March 2020 tweets

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

Sun Mar 01 01:04 Historia de Barcelona, 1/3: * Esta celebración adicional es el 01 de marzo este año; en 1848 fue el 12 de marzo * ~1165: Llega desde Navarra el gran viajero judío Benjamín de Tudela (131+113) * 1716: Se empieza a construir el baluarte del rey de la…
Sun Mar 01 11:41 This is utterly mad, and will disturb my blackberrying #NotOnOurMarshes
Sun Mar 01 17:17 Ace photo #NotOnOurMarshes
Sun Mar 01 19:20 Quasimodo wrestling frantically with a python in semi-darkness on the less-used footbridge leading to the Overground platform at Highbury turns out to be one of the pros who work the line changing into his begging clothes
Sun Mar 01 19:21 Comment: In the train he encountered a colleague with an improbable looking leg bandage working in the opposite direction, but they neither acknowledged nor assaulted one another
Sun Mar 01 19:23 More photos from the proposed site of the Waterworks Festival #NotOnOurMarshes
Sun Mar 01 20:36 Babe is starting allergenic foods early, as per the paradigm shift from this research (old & damaging "expert" opinion -> wait till 3 yo with peanuts...) One wonders how long it will take for NICE etc to change, given symbolism of exclusive breastfeeding
Sun Mar 01 20:37 Comment: Everything however pales into mundane insignificance compared with her first explosive encounter with banana mashed with milk
Mon Mar 02 01:39 Historia de Barcelona, 2/3: * 1427: Empieza una gran serie de terremotos (65+127) * 1634: Es ejecutado Serrallonga (20/i) * 1848: Jueves Lardero, 1848 (474/i) * 1919: Pla: Diumenge * 1936: Tras las elecciones, huida burguesa, amenazas de secesión, caos…
Mon Mar 02 08:02 There's still some River Lea blackberry jam left, sigh...
Mon Mar 02 08:29 Poor old Owen. See also Bill Stickers
Mon Mar 02 08:32 Comment: @Transblawg "You just stand there looking cute / And when something moves, you shoot", repeated ad inf I want to go to Rainham No sightings of Stan recently. I may play the trombone on his doorstep on his birthday
Mon Mar 02 08:42 Famished dwarf Abominable Snowman just wants to leave Harrowgate Road and go home
Mon Mar 02 11:08 Comment: @Transblawg But is there a kitchen and bedroom in the WC?
Mon Mar 02 14:47 Also, the London architect who proposed an orange tower for Belfast's Catholic hospital
Mon Mar 02 22:28 Comment: @Walthamsteve @LeeValleyPark @wfcouncil @kizzygardiner @CllrCoghill In Spain it's quite normal for promoters to buy council officials with cash or (resalable) tickets, but this is England and the 600K gate receipts will undoubtedly be well & honestly spent
Mon Mar 02 22:41 I commend this Corona-proof ankle-shake, which I learnt off Saxy Glenn of Jazz Warriors in the 20th century
Tue Mar 03 01:39 Historia de Barcelona, 3/3: * 1632: Felipe IV y el infante Carlos corren un jaquí a caballo (18) * 1775: Sobre san Emiterio, Emeterio, Meterio, Medí, Madi, Matino o incluso Medir (633+6) * 1923: Abren el viaducto de Vallcarca (0/i) * ☼ 07:20-18:45,…
Tue Mar 03 07:38 What are these trees? Mature ash or what? Ca 25 m tall, from Google Streetview
Tue Mar 03 18:07 Comment: @Transblawg Streetview. So weird not being able to walk up to the tree and look on the ground - beeches are such messy buggers, & I think you're right
Tue Mar 03 18:13 Norwood Junction & a shambly middle-aged white man is leaping around, screaming, biting his hands, because (I ascertain) all the trains are going to London Bridge, none to Balham. I tell this to an alarmed blind man with big teeth. "Why the fuck would he want to go to Balham?"
Tue Mar 03 19:01 Comment: In the anachronistic Information space, an enchanting young man with Down's & an electric-light halo carefully studies the monitor, desperate to avoid any contact with the madman
Tue Mar 03 19:39 Hoarding Tesco garlic crackers. Where have you been all my life?
Tue Mar 03 19:42 Proposal to relocate the Waterworks Festival to Antarctica
Tue Mar 03 21:05 Panic-buying red wine merely leads to panic-drinking
Tue Mar 03 22:30 Comment: @Transblawg There's plenty to photograph
Tue Mar 03 23:28 Comment: @Transblawg Croydon Minster has a German organist, though he's not very amiable
Wed Mar 04 01:40 Historia de Barcelona, 4/3: * 1904: La Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona comunica la cesión de la columna romana de su museo lapidario al Centro Excursionista de Cataluña para la restauración de la casa en la calle Paraíso (0+16) * 1919: Pla:…
Wed Mar 04 08:03 Comment: @Transblawg It burnt down in 1867 and the Gilbert Scott replacement is marvellous - East Surrey & municipal pride - & orphaned in the shambles authored by Wernher von Braun & the planners. Gilbert Sheldon, Restoration Archbishop of Canterbury, has an absolutely glorious tomb
Wed Mar 04 08:39 I love all the canal boats that are permanently cruising for the purposes of licencing and permanently moored when it comes to purchasing red diesel
Wed Mar 04 08:42 Do major roads send babies to sleep because of the traffic white noise or because the pollution is killing off their brains?
Wed Mar 04 13:44 Thread re the boycott of the Waterworks Festival public meeting
Wed Mar 04 15:03 The social media psychos, praying their granny is among the first corona deaths
Wed Mar 04 15:06 If everyone else is working from home, can I go into some empty office and have lunch?
