Tweets for May 2021

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

Sat May 01 06:02 We live in an recycling enclave - extramuros one institution, but not intra the encircling entity - & so the responsible person separates everything for recycling as before & then the irresponsible one stuffs it all in binbags & puts it on the common spoil
Sat May 01 06:03 The state of small adults the following day is the best argument against giving toddlers beer
Sat May 01 06:09 Dreamt that with Bemke B I lay at the feet of Wouter M of Quasimodo, who was selling a colonial Indonesian atlas out of an old gramophone box. "What beautiful images," we cried, but then I noticed that Wouter had stuck them on, & then the toddler demanded my head
Sat May 01 09:31 This good 00 flour (which Tesco bought in massive quantities during hoarding) retailing at 15p/kilo is the craziest thing - no one will buy baking flour without high protein content, but it makes pizzas taste weird
Sat May 01 12:53 Yet another medio pollito / half cock
Sat May 01 13:44 Comment: @TeesValleyVoice @HookEagleMorris Have you noticed how they're stigmatising dark blue smurfs? #BlueLivesMatter
Sat May 01 14:37 The 2 gates to Lincombe Ibe, North Hill Rd, Headingley, Leeds. Hypotheses: ibe sounds like the ivy which covers the 2nd right post; Ibe is not Instantaneous Bowel Evacuation, but a West Country English notice of the builder's sense of identification with the North Devon hamlet
Sat May 01 14:58 A hinging arrangement which I don't think is common & which I've never thought of describing before, on gates on North Hill Road, Headingley, Leeds: on top you've got a standard heavy gate hinge, but down below there's a floor pivot
Sat May 01 15:10 Samara Plaza, Woodhouse, Leeds, an example of the appalling architecture spawned by the fashion for universities, a scourge like the most mediocre of medieval monasticism. Presumably "Samara" from the Russian concrete hellhole, and "Plaza" because no dictionary was at hand
Sat May 01 15:16 Comment: @gareththackeray Itsa fun innit
Sat May 01 19:47 Babylon has, willy nilly, lost usufruct of some lawns to Mavis, who, despite a lack of any formal relationship with power, has built a rather marvellous ornamental garden, in which she & husband sit on summer evenings. Perhaps I will manage a few sheep, if not grouse.
Sat May 01 19:50 Comment: Pigs are probably out of the question, however, & I'd have to keep an eye on sheep: some temporary local residents are in the pay of an autocrat who chops up journalists & pays Babylon to teach his employees about beating back & drugging crowds, & he is choosy about his food.
Sat May 01 20:27 Will Blake in Hackney - London Fields? BBC TV may still have a show called Urizen, but it can never live up to the original: Earth was not: nor globes of attraction The will of the Immortal expanded Or contracted his all flexible senses. Death was not, but eternal life sprung
Sat May 01 20:28 Comment: Issa joke
Sat May 01 23:59 Historia de Barcelona, 2/5: #otd * 1348: Manifestación contra la peste negra (53) * 1874: Noticia del levantamiento del cerco carlista de Bilbao; empiezan las obras del nuevo mercado del Borne, inaugurado octubre de 1875 (416+39/i) * 1891: Ataque…
Sun May 02 04:36 Comment: @MutedPenguin @Tesco @richyb83 Tesco still doesn't seem to be able to apply Clubcard discounts on online orders. This is for delivery 3/5
Sun May 02 07:27 Comment: @MutedPenguin @Tesco @richyb83 But, as Tesco say, the Clubcard discount DOES seem to be applied in the final bill
Sun May 02 18:56 Comment: @petersymon Ik kan me niet voorstellen dat de meest overtuigende uitvoerder van "Geef mij maar Amsterdam" die ik ooit gehoord heb, ooit eens een taalfoutje zou maken
Sun May 02 19:14 Re Menston: "The Malt Shovel is a wonder though, especially doing the telegraph crossword en masse on a monday evening."
Sun May 02 19:20 The Jungle Book, Otley style
Mon May 03 00:04 Historia de Barcelona, 3/5: #otd * 1632: Entran el rey y sus hermanos, dando lugar a dos semanas de fiestas (3082) * 1860: Elogio a los voluntarios catalanes en la Guerra de África leído debajo de un arco de triunfo en calle Carmen (367+225/i) * 1937:…
Mon May 03 12:47 There is a whole class of Freeglers who post purely to pun - grater/greater good etc
Mon May 03 12:48 RT @BJennings90: Latest @guardian cartoon
Mon May 03 12:56 One desert couple drives (m) a car of a type favoured by well-off armed police, & disappears off every night to enjoy relief from Ramadan. Curious detail: a child seat, though no child seen. The 2nd woman, who the man rages at at night, also never seen, is said to be the maid
Mon May 03 12:58 Comment: I must talk to the Farsi-speaking gent in hoodie who loiters down the street. When it all blows up & we don't what to do with the bodies, I have a feeling Mavis of the garden will say, "Stuff em in 't well!" Her grandson was in the army, so she is a useful ally.
