Friday, July 04, 2008

[quick lunch] don't be fooled.



No, don't rub your eyes - it is nourishing obscurity, not Sicily Scene and it's a food post.

We were just tossing up what to have for lunch today and Welshcakes decided to throw together this little lot, called Maria Teresa's chicken and together with it went the Roman dish, Vignarola, of various peas, beans, onions and so on. Not to forget the artichocke hearts, all slow cooked in olive oil.

Well all right, admittedly that one was already cooked [it's better on the second day]. And note the glasses of water, JMB.

We are also in the throes of the great boiler war.

We need a new boiler, it's leaking something awful and no one will do anything they're supposed to. Well now they seem to be as I went down and took a look and a new boiler drum was standing by so we can only guess when this water nightmare will end.

Anyway, enough for now. Off to have some supper.

[friday pause] to take in the wildlife

Isn't this both tragic and sweet?

Richard Havers writes of the owl saga:

Two have died. Both were on the ground having left the nest. Owls have their young at different times so these were the first born. The good news is we still have two left, one is out the nest and the other is still in it.

According to the local gamekeeper it seems like they've not had enough food and that's why the older birds have died.

Mrs. H. read up that if the owlets fall out the nest they're a goner as the parents stop feeding them, which is obviously why it was trying to get back....

Do pop over and read the rest of it ... and once you're done there, you might like to get abreast of the news about the bees, from Liz Hinds. Or even wish Ellee happy birthday. If you're hungry after all that, join us here. Or at the Crystal Ark, at Granville Island. And as evening falls, you could do worse than take this in.

Have a lovely Friday.

[connex rides again] the excitement of commuting


This may be true. After all, it is Connex, of British infamy. Here and here too. Now this:

Passengers have told The Age of their "terrifying" ride on the train that sped through the City Loop with an open door during Tuesday's peak hour.

Connex has confirmed a packed Sydenham train left North Melbourne station just after 8am with one door open, forcing passengers to hold on to each other for safety.

One reader, who was in another carriage, observed "screams and general panic" as the train left North Melbourne station.

"The train sped up and people starting pushing from the door and trying to secure space down the corridor or towards my door," the reader said in an email.

"On a couple of occasions, the train rocked violently and pushed people towards the open door. I became concerned that the doors as a whole were faulty and that the door I was pressed against could open."
And yet the beat up is pretty nauseating by The Age. Hell, hasn't anyone been on the Madrid underground with the swinging chandeliers crashing into the luggage racks? Hasn't anyone ever been on a big dipper?

Bit of excitement in a commuter day, methinks. Now, if you don't mind, I'm heading down the street for a cappuccino - entirely on foot.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

[thought for the day] thursday evening


This evening, I plan to kill three birds with one stone:

1. Last evening Jeremy Jacobs commented on the “thought for the day”:


A bit profound for a Wednesday evening;


2. Jams O’Donnell also indicated that he’d like to see a good Wordless Wednesday from me;

3. Welshcakes was telling me how much she loved football and couldn’t stand even one day without it. I thought I’d take up Beaman’s idea and convert it into a poem.

For all three august bloggers, the result is here to read. Hope you enjoy it:



Thank you.

[youtube] your data now with another company

"Google will have to turn over every record of every video watched by YouTube users' names and IP addresses, to Viacom, which is suing Google for allowing clips of its copyright videos to appear on YouTube, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Although Google argued that turning over the data would invade its users' privacy, the judge's ruling (.pdf) described that argument as "speculative" and ordered Google to turn over the logs on a set of four tera-byte hard drives."

What fun to be living in this day and age. James Barlow would certainly disagree with that statement, as he outlines the great parking dilemma:

If we define the problem to be "too many cars on the road", the general consensus amongst drivers seems to be that the solution is better public transportation systems for other drivers. But very few people have any desire to make the "modal shift" themselves.
Quite right and yet I'm currently on foot [well, actually I'm at the computer just now] but am thinking of a motorbike.

Just thinking, mind.

[awards] comment at the site

Not much blogging time this morning. Comment on the Awards is at the site [click pic in sidebar].

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

[thought for the day] wednesday evening

There are any number of these but this one introduces the topic fairly well:

The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

[George Eliot]
Well, I can't completely agree. When one is failing, sometimes it is better to cut one's losses and smile; one scrutinizes the failure, works out the weakness in the idea and plans it better for the next time.