Wed Mar 04 16:15 Comment: @steve_guy They had run out of disguises when they came to winch me, last of the clones, down from the UFO
Wed Mar 04 16:27 Comment: @steve_guy There were ten of us and Mars thought it would take us ten years, but we got a productivity bonus after five by hunting down and eating speakers of marginal and difficult languages.
Wed Mar 04 18:38 Obesity is caused by drinking water
Wed Mar 04 20:18 Kapelle-op-den-Bos, Flanders. Dring dring dring. - Yu Rong - Oh sorry, bye. Just as most people have never heard a real telephone, so the other day I met a civil servant who had never seen a cheque.
Wed Mar 04 20:29 #GrammaticallyCorrectASong : a thread for people who don't know what grammar is
Thu Mar 05 01:43 Historia de Barcelona, 5/3: * 1519: Carlos I celebra una función de la Orden del Toison de Oro en la catedral (30) * 1848: Los tres dias de carnestolendas, 1848 (1278/i) * 1917: El conde de Santa Coloma le pide consejo al torero gitano Rafael el Gallo…
Thu Mar 05 08:40 Eat, drink and be slightly alarmed, for if it is always Easter Sunday then surely the Second Coming is nigh & the Christian dead about to rise
Thu Mar 05 08:41 Comment: @tombcn You liberals just can't resist giving 'em that inch
Thu Mar 05 09:06 14-storey Archer Tower at Homerton Station is a cladding firetrap with a 24*7 waking watch, at terrible cost to any leaseholders. I'm ashamed, but every time I go past I hum the end of Strange Adventure from Gilbert & Sullivan's Yeomen of the Guard: "Tower, tower, tower tomb."
Thu Mar 05 10:06 Comment: I seem to recall that the entrance to the orchestra pit at Stockport was over the stage, and that during a Yeomen a certain trombonist & trumpeter underestimated the time it would take to get back from the pub after the interval & were subjected to a wobbly walk of shame
Thu Mar 05 10:18 Class War interviews Old Mother Shipton at her flooded-out cave in Knaresborough
Thu Mar 05 12:36 Corona spinea vs novel coronavirus
Thu Mar 05 14:26 Comment: @davidfirn Herod
Thu Mar 05 18:42 Boccaccio is fidgeting in his grave, hoping that D. Cameron won't write a collection of 100 short stories to mark this plague year
Thu Mar 05 18:58 Narcofest vs the boidies
Fri Mar 06 01:45 Historia de Barcelona, 6/3: * 1136: Muere san Olegario, y en seguida se curan incurables, se capturan a esclavos huidos, etc (888+343) * 1525: Llega notícia de la victoria de Pavía (12) * 1919: Pla: La dispesa * 1972: 18 personas mueren en una explosión…
Fri Mar 06 07:48 Comment: @LowEbbs Let them die, but don't hurt their feelings
Sat Mar 07 01:46 Historia de Barcelona, 7/3: * 1848: Años atrás, la fiesta de Tomás de Aquino (88) * 1978: Consejo de guerra para Els Joglars por La torna (26+4) * ☼ 07:13-18:50, 11:36 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación 49,38%, antigüedad 22 días * ✞ Ardón…
Sat Mar 07 15:00 Rule 1 of babycare: if something happens, finish your drink, because otherwise someone else will have drunk it by the time you get back
Sat Mar 07 15:05 Comment: @ibexsalad Agents provocateurs trying to kill them off? One theory of the 1771 Moscow plague outbreak is that the anti-quarantine riots significantly exacerbated infection & I'm sure there are other examples
Sun Mar 08 01:46 Historia de Barcelona, 8/3: * 1845: Ayuntamiento de Barcelona: Bando: al fallar de nuevo el alumbrado público de gas, los vecinos deben poner luces en los balcones y ventanas (266) * 1848: Miércoles de ceniza, 1848 (1025/i) * 1918: Pla: Com que hi ha…
Sun Mar 08 09:49 To hoard tinned veg is to open the door to Death
Sun Mar 08 09:51 Tractor porn
Sun Mar 08 10:37 Can't imagine that @wfcouncil will have the nerve to give a licence for the Waterworks Festival, or that those responsible at @LeeValleyPark will want to stay in their jobs after this
Sun Mar 08 10:42 Only Nilla Pizzi's bust can conceal her drummer's spectacular brush technique in the second verse at ca 1:35
Sun Mar 08 20:52 BLOG: A Welsh Story: the post-Napoleonic miseries in Liverpool, Sheffield, London & New York of the orphans of Thomas & Catherine Jones of Nantfach Farm, north of Bala; & of the children of Simon & Mari Jones of the smithy at Y Lôn, Llanuwchllyn
Mon Mar 09 01:48 Historia de Barcelona, 9/3: * 1416: Fernando I sale de Barcelona justo antes de morir (19) * 1628: Rogativas por la Flota del Tesoro Español, anticipando la Batalla de la Bahía de Matanzas contra los holandeses bajo Piet Hein (236+37/i) * 1848: Cuaresma,…
Mon Mar 09 08:09 Perhaps 5 months of hubris is merely a prelude to nemesis, but Bismarck said of Wilhelm II that he thought every day was his birthday, and Kaiser Bill went to live in a lovely big quiet house in the Netherlands, so he did all right.
Mon Mar 09 18:01 Are there any Barcelona handymen who work legally? Only need one...
