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There’s crazy people running all over town
There’s a silver band just marching up and down
And the wide boys are all spoiling for a fight
I want to see the bright lights tonight
Okay, I've been wondering this ever since I heard Marillion's "Misplaced Childhood" years ago. Can someone explain wide boys to me? In what sense are they wide? How did they get that way? What is, in a word, up with that?
See the boys out walking
The boys who look so fine
Dressed up in green velvet
Their silver buckles shine...
Oddly enough, the UK's premier Socialist Worker blog, Lenin's Tomb mentions the phrase in a discussion of the Hitchens/Galloway kerfuffle. OK, so that doesn't actually answer your question, but I believe a wide boy is a bit of a chancer, a ruffian on the make, a used-car salesman, etc.
Ahem! The lyric is "And the big boys are all spoiling for a fight." That being said, wide boys were black marketers after WWII.
The first Autumn flowering bulbs have started to appear in the garden: the purple colchicums.
Many of you may already know this, but I can imagine few Making Light readers who wouldn't appreciate that Elements of Style is available online.
For extra fun, plant other bulbs near them and watch for mutations. Colchicine is a mutagen often used in the plant industry to induce polyploidy. Handle with care; the entire plant is toxic and possibly carcinogenic.
http://www.angelfire.com/ab3/chrysanthemum/growingmethods/colchicine.htm
Sorry, I've been rereading Cats Are Not Peas and everything suggests genetic weirdness to me....
He was a species on the verge of extinction
She was an Air New Zealand Hostess
They were mystically joined like Ravitz and Landauer
Like Pinky and Perky, like Porgy and Bess
He loved the pursuit and the romance
But the details were more of a chore-
When the bride's veil lifted, his mind soon lifted
At least that's what happened before.
Let it blow, let it snow
Let the mercury bubble and dive
Life's little traumas and courtroom dramas
Remind me I'm glad I'm alive....
(warning: contains banana-on-kiwi sex)
I read Making Light at work, but typically wait until I get home to click on the Particles links, since I never know whether they'll be worksafe. So I looked at that "Mosque Clock" link for a couple of days before I finally tried it.
From the name alone I'd imagined some clever geographic distribution of mosques aligned with the sun, or perhaps a mosque with architecture such that the sun would shine off of different domes and minarets at different times. A sort of religious flower clock. The disappointment was...well, not "crushing," but I felt a slight squeezing in my head.
Ah well. At least there was the "Paper without a city" link, and the "Hovercraft full of eels" one to try next.
"Wide boy" now means something more like what us Irish folk would call a chancer, someone who's a little dodgy or untrustworthy. There's a bad Nik Kershaw song from the 1980's, Wide Boy, which helps provide the context.
Hey wow, who knew there was a Moominmovie?! I found out about it yesterday. According to one of the reviews, Tove Jansson even consulted on the screeenplay! Not available in the US but I was so excited, I cast caution to the winds and ordered it from British Amazon -- hopefully if my DVD player gives me any grief about being in the Wrong Region, I will be able to play it on my computer.
Oh and btw -- Sylvia is just loving the Moomin books. It is the first series of chapter books we have read; and she has wanted to read nothing else since August. We are now reading "Moominpappa at Sea" which I thought might be a little too slow-moving and atmospheric for her, but no. You can filter my blog entries for stuff specifically about reading these books if you are interested. (Server is down right now but should be working later on.)
I just saw some scans from All-Star Batman and Robin #2. Can somebody please tell me what is the matter with Frank Miller, and if it's contagious? I'm very concerned on this point.
On the subject of Particles, I particularly enjoyed the tooltip that pops up on hover over: "Welcome to the Community of Dildo."
Not for its own merit (the tooltip says, "Via Patrick, who got it from Sharyn November"), but because, spoken aloud, the actual text would be indistinguishable from, "Via Patrick, who 'got it' from Cher in November."
At Cascadia, I got to see the first episode of "Charly Jade". I want to see the rest of it, but I'm not holding my breath, based on what the show's creator told us. It's Canadian-made, has been shown only on Canada's counterpart to the SciFi Channel, and the said SciFi Channel would air the show only if it didn't have to pay for it. That might explain why it prefers inflicting things like "Mansquito" upon us.
Skwid writes:
Many of you may already know this, but I can imagine few Making Light readers who wouldn't appreciate that Elements of Style is available online.
Orwell.ru? Spooky.
Why does the page refer to the senior author as "Oliver Strunk" when I have always known him as "William Strunk, Jr.?"
Let's see-- here in my office I have the 1959 hardcover edition.
Aha. The copyright page says "[Copyright symbol] The Macmillan Company 1959 [...]The Elements of Style, Revised Edition, by William Strunk, Jr. , and Edward A. Tenney, copyright 1935 by Oliver Strunk."
In the Introduction, E.B. White writes that "the little book" was privately printed with a copyright date of 1918. Apparently Oliver Strunk renewed the copyright seventeen years later, in 1935. Possibly he was Prof. W. Oliver Strunk of Princeton, author of Essays on Music in the Byzantine World, who was born the year after William Strunk, Jr. was married.
Wikipedia points me to a version of the text at Bartleby.com, which correctly attributes the little book to the elder Strunk.
The 'wide boys' were, I believe, so called because of the width of their lapels. Think a kind of 1940's brit take on the zoot suit.
Wow -- that *was* a great beer ad PNH linked in Particles. But now I'm trying to figure out the connection between that British brand and Rickard's (Molson) here in Canada as they've been filking Orff as well using a choir in burgundy robes. Much smaller scale than the Brit ad, of course, but there's an alarming family resemblance.
I can't find a copy of it online, but there's an interesting blog post about it here.
Jimcat: Can someone explain wide boys to me?
