[thought for the day] saturday evening

It's been a long time since this was run, mainly, I suppose because I ran out of good quotes, I got bored wie-it and Deogulwulf runs a cottage industry in it. However, a real rip-snorter came up today and here it is:

Women often boast about whom they could kill but, in my experience, when faced with even the remotest risk of injury they tend to hide behind the men. Women talk of killing, safe in the belief that they are unlikely ever to have to kill. Men live with the knowledge that one day they may have to hazard their own lives to take that of another, and so killing has less appeal for them. Nevertheless, men willingly take on the dirty work that women, ever 'prepared' to kill, fear to do.

[William Gruff, Kentish Man, now of Lancashire [now corrected], c.2009]

[late evening listening] two halves - part two

This is my late contribution this evening. I ask only that you give it a chance.

Street waif/homeless child [Беспризорник]. Hi Fi combined modern pop with Russian accordion, particularly after 3:03, a blend of old and new. The group sent strange signals - in the video clip, they come on as street-hardened youths but the lyrics undercut it:

I'm alone, like the wind, I drink what the earth offers; after a difficult day, towards evening, the light also wishes to sleep. Where are you, my guardian angel? Take me, if you can, to heaven. I ran away from home to wander in fairytale places. Take me home, Mama, I want to go home. I'll be a good boy.

As you can see, the lyrics and the video clip don't match. This was one reason they didn't take off - their mixed signals put them in neither one camp nor the other, not unlike this blog and yet the song is good:





One of the most respected crooners in Russia but with an eccentric edge was/is Valerie Meladze. He had some great hits and this was one of his staples - Oh, how beautiful you are today [Как ты красива сегодня]. Here is the last verse and refrain:

Perhaps time can help me get you to return; each evening I shall remember you this day. How beautiful you are today; there is, in my heart, neither pain nor trouble. Oh how beautiful you are today, how brightly you shine.

A Russian would smile at the liberties I took with the translation but it was to smooth it out. Why don't you try to follow the words below as you listen to the last verse and refrain? There are two verses and one refrain before this:

Может быть, время кого-то и лечит
Только мне помощь его не нужна
Ты возвращайся, а я каждый вечер
Буду тебя вспоминать

Как ты красива сегодня
Нет в моем сердце ни боли, ни зла
Как ты красива сегодня
Как ты сегодня светла

[late evening listening] two halves - part one

From the Titanic Captain [The Economic Voice]:



"The video is by Soul Savers, it is an ambiguous song that one would think is a Christian Gospel hymn by a quick listen which it may have aspects of but the cleverness of the simplistic lyrics shows that there is far more to this song than just praise the lord...infact it doesn't say praise the Lord at all but it is reminiscent of King David's psalms where he is crying out to God and questioning his existence....Many things can be read into this piece of music and video.

There is a journey within scenes cutting back to previous events in the main characters life that suggest a dark journey and searching for redemption. That redemption is the main ambiguous question. Does he seek redemption from a woman or from God or Both? his sins are briefly mapped out in the video.....Oh I don't bloody know but its a great song and Video so please enjoy."

[hunting ban] to repeal or not to repeal

Fox - predator or lovable varmint?

Spectator yesterday, [and note their emotive photo], on the repeal of the hunting ban:

However, there is an idea doing the rounds in Conservative circles as to how the party could get around this problem. Rather than a bill devoted exclusively to repealing the hunting ban, there would be one that would concentrate on a whole host of civil liberties issues including ID cards.

Hunting would merely be a section of it, with a free vote on the issue. This way the party would avoid the appearance of spending a considerable amount of time on the relatively fringe issue of hunting and would get to frame repeal of the ban as a civil liberties issue.

Your not-so-humble blogger has no real opinion on this but was struck by the amount of emotion displayed against him when a fox ran in front of his car on a northern road years ago. It's certainly an emotive issue.