Mon Mar 09 18:04 Comment: @Transblawg So people do actually pay the Waitrose premium for recycled paper. If Tesco didn't have a secret stash round the back we'd be out by now
Mon Mar 09 19:38 The latest assault on Lea Marshes, sponsored by the very body meant to safeguard it for the community
Mon Mar 09 21:57 Comment: @Transblawg Squashed poo biscuits
Mon Mar 09 21:59 Alleged NHS campaign against Tower Hamlets mums dosing their tots every night with cocktail of gruel and Calpol (i.e. paracetamol): nothing like as tasty as gin, honey and warm milk, but halal
Mon Mar 09 23:04 Comment: @Transblawg Curiously the Italians think of them as an English biscuit - they were invented here and aren't consumed there and Garibaldi wouldn't have been surprised to discover that we eat flies
Tue Mar 10 01:49 Historia de Barcelona, 10/3: * 1553: Se coloca la primera piedra para el baluarte de las Atarazanas (12+108) * 1820: Publicada por primera vez la constitución de 1812 (15) * 1895: Debut de Las señoritas toreras Catalanas en la plaza de la Barceloneta…
Tue Mar 10 09:28 The host won't give you the plague, but you don't need to eat it anyway. No reasonable connection to Ethel Merman singing "The hostess with the mostess" ("Call me Madam")
Tue Mar 10 09:33 If, as now seems probable, NHS-ordained late weaning has been a major contributor to the allergy epidemic, has it also driven food fads by convincing infants that they should eat a different diet to their parents?
Tue Mar 10 12:11 Comment: @SaveLeaMarshes The visitor centre's never really worked, so I'd get rid of it & the carpark, put a ditch/dyke along Lammas Road to stop the travellers knocking down the gate for their annual camps, & have a modest refreshments kiosk and WC & folks can go to the ice centre for more @deedeelea
Tue Mar 10 12:13 I'm with Phil Hammond. Life has been too dull.
Tue Mar 10 12:15 I adore The Seventh Seal
Tue Mar 10 18:41 Comment: @Transblawg Some toilet roll and a pigeon in Waitrose, Granary Square, Kings Cross if the cat wants a day out
Tue Mar 10 19:32 So the whole world is panic-buying toilet paper. Why? It's not a cholera epidemic ffs. A Nigerian woman at Tesco this morning at 8 had enough for the entire British Indian Army ca 1942, as well as all the shelf of paracetamol, but I didn't dare initiate a Q&A
Tue Mar 10 19:40 Corona meets Spanish decentralisation
Tue Mar 10 19:42 Anatomy of Catalan musical genres
Tue Mar 10 19:42 Comment: @tombcn If truth be told, I wouldn't buy beer in bars if it weren't for everyone else
Wed Mar 11 01:57 Historia de Barcelona, 11/3: * 1564: Fiesta e iluminaciones por la llegada de los sobrinos de Felipe II (14) * 1573: Wanted, dead: los bandoleros de Cervantes (36/i) * 1809: Prohibido soltar desde los terrados cometas, que podrían dar señas a los…
Wed Mar 11 08:04 From dribbling geriatric, via old man who laughs at his own jokes & farts, babe seems now to have become my image of Chris Grayling, spending half her waking hours with foot in mouth & the rest gathering information with which to blackmail us
Wed Mar 11 08:36 I think that if you use "Lesvos" you should also use "lesvian", risking or even relishing confusion with "Latvian"
Wed Mar 11 19:27 So, at least one citation & Mr Dontsa became a doctor
Wed Mar 11 19:37 Comment: And one shared a page with David Lammy
Wed Mar 11 19:38 Comment: More laughter than citations here
Wed Mar 11 21:43 Italy closes shops, bars, restaurants, leaves open pharmacies, newsagents, TOBACCONISTS. Divine country
Wed Mar 11 21:44 Comment:
Thu Mar 12 02:00 Historia de Barcelona, 12/3: * 1461: Llega Carlos de Viana para ser rey de los catalanes (24) * 1709: Ahorcado y descuartizado un espía del duque de Orleans (69) * 1848: Domingo 1.º de cuaresma, 1848 (343) * 1919: Pla: Després d’aquests cinc anys passats…
Thu Mar 12 08:19 Wash your hands to Lady MacB
Thu Mar 12 09:59 Inclusive was the new vibrant
Thu Mar 12 10:16 Comment: @Skoup_It Doesn't work
Thu Mar 12 17:53 Old bloke outside the shop shaking hands with everyone. After some enquiries: - I reckon I'm going to get it anyway, so I want to get it while there are still hospital beds left. - But you may be infecting everybody else. - I'm only shaking hands with young people.
Thu Mar 12 19:51 After reading the Haaretz story I saw a couple of the Prevent-style nutters in Tesco and thought, no, surely they'd take the vaccine. I mean, even the Nazis eventually rejected the Deutsche Physik movement in favour of actual science
Thu Mar 12 21:07 Eggcorn new to me: "We're looking for someone who will tickle our boxes"
Thu Mar 12 23:04 Historia de Barcelona, 13/3: * 1775: Inauguración del cementerio de Poblenou, un hito en la historia del cementerio en España (176/i) * 1919: Pla: La Mancomunitat ha creat uns «Estudis Normals» i Joan Climent m’incita a inscriure-m’hi * ☼ 07:04-18:57,…
Fri Mar 13 07:25 Dorothy Donegan at North Sea in 1980
Fri Mar 13 07:35 Canto della verbena: viva la nostra Siena, la più bella delle città
Fri Mar 13 15:21 Just off to tell social housing tenants lurking for pasta & toilet rolls at Tesco that BBC Radio 4 World At One advises them to relax by being mindful at the bottom of their gardens & doing some fine cooking. 100% Marie-Antoinette
Fri Mar 13 19:27 Bummer for epidemiologists: cool at last, but no parties to go to
Fri Mar 13 23:05 Historia de Barcelona, 14/3: * 1380: Pedro IV autoriza construcción de la Lonja (319) * 1918: Pla: Ara, finalment, dóna gust de viure a Catalunya * 1919: Pla: L’agitació obrera torna a abrivar-se * ☼ 07:02-18:58, 11:55 horas; ☾ luna menguante,…
Sat Mar 14 08:23 The deacon of the Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim Church The Lord Is My Shepered [sic], Nigerian pseudo-Jews, has taken to ringing the service bell on the street at 8 instead of 8.10, so either the end is truly nigh or someone has bought him a new alarm clock
Sat Mar 14 08:25 Comment: @Transblawg You're just waiting for the bell and "Bring out your dead!"
