly 6mph, visibility moderate,…
Wed May 10 19:36 I've seen the demo & it's 100% Rishi
Wed May 10 19:48 Makes sense of the appearance of some guys from Iranian Arabistan I used to now
Wed May 10 20:03 Delft Public Library (Openbare Bibliotheek Delft) has by far the best children's library I've visited - vision & resources gap vs Brit libraries is unbridgeable, & that has consequences - but (all-embracing) whole down to detail is so well done that photos don't do justice
Wed May 10 21:49 Feeling stupid - St Ellen? (Transhumance in the Pennines between Kirkby Malhamdale & Fountains Abbey)
Thu May 11 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 11 May 2023: Then: 1674: A poor man punishes his child at Ossett (Wakefield) for taking a piece of bread to eat 1985: A fire at the Bradford City stadium kills 56 Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy, temperature 8°C (47°F), wind…
Thu May 11 08:40 Comment: @MattBrookes3 @DanielGalef I think Matt's got it - St Helen's holy wells etc. And her feast day is May 21st, which is (was) probably roughly right in terms of edible vegetation on high ground
Thu May 11 08:50 Comment: @DanielGalef @MattBrookes3 Oops, yep. Perhaps Mr Knowles, herder (80), only fetched Fountains' flocks "about St. Ellen Day" to avoid getting feedback on Twitter
Thu May 11 09:01 My middle-aged perception is that it is far more difficult to get into wreckage of the (recent) past in the UK than in Spain or the US
Thu May 11 09:06 Comment: @MattBrookes3 @DanielGalef It is well known that Odysseus & his men encountered Polyphemus in a chalk quarry at Skipsea, Holderness, and that Geordie < Jordi, recalling the Catalan origins of the Tyneside tribe & their cuisine
Thu May 11 09:09 Comment: @MattBrookes3 @DanielGalef But try saying that in Barnsley at kicking out time on Saturday night
Thu May 11 09:16 Comment: My invidious comparisons are with the poor library provision at Leeds, which is 8 times bigger but has I think far lower average income. Perhaps an indication of our problem in connecting books & people is to be found in late fines: 35c in Delft, free in Leeds
Thu May 11 09:21 Comment: You might say that a fairer comparison is with Winchester - similar urban population, similar late fees, aspiration clearly there (glossy website...) - but while unlike Delft Winchester aims to have a regional function it just hasn't got books on shelves or public facing staff
Fri May 12 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 12 May 2023: Then: 1687: Royal humour 1817: The transport of voters in the election of the registrar of deeds at Wakefield 1865: John Pick Allison, Thirsk solicitor, writes to comfort his 14-year-old son William at Rugby School Now:…
Fri May 12 10:01 Comment: @ExploresMr Yes, generally with fences resembling medieval weaponry. But we're a little island with an economy based on property speculation, & I'll bet it's difficult to get into bits of your country. But you've found some great stuff!
Fri May 12 18:45 1/3 An elderly lady with shopping bag containing what looks like an IED sits down & introduces herself. She is unjustly detained in the mental hospital, but has a caravan in F, and wants me & lovely young wife & children to take a holiday.
Fri May 12 18:45 Comment: 2/3 "That's so kind of you, but only 1 of the children is mine, & H's not my wife, but someone with whom I've been doing childcare outings since we moved here in 2021. An absolute life-saver, tho I wish she'd talk more about OE poetry."
Fri May 12 18:45 Comment: 3/3 "Ooh, you're a cheeky one. I was married for 50 years, & I know all about that kind of thing."
Fri May 12 20:56 Ra. is Ralph in the C16th, right?
Fri May 12 22:26 Comment: @ChrisNickson2 I hope he quoted Matt 5:25 & suggested cash: Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Sat May 13 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 13 May 2023: Then: 1760: Bishop Richard Pococke talks to a local farmer about the Swale-side remains of the Roman fort of Cataractonium on the Great North Road 1851: The Flying Dutchman runs the Great Match against Voltigeur at the…
Sun May 14 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 14 May 2023: Then: 1673: Long after the longbow's demobilization, the Scorton Archers agree to shoot annually for a silver arrow 1760: Environmental and spiritual pollution in the Tees and in Richmondshire, and the Kirklevington…
Sun May 14 22:45 An old boss, still at it at 78
Mon May 15 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 15 May 2023: Then: 1841: Patience Kershaw (17) tells the Children's Employment Commission (Mines) about her work at Joseph Stocks' Booth Town Pit, Halifax 1890: A Liverpudlian company - now ruined - finds on appeal that the consent of…
Mon May 15 09:36 Leeds drinking hole Rɘvolution is spelt, not with a misplaced schwa or a Nigerian flipped ǝ, but with a horizontally flipped ɘ, which in its phonetic incarnation sounds like retching - compare ir in the Australian bird
Mon May 15 09:37 Comment:
Mon May 15 10:48 Once you accept that the final word in "I'm the king of the castle, and you're the dirty rascal" is a euphemism, the hunt can begin for the English accent which rhymes castle and the original word
Mon May 15 20:02 The infant's figurative work now frequently includes a morose, handless giant with a dead-hedgehog toupée
Mon May 15 20:18 Good to see blue tits in the nest bricks on Esther Simpson
Mon May 15 20:29 Comment: @DanielGalef Its two-dimensionality. She thinks it's a wig, but I've committed to wearing roadkill hedgehogs to increase numbers around here
Mon May 15 22:33 Why isn't there a market for (winter-born) milk-fed baby lamb (slaughtered < 45 days, usually 25-30) in the UK?