Mon May 03 19:00 Comment: @ExcelPope The visible acrostics show promise: "The Time From Russia," "Naked Licence, No Licence"
Mon May 03 21:39 For sale: 36-piece Carlton Shape dinner service by W.H. Grindley of Stoke, collection from Petersfield, Hampshire
Tue May 04 00:10 Historia de Barcelona, 4/5: #otd * 1529: Carlos I abre cortes (6) * 1638: Incendio y saqueo popular del hospital de la Santa Cruz (308) * 1770: Fundación del antecesor de la Real Academia de Medicina de Cataluña (7) * 1836: Se suprime una insurrección…
Tue May 04 07:47 Comment: @LondonRamblers @RamblersGB @MetWalkers Love it, but what about Hackney Brook?!
Tue May 04 13:29 RT @elorganillero: For sale: 36-piece Carlton Shape dinner service by W.H. Grindley of Stoke, collection from Petersfield, Hampshire https:…
Tue May 04 15:50 Babylon puts on free family coach trips to the seaside. I like this 1950s vibe.
Tue May 04 15:55 Comment: On the other hand, Meanwood PO opens at 10, to the continued surprise of the locals, & presenting something of a decadal classification challenge
Wed May 05 00:15 Historia de Barcelona, 5/5: #otd * 1918: Pla: Una de les tavernes de més còmoda freqüentació de la vila és la que té Gervasi a la Plaça Nova * 1937: Asesinado el secretario general de UGT y consejero de la Generalidad, el sindicalista estalinista Antonio…
Wed May 05 06:44 The toddler's new favourite clip. I'm not a fan of MM, but it's really well done
Wed May 05 06:52 Histories of neoliberalism
Wed May 05 06:55 First digital sale to China, but the guy hasn't yet downloaded, so I'm like, ffs man, get on with it & steal my IP
Thu May 06 00:24 Historia de Barcelona, 6/5: #otd * 1836: Instálase la primera sociedad de seguros mutuos contra incendios en Barcelona (0+436) * 1848: San Juan de la Puerta Latina y los impresores (279) * 1918: Pla: «La Revista» de López-Picó publica un llarg assaig de…
Thu May 06 14:15 A torrential downpour! Oh, no, it's just the wind blowing through our arboretum - horse chestnuts, sycamores, silver birches, beeches, cedars, others over the back, none of the majestic (but spring-toxic) planes of Victoria Park
Thu May 06 14:16 RT @social_brains: 3 nails in the coffin of any opposition to the Oxford comma
Thu May 06 14:17 Comment: No cedars, sorry
Thu May 06 14:42 Otley humour
Thu May 06 19:05 Comment: @bear_jamboree Is it correct, though? I thought gond(e)rong normally meant long
Thu May 06 21:09 Film of Vera Gran singing Maria Dolores - a tremendous Barcelona song Wiera Gran's own story is quite something
Fri May 07 00:28 Historia de Barcelona, 7/5: #otd * 1824: Mandan a los constructores dirigir la lluvia por el interior de los edificios (26+54) * 1859: Real orden autorizando el (privado) Manicomio Nueva-Belén de Gracia, donde está prohibido pegar a los inquilinos…
Fri May 07 08:04 Two election vox pops: * Why should I vote Labour any more, when they abstained, allowing the amendment to the Fire Safety Bill to be defeated? (Not sure that's true) * What's Labour even about now?
Fri May 07 08:10 I'm guessing the symbolism comes from the legendary wealth of pine-nut gatherers, tho not many Italian stone pines in the Cotswolds, surely
Fri May 07 11:05 Poltergeists who screw with your mind by leaving things exactly where you left them yourself
Fri May 07 11:07 Neo-hippies travelling to India to discover the Indian strain of corona & bring it back to the West
Fri May 07 17:15 Met a lovely lady on Highbury Road, who, having sussed out the toddler, gave her a sunflower seedling. Her first ever plant, which she carried all the way to the allotments & showed to the chickens, who tried to eat it.
Fri May 07 17:26 Comment: @petersymon How do you mine trees?
Fri May 07 19:14 Comment: @petersymon There's a house near here with a large cutout of Björk in its front window
Sat May 08 00:34 Historia de Barcelona, 8/5: #otd * 1836: Llegan los coches fúnebres (13) * 1853: Inauguración de los jardines del placer "los Campos Elíseos" entre las murallas y Gracia (257+25) * 1975: El embajador de Jordi Pujol a las naciones platillovolantes no…
Sat May 08 08:49 RT @MilesDilworth: 'A miracle nobody died': Grenfell survivors tell ministers 'enough is enough' after fire rips through East London tower…
Sat May 08 10:31 Comment: @lordbonkers Be younger? What's the average age of the two memberships/electorates?
