Tweets for September 2020

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

Tue Sep 01 06:04 King Alcohol
Tue Sep 01 06:18 Go back! If WFH is so bad for you & the world, why hasn't freelancing been banned? Oh, sorry, we're meant to do that while sitting in Starbucks too, because that's good for the tax base
Tue Sep 01 06:27 I think of a bumflap as a buttock, but apparently it is a piece of clothing hung round there to keep you dry when camping
Tue Sep 01 06:30 Comment: So what's an amusing bisyllabic synonym for buttock? No one knows hiney.
Tue Sep 01 06:35 Comment: (Grose has rump-and-kidney men: fiddlers that play at feasts, fairs, weddings, etc. and live chiefly on the remnants.)
Tue Sep 01 06:45 Comment: The notion in Camden Hotten's slang dictionary that the hurdy-gurdy is so called because it is hung on the hurdies, buttocks/loins
Tue Sep 01 06:49 Comment: ( Count. Marry, that’s a bountiful answer that fits all questions. Clo. It is like a barber’s chair that fits all buttocks; the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock, the brawn-buttock, or any buttock. But I'm not looking for a taxonomy of bums.)
Tue Sep 01 06:57 Comment: Keith Lemon says ar$eflaps, so bumflap it is
Tue Sep 01 14:37 Simon Jones of Bala would be rejoicing in his general store
Tue Sep 01 14:41 I always thought that Radio 4 comedy was job creation scheme for relatives of BBC execs who had come down from Oxford but failed to find work with the British Council
Tue Sep 01 19:44 Notion that the great British cladding scandal affects millions of people, not hundreds of thousands, & that few modern flats are built to plan or in accordance with safety regs. Dilemma: ease regs (hard post-Grenfell) / spend untold billions fixing / lose the next election?
Tue Sep 01 22:01 The translator's take on the Greek policeman's quotation of Harry Maguire touches on the old debate about whether John 1:1 means "the word was God" or "the word was a god" - the Greeks don't have an indefinite article & sometimes omit definite articles in ways we find puzzling
Tue Sep 01 22:43 Historia de Barcelona, 2/9: #otd * 1467: Es elegido conde de Barcelona Juan de Lorena, pretendiente a la corona de Aragón (25) * 1843: La Jamancia: Barcelona es tomada por los rebeldes (354+26/i) * 1899: Llegan los sobrevivientes del sitio de Baler,…
Tue Sep 01 23:20 Comment: @JulianChamorroC ¡Sigue vivo don Julián!
Tue Sep 01 23:56 I never trusted the Soup Dragon.
Wed Sep 02 22:41 Historia de Barcelona, 3/9: #otd * 1843: La Jamancia: instalación de la Junta Suprema, huida de refugiados (648) * 1848: Fiesta de Nuestra Señora de Consolación (13) * 1918: Pla: Fa més de quatre anys que dura la guerra –quatre anys i un mes exactament *…
Thu Sep 03 05:58 I thought that the whole point of the internet was that someone would have contacted me by now to tell me more about the 350 Jews who more or less #OTD in 1945 left Barcelona for Palestine
Thu Sep 03 06:14 The story about phones growing on trees is great
Thu Sep 03 08:31 Gmail seems to want to correct "knacked" to "knackered"
Thu Sep 03 08:35 I was somewhat cheaper
Thu Sep 03 16:09 - Is there a farmers market? - Er, there are weekly livestock & crop auctions, and every now and again there's a sheepdog auction.
Thu Sep 03 20:21 If the lurgy was actually transmitted via inanimate surfaces then all the empty hand-sanitiser stations installed by Tower Hamlets in Victoria Park would be comedy gold
Thu Sep 03 22:34 Historia de Barcelona, 4/9: #otd * 1269: Los vientos impiden a Jaime I de ayudar a los mongoles en Tierra Santa (37+11) * 1843: La Jamancia: conflicto interno (442) * 1918: Pla: Al carrer de Cavallers trobo Marià Vinyas, de Sant Feliu de Guíxols * ☼…
Fri Sep 04 05:16 Those funny Germans note that it is technically an overhead monorail - the track is rigid & contact is maintained at all times between vehicle and track. Also, the Prussian Small Railway Act classed it legally as a railway, but in 1943 it was reclassified as a tram.
Fri Sep 04 05:21 Comment: The section of track overland was nicknamed "the curtain rail" because on construction the operators paid for residents to install curtains so that voyeurs wouldn't profit from fleeting glances.
Fri Sep 04 05:24 Comment: In 1950 a circus paid for it to transport a young elephant called Tuffi, which broke through the side and fell into the River Wupper, suffering minor injuries. A mural recall the scene. All photos you see of the accident are fake - all the reporters were in the car at the time.
Fri Sep 04 05:30 Comment: Haribo sells replica fruit gums as Wuppertaler Schwebis.
Fri Sep 04 05:31 Comment: I'm amazed that comprehensive renovation only began when the railway was a century old. It still looks less competent than a fairground ride.
Fri Sep 04 05:34 4 billion to make the Palace of Westminster fit for MPs. 1.6 billion to make thousands of buildings affected by the cladding scandal fit for ordinary people.