Sat Mar 14 08:27 Look what happens to the sheep. Terrible people
Sat Mar 14 08:29 Comment: @Walthamsteve @wfcouncil @RSPBNELondonGrp @Natures_Voice @WWTLondon @WWTworldwide @NTlovesLondon @southeastNT @nationaltrust @EnglishHeritage @EssexWildlife As long as there's an affordable hotdog stand we're ok with it
Sat Mar 14 08:29 Mother Shipton didn't see this one coming
Sat Mar 14 08:34 Kill the Virus Biennale & save the world, they say
Sat Mar 14 08:47 3rd party's 5 month old blue-lighted to hospital with breathing difficulties, bronchiolitis diagnosed, no Covid-19 test. Smart use of resources or the "Whatever" phase of British response?
Sat Mar 14 08:54 Mild stuff. Swift would be asking whether we could eat them
Sat Mar 14 09:11 Comment: @Transblawg Judas, Kaufmann
Sat Mar 14 18:12 Comment: @petersymon I love her. I think it was a YouTube suggestion...
Sat Mar 14 19:21 If you give me wine called McGuigan I just think of Barry's dad and of Seamus Heaney: "Are your praties dry, and are they fit for digging?" "Put in your spade and try," says dirty-faced McGuigan.
Sat Mar 14 23:04 Historia de Barcelona, 15/3: * 1401: Fusión de hospitales para crear el de la Santa Cruz (28+6/i) * 1507: Salen cuatro frailes en romería a Santiago para detener la peste; huida y vuelta de las instituciones (161+33) * 1631: La multitud intenta matar a…
Sun Mar 15 08:34 Are the Tesco toilet-roll riots caused by consumers who are stupid/from chaotic countries, or is Tesco's supply chain knackered? Prolonged spaces on shelves since well before this (& Brexit)
Sun Mar 15 10:28 Comment: @tombcn Have you read The Hairdressers of St Tropez by Rupert Everett?
Sun Mar 15 11:00 Comment: @tombcn Can't cage a hairdresser
Sun Mar 15 18:58 All the people applying for emergency planning permission to extend their hovels so they can put two metres between themselves and their nearest and dearest
Sun Mar 15 21:06 Comment: @Transblawg You will require an axe
Sun Mar 15 21:15 Comment: @Transblawg My duty is already done: I'm only half the man I was
Sun Mar 15 21:28 Since for the British this is all about toilet paper, shouldn't we be calling it copro-calypse instead of #coronapocolypse ?
Sun Mar 15 22:27 My offer to be her pallbearer was well meant
Sun Mar 15 23:31 Historia de Barcelona, 16/3: * 1758: Restauradas varias instituciones quitadas por Felipe V (53) * 1918: Pla: El senyor Balaguer, escrivent del Jutjat municipal, sol prendre cafè amb el meu pare * 1919: Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, el torero del 27, recibe la…
Mon Mar 16 23:31 Historia de Barcelona, 17/3: * 1810: Cataluña declarada dependencia del imperio francés (63) * 1844: Ábrese la primera caja de ahorros (6) * 1919: Pla: A Palafrugell tothom es coneix i això fa que a la superfície de la vida vilatana, al voltant dels…
Tue Mar 17 23:31 Historia de Barcelona, 18/3: * 1376: Se ahogan 60 personas al hundirse un barco procedente de Génova (19/i) * 1462: Primer dibujo de una bandera de guerra en Barcelona, la de san Jorge (141) * ~1523: Sale Ignacio de Loyola para Tierra Santa con algo de…
Wed Mar 18 16:30 Comment: @ultrasonica @tombcn Shouldn't the question be the other way around? I haven't often seen dogs get tired before their owners
Wed Mar 18 16:37 Cunning of AT to switch, just before the apocalypse, from grandfather clock manufacture to reëngineering cars to run on cooking oil (arrives midnight), with nice electronics and a laptop running VAG Suite etc. A puff of smoke & a 20 yo Skoda does 90 mph & smells like a chip shop
Wed Mar 18 19:30 Maybe people still know who Vera Lynn was, and the joke about her and the eskimos will still work
Wed Mar 18 20:12 Comment: @Transblawg I'm not sure the joke's funny anyway. Two Eskimos are sitting on an ice floe, and one says to the other, "What's for dinner tonight?" "Dame Vera Lynn." "Oh, not whale meat again."
Wed Mar 18 22:24 One bus (X17) a week connects Petersfield and Bishop's Waltham (old post: Passenger: So will this bus be running next week? Driver: Dunno mate. Passenger: Gis yer email. Driver: I'm on Facebook.