Sat May 08 10:42 Certainly worked for Catalonia and Quebec
Sat May 08 10:46 Comment: The notion that secession movements are now generally about giving regional politicos an excuse for taxpayer-funded jollies
Sat May 08 13:13 If you're British & choose a Danish name for your daughter, you should probably check whether it works in other languages too
Sat May 08 17:05 Students who walk to KFC to get a tray of drinks
Sat May 08 20:05 Scripture vs Yorkshire in D.F.E. Sykes's Ben o' Bill's, the Luddite: A Yorkshire Tale (1898). A very good historical novel, & I think the only one I've read on Luddism
Sat May 08 20:35 RT @choochoobot: ☁️☁️⠀☁️⠀⛅ ️⠀⠀⠀☁️⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 🗿 🌴 🌴 🌴🐢 🚂🚃🚃🚃 🐢 🌴🌴 🌊🌊🐬🌊🌊🌊🌊🐬🌊🌊🌊🌊
Sun May 09 00:39 Historia de Barcelona, 9/5: #otd * 1563: Justas en el Born (4/i) * 1950: Fundación de la SEAT (395) * ☼ 05:36-19:58, 14:21 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación 49,38%, antigüedad 22 días * ✞ Geroncio de Cervia, Gregorio Ostiense, Hermas, Isaías,…
Sun May 09 07:43 Say it. When did Dennis stop being funny?
Sun May 09 08:35 Comment: @ExcelPope Liverman, in reference to the drinking culture
Sun May 09 15:25 Comment: No download or response to mail, so refunded in puzzlement
Sun May 09 20:37 Where can I find a script for Cryptoconchoidsyphonostomata?
Sun May 09 20:43 Comment: Hit song: What An Afternoon
Sun May 09 20:47 Comment: He polished his socks with pumpkin squash And always sent his teeth to the wash. He dined as a rule off a camomile pill In a three pair back in Haverstock Hill.
Mon May 10 00:39 Historia de Barcelona, 10/5: #otd * 1562: Motín y fuga de la cárcel (22) * 1601: Llega noticia de la canonización de Raimundo de Peñafort, el santo superyate (285+584) * 1840: Nace el primer sindicato en España, la Sociedad de Tejedores, con una canción…
Mon May 10 09:48 Clip re musical expression vs military performance style, British Bandsman 6/7/1907. I think of it as South vs North German (Hanoverian...)
Mon May 10 14:25 Some people never bloody tell me anything
Mon May 10 16:41 Comment: @tombcn Dad is protecting my flat from squatters at this very moment. I think this thing of his is really good though he needs to allow someone to kill the typos & fix the design. I love her writing, & she's young & pretty, so I can see her making it
Mon May 10 17:57 Comment: @tombcn Spread it!
Mon May 10 18:51 The band's good too
Mon May 10 21:25 Favourite in the latest crop of archaeological & antiquarian books for sale: British imperial "Hints on the preservation of health in tropical countries" (1957): warnings against solitary drinking & bound using a poisonous insecticidal solution
Tue May 11 00:45 Historia de Barcelona, 11/5: #otd * 1565: En la playa, la Vera Cruz lucha contra la sequía (16) * 1706: El ejército del Rey Sol huye de Barcelona bajo un eclipse solar tremendo, pactando con los migueletes en el camino (733+428/i) * 1848: Fiesta de San…
Tue May 11 19:26 Reward people with shopping vouchers for losing weight & they'll buy more food. Reduce their food budget by charging them to lose weight -> Weight Watchers
Wed May 12 15:17 Three peregrine eggs at Leeds Uni
Wed May 12 17:54 Historia de Barcelona, 12/5: #otd * 1545: Obras en el palacio real para crear espacio para la Audiencia (23) * 1848: Fiesta de San Pancracio; la pereza de los catalanes (221) * 1913: Muere encarcelada Enriqueta Martí, supuesta vampira de la calle de…
Wed May 12 18:36 Shook hands with Jimmy the eggman yesterday - 3rd person since winter 2019-20 - a visceral experience with a lingering aroma of chicken shit
Wed May 12 18:38 Comment: I always hope they'll have dismembered pigeons in their nests
Thu May 13 00:00 Historia de Barcelona, 13/5: #otd * El Día de la Ascensión es el 13 de mayo este año; en 1848 fue el 1 de junio * 1509: Empiezan las obras de la fuente del Hospital de la Santa Cruz (79/i) * 1539: Llega noticia de la muerte de Isabel de Portugal, esposa…
Thu May 13 12:25 Comment: @ExcelPope I get Judah Friedlander for all such
Thu May 13 12:30 "digital therapeutics"
Thu May 13 13:30 Comment: @DrFrancisYoung The Simpsons is actually about Hackney - Homerton, Springfield Park, etc etc
Thu May 13 19:07 Great stuff from the FT
Thu May 13 22:32 1/5 We need a zebra crossing on Monk Bridge Rd on the scary bit at Highbury. Map shows common walking routes (green), missing link (red), possible siting (blue) @CllrWalshaw @Jonathan_Pryor @al_garthwaite @emmaflint18 @LeedsNWLibDems @chrishowley @InaGaddaFlowers
Thu May 13 22:33 Comment: 2/5 Priority catchment for Highbury kids is @shireoakce, but only zebra on Monk Bridge Rd is at valley bottom - & Meanwood Primary says that's dangerous!
