Tweets for January 2024

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

Mon Jan 01 02:01 Yorkshire Almanac: 1 January 2024: Then: 1151: Monks from Fountains move into the half-finished mud predecessor of Meaux Abbey, built for them by Count William the Fat 1680: The preacher Thomas Sharp compares New Year revellers in Leeds to the pagan Jews…
Tue Jan 02 01:38 Yorkshire Almanac: 2 January 2024: Then: 1673: Despite Charles II's Declaration of Indulgence, Presbyterians Oliver Heywood and Christopher Richardson are detained while preaching at Lascelles Hall (Kirkburton) 1863: William Allison (11) fails to shoot…
Tue Jan 02 21:50 Mummy: Did you enjoy your playdate? Infant: Her mummy is a bellydancer! Daddy, hastily: Retro-postmodern.
Wed Jan 03 01:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 3 January 2024: Then: 1638: On the eve of the civil war, Henry Slingsby witnesses Royalist cavalry exercising on Bramham Moor (Wetherby) 1647: "H.M." arrives at York with 36 carts containing £200,000, the first half of the sum paid to…
Wed Jan 03 05:49 I had some inkling of the gospels before I saw The Life of Brian, but the film is the infant's introduction to Jesus, which may not matter: a youngish (post-Spenglerian) English PhD tells me she hasn't heard of it.
Wed Jan 03 06:34 Disappointed that in "Downfall: The Destruction of Charles Mackay" Paul Diamond doesn't mention Arthur Tryweryn ApSimon's relationship in London with D’Arcy Cresswell - hoped he'd be able to give me the lowdown on the correspondence in the NZ archives!
Wed Jan 03 20:09 A small girl has got it infamy: - My mummy knows lots of film stars. Do you know any? - Oh yes! - Tell me one. - The clown who did the Spanish voice for the giraffe in Madagascar 2. - That's not true! Giraffes haven't got vocal chords! They have, actually.
Thu Jan 04 00:57 Yorkshire Almanac: 4 January 2024: Then: 1728: Martha Savile (100) is buried at Mexborough in a Cudworth family coffin Now: Tonight: drizzle, temperature 6°C (43°F), wind south westerly 8mph, visibility good, pressure 997mb, humidity 93%, UV risk 0/11,…
Thu Jan 04 08:03 Off on foot thru moorgrime to Ilkley
Thu Jan 04 20:16 Comment: @sebranchett No way man, & the only trilby! Until I got to Ilkley, folk looked at me like I'd come to pillage and burn.
Thu Jan 04 20:23 Comment: Genuinely curious. Walked Headingley-Bramhope-Chevin-Menston-Ilkley today, & saw a dramatic drop in pavement parking when you cross from Leeds into Bradford District. Afaik there's no legislative difference, so why's Bradford so much more civilised? @bradfordmdc @LeedsCC_Help
Fri Jan 05 00:37 Yorkshire Almanac: 5 January 2024: Then: 1726: Mr Wordsworth of New Laithes Grange (Horsforth) produces evidence of an attempted burglary and a lucky escape 1846: Writing to fellow-botanist William Borrer, Richard Spruce of Ryedale despairs of his…
Fri Jan 05 18:03 Hackney Wick this morning. I'm still available to fix Hackney & the Lea
Fri Jan 05 20:01 Algú té el guió de "Sant Jordi i el drac" de Harry Tozer? El meu exemplar del llibre és a Barcelona...
Fri Jan 05 23:25 Turns out that most of the marvels of Menston are the work, not of Bradford Council, but of this walking group
Sat Jan 06 00:18 Yorkshire Almanac: 6 January 2024: Then: 1565: The bridge over the Ouse at York collapses 1687: Perhaps violating the discriminatory Test Acts, James II replaces Protestant justices of the peace by Catholics in the West Riding Now: Tonight: partly…
Sat Jan 06 20:10 Comment: QED: At the library, an eponymous infant. Mum: I tried to interest her in Jesus & the Christmas story, but all she wanted was presents & food. Ours: It's easy. 3 men on camels give presents to baby Brian, then they realise they've got the wrong one & punch his mummy in the face.
Sat Jan 06 20:59 Comment: @DrJACameron Isn't it gorgeous!