Wed Mar 18 23:37 Historia de Barcelona, 19/3: * 1840: Se coloca la primera piedra para el mercado de la Boquería en el terreno de la iglesia de San José en el día del santo (24+13) * 1918: Pla: lectures, família * 1919: Pla: La meva germana Rosa m’escriu dient que han…
Thu Mar 19 08:20 On reflection, we've actually got a huge stash of toilet paper: Dr Thomas Trevor ApSimon, at Gallipoli, in Palestine & then on the Western Front wrote thousands of letters on toilet paper, which, as I scan and transcribe them, can be usefully recycled
Thu Mar 19 08:30 Marie-Antoinette
Thu Mar 19 08:45 Comment: @SirWilliamD @lordbonkers See Feinstein's Theory of Relatives, though I think all Mr Levene's Hessel Street cats were asleep or had been eaten
Thu Mar 19 09:01 Comment: @ibexsalad The radio is all people from Hampstead with massive freezers talking macroeconomics, but for the poor the chaos in retail is worse than communism
Thu Mar 19 09:34 Comment: @ibexsalad Oh dear, oh dear.
Thu Mar 19 11:55 Comment: @ibexsalad Brown was droning on on the radio this morning. Basically most people would prefer to die than have him back.
Thu Mar 19 14:33 Comment: @AndrewHammel1 I can do Walkürenritt with kazoo with barrel organ. If the sun ever shines again I'm going to go out and face the army
Thu Mar 19 14:34 - Shall we go to the marshes? - I hear they've started a mass grave there.
Thu Mar 19 20:32 "we listen more & sing less": Una Canzone by Alice Rohrwacher
Thu Mar 19 23:36 Historia de Barcelona, 20/3: * 1915: José Comas Solá, el primer español de descubrir un asteroide (29) * 1925: Disolución de la Mancomunidad (0) * ☼ 06:52-19:04, 12:12 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación 49,38%, antigüedad 22 días * ✞ Arquipo, Juan…
Fri Mar 20 07:42 Hundreds of people queuing from Tesco Morning Lane to Mare Street this morning at 6 for 7 opening, but no fights because nothing there. Apparently the best scraps are Poles vs Bangladeshis at Asda Leyton Mills
Fri Mar 20 12:28 Cornershops with markups of 30% to infinity aren't practical anyway for the (borderline) foodbank folks round here, but even they're running out, judging by the half mile queue of white vans outside the TRS International cash & carry on the Argall Ave industrial estate, Leyton
Fri Mar 20 15:48 Comment: The government doesn't seem to have the faintest that there are two, not one, public health/order emergencies. Windian guy early this morning was grateful to Boris for saying that it might last 3 months: "He's told me how much I need to stash. I've only got 12 packs of spag..."
Fri Mar 20 15:49 Comment: Also, jokingly: "But I don't need toilet paper. I'm African, all I need is my hand and some water." Kenyan Indian guy on my other side, also jokingly: "I'm African too, and I need toilet paper."
Fri Mar 20 18:58 Comment: @tombcn We're trying to get her down at 6:30 now, which someone thinks will get her to sleep through to 8, instead of waking at 4 or 5. The NE Iberian strategy appears different - perhaps you could explain.
Fri Mar 20 19:39 Comment: @tombcn You must be saints! My better half is very well organised, but even she acknowledges the monstrous luck we've had so far. Apart from the fact that we're all going to die and our last date was when we escaped a storm into a Wetherspoon's.
Fri Mar 20 19:40 I play the piano. Does that make me a key worker?
Fri Mar 20 19:44 I kind of anticipated Corvid-19
Fri Mar 20 19:44 Comment: @tombcn Hahahaha, she totally owns you.
Fri Mar 20 21:21 Comment: @Transblawg If she's 103 she's past vulnerable. I still don't know why there are bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover. Are they the Americans, or some type of aeroplane?
Fri Mar 20 23:37 Historia de Barcelona, 21/3: * 1848: Empieza la primavera (122) * 1918: Pla: En aquest país tenim un costum molt curiós * 1919: Pla: Inici de la primavera * ☼ 06:50-19:06, 12:15 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación 49,38%, antigüedad 22 días * ✞ María…
Sat Mar 21 09:33 Comment: @Transblawg I always hated playing it with jazz bands because the distinctive chord sequences meant you could never fully improvise your way away from the original. And I found the national element weird - jazz tunes should be about pigfeet and bottles of beer and Dinah.
Sat Mar 21 09:52 Apparently we self-employed are not even allowed to take our barrel organs out onto the street to beg with cholera songs
Sat Mar 21 09:54 Comment: I suppose the solution is for someone to hire us on 80% subsidy and for us to pay them cash backhanders
Sat Mar 21 11:19 Local Tesco. I was OK with my 19th century police baton and 50 Easter eggs
Sat Mar 21 16:13 Victoria Park absolutely rammed & no social distance warriors in sight. Feels like England must have felt when the Puritans banned pubs and sports
Sat Mar 21 16:23 Diary of a Covidian
Sat Mar 21 19:28 A proper druid
Sat Mar 21 19:55 Victor Olaiya (RIP) & band playing Mr Judge The Nigerian ET Mensah. I think Fela Kuti was playing with him at this stage
Sat Mar 21 21:54 Why's it bad to hoard toilet paper but OK to hoard pounds sterling?
Sat Mar 21 23:40 Historia de Barcelona, 22/3: * 1071: Implantación del rito romano en San Juan de la Peña gracias a la mujer francesa de Sancho Ramírez; Barcelona sigue un mes después (0+894) * 1460: Juan II de Aragón perdona a su hijo rebelde (20) * 1810: Los franceses…
Sun Mar 22 06:40 A couple of new words here
Sun Mar 22 06:41 Comment: @Transblawg So a JPG will work?
Sun Mar 22 07:48 I went into the phone booth round the corner to get tested. The phone connected to a brothel and someone opened the door and urinated on me.