Fri Sep 04 05:42 Charlie Hebdo is covering the trial of those involved in the January 2015 attacks at their offices and a Jewish supermarket
Fri Sep 04 06:04 Jewel Brown Louis Armstrong was slagged by people who knew better for his 1965 concerts representing the US in Europe, but I don't know if anyone else altered Black & Blue to sing "my only sin is my skin."
Fri Sep 04 11:47 Respect to the Chinese mum who's letting her young daughter cycle unaccompanied round and round the block on the public road. Very unlikely to be injured, but no one tell social services.
Fri Sep 04 15:58 Babe responds to "Wave!" but not "Stop!"
Fri Sep 04 18:15 Comment: @Ludaico Ups, gracias!
Fri Sep 04 22:32 Historia de Barcelona, 5/9: #otd * 1422: Desastrosas pruebas de artillería (19+43) * 1843: La Jamancia: asalto a Sarriá (280/i) * 1918: Pla: Em demano sovint si aquest dietari és sincer, és a dir, si és un document absolutament íntim * 1919: Pla: La…
Sat Sep 05 04:41 Comment: @russellwyatt Haha, indeed!
Sat Sep 05 04:44 I bet on Biden - losing it, but his opponent never had it - & then all this came along. They need Trump.
Sat Sep 05 05:28 I only found out last night about the Staithes impressionists
Sat Sep 05 05:34 Large underclass cocaine melee opposite. It has been discovered that one of the roosters has been seeing all of the hens. A tiny Bangladeshi lady scuttling around, & a broken-down old white man limping around, trying to calm things. Works well visually on a nice morning like this
Sat Sep 05 06:12 RT @YasMohammedxx: #UAE was the first to lead the Muslim majority world out of a long history of antisemitism and now #Sudan is leading the…
Sat Sep 05 06:26 "Hand-shaker" for the misdirection by pickpockets in 1899 New York Chinatown (The Opium King; Or, the Bradys' Great Chinatown Case). Trying to remember any such term for the Maghrebi tripper pickpockets
Sat Sep 05 06:32 Why hasn't Arthur Kay got a Wikipedia page?
Sat Sep 05 07:04 Song of the Hungry Dog
Sat Sep 05 15:22 Sex & power in Podemos
Sat Sep 05 19:14 Comment: @WateryTom Quite a lot - although not necessarily from a perspective or in a style you'd appreciate
Sat Sep 05 19:29 Ah! derelict land!
Sat Sep 05 21:30 Don Quijote by Los Cinco Latinos
Sat Sep 05 22:27 Historia de Barcelona, 6/9: #otd * 1491: Funerales regios en honor del Infante de Portugal, esposo de la hija mayor de los Reyes Católicos (23) * 1529: Se acaba la segunda guerra entre Carlos I de España y Francisco I de Francia (21) * 1843: La Jamancia:…
Sun Sep 06 06:13 Sedulius, Carmen paschale: Matthew plays the role of the whole human race; Mark roars like the loud voice of a lion through the wilderness; Luke holds the office of the priesthood with the face of an ox; Flying like an eagle, John reaches for the stars with his word.
Sun Sep 06 08:29 Good luck pursuing a developer when it's a Hong Kong company run by someone called Mao
Sun Sep 06 15:36 Comment: @WateryTom I'm not a subscriber, but I think he was a bit of a fan of the other Mr Corbyn
Sun Sep 06 16:29 Survey of countries where blasphemy is still on the statute book
Sun Sep 06 18:18 Comment: @petersymon [Googles cause of death: bladder, not lungs or brain]
Sun Sep 06 21:34 Maths. This is the Kent AirBnB with dodgy timbers which banned people over 16 stone.
Sun Sep 06 22:25 Historia de Barcelona, 7/9: #otd * 1487: Celebraciones tras la toma de Málaga por Fernando el Católico (23) * 1843: La Jamancia: contradicción sangrienta del supuesto apoyo de Montjuic a la Junta (416) * 1919: Pla: A la matinada veig el doctor…
Mon Sep 07 10:21 RT @pennyfeather1: Lydia Davis in the new Paris Review sums it up for so many of us...🤔😩🤣💀
Mon Sep 07 17:42 RT @TitaniaMcGrath: This is one of the most disturbing videos I’ve ever seen. Please share this far and wide so that everyone understands…
Mon Sep 07 17:46 The infant seems pretty much to have taken control of spoon & plate: very slow, but on balance I think she's eating more & less is ending up on the floor. Can we have our lives back now?