[ripping day] go for a walk, come back and write a letter

Fabulous down by the water though we have quite a breeze over our way. I've just got back and it was a nice ride and walk today. Apparently they have a festival over in Hull and good luck to them - big crowds were never my thing.

Reports are coming in from friends that the weather is superb across Britain ... oops ... England ... oops ... Albion [?] ... and it's too nice to blog. So let's handwrite instead.

When was the last time you wrote a letter to a friend, addressed and sealed the envelope, then went for a wander and dropped the letter in the post box? When was the last time you wrote on plain paper, using copperplate [see pic below]. That's an interesting pic because the writing is on mathematics paper, not writing paper.

There is such rubbish in google images about copperplate - people claiming it is when it is actually cursive and sites purporting to teach handwriting and saying things like: "You might think that handwriting involves buying a fountain pen ..."

Well actually it does and for good reason. If you look at the script below, you'll see heavy strokes [downstrokes] and light strokes [upward flourishes]. To achieve the thick/thin effect, your pen nib must at least be able to spread on the way down and close up on the way up. A fountain pen does this best but a brush will also achieve this. Some felt-tips partially achieve it. A ball point simply doesn't cut it.

The whole point of copperplate, in addition to the distinctive f, j, q, r, s and z, is the straight downstroke and the looped flourish, which involves not only your fingers but your arm, shoulder and mind to make smooth. The essential thing is not to be pedantic about the tricky letters and your idiosyncratic way of doing them but to be pedantic about smoothness and consistency.

Copperplate brands you and writing letters by hand also brands you. Whilst your humble correspondent is a fan of the electronic post, put yourself in the position of the recipient. How would you feel getting a handwritten letter in a good quality envelope tucked in amongst all the bills and such like? How would you feel opening it up with your prize letter opener, lifting out the parchment and reading the six or seven pages scripted by a close friend?

Personally, I'd be delighted.

[infantile] the new watchword for governments

This is a fabulous pic of the cockpit of an Airbus. Click the pic to get the big layout.

Here they go again, governments.

I don't know anything about the Australian political scene nor who this Minister is but his rhetoric sounds quite familiar:

Mr Albanese [Labor Government] used question time to blast the [Conservative] Opposition and the pilots' union for opposing a regulation that would restrict cockpit access to authorised personnel and make pilots responsible for breaches. In a stinging broadside, Mr Albanese said governments and not the pilots' union should determine aviation safety.

The Transport Minister said it was ''completely unsatisfactory'' to have pilots regulating who could enter the cockpit. ''I am of the view that the government, not the pilots on the plane, should decide regulation on aviation security and safety,'' Mr Albanese told Parliament yesterday.

''That is my view and that is the view of the airlines - it is completely unsatisfactory for such an important measure in such a vital security regime to rely on industry self-regulation.'' Mr Albanese tried to ratchet up pressure on the Opposition and crossbench senators by raising a plane hijacking incident in Mexico this week.

The defeat of the regulations followed a strong lobbying effort by the politically influential pilots' association, which was concerned that its members could be held responsible for inadvertent breaches. But the Opposition said it defeated the regulations because they were too draconian and would have imposed unacceptable liability on pilots.

"Making a pilot criminally liable if a door is inadvertently left open by a flight attendant, even if the pilot is trying to land a plane or deal with a crisis, is bizarre in the extreme," said Opposition transport spokesman Warren Truss. "Regulations should not turn pilots into flying doormen and force them into spending more time checking that the cockpit door is closed than flying the plane."

Well, he's right of course but I wouldn't trust the Opposition's motivation either. The pilots' motivation is equally clear. Is the Labor Government really interested in stopping terrorists or, as stated, in more draconian regulation to drag all aspects of society into an overregulated, bureaucratic dystopia as in Britain, one of the more repressive regimes in the world, possibly after Italy?

And isn't it interesting a Labor Government blasting one of its unions? And isn't it interesting the childish fit of peak when it didn't get its own way? While infantilizing society, it acts in an infantile manner itself.

I find all that more than interesting.