To cleave to a losing idea though seems to me the height of folly.

Of course, some say perseverance is also a fine attribute, the tenacity of the bulldog, the never-say-die attitude. So perhaps it comes down, in the end, to a question of judgement and experience.

[dillow logic] economic reasons women are crap


Flipchart Fair Tales takes the esteemed Chris Dillow to task for his Times affected article on his blog:

Since he got a regular column with the Times, Chris Dillow’s blog articles have become increasingly outlandish. His recent piece on why women are crap is a case in point.

However, although his arguments, if that’s what you can call them, are silly, they are no worse than some of the rubbish that apparently respectable columnists write about men.

Those all-men-are-hopeless articles have been around for at least the past twenty years. Some of the bullshit has been repeated so often that it has become ’stuff everyone knows’.


Chris answers, using that particular logic he's famous for:

My motivation for writing it was in my question: “am I a victim of selection effects?” and in the fact that a couple of earlier posts had discussed selection effects.

Let’s grant that my arguments are silly. Doesn’t this show that even huge samples - women I’ve met in the last 20 years - can be systematically biased, if they are drawn from non-random sources.

This being so, shouldn’t we be much less confident than we are about drawing inferences from personal experience - even a lot of it? The post was not about women, but about the nature of knowledge - a point everyone seems to have missed.

And yes, some of my posts might seem silly. But this is because I occasionally (often?) err on the side of silliness, to undermine notions of judgment, credibility and expertise.


My brain hurts.

[sarko's all right] three reasons why

There are three reasons why, despite some political decisions, Sarko is all right in my book.

Firstly:

Footage of French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressing irritation at a TV technician ahead of an interview has become an instant internet success. The video shows the employee clipping a microphone to Mr Sarkozy's tie, and not responding to a presidential "hello".

"It's a question of manners," Mr Sarkozy is heard muttering. "When you're invited, you're entitled to have people say 'hello' to you".

Mr Sarkozy has been caught several times in off-the-record videos posted on the web. One of them showed him at a farm show in February, swearing at a member of the public who refused to shake his hand.

Fair enough. And this too. Anyone Mandelson attacks has to be good in my book:


On BBC's Newsnight programme, Mr Mandelson attacked Mr Sarkozy in a row over a World Trade Organisation deal that would cut subsidies to French farmers.

"I am being undermined and Europe's negotiating position in the World Trade talks is being weakened and I regret that," said Mr Mandelson. "It's very disappointing because the mandate on which I'm negotiating…has been agreed by all the member states."


The third reason is to the left here. She's Italian, he was daring in taking on another tall woman and it seems to have annoyed so many people. I do wonder about their clinches sometimes and then manage to put it out of mind.

He's a larger than life figure [though perhaps not so large in life]and heaven knows the world needs more of those just now.

[2008 awards] progress report

Progress report on the Awards is now up at the site.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

[right royal chat] the very next fad


Love this from Charon QC [the Questionable Cove]:

Last month the news broke that Gordon Brown was making phonecalls to unsuspecting members of the British public. Yesterday, the News of The World reported that The Queen had been thinking about setting up premium rate phone lines to allow the British public to call and get a message from the Royals - to help pay for the double glazing at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
What then follows is a Charon podcast on the matter, replete with the meaning of "hice".

By the way, appropriate, wouldn't you say, that the Wikipic portrays the Duke together with that other great wordmaster, Dubya? I'd love to have been a fly on the wall [or guardsman's headgear] during that conversation.

I was once of the opinion that the Duke was just an alcohol swigging, foul-mouthed committee of 300 member, dedicated to population reduction and prone to gaffs but now I'm the first to admit I was wrong.

This has to be a mini-classic:

Personal remarks have annoyed singing stars. In 1969 The Duke said to Tom Jones after the Royal Variety Performance: "What do you gargle with, pebbles?"
or:

In 1995 he asked a Scottish driving instructor: "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?"
Now I think you'd agree it takes a special sort of mind to dream up some of those.



Site of King Athelstan's Palace: Kingdom of Elmet

Site of King Athelstan's Palace: Kingdom of Elmet

Location Sherburn in Elmet

From 1955-1966, on and off, I lived a couple of miles from here at South Milford.

Steeton Hall gateway, South Milford, 14th century.

Our farmhouse was situated about 200-300 yards from this Ancient Monument. The village dates back to at least Saxon times. There is a secret passage in Steeton Hall which goes underground for 2 miles to the church in the photo above.