Mon Sep 07 17:57 Now whenever I meet him in Tesco & he starts telling passersby that my blog gave him back his family ("Some people say it will be on the internet forever. Do you think that's true?") the infant begins to howl. The look's definitely sharper, but not scary
Mon Sep 07 18:32 RT @hilarybennmp: My call, in the House of Commons just now, for the Government to sort out the cladding nightmare which is putting intoler…
Mon Sep 07 18:47 One lesson of The Merchant of Venice for Shylock is that inclusion is sometimes worse than exclusion, but I can't find a pungent proverb/quote to express that
Mon Sep 07 22:17 Historia de Barcelona, 8/9: #otd * 1235: Boda de Jaime I y Violante de Hungría (21+5) * 1541: Nuestra Señora de Montserrat libra a un fraile de varias heridas mortales (424) * 1821: Declárase oficialmente la fiebre amarilla (6) * 1848: Romería a…
Tue Sep 08 06:11 The Brits discover percebes, which are revolting
Tue Sep 08 06:16 Privatisation of the pavement on Well Street, Hackney: Post Office queue, row of pizzeria tables, single-file walkway for pedestrians/waiters, old pizzeria tables. There's parking for SUVs on both sides of the road, & the one on this side could easily be removed @jonburkeUK
Tue Sep 08 06:45 Josep Pla: Before the First World War, all those couples to be found in Barcelona, particularly if their components appeared to be children from a well-to-do family, had a languid and shredded (desfibrada) exteriorization, as if they aspired to be touched by the moonlight.
Tue Sep 08 08:35 Ah, colonialism
Tue Sep 08 09:11 Comment: @petersymon Throw your phone away & you may survive
Tue Sep 08 09:14 Guardian redundancy tracker suggests the worst is past - not the narrative they were promoting when they started it (
Tue Sep 08 09:47 Land Registry contact form automated response doesn't use the first name you provide in the "Dear X" address, but instead tries to reconstruct your first name from your email address by replacing punctuation by spaces & applying lower case. Digital Britain.
Tue Sep 08 10:10 Comment: Hypothesis: internal email addresses are all of the form First.last & they've reused an internal form which parses first name on that basis & haven't bothered to test it. Nice salary, pension, office - a life in the public service.
Tue Sep 08 10:21 Comment: @HMLandRegistry Done via DM
Tue Sep 08 18:38 Late middle-aged man at Tesco recounting loudly his Covid-19 experience: "And I still haven't got my facking sense of taste back!" He was wearing pink faded jeans and a blue denim shirt. I have seen worse at Tesco.
Tue Sep 08 18:44 Met the Angel of History walking backwards round the park again. Last time we exchanged small talk, and this time he denied his identity, but said he would explain who he is next time.
Tue Sep 08 22:47 Historia de Barcelona, 9/9: #otd * 1423: Llega Alfonso V de Aragón después de sus aventuras italianas (17) * 1783: Empiezan construcción del pastim, los hornos de munición (12) * 1881: Luis Moritz pide legalizar un generador en su fábrica de cerveza en…
Wed Sep 09 08:43 At least there weren't seven of them. Reminded of an incident long ago where I discovered two pupils having sex on a playing field. Proud of my improvisation: "Well, at least you're not smoking."
Wed Sep 09 08:49 Excellent trumpeter but appalling mixes - Bach at the service of an ego
Wed Sep 09 08:53 Curious after encountering a Hong Kong developer run by a Mr Mao whether non-res non-dom Chinese leaseholders of investment flats all over London will have more luck pursuing developers/government over the cladding scandal. I think we already have a rough idea of Jenrick's price.
Wed Sep 09 09:20 Comment: @Captain_Bionic What after all is the point of Britain if both freelancers & drinking pubs are screwed?
Wed Sep 09 13:22 It's an absolute joy as a crusty freelancer with a shrunken heart to oversee others' WFH corporate meetings, in which beautiful people with full and pure souls explain how they are going to help and improve humanity
Wed Sep 09 17:43 RT @DannyBate4: The word 'calque' is a loanword, while 'loanword' is a calque.
Wed Sep 09 17:44 Calling The Magnificent Seven
Wed Sep 09 20:32 But where are Hannibal's elephants? Or was he real?
Wed Sep 09 22:48 Historia de Barcelona, 10/9: #otd * 1638: Llega noticia del levantamiento del sitio de Fuenterrabía, pero no todo el mundo está contento (554+2) * 1843: La Jamancia: "Antes que ser esclavos nos sepultaremos entre las ruinas de esta ciudad" (846+11/i) *…
Thu Sep 10 06:31 RT @thhamilton: The thing about competence is that it’s only a dividing line when it’s a dividing line.
Thu Sep 10 06:48 A year ago "algorithm" made many people shut up, but now if you want to confuse em you have to say "a finite sequence of well-defined, computer-implementable instructions named after Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī"
Thu Sep 10 08:49 RT @carltonreid: Registered vehicles on UK roads: 1991: 20 million 2007: 27 million 2016: 37 million 2020: 38.3 million (2022: 40 million)…
Thu Sep 10 09:27 Comment: @mayorofhackney @elondems @TfL @hackneycouncil @TowerHamletsNow @MayorJohnBiggs @MayorofLondon So how about doing something about Well Street between Tesco & Morning Lane? Car parking on both sides frequently impinging on pavements, & building works & PO queue/pizzeria tables blocking pavement on east side
Thu Sep 10 09:29 This is what I get if I google "hell hath no furry"
Thu Sep 10 09:39 Comment: @lordbonkers @DrFrancisYoung You can't say that without also saying whether you think that spawned the Rabbit of Caerbannog
Thu Sep 10 09:43 1st day we prammed it past parkside nursery, little girl comes up to railings & shouts "Baby!" 2nd day she comes up again & I sing her a song. 3rd day all the kids rush over shouting "Song!" Considering stowing my microkeyboard under the pram next time at the cost of wine space
Thu Sep 10 22:04 Specialist academic publisher can't spell the name of its books & one of the best known sites in the British Isles. Site full of similar errors.