Sun Mar 22 09:29 Apparent hoarding as shift in demand rather than increase
Sun Mar 22 17:25 Marvellous Sunday without the sterile tyranny of motorised transport and gastropubs
Sun Mar 22 19:21 Cherubim, Seraphim, Sabbatarian, shepherd, Sedgwick Street. Cherubum is a registered trademark applied to enema devices
Sun Mar 22 22:03 Shanty classification
Sun Mar 22 23:39 Historia de Barcelona, 23/3: * 1702: Muere José Oriol (10) * 1848: Fiesta de San José Oriol, nativo de Barcelona (232) * 1919: Pla: Diumenge * 1923: Ford deja Cádiz para instalarse en Barcelona (101) * ☼ 06:47-19:08, 12:21 horas; ☾ luna menguante,…
Mon Mar 23 07:15 Look up and down that long lonesome road / Hang down your head and cry, my Lord / Hang down your head and cry. A curious couple of scrap metal collectors on the Lea Bridge Road last Friday. I cannot imagine their problems.
Mon Mar 23 08:24 Is there a correlation between ownership of a large fridge & garden & support for lockdown?
Mon Mar 23 09:00 Are altar-cloth carpets the origin of the carpets there used to be on the stamtafels of Dutch bars? It used to be said that this was a homage to Golden Age painting, but I never believed that
Mon Mar 23 10:02 The neighbours never really talked about their jobs, & so I always assumed they were police, but now they're working from home it is obvious that they are employed by a huge top-secret cannabis testing organisation
Mon Mar 23 20:23 Comment: @Transblawg If I plead claustrophobia they'll lock me up somewhere even smaller
Mon Mar 23 23:38 Historia de Barcelona, 24/3: * 1443: Terremoto (1+6) * 1895: Inauguración de la Biblioteca Pública Arús (101) * 1918: Pla: En tornar de cacera o de passeig, Gori fa cap a la botiga de vetes-i-fils que posseeix al carrer de Cavallers, s’instal·la al seu…
Tue Mar 24 06:21 Extensive digitisation of work couldn't have come at a better moment for London's failing infrastructure. More grist for the conspiracy millers
Tue Mar 24 06:49 Marvellous painting by Jan van Kessel the Elder (C17th): Saturn aka Chronos devours one of his children. One wonders, as in 2007-8, when the young will object to being dragooned into sacrificing themselves for those who ate & flew the planet into the ground
Tue Mar 24 07:03 A minor shame that the verb milk is no longer used to mean suckle (eg Glorius virgin, Mayden, moder off god, / Doughter and Ancelle, which milkest with-all / The sone of god with thy brestes brod), so that lactavit loses in translation
Tue Mar 24 07:15 Précis: "We can ask whether collateral damage to society & economy from aggressive suppression is justifiable, & whether the benefit will be exceeded by mortality from other causes: suicides, cardiac events ex inactivity or mortality ex unemployment & reduced living standards"
Tue Mar 24 07:33 Comment: @tombcn We are allowed one exercise event a day, and joyfully that hasn't been measured in miles or hours. Have you got stairs?
Tue Mar 24 08:39 Babe has misty look in her eyes when you eat porridge, like a sheepdog when you eat roast lamb
Tue Mar 24 08:47 M. Hancock MD has notice something rather remarkable, perhaps unique, about corona: "the disease reserves its full cruelty for the weakest and the most vulnerable"
Tue Mar 24 08:50 Comment: @jpchapela @tombcn You're all going to die of heart disease etc through forced inactivity, and, because the economy has been killed off, you won't be able to afford a funeral
Tue Mar 24 09:35 Comment: @tombcn @jpchapela
Tue Mar 24 14:26 AMA's spirit level, and the table built therewith for my 4th birthday
Tue Mar 24 19:15 Churches often lean as if on purpose
Tue Mar 24 19:15 Just Married: some boat on the Lea Navigation
Tue Mar 24 23:36 Historia de Barcelona, 25/3: * 1329: Empieza construcción de Santa María del Mar (14) * 1580: Luis de León gana un certámen poético sobre la inmortalidad del alma (34) * 1749: Fundación de la sociedad de préstamo caritativo, el Real Monte de Piedad de…
Wed Mar 25 06:04 Why are the Italians & Spaniards mandated to maintain one metre distance and the Brits two? Because southern Europeans are shorter? How does it fit in with stereotypes of kissy & cold cultures? Exhibit: Los De La Corona sing "A un metro de distancia"
Wed Mar 25 06:17 Comment: @dr_m_inthenorth I wonder if the function is the same as these niches in the early C18th ruins of the castle at La Granada, Barcelona province. Neither locals nor the 100s of people I showed round could tell me what they were. Perhaps the bottle is decorative, cf Bottle Cottage, Frogmore, Hants
Wed Mar 25 08:34 99% certain that niches in the castle, La Granada, Barcelona are bee boles. Other niche apiaries: Etruscan/Roman at Soriano del Cimino, Lazio Roman at Xemxija, Malta @DavidPetts1 @fraglast @dr_m_inthenorth
Wed Mar 25 08:36 Comment: Is the association between bees & the dead partly down to both inhabiting niches in walls, in the Mediterranean at least?
Wed Mar 25 08:43 Comment: Economía general de la casa campo (1720) is one of various Spanish works describing construction of bee boles Detail: SE orientation, & avoid the setting sun, which is bad for them
Wed Mar 25 08:46 Nature of the Church
Wed Mar 25 19:11 Comment: @Transblawg That'll definitely save the high street
Wed Mar 25 20:33 Devastated that British farmers are being paid to feed wild birds bleeding quinoa
Wed Mar 25 21:19 Does Singing Organ-Grinder Lea Valley Blackberry Jam protect against corona (& against elephants in your front garden)?! Still no consumer has tested (positive)
Wed Mar 25 21:46 .@TowerHamletsNow @MPSTowerHam @MPSHackney close @VickyParkLondon in order to improve social distancing by cramming people into smaller spaces. Utter morons.
