Cardiff, where the poetic champions compose

YouTube's algorithms recommended a video of Morrison talking about this new album to me yesterday. To my surprise about one minute and ten seconds in (herewith https://youtu.be/DIiUJFPp2qs?t=70) he talked about recording a lot of it in Cardiff where he has a "set up" with guys playing keyboards, bass, drums and organ.

I was astounded. A little research suggests that the Music Box Studios is where the work was done,  and that Richard Dunn is the Hammond player.

I recounted this to my brother on the phone this morning and he told me that Van the Man lives locally in Pontcanna. Again I was astounded, but here is a story about Van Morrison popping in for a quiet drink at the Casablanca Club after a gig in Newport in the 80s.

At that time the club was managed by Frankie Johnson Snr. I was in school with Frankie Johnson Jnr. Ultimately it is all about me.

Finite to fail, but Infinite to venture.

Gunfire and car stunts filmed on Newport Road for Mark Wahlberg's movie. The road was closed from midnight on Sunday until early this morning for "gunfire, police cars in a ram raid and an Aston Martin sports car flipping over the central reservation."

Simon Crane, who I met a couple of months ago, is the second unit director on Antoine Fuqua’s ‘Infinite’ so it will have been him behind the megaphone in Cardiff for the last couple of days.

Nigel Tufnel: You know, just simple lines intertwining, you know .....
Myself: Coincidence? None dare call it a conspiracy......

Hak Baker

Ben introduced me and Beth to Hak Baker last week. Since then he has dropped a new mixtape called Babylon.

I am not 100% sure what dropping a new mixtape is, but here it is for your listening pleasure and elucidation.

Also I have long wanted to share the story Ben told me of when Big Mikes (who did Trap Dreams with 19inerz) walked up the stairs of a bus he was on and people spontaneously burst into applause.

The real stuff flies under the radar.

Rorke's Drift

I have woken up too late to watch all of Zuu before the Wales v South Africa world cup semi final this morning I will just have to make do with the scene above.

Men of Harlech on to glory

This will every be your story

Keep these burning words before ye

 Welshmen will not yield

Here's a good stick, to beat the lovely lady

Wikipedia

Rerum novarum (from its incipit, with the direct translation of the Latin meaning "of the new things", or Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor, is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on 15 May 1891. It was an open letter, passed to all Catholic patriarchs, primates, archbishops and bishops, that addressed the condition of the working classes. 

It discussed the relationships and mutual duties between labor and capital, as well as government and its citizens. Of primary concern was the need for some amelioration of "the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class." It supported the rights of labor to form unions, rejected socialism and unrestricted capitalism, while affirming the right to private property.

Beth, if you are reading this, it has dawned on me that sitting around the table with two autodidacts on a Friday night (Friday night!) may not be the most fun a 21 year old girl ever had.

Wojtek: The Bear that Went to War

Wojtek: The Bear that Went to War from Halcyon Pictures on Vimeo.

This time last year I was writing about Engel's hedgehog.

Wojtek (1942–1963; Polish pronunciation: [ˈvɔjtɛk]; in English, sometimes spelled Voytek and pronounced as such) was a Syrian brown bear (Ursus arctos syriacus) bought, as a young cub, at a railway station in Hamadan, Iran, by Polish II Corps soldiers who had been evacuated from the Soviet Union. In order to provide for his rations and transportation, he was eventually enlisted officially as a soldier with the rank of private, and was subsequently promoted to corporal.

Frankie's dad was one of the Polish troops who went from the Soviet Union, via Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Egypt to join up with the Eighth Army and fight in the Italian campaign. I much watch this documentary with her and Kevin now I have dug up how you access it legitimately.

This is the story of Wojtek the Soldier Bear - a magnificent 500lb military bear who fought in World War 2 alongside a band of Polish soldiers. He shared their beer and cigarettes - and eventually their fate. Told by those that knew him, his story will capture the imagination and provide a very different perspective of the Polish war story.

Health care-acquired pneumonia

Mum's in hospital with pneumonia. She's been in since late last week actually and I went down and saw her on Saturday.

I've been googling it. You can see what the Mayo Clinic says here.

There is such a thing as Health care-acquired pneumonia apparently.

Health care-acquired pneumonia is a bacterial infection that occurs in people who live in long-term care facilities or who receive care in outpatient clinics, including kidney dialysis centers. Like hospital-acquired pneumonia, health care-acquired pneumonia can be caused by bacteria that are more resistant to antibiotics.

That could be the culprit.

Fluid accumulation around the lungs (pleural effusion). Pneumonia may cause fluid to build up in the thin space between layers of tissue that line the lungs and chest cavity (pleura). If the fluid becomes infected, you may need to have it drained through a chest tube or removed with surgery.

They need to drain her lung but the fluid is too viscous, they have put her on antibiotics for a fortnight to see if that helps and they can try again.

It is all very worrying,

Up to the Gills

17 October

For the first time in its twenty-five year history Jermyn Street Theatre is able to announce a full year of programming. Artistic Director Tom Littler, today reveals the full 2020 Season, with an array of work that ranges from world premieres to rare revivals, theatre legends to new talent and literary classics to new writing.

Highlights include the world premiere of a new play by Peter Gill directed by the author, alongside Gill's new version of Three Sisters; a triple bill of Samuel Beckett plays directed by Trevor Nunn; and Michael Pennington playing Prospero in The Tempest in a partnership with Theatre Royal Bath.

Beth and I are meeting Peter on Friday. Herewith the skinny on next year's productions at Jermyn Street for your diaries.

THREE SISTERS
By Anton Chekhov
New version by Peter Gill
Directed by Tom Littler
World Premiere
9 September - 3 October 2020 (press performance - 11 September 2020).

SOMETHING IN THE AIR
By Peter Gill
Co-directed by Peter Gill and Alice Hamilton
World Premiere
7 - 31 October 2020 (press performance - 9 October 2020).

The autumn opens with two world premieres by the celebrated playwright and director Peter Gill (The York Realist). The first is his new version of Chekhov's Three Sisters directed by Tom Littler. Gill has previously adapted Chekhov's The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, and The Cherry Orchard. This is followed by Gill's new play Something in the Air, a play about love and memory set in London, co-directed by Gill and Alice Hamilton.

Peter Gill said: "I am delighted to be co-directing my new play Something in the Air with Alice Hamilton, and - because Chekhov has always been a big influence on my work as a director and a writer - that my new version of Three Sisters will open in such an intimate studio."

The Blog of Dominic Cummings Aged 13 3/4

I think that the enduring image that I will have of this government is from a video on the television news a few days ago.

A chauffeured car pulled up outside No 10. Boris Johnson got out on the roadside and walked around the back of the vehicle with his shirttails hanging out over his backside.

Dominic Cummings got out on to the pavement, walked confidently towards the famous front door, and then turned around and went back for the documents he had accidentally left behind on the back seat.

Can we really be in safe hands with this pair?

You can read Dominic Cummings blog at https://dominiccummings.com/ if you find yourself at a loose end.

Carré on regardless

Rhys Carré, who came on for Wales in the Rugby World Cup quarter final win over France yesterday, used to coach my nephew Seb's junior age group rugby side at St Joseph's.

That is the whole story so far but - as I only found out yesterday - I haven't really done much work on embellishing it yet.

Tell me. Do you spend time with your family?

I woke up in Cardiff after seeing mum in hospital and i am off to my brother's shortly to watch the Wales France World Cup quarter final with him and three of my nephews.

I will go and see Dad later.

I am giving my niece a lift back to London later theis afternoon as she is staying with me for a week while she is on a course at the National Youth Theatre.