Thu May 13 22:33 Comment: 3/5 Missing link makes walking down right bank of the Beck tough in wet conditions for prams, old people - v muddy at the bottom @MVPtweet
Thu May 13 22:34 Comment: 4/5 Missing link complicates access to Meanwood Park & @Hollin_Lane for people from south of Monk Bridge Rd
Thu May 13 22:35 Comment: 5/5 Siting complies with , & is superior to that of the zebra at the valley bottom, but you might want to ban lefts from Highbury Terrace & rights from Highbury Rd anyway Cost 30K
Thu May 13 22:37 Comment: @stephenpollard A mashup of all three?!
Fri May 14 00:10 Historia de Barcelona, 14/5: #otd * 1569: Veinte galeras salen para la Guerra de Granada (20) * 1641: Incremento en consejeros de cinco a seis (13) * 1854: Aliviado un domingo aburrido por una éxitosa manifestación a favor de la lluvia (126) * 1923:…
Fri May 14 07:54 If 2nd homes & AirBnB were heavily taxed, would any housebuilding be required? Delightful paradox of the middle classes moaning about the destruction of green leisure/agricultural space caused by their obsession with weekends away
Fri May 14 08:00 Genetic precipitation
Fri May 14 08:47 One roofer to another: "You fooking traveller!" Maybe it's time to go back to "gypsy".
Fri May 14 19:04 Comment: @LeedsNWLibDems @chrishowley Brilliant, thanks, I'll mail him in a mo!
Sat May 15 00:17 Historia de Barcelona, 15/5: #otd * 1387: Carta de Juan I a un matador aragonés pidiendo toros y matatoros para una corrida en Barcelona (74) * 1457: Peste (24) * 1460: Fiestas para celebrar la paz entre Carlos de Viana y Juan II (67) * 1569: Auto de fe…
Sat May 15 10:37 This is the ultimate zen feeling I got in Atlantic City: "The primary objective that machine gambling addicts have is not to win, but to stay in a state that suspends real life, & reduces the world to the screen and the buttons of the machine"
Sat May 15 10:38 Comment: Another good quote: Sometimes employees at Netflix think, ‘Oh my god, we’re competing with FX, HBO, or Amazon’ … [W]e actually compete with sleep.
Sat May 15 13:29 Another great piece on the cladding+ scandal from Martina Lees
Sat May 15 13:30 Periodic reminder
Sat May 15 13:32 Comment: You see images in the news & you think: Gaza or cladding?
Sat May 15 14:05 Things are looking even bleaker for the drunken sailor
Sat May 15 14:18 Comment: The obvious difference is that UK gov believes that it's trying to protect criminal gangs rather than eradicate them
Sat May 15 15:20 Disturbing failure on the part of the tabloids to pun about the Harrying of Windsor (worry, goad, torment, harass; maltreat, ill-use, persecute; worry mentally), though he's only Harrying for victuals (Beaumont & Fletcher, Bonduca)
Sun May 16 00:27 Historia de Barcelona, 16/5: #otd * 1901: Bendición del edificio del hospital de ciegos viejos, Amparo de Santa Lucía (113+41) * 1919: Pla: Aquests últims dies he dormit molt malament * ☼ 05:29-20:05, 14:36 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación 49,38%,…
Sun May 16 16:23 Comment: @Mr_D_W_R But will they support my plan to rehouse her to St George's Fields, creating the artwork George & the Dragon?! Didn't know the arch
Sun May 16 17:58 1/2 As a small boy I wandered into a tent at the municipal show, & there were the Humph & band, sweating through some unusually challenging repertoire. The tent was empty apart from an elderly couple (Kevin Keegan was judging the pet show), so I went and sat next to them.