Wed Mar 25 23:38 Historia de Barcelona, 26/3: * 1626: Al entrar por primera vez en Barcelona, Felipe IV cambia de caballo para no incomodar al conseller en cap (1576+197/i) * 1629: Empieza construcción de la Casa de Convalecencia (11) * ☼ 06:42-19:11, 12:29 horas; ☾…
Thu Mar 26 06:35 I had what I thought was a brief fever 9 days ago and a bit of a cough, which I initially put down to a revival of January's bronchial uprising, so I do wonder
Thu Mar 26 06:49 The tomb of Gilbert Sheldon, able but repellent de facto Primate of England on the Restoration (Coleridge: the most virulent enemy & poisoner of the English Church). In Croydon's splendid Victorian parish church aka minster. Not to be confused with Fat Freddie's Gilbert Shelton
Thu Mar 26 08:24 Comment: @Transblawg Which Barbie are you? Rosa is Riveter Barbie.
Thu Mar 26 08:31 Roman Europe under the barbarian yoke: "I know they can't spell, but aren't they cute!"
Thu Mar 26 09:39 RIP Fred van de Ven, a marvellous man & an excellent poet
Thu Mar 26 13:23 Comment: @TowerHamletsNow @MPSTowerHam @MPSHackney @VickyParkLondon So with crime right down, the Met is incapable of dispersing a couple of dozen peaceable people and fining a few to set an example? Some car drivers break the law, but you wouldn't close down the road network in response. Drivers need roads, & we need our parks @MayorJohnBiggs
Thu Mar 26 13:28 Comment: A lovely obit from Diane Wevers at the library
Thu Mar 26 14:53 The Dutch are distancing 1.5 metres, despite being taller than us. Perhaps British behavioural psychos don't trust us, and think that if they preach 1.5 m we'll practise 1.0 m
Thu Mar 26 16:50 Comment: @ibexsalad I don't think anyone in Singapore & Hong Kong lives in a house, but they seem to be doing ok
Thu Mar 26 18:57 Social distancing: the closure yesterday of Victoria Park vs 3 cops playing basketball with the locals at Bethnal Green Garden today. Is the Met chaotic, or addressing two threats: corona (Vicky Park) & potential public disorder (eg from ongoing lack of basic supplies)?
Thu Mar 26 23:37 Historia de Barcelona, 27/3: * 1461: Expulsados los "castellanos" y "vascos" (30) * 1842: Pascuas de Resurrección y Pentecostes, 1842: Cordero en la mesa, excursiones al Coll (110) * 1869: Sale el primer número de la revista satírica La Flaca (493+16/i)…
Fri Mar 27 07:10 Comment: @RuthAnderPrints Boohoo. I have a Nokia 100.
Fri Mar 27 07:12 Mail in the last couple of months to Bath being consistently delivered to the wrong address. Has coronavirus taken control of Royal Mail automatic sorting machines? What will be its next move?
Fri Mar 27 07:16 Babe has seen me laughing, smiling, and being weird, but yesterday was quite hard, & now unsure whether her expression was one of empathy or surprise.
Fri Mar 27 07:18 Time to open a few new chalk quarries on the South Downs?
Fri Mar 27 07:53 Excellent piece from @EdSheridanLDR on @TowerHamletsNow & @metpoliceuk 's foolish decision to close Victoria Park
Fri Mar 27 08:21 Musicians not surprised by the NHS's discovery last night that the public thinks applause is a good substitute for salary
Fri Mar 27 08:37 Also: if people want to sit on a bench or on the grass, let them. This ain't China.
Fri Mar 27 10:52 Comment: @miotei I haven't heard of cases where someone has not been taken in because of age/condition, but I do know of cases, as in other countries, where patients who are going to die anyway have been allowed to go home, with assistance
Fri Mar 27 10:59 Dead March from Handel's Saul If you're going to die, make sure there are three trombonists nearby
Fri Mar 27 12:35 Comment: @TowerHamletsNow @EdSheridanLDR @metpoliceuk So why are the police incapable of dispersing (and fining if necessary) peaceful people, given that all other crime seems to have plummeted?
Fri Mar 27 17:01 Man drinking alone on a tomb in a cemetery, chanting, "Boris has got the bug, la la la la la."
Fri Mar 27 20:16 Reminder to self: C19 generally no longer refers to the nineteenth century
Fri Mar 27 22:22 Proverbs 28:27 at the ashler gate, Whitgift Almshouses, Hospital of the Holy Trinity, North End, Croydon: Qui dat pauperi non indigebit; qui despicit deprecantem sustinebit penuriam: He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack; but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse
Fri Mar 27 23:37 Historia de Barcelona, 28/3: * 1460: Entra Carlos de Viana durante el conflicto con Juan II de Aragón (17) * 1706: Los burgueses y catalanes se preparan para defender la ciudad, los ingleses y holandeses el castillo de Montjuic (162+18) * 1849:…
Sat Mar 28 08:54 Hammersmith & Fulham have acknowledged that closing the parks looked like a war on the poor & reopened. So what about Victoria Park @TowerHamletsNow ? #Hackney
Sat Mar 28 10:10 Approach seems to be that once you've had corona, you can work, so why wouldn't anyone young & healthy & unsure of their economic prospects want to get it?
Sat Mar 28 10:18 Superb model of the Victory in the reception area of Trafalgar House, Croydon. But none of the excellent people there seems to know what it is, nor about the relationship between the one and the other.