You can choose your friends but you sho' can't choose your family, an' they're still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge 'em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don't.

Music Planet

Music Planet on BBC Radio 3 was my audio discovery on today's trip down the M4 to see mum in hospital.

The best roots-based music from across the world - with live sessions from the biggest international names and the freshest emerging talent, classic tracks and new releases.

I am back from Llandough now and listening to the show's World Mix with a glass of wine in my hand.

Yesterday

Yesterday: My mum was admitted to University Hospital Llandough. I will go and see her tomorrow.

Yesterday: I went to see Lungs and the Old Vic. Review: If you want to write an essay write an essay; if you want to write a play write a play.

Yesterday: I worked out what was wrong with my Hive system hub (passim). The cleaners had dislodged the power plug. I pushed it back in again. Society's subsidization of my three year engineering degree was a shrewd social investment.

Oh, such are the dreams of the everyday housewife

You see everywhere any time of the day

An everyday housewife who gave up the good life for me

not single spies, but in battalions

Almost certainly because I have a guest next week, the house infrastructure has started playing up.

The Hive hub is offline: https://www.hivehome.com/in-app/hubs-not-talking. Luckily though the heating and hot water seems still to be working on its set up schedule.

There's a very slow leak into the bathroom toilet. It looks to me like the float valve is wearing out. Swapping that looks a bit above my pay grade, perhaps I had better get Silver Saints on the job.

On the mend

Callum Hudson-Odoi, stop that.

⚡️⚡️⚡️

He's wasting absolutely no time on his return from injury! pic.twitter.com/ra9qVwuY4H

— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) October 15, 2019

Callum got two for England U21s last night. The second one was something else. I think we can say he has recovered from his injury.

Isn't it that he talks to animals?

The film's not out until next year, but we can already see a trailer for Robert Downey Junior's Dolittle. Do my ears deceive me or has he adopted a Welsh accent for it?

"Uncle Simon" was the second unit director on the movie, and I remember he sent Ollie a photo when they were filming on the Menai Suspension Bridge in Wales last summer. I don't know if that relates to his choice of voice but it does go to show how long big productions take to make.

St John Henry Newman

James Joyce

"Nobody has written English that can be compared with Newman's cloistered silver veined prose."

Discuss. I've not read any myself.

One to watch

It is the last day of the Wimbledon Bookfest today. We use Spektrix for the ticketing on it.

This month, Spektrix CEO and co-founder Michael Nabarro has been named ‘One to Watch’ as part of the LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders programme. Supported by The Telegraph and part of Lloyds Bank’s business division, the programme aims to uncover and celebrate the leaders of the UK’s most exciting modern businesses.

Michael studied Computer Science at the University of Cambridge and became General Manager of the ADC Theatre in Cambridge, before spending a year studying stage electrics and lighting design at RADA. He then began work as a freelance lighting designer, at the same time combining his expertise in technology and the arts to create the system that would become Spektrix. Twelve years later the company’s mission – to help entertainment organisations to engage and deepen relationships with the broadest range of audiences – remains unchanged, even as it has grown into a market leader working with over 400 successful arts organisations in the UK and North America.

Read the whole thing .......

That CV sounds incredibly eccentric until you realise it is ideal for what he has ended up doing.

When the Levies didn't break

The #Kurds DID fight on the Allied side in WW2.
They helped break the siege after the 1941 pro-Nazi Coup d'état in Iraq & were part of the (pro-Allied) Iraq Levies.
In 1942 Kurds made up 25% of the force. By 1943, 10 of the 44 companies of Iraq Levies were Kurdish.@Akil_N_Awan pic.twitter.com/wZwgKwHy37

— Ric Cole (@ric_cole) October 10, 2019

I was intrigued by the Tweet above especially in light of my earlier post about Iraqi war graves (passim).

Wikipedia

The Anglo–Iraqi War (2–31 May 1941) was a British-led Allied military campaign against Iraq under Rashid Ali, who had seized power during the Second World War with assistance from Germany and Italy. The campaign resulted in the downfall of Ali's government, the re-occupation of Iraq by the British Empire, and the return to power of the Regent of Iraq, Prince 'Abd al-Ilah, an ally to imperial Britain.

I didn't have a clue about this.

Read all about the Iraq Levies here in Wikipedia.

The Levies distinguished themselves in May 1941 during the Anglo-Iraqi War and were also used in other theatres of the Second World War after 1942. The force thereafter grew and survived until it was disbanded in May 1955.

It seems to me that the force mostly consisted if Iraqi minority ethnic groups, that we mostly abandoned to ISIS a scant sixty years later. Shame on us.

President Trump: "The Hardest Thing I Have to Do"

President Trump spoke at the White House today saying that the hardest thing he has to do is sign letters to the families of fallen soldiers. Trump went on to share stories of mourning with families of fallen soldiers and his visit with wounded warriors.

I've got no reason to think this is insincere, so I thought I would post it this morning. I jumped in with everyone else taking the mickey about the president pulling his troops back out of the way of the Turks yesterday (passim).

Maybe we should think about committing some of our forces before we cast aspersions, or perhaps take responsibility for the British ISIS fighters that the Kurds have drawn the short card on keeping in custody?

Trump Assures Kurds There Will One Day Be Very Nice Tree Planted In D.C. Commemorating Their Deaths

The Onion

WASHINGTON—Amid backlash for abandoning an ally that has been crucial in the fight against ISIS, President Donald Trump assured the Kurds Wednesday that there will one day be a very nice tree planted in Washington, D.C. commemorating their deaths. “Our Kurdish allies should rest assured that, despite the fact that U.S. troops will no longer provide them with military support, at some point in the future there will be a very good tree with branches, leaves, and bark memorializing their untimely and very brutal demise,” said Trump, promising that even if there wasn’t a plaque or anything denoting that the tree was intended as a tribute to the slaughter of Kurdish fighters and civilians, visitors would probably leave “flowers or little stuffed bears” to let others know that it was a sad tree. “You have my firm commitment that in 30 or 40 years, any tourist who happens to stumble upon the tree in a small park off K Street might think about how you were massacred for a second or two. And even if we forget which tree is actually the Kurd Tree, trust me when I say that it will be there somewhere.” At press time, Trump had given Turkey latitude to launch air strikes on the Kurd Tree if they felt it necessary for their national interest.

George H W Bush encouraged the Kurds to rise up against Saddam in 1991 after the Gulf War and then abandoned them. "We have no friends but the mountains" is a saying of theirs with which I sympathise.

But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao

No names, no pack drill but I think this video may turn out to be significant; getting my retaliation in first.

Quiz on my face

We won the quiz at the Antelope last night, but then again we same-old-same-old win it often.

What I want to record for posterity though is that Andy Tea was there (sans walking stick and looking well) less than three months after his open heart surgery (Icons pasim).

Life in Cardiff is wonderful

Lin-Manuel Miranda, best known as the composer, lyricist and original star of the multi-award-winning Broadway musical Hamilton, was on Desert Island Discs this weekend.

Thirty four minutes and forty five seconds in to https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00092wm  he waxes lyrical about his love of Cardiff where he is living filming His Dark Materials.

I didn't see that one coming.

Dan Fish

Though the mills of God grind slowly; Yet they grind exceeding small;

Guardian

Celsa admits safety failures over two deaths at Cardiff steelworks

A steel company which has admitted health and safety failures over the deaths of two workers who were killed in an explosion at a plant in Cardiff could be fined up to £1.5m.
Engineers Peter O’Brien, 51, and Mark Sim, 41, died when a blast ripped through the Celsa Manufacturing plant. Another man was seriously injured in the explosion at the plant, in the Splott area, in November 2015.