Sun May 16 17:59 Comment: 2/2 "I can't stand this modern stuff," said the man, "but my wife loves it. Deaf as a fucking post."
Sun May 16 18:08 1/2 Met my first self-avowed Yorkshire Party voter today (ex Brexit Party) - an electrician, proud to be gammon. "They call us that cos we're poor & white & northern. It's London's way of justifying the latest phase in the Norman genocide."
Sun May 16 18:09 Comment: 2/2 Gammon obviously has French roots, but the earliest citations in OED not Norman but C17th re Westphalians, famed for their ham: "The sallo-westfalian gamon-faced zaza cries stand out" & "Thou kildst the gammon visag'd poore Westphalians."
Sun May 16 20:16 1/2 I used to rabbit on about the similarity of definite article reduction in Dutch & Northern English dialects ("hier voor 't bier" is phonologically pretty close to Yorkshire "here for 't beer") & speculate about drainage engineer Cornelius Vermuyden & fishermen
Sun May 16 20:17 Comment: 2/2 Still no proper research, it says here , but aural sampling suggests the link ain't there - less convincing on the coast than inland
Mon May 17 00:57 Historia de Barcelona, 17/5: #otd * 1882: Chistes sobre Lohengrin, la primera ópera de Wagner que se representa en Barcelona; comentarios de Josep Pla sobre el wagnerianismo (533+803) * 1918: Pla: El vent ha assecat el país * 1944: Intercambio de…
Mon May 17 08:36 Perhaps the complaint about the LNER conductor was not malicious, though for me the opener "ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls" suggests someone kind & caring to all. I also don't understand why the formulation (& this applies in various languages) is always F & M, m & f.
Mon May 17 19:13 Top property boom quotes: 1) Someone sold one place & bought another: "I'm so shocked I can't talk. Go down the shop now and get me a big bag of Doritos, not the blue ones, the orange ones." 2) Someone/somewhere else: "I liked the house so much I felt sick."
Mon May 17 19:14 To be quite honest, one reason I like Eric Ravilious is because I like ravioli
Mon May 17 22:06 Historia de Barcelona, 18/5: #otd * 1343: Pedro del Punyalet sale para tomar Mallorca (19) * 1510: Relajación de las ordenanzas del gremio de los maestros de esgrima (159) * ☼ 05:27-20:07, 14:39 horas; ☾ luna menguante, iluminación 49,38%, antigüedad…
Tue May 18 22:08 Historia de Barcelona, 19/5: #otd * 1792: Acabado el edificio de la Aduana (26+13) * 1848: Fiesta de San Ivo, elogio de la abogacía (591) * ~1893: Joan Maragall sobre el nacimiento de su hija, Helena (224+110) * 1901: El éxito de la Lliga Regionalista en…
Wed May 19 06:48 A very quiet gale this morning sends shadows dappling across the wall - big fat pigeon swaying in the sycamore
Wed May 19 15:53 Shouts & bangs were heard from the corner of the nursery playground this morning, & the toddler was found, surrounded by dinosaurs but fighting vigorously
Wed May 19 18:37 One for my Barcelona almanac, though my orthodox Jewish friend on Stamford Hill will greatly exceed this number, & I will try to persuade him to dress up as a woman
Wed May 19 22:25 Historia de Barcelona, 20/5: #otd * 1562: Noticia de Felipe II de que el príncipe Carlos ya se encuentra mejor (21) * 1911: Distanciándose de la ciudad progresista de Cerdá, la revista "Cataluña" propone la creación de un Barrio Gótico como modificación…
Thu May 20 06:32 Comment: @AlegreTurluron @ibexsalad @theguiri1975 Programa Orgasmus? Y qué bien se está en Lids, donde la niña aprenderá un bonito dialecto y hay un regionalismo amable en vez del pitufismo...
Thu May 20 08:09 Caer Gai near Lôn, Llanuwchllyn
Thu May 20 12:20 Babylon organised a sensory play morning (what play isn't sensory?), which the toddler observed with curious disdain, except at the end, when she deserted the circle of bemused kids undergoing the parachute ritual & started testing the doors to see which one was the exit
Thu May 20 12:23 Comment: It's all pretty Chinese Communist Party: songs about working together for a brighter future, gospelly happy clappy, join in or there'll be a knock on your door. "What does she like?" "Oh, the usual things: ponies, dancing, her dolls." Actually: drains, JCBs, standing on my head.
Thu May 20 12:29 Comment: @Transblawg Haha, in the Biblical/Rastafarian sense. Robert Nesla Marley: Come we go burn down Babylon one more time *4 For them soft! yes, them soft! (ah-yoy!) Them soft! Yes, them soft! (ah-yoy!) So come we go chant down Babylon one more time Come we go chant down Babylon!