Thu Sep 10 22:43 Historia de Barcelona, 11/9: #otd * 1477: Empieza construcción del muelle hasta la isla de Maians, naciendo así el puerto de la Barceloneta (22+32) * 1535: La Diputación rebaja los impuestos para facilitar un gran mercado de esclavos y otros géneros…
Fri Sep 11 00:24 I reckon Snow White will dump Bashful & Sneezy
Fri Sep 11 08:27 Comment: @thestrayferret Is there actually a year-round, functional market in Kbro, or is it tourist-driven? I was there in January/February & it was pretty dead.
Fri Sep 11 18:45 Resisting the temptation to find out what FBPE means
Fri Sep 11 21:03 What's the point of Wikipedia if the category "shades of green" doesn't include "pea-green"?
Fri Sep 11 22:40 Historia de Barcelona, 12/9: #otd * 1462: Enrique IV de Castilla es nombrado conde de Barcelona en la guerra civil con Juan II de Aragón (21) * 1714: Capitulación a Berwick (435) * 1918: Pla: El temporalet continua, petit * 1972: Breve manifestación…
Sat Sep 12 15:35 Cauliflower and cabbage? Stick em up your Brassica
Sat Sep 12 15:46 Ik zag hun moeders touwtje springen...
Sat Sep 12 21:28 How come there isn't a Nordic women's bakery called Hojo-dough-ho?
Sat Sep 12 21:30 The neighbour's cat thinks it's Spartacus
Sat Sep 12 22:39 Historia de Barcelona, 13/9: #otd * 1629: Un incidente durante la elección de provincial de los padres dominicos demuestra su poder vis a vis el obispo (266) * 1920: Matanza en el cabaret Pompeya (1014+81) * 1923: Golpe de estado del capitán general de…
Sat Sep 12 22:58 Comment: @lordbonkers She's not really married to that weird bloke?
Sun Sep 13 10:09 RT @artinsociety: Charles Darwin’s draft manuscript of ‘On the Origin of Species’ later proved to be an invaluable source of drawing paper…
Sun Sep 13 10:25 I think the author thought this was a pun. Incredibly lame.
Sun Sep 13 13:06 Comment: @Transblawg @CJTinNL This may not be terribly helpful
Sun Sep 13 19:51 RT @petersymon: @BBCNews MACDUFF Stands Scotland where it did? ROSS Alas, poor country! Almost afraid to know itself William Shakes…
Sun Sep 13 19:51 RT @BryceElder: There's an old joke. Uh, two elderly women are at a Catskills mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this…
Sun Sep 13 23:05 Historia de Barcelona, 14/9: #otd * 1636: Pagado algo en concepto de los impuestos debidos por la ciudad, vuelven el virrey y la Real Audiencia tras una estancia gerundense de 16 meses (129) * 1639: Salen cuarenta mil hombres para recuperar Salses en…
Mon Sep 14 13:46 So hipster cafés charge for sugar.
Mon Sep 14 13:47 I still wear a nightcap sometimes.
Mon Sep 14 13:48 Comment: @soozthebooks @Ceridweb Manchester Uni was like that, but then the bedroom windows were broken.
Mon Sep 14 14:03 A favourite Clapton neighbour at Homerton station on his way to a flu jab. I hope to see him again with one of his even larger hats.
Mon Sep 14 14:05 Comment: @WateryTom @PGtips @YorkshireTea @tetleyuk But does that mean you can't use them twice?
Mon Sep 14 15:10 Singing a couple of songs, accompanied by the infant, from a safe distance on the other side of the fence at Barnardo's Wetherell Nursery is one of life's great pleasures at the moment - a dozen joyous faces.
Mon Sep 14 15:11 Comment: Reminds me a bit of the safety netting they used to string over stage mouths in N Holland when we played there with a farmers' band to prevent the Friesian giants from killing us
Mon Sep 14 15:31 Flattening the public transport curve
Mon Sep 14 16:13 I hadn't noticed this happening, but it's brilliant Now for Hackney Brook
Mon Sep 14 18:38 @Transblawg You've probably already sent these to me
Mon Sep 14 23:31 Historia de Barcelona, 15/9: #otd * 1463: El rey de Portugal recomienda a los catalanes someterse a Juan II de Aragón y, por implicación, olvidarse de Enrique de Castilla (34) * 1529: Paz de las Damas entre España y Francia después de la Segunda Guerra…
Tue Sep 15 08:28 Here's a remarkable thing - complete recording of the last concert of the CWS Manchester Band in 1985, after the Coop ended sponsorship - end of a local institution & a marker on the way to where we are now
Tue Sep 15 14:32 Personal pronouns in Van Heule's C17th Dutch I'm quite tolerant - people from whom I learnt tended to use "hun" as nominative - "hun zeggen" - "them say"
Tue Sep 15 14:36 FoA is studying more expensive estate-agentese than I am
Tue Sep 15 15:12 Comment: @ibexsalad It's freaking hilarious: black people are particularly at risk, so are they going to lock em all up on the Isle of Wight?