Judge Neil Bidder told the court an automatic shut-off failed to activate after hot oil used to lubricate steel rollers surpassed normal temperatures. Workers did not manually shut down the system because an alarm that would have notified them of the danger had also malfunctioned.

The judge said: “The oil ignited and reached flash point … it caused a terrible explosion. The company has pleaded guilty to having failed to make suitable risk assessments. Had they made the assessments this accident would not have occurred.

Peter O'Brien was Bernard's brother. This has taken near enough four years to come to court (see Icons passim). That is a long time for the family to wait.

A statement from O’Brien’s wife, Marie, and their six children, released after their deaths, said: “Dad was a kind, gentle and funny man who loved the simple things in life … He took a major role as a member of the church and local community, through the 27 years of marriage he and Mum have spent time running Christ the King Junior Club, he was involved in rugby coaching at his children’s primary school for many years and loved his role as Confirmation Catechist at Christ the King parish church.

Read the Operation Midland report in full

S3 Ep4: Peter Gill talks to Simon Stephens

“There are a handful of figures in the history of the Royal Court Theatre that define the place. They carved the path that, whether they are aware of it or not every artist that has worked here after them is attempting to travel down. One of that handful is the Welsh actor, director and playwright Peter Gill.

Born in Cardiff in 1939, Gill came to London in his late teens and got work here at the Royal Court as an assistant director. He worked with those figures who established the theatre in its first decade. He worked with George Devine, Lindsey Anderson and Tony Richardson. He worked as a stage assistant with a Anthony Hopkins on the touring production of Look Back In Anger. He auditioned for Ann Jellicoe. He established his name as a director at the Court towards the end of the sixties when his seminal productions of DH Lawrence’s trilogy of plays established Lawrence as firmly as a dramatist as he was known as a novelist and prose writer.

Gill’s first plays were written in the same decade. They are amongst my favourite plays in post war British theatre. The formal inventiveness, compassion, honesty and linguistic poise of Small Change, Kick for Touch, Cardiff East and The York Realist slay me quite completely. I once earned what I can only describe as a hard stare from Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington when I told him that I considered Gill’s debut play The Sleepers Den to be as striking as its contemporaries, Edward Bond’s Saved and Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming.

Gill established the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith in 1976. He made the place one of the cornerstones of exploration and energy in London’s theatrical culture. His many landmark productions as director there included the still celebrated startling opening production of his own version of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and, at the start of the 80s he moved to become an Associate at the National Theatre where, in 1984, he established the National Theatre studio. The Studio became and remains a hothouse of exploration and invention for the leading theatre artists of its time. There are few if any buildings or institutions more fundamental to the last forty years of British theatre.

He has directed nearly a hundred productions across the UK and North American and continental Europe. He has directed Shakespeare and Sophocles, Turgenev, Pinter and Sam Shepherd.

This podcast is well worth a listen. Peter's mother, Margaret Mary (née Browne) Gill, was my father's aunt, with any luck I will be squaring the circle my introducing him to my actress niece soon.

https://royalcourttheatre.com/podcast/s3-ep4-peter-gill-talks-to-simon-stephens/

The Handbook of Hymen

BBC

Si: It’s one of those iconic motorcycle trips - we just got round to doing it as it’s such a great time to discover the United States of America, because of the huge changes that have gone on. It’s a good time to actually see what the States is about now. Route 66 has got historical status now, so there’s been a certain shift in the American psyche towards 66. It’s the mother road, it’s the most important road historically, in modern history anyway. It seemed an opportune moment to go and do it.

Dave: Over the years we’ve both visited America on east coast and the west coast. Obviously we know about Route 66, but there are thousands of miles of unchartered territory - there was a migratory route that really is the heart of America, real America, so it was something we wanted to do.

I couldn’t really picture what was there and it was a long time coming, it was quite difficult to film, as you need to look quite hard off Route 66 to find stuff: we didn’t want to go to just diners and drive-ins and eat burgers all the time. We wanted to get to the heart of America and the people.

Si: Route 66 is so important in terms of social history, in terms of it being a migrant route, it being an immigration route heading west towards California for fame and fortune and more prosperity. And all of that social history is the stock and trade of Dave and I, quite apart from the food.

Dave: We both reread John Steinbeck The Grapes Of Wrath, which is the story of that migration across America. It’s kind of the story of what created America. The modern America that we know today owes an awful lot to Route 66. But within that, we went back to the basics of Native American people, the trail of tears, where Cherokee people were taken from their land - all of that links to Route 66 and the migration. It took us a while to realise the depth of culture and history that was there, and that was what we really wanted to explore.

The weather was so horrible last night that I just stayed in and improved my mind with episodes 2 and 3 of the Hairy Bikers: Route 66. You'd imagine from first tabloid principles that this pair would drive me nuts,  but I am always astonished and impressed by how much history and social commentary they manage to sneak into their shows.

What road trip would you love to do next?

Dave: I’d love to motorcycle right across Russia. We’ve filmed in St. Petersburg, and I got quite used to the Georgian food. I went back to Russia after we filmed there a few years ago and Georgian food and Georgian wine is beautiful. That’s in the far west of Russia. But I think you can go all the way across to Korea and China - can you imagine what’s to be found there? A little bit like in America, a big expanse that we know very little about. We know even less about that expanse in Russia. However practical that is I don’t know, but that would be my dream.

Si: I’d quite like to do the ‘stans, all of the ‘stans - because I know absolutely nothing about them. Apparently they are incredible. I don’t know about the food… I was looking at the map the other day and there are quote a lot of ‘stans. All of which used to be a part of Russia, a part of China, or whatever… remarkable.

I think that they will need more than six episodes to do all of Eurasia, but I am up for it even if it turns out to be an heroic failure.

World War Two graves of Allied dead restored in Iraq

BBC

Nearly 200 damaged World War Two graves in the Iraqi desert have been restored after decades of conflict prevented their upkeep.

.....
Since 1990 war and political instability in the country meant that it was unsafe for staff at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to manage the site.

Safety concerns led to the CWGC placing its operations in the country on hold for decades, save for brief periods where repairs were possible.

......
The CWGC maintains 23,000 memorial and cemetery sites around the world, helping to commemorate 1.7 million Commonwealth war dead.

Iraq represents its fifth largest commitment, where 51,000 casualties from World War One and 3,000 from World War Two are commemorated.

We lost 51,000 in Iraq in World War One. I didn't have a clue!

I imagine https://www.cwgc.org/ makes sobering reading

Nineteen

Ben is nineteen today.

In World War II the average age of the combat soldier was twenty-six

In Vietnam he was nineteen

Further random information;  guitarist Wendy Melvoin was nineteen when she made her live debut with Prince and the Revolution at the First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis on August 3, 1983 and played the famous guitar intro to Purple Rain. The version that was released is actually that live performance with some overdubs and edits.

You can do a lot at nineteen.

suddenly steerless, bereft of will

Wales versus Australia in the Rugby World Cup kicks off at quarter to nine this morning, so the plan is to trundle along to the Charles Holden at half past eight and watch the game over a breakfast and a Guinness or two.

I fully intend to take my kit bag with me and trot along to the gym after, then perhaps to the office for a couple of hours, followed by music on the bandstand at Abbey Mills.