Sat Mar 28 15:24 Daily Mail paps and estate agents should be forced to exchange camera lenses: compression distortion makes people on paths look absurdly close together (corona panic!) and extension distortion makes tiny rooms look massive (what a bargain!)
Sat Mar 28 15:31 Comment: @archivedelver None in London either. Considering milling some cardboard boxes.
Sat Mar 28 17:27 Comment: @tombcn Can you mail me some toilet paper?
Sat Mar 28 19:34 "the off licence may have eggs, but you have to buy 15"
Sat Mar 28 19:38 There's a superior English cousin along the lines of: "Being locked down with my spouse is great in many respects, but I do miss the sex."
Sat Mar 28 20:53 Needed because Tesco still hasn't got any, 2 weeks after the govt said supply chain probs were almost fixed: nappies for 6 kg baby, kitchen roll, toilet paper, flour
Sat Mar 28 23:39 Historia de Barcelona, 29/3: * 1636: Entra un espléndido bigote castellano, camino al amor de una italiana riquísima y el virreinato de Nápoles (134/i) * 1799: Entra en vigor la dispensa papal permitiendo el consumo de carne durante Cuaresma (27) * 1919:…
Sun Mar 29 05:58 So Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 (geddit) 45C (3) (c) et seq. is the second monster unleashed - our monster
Sun Mar 29 06:11 I tend to translate "vrijgemaakt" (e.g. re budget) as "liberated" but wonder whether Belgians or Catholics get the joke
Sun Mar 29 08:44 60 offices here one day: Containerville, Bethnal Green
Sun Mar 29 10:34 Windmill contradicts proverb & strays in search of wind
Sun Mar 29 18:47 If poor taste is a symptom, I've had it since I was 16
Sun Mar 29 23:41 Historia de Barcelona, 30/3: * 1410: Terremoto muy grande (11+10) * 1623: La ciudad manda evitar la acumulación de ballasto en el puerto (29+42/i) * 1873: Quema y profanación de iglesias tras la toma por los carlistas de Berga (391) * 1919: Pla: Diumenge…
Mon Mar 30 07:48 Can't we just sew some distinguishing mark onto our clothes until we've had it?
Mon Mar 30 08:42 No flour, so having to hunt bread. Carrs Foods International/St Pierre Groupe's Baker Street-branded rye & wheat bread, acquired from the Turk, is quite comically bad - appears to be shredded plastic, but unlike plastic (or bread or anything) doesn't toast - zombie bread
Mon Mar 30 13:31 Tower Hamlets has kicked plague suspects out of its park, boaters don't want you on "their" towpaths, & so I'm thinking of setting up a contribution-financed scheme to protect our street from strangers & enable me to source some toilet roll. Welcome to the Middle Ages
Mon Mar 30 14:20 Population seems 50% hysterical, 25% indifferent, 25% relaxed. Woman on the old watercourse past the horseriding centre, screaming at her boyfriend: "That's NOT what I call social distancing!" But babe admired at close quarters by one gorgeous granny
Mon Mar 30 14:21 Comment: @petersymon Cf Spanish official International Women's Day demonstrations. SWP meetings are not a major concern
Mon Mar 30 15:11 Comment: @sirosenbaum @DrFrancisYoung Maybe it was for real.
Mon Mar 30 15:49 Thinking of getting another buggy, because if the world goes tits up we're going to need a pram B
Mon Mar 30 16:10 To mitigate the lack of masques, I will be putting on The Gypsies Metamorphosed by Ben Jonson in St James' Park following the national anti-corona demonstration in Trafalgar Square on Saturday
Mon Mar 30 19:10 RT @Raphael_Hogarth: Some police forces are, in my view, making three mistakes in how they enforce the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Rest…
Mon Mar 30 19:13 Ctrl+F "Isle of Man"
Mon Mar 30 20:22 A short film about the Waterworks Nature Reserve, site of a proposed narcomaniac electronic dance festival
Mon Mar 30 23:37 Historia de Barcelona, 31/3: * 1569: Llega noticia del asesinato del líder de los hugonotes (25) * 1854: Huelga de artesanos (36) * 1919: Pla: La vaga general –ja morta– s’ha acabat oficialment avui * ☼ 06:33-19:16, 12:43 horas; ☾ luna menguante,…
Tue Mar 31 08:12 If the British don't rise up at this they are nothing
Tue Mar 31 08:17 Waitrose customers don't go on their hands & knees to inspect the backs of bottom shelves, so 4.5 kg of wholemeal flour are mine. Now an urgent nappy hunt.
Tue Mar 31 12:46 The police invented corona so they'll get all the kebabs
Tue Mar 31 17:37 Never tickle someone with poo in their pants
Tue Mar 31 17:40 RT @MattCartoonist: My latest cartoon for tomorrow's @Telegraph Subscribe to my weekly newsletter to receive my unseen cartoons:
Tue Mar 31 18:55 Organ-grinders demand government support in Mexico City. Given my fine collection of pipes & modest tariffs I recently tried to join the Plumbing Trades Union, but they no longer exist and Unite wasn't interested.
Tue Mar 31 19:08 Stunning model railway layout of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. Note the rejigged topography (castle south of the gorge) & the gent taking a break
Tue Mar 31 19:40 Lovely version of Monteverdi, Ohimè, se tanto amate
Tue Mar 31 23:38 Historia de Barcelona, 1/4: * 1777: Nace Alí Bey (15+179) * 1809: Numerosas detenciones por negarse a jurar lealtad a los franceses (657) * 1828: Fernando VII y su tercera esposa visitan los baños públicos de Can Casteliu (0+6) * 1836: Dimite Espoz y…