Thu May 20 12:31 When are public schoolboys going to stand up, like some of the pupils of Pimlico Academy, & demand writing by their own in their own language?
Thu May 20 12:55 The appellation of the Indian variant reminds me of when a curry house in Stoke Newington was staffed by the Bangladeshi table tennis team, one of whom told me that, in London, Indian cuisine consisted of Pakistani recipes cooked by Bangladeshis
Thu May 20 12:59 The Oriel statue controversy could be resolved quite cheaply by replacing the head with that of Harold Rhodes
Thu May 20 22:03 "Coward, a coward, of Barney castell, Dare not come out to fight a battell." Popular Rhyme #DoggerelOfTheDay
Thu May 20 22:28 Historia de Barcelona, 21/5: #otd * 1348: Sus vecinos matan a 20 judíos por la Peste Negra sin intervención de las autoridades y con una respuesta bastante tardía por parte de Dios (413+81) * 1551: Nuestra Señora de Montserrat salva a Pere Prats de una…
Fri May 21 08:34 The saddest thing about the human-mediated muzak packages used by nurseries etc is that they aren't half as good as AI
Fri May 21 15:13 RT @greenwichjulie: Is this what you mean when you say leaseholders SHOULDN’T have to pay for remediation works @BorisJohnson ? @BBCNews @S…
Fri May 21 16:32
Fri May 21 18:22 Comment: @RealWroth Get a new mirror, my love
Fri May 21 18:24 Comment: @jennitpk Same chasm between word & deed re cladding
Fri May 21 19:33 Feature on ballad singers with visual aids in Brno, Moravia - like the first film of Brecht/Weill 3p opera
Fri May 21 19:33 RT @HeadingleyClub: Don’t forget The Club is open until 12 so if you fancy another drink when the pubs shut please come down. We are quite…
Fri May 21 19:35 Fats Waller birthday tribute
Fri May 21 20:05 The Will of a Certain Northern Vicar (2nd ed 1765) touches on local government
Fri May 21 21:00 Plan was to take toddler to see kitchen sink dramas tomorrow at the Playhouse, but now hoping to get her onstage with her increasingly dystopian vocab - eg steep, sting, spider, sharp, stuck etc, snack the only glimmer of hope
Fri May 21 22:31 Historia de Barcelona, 22/5: #otd * Sábado de Pentecostés es el 22 de mayo este año; en 1848 fue el 10 de junio * 1640: Matanza de soldados fuera de la muralla por los somatenes; con gritos religiosos, sacan al diputado militar y dos consejeros de la…
Sat May 22 07:28 RT @nat77splat: (1) My ACM clad home was on fire 2 weeks today. No audible fire alarm. Waking Watch made it 7 of 19 floors, rest just left…
Sat May 22 07:57 Freecycle
Sat May 22 19:07 Even sans sprog we only made it to the interval at the Playhouse. Alice Nutter didn't have an ear for how people talk, but had a good actress. Simon Armitage was very good. Leanna Benjamin was very sad for an unbearably long time
Sat May 22 19:07 Comment: LB comparisons? Scenes in C19th Italian opera, where the fat lady, fatally wounded, sings for 10 minutes, & everyone hopes each pause will be her last? Thackeray's Sorrows of Werther (re Goethe)? But there's still immense dramatic talent
Sat May 22 19:08 Comment: Then we came home, & found that Dean & his Thai bride had rented a karaoke installation for their garden party, despite both being noisily tone deaf. The roaring of bullocks awaiting slaughter, that's it
Sat May 22 19:17 Comment: ( Very few people in Leeds seem to know where the Playhouse is. One girl: - No idea, I'm from Keighley. Are you from London? - Kind of. - Well, you know what they say: that Leeds is the London of the north. )
Sat May 22 22:40 Historia de Barcelona, 23/5: #otd * Domingo de Pentecostés es el 23 de mayo este año; en 1842 fue el 15 de mayo * ... y en 1848 fue el 11 de junio * 1337: Privilegios para los proveedores de bienes básicos que no sean italianos (64) * 1488: Quemadas 3…
Sun May 23 09:04 Comment: @Mr_D_W_R Droopy drawers in rude bingo!
Sun May 23 22:48 Historia de Barcelona, 24/5: #otd * Lunes de Pentecostés/Segunda Pascua es el 24 de mayo este año; en 1848 fue el 12 de junio * 1562: Celebración oficial de la convalecencia del príncipe Carlos (17) * 1918: Pla: Records de família * 1919: Pla: Dissabte *…
Mon May 24 15:40 Toddler: "Wat is dat?" GF: "That's her first sentence! She said 'What is that?' with a funny accent!" It's called Dutch.