Tue Sep 15 18:42 I think this is one more drunken prank by the CUM Band
Tue Sep 15 19:10 RT @DannyDutch: The cycle of Strawberry vs the cycle of a BlackBerry.
Tue Sep 15 20:37 I don't like very much Beethoven very much, but this is deranged
Tue Sep 15 20:40 Comment: I once met a Nigerian who was enrolled for a PhD somewhere & intended to show that Beethoven had far more African heritage than say Pushkin
Tue Sep 15 23:25 Historia de Barcelona, 16/9: #otd * 1617: Informe sobre la magnífica recepción del conseller en cap en Madrid (25+2) * 1718: Felipe V firma la reforma por José Rodrigo de la administración pública de Barcelona (157+11) * 1889: Nace Mercedes Jellinek,…
Wed Sep 16 05:31 Made the infant laugh
Wed Sep 16 05:33 Comment: As does Jimmy Vey, Spike Jones' tap-dancing xylophonist
Wed Sep 16 06:10 The least HMG could have done would have been to install the Sultan of Zanzibar on Hayling Island rather than in Pompey
Wed Sep 16 11:50 Someone has transcribed Dudley Moore's Beethoven
Wed Sep 16 14:34 Comment: @gabrielmilland The Merchant of Venice is pretty woke - Jews tend to evil & even Shylock ends up agreeing that exclusion & apartheid are better than inclusion
Wed Sep 16 14:35 Comment: @AndrewHammel1 Do share!
Wed Sep 16 14:40 Magical & mysterious tree in a front garden on Coopersale Road - the leaves glisten in a way I only recall being equalled in Dougal and the Blue Cat
Wed Sep 16 14:54 Comment: I didn't know his Britten, Schubert and Fauré parodies. What a clever, lovely man.
Wed Sep 16 14:57 Comment: And his audiences seem to understand the cultural references! Imagine that today...
Wed Sep 16 15:03 Comment: @ibexsalad Haha, nope. But always thought he was a bit laboured. Dudley Moore and Spike Jones, on the other hand...
Wed Sep 16 23:53 Historia de Barcelona, 17/9: #otd * 1409: El Papa Luna y Vicente Ferrer, en la boda de Martín el Humano (37+78) * 1918: Pla: Observant la gent des del punt de vista de la cerimònia de la conversació, noto el que segueix: Els pobres, realment pobres, són…
Thu Sep 17 06:17 Wondering if John Pollard, @GrimethorpeBand 's legendary trombonist 50 years ago, ever did any interviews etc etc - fascinating, innovative figure
Thu Sep 17 06:19 Comment: I remember Gordon Clough of Wingates etc talking about him with awe, but then there was no Youtube...
Thu Sep 17 06:21 Includes Josep Pla on conversation - the really poor don't talk because they are obsessed with their own poverty, the really rich because they live according to the weather - do & say one thing or another depending on the humidity & wind direction. Only the middle class talks
Thu Sep 17 06:29 V moving card in the post: "So much thanks are coming your way in making L's dreams come true. She found her dad through you." I've now met the marvellous granny & the rest of the story will appear when things quieten down.
Thu Sep 17 06:31 Comment: Infinitely more satisfying, though less curious, than reuniting the ethnic Swiss jihadist with his posh mama a couple of years back
Thu Sep 17 08:01 Very bedraggled Windian man on the phone in Millfields: "Me no want no woman what come on to me."
Thu Sep 17 08:18 Comment: @LeedsVictim @ukcag The impression is of course that it is the latter. The suspicion is that, since it is frequently commissioned from an agency with which the management company already has a relationship & there is no right of appeal for leaseholders, it is a cash cow with kickbacks
Thu Sep 17 08:51 At the Dutch (inter alia gas-fired) power station builders, many of the engineers smoked ciggies or pipes in the office. Naki the Turk had a particularly noxious brand imported specially from Istanbul which drove me to despair in winter when you couldn't open the windows
Thu Sep 17 09:12 An Indian promoting the 15-minute city. I'm curious as to what degree some of the ethnic ghettos in London have already realised that particular dream.
Thu Sep 17 13:51 I spend time wondering how various stuff comes forth from Classical Latin, but Old Latin is a whole new kettle of fish for me
Thu Sep 17 23:50 Historia de Barcelona, 18/9: #otd * 1714: Entrada del Duque de Berwick, Te Deum en la catedral, grandes destrozos en la ciudad, los Migueletes entran en el ejército borbón, quema de banderas (886) * 1918: Pla: Llarg passeig pels voltants de Palafrugell…
Fri Sep 18 08:28 Grenfell & everything else built in the last 30 years appears such an unbelievable & insoluble $hit show
Fri Sep 18 11:29 RT @EleanorArmsPub: The Eleanor Arms will be open today from 4pm until 11pm. Serving a wide range of alcoholic beverages and snacks. The DJ…
Fri Sep 18 15:16 Maybe the Victorians were onto something in insisting (didn't they?) that having a modicum of charisma & being able to sing were necessary conditions for working with small children. Safeguarding certificates are lovely but don't send kiddies smiling onto the street
Fri Sep 18 15:23 Following quite a lot of babbling from me, the infant is now to undertake serious study of Dutch with Nijntje (aka Miffy), also classes with Woezel & Pip, Bumba, & Buurman & Buurman
Fri Sep 18 16:17 "miracles" -> "miracels" ("skywatchers")
Fri Sep 18 16:19 Comment: Why isn't there a list of the most absurd miracles?