Everybody has already answered this one, but I was under the impression that the description "wide boy" implies some physical bulk, enough to give some presence/menace. And, as has been pointed out, I think that zoot suits -- the padded shoulders, the wide lapels, the wide stripes -- also enter into it somehow, at least originally.
OK, that's it. Three* out-of-the-blue Marillion references in a week. Time for me to haul out ye olde box of audio cassettes and work my way through the discography all over again.
*The other two being,
1. Last track on Brian Vander Ark's "Resurrection" CD sounds a lot like something off of Clutching at Straws
and
2. Rearranging the living room revealed the Season's End picture disk in my record collection
...for whatever those are worth.
Can I claim points for identifying Richard Thompson, or is the quote just too obvious for points to be awarded?
Come to think of it, I'm still waiting for someone to reference redheads and Vincent motorcycles over in the "Folksongs Are Your Friends" thread.
Bob: I think we're all supposed to know, love, and follow RT. I certainly do.
While we're on the subject, if Richard Thompson ever happens to bring his '1000 Years of Popular Music' performance to your town, don't miss it! I gather the tickets have been extortionately priced in some cities, but when he came to Honolulu last year as he does every few years, they were quite reasonable. The CD is fun, but can't capture the feel of the live performance (and it appears he always does slightly different material in each show.)
One definition suggests "wide boy" is a replacement for "spiv".
And if the term is getting into dictionaries it's likely obsolescent as slang.
Bit of a flash dresser, it seems, but possibly missing the mark a bit as far as fashion goes.
Intriguingly, the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue does give "whide" as cant for "words".
Fran: I love the Molson's ads. Their I Am Canadian ads from about four years back filled my heart with much joy. (And I am not even Canadian, just a wanna-be.) The Carlton Draught ad was pretty good too, although it reminded me of the British Airways campaign the early 90s, and the spoofs that ad spun off. If I recall correctly, the British Airways ad had a bunch of men and women in colourful hoodies and jumpsuits, running down city streets in colourful shapes. You can find the Xmas version here:
http://www.absolutelyandy.com/tvadverts/
There was a spoof of this ad for some washing machine that had people running down the street, making the shape of a giant sock and underwear and so on. While that was my favourite, alas, I can not find a link for it.
Come to think of it, I'm still waiting for someone to reference redheads and Vincent motorcycles over in the "Folksongs Are Your Friends" thread.
Someone did mention something about that:
Dan Layman-Kennedy ::: (view all by) ::: September 09, 2005, 08:59 AM:
Speaking of biker boyfriends: If yours has fought with the law, and he says he don't mind dyin', take it as a sign.
On the other hand, you'll get a good bike out of it, if it's any consolation.
Also on the subject of particles, I'd like to note that I had great fun misreading one as "10 Plagues of Egypt Finger Puppets", rather than "10-Plagues-of-Egypt Finger Puppets."
Now that was an interesting visual...
It's been a while, so with the Summer fading and Fall coming, I thought I'd ask what are people drinking these days?
I just dicovered Boru, an awesome Irish vodka (hey, if the French can make vodka, why not the Irish?).
If anybody actually does want blog posts about the Roberts hearings, SCOTUSBlog has some that are a little more substantive.
Isn't Irish vodka properly called "poteen"?
what are people drinking these days?
Myers and club soda. About 1 part Myers to 3 parts club soda. Lots of ice. Lemon or lime optional.
And my stand-by, Old Grand-Dad.
Also -- my new (since November; ok it's not so new any more) favorite beer, is Jersey Ale from Hunterdon Brewing Co. in Philipsburg, NJ. It is great, mostly robs me of will to buy any other domestic beer. (Although Magic Hat #9 Ale will do in a pinch.) I don't know how widely HBC distributes its ale, I have only bought it in Summit, NJ. My friend who lives in Bethlehem, PA told me he had seen it there.
(Myers is also very good with ginger beer.)
I thought that "poteen" was Irish for "moonshine", rather than "vodka".
During the summer, Saranac Brewing (which is actually made at F.X. Matt's in Utica, NY) put out a mixed case of beers with a golden lager, raspberry wheat, hefeweizen, and a few others that slip my mind, but all were excellent. Unfortunately only a limited supply was shipped to my part of New Jersey, and I couldn't get it after July. Their Adirondack Amber is available year-round, though, and well worth drinking.
Of course it's time now to start thinking about Oktoberfest. Hacker-Pschorr made one of the best 'fest brews I've tasted about a decade ago; I think it was strong enough to be labeled as malt liquor. Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest is still available today, but seems to be watered down a bit. The best tasting domestic festbier I've found so far is Stoudt's. For beers with a little more kick, the imported doppelbocks like Schneider Aventinus or Erdinger Pikantus go down smooth and set your head sailing gently down the river. And lately I've discovered a set of Russian brews called Baltika that come in several varieties (lager, wheat ale, porter, and strong ale) -- not quite as tasty as the Germans but still satisfying.
Oh, and that reminded me that I've still got half a case of Thomas Jefferson Tavern Ale stashed away in the basement, awaiting cooler drinking weather. This is one of the most expensive domestic beers I've encountered ($48 per case in New Jersey) but I'll happily shell out for it because of the wonderful taste. Just the right blend of hops and a hint of fruit and spices. Excellent accompaniment to a chicken or pork meal on a fall evening.
Mmm... beer.
. . . Prof. W. Oliver Strunk of Princeton, author of Essays on Music in the Byzantine World, who was born the year after William Strunk, Jr. was married.
Well, thank god for that. English style and Byzantine music have poor enough reputations as it is.
Mac 'N Jack's is an amber ale that you can only buy as a draft in the Pacific NW. I don't know if it has moved east much yet, but there is nothing finer that is domestically produced.