It was whilst I was at Primary School age that I recall asking my so-called foster father, why the small town next door was called Sherburn in Elmet when it was in Yorkshire? He replied that he did not know and suggested I ask the Headmaster. He did not know either. Sometime later when I was in Leeds I popped into the Central Library and conducted some research.

King Athelstan ruled all England and the capital of England was on this site. The Kingdom of Elmet was larger than the present day Yorkshire.

When all the talk is about devolution and independence, I think back to these times and wonder if those living in the area would be better off if the Kingdom of Elmet was revived?

I am talking about a revolution of sorts. With this in mind, I packed Liana off for a holiday in Riga, Latvia. I told her to prepare for battle...

Gun toting Lily

The Masonic Order of Athelstan

[blogger's blogger] first questions on the awards


I've done the rounds and looked at what people have said so far. There has been some quite positive feedback and some not so positive:

Morningstar says he won't support these Awards, then makes the points:

Yes I put the badge on my blog, I thought it was good that someone had recognised me, but I always felt as though it required being a part of the inner circle to get on the list. By the second one, I didn’t want to be on the list, there was too much stat porn being bandied around and I don’t think blog awards should be about visitor numbers, whichever measure you subscribe to.

The other annoying thing for me was seeing the American trend of bloggers wanting to supplant the mainstream media hit the UK, and the mainstream media moving into blogging.

And that, dear Morningstar, is precisely why these Awards are needed - awards by bloggers who are real bloggers for fellow bloggers. We know who we are, whether we are MSM or not. This mechanism keeps it all shipshape and Bristol fashion.

As for inner circle - well there are many inner circles. There's Blogpower, the Dale world, the Daily Kos world and so on. These Awards are beyond any circle and at the same time recognize each circle in its own category.

These awards are exactly for bloggers such as you, Morningstar. Easy to be negative. Far harder to support something. I hope you'll support the idea.

Already we have some names being put forward and as someone must start the ball rolling, these will appear as a list tomorrow and then those people asked if they'll be Panellists.

Finally for now, Welshcakes advised yesterday ' the Awards will certainly go ahead. Just give people enough time to come to grips with them.

So I'm still hopeful.

Monday, June 30, 2008

[wordless week] a solution to the seven days

There's always one


Now be honest – aren’t we just that wee bit weary of all these Wordless Wednesdays and Snappy-happy Saturdays?

Do you delight in being directed what to blog on, on which day and according to which theme?

Do you yearn to blog alphabetically?

Well, your humble correspondent might just have come up with the answer. Higham proposes that the week be surgically incised into seven equal portions and presented thussingly:

Mammary Monday

This day we all go out on the prowl for gratuitous totty and plaster our blogs with female flesh [or the ladies may indulge in the male of the species, should it be their wont]. Get the blood circulating early in the week.

Twittery Tuesday

“Made the Mall, met Maud and Mavis and lingered languorously over a long limpid lunch.” Makes for marvellous reading and should delight the blog community no end. So let’s all twitter on Tuesday and leave those pesky serious posts for later.

Woebegone Wednesday

Lest you feel this has all been too light-hearted, let’s sink into doom and gloom on Wednesday and post only about the latest deaths, famines, medical conditions and other inspiring fare. The aim is to leave every one of our readers in philosophical mood, still facing Thursday and Friday ahead.

Thurtabulous Thursday

Time to strangle our English and wax lyrical about the huge windfall we just came into or the tremendous travel we’ve just undertaken in a sunny paradise somewhere in the Mediterranean, whilst back home it’s still 10 degrees and drizzling. Sensitivity is the key here.

Furry Friday

This is where we festoon our blogs with furry creatures and loveable little moppets and write of how Woopsy did wee-wees and then mauled a weasel, in intricate detail recounting the usage of the pooper scooper and widdle sponge. A day for animal lovers and to post all those pics of your toddler in hilarious and endearing poses.

Sonorous Saturday

The trick here is to latch onto the latest Bete Noir, say Gordon or Robert, go on and on and on and on about his latest outrage, preferably lifting huge chunks from MSM articles, shoving them into interminable posts and adding the wry and witty analysis: “Isn’t he a bastard?”

For piquancy, we could add variations on the words Guardian, Gordo or Dubya.