I can't entirely rule out the possibility though that I will just go home (with supplies from the off license) tune in to the channel 5 USA and veg out for the rest of the day on:

10:50 Columbo: Any Old Port in a Storm
12:50 Columbo: Swan Song
14:55 Columbo: Troubled Waters
17:00 Columbo: Murder - A Self Portrait
19:00 Columbo: It's All In The Game

Me and Bobby DeeBee

I bounded out of the house at eight this morning on my way, so I thought, to my 590th yoga session but it wasn't to be. As soon as I moved off it was clear that the car's front nearside tyre was flat.

I pulled over, had a look under the carpet in the boot and found one of those dodgy "space saver" spares that you can't do more than 50mph on, along with a jack and a wheel brace. My heart sank as I imagined the struggle of changing it by hand only to have to drive it to a garage where they would change it again and fit a kosher tyre.

Luckily then I half-remembered a tyre shop in the high street. I walked round and found I wasn't imagining it. There - large as life was Dee Bee Tyres & MOT, though it didn't open until 8:30. I nursed a flat white (to go with my flat tye) at Coffee in the Wood before wandering back at half past. The guys there advised me to inch the car around to theirs with my hazard lights on, then sorted me out in minutes.

One day I hope to be looked at with as much awe, love and gratitude as I bestowed on them today.

Shady's back, tell a friend

Grauniard

The biggest cheer of the night was reserved for the moment when Callum Hudson-Odoi wriggled into the Grimsby area in the 89th minute, checked inside, swerved to the left and cracked a low shot past James McKeown’s despairing dive. It was a fine way for the 18-year-old to celebrate his new five-year deal and the latest in a growing list of reasons for Frank Lampard to give thanks to Chelsea’s flourishing academy.

Six months on from his injury (Icons passim), Callum's well and truly back. Click the title above and then click the title on that page. The blog has been about him on 27 September for the last two years.

My old man

Man killed in industrial accident at Tata steelworks in Port Talbot

A worker has been killed in an industrial accident at the Tata steelworks in Port Talbot .

Emergency services - including the air ambulance - were called to the steelworks at around 2pm on Wednesday to reports of a person needing urgent medical attention.

No-one was taken to hospital but a young man has been killed.

When my dad was in his forensic-consulting-engineer pomp, I have very little doubt that he would have been asked to represent someone in the inevitable case that will arise from this Port Talbot horror story. Regardless of who engaged him, he would write the same neutral and unflinching report. Both the prosecution and defence would try and get him on board, but his own arbitrary but fair (damn the torpedoes) rule was that he would work for which ever of them managed to call him first.

When I saw him this week I had to explain the purpose of a paper handkerchief; when I wrote about it I wasn't taking the mickey.

All the best, mate, from your son
All the best, mate, from your son
My old man
My old man

In a tube of fennel, as you may remember

The speech our Prime Minister made to the UN before hurrying home to deal with the unpleasant matter of the Supreme Court. a few quotes perhaps?

“In the future, voice connectivity will be in every room and almost every object: your mattress will monitor your nightmares; your fridge will beep for more cheese.”

“A future Alexa will pretend to take orders. But this Alexa will be watching you, clucking her tongue and stamping her foot.”

“You may keep secrets from your friends, from your parents, your children, your doctor – even your personal trainer – but it takes real effort to conceal your thoughts from Google.”

“AI – what will it mean? Helpful robots washing and caring for an ageing population? Or pink-eyed terminators sent back from the future to cull the human race?”

“What will synthetic biology stand for – restoring our livers and our eyes with miracle regeneration of the tissues, like some fantastic hangover cure? Or will it bring terrifying limbless chickens to our tables?”

“When Prometheus brought fire to mankind. In a tube of fennel, as you may remember, that Zeus punished him by chaining him to a Tartarean crag while his liver was pecked out by an eagle. And every time his liver regrew the eagle came back and pecked it again. And this went on forever – a bit like the experience of Brexit in the UK, if some of our parliamentarians had their way.”

Words fail me.

(I imagine this is the first time I have embedded a video from the Sun, but it was the fist example of the whole thing I could find.)

Be ye never so high, the law is above you

My regular reader will know that I was out last night watching The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer at the BFI.

It was just as good as I had hoped and half-remembered, and couldn't have been more apposite on the eve of a day when our Supreme Court would rule that Prime MInister Boris Johnson's decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful.

The director Kevin Billington, who was interviewed as an introduction to his film, was born on June 12, 1934 which means he is 85 and about three months younger than my father. His answers to questions were witty and generous and his recollections of fifty years ago seemed acute. When the movie started he skipped up a few stairs to row C (my row as well) plonked himself down next to his Mrs and gratefully accepted a glass of white wine from her. When I interviewed my dad today, he thought a paper tissue was a map of Hungary.

ImageNet Roulette

ImageNet Roulette is a provocation designed to help us see into the ways that humans are classified in machine learning systems. It uses a neural network trained on the “Person” categories from the ImageNet dataset which has over 2,500 labels used to classify images of people.

Warning: ImageNet Roulette regularly returns racist, misogynistic and cruel results.

That is because of the underlying data set it is drawing on, which is ImageNet's 'Person' categories. ImageNet is one of the most influential training sets in AI. This is a tool designed to show some of the underlying problems with how AI is classifying people.

UPDATE: IMAGENET ROULETTE HAS ACHIEVED ITS GOALS

Starting Friday, September 27th this application will no longer be available online.

I am 100% behind ImageNet Roulette because I have long agreed that deep learning AI as it exists today is, to all intents and purposes, a technique for amplifying and embedding prejudice.

I say this despite its accurate estimation of me when I tied it in to my webcam as:
person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal, soul > creator > artist, creative person > musician > composer > songwriter, songster, ballad maker

One the money I am sure you will agree. You have until Friday to try it out for yourself.

OMD OMG

Just like last Saturday I heard new music on the radio as I made my way back from yoga yesterday. This time it was Don't Go the new Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark single, and for three minutes thirty I was young again.

It also gives me a chance to air once more, the world's funniest Joke.

Did you hear about the falconer who only ever did house work after the sun had set? Or kestrel man hoovers in the dark.

Ba-dum-tish. Goodnight folks, I'm here all week!

On any given night, anything can happen

My brother is up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. I have all sorts of plans. Whether they come to fruition is a different matter.

THR-II

Yamaha may have just perfected the desktop amp with the all-new THR-II series.

Maybe you could all club together and get it for me as a combined Christmas and birthday present.

The Man Who Rose Without Trace

As long ago as February 2007 (Icons passim), I wrote about the 1970 movie The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer and how it was eerily prescient about the Blair era in British politics.

Even though I have only seen it once, on the telly decades ago, the Boris Johnson circus brings it to mind all the time now over twelve years later.

I googled it in just such a reverie yesterday and found that it is playing in the BFI, with an intro by director Kevin Billington, at twenty past six on Monday.

That then is where I will be. The Antelope pub quiz team will have to struggle on without me.

The future is a foreign country: they do things differently there

I went to Big Tech and the Future of Democracy at the RSA last night.

Roger McNamee was the ultimate Silicon Valley insider. A long-time tech evangelist and legendary investor, he had been an early Facebook shareholder and advisor to its founder, Mark Zuckerberg.

But from early 2016, his concerns about the company’s business model, culture and priorities became ever graver, leading to a crusading new role that turned him from fervent champion to fierce critic. In the years since, as tech-driven scandal and crisis has hit countries from the US to the UK, from Sri Lanka to Brazil, McNamee has become a leading light in the fight against the existential threats posed by Facebook and the big tech giants to our privacy, democracy and public health.

It was very convincing (and an lot more nuanced than I was expecting). I've added his book Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe, to my - admittedly long - reading list.

It was strange to be there on a day when Facebook announced a Supreme Court. There's also an upcoming Facebook currency called Libra.  That doesn't leave many boxes to tick before Facebook becomes its own country.