NASA to unveil moon plan: Agency plans to send 4 astronauts to the moon in 2018
(snip)
The expedition would begin, these charts show, by launching the lunar lander and Earth departure stage (essentially a giant propulsion module) on a heavy-lift launch vehicle that would be lifted into orbit by five space shuttle main engines and a pair of five-segment shuttle solid rocket boosters.
(snip)
So they're basically going to reinvent the Saturn V using a design based on, I think, an Atlas-Centaur? "Proven technology" strikes again.
Check the temperature outside and the specs on those SRB O-rings before launching, please.
If you make moonshine out of potatoes, then I think potato vodka is more or less what you get. An Irish friend of mine once said, "Poteen is vodka that died and went to heaven", and he had a bottle of the stuff to prove it. It was phenomenally good. He also said something about how the laws still bar you from buying the stuff (legally) within Ireland; if you want a legal bottle you have to pick it up at the airport Duty-Free on your way out. That was 10 years back, so it may have changed.
I am drinking very little at the moment, due to the damn ulcer, but I have a bottle of Remy cognac and a bottle of Jamesons (Irish whiskey) in the cupboard for the occasional sip or two as a nightcap. At other times I drink mostly IPA type ales; I like the rich hops bite.
Myers and Club soda. I'll have to try that, Jeremy. On the rum front, lately I've been having Bacardi Limon on the rocks, which is nice for sipping.
I'm pretty sure there is some brand of Poteen available in the U.S. I haven't tried it yet, because my brother in law from Drogheda says it's lethal.
No alcohol here, alas. I don't particularly miss it, but it annoys me when people assume I must be a "bad sport" or disapprove of their habits.
Just discovered Kefir, which is sort of like a weird carbonated yogurt smoothie. I believe the genuine article is alcoholic, but the stuff in the grocery store isn't.
(Myers is also very good with ginger beer.)
A combination I learned was called a "Dark and Stormy."
LibraryThing could be the Best. Cat-Vacuuming. Ever.
I just have to decide if I really *need* my books catalogued . . .
Ooooh. LibraryThing - I want.
Are Mac users already aware of Delicious Library? It sounds really cool - if you have a webcam, you just hold your book/CD/DVD in front of it and it snarfs the UPC off the back and catalogs it for you, complete with cover picture. Apparently it even makes sotto voce snarky comments on certain movies/etc. But I don't have either a Mac or a webcam.
No alcohol here, alas. I don't particularly miss it, but it annoys me when people assume I must be a "bad sport" or disapprove of their habits.
No such assumptions from this corner.
Just discovered Kefir, which is sort of like a weird carbonated yogurt smoothie. I believe the genuine article is alcoholic, but the stuff in the grocery store isn't.
Kefir is only slightly alchoholic but is fermented, and should be quite sour. Some health-food stores sell Kefir starters that will let you make your own, which will be far tastier than the stuff you get at the A & P; and you can control the acidity and degree of alchohol by not fermenting it as long. (Indeed it tastes quite good after about 24-36 hrs and has no perceptible alchoholic content, is my memory; but I have not made it in about 15 years so caveat listener.)
Poteen was legalized for sale within Ireland in 1997 or 1998. I bought some in a regular liquor shop in Dublin in 1998.
Kate Nepveu, sometimes the cat really *needs* to be vacuumed. I catalogued my books once, but never kept it up to date, i.e. the data sits on an Atari 5.25" floppy. (Still have machine & drives, don't know if it all works since it hasn't been plugged in since about 1991.
***
Mmmm, Beer.
Too bad I can't have any right now. I'm on a diet and exercise program (medically supervised) that claims that alcohol blocks the pathway used to metabolize fat, so it's banned. I don't know how true this is or isn't, but the program is otherwise reasonable, so I'm in it for the duration.
That said, I'd love a Schneider Hefeweitzen right about now. Or a Paulaner. Schneider is harder to find, which makes it more the prize.
Right before I started the diet, I discovered that Hale's Ales (right here in Seattle) actually makes an excellent Kölsch - first I've ever had that wasn't served in line of sight of the Cologne cathedral. The bar didn't have the little cylindrical glasses, though.
Larry, I wonder if it depends on what kind of beverage? When I started my diet, I laid off cocktails but still had red and white wine regularly, and that didn't interfere with losing 1 to 2lbs per week.
Whatever single malt happens to catch my roving eye; usually Glenfiddich or Glenmorangie.
Ginger beer and spiced rum; it's a little sweet but fine for summer heat down Georgia way.
Lately, I've been making some very simple margaritas: 1 shot tequila, 1 shot tripplsec with limeaide from frozen concentrate.
Cider is always good, as well.
wide boys is a C. 20 generic term for those who live by their wits, esp. gamblers, petty swindlers, race-gangsters, the lesser 'con men', dishonest motor-car salesmen, and the like, as in Robert Westerby's Wide Boys Never Work, 1937. See wide ; cf. spiv.
--Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of the Underworld
John: Mostly I've had too many colds and other inconveniences to drink much this year. Alcohol and cold medicine not a good mix. (And if you don't believe me, try some Nyquil.) When I do it tends to be single malt; my bottle of Lagavulin is getting distressingly low.
MKK
(And if you don't believe me, try some Nyquil.)
You mean as a mixer? Or shots? :0)
Cider is always good, as well.
If you get a chance try Farnum Hill cider, especially their semi-dry still cider. As rich and complex in flavor as a lambic ale. The extra-dry still cider is very good too but only about a year after you buy it. (IMHO -- their brewmaster told me everything they sell has been aged to proper maturity.)
Okay, that Moomin movie explains why it is I can buy giant stuffed Moomintrolls and Snork Maidens at the local Japanse bubble-tea shoppe and kawai emporium, had I only the wherewithal.
Just checking, since the trailer for no. 4's just been released: have we all seen "Potter Puppet Pals," or have we not?