Mon May 24 19:08 RT @ExcelPope: Sometimes it's hard to understand how a person is connected to a bad thing that's happened, especially if they weren't perso…
Mon May 24 19:19 A big data WTF. So I'm only 60% proof [ Security at Elland Road today: - No, your ref ain't enough, you need the email on your smartphone with date/time. - But that's not we were told & I haven't got one - It was announced at our briefing this morning. That's the NHS for you ]
Mon May 24 19:24 Arabian Nights review
Mon May 24 20:49 The only cyclists in Leeds seem to be the lycra pelotons speeding up the Otley road on a Sunday morning - very car-focused city
Mon May 24 23:32 Historia de Barcelona, 25/5: #otd * 1448: Un terremoto daña el castillo nuevo y la luna muestra rayos de color de sangre (163) * 1533: Justas en el Born (4/i) * 1803: Un pueblo religioso, el espantoso palacio de la Virreina, la Escuela Llotja (501/i) *…
Tue May 25 13:45 ~1787 Batavian-revolutionary-era plate showing Willem V & Wilhemina @britishmuseum: Ik brand ligt / voor de Pruis zijn nigt / En ook voor de Oranje spruit / Die het niet wil zien / die blaast het uit
Tue May 25 13:49 Comment: Message is ambivalent - I can't figure out whether it's pro- or contra-Orange
Tue May 25 18:21 Toddler thinks I am Evan Davis, hasn't seen my bank balance
Tue May 25 19:32 WTF has what we eat got to do with the British Library?
Tue May 25 21:09 Comment: @4barsrest This is definitely core business, & it is brass banding that needs to change 😀
Tue May 25 23:39 Historia de Barcelona, 26/5: #otd * 1561: Reforma interna de los (muy mundanos) mercedarios, prohibiendo los sombreros; preparaciones para una gran expedición contra los moros (28+475) * 1629: Rogativas por lluvia y el Señor escucha (191) * 1803:…
Wed May 26 07:05 William Hope Hodgson, The House on the Borderland is utterly mad - early cosmic horror - but by "XIX THE END OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM" you do get a bit blasé
Wed May 26 07:07 Try walking along that now & you'd be flattened
Wed May 26 21:00 Really interesting LTN stats from our ex local LTN - the inside effect has been very clear, but my impression was that boundary numbers were up
Wed May 26 21:37 Comment: @razibkhan Source? There are a lot of silly pieces in English, but a good thing here in Dutch - target is large (armed) gangs of vagabonds, including but not exclusively gypsies
Wed May 26 23:50 Historia de Barcelona, 27/5: #otd * 1076: Muere Ramón Berenguer I (7/i) * 1397: Llega Martín desde Sicilia para tomar posesión de la Corona de Aragón (35) * 1533: Sale vino blanco de la fuente de la Llotja para Carlos I e Isabel de Portugal (45+107) *…
Thu May 27 13:06 Toddler pleased by Jimmy the Eggman's five one-day-old ducklings today, now awaiting the photo with Suggsy. Hackney->Leeds is like Hackney->Barcelona was: lower standard of living (council services encountered are generally shambolic), higher quality of life.
Thu May 27 13:08 The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a welcome break with the moralism of Peter Rabbit, who was given camomile tea and sent to bed
Thu May 27 13:22 Comment: @AndrewHammel1 Is Netflix a Putin plot?
Thu May 27 13:30 Kind of the vaccine nurse to leave her mobile number on the feedback card
Thu May 27 17:03 SJ & Lucy the ex-model are in favour of leasing a private jet to go to Hollywood to sell the film to Universal but who's going to pay?
Thu May 27 20:08 One good think about Leeds v. London is the swearing. The other day, two colleagues discussing a third in terms that would give HR a fit. Today, Jimmy the Eggman to his partner in poultry: "You're off to buy maggots, aren't you." Partner: "Fuck off you nosy twat."
Thu May 27 20:09 Comment: Good think works just as well as good thing
Thu May 27 23:57 Historia de Barcelona, 28/5: #otd * 1814: Sale el ejército francés y entran elementos del hispano-británico, incluso el Héctor de San Andrés; linchamientos y detenciones de traidores como un cierto Pujol (490+75) * 1919: Pla: Coromina, que està una mica…
Fri May 28 06:10 Extraordinary that almost 20 years after the introduction of the euro so many Spanish businesses' invoicing software still doesn't accept bank account numbers from other parts of the eurozone
Fri May 28 07:37 Portuguese nursery worker says there are no spiders in Portugal, or very few compared to Leeds. I wonder if that's because she's quite an indoors type & Iberian spiders tend to be more outdoors than their UK counterparts, and I give you The Spider Bride
Fri May 28 16:29 RT @rachelbose1: 1/3 My partner who bought a leasehold property has just been hit by the news that his apartment we both share the costs o…
Fri May 28 16:36 Toddler has received first police warning after three officers caught her trying to crack the padlock at @strawbsbar after being refused entry to @FentonPub
Fri May 28 23:58 Historia de Barcelona, 29/5: #otd * 1708: El comandante de las tropas austriacas es atacado por un asesino y luego por su propio ayudante de campo (86+34) * 1711: La campaña británica, arruinada por falta de dinero (295) * 1918: Pla: Compareix a la…
Sat May 29 08:00 My lawyers are acting against unofficial Trevor events wherever & whenever they occur
Sat May 29 08:11 @HeadingleyClub Just checking whether you let toddlers in (accompanied obviously...)
