Tweets for December 2019

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

Sun Dec 01 00:19 Historia de Barcelona, 1/12: * 1347: Princeps namque (483+21) * 1833: Isabel II proclamada princesa de Asturias (7/i) * 1843: Isabel II proclamada reina de España (8/i) * 1848: Ventajas e inconvenientes del clima barcelonés, funerales otoñales, fiesta de…
Sun Dec 01 08:17 Lovers of southern Spanish scenery (Granada, Huelva, Badajoz), railways and olive trees should try Flame Over India/North West Frontier/Empress of India (1959), about a pre-WWI Muslim rising, with Herbert Lom as the baddie
Sun Dec 01 08:17 Comment: @ibexsalad
Sun Dec 01 14:01 Turning away from the apostrophe, apart from being sensible, is only fair - 'Greek apostrophos (prosoidia) "(the accent of) turning away"'
Sun Dec 01 14:05 Using the baby to circumvent London's rigorous racial and sexual apartheid is bearing fruit: this morning during a long pram trek round Homerton, Clapton and Walthamstow we invaded a WI evangelical service, where I have been invited to play piano next week, if she doesn't scream
Sun Dec 01 19:58 A brass band arrangement that certainly needs to be revived: William Rimmer's Erotica Selection @fodensband
Sun Dec 01 21:50 140 BPM, presumably
Sun Dec 01 22:01 Comment: I guess 0:20:00 in Fellini's The White Sheikh / Lo Sceicoo Bianco is Double March / 180 BPM Very strange dialect of Italian
Sun Dec 01 23:20 Babies have a phenomenal fart decibel to body weight ratio - must be highest for any mammal. Why don't baby farms form part of alternative energy strategies?
Mon Dec 02 00:23 Historia de Barcelona, 2/12: * 1847: Primeros mosaicos de asfalto (33+334) * 1918: Pla: Dilluns * 1936: Thalheimer: Visita a una granja colectiva en Lérida, vuelta a París (583+8) * ☼ 07:57-17:24, 09:27 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación 49,38%,…
Mon Dec 02 07:56 James Ollinger's John Barry minisite contains his and others' account of Monty Norman's defamation suit against the Sunday Times re the/The James Bond Theme
Mon Dec 02 08:28 The notion that energy prices will rise due to shortages caused by everyone flying/driving/yachting to climate summits
Mon Dec 02 09:11 Carriage wheel and highwayman-type pistol at one of the entrances to the small gypsy ghetto at Wallis Road/Chapman Road, Hackney Wick. Note that a 12-spoke wheel is at odds with the modern Romani 16-wheel international standard. A Compliance Officer is underway
Tue Dec 03 00:22 Historia de Barcelona, 3/12: * 1601: Correr de toros (52+68) * 1842: Bombardeo de Barcelona y entrada Van Halen (107+111) * ☼ 07:58-17:23, 09:25 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación 49,38%, antigüedad 22 días * ✞ Francisco Javier, Galgano * Tiempo:…
Tue Dec 03 08:12 A familiar face from Soberton
Tue Dec 03 10:27 Comment: @Transblawg Under a tree. Didn't to a placenta fry-up, either.
Tue Dec 03 12:18 Babe established with English phonemes g, k, l, n but lagging with t/d so have bought her some dentures on Amazon
Tue Dec 03 12:20 I'm under this and looking forward to < £100 per annum income tax & NI
Tue Dec 03 17:58 Finsbury Park may be full of nutters, but the air pollution will get you first
Tue Dec 03 20:47 Wien bleibt Wien ed. James Last, still the babe's favourite
Wed Dec 04 00:27 Historia de Barcelona, 4/12: * 1447: Excomulgados, los dominicos paran de decir misa en la capilla de San Jorge (33+18) * 1827: Entra Fernando VII para suprimir a los Malcontents (26) * 1844: Gran nevada (14+37) * 1855: Terremoto (11) * ☼ 07:59-17:23,…
Wed Dec 04 08:20 Comment: I always wondered where the Denekamp dancing girls had modelled their costume
Wed Dec 04 08:53 Curious that "brassiere" didn't become "bras", given that it houses a pair. You sometimes hear "knicker" (singular) & OED cites Lern Yerself Scouse "Ee's got both legs in one knicker" for a troubled footballer. We all know that you can say "a scissor".
Wed Dec 04 09:56 Met Dayan the other week looking lost outside the Jackdaw & Stump - wrong constituency. Also encountered the perennially young Jonty yesterday. Lord knows where he finds the deposits.
Wed Dec 04 10:23 Francesco Patierno's Camorra (2018) at UCL next week Always nice to see guys in balaclavas who don't live next door
Wed Dec 04 22:23 There's been a increase in attacks on, and unpleasantness to, Jews around here, I think mostly by West Indians, some of whom are quite open in their hatred, which I think is a folk-Christian chiliasm legitimised by Magic Grandpa. But I am very ignorant.
Wed Dec 04 22:28 Comment: E.g. I'm ignorant re the history of anti-Semitism on the part of the "anti-Nazi" Left. I tend to view it in terms of Vasily Grossmann's image of Stalin snatching the sword of anti-Semitism from Hitler’s hands at Stalingrad, but there are quasi-Islamic and medieval strands too
Wed Dec 04 23:56 CWOATA (release on temporary licence?) litter gatherers near the mini-Spaghetti Junction on Hackney/Walthamstow marshes. The supervisors seem to gather most on this kind of outing.
Thu Dec 05 00:05 Rare Diamond Botox & Dermal Fillers, Low Hall, Walthamstow. The image reminds me of a Ronald Searle illustration for Tom Lehrer
Thu Dec 05 00:28 Historia de Barcelona, 5/12: * 1082: Fallece Ramón Berenguer II, supuestamente asesinado por su gemelo (651) * 1629: Galeras españolas con ayuda de Santiago toman un navío otomano en una batalla nocturna (557) * 1705: El archiduque Carlos de Austria abre…
Thu Dec 05 09:43 In which Danish is used to subtitle an image of Hoogeveen, Drente, Netherlands. I'm not fond of theme-park historical pastiche and façadisation, which I first met while playing in German towns rebuilt after bombing. I don't walk around wearing a mask of my great-grandfather.
Thu Dec 05 09:46 Comment: It was in a small town near here that I & a band dressed as clowns were stoned & pursued by the natives, narrowly escaping in our minibus. We had been booked to play there & were unaware of popular anger re a man who had been driving round dressed as a clown & abusing children.
Thu Dec 05 16:16 'The Royal Fine Art Commission Trust has described the Trafalgar Square Christmas Market as a “hurdy-gurdy of kitsch”': 1) A hurdy-gurdy isn't usually a barrel-organ. 2) Surely "hurly-burly", unless they're coining an allusion to the amplified busker terror
Thu Dec 05 16:16 Comment:
Thu Dec 05 16:40 Comment: Might also be hirdy-girdy, n. (Scottish and northern dialect): Uproar, confusion, disorder. Obsolete
Fri Dec 06 00:33 Historia de Barcelona, 6/12: * 1435: Terremoto (13) * 1465: Salen dos franciscanos para Santiago para librar Barcelona de la peste (44) * 1536: Llega Carlos I de las guerras italianas (21) * 1718: Juran los primeros regidores del ayuntamiento borbónico,…
Fri Dec 06 09:19 Comment: @XerxestheMagian Why doesn't everyone use their local library card to access the OED?! C18th Orlando Furioso: "He quickly turns, and in his turning view'd, / Sight of his warrioress belov'd to gain." I guess it was needed mainly to translate the Latin "bellatrix".
Fri Dec 06 09:22 This is a favourite - drivers turning in seem to relish the Dukes of Hazzard moment. Next question: Why did Brooksby's Walk get dug up twice (unless I'm dreaming)? Did the gas screw up first time? @TfL @CadentGasLtd
Fri Dec 06 11:22 Amazed at how different infant oral setup is from ours - proximity mouth/throat (short lower jaw, tongue fills up reduced cavity), massive gums for latching, hamsterish sucking cheeks...
Fri Dec 06 11:24 Comment: ... so her increased ability to do proper vowels & consonants and combinations thereof ("cow", "aya", "errar" with soft roll) probably more down to physical development than to cunning tongue-rolling games
Fri Dec 06 15:19 Words that sound like "talent": I still think he said "people of Tashkent"
Fri Dec 06 17:22 Nothing escapes the eagle eye of the Met (Archer Tower, Homerton)
Fri Dec 06 21:16 Wonderful photo of the demolition of the cooling towers at Ironbridge
Fri Dec 06 21:19 It is said that one lot didn't give evidence because they wanted to get to the other lot themselves, which they did, but what's the English word for a three-on-three duel?
Fri Dec 06 21:54 The bum and voice muscles acted upon are different, but it is difficult to tell from baby's facial grimaces whether she's going to utter a new sound or simply have a massive poo. Talking is very hard work.
Fri Dec 06 22:17 Comment: Perhaps this is the origin of the notion of talking out of one's ar$e
Fri Dec 06 23:22 A Yiddish proverb for Mr Crow's fellow conspiracy theorists: "Der mensch tracht, un Gott lacht" ("Man proposes, God disposes"). More Yiddish proverbs noted in St Louis, Missouri 100 years ago: I like "Besser a hon in hand eider an odler in himmel"
Sat Dec 07 00:30 Historia de Barcelona, 7/12: * 1492: Isabel cuenta la herida que sufrió Fernando a manos del loco Joan de Canyamars al bajar las escaleras de la capilla de santa Águeda, y el amor popular por su rey (1284+83/i) * 1639: Sale para Salses el diputado…
Sat Dec 07 08:52 Didn't know this Soton grave of a longevous Waterloo veteran. Doesn't quite beat our oral tradition from great³ grandma re the soldiers marching through Brecon to fight Napoleon:
Sat Dec 07 09:00 Some vintage Charles Henry Driver at the 1860s Denmark Hill station. He also did the Abbey Mill pumping station, which I still haven't managed to enter, and many even more marvellous things
Sat Dec 07 09:01 Russian involvement in the Premier League
Sat Dec 07 15:32 Pram-pushing & singing for almost three hours & suddenly this geezer comes up & says, "Do you want to sing with my rock & roll band?" Once failed an interview to become a rat-catcher in the ditches & canals of the eastern Netherlands (poor swimming skills) but this I might manage
Sat Dec 07 19:50 Coppermill Lane, Walthamstow: a very natty white lady with what I'd have described as a high-class Jamaican cut: "You need L-plates on that pram, young man... She's called Bow, nickname Jacko, because it don't matter if you're black or white."