Mon May 15 22:34 Comment: @DanielGalef They're basically attention seekers
Tue May 16 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 16 May 2023: Then: 1687: John Reresby goes to Rotherham to receive an ancestral rent of one penny and the use of an inn room 1881: J. Gill (72) of Sugden & Briggs, wool spinners, Bradford, dies of pulmonary anthrax, and his successor,…
Wed May 17 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 17 May 2023: Then: 1321: Isabella Dayvill, apostate nun, is banished to suffer silence, hunger and punishment at Handale Priory (N.R.) 1602: Michael Steele of Skelton (York) complains to Star Chamber about the following comic playlet,…
Wed May 17 08:49 Comment: @JenWilliams_FT The scrutiny of devolved administrations in Spain seems better - e.g. the Síndic de Greuges in Catalonia, then the Defensor del Poble for Barcelona, with the cops as backstop - but for small institutions there's the danger of capture of/lack of scrutiny of the scrutineer
Wed May 17 21:49 The infant twigged quickly that when I told her to check a (pretend) spider during meals I just wanted her chips. Tonight a real spider went for me in similar circumstances, and she now gets the plot of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. (Also, shaggy dog Æsop is great bedtime material.)
Thu May 18 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 18 May 2023: Then: 1732: The burial of George Crooks of Barnsley, who died of camping 1734: The epitaph on the tombstone of the prolific William Strutton of Patrington, buried this day Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy,…
Thu May 18 07:53 Comment: @BBCLookNorth Previous lord mayors ashamed of role
Thu May 18 08:15 I hope @vizcomic will find a way of employing Jennifer Korn of the US Sun
Thu May 18 19:26 Where oh where will I find a historical animal husbandry scholar who will help me understand ovine reproduction in temperate lands since the Middle Ages?
Thu May 18 20:53 O'zaal-A'dam
Fri May 19 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 19 May 2023: Then: 1804: A woman is sold for the second time at Leeds market Now: Weather for tonight: light rain, temperature 10°C (50°F), wind westerly 3mph, visibility good, pressure 1027mb, humidity 84%, UV risk 0/11, pollution low…
Fri May 19 19:54 Comment: @ourellen I still feel like there's a whole layer of info I'm missing.
Sat May 20 07:05 Comment: @DerelictYork Arron is just showing what a clever boy he is - the 'i' spelling turns up in Italian (coliseo), Spanish (coliseo), Catalan & Portuguese (coliseu). There's also culiseo in Italian, which sounds a bit like arse, culo.
Sat May 20 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 20 May 2023: Then: 1606: The courtier John Lepton rides from London to York in one day, and repeats the feat on the following four Now: Weather for tonight: mist, temperature 6°C (42°F), wind north easterly 3mph, visibility poor,…
Sat May 20 16:03 Justification of almanacs from Ursula Le Guin - "A Non-Euclidean View of California as a Cold Place to Be" in "Dancing at the Edge of the World"
Sat May 20 20:06 Comment: @LeedsTours @modernistsocLDS @MunicipalDreams @RIBA Haha, I think you know.
Sun May 21 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 21 May 2023: Then: 1108: Archbishop Gerald of York dies while reading Roman astrology, for which, apparently, his staff refuse to bury him in the minster 1643: Thomas Fairfax takes two "true prisoners" at Wakefield, who stay true even…
Mon May 22 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 22 May 2023: Then: 1711: Opening of Leeds's new cloth trading hall Now: Weather for tonight: clear sky, temperature 7°C (44°F), wind north westerly 8mph, visibility moderate, pressure 1023mb, humidity 83%, UV risk 0/11, pollution low…
Mon May 22 21:07 More book-of-nature in the garden with the infant this PM. Butterflies (& all insects) sparse nowadays, but speckled wood, small white & common blue a nice start to the season. As indoors, she is v good at telling the dolls what to look for, & notices tracks that evade me
Mon May 22 22:30 He is Translation's thief that addeth more
Mon May 22 22:44 Comment: Oops! Luminarium thought it was a translation of this
Tue May 23 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 23 May 2023: Then: 1793: The 14th Foot, predecessor of the West Yorkshire Regiment, chant a French Revolutionary song as they storm enemy trenches at Famars (Valenciennes) Now: Weather for tonight: clear sky, temperature 7°C (44°F),…
Wed May 24 06:10 Paddling up the (post-nuclear) Ems, on a Sunday morning (mda T&S!)