Larry: everyone's mileage will vary with regards to diet. I lost a good deal of weight while still allowing myself one beer per day.
I've found imported Koelsch in New Jersey, and it was also one of the brews in the Saranac summer pack. That's the wonderful thing about the USA with regards to beer: for any recipie or tradition, there's probably a brewer in this country who does it, and is passionate enough to do it well.
Of course, there are also some lousy brewers trying to cash in on the microbrew fanciers. That's why I do a lot of taste testing.
If you've ever seen the (UK) show Only Fools and Horses, the main character Del Trotter (Del Boy) is an archetypical "wide boy"..
Also, um, just spotted: Katrina: the Gathering.
(Hmm. Maybe I ought to get me one of these weblog things...)
Am I the only one who thinks "You're doing a heckuva job" is going to become the next joke way of saying "Guess who gets to be the fall guy for this mess?"?
Am I the only person who didn't know that Anderson Cooper of CNN is Gloria Vanderbilt's son?
Also, I mentioned this on the dying end of a previous open thread, but thought it worth repeating. Harvard is offering ENGLISH E-101 The History and Structure of the English Language as an Extension course that can be taken entirely online. A semester spent studying vowel shifts, phonology and world English. The course website is currently available for preview. If anyone else here is taking it, let's get in touch.
Jeremy, you tempt me with the Farnum Hill--the Farmhouse seems about my style, I'd rather have a cider that aims for pub flavor than one that's trying to be wine. If I liked wine, I'd drink wine.
Hmm. I wonder if anyone around here (NYC) stocks Quebec ice cider.
Jimcat - I've never found an imported Kölsch that didn't taste old. FWIW, the few canned/bottled Kölsches I tried in Germany weren't so great either, which is why the Hale's was such a pleasant surprise. I'll look for the Saranac version once I can have beer again.
---
Jimcat & John Farrell - I suspect that I could fit the occasional beer or glass of wine into my diet without detriment, but I'm disinclined to do so. This really for two reasons, first that the program has a good success rate (almost 50% retention after 1 year off program) and has a good sample size. ReallyBigCorp pays for the lion's share of the program, but I'm kicking in a substantial chunk of change as well (it's a great benefit), so I figure I should follow the program as written.
It's kind of like having a part-time job. 5 days a week in the gym (3 with trainers), meetings with dietitians, MDs, psychologists, and a group session. Since I'm making all this effort, not having a beer seems like the least bit of additional burden.
I do think that some of their scientific claims are a bit dodgy though. In addition to the ban on alcohol, they're down on artificial sweeteners and caffeine too. I wonder where the science ends and the moralism begins.
Hey Vicki -- Chelsea Wine Vault on 8th Ave and 16th has got Farnum Hill. (And yes, they have the Farmhouse too.0
Ahem yourself, Styx; Richard Thompson has frequently sung it as "wide boys" rather than "big boys." For an example, I refer you to his recent live album The Chrono Show.
(And I certainly second the rec for Thompson's occasional "1000 Years of Popular Music" show. We saw it a couple of years ago at Joe's Pub in NYC.)
Mary Kay,
I'm sorry to hear that! I hope you get better soon and can replenish that bottle of Lagavulin...
IN: Intelligent Numbers. It's not your father's non-standard analysis.
Baileys over ice :D.
I went to visit Tor UK
But alas it's gone away
Can anyone say why this is so?
Macmillan act like they don't know
Okay, lousy poetry, but http://www.toruk.com is deader even than my poem :(.
For years I drank pale ales and single malt scotch, but lately have turned (don't laugh) to sherry. I know it's weird. My local wine merchant came up with this incredible stuff. It says Cardenal Cisneros on the bottle; also says that it is made with Pedro Ximenez grapes. It's sweet and very dark, a kind of purple brown: mahogany color. Not cheap.
I drink water too, not enough of it. And if someone were to offer me Cognac I wouldn't turn it down.
I take colchicine every other day and so far, my genes are fine. If my joints don't get better by morning (I swear my right index finger is starting to point in), I'm increasing to every day.
Drinking: the required cranberry juice and gatorade, plus skim milk and iced tea. Boring, ain't I?
Re:RT
I first heard Bright Lights about 5 years ago, looked it up at AMG, and was amazed at how seldom such a perfect song had been covered. At the time, I thought perhaps it was deference to the couple, but now I wonder if Thompson just won't give permission. I suppose that is his business, and I shouldn't wonder.
Another song with inadequate cover is Melanie Safka's Steppin.
Patrick, my bad! That'll teach me to pay more attention next time I see him perform.
What am I drinking? Gritty McDuff's Best Bitter (bottling of a Portland ME brewpub) when I can find it; the good local liquor store was out last time, so I settled for Old Thumper, over Tremont (very local) or Fuller's ESB. (I like real hops -- just not the grapefruit-rind--flavored ones used in too many U.S. beers.) Commandaria St. John for late evenings with a book -- it's a Greek sweet red wine that comes out oxidized like sherry. The bottle of Highland Park Capella will wait for a propitious moment.
The OED usage citations for this particular sense of wide shows an interesting transition in slang use. It seems to mean "clever, sharp-witted" before WWII, and then acquires the connotation of shifty criminality, probably because it was being used by the black marketeers themselves. Compare it to the American "wise guy".
I just got myself a seltzer/soda machine. It came with a bunch of syrups, which I assume are commercial crap. I'll be brewing my own ginger syrup, vanilla syrup, cinamon syrup, cardamom syrup, celery syrup.
I can make home-brew Cel-Ray! Muahahaha!
