Tweets for January 2023

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

Sun Jan 01 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 1 January 2023: Then: 1680: The preacher Thomas Sharp compares New Year revellers in Leeds to the pagan Jews in Babylon. 1726: Heavy snow stops the post and kills parson William Baines of Dronfield at Froggatt Moss. 1735: Silkstone…
Mon Jan 02 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 2 January 2023: Then: 1773: Despite Charles II's 1672 Declaration of Indulgence, the Presbyterian Oliver Heywood is detained while preaching at Lascelles Hall (Kirkburton). 1863: William Allison (11) goes rabbit, sorry, pigeon shooting…
Mon Jan 02 20:27 Several very enjoyable visits to the now-community-owned Brewer's Arms at West Malvern - great people, great place, & looking forward to more Trevor's Stout by Malvern Hills Brewery on our next trip!
Mon Jan 02 20:28 @ourellen Hope it's not tactless to ask here whether the preschool is back tomorrow - brain uncommonly fuddled this year!
Mon Jan 02 21:03 The planning decision by Leeds Council forcing the Heart community centre at Headingley to turn its Victorian playground back into a carpark is utterly scandalous
Mon Jan 02 21:17 Comment: @nymr Just wondering on behalf of several infants when you'll be opening booking for "normal" services over Easter...
Mon Jan 02 21:27 Curious that there is so little writing in Italian re the Reggio Emilia Approach
Tue Jan 03 06:39 Drunken admirer - hicophant
Tue Jan 03 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 3 January 2023: Then: 1638: On the eve of the Civil Wars, Henry Slingsby witnesses 'the spectacle of our public death' on Bramham Moor (Wetherby). 1820: The rise of literacy and of an untameable popular press make parliamentary reform…
Tue Jan 03 09:42 Comment: @knowlewester @lordbonkers Is the church still there?
Tue Jan 03 19:44 RT @DerelictYork: @LibDems @NorthernSoulLtd @abandoned_pools @DerelictToDecay @ExploresMr @DAB_Photos @BrutalistLib @scrappynw @davidmcw @a…
Tue Jan 03 22:16 RT @azforeman: Maybe at least have some humor about it and say you switched from counting years since the Birth of Jesus to counting years…
Wed Jan 04 06:56 Linguist with a barrel-organ hobby. Mechanical musical instruments have a Janus-like double face: via barrels etc they can describe pretty much exactly how things were, but are less relaxed than most prescriptive linguists about how things are to be
Wed Jan 04 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 4 January 2023: Then: 1728: Martha Savile is buried at Mexborough in her mother's coffin, apparently at the age of 100. 1891: Funerals at Upper Wortley, Leeds, of four of the eleven Snowflake girls burned to death in a school…
Wed Jan 04 13:35 Without the SEO keywords, why I am encouraging the infant to think about plumbing
Wed Jan 04 13:51 Brass chorale muted with black drapes at the end of Mahler 3 - great sound
Wed Jan 04 20:05 Worried that the infant will in public threaten a doll with 'the naughty room' - concept acquired recently from a gent who puts his own toddlers in the pantry when they disturb his Facebook habit
Thu Jan 05 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 5 January 2023: Then: 1726: Mr. Wordsworth of New Laithes grange (Horsforth) shows evidence of an attempted burglary. 1846: In a letter to William Borrer, Ryedale botanist Richard Spruce despairs of his Pyrenean mosses arousing…
Thu Jan 05 09:30 Mr Destitute, after a few weeks of street greetings, & asked whether he'd like some new clothes, looks me up & down & says, "No, thank you."
Thu Jan 05 09:56 Lady with a history of being unable, even for a few minutes, to remember children's names greets the infant: - Happy New Year, X! - Er, she's still called Y. Happy New Year! - She looks just like X. Add prosopagnosia to the diagnosis, or a "white people all look the same" thing?
