Tweets for April 2023

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

Sat Apr 01 06:24 From an almanacker's perspective, Oliver Heywood & Dr Hook are frustrating - tendency to focus on religion vs worldly business - but failure of James Backhouse, Quaker botanist & nurseryman, to diarize his botanical trips with lead miner John Binks to Upper Teesdale is tragic
Sat Apr 01 06:41 Comment: And the York/Hunterian Psalter is downright annoying in its lunatic insistence that one might harvest grapes in September & wait till October to tread them
Sat Apr 01 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 1 April 2023: Then: 1689: Miraculous extinction of a roof fire at Thrybergh Hall. Now: Weather for tonight: thick cloud, temperature 6°C (43°F), wind northerly 11mph, visibility good, pressure 1001mb, humidity 89%, UV risk 0/11,…
Sat Apr 01 14:20 Ubiquitous with the diesel blasting away next to Leeds playgrounds in coordination with the council's anti-obesity & -emissions strategies
Sat Apr 01 14:30 Comment: Ah, The Phytologist
Sat Apr 01 15:11 Comment: @jdmccafferty Is April particularly densely populated?
Sat Apr 01 15:53 Comment: But this is circumstantial evidence that the psalter was composed in the north, where no one had ever seen a grape
Sat Apr 01 18:37 Without being indelicate, what's she doing to him? (Hunterian Psalter)
Sat Apr 01 21:15 Comment: And why is an English psalter from ca 1170 already showing the cultivation of (red) clover? (Great article by Thorkild Kjærgaard (who doesn't do dull) on clover & the European nitrogen revolutions
Sat Apr 01 23:05 Comment: They know it's a deep fake
Sun Apr 02 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 2 April 2023: Then: 1683: A domestic dispute at the Heywoods' in Northowram. Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy, temperature 5°C (40°F), wind northerly 7mph, visibility good, pressure 1023mb, humidity 90%, UV risk 0/11, pollution…
Sun Apr 02 15:53 AI is suddenly an issue because lawyers just realised they're out of a job too
Sun Apr 02 16:50 Comment: The notion that it is our planetary-patriotic duty to accept species obliteration in order that Earth may thrive in a cosmos of little green men
Sun Apr 02 19:49 RT @drorpoleg: In 1930, the union of American singers spent the equivalent of $10m on a campaign to stop people from listening to recorded…
Sun Apr 02 20:15 Almost 4 hours in playground today. We know so many people now that someone goes & someone else turns up. Sore right shoulder, but she can almost swing herself now.
Mon Apr 03 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 3 April 2023: Then: 1732: Mr. Spencer's great ox is killed at Barnsley. 1797: A sporting flyer with some unsporting spelling. 1852: Brickfield workers in Wortley (Leeds) discover huge, unchristian bones. Now: Weather for tonight: mist,…
Mon Apr 03 20:14 On a Leeds bench: This is our love story, first with Spring in our step... Making the memory of Summer last longer. Your favourite time is the Autumn. This is the season we became us... "Us" turns up as "as" in 1800s Yorkshire dialect - satisfyingly close to "ash"
Tue Apr 04 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 4 April 2023: Then:Sorry, nothing yet for today. Make a suggestion! Now: Weather for tonight: clear sky, temperature -1°C (31°F), wind south easterly 7mph, visibility good, pressure 1030mb, humidity 87%, UV risk 0/11, pollution low…
Tue Apr 04 12:16 Barrel organs are coming for you
Tue Apr 04 12:50 Of course yoga teachers can have botox injections
Tue Apr 04 13:04 Torygraph trolling its readers
Tue Apr 04 16:18 Clingfilm without PVC is great, but it's not clingfilm
Tue Apr 04 16:41 Comment: Apparently everyone knows this. Why didn't they tell me?