I'm not wholly convinced by the previous atempts at a definition of "wide boy". The idea of being a bit of a chancer, a bit of a spiv, is certainly in there, but in the context of Scotland in the 1980s there's a bit more to it. A wide boy might be a bit of a poser, he might be better dressed than his income would allow, but he will also have a propensity to violence. "Going wide" refers to the kind of behaviour that invites physical confrontation, and the expression "wide boy" has more recently been contracted to "wide-o", a noun which refers to the kind of person who goes out spoiling for a fight.
. . . Prof. W. Oliver Strunk of Princeton, author of Essays on Music in the Byzantine World, who was born the year after William Strunk, Jr. was married.
Well, thank god for that. English style and Byzantine music have poor enough reputations as it is.
Yes, but do they mean he was born 12 months after, or within the following year? Because the latter seems to me to give him a three in four chance of being illegitimate.
On the Moomin books, anyway: is Moominpappa at Sea the book published in the UK as The Exploits of Moominpappa? Actually, a look at Jeremy's site suggests that the corresponding book is Moominpappa's Memoirs. Whichever it is, I think it's the best book, and that Moominpappa actually emerges as the most interesting character. But that may be just because the circumstances in the book remind me of episodes in the lives of both my parents.
[People are now visualising my parents as Moomins. Result!]
I'll have to reread "Moominpappa's Memoirs" -- my impression last time thru was that it was the least interesting of the series. "Moominpappa at sea" is the one where the family sails away to a distant island to live in a lighthouse, and Moomintroll falls in love with a sea horse among other things. It and its companion volume "Moominvalley in November" (about their friends waiting for them in the moominhouse) are very weird and cerebral, much more so than the rest of the series. (Also the short stories compiled in the US as "Tales from Moominvalley" are pretty weird.)
If anyone's linked this one yet, I've missed it:
Katrina: The Gathering
(This is not cutting satire. This is satire carefully crafted from obsidian.)
Rancid Comments Department, again,
[Live! on TV, the asshole from Texas whose wealthy fellow scum arranged for his installation in the Oval Orifice... ]
The words of the two footed sack of shit blowing taxpayer dollars to playing stinking lying grandstander in New Orleans -- tax dollars squandered on the sack of shit to stand in New Orleans and give a speech--wasting oil and gas to transport his entourage and probably stop dead in its tracks on-going disaster cleanup work...
Stinking piece of shit is pushing handing money over to religious organizations now. He keeps talking about faith, and pouring taxpayer dollars into what probably are going to be hole lots of sucking maws of the likes of Halliburton fatcats. And he's going to spend taxpayers dollars on expanding buildings in places that probably shouldn't have been built in the first place--shithead desn't seem to comprehend the concept that if something was been built in a floodplain and then drowned, it shouldn't be rebuilt LARGER in the floodplain.
Sack of shit of course has got neither the brains of one of those male fish which attach themselves to the giant female and devolve into a tail releasing sperm that's become a male appendages sticking out of the female's hide, nor the integrity of the Scottish Regiment's used condom.
He doubtless was using a teleprompter for the speech...
Perhaps it's time to leave Biloxi the way that the Cape Cod National Seashore is--why should ever other taxpayer in the country get charged to rebuild that place when it gets flattened again and again and again? Camille flattened in three decades ago, and it was flattened from a hurricane before that one, too. New Orleans at least isn't ON the coastline...
New Orleans wouldn't have been hit so hard if so much of the marshes in the area weren't destroyed. Stinking sack of shit seems to go out of his way to remain willfully ignorant of that. Stinking sacks of shit pronounced building LARGER than before, which to me says stinking sack of shit will destroy even more marshes, meaning that the places rebuilt will be just that much more expensive the next time they get hit by a hurricane. Stinking sack of shit doesn't believe in global warming and the increasing viciousness of hurricanes, he has faith....
And where the hell is MY job? I've been without work that provided health benefits for three and a half years now. I haven't even had substantiative contract work in two and a half years. Nobody's giving -me- a $5000 grant and making a job for me! Want tax money from me, get me a job! I apply for them and there's no responses from the vast majority of the resumes I send out. The others, most of them don't even bother after responding to the initial contact, to even send email with a rejection. Occasionally I have an interview, and never hear back. Calling up to be told you're rejected stinks, and who the hell wants to do that again and again and again after -years-?
The people from the Gulf are going to get jobs from federal programs and are getting money from the federal government. Some of them have lost all their possessions, but what about everyone ELSE who's suffered from bad weather and losses, who weren't on the Gulf Coast, whose houses and jobs are gone from floods, fires, etc.? Bush is promising money from -those- people who've lost everything, to give huge largesse to the victims of Katrina.
Meanwhile, again, nobody's hiring -me-. I hear the words of the sack of shit, saying that those victims are more important and Worthy than any other victims. They get jobs, but what about those of us who have been unemployed for years, what about those whose lives and livelihoods went away in smaller disaster, what about the people who went bankrupt in the wake of 9/11, what about the change in the federal bankruptcy law which denies people who for loss of job, or illness, disaster, etc., are stuck with bills they can't pay and aren't going to get any debtor relief come October? Bush is advocating huge spending for Katrina victims, but again, what about everyone else?
Stinking lying sack of shit...
Article about Richard Thompson in the "Talk of the Town" section of the New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/050829ta_talk_paumgarten
bob mcmanus writes:
"I first heard Bright Lights about 5 years ago, looked it up at AMG, and was amazed at how seldom such a perfect song had been covered. At the time, I thought perhaps it was deference to the couple, but now I wonder if Thompson just won't give permission."What are you talking about? You don't need permission to cover someone's song; you just need to follow certain procedures and make sure you pay them the appropriate royalties. More here, here, and here.
I'm frankly appalled that intelligent people have been so bamboozled by the firehoses of bullshit wielded by the copyright maximalists that you literally don't know about the venerable and extremely effective "compulsory license" model under which song-performance rights are handled, with creators quite decently compensated thank you very much.