Greek to me

I'm excited to be kicking off my free A-Level Greek course for adult learners today at King's College London. Over the next twenty months we're reading Plato's Phaedo and Euripides' Medea, two towering landmarks of world literature. Pure joy. @ClassCivAncHist @kingsclassics pic.twitter.com/FrMs2070En

— Edith Hall (@edithmayhall) September 17, 2019

I would have been tempted by this if I'd known about it earlier. It would be a simple trip up the Northern line the Embankment as far as I can tell.

JImmy Rodgers on the Victrola up high

In 1933, the US country music pioneer Jimmie Rodgers died of tuberculosis. Just 35 years old and at the peak of his career, his demise left a legacy of a life and career unfinished. This instalment from the US animator Drew Christie’s Drawn & Recorded series, which tells little-known stories from the annals of modern music history, recounts the improbable story of how, in death, Rodgers would go on to inspire not just luminaries of American music, but also the Kipsigis peoples of the Rift Valley in Kenya.

Drawn & Recorded tells the stories that fell through the floorboards of music history and brings them to the light of day via unique, hand-drawn animation and the raspy, baritone voice of T-Bone Burnett. Sometimes hilarious, occasionally tragic, always compelling - these anecdotes show a side of people behind the melodies that you may never have known. Darned if I can work out how to watch the series though. Any ideas?

Don't hate the iPlayer hate the game

A week or so ago I gave you Cardiff's Jim Driscoll and Bruce Lee. Last Wednesday, S4C (the Welsh Channel 4) showed a documentary Jim Driscoll: Meistr y Sgwâr (Master of the Square).

I don't know quite how, but S4C's programmes are on the BBC iPlayer, so I watched it with subtitles yesterday on https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p03ftv5r/jim-driscoll-meistr-y-sgwar where it will be available for another 26 days.

27 minutes in, when discussing Driscoll's famous fight with Abe Attell in New York, we learn that:

The sheriff turned journalist Bat Masterson, Marshall of Dodge City and once deputy to Wyatt Earp declared to the crowd, "If I was asked to name this performance, I would call it peerless. So I give you Peerless Jim Driscoll."

So that's how he got the nickname was have always known him by. Could it get any better?

24 minutes in we get:

Kitty Flynn was one of Jim's great nieces. She ran the Royal Oak pub in Cardiff which became a shrine to Driscoll's memory.

Which is where the story started for me.

On the Laish

As a rule I don't do twee, but I heard the new-to-me song University by the new-to-me band Laish via Absolute Radio's Frank Skinner show as I was on my way back from yoga this morning and thought it was rather sweet. Perhaps "on my back from yoga"  is the key. After a bad day at work the same track could well have reduced me to teeth grinding outrage.

Postmodern Jukebox

Prodnose: Most people don't notice the clown.

Myself: What do you mean, "most people don't notice the clown"? The guy is about eight feet tall, in white clown makeup and costume.

Prodnose: Inattentional blindness, also known as perceptual blindness, is an event where the effected person doesn't see new and unexpected things that suddenly appear within their visual field. This phenomenon is believed to be a side-effect of excessive stimuli in the visual field (too many things to keep track of at the same time) and can cause a person to miss important, but unexpected, items in their vicinity.

Myself: I can see the clown already! Who are you today? Jordan bleedin' Peterson? Can't we just take moment simply to recognize the fact that we now live in a culture where a small band with a clown in a suburban house can get 7 million YouTube views and it is in no way considered odd.

Prodnose: Habituation is a form of non-associative learning in which an innate (non-reinforced) response to a stimulus decreases after repeated or prolonged presentations of that stimulus.

Myself: And we'll never be royals......

Entente Cordiale

Both the French and British courts handed down important rulings yesterday.

Metropolitan

BORIS JOHNSON is facing furious demands for the immediate recall of MPs to Westminster after the suspension of parliament was ruled unlawful by Scotland’s highest civil court.

In a dramatic judgment, the Court of Session in Edinburgh found ministers had stopped MPs from sitting for the ‘improper purpose of stymying parliament’.

It said advice given by ministers to the Queen which led to the five-week prorogation was therefore ‘unlawful and is thus null and of no effect’.

The government immediately announced it was lodging an appeal against the ruling with the Supreme Court, with a hearing set for Tuesday.

Métrosexuel

A MARRIED man who died of a heart attack after having sex with a ‘complete stranger’ he met on a business trip was the victim of a ‘workplace accident’, a French court has ruled.

Mr Xavier — as he was referred to in court — had been posted to the Loiret département in central France by his bosses at railway construction company TSO when he met a local woman on a night out.

The health and safety officer, whose surname was not given, went back to the woman’s house and they had sex.

At about 10pm on February 22, 2013, he was found unconscious at her home, with police concluding he had suffered a cardiac arrest.

The appeal court in Paris has now backed a ruling made at the time that the death was an ‘accident du travail’, entitling Mr Xavier’s family to benefits from both his employers and the state.

You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment.

Counterintuitive

In better off countries like the Bahamas I would think twice about giving money in response to a natural disaster. Although the Red Cross movement is generally your best best in such countries, I *would not* suggest supporting the American Red Cross. The Bahamian Red Cross or perhaps the IFRC would be a better bet. Odds are though that the BRC has all the money it needs in the short term and although some funds will be needed in the longer term recovery they will probably put quite a bit into core funds.

The text above is the meat of this Facebook post by Brendan Paddy. (I am too dim it appears this morning to work out how to embed it.)

Back in 2010 (Icons passim) when I was helping out with the Disasters Emergency Committee Haiti Appeal, Brendan was their Director of Communications. In short he knows his onions. I'm not qualified to have an opinion, but I will pass his on.

Who is the Speaker and why does he shout order?

We couldn't get a quorum for the pub quiz last night, so I fell back down the rabbit hole of the BBC Parliament channel as the House itself recursively fell down the rabbit hole of prorogation.

When I told my friend Rebecca over the weekend about my strange new hobby she told me that one of her boys (Charley or Harry? I can't remember) has been watching it too. I messaged her last night to say that I had fallen off the wagon again, but knew that at least one other person in the world might be with me and she replied with this article from the Grauniard.

BBC Parliament: the ratings hit that's Big Brother meets 24 – with added Bercow

As our politics has become a perpetual bin fire, the wonks’ TV channel has attracted record viewers. Can it replace reality TV in the nation’s heart?

Last Tuesday (the first evening I sacrificed on this peculiar video altar) it turns out I was only one among a million and a half viewers.

Class Act

👂👂 “He’s pinned his ears back!”

The moment Dan Biggar almost grabbed a first try for @WelshRugbyUnion...

Watch it LIVE NOW @Channel4#C4rugby #IREvWAL pic.twitter.com/Lmfy1sezPx

— Channel 4 Sport (@C4Sport) September 7, 2019

Dan Biggar against Ireland this weekend tells the referee not to bother with the TMO as he didn't ground the ball. Class act.

Speaking of class acts I was disappointed to see Nigel Owens go off injured in the Cardiff Pontypool game. Just by setting the example of refereeing with a smile on his face, he has transformed mini-rugby. When Ben started playing at under 9s, refs always seemed very pompous, by the time he moved on to the next age-group they would usually have a laugh and joke with the spectators and do their best to keep the mood light. I think it is down to him.

Another life

I have been linking the titles of these daily posts to last year's equivalent for a while now, so I am reminded this morning that today is the anniversary of me going back to Cardiff because mum had broken her hip. Neither she nor dad has been able to live in Bronwydd Avenue since.