Tue Apr 04 21:33 "Pick Me Up (and hold me tight)" on a phone box - some kind of arty loneliness thing Marching with a band in gently falling snow on Remembrance Sunday in Clayton-le-Moors, a young woman weeping on the verge, & then the phone in a box began to ring
Tue Apr 04 22:19 If only George V had died in Catalonia - Bugger Begur sounds even better than Bugger Bognor
Wed Apr 05 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 5 April 2023: Then: 1674: An anonymous message to a preacher1676: The Lord saves a Presbyterian from his horse Now: Weather for tonight: clear sky, temperature 4°C (39°F), wind south easterly 6mph, visibility good, pressure 1021mb,…
Fri Apr 07 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 7 April 2023: Then: 1679: The Catholic missionary Nicholas Postgate (80) speaks words of hope before being hanged, disembowelled and quartered at York1687: James II's declaration of freedom of conscience arrives in Yorkshire, but fails…
Sat Apr 08 01:55 Nur das Beispiel fuhrt zum Licht; / Vieles Reden thut es nicht. - Donkey-boy prof of comparative philology Joseph Wright's epigraph to his Grammar of the Dialect of Windhill in the West Riding of Yorkshire, which colleagues apparently thought a spoof
Sat Apr 08 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 8 April 2023: Then: 1946: Yorkshire miners' president Joe Hall threatens strike action if Labour starts opencast mining in Lord Fitzwilliam's gardens at Wentworth Woodhouse (Rotherham) Now: Weather for tonight: mist, temperature 4°C…
Sun Apr 09 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 9 April 2023: Then: 1833: Messrs. Verdon Brittain & Co. claim before a Sheffield court that razor-maker William Harrison of Sims Croft has plagiarised the mark granted them by the Cutlers' Company2021: The Singing Organ-Grinder sees…
Mon Apr 10 05:44 Some extraordinary medieval ridge and furrow at 54.252,-0.778 in Pickering, North Yorks - the field appears to have been pasture for centuries. Initial thought along the beck: incompetent C18th irrigation. But then it's on the hilltop too. What a discovery! What a field!
Mon Apr 10 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 10 April 2023: Then: Sorry, nothing yet for today. Make a suggestion! Now: Weather for tonight: light rain, temperature 9°C (48°F), wind southerly 14mph, visibility moderate, pressure 1009mb, humidity 79%, UV risk 0/11, pollution low…
Tue Apr 11 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 11 April 2023: Then: 1667: Samuel Mitchell impersonates a gypsy while drinking in Halifax, with unfortunate consequences1827: Judge Bayley rules that York's medieval Company of Merchant Adventurers has misrepresented its charter and…
Tue Apr 11 20:14 "In those with a high amount of exercise, [low/high] sleep duration was not linked with risk of death" Not the same, but I notice that if I get very little sleep but then walk for a few hours I feel fine, while waiting around for others to wake up is bad
Tue Apr 11 22:59 Drains man: "I owe my fortune to special offers on double quilted toilet paper."
Wed Apr 12 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 12 April 2023: Then: 0627: In a triumph for his Kentish wife, Edwin of Northumbria is baptised on Easter Sunday by Paulinus, in the latter's wooden oratory on the site of York Minster 1706: The first four-day stage coaches from York to…
Wed Apr 12 22:17 On an art trip with H & kids. A woman rushes up & embraces me affectionately & sustainedly but correctly, followed by an official who divulges the medical diagnosis - some syndrome or other plus early onset dementia. Ten minutes later we meet again, but she has forgotten me.
Wed Apr 12 22:20 Comment: Last week met a fascinating woman who had to be dissuaded from talking about her condition. Life was more interesting before all these things had names & Wikipedia pages.
Thu Apr 13 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 13 April 2023: Then: Sorry, nothing yet for today. Make a suggestion! Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature 5°C (41°F), wind westerly 14mph, visibility good, pressure 991mb, humidity 87%, UV risk 0/11, pollution low…
Thu Apr 13 19:21 Checking out Bluesky & keep bumping into the Strymon reverb, which tbf is nice
Thu Apr 13 21:06 So why, despite tourism, has Pickering got a functional high street? Function of distance from nearest retail park/disinclination of inhabitants to donate to 'charity'/...?
Fri Apr 14 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 14 April 2023: Then: 1792: The ballad of Spence Broughton, hung this day at the York Tyburn for robbing the Sheffield and Rotherham mail 1843: John Nicholson, "the Airedale Poet," "the Bingley Baron," dies after falling into the Aire…
Fri Apr 14 08:29 Experiment suggests one is not an insomniac & the 8 hours sleep thing is a myth: 5/6 hours at night & a short nap after lunch works, tho admittedly hard to pact with an English infant
Fri Apr 14 08:33 Quite enjoying the colonization of R3 & its funny names by the monolingual R2 worldview: the Scottish lady who recognises no language but her own, & some Tom, interested in furrin
Fri Apr 14 08:37 Comment: The stress (REEverb < reVERBerator) follows the implicit phonological rule in English eg ADverb < adVERBerator
Fri Apr 14 10:32 Openreach, idling engines outside a care home. - What are you doing? - Optic fibre. - Are we next? - No, we're focussing on care homes. - Why do old people need ultrafast internet? - They don't, but it's a really easy way of hitting the government's gigabit broadband targets.
Fri Apr 14 16:01 Cars on the pavement, pedestrians on the road, but follow this lady & take the lane to make it harder for the buggers to roar past you or over you
Fri Apr 14 16:06 Another great couple of hours with small ones at @MandSHeritage - a brilliant experience & brilliant marketing. PS When are you going to reissue the red & white trackie top? People love it!
Fri Apr 14 17:39 So Spenser seems to have written the Shepherd's Calendar at Hurstwood, near Burnley, which at the time of Domesday was in the Blackburn Hundred, in Yorkshire - good enough for this almanacker
Sat Apr 15 05:25 Today is (misspelt) Punday
Sat Apr 15 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 15 April 2023: Then: 1729: John Hobson, hypochondriac, of Dodworth Green, near Barnsley, believes he is about to die 1779: The actor John Kemble is hounded at York by the North Riding Militia for asking a society girl to be quiet…
Sun Apr 16 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 16 April 2023: Then: 1883: General Booth denies the Bishop of Oxford's claim that the Salvation Army organizes darkroom sex parties at York called "Crawling for Jesus" Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy, temperature 6°C (42°F),…
Sun Apr 16 08:04 Escaped from the great pile of zilch at the Henry M to the "Toilets with urinals", where an non-Anglophone lady, who hadn't seen what she wanted in the upstairs (no Moores, comments the TDA 1968...), almost saw what she wanted not downstairs. Not good.
Sun Apr 16 08:11 Dear M, several months younger than oneself, is getting tired of leaning over the frying pan on 12-hour shifts. And one thinks that the infant could walk a bit more.
Sun Apr 16 15:32 Zebra on Monk Bridge Rd at Meanwood Beck still a death trap - car this AM did a panic stop halfway onto it, car behind didn't/couldn't stop & overtook across it. Asked local councillors re this in 2021. No reply from Lab. LibDem: zebra had been repainted & it's a difficult road
Sun Apr 16 15:49 Comment: Part of problem is traffic in both directions well above the 30 limit, but the crossing is also non-salient for traffic travelling NE cos of sharp bend in the road & street furniture
Sun Apr 16 15:52 Comment: Creating & enforcing a 20 limit from the Grove Lane junction to Meanwood would be a start, but slow single flow on the slope past the Highburys would revertebrate the hillside for residents & benefit excellent businesses like @humblcoffee
Sun Apr 16 19:22 I missed this - spent days over the years ferreting the David Rumsey map collection
Sun Apr 16 19:27 Tiny B, who crawls yelling "Go, go, go!" SAS stylee
Sun Apr 16 21:32 Heartbroken that Madame de Berry is only open Sunday PM
Sun Apr 16 22:50 Disappointed to find that 'overage' doesn't turn up in sheep stats #101
Sun Apr 16 23:51 What's "rathe" in Spenser's December? Thus is my sommer worne away & wasted, Thus is my haruest hastened all to rathe: The eare that budded faire, is burnt & blasted, And all my hoped gaine is turned to scathe.
Mon Apr 17 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 17 April 2023: Then: 1687: The Duke of Buckingham, rakish ex-favourite of Charles II, writes from his hovel deathbed in Kirkbymoorside (Ryedale) to the Rev. W., begging a ticket to heaven Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud,…
Mon Apr 17 07:52 Comment: "All to rathe" is "all too early" - Chaucer, Shipman's Tale: What eyleth yow so rathe for to ryse?
Mon Apr 17 08:05 A terminal epigraph is surely a bookend
Mon Apr 17 20:50 Google Translate meets non-standard English (it's Allerton)
Tue Apr 18 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 18 April 2023: Then: 1812: George Butler, dressed as a country lass, recites the West Riding dialect tragicomedy of Richard and Betty at the Theatre Royal, Ripon 1906: Easter trippers to Shipley Glen cause fires on Ilkley Moor,…
Tue Apr 18 08:55 An Otley Runner had a wee in someone's front garden, but instead of a ban they want public toilets paid for by a levy on the pubs & takeaways making a fortune from it
Tue Apr 18 09:48 Every cyclist should have a copper running along on their right to enforce the safe distance rule
Tue Apr 18 10:50 Comment: @DrFrancisYoung Ein feste Battenburg ist unser Gott
Tue Apr 18 19:35 After 2 years only 62nd on the allotment waiting list, so great digging on a beautiful spring day with the infant (someone's given her a v long but light hoe) in the garden borrowed from Mavis. Now hoping for no sale completion before October on further garden loaned from Babylon
Wed Apr 19 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 19 April 2023: Then: 1747: The Methodist John Nelson is attacked by a mob while preaching at Heworth Moor and Acomb (York) on Easter Sunday Now: Weather for tonight: clear sky, temperature 6°C (43°F), wind north easterly 10mph,…
Wed Apr 19 09:01 "Hipsters were part of society’s information sorting algorithm. But now we have literal algorithms - YouTube/Spotify." "Hipsterism & nerdism are both forms of trying to invest your identity in a cultural product. No competition? become a hipster. High competition? become a nerd"
Wed Apr 19 09:01 Comment:
Wed Apr 19 09:21 Rooster jabbering away. Here's a proper one in Pla del Penedès
Wed Apr 19 09:26 Comment: (I'd forgotten why I stopped using Google Photos. Well, one reason, which years later they still haven't fixed, is that if you try to share an album you get always get "Problem while sending photos. Please try again later.")