Serene Sunday

This is the day of rest, the day we give the alliterated weekdays the shove and simply blog on something intelligent. Well OK – not all that inspiring, I admit. Or else we can go for a drive into the countryside.

Anyway, all in all, it should be a winner, don’t you think?

THE BLOGGERS’ BLOGGER AWARDS 2008



Feel free to copy and paste this graphic to publicize these awards. It would be nice if someone could provide a more professional job for the graphic and actual prize banners.


There is no doubt that Iain Dale’s UK Political Bloggers List is the definitive guide to ratings in the UK and that on the American continent, the Weblog Awards is the definitive guide.

All this is well and fine but there is still a need for a blogosphere peer review in all categories, not just political and the reason there has not been, so far this year is:

a. it’s a lot of damned hard work to set up
b. there has not been, apart from the “Super Blogger” or “Fine Blogger” badges which do the rounds, any definitive guide, since last year, which fellow bloggers would respect and who’s badge bloggers would proudly display.

Last year’s Blogpower Awards filled the gap to an extent but everyone remembers the difficulties which arose there.

As it appears that Blogpower are not running their mid-year awards this year, then it is high time, before people go away for school holidays, to run a peer review which the blogosphere will respect. Who better to launch it than the man at the centre of the 2007 controversy, yours truly.

There might well be a workable formula here:


THE BLOGGERS’ BLOGGER AWARDS 2008
Peer review of the blogosphere, by the blogosphere, for the blogosphere


How the Awards work

1. Names are called for today to fill five spots on a Panel of Moderators who will administer the running of the Awards. Naturally, the higher the status of the blogger on that panel, the more accepted the awards will be.

The way to nominate is to simply comment in the comments section of the post at the site [click on the red title]:

The Blogger's Blogger Awards 2008

with the name of someone you’d like to see on the panel. On Wednesday these nominations can be reviewed and a list drawn up of ten names on which you can comment further. On Friday the final five are chosen and are asked to participate. If they accept, they are given admin rights to the Awards blog.

2. The Panel then decides on categories between them. The idea is to choose categories where:

a. the small blogger is not swamped
b. the smaller countries don’t get swamped by the larger
c. the megablogger has his/her own category to compete in.

Categories are then published at the Awards blog as separate posts, each listed as a link in the first post at the top of the page. Visitors can then come to this page, click the category link and go to that separate window.

3. To nominate someone within a category, simply leave the name and url of a personal blogger of at least one month’s standing without any further commentary. Any commentary invalidates the nomination and it is deleted.

At the end of the stated nomination period, the admins see which ten are the most popular nominated and their sites go into that same post as links for voters to check out.

4. In the voting phase, personal bloggers of at least one month’s standing name the finalist of their choice, again using the comments section of that post. Again, it is transparent and anyone can see the state of play at any one moment.

Bloggers can vote once a day over the stated period [decided on by the Panellists] and because all comments carry dates and times, it’s easy to check that someone votes just once in a day. Any informal votes will be deleted by the Panel.

No Panellist may vote in a category he/she is nominated for.

5. By the end of the voting phase, it will be fairly clear who is out the front and who close on their heels.

So, to return to point one, time for you to:

NOMINATE A BLOGGER OF ONE MONTH’S STANDING FOR PANELLIST BY PUTTING HIS/HER NAME AND URL IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OF THIS POST.

[Please don't nominate at Nourishing Obscurity here.]


Appendix: Some possible categories

Political blogs

North America Left of centre
North America Centre
North America Right of centre
North America Nationalistic

UK Left of centre
UK Centre
UK Right of centre
UK Nationalistic

Rest of the World Left of centre
Rest of the World Centre
Rest of the World Right of centre
Rest of the World Nationalistic

Macropolitical [non-aligned, not country based, not issue based]

Economics

North America Economics
UK Economics
Rest of the World Economics

Blogstyle

Work related e.g. medical
Researcher and fisker
Humourist
Graphics intensive
Daily life/domestic/pets/food
Fashion

Blog readership

North America best little blog [under 200 uniques average]
UK best little blog [under 200 uniques average]
Rest of the World best little blog [under 200 uniques average]

North America best established blog [between 200 and 700 uniques average]
UK best established blog [between 200 and 700 uniques average]
Rest of the World best established blog [between 200 and 700 uniques average]

North America best major blog [between and 3000 uniques average]
UK best major blog [between 700 and 3000 uniques average]
Rest of the World best major blog [between 700 and 3000 uniques average]

North America best mega blog [upwards of 3000 uniques average]
UK best mega blog [upwards of 3000 uniques average]
Rest of the World best mega blog [upwards of 3000 uniques average]

Special

Services to blogging

Sunday, June 29, 2008

[the sicilian luncheon] post-prandial report


You’d be forgiven for concluding from the previous post [given that you were at all interested in the first place] that the luncheon today was going to be dire.