Sat May 29 08:30 I love the way they put bishop instead of decapitee
Sat May 29 08:37 RT @C20Society: Nice endorsement of the inspirational potential of a fabulous building!Lancashire artist @jamie_l_holman organises mass how…
Sat May 29 09:53 Sophie Tucker on how to keep your husband straight
Sat May 29 09:57 You look at Hyde Park - the broken-down playground, the disfunctional drainage, the broken glass & crown tops in the grass, the misconceived cutting routine - & think that turning it over to student management might not be a bad idea
Sat May 29 10:11 I'm still pleasantly puzzled by the geese & the old woman in To the Snow in Raymond Briggs' Fee Fi Fo Fum, which may be the best kids' book ever. Is she a demon?
Sat May 29 13:10 RT @AviTheNaftali: Okay, here we go. This is boring but I guess I'm doing it. This story of Eric Carle and his publisher "fighting bitterl…
Sat May 29 21:27 Toddler can ID pigeons, owls, chickens, ducks & various others, but owls are the best. Took her to the town hall the other day to see Leeds' golden owls (Athens, eat your heart out), & she was very excited. Now debating waking her up to hear the cinematic Headingley Hill barn owl
Sun May 30 00:04 Historia de Barcelona, 30/5: #otd * Domingo de la Trinidad es el 30 de mayo este año; en 1848 fue el 18 de junio * 1410: Terremoto y peste (18+17) * 1519: Juana la Loca y Carlos I ratifican los estatutos del gremio de pintores (83) * 1535: Se embarca…
Sun May 30 12:36 Comment: @OrganillerosMex No funciona su sitio web, colegas
Sun May 30 21:05 On lambs & horses in the Middle Temple
Mon May 31 00:12 Historia de Barcelona, 31/5: #otd * 1410: Muere Martín el Humano, sin sucesor y quizá envenenado por los afrodisíacos (802+82/i) * 1919: Pla: Fa una pila d’hores que dono voltes a la conversa tinguda ahir amb el meu pare * 1930: Nace el Cobi original, en…
Mon May 31 09:27 Goldfinches in the silver birch. Contrary to previous reports there is a cedar, but can't work out if it is of Lebanon (level) or a deodar (drooping) or the other one
Mon May 31 09:29 Twitter useless for reading because of intensive Topic promotion. They must be really short of cash.
Mon May 31 19:04 Headingley Mary (prop. Denis the elderly dog) teacher-trained in Camberwell & then taught at Clapton Girls School in the 60s/70s. "I used to get the bus over from Islington, & the politicians had cut the conductors, so it was right rough, but what can you do on your own.
Mon May 31 19:04 Comment: "The West Indians say now that their grandparents were well behaved - before the drug wars - but it isn't true, & we had to kick a load out. There wasn't space at school, so I used to take the girls walking on Hackney Marsh & at Dagenham.
Mon May 31 19:04 Comment: "I shouldn't say this, but they were all crazy about Gary Glitter, who had such simple, punchy songs, so there I'd be, walking along with a line of black girls, all of them chanting, 'Do you wanna be in my gang.'
Mon May 31 19:05 Comment: "You're going to love it here - blackberries everywhere you look. I used to make loads of jam off Hackney Marsh. It's quieter than London, but everywhere there are problems because the politicians have set the people against each other so they don't get the blame."
Mon May 31 19:12 Toddler immensely proud of sunflower seedling given her by EJ, & walks around with it like a bishop with the hand of an obscure saint. However, uncertain sense of the horizontal, & this AM it tumbled & got bent - I thought fatally. But splint & bandage & it's back sun-searching
Mon May 31 19:14 Comment: @ibexsalad & now in English translation
Mon May 31 19:35 Comment: @ibexsalad Ah! an embassy! I am way behind.
Mon May 31 20:04 I think of Hank Williams every time someone says, Let's go & live somewhere big & remote
Mon May 31 20:13 Mary Popping