I've been going back every four weeks since she fell down the stairs and broke her arm before that. The same blog time machine technique gives me this link, which in turn shows me that first accident was fifty months (over four years) ago.

I don't have any great conclusion or insight. It just wears me out.

From the Plaza to the Monico

How old would my posse and I have been when Enter the Dragon was released? It has been on my mind since yesterday's post.

I can remember we all bowled up to the Plaza in North Road one afternoon to try and see it, but - unable to convince the concierge we were 18 - couldn't get in. What would be have been? 13 or 14?

After that, we second-bested over to the Monico in Rhiwbina and saw The Day of the Jackal.

I have a very clear memory of the Monico's manager locking all our weaponry (catapults, sheath knives etc.) in his office for the duration and parcelling it back out again at the end of the show.

Police and social services would probably be called today if a "gang" turned up at the Odeon packing that sort of heat.

(Both Cardiff's Plaza and Monico cinemas are long gone I am sorry to say.)

Knowing is not enough, we must apply.

Take a look at the video above. Just over five minutes in (where I have teed it up, just press play) Cardiff's own Jim Driscoll (Icons passim) is revealed a a huge influence on, and hero of, Bruce Lee.

My cup overfloweth.

Dharma transmission vehicle: The Straight Left and How to Cultivate It.

the mother of parliaments

I have been pretty much glued to the debates over the last couple of days as the House has bloodied Boris Johnson's nose.

You can get the Parliament channel on YouTube (above), the BBC iPlayer, and on Freeview Channel 232.

I found the early courteous exchanges, when the chamber was half empty and MPs "gave way" to each other much more impressive than the bear-bating finales.

Yesterday, Ken Clarke and Bill Cash (both 79 and in opposite Brexit camps) were by far the best briefed and most eloquent speakers.

It could be worse; he could be from St Peter's

While we are all giving it up for Rhys Carre, let's not forget Leon Brown another current Welsh international prop from, what it is looking like we must call, St Joe's conveyor belt.

Yellow carded against Ireland last Saturday and then omitted from the World Cup 31. That must be hard.

Inna De Yard

I am off to see this in the Clapham Picturehouse (a venue I don't get to enough) on Thursday.

Memories of Jake's and Perry Henzell will no doubt ensue.

Bolter

WALES WORLD CUP 31-MAN SQUAD:

Back three

Liam Williams, George North, Josh Adams, Leigh Halfpenny, Hallam Amos

Centres

Hadleigh Parkes, Jonathan Davies, Owen Watkin

Outside-half

Dan Biggar, Rhys Patchell

Srum-halves

Gareth Davies, Aled Davies, Tomos Williams

Props

Nicky Smith, Wyn Jones, Rhys Carre, Tomas Francis, Dillon Lewis

Hookers

Ken Owens, Elliot Dee, Ryan Elias

Second row

Alun Wyn Jones, Adam Beard, Cory Hill, Jake Ball

Back row

Josh Navidi, Aaron Wainwright, Ross Moriarty, Aaron Shingler, Justin Tipuric, James Davies.

The real surprise here is Rhys Carre who has only started four professional matches in his career. I am made up though because he started his rugby at St Joseph's in Cardiff.

Who do I think you are?

Episode 6 in series 16 of the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? is about Paul Merton tracing his roots. His Irish grandfather was from Waterford in Munster, died in the Glamorganshire canal and is buried in Cathays in Cardiff.

Very much the same stock as us. You can see the programme on https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0007zwd/ad/who-do-you-think-you-are-series-16-6-paul-merton for another 27 days.

"O Captain! My Captain!"

Josh Navidi is captaining Wales against Ireland today in the Rugby World Cup warm up game. His father, Hedy, is from Iran and came over to Wales aged 18 to study civil engineering in Bangor where he met his wife, Euros, who is from Anglesey.

The USA is always telling us that the Iranians are a bunch of lunatics and I think that this workaday fact is a good corrective.

I only found out last week, for example, that Iran - which was neutral - was invaded by the UK and the Soviet Union during the second world war in 1941 with the objective of securing Iranian oil fields and ensuring Allied supply lines for the USSR, fighting against Axis forces on the Eastern Front.

The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup d'état (Persian: کودتای ۲۸ مرداد‎), was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favour of strengthening the monarchical rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on 19 August 1953, orchestrated by the United States (under the name TPAJAX Project[5] or "Operation Ajax") and the United Kingdom (under the name "Operation Boot"). It was the first covert action of the United States to overthrow a foreign government during peacetime.

Iran Air Flight 655 was a scheduled passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai via Bandar Abbas, that was shot down on 3 July 1988 by an SM-2MR surface-to-air missile fired from USS Vincennes, a guided missile cruiser of the United States Navy. The aircraft, an Airbus A300, was destroyed and all 290 people on board, including 66 children, were killed.

You're not paranoid if they are really out to get you.

Crossing Incontinence

Over two days on the road I as usual picked up good stuff on BBC Radio 4.

On Wednesday it was The Hansa Inheritance

Why does a medieval trading network still have a such a hold on Europe's imagination? Chris Morris explores the power of the Hanseatic League, a network which stretched from Russia to England, covering all kinds of vital products. It used its influence and sometimes force to protect its position for many centuries. In locations ranging from the Baltic island of Gotland to northern Germany and King's Lynn, he reveals why was it so successful, why its memory is still so strong, and how far it offers a model for today's trading nations.

Yesterday it was Kazakhstan: Port in the Desert

China’s New Silk Road reaches across all parts of the globe; building roads, bridges and towering cities where before there were none. In Kazakhstan, China’s neighbour to the west, this vast project has created a port. But there’s no water there, just desert… and trains running all the way from China through to Europe and the Middle East. Meeting the hundreds of shoppers and traders, it’s astonishing to think that just a few years ago this border was a closed military zone - the frontier between two giant communist states. But turn the clock back further and we discover this part of Central Asia has always been closely tied to China, in languages, culture and contested history. For Crossing Continents, Rose Kudabayeva returns to her home country Kazakhstan, to meet people living along the New Silk Road and record how their world is changing.

All relevant to my burgeoning interest in Eurasia.

It's such a fine line between stupid, and uh... clever

prorogue
/prəˈrəʊɡ/
verb
discontinue a session of (a parliament or other legislative assembly) without dissolving it.
"James prorogued this Parliament, never to call another one"

pierogi
/pɪəˈrəʊɡi/
noun
a small dough dumpling stuffed with a filling such as potato or cheese, typically served as a dish with onions or sour cream.

Given the choice I would rather have a Polish pierogi than Parliament prorogued in September,

And if his understanding fail, have patience with him

I am queuing this post up and scheduling it in advance as I am leaving early this morning for meetings in the Midlands before swinging by Cardiff to see mum and dad in their respective care homes.

I was watching a video yesterday called "Why Did United States Enjoy Dramatic Improvements in Living During the Last Century?" (Gimme a break it was a Bank Holiday and I had to blow off a little steam.) George Shultz (born December 13, 1920) still has a brain in full working order and he will be one hundred years old next year; my old man is a slip of a boy by comparison.

I wonder how he does it? Take a look yourself.

bossa nova

Señorita (half a billion YouTube views) has reminded me I am quite partial to a bit of bossa nova.

I will do this Rick Beato lesson when I get 5 minutes, or more accurately 7 minutes 33 seconds.

Don't be telling me about foot massages

Read the whole article

Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire science philanthropist showed up at this weekend’s event by helicopter (with his beautiful young assistant from Belarus). He’ll be in Cambridge in a couple of weeks asked me who he should meet. You are one of the people I suggested and I told him I would send some links.

