Tweets for December 2022

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

Thu Dec 01 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 1 December 2022: Then: 1773: 2½ days after leaving London, legal clerk Foster Powell walks into York, rests briefly, and starts back. 1843: Unappetising conditions in the police cells and the old lock-up at Halifax. 1851: A 'funny…
Thu Dec 01 19:40 Red+black+white looks good & is cheap, but always makes me think 'SWP'
Thu Dec 01 19:48 When people ask where you're from, the trick is to give them what they want & seek to benefit: Dutch right-wingers want one to be English with a Scots connection (Thatcher, Smith), lefties prefer Irish (anticolonialism), while with Friesians Welsh Calvinist is worth a try
Thu Dec 01 19:50 Comment: Whatsername could have said northern Nigeria & sold the old lady a couple of thousand km2 of non-existent sand
Thu Dec 01 20:42 Lieschen, Lieschen - a Jürgen & Raymond SL favourite
Thu Dec 01 20:46 Comment: I guess Die 3 Besoffskis were on Dutch border pirate stations (though not that one with the aerial run up the nuns' chimney), but can't recall them on German pirates
Thu Dec 01 20:49 Comment: "Hey Rudi, spiel uns eins," an influential hit, was on legal German radio, but I guess only on the Dutch border pirates
Thu Dec 01 22:08 George Orwell, pub consultant In an SS the other night: bitter ca. £3, nice & warm, & never heard so much swearing in my life.
Fri Dec 02 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 2 December 2022: Then: 1726: The Rev. Hopkins of Kirkheaton emasculates himself to prevent any further 'criminal conversations' with his housekeeper. Now: Weather for tonight: thick cloud, temperature 3°C (38°F), wind south easterly…
Sat Dec 03 07:22 Kids' library service hedging its bets: books re boys-who-are-girls etc of an almost Victorian evangelical tone, but also Qatar colouring-in marketing. Surely not hoping that the Arabian Peninsula will be for our book barns what Andrew Carnegie was 100 years ago - here's Batley
Sat Dec 03 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 3 December 2022: Then: Sorry, nothing yet for today. Make a suggestion! Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature 3°C (38°F), wind northerly 7mph, visibility good, pressure 1029mb, humidity 97%, UV risk 0/11, pollution low…
Sun Dec 04 07:12 I used to put my trombone in the bassist's boot & cycle over to Münster to play festivals. Post-WWII rebuilds in this & other destroyed German towns felt (& this isn't a criticism) like a theme park: power tools on the sometimes authentic materials, & respectable toilets inside
Sun Dec 04 07:17 Comment: @NHPNA1 Thanks, we had a lovely time!
Sun Dec 04 07:53 A bizarre item relating to my creative restoration scheme for Goethe's (WWI-)vandalized face at @LeedsArtGallery : Holly Peril says the uni aka @germanatleeds replaced Goethe & other German lit with Greek in 1919! If that's really true, when did it return?
Sun Dec 04 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 4 December 2022: Then: 1841: 'Facts which cannot be disputed': the York Herald reports on a omnivorous sheep which, however, declines gin. 1843: The Tory MP for Knaresborough recounts the death in poverty of an old woman at Harden…
Sun Dec 04 08:28 Marvellous unicorn post using ChatGBT
Sun Dec 04 08:36 One of the funniest things about this is that anyone who has lived in Spain could have taken one look at her and said, "Mafia."
Sun Dec 04 16:53 The notion that Leeds pavements are filled with anti-car bollards, road signs, safety railings, wheelie bins, vigorous hedges, etc., not because of the council's indifference to pedestrians, but because of an active wish to stop them walking side by side, or even holding hands
Sun Dec 04 23:34 Lovely Atkinson Grimshaw moon last night, but who knows why he went bankrupt in 1888?