Fri Sep 18 16:20 Comment: @SF_Archaeology @Durotrigesdig Sure it isn't a bike hub?
Fri Sep 18 18:11 RT @MattCartoonist: My latest cartoon for tomorrow's @Telegraph Subscribe to my weekly newsletter to receive my unseen cartoons:
Fri Sep 18 18:57 Spanish lockdown summary: poor people can't go to another neighbourhood to have a beer, but they can if they're going to be serving it
Fri Sep 18 20:58 A proverb is born. The Hon Mr Justice Turner: "Cheryl Pile brings this appeal to establish the liberty of inebriated English subjects to be allowed to lie undisturbed overnight in their own vomit soaked clothing." Via
Fri Sep 18 21:00 Comment: @hollowlegs @Transblawg Our treadmill works whether she's walking or crawling - indeed it's easier to hang up motivational treats when she's crawling
Fri Sep 18 22:05 Comment: @Transblawg @hollowlegs After googling it on Mumsnet we finally bought a cheerleader and leant xem (pronoun, not the dual-layer blockchain) against the wall opposite the treadmill, but xe deflated
Fri Sep 18 22:58 Comment: @re_Claire @lordbonkers You know they brew all their beer fresh every day round the back?
Fri Sep 18 23:46 Historia de Barcelona, 19/9: #otd * 1634: Llega la duquesa de Mantua (será la última Virreina española de Portugal), pero es feísima y poco festera (86) * 1639: Comienza el sitio español de Salses en Rosellón (541) * ~1829: Stendhal: sufrimiento de los…
Sat Sep 19 07:05 Comment: Another Samuel Johson's "Purgatory prov'd by miracles collected out of Roman-Catholick authors": with some remarkable histories relating to British, English, and Irish saints" goes some way
Sat Sep 19 07:59 Another great example of illiterate English marketeers inventing any old Romance shit - names, descriptions - to go on plonk acquired at 70p/litre from some vague vat
Sat Sep 19 08:02 #OTD in Barcelona in 1634: arrival of the Duchess of Mantua, last Spanish vicereine of Portugal, who is ugly & doesn't like partying
Sat Sep 19 13:28 RT @scotusvilhemi: Latin is a silly language: mālo "I would rather be" mālo "In an apple tree" mălo "Than a naughty boy" mălo "In…
Sat Sep 19 13:49 Glad The Sun rates us, but I thought there was a modifier
Sat Sep 19 20:59 Another step in the destruction by the Barcelona authorities of the rural vestiges of the neighbourhoods of Horta & Clot - neighbourhood design that speaks to developer's pockets, not human aesthetics
Sat Sep 19 21:32 @BlackBuoyPub Hiya, I hear you need to book a table in advance if you want food, but is that necessary if you just want to drink beer? Thanks!
Sat Sep 19 23:38 Historia de Barcelona, 20/9: #otd * 1517: Nuestra Señora de Montserrat salva a Antonio Malorba de una casa que le cae encima (221) * 1918: Pla: La família * 1962: Inauguración de El Corte Inglés (188) * ☼ 06:35-18:53, 12:17 horas; ☾ luna menguante,…
Sun Sep 20 04:32 A cançao do Pedro, by Euclydes Mattos - wait for it
Sun Sep 20 05:57 Great piece by @Lees_Martina in the @thesundaytimes on the scandal of cladding design and regulation that is leaving 6% of England's housing stock unsaleable, & which the govt's draft Building Safety Bill proposes to solve by bankrupting leaseholders
Sun Sep 20 20:24 I reckon school attainment mirrors exactly adoption rates for masks & other corona measures around here. All Chinese observe the rules, maybe 40-50% of Windians, white Brits less than Bangladeshis etc. 50-60% wearing masks on the Overground from Stratford this PM.
Sun Sep 20 23:32 Historia de Barcelona, 21/9: #otd * 1559: Solemne procesión por la llegada a España de Felipe II tras firmar la Paz de Cateau-Cambrésis (20) * 1995: Grave tormenta (16) * ☼ 06:36-18:51, 12:14 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación 49,38%, antigüedad 22…
Mon Sep 21 09:01 All it took was a pandemic to demonstrate that it is physically possible in England to have clean, functional train toilets
Mon Sep 21 14:33 On the benefits of talking to strangers: Quien tenga lengua llega a Roma
Mon Sep 21 15:45 Comment: @ArrantPedantry What's your precise grammatical claim? E.g., "fewer months" & "less months" pretty much level-peg till 1980 (Google Ngram), when the former rockets. Both are clearly used & understood, so why is your prescriptivism superior to theirs?