Signed, Member, ASCAP (with the wallet card to prove it!)
(Home-brew Cel-Ray, mmm.)
Pleasant surprise to see someone writing about Tove Jansson's Moomin books. The Japanese anime films is news to me, but I was under the impression the characters had been animated before, perhaps back when the Moomin comic strip was still running. I've long thought of Jansson's later Moomin books as sort of Ingmar Bergman for children, so a film version seems fitting.
Bob, you okay? Here, have a glass of water. Patrick has Firm Opinions on this subject.
Meh. Came back to report on Katrina: The Gathering, but of course y'all had already particled it. Well done.
Keith: I'm also in GA. Love ginger beer.
Kip: Potter Puppet Pals, absolutely. (aaaaaaAAAAAA.........bother!)
I don't know who first put a copy of Moominsummer Madness into my hands, many years ago, but I thank them forever. For one thing, there are lovely haunting images in it that have stayed with me ever since; and for another, it taught me the word "luminous."
IMDB lists a string of animated Moomins -- two TV series (the first in 1969), some shorts, and a feature in 1993. (Search on "Tove Jansson" to find the list.)
A little more looking indicates that, surprise, the imdb list is incomplete and not terribly accurate, but hey, these Internets, she are the great quest adventure of the armcharious, yes?
themoomins.com lists a boxed set of a 1980s TV series (unmentioned by imdb) with English narration.
Remember, the value of a liberal education is knowing where to Look Stuff Up, which has always included not quitting easily and following somewhat erratic chains of logic.
I fell for the Moomins as a small child, thanks to an aunt in England who sent us pretty much the whole series of books. Then when we were living in Japan in '69 we got the TV series - the Moomins were already big in Japan then, and still are. My 9 year old self remembers the TV shows as being pretty darn good - but the books are truly wonderful.
I'm reading E. Nesbit's The Magic City to my almost-four-year-old these days. He got bored for a while and didn't want to hear more installments, but then he asked for it again just the other night. That was always one of my favorite Nesbits.
"Moominsummer Madness" is the one with the Hobgoblin's hat, right?
The incident with the dictionary falling into the hat is, I think, the thing that stuck with me more than anything else in the whole series.
The world is a vast and amazing place. I guess I should admit first of all how spotty my knowledge of music is. I know what I've been reared with, what I've bumped into, or what my kids have played for me.
Tonight for the first time I heard that song about the '52 Vincent and the girl with the red hair (whose name I kept hearing as "Radmullah" for the first three verses or so, wondering if the song was going to turn into some kind of political or cultural manifesto, before I realized it was "Red Molly"). I thought "Who is this guy? What kind of accent is that? Dang, that's pretty picking. Oy, it's another one of those songs. Dang, that's pretty picking. What kind of accent is that? Who is this guy?"
So I finally get home and get up to checking out the net, and here it is -- the name of the guy, and a context for the '52 Vincent song, and . . . what kind of accent is that?
I was really quite annoyed with Robert Earl Keen for "The Road Goes On Forever And The Party Never Ends,(or whatever its proper title is)" for example, but I forgave him completely once I heard "Merry Christmas from the Family" (Or whatever its proper name is).
I have a glass of Moulin Vert absinthe in front of me. This brand is supposed to have a substantial thujone content, and things like a tile floor do become rather interesting after a few glasses. (That said, I'm actually just drinking zinfandel; the absinthe is left over from last night.)
Thompson wrote and performed the music for Werner Herzog's new film Grizzly Man, which I'd recommend to all lovers of bears and foxes.
I have a bottle of Widmer Brothers Oktoberfest Festival Ale beside me. It's empty. I guess that means I'm not drinking anything. I'm just getting ready for bed.
I do have a question I've been meaning to ask here: A couple months back, I went to one of those things where published writers sit at little tables in small rooms full of unpublished writers and talk about, well, writing.
Most everything I heard there was stuff I'd already read on the web, but one writer said something that didn't sound right. He said that every publisher keeps one or two slots in their schedule open specifically for new writers. He also said that manuscripts in the slush piles weren't competing with the works of the "oft-published elite" but with the rest of the slush.
It didn't sound right to me, but I'm not in a position to know. Was he right?
Thanks.
John Farrell writes: what are people drinking these days?
I have a few bottles of my Jack Of The Green pale ale left, the Too Many Secrets porter is waiting for the Halloween feast, and I'm expecting the next batch of Six Dæmon spice ale to be ready for the solstice. There's still a couple bottles of Tumultuous Uproar imperial stout and exactly one bottle of Revolution! strong ale, but those will probably be gone by the end of the week.
Do not worry, Lucy;* your condition would at least imply that you have only just encountered Richard Thompson. There are worse things.
I've been going through my enormous stack of Cropredy Festival photos, with the intent of posting a set on Flickr (don't run over there now, there's almost nothing up yet). I should probably check the shots of Thompson playing cricket, though I think they're all from a safe enough distance that nobody's really recognizable without a scorecard.
*which of course sounds like the first line of a folk song, in which Worry is only a stanza or six away from descending, followed after several more stanzas, a couple of choruses, a rickety bridge, and a catastrophic loss of string geometry by the arrival of Fell J. Death (as Jay Ward and Bill Scott would have called him) with his long black coat and his red incarnation, his Midnight Special on a .44 frame, and his invitation to come dance (nothing too Fosse, all Arlen in the night) under the pale white moon.
She likes the promise they don’t quite define
She stops the taxi at Greenwood & Vine,
Of course her Blahniks are size number 9,
That's why the lady's lyric's Trad.
She’ll leave her bedroom at any old noise
Won't marry fops who are Daddy’s first choice
Walks into graveyards and raises her voice
That's why the lady's lyric's Trad.