Sun Dec 04 23:46 I don't think 38 months is too young for the basic Beowulf story, in Old English obvs
Mon Dec 05 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 5 December 2022: Then: 1916: 35 girls and women die in an explosion at the Barnbow Munitions Factory, Leeds. Now: Weather for tonight: drizzle, temperature 5°C (41°F), wind north easterly 11mph, visibility good, pressure 1025mb,…
Mon Dec 05 13:41 RT @DanNeidle: Even better:
Mon Dec 05 21:46 Comment: Mind, she woke up on Monday with a fever
Mon Dec 05 23:38 Comment: @ronkephillips @lordbonkers I have a letter from TfL giving me permission to transport my 85kg barrel organ on the network, but it's not as tall
Tue Dec 06 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 6 December 2022: Then: 1811: Sydney Smith to John Murray on 'the privileges of the North'. 1853: The Rev. Heslop of Forcett (Richmondshire) writes in the old style to his protégé John Pick Allison regarding the death of the latter's…
Wed Dec 07 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 7 December 2022: Then: 1703: Abraham Sharp writes to John Flamsteed of the difficulties of observing Jupiter from Little Horton, Bradford. Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature 1°C (34°F), wind north westerly 11mph,…
Thu Dec 08 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 8 December 2022: Then: 1770: The Rev. Henry Venn says he must leave Huddersfield for a Cambridge village for the sake of his heart and lungs. Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy, temperature -2°C (28°F), wind north westerly 9mph,…
Thu Dec 08 10:20 Now olive oil is more expensive than wine, we're going to cook with butter & drink the oil
Thu Dec 08 18:21 The infant is fond of: the baby Jesus; saying "Stop saying poo"; improving her grammar; hanging out naked in a pit; using songs to paper over life's cracks. So is she ready for The Life of Brian?
Thu Dec 08 19:48 Demijohn cleaning improvement. (Is #CiderWithRosie still fermenting v slowly, or is that just air bubbles escaping from jogged sediment?)
Thu Dec 08 19:59 H thinks that people turned to cars because they ran out of space on pavements
Thu Dec 08 20:01 Comment: The answer: not quite
Thu Dec 08 21:33 Comment: Definitely residual fermentation - bring it into a 20ºC space & it restarts - garage probably a tad cold, so now behind Christmas tree in the cold corner of the lounge
Fri Dec 09 06:23 Infant at last understands that when I point to an huge imaginary spider on the wall, it is to steal her e.g. chocolate cake. But will this nullify the anti-meltdown strategy - Distract, Distract, Distract - where Klaudia Kat, acrobat, kazoos, etc are always on hand to misdirect?
Fri Dec 09 06:24 Comment: & how will she fare with 'idealist' politicians, who point to a flag/treaty/etc merely in order to empty one's pockets?
Fri Dec 09 06:51 Milt Jackson definitely wasn't a one-trick pony: + piano & guitar
Fri Dec 09 07:14 Comment: His little-known Leeds album:
Fri Dec 09 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 9 December 2022: Then: 1932: The Jewish Chronicle on the decision of the Yorkshire Fascist Table Tennis Club to avoid Jewish opponents by leaving the Leeds league. Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy, temperature -3°C (27°F), wind…
Fri Dec 09 21:14 Comment: @thhamilton Dumfries < domme Fries, stupid Friesian
Fri Dec 09 21:33 Comment: @eckersley_joe A kite flew nonchalantly over Woodhouse Moor playground at treetop level at approaching dusk today, & several frozen swing-pushers were immoderately excited
Fri Dec 09 22:09 Apparently granted the only present I wanted - a pint on Xmas lunchtime with George & the Dragon at Gnosall
Fri Dec 09 23:39 Kudos to the couple lying on the frozen Hill of Death at dusk, waiting for the still pretty full & bloody moon
Sat Dec 10 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 10 December 2022: Then: 1673: The Rev. Heywood prays for more death and destruction in the new year. 1710: A Whitby puppeteer tries to stab a delinquent spectator, but kills the wrong man. 1769: Bill Brown, a Brightside (Sheffield)…
Sun Dec 11 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 11 December 2022: Then: 1680: Halifax views the Great Comet of 1680 as a natural event, London as a portent. Now: Weather for tonight: thick cloud, temperature -1°C (30°F), wind northerly 5mph, visibility poor, pressure 1010mb,…
Sun Dec 11 11:46 Headingley Homophonic 'Horus strikes again
Sun Dec 11 22:31 Very 1870s Leeds: Canova Throp/Thorpe (dad of suffragette Leonora Cohen) is looking for another Gothic sculptor to help him decorate the (new?) Green Dragon Hotel, Guildford St. Green Dragon Yard, off the Headrow, is all that remains
Sun Dec 11 22:48 Comment: I still can't quite believe that he was christened Canova - marvellous case of nominative determinism. Why did his parents settle on it?