Mon Sep 21 15:50 Failure to master pub bureaucracy -> alcoholic picnic behind St. Mary's, Wivenhoe. I'd never noticed the Roman(?) tiles in the walls, but the courses of stone & tiles aren't orderly as in the London wall, so several reconstructions perhaps preceding the Victorian additions
Mon Sep 21 15:53 Comment: L -> D stories re house of illustrator Richard Chopping (James Bond, Butterflies of Britain) on the quay near the Rose & Crown, Bacon's studio round the back. "Mad, bitchy, drunk, gay life in the 60s" & late night taxis from central London
Mon Sep 21 15:57 Comment: @ArrantPedantry But the construction you dislike ("fewer than X [units of time]" - or does it have to be months?) has been around forever & now the distribution's changed & no one died. Relax!
Mon Sep 21 21:24 Grammar enforcer doesn't like being told to relax
Mon Sep 21 22:02 Why aren't there more songs about albatrosses? Why didn't Fleetwood Mac write some lyrics?
Tue Sep 22 00:00 Historia de Barcelona, 22/9: #otd * 1783: Carlos III manda dejar la actitud criminal que constituye la gitanidad, prohibe la discriminación contra supuestos ex-gitanos (quienes sin embargo no pueden trabajar de esquilador ni vendedor ambulante ni…
Tue Sep 22 06:35 Barcelona (& Spain) #OTD in 1783: Charles III prohibits "the criminal attitude" which constitutes gypsydom, prohibits discrimination against supposed ex-gypsies, & punishes use of the word "gypsy."
Tue Sep 22 15:27 Can some salient aspect of government corona policy be indicated by an online Black-Forest-style weather house / Wetterhaüschen, where the guy with the sunhat comes out when things are going well & the guy with the brolly when they ain't'
Tue Sep 22 19:30 There are lots of little fatherless dogs In Harlow Town today, But when they point at me I just point the other way. 'Cos to populate, you must copulate, And I'd far rather defecate, I'M THE DOG WHO FOULS THE PAVEMENTS UP IN HARLOW Mudcat is still the best
Tue Sep 22 19:56 RT @CllrBattley: Ok. Too many people are disguising their weddings as funerals so they can invite more guests. Do you honestly think the co…
Tue Sep 22 20:42 Wonderful High Court case re the land belonging to the now defunct Hollingwood railway workers club (various names) near Chesterfield
Tue Sep 22 20:44 Comment: The nearby Barrow Hill Roundhouse Railway Centre is also splendid
Tue Sep 22 23:55 Historia de Barcelona, 23/9: #otd * 1461: Muere en el palacio real Carlos de Viana, hijo de Juan II y quizá víctima de Juana Enríquez (18) * 1757: Alumbrado público con aceite para celebrar el cumpleaños de Fernando VI (23) * 1760: Carlos III restituye…
Wed Sep 23 07:08 I think she means upriver from Fleet Street - before it dispersed & customs changed & El Vino's became a dull theme chain
Wed Sep 23 07:09 Quite a lot of normal people I know seem to have little or no work, but of course we should bail out football stars' wages
Wed Sep 23 08:53 Comment: @edwest It's hilarious - I reckon he'll save Trump
Wed Sep 23 12:03 @Transblawg
Wed Sep 23 23:41 One of the finest moments in 60s Schlagers: Vergangen, vergessen, vorüber Vergangen, vergessen, vorbei Die Zeit deckt den Mantel darüber Vergangen, vergessen, vorbei
Wed Sep 23 23:51 Historia de Barcelona, 24/9: #otd * 1616: Empieza construcción del muelle nuevo (12/i) * 1629: Pasa por la ciudad el duque de Alba camino a su jubilación como mayordomo mayor del rey tras unos años dificiles como virrey de Nápoles (103+58) * 1848: Fiesta…
Thu Sep 24 19:16 1/2 a 12 early teen Jafaican Vicky Pollards on the park swings demand photos with infant: "It's our future child!" Then race off after a dog-walking man who has had a wee in some distant bushes: "It's child porn!" Fat Adnan the biking Turk says he kicked the man: "You're lying!"
Thu Sep 24 19:18 Bagpuss is OK, Magic Roundabout is better, Betty Boop rules forever
Thu Sep 24 19:54 Why chanteuse but not actress?
Fri Sep 25 00:20 Historia de Barcelona, 25/9: #otd * 1258: Real cédula de Jaime I autorizando la Carta consulatus riparte Barchinone (27+23) * 1410: Primera sesión del parlamento catalán para elegir sucesor a Martín I (31) * 1919: Pla: He aprovat les assignatures que em…
Fri Sep 25 03:24 RT @JimDMiller: @razibkhan Wyoming.
Fri Sep 25 03:51 The Kent border is clearly designed to prevent a new Peasants' Revolt. I like Froissart's representation of Richard II meeting the rebels at Mile End (Wikipedia)
Fri Sep 25 04:58 We stand here on the banks of a channel swift and hot, The other shore is over there, but this one here is not.