She's got a beau who’s dead, truth to tell
But his boat’s swell
What's worse? Next verse!
Short but eventful, is that life so bad?
That's why the lady's lyric's trad.
She’ll follow crooks for the whole crooked way,
Won't stay indoors for the whole month of May,
Ignores old wives' tales on her wedding day,
That's why the lady's lyric's Trad.
She won’t get fooled by the High or the Low
Enchants a token and buttons her beau,
Knows seven hundred expressions for No,
That's why the lady's lyric's Trad.
At some oh-dire-oh ‘ccasion of sin
She’ll get done in
Stone dead, ‘nuff said
She’ll come back Doleful and spook out the cad
That’s why the lady’s lyric’s Trad.
Can't turn away from a guy on a horse,
She falls for riddles, though rarely to force,
And he'll be gone in the morning, of course
That's why the lady's lyric's Trad.
She likes the Army, their triggers are set
But then the Navy gets so friggin’ wet
There’s not a service she hasn’t served yet
That’s why the lady’s lyric’s Trad.
She's got the [Your Shade Here] sort of eyes
Sees through disguise
Nice dogs, cute frogs;
True Love will be the unlikeliest lad,
That's why the lady's lyric's Trad.
re kefir "weird carbonated yogurt smoothie"
After noticing in the grocery a container of pina colada yogurt with the top all puffed up, I went and looked it up in the microbiology text. Lactobacillus come in 2 varieties, 'homofermenters' and 'heterofermenters'. The first just turn the lactose in milk into lactic acid. The second do half that, and half the other pathway, which leads to CO2 and ethanol. So that was alcoholic carbonated pina colada yogurt.
Probably those are the bugs responsible for the original kefir?
Agree with Iain Coleman that "wide boy" is more than just a re-badged spiv, there's an element of chav/townie there too.
If you've ever seen the (UK) show Only Fools and Horses, the main character Del Trotter (Del Boy) is an archetypical "wide boy"..
Also Arthur Daley in Minder.
Do not worry, Lucy;* your condition would at least imply that you have only just encountered Richard Thompson
Or possibly Dick Gaughan, who has covered the song. Though his pronounciation of "Red Molly" doesn't sound like "Radmullah", at least to my ear.
I knew that Colchicums were poisonous, but I didn't realize they were mutagenic.
I wonder what superpower I'll develop.
"Moominsummer Madness" is the one with the Hobgoblin's hat, right?
No, that is "Finn Family Moomintroll". "Moominsummer Madness" is the one with the flood and the (mostly) abandoned theater. And Snufkin exacting revenge upon the tormentors of his youth, which is where "luminous" comes in.
On poitín: the stuff legally on sale is not poitín, it's just labelled that way for tourists. It's as if Jim Beam, say, made stuff and labelled it "Moonshine" for marketting reasons.
Real poitín is illegal and dangerous stuff that makes you go blind or even die, and is made from god knows what by who knows who.
Meanwhile, vodka has been made in Ireland for many years. Irish Distillers, the 500 lb gorilla in spirits here have made "Huzzar" for as long as I can remember, which is a reliable second in the market behing Smirnoff. It's just alcohol in water though, without the interesting petrol flavours of, say, Stolichnaya.
I have a few bottles of Erdinger Weissbier in the fridge, along with a bottle of Jacobs Creek Sparkling Pinot Noir, which is very good indeed for the money.
Kip Manley, thank you for the link to the potter puppets. Harry looks endearingly like Scott McCloud, in my opnion, and I love the flappy arms.
And Jeremy Osner, thank you for mentioning kefir. My mother used to make that during on of her seventies DIY phases (that included spinning (both wheel and that-twirly-stick-like-thing I don't know the name of in English), dying, macrame, embroidery and lots of sewing of clothes), and my sister and I were fascinated by the process. We also drank lots of it, so I don't expect ours contained alcohol in any significant way, because otherwise my mother would certainly not have let us drink it.
Did nobody notice yet another frighteningly brilliant parody from John M Ford above?
Or are events like these so habitual with those who associate with Mr Ford that one hardly notices after a while?
Real poitín is illegal and dangerous stuff that makes you go blind or even die, and is made from god knows what by who knows who.
Many small Irish farmers keep a bottle of poitín handy as animal medicine.
I have a few Czech beers in the fridge, and a couple of bottles of red wine around. I think though since it's Friday I might go and buy some Belgian beer tonight.
Dave, I think time-zones might have something to do with it. Though if I'd looked a bit earlier...
Meanwhile, America is slowly awaking to a new day, unfolding its newspaper, looking at the front page photo, and saying "Oh [deleted]!"
Perhaps they can be forgiven for not noticing one of the good things of life.
"That which does not kill me makes me stranger." -- Llewellyn
The spiv is a slightly romantic character, sixty years after the war, as is the black market, but those who lived through that time can tell a few tales.
Like the two local farmers, who I shall call B1 and B2 since their sons know me. B1 was a butcher as well as a farmer, and, like the modern chicken nugget seller, is in not reassuring to learn what went into his sausages, stretching the meat ration beyond all carnivorous sanity.
B2 was the bigger farmer, and did a lot of darkish-grey trading in livestock. So did his son, I suspect, until the post-FMD clampdown on the sheep trade. Certainly, the apparently thriving sheep flock seemed to stop thriving.
B2 Jr. spent a lot of money on shooting, and was good enough at hitting clay pigeons to shoot competitively for his country. The last time I saw him, he was stroking his shotgun the way some men stroke their women.
I'm glad I moved to a different village.
John M. Ford: I think you may owe me a keyboard. Fortunately, only a very little liquid was nasally filtered on its way there :-)
Thank you; the song is fun!