Sat Jan 06 21:00 RT @fietsprofessor: Radical change of mobility requires new imaginaries! After counting all 12.000 votes across our platforms, the winner o…
Sat Jan 06 21:41 Sheridan's Sir Tunbelly Clumsy and Monty Python's Swamp Castle - see the comments
Sun Jan 07 02:55 Yorkshire Almanac: 7 January 2024: Then: 1397: On the longest of the 42 days of his ludicrous ritual reign, boy-bishop John de Cave of York goes on a 200-mile begging spree Now: Tonight: light cloud, temperature 3°C (37°F), wind northerly 5mph,…
Mon Jan 08 02:33 Yorkshire Almanac: 8 January 2024: Then: 1844: Members of the 70th (Surrey) Regiment of Foot stationed at Leeds riot against anti-Irish graffiti 1925: Writing to Berkeley Moynihan, Clifford Allbutt recalls surgery at Leeds Infirmary in the 1860s Now:…
Tue Jan 09 01:15 Yorkshire Almanac: 9 January 2024: Then: 1772: Civil engineer John Smeaton suggests how to avoid a water conflict between the Boroughbridge mills and the new River Ure navigation from Ripon 1827: Writing from Halifax, the comedian Charles Mathews longs…
Tue Jan 09 10:16 Comment: @lordbonkers Did the guys who got the grant live longer?
Tue Jan 09 11:12 - Happy new year, [small girl]! - You shouldn't say that, it's "happy holidays"!
Tue Jan 09 11:20 Invites available for the blue place
Tue Jan 09 11:25 Despite considerable infill building & mansion subdivision, there are grounds for optimism re entry to the favoured primary vs the clerical (Xstian, Muslim, coalition progressive) alternatives
Tue Jan 09 14:03 Comment: @ChittiMarco Re phantom stations: cf Guadalajara-Yebes on the Spanish AVE
Tue Jan 09 19:52 At the library when the other infant suddenly starts vomiting. Ours observes for a while, and then: "Daddy, can we go to the pub?" So, chips and chess at @HOS_Headingley, where it would be great if the board in the dedicated table could be rotated 90º so white is to the right
Wed Jan 10 00:54 Yorkshire Almanac: 10 January 2024: Then: 1675: George Aislabie, profiteering registrar of the York ecclesiastical court and assiduous duellist, challenges the wrong man 1761: Jane Delamoth dies and is remembered in shorthand at St Mary's, Sculcoates…
Wed Jan 10 22:00 - You've heard the rumour about jailing Fujitsu people for the Post Office scam. - Yeah, and once that's done we can go after everyone who's ever worked for Microsoft & make sure they get the worst penalty imaginable. - They already live in Washington.
Wed Jan 10 22:13 The writing requires on-the-hoof editing, but the infant loves Harry Theaker's illustrations for AMA's 1930ish copy of Ward, Lock & Co's version of Grimm's Fairy Tales
Thu Jan 11 00:33 Yorkshire Almanac: 11 January 2024: Then: 1900: An explosion injures half the shift and kills four at the Leeds Steel Works, Hunslet 1906: Joseph Wright, Oxford professor of comparative philology and ex-donkey-boy for a Shipley quarry, discusses…
Thu Jan 11 13:46 Bluesky censored some C18th nipples
Thu Jan 11 14:13 Woman shopping with friend and toddler in Aldi. Friend: Have you tried these wholemeal loaves with seeds? Woman: Grandad won't have them. Reminds him of Bielsa. Friend: ??? Woman: He's a bit autistic. Seeds, Leeds, Bielsa. #metonymy #LUFC
Thu Jan 11 21:32 Kind words, but perhaps presumptuous to serve DIY pizza to the mother & daughter of the chef of a well-known Italian on the first playdate
Fri Jan 12 00:11 Yorkshire Almanac: 12 January 2024: Then: 1825: Safety failings kills 24 in an explosion at Gosforth Pit, Middleton (Leeds), owned by Charles Brandling MP and managed by John Blenkinsop Now: Tonight: light cloud, temperature 5°C (41°F), wind northerly…
Fri Jan 12 16:30 Comment: @ewoudsanders @DelpherNL Als de vroegste voorbeelden uit 1930 stammen, is misschien de datum genomen waarop het woord in het geschreven corpus terechtkomt, en dan vervolgens een marge gegeven voor eerder gesproken gebruik. Dat is vrij eenvoudig te automatiseren in het Engels, en ik dacht bij jullie ook
Fri Jan 12 23:12 A famous couplet from a satire on the death of Lancelot Blackburne, nymphomaniac Archbishop of York, has been doing the rounds: And all the buxom damsels of the north, Who knew my parts, lament their going forth. Here's the whole thing:
Sat Jan 13 02:47 Yorkshire Almanac: 13 January 2024: Then: 1536: Richard Layton, dissolver of monasteries, writes to Thomas Cromwell claiming that Yorkshire clergy use birth control 1686: A mob plunders the funeral of the Countess of Strafford at York Minster Now:…
Sat Jan 13 07:15 Comment: @LeedsTours Man, all that carbon!
Sun Jan 14 02:27 Yorkshire Almanac: 14 January 2024: Then: 1472: Shipments of wallpaper(?) from Schiedam (Holland) pass through Hull customs 1867: Clifford Allbutt of the Leeds Infirmary writes to the Medical Times praising his five-minute Celsius pocket clinical…
Mon Jan 15 01:10 Yorkshire Almanac: 15 January 2024: Then: 1685: John Reresby, governor of York, refuses to help exempt Sheffield cutlers from the hearth tax because of insufficient payment for past favours 1873: Mr Fairest details the historical embezzlement and…
Mon Jan 15 21:06 Comment: @LeedsTours @LisasMuffins I believe Leeds policy is 25s max, but many exceed - eg the pelican at Stonegate/Green in the lethal B6157 Meanwood multijunction. Puffins (eg Headingley Ln/North Hill) feel safer than zebras & serve to stop 1 lane so that 1 can cross further down rather than await the algorithm
Mon Jan 15 21:15 Re the Meanwood multijunction on the B6157: a gent & 10-yo son crossing Stainbeck Ave at Stonegate Rd on Boxing Day forgot one golden rule of vehicle evasion: as a van reversed & began to run over dad, he shouted rather than whacking the chassis, so Mr Vandal had to step in
Mon Jan 15 21:18 Comment: A bad morning - their sofa had broken - & the poor boy was very upset, but the window cleaners gave as good as they got in the ensuing obscenities because only a lemming walks
Tue Jan 16 00:49 Yorkshire Almanac: 16 January 2024: Then: 1873: William Town, a married man of Sorby Street, Sheffield, receives a parcel from his ex-mistress Now: Tonight: partly cloudy, temperature -1°C (29°F), wind westerly 8mph, visibility good, pressure 1010mb,…
Tue Jan 16 06:59 Infant interested in city-building, but Cities: Skylines II looks a lot harder than SimCity, which took a week of my working life, & then there's the teeth controversy
Tue Jan 16 13:43 Comment: @H_H_Gray One great morning years ago in the eastern Netherlands: I set out on my bike for work 12 km away at 7 am with deep snow and temperature -25ºC, & the buggers had already been out and cleared the bike path along the main road
Tue Jan 16 21:27 The notion that England is intellectually feudal, & that the public no longer cares for Brexit simply because Remainer Charles is now king
Wed Jan 17 00:30 Yorkshire Almanac: 17 January 2024: Then: 1832: A waning Paganini plays for a grateful public at Leeds Music Hall Now: Tonight: drizzle, temperature -2°C (29°F), wind north westerly 9mph, visibility good, pressure 995mb, humidity 86%, UV risk 0/11,…
Wed Jan 17 12:56 Comment: @dobraszczyk AirBnB? Barcelona's more fervent Catalans used to go over to inspect the Catalan dialect there to the point where one was told that the major threat to it came not from the Italian state but from holiday accommodation
Wed Jan 17 21:08 Has Opera tab sync ever worked for anyone?
Wed Jan 17 21:34 Anyone in Headingley missing a wheel bolt may want to come round & consult the infant's new car component collection, which seems to be replacing the sticks, stones, etc. Scrupulously cleaned, yours for a tub of chocolate ice cream, dunno where she keeps her power tools
Thu Jan 18 00:08 Yorkshire Almanac: 18 January 2024: Then: 1855: York Ecclesiastical Court tells Mrs. Ackroyd of Knaresborough that any attempts by her husband to injure her are due to her divorce proceedings and failure to consort with him 1966: Barbara Castle (Lab.)…
Thu Jan 18 06:46 Weirdo & weird word in Far from the Madding Gerund
Thu Jan 18 06:53 Re 'rewild': rewolf or rewolve?
Thu Jan 18 10:35 Curious strategy for a small grocer to charge more than Waitrose and have at the till flyers which will grossly offend part of its clientele
Thu Jan 18 11:57 Comment: @CultureDoug UK gov's Intellectual Property Office seems pretty clear & would be my first defence if anyone were to challenge me
Thu Jan 18 21:11 A wonderful hour, though my spoken English is so literal and transactional now that it wasn't until Karl O'Hanlon's Rome piece that my ears thawed. And a revelation: at such events wine is still distributed to stammering peasants who drift off the street.
Thu Jan 18 21:12 Vaarwel, lieve, leuke Henk, die nu pas echt permanent langs plezante pleisterplaatsen mag pedaleren.
Fri Jan 19 02:44 Yorkshire Almanac: 19 January 2024: Then: 1831: Charlotte Brontë (14) starts at Roe Head School, Mirfield (Kirklees), witnessed by her later friend Mary Taylor 1884: Harry England explains in the Yorkshire Weekly Press why the people of the town are…
Fri Jan 19 09:18 Comment: Als opiumroker, bie nen oalen Bond, 1994
Sat Jan 20 01:28 Yorkshire Almanac: 20 January 2024: Then: 1536: Thomas Cromwell's dissolvers of monasteries, Richard Layton and Thomas Legh, report allegations of whoring and theft by William Thirsk, Abbot of Fountains Now: Tonight: light cloud, temperature 5°C (40°F),…
Sun Jan 21 01:07 Yorkshire Almanac: 21 January 2024: Then: 1837: The gravestone of 25-year-old Charlotte Hall, today the first tenant of the York Cemetery Now: Tonight: light rain, temperature 5°C (41°F), wind southerly 18mph, visibility moderate, pressure 1004mb,…
Sun Jan 21 12:33 Infant fully behind celebration of the Epiphany as a season: "Don't take down the Christmas cards till Candlemas!"
Sun Jan 21 21:53 GF learning Dutch, so time to revive my first lessons at Café De Kul: - Hoe heet jij? - Ik heel heet.
Mon Jan 22 00:47 Yorkshire Almanac: 22 January 2024: Then: 1863: Young William Allison sees Bob Gowland, Kilvington's blacksmith, slaughter a pig while drunk Now: Tonight: light rain, temperature 8°C (46°F), wind south westerly 29mph, visibility good, pressure 990mb,…
Mon Jan 22 11:44 Man reads Shōgun every 5 years, still hasn't noticed that the protagonist is a Protestant Englishman I hadn't read it before, but it's spellbinding. Linguistics: what's the name of the Japanese pidgin which Blackthorne & associates develop? Engrish etc are English pidgins
Mon Jan 22 12:59 Curious after reading Walter Benjamin's On Hashish: did he continue to take it in France between the last dated account in 1934 and his morphine suicide in Portbou in 1940?
Mon Jan 22 13:01 Comment: Also: has anyone ever made Haschisch Parmentier?
Mon Jan 22 13:38 Comment: An American pharmacologist says: Probably a waste of resources, but you might add THC-infused olive oil to the meat sauce near the end
Tue Jan 23 02:26 Yorkshire Almanac: 23 January 2024: Then: 1640: Andrew Marvell's father drowns in the Humber at Hull 1642: Entering Hull to claim it for parliament from Charles I, young John Hotham receives divine warning of his and his father's acephalous fate 1643:…
Wed Jan 24 02:05 Yorkshire Almanac: 24 January 2024: Then: 1680: Miners rob, murder and burn a pit-owning nonconformist minister and his mother and maid at Beeston (Leeds) 1826: Samuel Hick, blacksmith and Methodist preacher of Micklefield (Leeds), writes to his "dear…
Wed Jan 24 10:55 Comment: @nyccarchives @nylibraries Why don't you just put them in the public domain?
Wed Jan 24 21:39 Short stroll round M, chats with founder-member of local opera, small dog-owners, etc, then a large man lurches out of the sun, few teeth, weird stains: "Ooh, haven't seen you for 5 years, how are you?!" We moved here in 2021. "What was your name? Oh, Clever Trevor!" Thanks, Ian.
Thu Jan 25 01:43 Yorkshire Almanac: 25 January 2024: Then: 1328: Edward III (15) marries his cousin Philippa (13) of Hainault (Belgium) at York Minster, in order to save England from the Scots, the French and the English 1686: John Reresby is disgusted to learn that his…
Thu Jan 25 13:09 Comment: @rhsgill @nyccarchives @nylibraries Are the costs & contracts for the privatisation of public records by companies like Ancestry public domain? Access terminals & expertise don't come free in our increasingly unavailable libraries, & anyone with a normal job either pays the sub or hopes for an hour on Saturday AM
Thu Jan 25 20:22 I always thought I was going to be mugged, wandering around at night after vague gigs, but the one time my fate seemed sealed, the guy actually said, "Is that a horn in there? Do you want to play in a band?"
Thu Jan 25 20:25 Comment: He later ended up in Strangeways for trying to rob a Post Office with a starter's pistol & a stammer, but no complaints
Thu Jan 25 21:04 @HeadingleyClub Have you got chess boards?
Thu Jan 25 21:14 I now realise that the gestures with which the infant accompanies her invented languages are from British Sign Language (which she takes very seriously), not my quasi Mediterraneanisms
Thu Jan 25 22:22 Saw a great pile of old wool lying in a Staffs field the other day, knocked on the farmer's door & he said Covid collapse & continuing oversupply meant he was losing on shearing. But wool prices are more complex than I knew:
Thu Jan 25 22:24 Comment: Bonus: the Singing Shearer
Fri Jan 26 01:23 Yorkshire Almanac: 26 January 2024: Then: 1835: What a pyromaniac mob found in the new Eyre Street anatomy school, according to sensationalist Sheffield printer William Burgin 2007: John Revis, "a true Yorkshireman," reacts to news that he bears an…
Fri Jan 26 08:40 Paranoia that appearing at the register office with Irish passport will be cause for questions
Fri Jan 26 09:02 Tom Lehrer on music & maths, rhyme & creativity
Fri Jan 26 09:38 @GeoffRimington
Fri Jan 26 11:08 Comment: @angus_young61 @BrynleyHeaven Speculation Friday: might that increase support for the Beverley-York line?
Sat Jan 27 01:04 Yorkshire Almanac: 27 January 2024: Then: 1830: William Cobbett rides from Leeds to black Sheffield Now: Tonight: partly cloudy, temperature 5°C (42°F), wind south westerly 14mph, visibility good, pressure 1030mb, humidity 81%, UV risk 0/11, pollution…
Sun Jan 28 00:41 Yorkshire Almanac: 28 January 2024: Then: 1069: In the first major northern battle after Hastings, Tynesiders slaughter a Norman army at Durham, whereupon William the Conqueror ravages the north 1847: Edward Stillingfleet recounts finding a "British"…
Sun Jan 28 07:53 Details of Andrew Marvell's election as MP in the Third Protectorate Parliament in 1659, but is 'dadde' pronounced 'dad' or 'daddy'?
Sun Jan 28 07:54 Comment: (For Hull obvs)
Sun Jan 28 23:56 Kurd on the Otley bus listening to Aram Tigran on banjoish oud İbrahim Tatlıses & other dodgy stuff
Mon Jan 29 00:21 Yorkshire Almanac: 29 January 2024: Then: 1785: The beginning of a fox-hunting song by W.S. Kenrick and J. Burtell about the odyssey of the Cleveland hounds on this day Now: Tonight: light rain, temperature 9°C (47°F), wind south westerly 9mph,…
Mon Jan 29 07:09 Comment: @BBCLookNorth Perhaps the deficit could instead be reduced by making cyclists wear hi vis
Mon Jan 29 07:19 At bedtime I only read the infant The Wreck of the Hesperus if the entire Struwwelpeter has failed
Mon Jan 29 13:24 Blog post: Disappearing public footpaths at Nether Timble Farm, Washburn Valley, North Yorkshire Image: Chris Heaton
Tue Jan 30 02:56 Yorkshire Almanac: 30 January 2024: Then: 1410: Henry IV acts against salmon poaching in Yorkshire 1650: Alderman Hoyle of York hangs himself at Westminster on the first anniversary of Charles I's execution, inspiring John Cleveland to verse 1709:…
Tue Jan 30 10:19 How the odds on Peter Simper electro-mechanical fruit machines were nobbled
Wed Jan 31 02:34 Yorkshire Almanac: 31 January 2024: Then: 1838: Charles Dickens arrives in heavy snow at Greta Bridge (Startforth, North Riding) 1858: John Henry is found guilty of "debauching the minds and ruining the rising generation" in his sweetshop on Broomhall…
Wed Jan 31 10:03 First party-political window decoration seen in this election year: Reform UK sticker in the terrace window of a couple of elderly guys with charming little dog & love of racing road bikes. Counters the "imaginary party" narrative, tho afaik no organisation in Leeds
Wed Jan 31 10:03 Comment: Of the few implementable policies, several look good: abolition of House of Lords, voting reform. Similar to LibDems, but Tice (ie Farage) has a better record on achieving institutional change