Wed May 24 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 24 May 2023: Then: 1669: Abraham Sharp (16), later mathematician and astronomer, undertakes not to fornicate for the next eight years and is apprenticed to a York textile merchant Now: Weather for tonight: clear sky, temperature 9°C…
Wed May 24 12:45 Any experts out there on historical land holdings at Elmswell? #Driffield #EastRiding #YorkshireWolds
Wed May 24 20:46 The infant was exceptionally allowed in the buggy this afternoon because a counterweight was required for 120 litres of compost that could only be carried draped over the handlebars
Wed May 24 22:29 Re "LibDem": lib, v. To castrate, geld, ‘cut’.
Thu May 25 05:14 Comment: @arthistorynews Old images? Know an amiable lawyer? Don't pay & quote our Intellectual Property Office's opinion - no copyright on faithful copies of out-of-copyright images. No one will sue you because they'll lose, it gets in the press, & the whole farce comes to an end
Thu May 25 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 25 May 2023: Then: 1728: King Jessop, the fighting rector of Treeton (Rotherham), is buried at Sheffield, and is remembered for his punch and his parody 1870: An Ascension Eve performance for tourists of the Whitby Penny Hedge ritual…
Thu May 25 07:49 Gent lying next to a can in a bus shelter staggers to his feet & tries to get on a bus. Driver, pulling away: "You need to flag down an ambulance, mate."
Thu May 25 10:20 Comment: @NHPNA1 Judicially? That's what's happened to Schiphol in the Netherlands
Thu May 25 19:12 If I want the infant to sing with the barrel organ I'll need to do Madness
Fri May 26 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 26 May 2023: Then: 1808: The first Ascension Day on which is generally contemplated the notion that ammonites found on Whitby beach are snakes petrified by Saint Hilda, and that seabirds dip their wings in her honour when over-flying…
Fri May 26 09:11 Khan proposing to allow local authorities to create exceptions to a nationwide pavement parking ban looks a bit like the party-of-the-bloke-who-ran-over-a-cyclist-with-his-SUV having & eating its electoral cake: drivers get pavement parking & pedestrians think it cares
Fri May 26 09:12 Comment: A comparable case is Leeds Council's ubiquitous creation of dangerous exceptions to Highway Code 243 (parking within 10m of a junction), frequently making its own dropped kerbs redundant. E.g. this morning Hyde Park Rd/Moor View, Clarendon Pl/Cloberry St
Fri May 26 18:27 Whole point of Brexit surely that Leeds nurseries would bin French in favour of eg Punjabi - byebye Le Sac Magique, which in oral transmission is too similar to the chorus (2:09) of the theme of an old Dutch soft porn series, Veronica's Pinup Club
Fri May 26 18:30 Comment: The lederhosen band would report breathlessly the previous night's episode during Sunday AM rehearsals in the chlorinated cellar of the local disco, so I once watched it with a distinguished Catholic physicist - v embarrassing
Fri May 26 21:28
Fri May 26 21:30 Probably cheeky to take the infant to this
Sat May 27 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 27 May 2023: Then: 1576: The Elizabethan Ecclesiastical Commission at York prohibits performance of a Corpus Christi play at Wakefield 1730: John Hobson writes off two thirds of a £48 debt because the debtor has fled to Crayke…
Sun May 28 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 28 May 2023: Then: 1574: William Ireland fails to become Rector of Harthill (South Yorkshire) because of his abysmal ignorance Now: Weather for tonight: clear sky, temperature 11°C (51°F), wind north westerly 9mph, visibility good,…
Mon May 29 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 29 May 2023: Then: 1405: On Shipton Moor, the Earl of Westmorland tricks the Archbishop of York and the Duke of Norfolk, rebellious defenders of York's rights and purses, into disbanding, whereupon Henry IV has them beheaded 1732: Old…
Tue May 30 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 30 May 2023: Then: 1705: Gloves, scarves and money are distributed liberally among attendees of the funeral of Waide Calverley 1809: Death of Samuel Peech, legendary coach proprietor, of the Angel Inn, Sheffield 1836: Albinia Chaloner…
Tue May 30 12:02 sheep:ovine::lamb:?
Wed May 31 07:19 Yorkshire Almanac: 31 May 2023: Then: 1526: Properties for the Corpus Christi performance of the (moribund) mystery play of York's Mistry of Mercers 1844: Mrs Haslegrave is savaged by her brother-in-law's bear at his pleasure grounds in Back Lane,…
Wed May 31 20:18 A legend speaks Arranging for street organs is good conceptual training. I just did some orchestral arrangements for some people, & with all those resources at your disposal it's easy to lose sight of the basics.
Wed May 31 21:52 Infant pretended to be impressed by food chain observed in garden: roses > aphids > ladybirds/2 pairs of nesting bluetits/small wasps/Aphidoletes aphidimyza. (I'm looking for a dated eyewitness a/c of the 1976 ladybird plague in eg Leeds to replace
Wed May 31 21:53 Comment: (The source article by Majerus & Majerus on ladybird population explosions is cool