There's a fun Flash toy that produces vaguely horticultural results when given a "seed" URL and 5-10 seconds to think about it, though the only part of the algorithm I'm semi-sure about is that little flying insects represent other Flashlets. The premises of our esteemed hosts create the most alarmingly Audrey-like monster I've seen so far, though sadly monochrome.
Lucy,
What dont' you like about "The Road Goes On Forever and the Party Never Ends"? I found it a surprisingly affective song. Not like "'52 Vincent Black Lightning", one of the few that consistenly makes me cry any time I hear it (the "For Whom the Bell Tolls" of song), but pretty strong stuff anyway. (The Del McCoury version of "5VBL" is maybe not his best work.)
Lucy: not only do you now get to explore the score or so Richard Thompson albums - but make sure you track down the bluegrass version of '52 Vincent Black Lightning, by the Del McCoury Band.
If you can still get the music issue of the Oxford American for 2003, it's got the Del McCoury version on the accompanying CD. It's one of the weaker songs, and it's pretty good.
By the way, is it acronymized as '5VBL or just plain 5VBL?
Wow, can you acronymize numbers like that??? I had not idea. My impulse would be 52VBL.
While I can see the appeal of a '52 Vincent and a red-headed girl, I'm not that fussy about hair-colouring, and no way are you going to get me on a motor-cycle.
Would a Series III air-portable Land Rover be sufficient, ladies? The roof doesn't leak. Much.
Here's a new wrinkle: Crickets can tell you the temperature.
:)
Noticed the link to the 10 Plague hand puppets. We love the puppets, fights ensue over who gets the Boils puppet. We also pelt each other with mini marshmallows during the seder.
Back to RT though. My poor kids have grown up learning all the lyrics to most of Thompson's oevre (as well as SES and a sea chanty or two) and have suffered through my butchering them in an attempt to sing to the kiddoes. This morning I got my son out of bed by belting Hard On Me as loud as I could. He retaliated with Matty Groves...he's 7 (he'll be in therapy soon I'm sure...).
via lifehack:
"The first rule of getting a book published is to avoid writing a book."
Added bonus: the graphic at the top is a... crescent! oh nooooo!
What dont' you like about "The Road Goes On Forever and the Party Never Ends"?
I actually don't like the '52 Vncent song either, except for the pretty picking.
Maybe it's because I don't glamorize dead teenage boys? I want them to live and prosper, instead? -- continuation school teaching will do that to you, I think.
Poteen? Another word to get confused with poutine?
Lucy, a minor nit-pick - James of "Vincent" isn't a teenager: "I'm twenty-one years, I may make twenty-two." But I suspect your point still holds.
(Really wishing my cover of '52 VBL this summer had been recorded; after six years, I can just about get through performing it without choking up now. Must find the chord progressions and start working on "Pavane" next.)
I'm about to rush off to do errands, but just had to make a quick comment about Richard Thompson (my hero!!). He has a fine website too: http://www.richardthompson-music.com/Catch.asp
(Queck out the amusing bits of fictitious diary entry.)
Jumping into the "What are you drinking" conversation, perhaps a bit late, I'm mostly drinking ginger brandy these days. I've never before enjoyed brandy, but I enjoy ginger brandy.
My new favorite beer is the Weeping Radish Black Radish, which is described on the Weeping Radish website thusly: "This dark larger in the Munich Dunkles style is brewed with a high portion of dark roasted malts for a rich, toasted flavor."
Since North Carolina recently lifted its 6% cap on alcohol content in beer, I look forward to trying many interesting imported brews and microbrews.
PiscusFiche:
How come you know what "poutine" is? Are you from Quebec? Or is that staple of culinary arts known beyond my native land's borders?
All those comments about beer remind me of an X-men badge I once had...
The background showed Wolverine running past a sign pointing to Canada while, in the foreground, a perplexed Nightcrawler tells Cyclops that Wolverine went out to get some "...real beer..."
I knew I'd seen the Hamlet text adventure here before.
Also, did anyone else look at the Library Thing and think, 200 books registered free, that'd hardly make a dent in them? (Not saying the $10 for permanent membership isn't reasonable.)
Lucy - As it happens, hearing '52 Vincent Black Lightning' was exactly what first hooked me on Richard Thompson, probably 15-20 years back. I like the song precisely because it is amoral, pointlessly romantic, melodramatic, and silly in a highly serious way, just like the traditional ballads of highwaymen, bandits, and such folk.
That song is on Rumor and Sigh, which is a great album to pick up as an intro, as it has a huge range of styles and tones on it, including some of his most "pop" and accessible. Another good choice to pick up for an overview of his earlier work would be The Best of Richard and Linda Thompson - The Island Years, which has what surely must be several of the most depressing (but beautiful) songs ever composed. Of course, if you end up buying all his earlier CDs, then that compilation will end up being a duplicate... Finally, working backwards in time, you should really check out some Fairport Convention albums, such as Liege and Leaf which includes versions of several traditional ballads alluded to on the folksongs thread. If you just want to buy one CD set, Watching the Dark is supposed to be a great career-spanning compilation but I don't have it and so can't offer a review.
Serge's X-Men Badge: The background showed Wolverine running past a sign pointing to Canada while, in the foreground, a perplexed Nightcrawler tells Cyclops that Wolverine went out to get some "...real beer..."
This is probably correct for mass-market beer (Molson or Labatt's is far better than Bud or Coors) but I'd take issue on the microbrew front. On the small scale, the US has gotten pretty good at making excellent beer in virtually all styles. (Still haven't had a decent US-made Lambic, though.)
Even our mass-microbrews (think Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Pyramid, etc.) are world class. It's just the $6.99 for a 12-pack of cans stuff that reeks.
FWIW, even the Belgians, who are otherwise the great masters of beer-making, make Stella Artois, which IMHO tastes like fermented armpits. Unshaven armpits at that.
Comments on Open thread 49: