Tweets for October 2023

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

Sun Oct 01 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 1 October 2023: Then: 2010: A Lancastrian libertarian travels to Leeds to learn. Now: Weather for tonight: light rain, temperature 16°C (61°F), wind southerly 9mph, visibility moderate, pressure 1015mb, humidity 94%, UV risk 0/11,…
Sun Oct 01 09:36 The sociability of squirrels. One is currently burying conkers in the filled-in optic fibre trench. Every time it goes for more, another digs them up & reinters six metres along the trench
Sun Oct 01 09:41 An argument against removing private schools' charitable status (& subjecting them to business rates & VAT) might be that the benefits of Molesworth outweigh the costs of the posh school civil war - Cameron, Johnson, Stewart, Sunak, poor deluded Truss
Sun Oct 01 12:50 Bouncy castles = cowboys, so sad but not surprised that one didn't show at a birthday party yesterday. Infant quite relieved not to be stomped on by the big boys, who could be entertained for free without damage to others by letting them jump out of windows, cut down trees etc
Mon Oct 02 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 2 October 2023: Then: 1800: Harry Rowe, Punch and Judy man, trumpeter at Culloden and the York assizes, dies in the York poorhouse. 1880: The Leeds Mercury reproduces a typographical intemperance tree from the 1840s origins of the Band…
Mon Oct 02 09:06 Very sad that when the infant says she's brought in a cheeky monkey, preschool staff assume she is referring to oneself rather than to the doll in her other hand
Mon Oct 02 10:01 Hint: @ExcelPope's DM's are off & no-one can reply
Mon Oct 02 19:36 Infant showing definite interest in Dutch now (thanks, @goldbandnl!) & GF starting online Dutch course in 2 months. If the next UK election is won by someone promising to kill more cyclists & pedestrians, I dont think the choice will be hard
Tue Oct 03 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 3 October 2023: Then: 1715: Government agents arrive at Esholt Hall in search of Sir Walter Calverley's Jacobite brother-in-law, Sir William Blackett. Now: Weather for tonight: drizzle, temperature 10°C (50°F), wind westerly 6mph,…
Wed Oct 04 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 4 October 2023: Then: 1831: A 33-week strike at Gott's, Leeds, ends with the weavers, with public support, achieving their demands. Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy, temperature 11°C (53°F), wind south westerly 12mph, visibility…
Wed Oct 04 15:20 Dinosaurs died out because they got in the way of birthday bikes
Thu Oct 05 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 5 October 2023: Then: 1665: John Reresby finds that Charles II has broken a promise and made someone more generous than him sheriff of Yorkshire. 1727: The burial of Francis West (80) removes a witness of the deforestation caused by…
Thu Oct 05 08:58 Who will put an end to killer kitsch?
Thu Oct 05 09:03 Ah, the Yorkshire Dales National Carpark!
Thu Oct 05 09:21 Comment: @leedsucu @UniversityLeeds @ucu Would she like the Singing Organ-Grinder at her leaving do? Large Dutch repertoire, sang for celebrations of coronation of King Willem-Alexander
Fri Oct 06 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 6 October 2023: Then: 1903: Driven by his wife, Percy Broomhead, fish merchant, imputes the chastity of Ethel Hawkins, assistant to Mrs Bland, a neighbouring grocer at Walkley, Sheffield. Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud,…
Fri Oct 06 09:28 A plain-speaking compatriot is on the mansion redevelopment on Wood Lane. - So when's it finishing? We're worried about school places. - Not before Easter. I wouldn't live here myself. With all those trees you'd need the lights on 24 hours a day. - Even at night? - Even at night.
Fri Oct 06 10:08 Etymology isn't destiny, but how can a reception room be in a loft, unless you're receiving pigeons and incoming meteorites?
Fri Oct 06 17:08 The linguistic reason for my Spanish-Andalusian transformer
Fri Oct 06 21:46 As long as the cake doesn't look like N's lightsabre penis it's good
Sat Oct 07 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 7 October 2023: Then: 1830: Mrs Stanley arrives from London to Leeds, surprising her husband and the new Mrs Stanley. Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy, temperature 16°C (61°F), wind westerly 19mph, visibility good, pressure…
Sun Oct 08 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 8 October 2023: Then: 1671: The infant Walter Calverley suffers the first of several near-fatal accidents. 1733: John Hobson bids £1,400 for most of Delph, including the famous Friarmere bakestone pit. Now: Weather for tonight: thick…
Sun Oct 08 19:23 Trying to match presents to people - in unwrapping, the infant prioritised speed over record-keeping
Mon Oct 09 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 9 October 2023: Then: 1647: Adam Eyre whips the maid Jane, again, and prays, again. 1726: Two horsemen attack the house of Mr Goodwin, rector of Tankersley (Barnsley). Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy, temperature 16°C (61°F),…
Mon Oct 09 10:30 Taverna Apsimon, Mainz
Tue Oct 10 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 10 October 2023: Then: 1730: John Hobson observes a fiery red star to the north over Barnsley. 1760: The road surface between Yarm to Guisborough; freight transport in the north. 1857: Questions from the floor of the Leeds Chamber of…
Tue Oct 10 09:28 Read The Bloody Chamber the other day - feels like a translation from French - & now someone tells me that Angela Carter translated Perrault,
Wed Oct 11 06:31 BBC pollution predictions for Sheffield don't capture the impact of the planned burning of grouse moors
Wed Oct 11 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 11 October 2023: Then: 1786: George Yardley, wood collier, is buried where he burned. Now: Weather for tonight: drizzle, temperature 16°C (61°F), wind south westerly 16mph, visibility good, pressure 1007mb, humidity 83%, UV risk 0/11,…
Wed Oct 11 08:37 One of the infant's friends has a severe case of princess-itis, but the infant still calls her "big fella." The princess thing was on my mind this morning, and when the girl announced that she was a leopard, I thought she'd said "leper."
Wed Oct 11 20:38 Thanks to Maria Luisa's comment and Jordi C ten years after me, I now know a bit more about the Torre Libro, c/ de l’Hortal, Carmelo, Barcelona. I miss those streets, though much is surely changed.
Thu Oct 12 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 12 October 2023: Then: ~0633: Edwin of Northumbria is killed and his army defeated by Gwynedd and Mercia at Hatfield Chase near Doncaster. 0709: St Wilfrid of York's soul departs with the birds to the sound of Psalm 104 at Oundle…
Fri Oct 13 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 13 October 2023: Then: 1863: Henry Briggs, co-owner of Methley Junction Colliery, receives a threatening letter after a particularly long and acrimonious strike. 1967: Barbara Castle visits the M62 construction site and ponders…
Fri Oct 13 09:21 - Which local authority does one apply to for a school place? - The one that empties your bins. - Can't children be recycled? Tenuous link to Bishop George:
Fri Oct 13 20:07 The infant is said to have suffered a dip, alleging boredom. - When I said that, I was actually playing a game about being bored. - Why were you doing that? - I was bored.
Fri Oct 13 21:41 Try reading this verse by Captain C.J. Lodge Patch in Wipers 15/8/1917 before you read the title
Sat Oct 14 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 14 October 2023: Then: 1854: During the Crimean War, Queen Victoria visits the docks at Hull, which is compared to Constantinople. Now: Weather for tonight: clear sky, temperature 7°C (44°F), wind westerly 11mph, visibility good,…
Sat Oct 14 10:09 Comment: @lordbonkers @PaulANettleton It doesn't bother you that, unlike this, Bsky is a private club, invisible to non-members?
Sun Oct 15 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 15 October 2023: Then: 1645: Unable to distinguish Cavaliers from Roundheads, Lord Digby's victorious Royalist army flees the battlefield at Sherburn in Elmet and is destroyed. 1838: Apologies from "imprisoned" Huddersfield workers are…
Sun Oct 15 19:45 Insane machine noise (boomers on bikes) at Kettlewell / Starbotton, Upper Wharfedale, Yorkshire Dales National Carpark. & congrats to our bus driver for turning back various SUVs - some had clearly never reversed before. Why no ban on private motor vehicles, at least on Sunday?
Sun Oct 15 21:07 If YouTube keep blocking adblockers, I'll take down my epic video of a confrontation in Barcelona between a cat and a pigeon & limit my listening to the BBC and WFMU
Mon Oct 16 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 16 October 2023: Then: 1685: John Reresby recovers his sword, lost between Barnsley and Wakefield. 1840: A traffic count is held on Park Road, Sheffield on the quietest day of the week. Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy,…
Mon Oct 16 09:54 "the metal is melted in furnaces, run off into pans, and taken by immense iron ladies while in the liquid state and run into moulds"
Mon Oct 16 11:10 C13th gaping maw at Palazzo Steri, Palermo - some stuff in common with the contemporary but better one (despite poor renovation) at Les Cabanyes del Penedès - both Crown of Aragon, though the usual nutters tend to get into Templars etc
Mon Oct 16 11:22 The 2024 Yorkshire Almanac (Year of the Sheep) is heading towards press, preorders open, delivery to Leeds LS1, LS2, LS3, LS4, LS5, LS6, LS7, LS8, LS13 now free on foot
Mon Oct 16 11:26 Comment: @Transblawg First PM with a science degree, but don't think this branch interested her
Mon Oct 16 19:22 Comment: @Transblawg One would have thought from the gents grouped around the Peel statue the other day that he was a chemist
Mon Oct 16 20:23 - Daddy, can we go to Sainsbury's? - Why? - You'll see. Might be interesting. - Look! - I'm not buying a freaking plastic pumpkin. - OK, how about a lolly?
Tue Oct 17 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 17 October 2023: Then: 1688: York on the eve of the Glorious Revolution: "an archbishopric without a bishop, a city without a lord mayor, a garrison without a soldier". 1826: Rabbi Phillips of York writes to the Herald accepting an…
Tue Oct 17 10:52 - Can I take the camera into preschool to show them the photos of toadstools I took? - Yeah, but they're not paid enough to have to look at all the pictures of bums that are still on there.
Tue Oct 17 10:54 Comment: France Musique is excellent, too. I'd got into a bit of a rut with YouTube.
Tue Oct 17 19:59 Comment: @GroomB The best thing about ours was the security guard bringing me cups of coffee when I drifted off while reading to the infant
Wed Oct 18 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 18 October 2023: Then: 1904: Henry Ross of Sheffield kidnaps neighbour Jenny Whitnear's youngest son and flees to New Jersey, but 30 years later everyone will have questions to answer. 1917: Private John Dunnett of Wilsden dies at…
Wed Oct 18 08:45 People aren't just nicking Leeds's 'York' stone pavements - a pre-19th century field wall has apparently also gone
Wed Oct 18 10:30 In 1821 the Rev. Sydney Smith encounters "Mrs F, the liberty woman" in York. Who is she? Elizabeth Fry/Fanny Trollope?
Wed Oct 18 20:32 The nursery signal clearing up by getting all to clap ||: crotchet crotchet quaver quaver crotchet :||, but afaik there are no rights issues with Steve Reich's Clapping Music - even crows are at it
Thu Oct 19 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 19 October 2023: Then: 1715: Abraham Sharp of Halifax fears for the fate of his scientific instruments. 1775: Mayor Joseph Outram lays the first stone of Hull's first dock and customs quay, dooming the town's walls and commencing its…
Fri Oct 20 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 20 October 2023: Then: 1676: John Reresby of Thrybergh Hall (Rotherham) learns that the Duke of Norfolk is telling London that he killed a Barbadian servant by castrating him. ~1836: The West Riding Sessions contemplates the potential…
Fri Oct 20 08:49 Changing the names on the brown envelopes? Under STV any Tory-led coalition would have fallen long ago, but we may still have 12+ months left, & then, in a few years, Starmer aka Slug of Doom will also want to continue governing when his only mandate is legal. How depressing!
Fri Oct 20 09:54 Comment: @Hull_Museums @Durotrigesdig It was actually created by the same team of unemployed surrealist theatrical designers responsible for the Leeds pantomime wolf
Fri Oct 20 10:05 Infant: She's got this skinny doll with long hair, and you can twist round its head so it looks like a zombie. Me: Yeah, meet Barbie.
Fri Oct 20 10:53 Syntax to exclude 30-second samples from audio searches on Internet Archive
Fri Oct 20 21:08 Can current events in any way be blamed on Pathé (probably a proxy here for the bloody Quai d'Orsay) having situated the Great Pyramid in Gaza? Would Hamas be content with ready-made tombs?
Sat Oct 21 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 21 October 2023: Then: 1536: Henry VIII's herald encounters part of the Pilgrimage of Grace at Pontefract. 1555: Wool middlemen are once more permitted at Halifax to avoid the destruction of the local economy. 1830: William Smith…
Sat Oct 21 20:00 Alexandre Pateau on translating into French Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (Threepenny Opera)
Sat Oct 21 20:12 Comment: Sounds good in French, but always a pleasure
Sun Oct 22 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 22 October 2023: Then: 1674: Barbara Lee dies and - according to her epitaph - is buried upright under the fireplace of St James' church, Norton, Sheffield. 1906: The Yorkshire Herald reports that the king of the Wensleydale dry-stone…
Sun Oct 22 15:08 Comment: @PaulChatterton9 @NHPNA1 A mantra to placate walkers? The fixed cams on the A660 at Headingley have been taped since we moved here 2 years ago, none on 20mph roads, & when I recently pointed a PCSO to rows of cars obstructing pavements, he said he could act, but where else were they meant to park?
Sun Oct 22 17:36 I'll put up with the retarded Frozen Hollywood pseudo-Swedish of Arna (pictured; HC Andersen was Danish) because a lady in Waitrose complimented the infant on her performance of Let It Go
Sun Oct 22 17:39 Comment: Real Swedish:
Mon Oct 23 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 23 October 2023: Then: 1679: Presbyterian emotion at Gisburn, West Riding. Now: Weather for tonight: mist, temperature 5°C (41°F), wind easterly 3mph, visibility moderate, pressure 1010mb, humidity 97%, UV risk 0/11, pollution low…
Mon Oct 23 20:05 Main challenge in reducing Chinese landfill imports is our future. A small circle gathered at the infant's birthday to whinge about the quantity of items in the party bag. Then at J's H sought to dodge this by omitting the bag & giving away home-knitted snails: more whinging
Tue Oct 24 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 24 October 2023: Then: 1733: Perhaps emulating King Billy’s little gentleman in black velvet, a sheep terminates the career of Sir John Stapylton of Myton-on-Swale. Now: Weather for tonight: light rain, temperature 10°C (49°F), wind…
Tue Oct 24 21:40 Great background for Latin translation - chunks of Rachmaninov with now & then some woman burbling pleasantly in French: But still no closer to figuring why Archbish Zouche uses "DUM virtus..." to mean "SINCE strength/virtue..."
Tue Oct 24 21:44 Comment: Francis Gasquet agrees with me, but he was a pretty messy bloke I think The Oxford Latin Syntax does too, but above my level
Tue Oct 24 22:35 Comment: @jonburkeUK A woman told me that when their daughter was born they didn't know what to say to her, so they said nothing & got back to their phones
Wed Oct 25 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 25 October 2023: Then: 1417: The first official celebration in Beverley of the holy oil that flowed like sweat from the tomb of St. John of Beverley during the Battle of Agincourt two years before. Now: Weather for tonight: mist,…
Wed Oct 25 15:49 So knackered that even jokes about one's organ only raise a grimace
Wed Oct 25 17:24 Comment: @Transblawg Maybe the Latinists are all on Facebook
Thu Oct 26 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 26 October 2023: Then: 1869: Amidst a violent storm, Joshua Rowntree, a young solicitor, helps rescue men from the wreck of the Ellen south of Scarborough Spa. Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature 8°C (46°F), wind south…
Thu Oct 26 08:25 RT @carltonreid: When introduced in 1935 as a means of protecting pedestrians, Belisha Beacons were targetted by vandals. In the first four…
Thu Oct 26 20:03 Comment: @RFCider @timofnewbury @lordbonkers From the photo it looks like ore loading bays for a quarry behind. My guess is there's a functional single(?) track railway heading right from it to join the main line, and maybe redundant track heading left
Thu Oct 26 20:11 Comment: @RFCider @timofnewbury @lordbonkers If it's Welland Viaduct, then this is surely it - OS 1:25K 1937-61
Thu Oct 26 21:37 Whence the taboo on calling pre-1832 reformists "pro-democracy"? They're always radicals etc etc
Thu Oct 26 21:51 Infant responding to Dutch & Spanish with a language she has invented. Hoping to sit her down & codify it (inc gestures) before she reunites with her long-absent Chinese friend & it begins to change.
Fri Oct 27 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 27 October 2023: Then: 1866: Dr. Hook, ex-Vicar of Leeds, current Dean of Chichester, writes to his wife of the renewal of acquaintances with Yorkshire railway workers. Now: Weather for tonight: mist, temperature 9°C (47°F), wind…
Fri Oct 27 09:03 The reason why I never shop on North Lane, Headingley
Fri Oct 27 17:29 , in the footsteps of @ibexsalad
Sat Oct 28 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 28 October 2023: Then: 1648: A letter claims that Pontefract Castle under John Morris, Royalist governor, has become an apolitical thieves' den. 1683: York's governor fails to provoke a duel with someone who borrowed his cushion at the…
Sat Oct 28 10:52 Disingenuous of @parcelforce to say "Address problems (insufficient address)" when the address is one to which they deliver frequently. Actual error probably "ran out of time"/"newbie driver still trying to figure out satnav"
Sat Oct 28 11:34 One suspects that @opera didn't do much user testing before giving the RH rim of the RH scrollbar window relocation functionality - now unusable
Sat Oct 28 11:37 Good to see that the cows made it to the crossroads
Sat Oct 28 20:55 Slightly nervous about someone's birthday party on the 11th of the 11th at 11
Sun Oct 29 07:35 Little J reportedly entranced by Carson Ellis's Du Iz Tak, where the strength of the story & illustration draws children into an invented language. A friend says they've got the Dutch version, as it were, & here's a piece on translating it:
Sun Oct 29 07:37 Comment: All thanks to @steve_guy
Sun Oct 29 07:42 Comment: Another superlative book, which draws children into German by the same procedure: Steinsuppe, a translation of Anaïs Vaugelade's Une soupe au caillou. (With thanks to @Transblawg !)
Sun Oct 29 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 29 October 2023: Then: 1671: Margaret Pinchbeck of Pickering tells the York coroner that she killed her husband with an axe, and that he deserved it. Now: Weather for tonight: light rain showers, temperature 10°C (49°F), wind westerly…
Sun Oct 29 09:39 Scene evoked by the infant's hyphen-less "Born to ice skate" t-shirt
Sun Oct 29 18:47 Two crows mock-fighting with a kestrel above Upton's Plantation, Old Pool Bank, this PM. Yet to find anything of this nature among historical ornithomancy in Yorkshire
Mon Oct 30 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 30 October 2023: Then: 1744: Landowners form a partnership to pipe water from Little Horton to Bradford, facilitating urban growth. 1914: Joseph Colgrave of Sheffield and the 5th Royal Irish Lancers wins a DCM rallying leaderless…
Mon Oct 30 22:49 No empathy when she's jumping up and down on my chest, but the infant has a talent for befriending & helping disadvantaged peers. Walking hand-in-hand round a playground when her other hand is silently taken by a smaller girl with a complex background who she has been mothering
Tue Oct 31 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 31 October 2023: Then: 1674: Riding home to Pontefract from Wakefield fair, a sozzled Silvanus Rich enters the River Calder in flood at Wakefield bridge. 1684: Mrs Taylor of Brighouse, a Quaker, is buried upright next to her husband…
Tue Oct 31 20:26 Parcelforce are the worst. How do they even still exist in the Amazon age?