Sun Dec 11 22:50 Comment: Ditto daughter Leonora - prefiguring her activism, in Beethoven's Fidelio Leonore rescues hubby Florestan from a political prison
Mon Dec 12 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 12 December 2022: Then: 1641: Panic in Bradford and Pudsey on news of the imminent arrival of genocidal Irish Catholic rebels. Now: Weather for tonight: thick cloud, temperature -2°C (28°F), wind westerly 5mph, visibility moderate,…
Mon Dec 12 09:42 Someone: ChatGPT, Google killer... Isn't it just Ask Jeeves v2? (Without ads? Did AJ have ads? Posh colleague thought it the future of CRM in banking, never really got Google...)
Mon Dec 12 09:45 Metro Bank were actually fined for using remediate instead of remedy
Mon Dec 12 09:47 Comment: Like Dall-e, ChatGPT shows you what you really shouldn't say. So, great for estate agents.
Mon Dec 12 10:14 Ah, Chatsworth Road! The stuff about Photoshop is delicious
Mon Dec 12 10:49 But I doubt they still harvest Tyrone peat with horse and wagon. Meanwhile, poor middle-earners seen gathering winter fuel for their log-burners in Bath
Mon Dec 12 11:51 Visit to the established church's Xmas video projection. Carols still too high - conceived for SATB, choir has gone, but the keys remain the same. Questionable theology moment: disrespecting shepherds, who are massive in the Bible
Mon Dec 12 17:24 Eggcorn: Thor Heyerdahl -> four Airedales (Times, 15/6/78)
Tue Dec 13 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 13 December 2022: Then: 1795: A smoking-hot meteorite weighing 25 kg almost obliterates farm hand John Shipley at Wold Cottage farm (East Riding). Now: Weather for tonight: thick cloud, temperature -1°C (30°F), wind easterly 5mph,…
Tue Dec 13 08:45 Comment: 'ChatGPT also has failure modes that no human would ever replicate, like how it will reveal nuclear secrets if you ask it to do it in uWu furry speak, or tell you how to hotwire a car if and only if you make the request in base 64'
Tue Dec 13 08:50 Comment: I don't remember people talking about alignment failure when Karel Čapek's RUR came out
Tue Dec 13 08:55 Angelo Badalamenti's beer & titties outing pretty much confirms the true meaning of Twin Peaks
Tue Dec 13 08:57 Comment: Not close enough to carnival favourite Rosamunde to justify a plagiarism suit 00:55
Tue Dec 13 09:15 Outrageous suggestion that the elderly gent - Dickensian destitute (though not apparently afflicted or tormented) - might reject my spare rags
Tue Dec 13 10:20 140 years before Wasim Akram joined Lancashire, who was W.K. Akram, giving thanks to clown William Wallett in 1849 Bradford? I can't think of an English homophone for Akram, so I'm guessing someone of Muslim heritage from the Indian subcontinent
Tue Dec 13 10:43 Comment: W.K. Akram was one of the Bradford Oddfellows giving thanks for a benefit, so I wondered whether @OddfellowsUK might be able to help track him down
Tue Dec 13 10:45 Comment: @thisisyogic So is the Biblical Martha Gabriel incarnate?
Tue Dec 13 19:17
Tue Dec 13 20:17 The 15th century Middle (Northern) English poem, The Pricke of Conscience, is remarkable in part because it tells us how to sex a new-born without checking for pricks & pussy: boys cry "aaaaa" (Adam) while girls cry "eeeee" (Eve)
Tue Dec 13 20:22 Comment: (It's a marvellous thing - extraordinary that there's no Modern (Northern) English version)
Wed Dec 14 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 14 December 2022: Then: Sorry, nothing yet for today. Make a suggestion! Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature -3°C (26°F), wind north westerly 10mph, visibility good, pressure 1007mb, humidity 93%, UV risk 0/11, pollution…
Wed Dec 14 11:31 Comment: @OddfellowsUK That's very kind! I'd be interested in anything at all about him, but mostly his origins: Akram obviously has for us a Pakistani connection, but I guess he might have been (Jewish) German called something like Akkerman.
Wed Dec 14 20:55 My Father, Hitler and Me - a remarkable tale
Wed Dec 14 22:21 Scrumpy duly bottled - very dry, hints of incipient cholera, probably all gone by 1/1/2023 #CiderWithRosie
Wed Dec 14 22:26 Comment: An excellent lady called Sue has offered an apple press, so survivors may find everything easier next year
Wed Dec 14 22:49 Comment: Yield: 10l juice -> 9l cider. Alcohol unknown
Thu Dec 15 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 15 December 2022: Then: 1846: Charlotte Brontë to Ellen Nussey: cold, boredom and debts at Haworth. Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy, temperature -4°C (25°F), wind westerly 8mph, visibility good, pressure 1009mb, humidity 79%,…
Thu Dec 15 22:16 A rejig means that one is no longer able to make the Old Testament joke about Daniel in (the) Lynne's den
Thu Dec 15 22:33 Anecdotes of house plants dying because their owners can't afford to put on the heating. C has condensation on the *outside* of his windows and is considering camping in the garden.
Fri Dec 16 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 16 December 2022: Then: 1722: Thomas Nettleton of Halifax recounts to James Jurin his success in inoculating against smallpox. 1913: Michael Sadler, vice-chancellor of Leeds University, writes to his son about the successful use of…
Fri Dec 16 11:23 What's the point of road traffic updates on BBC Radio 2? Maintaining national motoring consciousness - commonality between people in dirty metal boxes in Kilburn & Kilmarnock?
Fri Dec 16 11:29 Comment: How about updates on the state of the nation's cycle traffic: "Lorry on double yellow outside One Stop Stores on Hyde Park Road obstructing north-bound lane and pavement" / "Cyclist on cycle lane almost hit by a right-turner from Headingley Lane into Regent Park Ave" / ...
Sat Dec 17 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 17 December 2022: Then: 1674: Michael Gilburn, a Halifax lawyer, terminates a drunken week in style. 1688: Mass mobilization in Leeds on rumour of an imminent Celtic counteroffensive against the Glorious Revolution. Now: Weather for…
Sat Dec 17 19:47 The universality of the middle class: George Melly's Scouse Mouse - wealthy, well-connected Liverpool childhood, top private school, blabla, but firmly identifies as middle class - cf the Galsworthy 1920s definition: 'anything from 200 a year to super-tax'
Sat Dec 17 19:49 Comment: A great counterpoint to AMA's more recognisably middle class recollections of contemporary Wallasey, across the Mersey
Sun Dec 18 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 18 December 2022: Then: 1642: 'Bradford quarter' is given to a Royalist besieger during the First Siege. 1673: A secure archive of charitable trusts is established in Leeds parish church. Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud,…
Sun Dec 18 12:37 The infant's friends have begun to adopt from her the tone of phrase of the Redcar parrot, and the result is scary. Did some prehistoric clans, as well as dressing like wolves or lions, howl or roar like them?
Sun Dec 18 12:43 Comment: Tennyson's "Bark an answer, Britain's raven!" merely confuses matters
Sun Dec 18 13:06 Comment: Though, as we know from Messrs Corbyn and Raab, the crow family are quick to acquire the traits of humans and other species
Mon Dec 19 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 19 December 2022: Then: 1775: James Cook names a freezing south Pacific promontory after his native cathedral. 1826: Charles Mathews, comedian, awaiting his fellow actors at York for the evening performance, receives some unwelcome…
Mon Dec 19 20:13 Infant: "I'm not going to the future, I'm putting on my pants."
Mon Dec 19 20:43 Thomas Dibdin's Family Quarrels (1802) is a glorious burlesque - quite hard satire on Yorkshire folk, & some frequently misunderstood satire on anti-Semitism - but this is probably my favourite bit
Mon Dec 19 21:53 Comment: But where can I get the music, & particularly for Yorkshire clothier's heir Mat Mushroom's song? William Reeve is listed as the comedy's composer, but John Braham is said to have contributed to this song & others
Tue Dec 20 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 20 December 2022: Then: 1697: Catastrophic flooding in the lower reaches of the Don, caused by the failure of Cornelius Vermuyden's land reclamation to cope with snow melt. Now: Weather for tonight: light rain showers, temperature 8°C…
Wed Dec 21 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 21 December 2022: Then: Sorry, nothing yet for today. Make a suggestion! Now: Weather for tonight: light rain showers, temperature 6°C (43°F), wind southerly 15mph, visibility good, pressure 1002mb, humidity 87%, UV risk 0/11,…
Wed Dec 21 10:35 Bugaboo's handlebar locks seem to wear out in 18 months, but they're really quick with replacements
Wed Dec 21 20:19 Shouldn't adults, who put on a story for children which says that children should have the power to create the stories, have the courage of their convictions and say to the children, OK, what's it going to be today?
Wed Dec 21 20:22 Comment: Aka the delusion that children, given 'freedom', would reject roaring dinosaurs and the Pig in favour of their own narratives
Thu Dec 22 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 22 December 2022: Then: Sorry, nothing yet for today. Make a suggestion! Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature 5°C (41°F), wind south westerly 13mph, visibility good, pressure 1000mb, humidity 89%, UV risk 0/11, pollution…
Thu Dec 22 09:54 Which will be first back onto the shelves, the chicken or the egg?
Thu Dec 22 12:05 A street cleaner sporting a customised hi-viz: "I'm a butch lesbian, not a man in a woman's body."
Thu Dec 22 20:43 Only guy round here with a normal looking border collie says she wouldn't be into the Headingley Hill sheep project. She's got one dodgy foot, but I reckon she'd love it.
Thu Dec 22 20:58 - You've also noticed the dozen old BMWs & Mercedes parked in Lyddon Terrace, Clarendon Place at the university? Presumably a spare parts dealer - Public streets, resident-only, but Leeds Council doesn't do parking enforcement - But isn't it quieter with them just sitting there?
Thu Dec 22 22:20 Harry and His Nurse-Maid by Maria Arthington is a great rhyming early-years manual from ca. 1820
Thu Dec 22 22:21 Comment: The anti-laudanum poem appears in the comment here
Fri Dec 23 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 23 December 2022: Then: 1689: A Danish soldier is beheaded at Beverley for killing a colleague, inspiring some doggerel. 1838: Showman Old Jemmy Wild's body travels by caravan from Bradford to Huddersfield, followed by Billy the…
Sat Dec 24 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 24 December 2022: Then: 1938: The Christmas Eve dream of Douglas Holmes, 10, in Seacroft Hospital, Leeds. Now: Weather for tonight: light rain showers, temperature 6°C (43°F), wind south westerly 10mph, visibility good, pressure…
Sun Dec 25 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 25 December 2022: Then: 1066: With Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, excommunicated, Ealdred, Archbishop of York, crowns William the Conqueror at Westminster. 1866: Starving amidst Arctic ice, and with Captain Gravill on his deathbed,…
Sun Dec 25 19:47 Apparent case of Foreign Accent Syndrome: a West Midlands speaker is sectioned and emerges, perhaps renewed, but speaking Essex. Queries as to how convincing the new accent is, whether learned from telly (TOWIE?)/one of the carers/?
Sun Dec 25 22:00 Organ Stops - great doc by James Dawson with Martin Renshaw about rescuing church organs
Sun Dec 25 22:00 Comment: More
Mon Dec 26 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 26 December 2022: Then: 1570: Archbishop Grindal acts against rood lofts and other remnants of pre-Calvinist religion and in favour of pulpits. 1831: The London Zoological Society accepts the Yorkshire Philosophical Society's offer of…
Tue Dec 27 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 27 December 2022: Then: Sorry, nothing yet for today. Make a suggestion! Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature 1°C (35°F), wind south westerly 9mph, visibility good, pressure 1018mb, humidity 88%, UV risk 0/11, pollution…
Tue Dec 27 19:29 "Daddy, I almost did a poo in the big toilet, but it ran back into its hiding place."
Tue Dec 27 20:16 Opera horizontal tab scrolling just turned itself off, & settings was no help, but just discovered again at opera://flags/
Wed Dec 28 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 28 December 2022: Then: 1642: Four months into the Civil War, the radical Puritan John Shawe of Rotherham advocates the stripping of churches to St. Mary's, Beverley. Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature 6°C (43°F), wind…
Wed Dec 28 14:51 7th Seal, draughts remake
Wed Dec 28 14:59 1/4 News updates are from my Kitchen Bible (URLs, recipes, songs, poetry...) on the Kindle -> aggregator URL (RSS headlines, weather, FX, Yorkshire Almanac...)
Wed Dec 28 15:00 Comment: 2/4 Still 'experimental' Kindle browser (= Amazon-tweaked Webkit) -> encoding disaster on clickthrus from RSS, except on NRC Handelsblad, where it also seems to evade the paywall(!) (unlike eg FT, which -> paywalled gibberish)
Wed Dec 28 15:00 Comment: 3/4 So I get to read bits of this & that by Frits Abrahams, a pleasure going back 25 years to an NRC Handelsblad sub (Volkskrant was a decaying whale...)
Wed Dec 28 15:00 Comment: 4/4 Also fond of Heldring, partly because would occasionally encounter him on his bike in the early hours in the Hague suburbs, on his way to the office. & still admire Wesseling. But not Grunberg - Amsterdam windbag...
Wed Dec 28 18:39 French customs (Douane) just whacked a customer who bought & imported a book worth £20 with €13 in TVA (VAT) & admin. 1st time this has happened to me exporting to the EU, & I'm obviously hoping it's an error & not something lurking in the post-Brexit regulation jungle...
Wed Dec 28 21:41 Where's a good place in Headingley/Meanwood/Hyde Park/NW or central Leeds to get Seville oranges?
Wed Dec 28 23:01 A pity this vocal tract cold (or whatever), with the phenomenal gain in depth & resonance, didn't arrive in time for guest bass engagements before Christmas, rather than now - theatrical gravitas not necessarily welcome at home
Thu Dec 29 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 29 December 2022: Then: 1759: Julius Caesar Ibbetson, future painter of pigs and other delights, is born on Farnley Moor, Leeds by Caesarean section. Now: Weather for tonight: light rain, temperature 7°C (45°F), wind south westerly…
Thu Dec 29 15:40 Monkey musicians (violin, cello, oboe, sackbut/trombone) on a barrel organ The notion that these are human musicians wearing monkey masks to avoid confusion with guests is new to me - wouldn't work for all gigs
Thu Dec 29 22:32 Comment: @MrEwanMorrison Even the Soviets didn't preserve it, but here's the 1st episode of a Russian animation using the soundtrack from a 1990 radio play
Thu Dec 29 22:45 Comment: @FarsleyMarket @LeedsCivicTrust Isn't the carbon impact of driving trees in a car to a recycling point similar to burning them in your back garden?
Fri Dec 30 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 30 December 2022: Then: 1862: The Times reports how, on the eve of the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate general Stonewall Jackson talked about the organ of York Minster. Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature 5°C…
Sat Dec 31 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 31 December 2022: Then: 1733: John Hobson looks back on an unusually warm December. 1848: Fragment of the Richmond Hagmena song, performed on New Year's Eve by the town pinder. Now: Weather for tonight: light rain, temperature 7°C…