Fri Sep 25 05:29 This is annoying because "wool" only rhymes visually with "Kool", and Kool and the Gang were an aural phenomenon
Fri Sep 25 15:43 Dinosaurs will bring us together - and then eat us
Fri Sep 25 20:45 We will continue used our cars
Fri Sep 25 20:51 Comment: @thegentleauthor That's the old Wominspace squat - holy ground!
Sat Sep 26 00:49 Historia de Barcelona, 26/9: #otd * 1496: Exequias por la madre de Isabel I (14) * 1919: Pla: Escapada d’un dia a Palafrugell amb motiu de l’aprovació de les últimes assignatures de la carrera * ☼ 06:42-18:42, 12:00 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación…
Sat Sep 26 06:22 On multi- vs single-engined aircraft
Sat Sep 26 07:09 If the govt can tempt students to uni with promises of jollity & learning & then lock them up without term to keep their landlords afloat, who's to say that your next AirBnB won't be a life sentence?
Sat Sep 26 10:24 Looking at the drab remnants of London's River Moselle: oh! on a morning like this to be on the real one, drinking beer & playing a sousaphone!
Sat Sep 26 12:10 RT @LondonCAG: 🚨URGENT REQUEST🚨 Please could all our followers follow the official End Our Cladding Scandal Twitter account @EOCS_Official…
Sat Sep 26 18:52 Comment: @MPSHackney @MPSSpecials We get the impression around Hackney that e-scooters are the transport of choice for bottom-rung dealers. Do you know if there are any stats for that?
Sun Sep 27 00:46 Historia de Barcelona, 27/9: #otd * 1879: Las farolas de Gaudí y las Tres Gracias en la Plaza Real (85+172) * 1902: Abre sus puertas el Diorama Animado de Salvador Alarma (706+22/i) * 1975: Las últimas ejecuciones del franquismo (396) * 1998: Ultimo día…
Sun Sep 27 10:03 If something grows teeth like a crocodile and uses them like a crocodile, it may not be an infant after all
Sun Sep 27 10:08 Dangerous nonsense - I believe that at the time of Pepys people took the wall to the right
Sun Sep 27 10:10 Of course, the OU offers degrees at 18K vs 27K tuition fees & you don't have to pay through the beak to live in a feastless chicken broiler
Sun Sep 27 10:18 Puzzled about LTNs: aim doesn't seem to be to reduce traffic, but to redistribute it from well-off streets to poorer ones. E.g. the modal filter on Barnabas Road, Hackney: reduction on the owner-occupied Victorian terrace of Oriel Rd, increase past flats on Wick Rd/Homerton High
Sun Sep 27 10:21 Nice one from @thesundaytimes
Sun Sep 27 10:24 Comment: Not a good look for Labour councils looking to shrug off the liberal elite thing
Sun Sep 27 11:33 Non-partisan question: why's Icke pronounced like Ike (Eisenhower) instead of like icky (boo)?
Sun Sep 27 14:23 West Indian man always sits drinking Kronenbourg outside his door: So pretty! Just like the baby in Look Who's Talking Too! They don't make baby films like that any more. Pram-pusher: I can't think of any baby films at all, to be honest. What was the last one you saw? WI: LWTT.
Sun Sep 27 18:54 Infant now faster & more elegant with John Crane walker than Stanley J with his rollator, but still can't turn corners or perform a paradiddle
Sun Sep 27 19:13 Top marks for effort - they all made their own placards
Sun Sep 27 19:39 Wenn sie einmal tanzen geh'n Und 'ne Kesse sohle drehn Denken sie nicht erst zum Schluß An den braven Musikus
Sun Sep 27 19:57 The 1914-19 memorial at St Luke at Hackney includes one F. King. Simpler times.
Mon Sep 28 10:51 Historia de Barcelona, 28/9: #otd * 1565: Celebración del levantamiento del sitio de Malta (26) * 1918: Pla: No sé pas a quin partit polític pertany el meu pare * 1919: Pla: Apareix un criat a la porta de la penya i diu: –El senyor Solé de Sojo… El…
Mon Sep 28 22:48 Historia de Barcelona, 29/9: #otd * 1305: Tributos aduaneros de Barcelona (16) * 1562: Santa Madrona vs la sequia (31+90) * 1617: Empieza el diluvio catalán (775+31) * 1637: Llega noticia del desastroso sitio español de Leucate/Ocata, Rosellón, y sale un…
Tue Sep 29 22:45 Historia de Barcelona, 30/9: #otd * 0992: Muere Borrell II (6) * 1568: Nace Jerónimo Pujades, cronista de Cataluña (15+132) * 1802: Se recibe a Manuel Godoy con más extravagancia que a Carlos IV (313) * 1868: Galdós: recuerdos de la Barcelona…
Wed Sep 30 22:42 Historia de Barcelona, 1/10: #otd * 1792: Primera edición del Diario de Barcelona (87+120) * 1814: La Junta de Comercio crea la escuela de economía política (12) * 1839: Un profesor de francés corta en pedazos a un joyero (878) * 1842: Inaugúrase el…