Not a bit of it.

Already with memories of Welshcakes’ midnight pork, bacon strip and gherkin rolls, the remaining portions dipped into afresh this morning, we waited for the car to arrive to collect us.

The red Fiat Panda, driven by the student daughter, promptly arrived only 30 minutes past the appointed time; the free form jazz she was playing through the Blaupunkt which she turned up full blast through the rear speakers beside my ears in the back was nevertheless pretty talented stuff and the country lane, between the curving dry stone walls either side, was easy on the eyes.

The property itself was situated halfway between our town and the nearby Scicli, set in rolling hills. We turned onto a side road and headed uphill to the park set on a ledge cut into the hillside, a sprawling complex of house and outbuildings, also in the same lightish but cemented stone.

[Referring to the map below now] we went through the archway, the white clothed long table was just being set for lunch and elements of the extended family were here, there and everywhere, introductions being effected as and when.

Now to describe, clockwise, the complex of images coming at us.

Through the archway on the left was the cavernous kitchen-come-all-purpose room with its light-grey tiled floor and wooden tables; in the wall near where we stood was a Madonna set into the stonework; over the main table was a wood pergola; behind the table, up the little hill, was a terraced garden, each section with its own little stone retaining wall and to the right of that – the steps up the hill towards the yard.

Immediately beyond the main table was a cherry tree in a large tub and various other flora. To the right was the entrance to the little house, presumably where the grandparents or someone lived.

There is no tradition of bringing drinks to guests, even in 40 degree heat but one of the chaps took pity on Welshcakes and me and brought a bottle of mineral water so that was all right. Slowly, the guests arrived and the greater family now joined us, setting places and chatting and a nice crew they turned out to be – warmhearted and friendly.



At this point it would be as well to mention the underlying anarchic and chaotic nature of the Sicilian – it can be seen from the way dishes emerge in no particular order, through to the architecture and landscaping – nothing is even and levelled, everything can be a surprise. Overall, the effect though is pleasant and refreshing, certainly in an exercise like this luncheon.

The food began to emerge.

That’s more Welshcake’s department than mine but I can tell you the first thing up was an enormous pie of chicken and some sort of chicken mash, with a large pan of spicy rice and a fresh green salad as accompaniment.

Now came the white wine and it was quite delish. Outside was close to 40 degrees but where we sat could not have been over 28 or 29, with all the foliage everywhere. There was also an electric “bug zapper” in operation and highly effective it was too.

With me thinking it was all over, they now brought large bowls of what looked like stew in a tomato concoction but neither of us could have eaten much more at that point.

With me once more thinking it was over, they started distributing almonds and the wine changed to possibly the finest Muscat I’ve ever tasted and now it certainly looked like it was all over.

Not a bit of it.

Now came the local chocolate, various sweetmeats we’d brought and some other coconut or pinenut things plus the coffee. Surely that was it?

Not a bit of it.

Now came another round of Muscat and nuts, followed by the bringing of the sweet plums, apricots so juicy one could have cried and watermelon everywhere.

The host now came up nervously to check if he’d provided enough and the hostess did the same some minutes later.

Eventually we were given a lift back to town and that was The Sicilian Luncheon. Sicily is not a particularly rich area, in financial terms, for the average person but it is certainly rich in culture, food and human warmth and that showed through today.

Hopefully this post added to your own recollections of the area and brought back fond memories. For the rest – get down here and join us.


[sunday lunch] this will take some digesting


Well, this is the Higham's first venture outside the town and an interface with an Italian family - mum, dad, fourteen brothers, twenty sisters, husbands, boyfriends, children, grandchildren and various pets, not to mention a probably super lunch.

It's not Welshcake's first venture outside though so I'll rely on her to keep our end up in the conversation. Churlish to say we'd rather be resting in the cool of this apartment when the sun gets high but there it is - 11 a.m. the car will come for us and we'll no doubt report later in the day.

Have a good Sunday lunch yourselves.