Wed Apr 19 12:54 Comment: @johnmilbank3 @JSMilbank The Welsh dragon was in fact a flame effect electric fire
Wed Apr 19 23:05 - So what are we playing next week in Amsterdam? - You remember all those numbers you wrote 20 years ago? - No.
Thu Apr 20 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 20 April 2023: Then: 1631: Quoting Elizabeth I's 1572 Vagabonds Act, Thirsk JPs order a crackdown on a variety of vagabonds 1835: A teetotallers' tea-party, at the first, great, Wilsden Temperance Festival Now: Weather for tonight:…
Thu Apr 20 20:53 Thinned the Sleeping Beauty rose & blackberry thicket at Xmas, & now dunnocks nesting low in it, up against the soft sandstone wall, down & along from bluetits in a demortared joint. But revelation is rotten intact hen's egg behind some weeds. Colin's setup is Alcatraz, so wtf?
Fri Apr 21 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 21 April 2023: Then: Sorry, nothing yet for today. Make a suggestion! Now: Weather for tonight: drizzle, temperature 8°C (46°F), wind north easterly 12mph, visibility good, pressure 1021mb, humidity 84%, UV risk 0/11, pollution low…
Fri Apr 21 07:53 Might have been a lifesaver till quite recently in the Spanish Pyrenees - nocturnal trips to divert, albeit only for a few hours, the course of a stream
Fri Apr 21 08:13 Huge carpark going in at the Rose Court/Leeds High School for Girls flat conversion on Headingley Lane. Union flag, bought to be displayed half-mast when Queenie died, still there looking somewhat Trafalgaresque (cheap cloth) but will it offend liberal purchasers?
Fri Apr 21 08:25 "AGI will exterminate us & use the contents of our corpses in industry" seems both feasible & a revival of Holocaust + War of the Worlds memes. Hitler's accounted for, but can someone put a stake thru H.G. Wells's heart
Fri Apr 21 08:28 Comment: Nice summary of houses along Headingley Lane from Richard Tyler of Headingley Development Trust Unfortunately no link back to whichever website it's on
Fri Apr 21 20:30 Off to see the nuns in the convent where I lived for two years - but only 50/150 left
Fri Apr 21 21:38 Comment: @FishHutBlackDog Also EEbeesa, EYbeesa...
Sat Apr 22 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 22 April 2023: Then: Sorry, nothing yet for today. Make a suggestion! Now: Weather for tonight: light rain, temperature 8°C (47°F), wind northerly 6mph, visibility moderate, pressure 1008mb, humidity 93%, UV risk 0/11, pollution…
Sun Apr 23 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 23 April 2023: Then: 1605: Debauched and ruined, Walter Calverley murders his first son at Calverley Hall (Bradford) 1642: On the eve of the Civil War, John Hotham draws up the bridge and shuts the gates of Hull to Charles I,…
Mon Apr 24 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 24 April 2023: Then: 1688: At Pontefract, the new Catholic and Dissenting members of the judiciary send James II thanks for allowing freedom of conscience, leading him to believe it a popular measure Now: Weather for tonight: light…
Tue Apr 25 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 25 April 2023: Then: 1668: In her will, Susannah Eyre rewards curious neighbours Now: Weather for tonight: clear sky, temperature 1°C (34°F), wind north westerly 8mph, visibility good, pressure 1017mb, humidity 78%, UV risk 0/11,…
Wed Apr 26 07:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 26 April 2023: Then: 1543: Robert Rawson, warder for the crown of the misses Levening, suggests to their mother at Acklam that she may wish to purchase them from him 1867: In a requiem to Hull's whaling industry, the Diana bears the…
Thu Apr 27 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 27 April 2023: Then: 1703: Ralph Thoresby of Leeds sends a list of 'local' dialect words to the naturalist and linguist John Ray (20 favourites) 1888: Edwin Wild (6 months) of Sheffield is attacked for his milk by a ratting ferret…
Fri Apr 28 07:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 28 April 2023: Then: 1489: Yorkshire tax rebels kill Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, at South Kilvington (Thirsk), giving rise to almost £900K expenses (2022) for his Beverley Minster funeral 1730: John Hobson meets a…
Sat Apr 29 07:23 Yorkshire Almanac: 29 April 2023: Then: ~1969: Jimmy Savile sexually assaults a 15-year-old girl at Staincliffe Hospital (later Dewsbury and District Hospital), to the amusement of bystanders Now: Weather for tonight: mist, temperature 5°C (42°F), wind…