Sat Dec 07 19:53 Stanley, consistently the best-dressed man on Well Street and probably in the whole of Hackney, could do with a proper photographer @Transblawg
Sat Dec 07 21:30 Comment: @Transblawg He'd be a hit. I will go bearing cake & see where his interests lie.
Sat Dec 07 21:31 Latest step in the anthropomorphisation of animals: a dog saves a duck's life with a timely Heimlich
Sat Dec 07 22:59 Delicious irony in use of Scottish voiceover: tho "Zadok the priest / And Nathan the prophet / Anointed Solomon king / And all the people rejoiced," under his son Rehoboam the United Kingdom of Israel was split in two
Sun Dec 08 00:27 Historia de Barcelona, 8/12: * 1536: Carlos I sale para Castilla (16) * 1640: Un rediseño de bandera, supuestamente motivado por los ultrajes anticlericales cometidos por los tercios castellanos (368) * 1842: Fiestas de la Concepción y Santa Lucia, feria…
Sun Dec 08 08:42 You spend several years of your life marketing low-NOx burners for power plants, only to discover that punters can't get enough of the stuff
Sun Dec 08 08:44 Comment: @Narcomania @MPSHackney @hackneycouncil
Sun Dec 08 09:02 Comment: @Narcomania @MPSHackney @hackneycouncil And people pay to suck it up. Too much smugness in politics: why isn't there a Smog Party or even a NOx Party standing Thursday?
Sun Dec 08 09:04 Ferret suspects Mr Crow plans to ban rabbiting
Sun Dec 08 09:11 "Merdeka" is the Bahasa/Malay word for "free", not a misspelling of "merdeke", a Belgian French-Flemish vulgarism, "little (pile of) shit".
Sun Dec 08 09:13 Babies at two months seem to focus visually on silhouettes. Here is the silhouette which ours identifies as her father
Sun Dec 08 12:24 November tweets in one place
Sun Dec 08 19:04 Nixon House isn't particularly prone to break-ins
Sun Dec 08 19:11 I hope someone looks after boat 73090
Sun Dec 08 19:13 How could the Mail misquote this?
Sun Dec 08 20:22 Comment: @Transblawg I hope you got him back anyway. Trying to remember what remained of the boy at school who got trapped under a very low-hung roundabout
Sun Dec 08 21:40 The Iowa Conservationist from 1967 is proof that the "What's the difference between a duck?" joke is not my fault
Sun Dec 08 21:42 Comment: Two small children who were hunting for a large web-footed fox this afternoon did not get it, but they did crack up at the duck-filled tatty puss gag, which Richard Machin has turned into a song
Mon Dec 09 00:32 Historia de Barcelona, 9/12: * 1301: Prohibidas para cristianos, judíos y perros las relaciones comerciales con esclavos (60+57) * 1396: Martín I se retira a Perpiñán para escapar de la peste (27) * 1598: Barcelona pide cuatro columnas del foro…
Mon Dec 09 08:59 A lot of 70s clothing looks East German in retrospect, and Matt has the face
Mon Dec 09 09:04 Comment: Struggling to see anything remotely controversial in the Alexa deal. Seems like a win-win to me & I just need to understand why (apart from checking the army of loonies who would descend on it) everything on the NHS website isn't made available under CC
Mon Dec 09 09:06 The Shard from Wanstead My point from walking up and down the Lea: I'm not sure anyone, let alone borough planning officials, really understands how much our London horizon has changed
Mon Dec 09 09:33 Comment: @Rootstockvin @SimonMagus Our patriarch, recalling the 30s on Merseyside, said that at the very least a library was where an unemployed man could get out of the rain for free and without drinking, meet others of whatever race or creed in a similar situation, and perhaps read a newspaper or book
Mon Dec 09 17:23 Comment: @rs_hole @TheChiefuk @Rootstockvin Mr Rootstock selects & sells such admirable wines because of his artistic sensibilities, which also manifest themselves elsewhere. I would never mention to him my desire to reintroduce live monkeys in my trade because our alcoholic relationship is far too important to risk.
Mon Dec 09 17:45 VD News
Mon Dec 09 17:52 Commuter waiting for the SWR London train
Mon Dec 09 23:26 Zoals daar ginds, aan stille blauwe lucht, Zilveren-zacht, de half-ontloken maan Bloeit als een vreemde bloesem zonder vrucht, Wier bleke bladen aan de kim vergaan, Zó zag ik eens, in wonder-zoet genucht, Uw half-verhulde beelt’nis voor mij staan etc etc
Mon Dec 09 23:39 RT @visualsatire: George Osborne with the hair of Carlos Valderrama.
Tue Dec 10 00:34 Historia de Barcelona, 10/12: * 1617: Remisión papal de los pecados de Cataluña relacionados al bandolerismo (91+348/i) * 1942: Las piernacas de las chicas que van en bici (377+32) * 1946: "El pueblo en masa recorr[e] las calles de la ciudad expresando…
Tue Dec 10 18:35 Good quote, good trend
Tue Dec 10 22:01 Prince Andrew still adorns the Duke of York pub in Fitzrovia
Tue Dec 10 22:14 Corbyn in SWP propaganda outside ULU on Malet Street, Bloomsbury & the CPSU's favoured image of Lenin, here at Csepel, Budapest. I wonder what the multitude of Chinese students make of it all.
Wed Dec 11 00:40 Historia de Barcelona, 11/12: * 1524: Anuncio de una cátedra de política (23+7) * 1918: Pla: En llevar-me veig que sobre el món davalla la llum d’un sol de color de palla esgrogueïda –vagament rogenca * 1986: Un coche bomba de ETA destroza un…
Wed Dec 11 07:33 I'm construing this as "Winnie, bongo y asss!", so perhaps "wine, song and women", but in Hackney your guess is as good as mine
Wed Dec 11 07:50 An NE postal district ghost sign on Rushmore Road at the junction with Glyn Road, both of which are now E5. NE was abolished in 1869 & this ex-shop is newer: Hackney ignored the switch until 1917, perhaps for reasons of social status #NESigns
Wed Dec 11 08:48 Disappointed there's not a French car repair yard in London called Renaultvation
Wed Dec 11 12:37 The Guardian has by far the most exotic bylines. Jabalí is wild boar
Wed Dec 11 14:36 The only politicos I've seen on the street are Jonty Leff (WRP) and @RobertLloydBP (BxP). Given the size of the Labour majority in Hackney South, if I were Meg Hillier I'd take a week's holiday
Wed Dec 11 14:39 London Piggyback Tours is a joke
Wed Dec 11 14:42 Comment: London Pram Tours is not a joke - averaging 8-10 miles a day, tho not by a long chalk the mean muscleman predicted by Rugby Gareth
Wed Dec 11 14:45 Comment: @tombcn I think it's brilliant - small, strong, flexible, and the only model to feature the actual colours of a bee. The yellow is very good at night and in the autumn
Wed Dec 11 15:15 Comment: @Lillie_Langtry @Transblawg Isn't that the raked tiling they put in shady corners? I think anti-urine paint is biological - climbs upstream, like a tropical parasite, and dissolves your internal organs
Wed Dec 11 15:15 Comment: @tombcn Hahaha I will bear that in mind!
Wed Dec 11 20:24 Wrong street, Mr Postman: no Nigerian prophetess or Eternal Sacred Order Of Cherubim & Seraphim & calamitous noise here
Thu Dec 12 00:39 Historia de Barcelona, 12/12: * 1728: Empieza construcción del nuevo convento de San Agustín (23) * ☼ 08:06-17:23, 09:17 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación 49,38%, antigüedad 22 días * ✞ Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Amonaria, Corentino, Espiridón,…
Thu Dec 12 09:05 RT @anne_goldgar: No calming image today. I see no possible good outcome of this election. Stanley Donwood, Chateau Marmont, 2012
Thu Dec 12 21:48 Romanian guy trying illegally to vote. Someone: "None of this would have happened if you hadn't voted UKIP in the 2014 Europeans." Not all jokes are funny. I reckon a 25 majority, so just enough to keep the ERG out.
Fri Dec 13 00:40 Historia de Barcelona, 13/12: * 1639: Llegan desertores franceses de Rosellón (136) * 1848: Fiesta de Santa Lucía (206) * 1918: Pla: Santa Llúcia * 1933: Fuga masiva del Modelo via la cloaca (551+903) * 2009: Inauguración de la línea 9 del metro, la…
Fri Dec 13 01:29 Beautiful 2 bed flat available in ex convent in Barcelona's old port for Brits unhappy with their curious electoral system & wishing to profit from a Boris bounce in sterling
Fri Dec 13 08:34 Lexicographers may struggle with "boris"
Fri Dec 13 09:38 Comment: @Transblawg Haha, only one?! The only thing Cameron got right: boris, n. greased piglet
Fri Dec 13 11:35 Leber? Vursht
Fri Dec 13 18:04 When the pusher gets to the pub
Fri Dec 13 18:05 Clapton footie Xmas party
Fri Dec 13 18:12 Babe's attempts at speech tend to be accompanied by vomiting, perhaps because of differences in abdominal muscles + diaphragm function/use in infants, or perhaps because she is destined to become a drunken trombonist
Fri Dec 13 21:10 It is said that at the next GE the Tories might offer a proportional representation trial for Scotland: turns the SNP into a minority party in Scotland + poaches a shedload of progressive votes from other parties -> increased Westminster representation
Sat Dec 14 00:39 Historia de Barcelona, 14/12: * 1567: Una procesión pide ayuda divina para derrotar a los turcos (29) * 1927: Primer vuelo comercial de Iberia, parte de la lucha entre Lufthansa y Junker (305) * 1999: Miles de bragas devueltas tras sabotaje obrero con…
Sat Dec 14 08:14 Can't-be-arsed elections: despite "populism", turnout only 67% (historical . Dutch PR system (1918) criticised for lack of voter/representative connection, but average turnout/decade at least 10 points higher
Sat Dec 14 08:15 Comment: Of course, even the Dutch can't be arsed with European parliament elections
Sat Dec 14 09:54 Ah, so my Hackney Brook Restoration Scheme is called deculverting
Sat Dec 14 11:51 The notion that London Labour didn't understand Corbyn's IRA problem because army recruitment here is so incredibly low
Sat Dec 14 11:57 Babe hears me singing in English/Dutch/Spanish & can do the Dutch G (Aan de Amsterdamse ggggrachten)/Spanish J (jjjjamón), so this AM tried out Xhosa clicks: awestruck, shat herself and had to sleep for an hour
Sat Dec 14 22:38 How will rising sea levels affect Madrid?
Sun Dec 15 00:41 Historia de Barcelona, 15/12: * 1847: Acabada la reforma del teatro de Santa Cruz, ahora el Principal (16+26) * 1897: Abre el cine Lumière en el Paralelo (60) * 1959: Inauguración del Talgo entre Madrid y Barcelona (9h) (64+77/i) * 1986: Bombas de ETA en…
Sun Dec 15 08:08 Check out Nelson Summers' "Under an Absinthe Moon (Bar 67), a Barcelona novella" on Amazon
Sun Dec 15 09:40 Comment: @davidfirn Just what the other JC said, & 2K years on we're still waiting
Sun Dec 15 09:50 Hackney seems pretty much to have replaced politics with skunk, and there's a new opium-for-the-people outlet on Chatsworth Road: "We got 99 problems & CBD solved 86 of them!"
Sun Dec 15 09:56 Night of the Hunter's still one of the best, & the silhouette of Robert Mitchum singing "Leaning on the everlasting arms" at the end of the boat clip is unforgettable
Sun Dec 15 10:00 I far prefer the mural on the right to the glib evangelism of Angry Dan on the left (Lea Navigation at the railway bridge near the Anchor & Hope, new development behind)
Sun Dec 15 10:19 A very pleasing sight
Sun Dec 15 11:17 Billabong & hookah pipe invoicing. First word should be a telly series
Sun Dec 15 14:59 Comment: @cashandcarrots @emmathegardener I can think of lots of worse reasons to go & live somewhere
Sun Dec 15 16:34 You see them occasionally in suburbia, but a kingfisher on Walthamstow Marsh is still rather special
Sun Dec 15 16:36 I've identified a couple of toilet stops on the pram treks, but they've all been out recently & I fear they've developed some kind of early warning system. Not yet considering weeing thru letterboxes
Sun Dec 15 21:17 I don't know who planted or owns the herb tubs on Daubeney Road at the Mandeville Street junction, but home cooking wouldn't be the same without them
Sun Dec 15 21:30 Nothing metropolitan about JMD's home decor
Mon Dec 16 00:43 Historia de Barcelona, 16/12: * 1470: Muere Juan II de Lorena, pretendiente a la Corona de Aragón (27) * 1795: El médico, físico y globista Francisco Salvá y Campillo lee en la Real Academia de Medicina de Barcelona su memoria titulada "La electricidad…
Mon Dec 16 07:55 Xmas: great time for babe to hang out with relatives, at the Grant Museum. Babe's sins - indolence, flatulence & greed - are compounded by another quality which led a splendid old lady to give her an comprehensive blessing, 1st in English & then in a language I couldn't identify
Mon Dec 16 07:57 Comment: When she approached us I was feeling quite poor & hoped she was a modelling agent with a suitcase full of dollars, or at the very least a well-off zoologist with a vat of formaldehyde, but no: lifelong health & happiness is to be the infant's lot
Mon Dec 16 08:25 Historical thesaurus of English - really good
Mon Dec 16 14:14 The sign says "Morningside Community Centre"
Mon Dec 16 17:49 FCB Studios' architectural model for their superb regeneration of the east wing of Alexandra Palace. WHT took us up there when small & told us about the night in 1940 when he saw London burning, but I'm afraid we were more interested in ice cream
Mon Dec 16 18:15 Comment: @ibexsalad Mule food, but not as bad as the current fashion: sprout tops
Mon Dec 16 18:17 Comment: @ibexsalad The bloody leaves. Paris Commune grub.
Mon Dec 16 18:23 Comment: @ibexsalad Stay where you are matey
Mon Dec 16 21:17 Doesn't ring a bell. Perhaps it's like the musical fragments put on greetings cards by unmusical graphic designers
Tue Dec 17 00:04 Gordon Clough playing "Winter Dreams" with Leyland
Tue Dec 17 00:45 Historia de Barcelona, 17/12: * 1525: Sale para Francia la hermana del sequestrado Francisco I (28) * 1901: Muere el emprendedor religioso Josep Manyanet i Vives, fundador de los Hijos de la Sagrada Familia y promotor del templo de Gaudí (0+178) * ☼…
Tue Dec 17 07:48 Lieder marketing
Tue Dec 17 07:52 Turn they right or turn they left, your Egyptian geese is cooked, me lovey
Tue Dec 17 07:56 Turns out the old Wominspace squat on Corbridge Crescent is to be gentrified, and just the bit at the back will go. Demolition man with a physog recognisable from a certain type of late C20th musical event: Oooh, the smoke here, back in the day!
Tue Dec 17 07:59 Comment: Whence the story of the alcoholic nudist cornet player
Tue Dec 17 08:21 Lermontov was Scottish, and Pushkin was African, and Putin is son of a Parisian putain
Tue Dec 17 08:53 Liberal populism - rather a different bouillabaisse from JS. Still deciphering the Welsh (Liberal) rants/speeches of Simon Jones of Bala - family stayed with the party for 100 years
Tue Dec 17 10:37 Whirled out of my complacency
Tue Dec 17 10:39 Wear a bumguard to prevent bagging this Xmas
Wed Dec 18 00:48 Historia de Barcelona, 18/12: * 1427: Jaume Rigolf puede administrar la Casa de Infants Orfes a pesar de ser casado (127) * 1471: Terremoto al amanecer (0) * 1848: Fiesta de Ntra Sra de la Esperanza, patrona de los corredores de comercio (47) * 1913:…
Wed Dec 18 11:13 Whenever I see someone with "critically acclaimed" on their posters, I think of their mum saying post hoc, "Very nice Charlie, but put on a clean shirt next time."
Wed Dec 18 11:22 "Domestic Hindustani," like all proper language guides since Minsheu, is simply an excuse for social satire
Wed Dec 18 11:28 Trying to record babe's vomiting to use as SFX for brain splatters in my next film
Wed Dec 18 16:35 Tent hamlet, Grove Passage (off Corbridge Crescent), Bethnal Green
Wed Dec 18 20:41 Comment: @reedy1871 Ta, that's not a bad idea! Unfortunately I no longer walk through those parts.
Wed Dec 18 21:58 I have noticed that recent pork pies have less jelly and I no longer enjoy them
Wed Dec 18 21:59 Comment: @reedy1871 Ah! excellent! Just a little thing, but I got quite sentimental over it
Wed Dec 18 22:01 Comment: @Transblawg OMG, I didn't know about that. Not sure I can bear it.
Wed Dec 18 22:02 Babe has identified me as her English teacher: every time she sees me she says, "Error."
Wed Dec 18 23:11 This version of Rudolph just won't work on barrel organ
Thu Dec 19 00:50 Historia de Barcelona, 19/12: * 1827: Iluminación por gas en la Llotja (44) * 1840: Un artista romántico inglés, la puerta de la Paz (162) * ☼ 08:11-17:25, 09:14 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación 49,38%, antigüedad 22 días * ✞ Eva, Urbano V papa,…
Thu Dec 19 09:09 Comment: @Transblawg I don't think I'll be watching any films about the translation industry this Xmas either.
Thu Dec 19 09:22 "A pound of feathers won't fly without a bird inside/Een pond veren vliegt niet, als er geen vogel in zit" said Bert Schierbeek, originally from Glanerbrug. Babe can now say something approaching "Hengelo," but not "Groot Driene"
Thu Dec 19 09:33 To each according to his needs: Harrowgate Road, scene of recent crime-fighting
Thu Dec 19 09:48 Splendid piece of Cats & doggerel from Peter Bradshaw
Thu Dec 19 10:50 A Falke without sharp vision - "nerd" and "geek" are high status, which explains why they've been appropriated by suits in sales who can't code for fack
Thu Dec 19 13:58 Comment: @_Juarma_ Hola Juarma, mandas pedidos certificados a Inglaterra?
Fri Dec 20 00:52 Historia de Barcelona, 20/12: * 1782: La Santa Inquisición prohibe La Armonía del Parnás del Rector de Vallfogona (40+19) * 1799: Gran nevada (0) * 1840: La Audiencia Real, la Catedral, los jardines de la Ciudadela, los pavos, las murallas (1155+74) *…
Fri Dec 20 05:04 Sometimes the pramtrek song requests are inanimate: Connie & Robert Davis' "Thuis" -> Wim Sonneveld's "Thuis heb ik nog een ansichtkaart"
Fri Dec 20 05:10 The Elderberry, which looks like a real Dutch boat, has a very pleasing mast, or is it an Xmas tree, or firewood in spe?
Fri Dec 20 05:24 Satirical anti-capitalist parody of Ketelbinkie from Leen Jongewaard, who apparently had a British boyfriend, Barrie Stevens, known from "Vooral doorgaan!"
Fri Dec 20 05:38 WWI tank at Walthamstow Wetlands, perhaps
Fri Dec 20 06:30 Someone should note before it is vanishes into history that the name of DExEU (the Department for Exiting the European Union) is a joke, a bilingual pun: "dexeu" is a common misspelling of "deixeu", the second-person plural of the Catalan verb "deixar", to leave
Fri Dec 20 08:24 Thread preparatory to one about seeing Boris Johnson in storm clouds/coffee grounds
Fri Dec 20 08:27 Comment: Boris Apprenticeship, with Borisn't bike donated by Chinese philanthropists to benighted Hackney youth
Fri Dec 20 09:47 The monkey will support @jessphillips if she keeps on cracking jokes & will otherwise abstain
Fri Dec 20 11:45 Humorous Bangla song about toilets that lack the Islamic watering can
Fri Dec 20 22:14 Woken amidst 5 chocolate mousse cartons, no. 6 remaining - weary plan was to hide 4 empties, creating impression of fairness. Worse: theatre man C, whose girlfriend V, noting that he always smelt of chocolate in the morning, finally discovered jar of Nutella hidden under the bed
Sat Dec 21 00:51 Historia de Barcelona, 21/12: * 1470: Entierro de Juan II de Lorena, llamado Príncipe de Gerona por la Generalidad, que murió supuestamente envenenado (26+23) * 1842: La feria de Barcelona (223/i) * 1844: Tormenta e inundación (265) * 1848: Feria de…
Sat Dec 21 07:17 I thought that "wally" had disappeared with Only Fools & Horses
Sat Dec 21 17:10 Comment: @Transblawg Ooh, you are authentic. 2001 W. Self in Independent (Nexis) 6 June 7 I went to the chip shop during break time and had a wally and chips.
Sun Dec 22 00:52 Historia de Barcelona, 22/12: * 1472: Juan II de Aragón jura los fueros después de tomar Barcelona (424) * 1673: José Oriol, bachiller en teología (15) * 1848: Feria de Barcelona (8) * 1889: Descripción del espectáculo "Buffalo Bill's Wild West", con…
Sun Dec 22 14:29 Trying to locate the bit in Genesis where God says, "OK, squirrels, your job is to silhouette yourself in trees in profile against the dying sun with your tail erect and some bit of debris between your grubby paws"
Sun Dec 22 22:13 People seem to assume that someone in possession of a trombone cleaner can also perform complex plumbing, rather as tinkers and pot-menders (pliers/cutters) used to earn extra money by castrating pigs
Sun Dec 22 22:16 Comment:
Sun Dec 22 22:32 The Albion, Lauriston Road, Victoria Park E9 is losing its letters &, crucially, being allowed to fall down. I'm told it's mid-1840s & a keystone in the urbanisation of the district. Splendid pre-2015 memories of Roger the silversmith & do read the link
Mon Dec 23 00:53 Historia de Barcelona, 23/12: * 1511: Terremoto (21+15) * 1836: Instálase la sociedad de Fomento de la Ilustración (0) * 1848: Feria de Barcelona (5) * 1918: Pla: Ara que dins de l’aire flota aquesta cosa indescriptible, humanament tendra, íntima, de les…
Mon Dec 23 08:11 A classy move by @Fullers Why don't I get gigs like this?!
Mon Dec 23 08:21 Favourite Xmas card so far: a table-top double canon in the form of a cross, from the George Lloyd Society: George Lloyd has ended up on the backburner in this year's kerfuffle, but one day...
Mon Dec 23 09:51 The end of tea-as-we-know-it overshadows the whole Boris-teabag-milk shebang
Mon Dec 23 10:22 The memorial to superstar skateboarder Ben Raemers in Victoria Park: "It's a lovely day. The birds are singing, the sun is shining. What more could you ask for?"
Mon Dec 23 10:25 Comment: I didn't know Ben, but I suspect he was a bit like superstar ice climber IC, who got to a certain age and walked out into a snowstorm and up his favourite face, perhaps knowing his fate
Tue Dec 24 00:54 Historia de Barcelona, 24/12: * 1639: Salen más soldados para Salses en Rosellón; galanterías entre sitiadores y defensores; destrozos españoles en Narbona; terminos de la rendición; gran mobilización en Barcelona para asegurarla (1676) * 1708: La ópera…
Tue Dec 24 07:44 RT @BryceElder: Each time I avoid reading some trolly bullshit, I'm going to reward myself by posting a photo I like. (You may want to mute…
Tue Dec 24 08:07 Nexus on Chatsworth Road for the transfer of housing benefit from the state to private landlords' festive funds. Artist & commissioner forget that St Nick is Xstian & the tree probably animist - lesser Satans. "All our client" suggests dismemberment but no evidence thereof
Tue Dec 24 08:11 Pre-19th century drainage ditch between the ditto Lammas strips on Walthamstow Marsh
Tue Dec 24 11:09 Wild Turk (less top incisors, kneecap shuffle) intercepts me & pram @VickyParkLondon "[Rant] market food!" Doesn't look like a vegan. "They put poison!" Ah, pest control. "I cut their head!" Throat-slitting gesture. "I kill everyone!" "You want to talk to @TowerHamletsNow, mate."
Tue Dec 24 11:19 The fascinating notion that oxytocin, the hugging hormone, is crucial in the development of infant speech/communication Citation is Hagoort Human Language @ $150, but I guess surfing off
Wed Dec 25 00:12 Today is a very special day, but what would the @AOD_Grand_Lodge want with a humble organ-grinder?
Wed Dec 25 00:53 Historia de Barcelona, 25/12: * 0393: Es ordenado a fuerzas San Paulino de Nola, sin que lo sepa su mujer, a cuyos brazos vuelve después (46+561) * 1274: Alfonso el Sabio pasa la Navidad con Jaime el Conquistador (32/i) * 1333: Un fraile carmelita dice…
Wed Dec 25 08:26 The monkey will vote for anyone who can recite anything in any language apart from Italian.
Wed Dec 25 08:36 Comment: A while ago I acquired an alternative MS of the Odyssey: Cassandra comes to Priam crying that the horse is a Greek cheese-smuggling operation &, when news of the disaster arrives, sits there smugly, saying, "Nothing can be done: c'est une feta complète," a complete shitshow
Wed Dec 25 22:27 I'm the new world champion in pre-lunch pram-running from Haughton to Gnosall and back along the old railway in order to have a splendid pint of Shropshire Lad at the @GeorgesGnosall while the unsuspecting girlfriend has a bath
Thu Dec 26 00:49 Historia de Barcelona, 26/12: * 1379: Un incendio destroza Santa María del Mar (17) * 1452: Menú para la fiesta de San Esteban al monasterio de Santa Ana (34+38) * 1710: Luis XV de Francia y los franceses están en Cataluña (78) * 1848: Restos de pavo y…
Thu Dec 26 08:52 "She came to me in a right state with her hands all yellow & I said, 'Love, I think you've got cancer, you'd better get yourself to the hospital' & she said, 'Fook that, I'm going on a cruise.' I can still remember her dancing on her roof with the roofers. RIP."
Thu Dec 26 17:39 "And how was yesterday for you?" "Awful. You know we hate meat, well we cooked the thing eventually, but then we sat there and looked at it, and in the end we called a friend who came and took it away."
Thu Dec 26 17:41 Jolyon Doggerel. I fear the vulpicide is merely trying to endear himself to the Plain People of England & other clients.
Fri Dec 27 00:49 Historia de Barcelona, 27/12: * 1848: Vispera de Inocentes (47) * 1918: Pla: Acompanyo Roldós a Palamós * 1920: Suspensión de pagos del Banco de Barcelona (378+75) * 1923: Muere Doménech y Montaner (50) * 1951: La Vanguardia pide la libertad de crítica…
Fri Dec 27 09:49 The vulpicide has led to the greatest explosion of popular poetry since Pam Ayres went to the dentist
Fri Dec 27 18:42 Americans who pronounce "Prestatyn" "pre-statin," suggesting a population with unsteady gait & slurred speech - quite unlike reality! - & implying a corresponding, heavenly settlement called Poststatin
Sat Dec 28 00:46 Historia de Barcelona, 28/12: * 1848: Día de Inocentes (661+643) * 1897: Exhibición de una "tribu de Aschantis" en el día de Inocentes (92) * ☼ 08:14-17:30, 09:15 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación 49,38%, antigüedad 22 días * ✞ Santos Inocentes,…
Sat Dec 28 00:52 Turina: El pueblo andaluz no inventa nada
Sat Dec 28 06:23 I've spent half Christmas staring at this
Sat Dec 28 07:10 Concert for Turina (bottom left: Lolita Rodríguez Aragón, Joaquín Turina, Gonzalo Soriano) @ British Council, Madrid, 1945. "En el cortijo" was for John Milanés - acting British consul during war - saved Turina from possible execution & probable starvation
Sat Dec 28 07:23 Comment: This & much more:
Sat Dec 28 22:56 Trying to figure whether pedigree cat/dog breeding is pyramid or Ponzi
Sun Dec 29 00:51 Historia de Barcelona, 29/12: * 1410: Blanca I de Navarra y la sucesión a la Corona de Aragón (41+9) * 1918: Pla: El «Glosari» d’avui, sobre Gluck, bé, com gairebé tots els «glosaris» de «La Vall de Josafat» * 1936: La Generalidad y la supuesta…
Mon Dec 30 00:48 Historia de Barcelona, 30/12: * 1568: Torneo en el Born para festejar a los Medinaceli (17) * 1710: La defensa de Barcelona (63) * 1848: Los verdaderos inocentes (31+1) * 1859: Inauguración de un faro en el nuevo muelle del puerto (162) * 1870: Muere…
Mon Dec 30 06:47 Hoping to see Ernest the Policeman in pursuit of Lewis in Toytown, aka Burnham-on-Crouch
Mon Dec 30 07:19 Japanese 1980s-90s boom architecture. Hoping Adam will now collect a few from the transition to full scale industrialism in the 1960s...
Mon Dec 30 07:23 Comment:
Mon Dec 30 10:32 Pastor Deleted (Homerton Baptist Church) presumably went the other way
Mon Dec 30 21:59 Mostly tears of joy, but then up speaks the excellent Windies cashier at T, with whom there's always good banter (the essence of society...): "You need to get your mum in to do all this baby stuff"
Mon Dec 30 22:06 The Birbalsingh/Stormzy thing is so 1960s/1970s Guyana/AnyExColony: standards vs gangster shite
Tue Dec 31 00:55 Historia de Barcelona, 31/12: * 1537: Entra Carlos I en posta (16/i) * 1822: Tropas francesas en la frontera "por fiebre amarilla en Barcelona" (46/i) * 1848: Fin de año (283) * 1918: Pla: Pluja i humitat * 1932: Carta de amor (con canción) de un…
Tue Dec 31 12:09 One wonders what the "new museum experience" will consist of, given Beckford's notorious paedophilia. Byron, Childe Harold MS:
Tue Dec 31 12:11 At last, a decent image of Ian Lavery
Tue Dec 31 12:23 Haughton, Staffs is watching you from behind the potted plants