Thu Jan 05 11:09 One of the 7%
Fri Jan 06 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 6 January 2023: Then: 1565: The bridge over the Ouse at York collapses, destroying 12 houses and drowning 12. 1687: In possible violation of the discriminatory Test Acts, James II replaces Protestant justices of the peace by Catholics…
Fri Jan 06 09:09 Infant says she has decided that she doesn't want to go to nursery any more & will educate & look after herself. Doing OK so far, but not sure the govt 30 hours scheme was so intended
Fri Jan 06 09:13 Comment: But now Louis Vuitton is spamming my timeline
Fri Jan 06 09:29 Impression that new housing doesn't have pavements because developers & politicos borrowed Mini-Holland-type memes (mixed use) to maximise build numbers. Result: 1500kg vehicles with poor visibility but able to travel fast because the drivers know the streets versus 10kg buggies
Fri Jan 06 10:25 Comment: @tombcn They're scared of the 'wild' boar
Fri Jan 06 10:44 Comment: Mumsnet experts to the rescue
Fri Jan 06 19:24 Our water is unmetered, so I've got a small one of these in the bath
Fri Jan 06 19:40 Even the brilliant minds at HPS couldn't think of anywhere as far north as Leeds that sells Seville oranges. Marmalade season in danger for a 2nd year
Fri Jan 06 20:43 The incredible tone didn't change much over the years, but Alfredo Campoli's later slippered footwork was less flamboyant than this great left leg action
Fri Jan 06 21:13 E fears care homes, & is busy establishing a risky & regular wild walking schedule from home, so that if she gets dementia she will continue with it, fall over, & die cheerfully of hypothermia - relatives briefed not to tell the police if she goes missing
Fri Jan 06 23:58 Sad that the catalogues of @leedslibraries & similar aren't integrated into @SearchWorldCat - Brotherton is, for example
Sat Jan 07 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 7 January 2023: Then: 1397: On the longest of the 42 days of his topsy-turvy reign, boy-bishop John de Cave of York rides 200 miles soliciting financial contributions. Now: Weather for tonight: light rain, temperature 10°C (51°F), wind…
Sat Jan 07 10:59 S is a great source (& perhaps creator) of urban legend, mostly situated on what once was the filthiest river in England: - Don't worry about the infant! In Bradford loadsa kids don't actually go to nursery, & the nursery pays the mum cash from the government's 30-hour allowance.
Sat Jan 07 11:02 Comment: Also: - In Bradford you can't see a GP either, so there's one who was struck off a few years ago doing consultations at 10 quid a pop. - But what about prescriptions? - His cousin's a chemist. Still not sure, unless Michelle Mone was involved, that this would actually work.
Sun Jan 08 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 8 January 2023: Then: 1844: Members of the 70th (Surrey) Regiment of Foot stationed at Leeds riot in protest at anti-Irish graffiti. Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature 7°C (44°F), wind southerly 19mph, visibility good,…
Sun Jan 08 13:26 Legislation required to prevent the addition of sugar to herring conserves - Elsinore's herring in dill marinade is quite revolting. Is this an English thing, born of cheap sugar from West Indian plantations?
Sun Jan 08 18:59 The howl of the grasshopper mouse is one of the scariest things for a while. We use this feed with the infant post-bath & pre-bed because she seems to find it a challenging but satisfying end to the day, & because the links make it easy to follow up ideas quickly
Sun Jan 08 20:52 Processed the last scrumped apples - infant has got through great quantities of stewed the last 4 months. #CiderWithRosie has been a revelation - beautiful light flavour now maturing well. Next year small ones will go to it for rapidity
Sun Jan 08 20:54 Comment: Developing something of a "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again" relationship with one of the sources - will it still be unsold this autumn?
Mon Jan 09 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 9 January 2023: Then: 1827: The comedian Charles Mathews writes from Halifax about the comforts of J.P. Smith's house at Leeds and about an early modern beggars' litany. 1935: Returning from Bear Island, the trawler Edgar Wallace…
Mon Jan 09 08:38 Social media users calling for the abolition of electronic devices so they can wrap their fish 'n' chips in newspapers again
Tue Jan 10 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 10 January 2023: Then: 1675: George Aislabie, profiteering registrar of the York ecclesiastical court and assiduous duellist, challenges the wrong man. 1761: Jane Delamoth dies and is remembered in shorthand at St Mary's, Sculcoates…
Tue Jan 10 10:05 Resurfacing core samples. NW Woodhouse Moor paths are a palimpsest of paving textures, presumably going back to Victoria. Currently recalls Sheridan's Trip to Scarborough: The streets were pav'd with stones, / Which, aided by a hackney coach, half broke your bones
Tue Jan 10 10:09 Comment: (Sheridan's ref is to London - I haven't got to Scarborough yet)
Wed Jan 11 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 11 January 2023: Then: 1900: An explosion injures half the shift and kills four at the Leeds Steel Works, Hunslet. Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature 7°C (44°F), wind south westerly 21mph, visibility very good, pressure…
Wed Jan 11 10:11 Spare is immaculately ghosted & a fascinating sociology of a thick & feckless kleptocracy. Most UK problems (eg Otley Run) could be solved by readopting carnival: our royal family should be chosen by lottery on 11/11 annually, filmed vigorously, & buried in chalk on Ash Wednesday
Wed Jan 11 10:21 Comment: Here is the new annualised royal family's costume for official occasions:
Wed Jan 11 13:49 The musical temptation in newspaper reports on Chartist meetings to read "bondsmen" as "bandsmen"
Wed Jan 11 20:21 Transcription prob: Huddersfield Radicals regretting their inability to attend the great Hartshead Moor Chartist rally of 15/10/1838: "our only consolation is that we can, in defiance of Whig or Tory, Malthusian, Jew, or bas*iler[?????], attach our names to the National Petition"
Thu Jan 12 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 12 January 2023: Then: Sorry, nothing yet for today. Make a suggestion! Now: Weather for tonight: light rain, temperature 7°C (45°F), wind south westerly 15mph, visibility good, pressure 995mb, humidity 89%, UV risk 0/11, pollution low…
Thu Jan 12 10:35 At Morrisons, the mean old trick of putting someone who can't speak English on customer service. With help, locates "grape food" on the receipt, & then a worker brings over the placard & tries to explain the primacy of shelf price. Unconvinced, but "I give you 6p anyway."
Thu Jan 12 17:05 Comment: @Transblawg "Sweet apples"
Fri Jan 13 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 13 January 2023: Then: 1536: A dissolver of monasteries claims Yorkshire clergy use withdrawal and abortifacient 'potations' for birth control. 1686: A mob plunders the funeral of the Countess of Strafford at York Minster. Now: Weather…
Fri Jan 13 08:46 Comment: The answer's "bastiler" - someone who imprisons others for their political activism - see the comment here
Fri Jan 13 08:58 "I figured it was easier to explain hypocrisy to the 3-year-old than to stop swearing."
Fri Jan 13 20:43 The two small girls who banged on the front door claiming their parents had abandoned them have clearly not seen frying-pan-into-the-fire zombie movies, where the neighbour from whom help is sought is a shambling, rotting psychopath, as I generally am by 7 on Friday night
Fri Jan 13 20:51 Comment: The infant is said to have recognizably written her own name at nursery yesterday, but it will be a while before she can describe the gross robotic clown cooking dinner
Fri Jan 13 21:00 Anyone use an electric toothbrush as milk frother?
Sat Jan 14 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 14 January 2023: Then: 1472: Shipments of wallpaper(?) from Schiedam (Holland) pass through Hull customs. Now: Weather for tonight: heavy rain, temperature 6°C (42°F), wind southerly 17mph, visibility good, pressure 1000mb, humidity…
Sat Jan 14 13:10 Probably a metaphorical train ride, undertaken with a timetable from some other place
Sun Jan 15 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 15 January 2023: Then: 1685: John Reresby, governor of York, spitefully declines to try to exempt Sheffield and Hallamshire smiths from the hearth tax. 1873: Mr. Fairest details the historical embezzlement and misdirection of charity…
Sun Jan 15 21:42 Victorian America
Mon Jan 16 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 16 January 2023: Then: 1873: William Town, alias Jones, a married man of Sorby Street, Sheffield, receives by post the body of his daughter by another woman. Now: Weather for tonight: sleet showers, temperature 0°C (32°F), wind north…
Mon Jan 16 19:40 The infant, possibly taking a dim view of the continuity errors in Macbeth, has taken to chanting "Hubble, bubble, toilet trouble"
Mon Jan 16 21:52 Police lost property lady: Ah, you'll have come about the mittens. Man: Look, I haven't got any hands! The hands hadn't been handed in.
Tue Jan 17 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 17 January 2023: Then: Sorry, nothing yet for today. Make a suggestion! Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy, temperature -3°C (26°F), wind westerly 7mph, visibility good, pressure 986mb, humidity 87%, UV risk 0/11, pollution low…
Tue Jan 17 21:17 Another infant, investigating her mum's crotch: "Mummy's got a willy!" All things considered it seems extremely unlikely, but no jokes.
Wed Jan 18 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 18 January 2023: Then: 1855: York Ecclesiastical Court tells Mrs. Ackroyd of Knaresborough that any attempts by her husband to injure her are due to her divorce proceedings and failure to consort with him. 1966: Barbara Castle (Labour)…
Thu Jan 19 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 19 January 2023: Then: 1831: Aged 14, Charlotte Brontë starts at Roe Head School, Mirfield. 1884: Harry England explains in the Yorkshire Weekly Press why the people of the town are known as Leeds Loiners. Now: Weather for tonight:…
Thu Jan 19 09:07 Infant got a thumbs-up from the dope-smoking academicians in the park this AM (pink hat, pink wellies, multi-pastelled coat) & so one failed to greet Mrs Leveeleaver in her favoured Low Franconian
Thu Jan 19 09:27 More on West Yorks Police from Neil, whose stuff I bumped into thru newbie amazement that officers at Hyde Park station, Woodhouse Lane prefer double yellow to the reserved parking on Lodge St, apparently cool with a perception of corruption as long as they don't have to walk 75m
Thu Jan 19 17:47 Comment: @petersymon Where the pied wagtails were the control group
Thu Jan 19 20:56 @Transblawg
Fri Jan 20 08:06 Comment: @tombcn yeah man, are you still on the run?
Fri Jan 20 08:08 Comment: @Transblawg Where's Belfast?
Fri Jan 20 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 20 January 2023: Then: 1536: Thomas Cromwell's agents tell how they used allegations of whores and theft to oust William Thirsk, Abbot of Fountains. Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy, temperature 0°C (33°F), wind westerly 12mph,…
Fri Jan 20 08:39 Our man on the ground thinks the fleet of old Mercedes & BMWs lodging in the residents' parking on Lyddon Terrace and Cromer Place aren't for parts but are awaiting export to West Africa. "600 there for the right-hand drive refit & he'll be making a grand on each."
Fri Jan 20 08:40 Comment: Meanwhile, as he observes, by occupying a dozen parking places they have reduced traffic on the street & "I haven't seen a traffic warden up here for years."
Fri Jan 20 08:44 What the Spanish call corruption
Fri Jan 20 09:44 Comment: @LeedsClarkKent @LeedsArtGallery Is it true, as the blurb suggests, that you can take home a Matisse? Do you publish a list of what's available, or is a question of signing (and paying) up and then hoping for the best?
Fri Jan 20 17:56 As if hours of daytime roleplay weren't enough, last night in her sleep the infant shouted "Daddy, stand over there!" Infant J harder to read - the other night it was "Dogs ... dogs ... dogs!" I'm also getting the horrors - dreamt that @stroat had been afflicted by a beer drought
Fri Jan 20 18:49 Comment: @lordbonkers Quite a lot of our clearance went to charity (some bargaining - take this & we'll give you that), but for the bulk of books we got dealers' quotes & then figured the best we'd get was 10% of sale value, so I put a shop on the website & now have curious & amusing chats with buyers
Fri Jan 20 18:53 Why do I work in the window corner of the lounge? Partly the cowboy back-to-the-wall thing, mainly to watch the buzzards circling at ca 50m over Woodhouse Ridge
Fri Jan 20 20:15 Comment: @Transblawg I might have settled down then if they'd moved to Barking
Sat Jan 21 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 21 January 2023: Then: 1837: 25-year-old Charlotte Hall becomes the first person to be interred in the new York Cemetery. Now: Weather for tonight: partly cloudy, temperature -2°C (28°F), wind north westerly 5mph, visibility good,…
Sat Jan 21 17:19 Comment: I know buzzards eat just about anything that wriggles or runs, but thought they specialised in rabbits - hence their recovery as resistance to myxomatosis increases, & my confusions as to what they're doing on our bit of Woodhouse Ridge: I've never seen a rabbit or trace thereof
Sun Jan 22 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 22 January 2023: Then: 1863: William Allison (11) sees Bob Gowland, Kilvington's blacksmith, slaughter a pig. Now: Weather for tonight: mist, temperature -3°C (26°F), wind south easterly 9mph, visibility very poor, pressure 1034mb,…
Sun Jan 22 20:27 Beautiful stuff - particularly a fan of the state of Q8. Only a couple of years since your man was the govt's darling
Sun Jan 22 20:42 Comment: @lordbonkers All rather curious - Ukrainian banks aren't currently known for lending to foreigners with poor credit records
Sun Jan 22 20:48 Via role-play the infant increasingly varyies/invents stories. Current fave, influenced by James Thurber's fable & the Silly Symphonies Big Bad Wolf, is Little Red Riding Hood, tho sometimes the only shared meme is the title
Sun Jan 22 20:49 Comment: "Once upon a time there was a little girl called Red Riding Hood, who lived in a cottage on the edge of the forest with her mummy. She had a little dog called Doggie, and they were friends with three squirrels..."
Sun Jan 22 20:54 Comment: George Melly was a big fan of the Silly Symphonies: "Then the screen went dark & an iris lens opened from the centre to reveal a country where the flowers had flat black centres & simple petals the colours of sweets & the trees were as plump as pillows"
Sun Jan 22 21:32 How do people rate BBC Radio 3 vs the old European state classical stations - France Musique, Radio Clásica etc?
Sun Jan 22 22:00 RT @xkcd: My mom sent me some papers that belonged to my grandfather, Darwin Randall Crum, which included a collection of “Disfrustrating P…
Mon Jan 23 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 23 January 2023: Then: 1640: Andrew Marvell's father drowns in the Humber at Hull. 1643: Thomas Fairfax, the Rider of the White Horse, captures Leeds from the Beast with the help of Psalm 68. 1720: Mr. Robertson demonstrates his…
Mon Jan 23 10:16 Apart from the palpable PRC presence in Babylon, the broader impression - particularly post-Brexit - that foreign students now tend to be dull apparatchiks of repressive regimes rather than the flashes of colour I recall from previous contacts with unis
Mon Jan 23 10:19 Comment: I still see the Arabian jailer every now & again. When D got invasively mad at him, the regime bought him a nice house down the road
Mon Jan 23 11:11 Comment: @jonburkeUK Atypical? My first Dutch Dame Edna gig was at a scary low-end caravan park where the holidaymakers - who all lived just down the road - were more focused on ingesting drugs. Arie Theunissen made a great number about that world:
Tue Jan 24 07:02 Comment: @petersymon @openculture There's a mislink: The Remains of Tom Lehrer (disc 1) RAR is but should be
Tue Jan 24 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 24 January 2023: Then: 1680: Miners rob, murder and burn a pit-owner and nonconformist minister and his mother and maid at Beeston, Leeds. 1826: Samuel Hick, blacksmith and Methodist preacher of Micklefield (Leeds), writes to his 'dear…
Tue Jan 24 13:11 Save Carlisle Turkish Baths!
Tue Jan 24 19:41 Emerging registral vowel differentiation in the infant: "lunch" is northern (/lʊntʃ/ - nursery), "munch" southern (/mʌntʃ/ - Wizard of Oz). Her mother does something similar: bath is Midlands (childhood), Bath is southern (adulthood)
Wed Jan 25 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 25 January 2023: Then: 1328: Edward III (15) marries his cousin Philippa (13) of Hainault (Belgium) at York Minster, in order to save England from the Scots, the French and the English. 1686: John Reresby is disgusted to learn that his…
Wed Jan 25 11:29 Comment: @lordbonkers Of course, a mad person would speculate that the trips haven't been about Zelenskiy taking Johnson out to lunch with the local manager of PrivatBank, but rather the common interest of the Zelenskiy clan & the Tory party in the offshore concealment of wealth & tax liabilities
Wed Jan 25 11:33 RT @landsmith_sarah: #Frogmarsh: @Sustrans found that traffic around the school was ⬇️ by 68% across school drop off & collection time, w/2…
Wed Jan 25 20:31 Dutch civil servants used to introduce Latin into their correspondence in order to confound suspected NW Frontier child benefit harvesters
Wed Jan 25 21:27 Dear Linley & Simpson, I don't see how this can be the house shown in J.M.W Turner's Kirkstall Lock, on the River Aire (& with Kirkstall Abbey)
Thu Jan 26 08:11 Comment: @SjaneP I don't get it, though: quite apart from the style (which might be Victorian modifications of a prior structure) the part of the L&S house that ain't for sale, presumably what they mean, is 2-, not 3-storey. Must look it up!
Thu Jan 26 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 26 January 2023: Then: 1835: Sheffield printer William Burgin publishes a sensationalist account of the horrors discovered by a pyromaniac mob in the Eyre Street anatomy school. Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature 3°C…
Thu Jan 26 08:28 Chinese not embracing veganism: "A healthy diet was deemed as eating at least seven out of 12 food groups: fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, dairy, salt, oil, eggs, cereals, legumes, nuts & tea." Can you booze if you get more exercise than prescribed?
Thu Jan 26 09:37 Comment: @SjaneP I'm going to steal some time, traipse down there & inspect. The Turner painting - future & past - is tremendous
Thu Jan 26 20:07 Before returning to E Asia after a few years here, someone apparently finally asked the question they'd wanted to ask all along: - So how do you clean your carpets? - We vacuum them. - OK, but how do you clean them?
Thu Jan 26 20:09 Comment: Do provincial bars in Germany/Netherlands etc still have carpet on the Stammtisch? I think it's a 17th century tradition, but if you fell asleep on one in a drunken stupor you might wake up with nasty burns from the cleaning fluid
Fri Jan 27 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 27 January 2023: Then: 1830: William Cobbett rides from Leeds to black Sheffield. Now: Weather for tonight: thick cloud, temperature 3°C (37°F), wind north westerly 8mph, visibility good, pressure 1033mb, humidity 98%, UV risk 0/11,…
Fri Jan 27 09:38 Ils sont fous, ces gaulois!
Fri Jan 27 10:51 Bleak staircase at Morrisons freshly painted with bleach, & up it creeps a decaying walrus #TheEndIsNigh
Fri Jan 27 16:50 The infant has mysteriously acquired some great DIY skills - expert demo with bricklaying trowel & then plastering trowel over the finished surface. One suspects the preschool is making the kiddies build an extension
Fri Jan 27 16:52 Comment: @tombcn I'd have to look them up whatever
Fri Jan 27 17:05 Comment: Lots of fun there, but great joy in the inkling of a many-to-one relationship between before & after - that the French are mentally ill. I used to ignore a City colleague when he pronounced Associate Press with a panto German accent. Possible explanation
Fri Jan 27 17:07 RT @HuddExposed: The seeds of women's football in Huddersfield were sowed on a "very muddy and slimy" field on Saturday 11 December 1920 wh…
Sat Jan 28 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 28 January 2023: Then: 1069: In the first major northern encounter after Hastings, Tynesiders slaughter a Norman army at Durham, whereupon William lays waste to York and the north. Now: Weather for tonight: light cloud, temperature 0°C…
Sat Jan 28 19:23 Comment: @petersymon He got his revenge in first: you know the story of his disgraceful behaviour towards his American wife?
Sat Jan 28 19:55 Comment: @petersymon The dual/duel thing is pretty random surely
Sat Jan 28 19:59 Looking beyond their shared delight in semi-democratic politics & semi-obliterated armed forces, linguistically speaking the Russians have moved on less from C19th empire than the Brits - plenty of idioms in modern cratchat beloved of Nicholas I's unfavourite authors
Sat Jan 28 20:19 I actually support reintroducing a property qualification in UK elections - those in possession of a barrel organ AND monkey
Sat Jan 28 20:21 Comment: Oops, I think he made that one up
Sat Jan 28 22:13 I had forgotten that there once was a man from Leeds, who swallowed a packet of seeds.
Sun Jan 29 08:16 Yorkshire Almanac: 29 January 2023: Then: 1785: A fox-hunting song about the extraordinary journey made by the Cleveland Hounds on Saturday, January 29th, 1785. Now: Weather for tonight: drizzle, temperature 5°C (40°F), wind south westerly 8mph,…
Sun Jan 29 09:58 Comment: @petersymon I'm so far into Dougal and the blue cat that basics evade me
Sun Jan 29 18:00 A young (perhaps prematurely old) man at Headingley Arndale: "I haven't seen a child playing with a stick for years! You've made my day!" Meanwhile, the infant's bedroom resembles the winter fuel store of Wenceslas' peasant
Sun Jan 29 18:04 "You don't really hate the way A slobbers his lamb fat. You're just mentally ill - "
Sun Jan 29 21:23 Comment: @BfdPartnership @TheLeedsCyclist @WestYorksPolice @bradfordmdc Hyde Park police station in Leeds is not on your side - they've got reserved parking 100 yards away, but who walks that far?
Mon Jan 30 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 30 January 2023: Then: 1709: Charles Bosvill, king of the gypsies, is buried at Rossington, Doncaster. 1846: Charlotte Brontë warns her old school-mistress that railway dividends are unsustainable. 1934: The wife of the Vicar of…
Mon Jan 30 08:46 Comment: @LeedsTours You're quoting Mr Dinwiddy the gold-digger in Ivor the Engine!
Mon Jan 30 08:56 I'm told that the obsession with writing/speaking without repetition is a class thing
Tue Jan 31 08:17 Yorkshire Almanac: 31 January 2023: Then: 1858: John Henry is found guilty of "debauching the minds and ruining the rising generation" by running a raffle in his sweet shop on Broomhall Street, Sheffield. Now: Weather for tonight: light rain, temperature…
Tue Jan 31 11:44 So a car like the ones being stored on Lyddon Terrace etc will set you back 9K in Kenya. Curiosity, curiosity.
Tue Jan 31 11:54 The Maragall-ometer suggests that £600m in govt contracts should coincide with £18m in completely unrelated cash payments to the ruling party, so where's the rest?
Tue Jan 31 11:55 Comment:
Tue Jan 31 12:29 Comment: Bad enough that the UK is increasingly perceived as corrupt (, but the Tories aren't even competent enough to get a decent ROI in the brown envelopes
Tue Jan 31 12:58 Barbara Castle on car-clogged San Francisco