He’s the guy who gave Harvard #30m to set up Martin Nowak. He’s been extremely generous in funding projects of many of our friends and clients. He also got into trouble and spent a year in jail in Florida.

If he contacts you it’s probably worth your time to meet him as he’s extremely bright and interesting.

Last time I visited his house (the largest private residence in NYC), I walked in to find him in a sweatsuit and a British guy in a suit with suspenders, getting foot massages from two young well-dressed Russian women. After grilling me for a while about cyber-security, the Brit, named Andy, was commenting on the Swedish authorities and the charges against Julian Assange.

“We think they’re liberal in Sweden, but its more like Northern England as opposed to Southern Europe,” he said. “In Monaco, Albert works 12 hours a day but at 9pm, when he goes out, he does whatever he wants, and nobody cares. But, if I do it, I’m in big trouble.” At that point I realized that the recipient of Irina’s foot massage was his Royal Highness, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.

Indeed, a week later, on a slow news day, the cover of the NYpost had a full-page photo of Jeffrey and Andrew walking in Central Park under the headline: “The Prince and the Perv.” (That was the end of Andrew’s role at the UK trade ambassador.)

You can check out the entire PDF of the Brockman/Morozov correspondence about Jeffrey Epstein here. I don't think the the recipient of Irina’s foot massage comes out of it all that well.

Prodnose: I ain't saying it's right. But you're saying a foot massage don't mean nothing, and I'm saying it does. Now look, I've given a million ladies a million foot massages, and they all meant something. We act like they don't, but they do, and that's what's so ****ing cool about them. There's a sensuous thing going on where you don't talk about it, but you know it, she knows it, ****ing Marsellus knew it, and Antoine should have ****ing better known better. I mean, that's his ****ing wife, man, he can't be expected to have a sense of humor about that shit. You know what I'm saying?

Myself: That's an interesting point.

Rumble Fish: He's merely miscast in a play

Time is a funny thing. Time is a very peculiar item. You see when you're young, you're a kid, you got time, you got nothing but time. Throw away a couple of years, a couple of years there... it doesn't matter. You know. The older you get you say, "Jesus, how much I got? I got thirty-five summers left." Think about it. Thirty-five summers.

I may have been remiss in documenting the Bomber's collection of boxing equipment, but I did manage to record that he passed his driving theory test on December 12th last year.

He hasn't got his act in gear yet in terms of passing the practical test, and told me on Friday that his mates have told him it needs to be done within a year; I encouraged him to crack on.



P.S. This link says it is two years but that must remain our secret.

Hang it all

The Bomber has got a heavy bag and a speed ball in his room on my house, both of which are used from a wall mounted rack. I can remember that we have only had the speed ball for a couple of years, but the heavy bag seems to have been here forever.

Somewhat to my surprise I have never mentioned either of them in a post; and as a rule the 'blog is what I use to moor memories to a timeline. I can see from  my scribblings though that Ben did muay Thai from 2006 to 2009 before moving to judo, so the bag must have been here for at least a decade.

Nineteen next month he is talking about taking them away. Perhaps I will buy him this to hang them on.

don't threaten me with a good time

T-Swizzle (for it is she)

And now I love high tea, stories from Uni, and the West End

You can find me in the pub, we are watching rugby with his school friends

Show me a gray sky, a rainy cab ride

Babe, don't threaten me with a good time

They say home is where the heart is

But God, I love the English

I myself will not be loving the English when they play Ireland this weekend, but I must acknowledge (Swifty as I have been since my birthday last year) that these are good, observational, vernacular lyrics.

There is a great upcoming events poster in the Standard that doesn't have any upcoming events on it; the very essence of don't threaten me with a good time.

It keeps coming up (fnar)

Swedish comedian Olaf Falafel has won Dave's "Funniest Joke of The Fringe" award. He took the title with the gag: "I keep randomly shouting out 'Broccoli' and 'Cauliflower' - I think I might have florets".

It is from Falafel's show It's One Giant Leek For Mankind at the Pear Tree.

Last year he was third.

Ten jokes made the 2019 shortlist. Here are the next nine:

"Someone stole my antidepressants. Whoever they are, I hope they're happy" - Richard Stott

"What's driving Brexit? From here it looks like it's probably the Duke of Edinburgh" - Milton Jones

"A cowboy asked me if I could help him round up 18 cows. I said, 'Yes, of course. - That's 20 cows'" - Jake Lambert

"A thesaurus is great. There's no other word for it" - Ross Smith

"Sleep is my favourite thing in the world. It's the reason I get up in the morning" - Ross Smith

"I accidentally booked myself onto an escapology course; I'm really struggling to get out of it" - Adele Cliff

"After learning six hours of basic semaphore, I was flagging - Richard Pulsford

"To be or not to be a horse rider, that is Equestrian" - Mark Simmons

"I've got an Eton-themed advent calendar, where all the doors are opened for me by my dad's contacts" - Ivo Graham

No man is a hero to his valley

Nearly thirteen years later I met Uncle Simon, plus his Mrs and kids last night; nice people.

Kashmir

I don't know why but it just popped into my head that I am pretty sure that Ruth's dad was from Kashmir, making two of my nieces one quarter Kashmiri.

It shouldn't of course, but somehow this makes me much more interested in what is going on there.

It's not just me.

Spoke to my two good friends, Prime Minister Modi of India, and Prime Minister Khan of Pakistan, regarding Trade, Strategic Partnerships and, most importantly, for India and Pakistan to work towards reducing tensions in Kashmir. A tough situation, but good conversations!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2019

Sergey Kovalev vs. Anthony Yarde

Those of us who have never forgiven Sergey Kovalev for taking Nathan Cleverly's WBO light-heavyweight title in Cardiff in 2013, dearly hope that fellow Brit Anthony Yarde can beat the Russian in his hometown this weekend.

Right now, I wish I were a damned ranker, like Hook or Hitch.

I am as surprised as anyone else by the fact Wales are now the number one rugby team in the world. The possibility didn't enter my mind after the All Blacks destroying Australia 36-0 on Saturday to win the Bledisloe Cup.

It seems that Wales' 13-6 victory over England means they just squeezed past the All Blacks as they gained more ranking points for beating an England team who were higher in the rankings than the Wallabies.

It's the first time in a decade New Zealand will not be number one when the rankings are released on Monday morning.

https://www.world.rugby/rankings/mru is the link we will need tomorrow. It is still shoiwing last Monday's positions as I write.

The fold stands empty in the drownèd field,

We didn't go to see A Midsummer Night's Dream in Morden Hall Park last night because the weather was too bad.

Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,

As in revenge, have sucked up from the sea

Contagious fogs, which falling in the land

Have every pelting river made so proud

That they have overborne their continents.

The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,

The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn

Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.

The fold stands empty in the drownèd field,

And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.

The nine-men’s-morris is filled up with mud,

And the quaint mazes in the wanton green

For lack of tread are undistinguishable.

The human mortals want their winter here.

No night is now with hymn or carol blessed.

Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,

Pale in her anger, washes all the air,

That rheumatic diseases do abound.

And thorough this distemperature we see

The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,

And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown

An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds

Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,

The childing autumn, angry winter change

Their wonted liveries, and the mazèd world,

By their increase, now knows not which is which.

I am such a pretentious ponce. I admit it.

Eat. Race. Win.

I really enjoyed this Amazon Prime series. It is a very odd food/travelogue/sports documentary hybrid. I don't know if the disparate content will appeal to everyone. I might be the only member of its target demographic.

I clean my gun, and dream of Galveston.

Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract.

That would be the time to bring out the Galvatron AK47 Tactical Pen. I don't know what I have done to make online advertising algorithms punt this kind of thing to me (The Unbreakable® Umbrella?) but punt they do.

Financial genius is a short memory in a bull market.

Torygraph

There was a time, many years ago, when Tumblr was one of the most exciting places on the internet. Those days are long gone now with millennials flocking to more exciting communities such as TikTok and Twitch.

But at its peak, the online blogging service had 20bn monthly page views. It was the go-to place to share photos, graphics and snippets of text. Barack Obama and Lady Gaga were keen users and the site brought in more monthly web traffic than Wikipedia and Twitter.

It was such hot property that Yahoo decided to buy for $1.1bn (£910m) in 2013. Today, however, page views have fallen to just 400m per month and this week the site was brought for less than $3m by Wordpress owner Automattic - just 0.27pc of its original price.

Pippa, my god daughter got a job with Yahoo in 2016, and came and stayed with me while she was finding her feet. It seems like no time ago, but it as long from then to now as it was from her employers buying Tumblr to her starting with them. Back of the envelope calculation the value of Tumblr decreased by about half a million dollars every single day.

It's not really related, but Europe's biggest data centre is a quarter of an hours drive from mum and dad's house. I am astounded. Should I be?

Fascinating visit to Europe’s largest data centre - NGD near Newport pic.twitter.com/u5kh1wkTrV

— Rory Cellan-Jones (@ruskin147) August 13, 2019

The Road Not Taken

I just got offered tickets fro Michael Franti and Spearhead in Camden's Jazz Cafe tonight but I can't make it. It is a pity as I haven't been along there for years. Maybe even since Boz Scaggs.

Cancel my subscription to the resurrection

I have been paying attention to David Berlinski and Ben Sasse lately.

I am almost certainly a lost cause in polite society.

Like I ever wasn't.

The Mad Gardener's Song

He thought he saw an Argument

That proved he was the Pope:

He looked again, and found it was

A Bar of Mottled Soap.

"A fact so dread," he faintly said,

"Extinguishes all hope!"

There was a brief shining moment after Australia beat New Zealand when Wales were the world number one. After losing to England this afternoon, normal service is restored and I am wearing grumble trousers.

Travelling hopefully

If current leaders New Zealand lose their Bledisloe Cup clash with Australia in Perth this morning, Wales will top rugby's world rankings for the first time in their history.

Granted the chances are slim, but it is worth placing a marker about it here on these pages I think.

Aide-mémoire

If anyone has any suggestions for must-see or must-do things in #StPetersburg, I would be very grateful.

(Though not the Hermitage, please, because I already know we need to visit that...)

Spaseeba!

— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) August 8, 2019

I will go through these suggestions later.

(I saw Hobbs and Shaw last night with Ben. Russia featured in that as well. Our heroes went there to be kitted out by a gang of lady robbers. The details of exactly why rather eluded me to be frank.)

What Sid did next

Rugby's loss is music's gain it seems. I preferred him as a gimlet-eyed on-field enforcer rather than a  shy-smile, shoe-gazy guitar jangler, but there you go.

Glass Celine

When Ben was little and on holiday from Primary school, I would bring him into the office and he would play around in the mercifully traffic free Abbey Mills where he knew everyone and everyone knew him.

At that time Tess was running a kids art school and gallery in the shop underneath us. On days when it rained I would project DVDs onto our whiteboard and Ben would watch them with her girls Celine and Annabelle.

All these years later Celine is still a friend of mine on Facebook. She went and studied theatre in Holland (which intrigued me as I have two aspirant actress nieces) and is now involved in running some sort of art collective.

When something of hers turns up on my news feed though, I see through a glass darkly as I have to to rely on Facebook's conversions of Dutch to English.

This week, for example:
Onze vrienden van podium Asteriks hebben een vet mooie pop-up broedplaats in de maak. Deze keer in en rondom de Neushoorn.
has been rendered as
Our friends from stage asteriks have a very nice pop-up breeding place in the making. This time in and around the rhino.

Possibly something has been lost in translation, but the result is Dadaist genius worth of Tristan Tzara.

Chasing Tail

'Robot tail' could help reduce risk of falling for elderly, say Japanese scientists.

Well that's mum and dad's 2019 Christmas presents sorted; all hail Dr. Strabismus (whom God Preserve) of Utrecht.

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens

The Onion

EL PASO, TX—In the hours following a violent rampage in Texas in which a lone attacker killed 20 individuals and injured 26 others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Sunday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place. “This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them,” said Indiana resident Janet Clark, echoing sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations. “It’s a shame, but what can we do? There really wasn’t anything that was going to keep this individual from snapping and killing a lot of people if that’s what they really wanted.” At press time, residents of the only economically advanced nation in the world where roughly two mass shootings have occurred every month for the past eight years were referring to themselves and their situation as “helpless.”

Happy Birthday Mum

Sorry I forgot to send you a card.

This one will run and run.

Nuthin' but a 'G' thang

FT

Scrolling through social media after last week’s finish of the Tour de France, you cannot help but feel that the real winner of the race was the man who came in second, Welsh cyclist Geraint Thomas.

For Thomas, last year’s winner, the 2019 race was the opportunity, at the age of 33, to hold on to his title before the curtain starts to fall on his professional cycling career. Instead, he ensured that his teammate, Egan Bernal, a Colombian 11 years his junior, rode to victory.

For Team Ineos (the rebranded Team Sky), Thomas’s attitude echoed the manner in which Chris Froome, a four-time winner of the Tour, helped assure his own first place in the 2018 race. These demonstrations of teamwork and selflessness stand in stark contrast to the years in which Lance Armstrong ruled the Tour with a brutality that would have made Tony Soprano proud.

The demonstration of grace and magnanimity displayed by Thomas — or “G”, as he is known in cycling circles — is a breath of fresh air. He has lodged himself in the hearts of sport fans by helping Bernal win. Few will forget the picture of their embrace when it became clear the Colombian had claimed his mantle or how, in interviews, he extolled Bernal’s prospects.

My thoughts exactly but expressed more eloquently by Penylan's own Michael Moritz.

Later in the same article, we learn that Thomas came 140th out of 141 entries in his very first Tour de France in 2007. From that debut to winning last year! Could we love him more?

This kind of thing is my bag baby

the PARIS REVIEW

The semicolon was born in Venice in 1494. It was meant to signify a pause of a length somewhere between that of the comma and that of the colon, and this heritage was reflected in its form, which combines half of each of those marks. It was born into a time period of writerly experimentation and invention, a time when there were no punctuation rules, and readers created and discarded novel punctuation marks regularly. Texts (both handwritten and printed) record the testing-out and tinkering-with of punctuation by the fifteenth-century literati known as the Italian humanists. The humanists put a premium on eloquence and excellence in writing, and they called for the study and retranscription of Greek and Roman classical texts as a way to effect a “cultural rebirth” after the gloomy Middle Ages. In the service of these two goals, humanists published new writing and revised, repunctuated, and reprinted classical texts.

Cecelia Watson (may her tribe increase) has not just written an article The Birth of the Semicolon, she has written an entire book; Semicolon: How a misunderstood punctuation mark can improve your writing, enrich your reading and even change your life.

South Essex drugs-related death toll rises to six

BBC

A sixth suspected drug-related death since the weekend has been identified by police investigating the sale of Class A drugs in Essex.

A woman in her 30s found dead in Southend on Sunday is now part of the investigation, Essex Police said.

It follows the deaths on Monday and Tuesday of two other women and three men, all within a six-mile (10km) radius.

I will be following this. I will tell you why another day.