The first crocus flower head blossomed in our back garden this week, along with a daffodil head or two in the front garden, just in time for St David's Day tomorrow.
Saturday 28 February 2009
Friday 27 February 2009
King's @ John's
Attended a lunchtime recital by the Crypt Choir of The King's School, Canterbury, conducted by Howard Ionascu, at the Chapel of St John's College, Cambridge:
* Crucifixus - Antonio Lotti * Komm, Jesu Komm - JS Bach
* A Hymn for St Cecilia - Herbert Howells * Salvator Mundi - Thomas Tallis
* Richte mich, Gott - Felix Mendelssohn * Vinea mea electa - Francis Poulenc
* Let all the world - Kenneth Leighton * Abendlied - Josef Rheinberger
Wednesday 25 February 2009
US first person singular future active Latin lover backwards?
Extraordinary high-resolution pic of President Obama's inauguration here, using 'GigaPan' 1474 megapixel camera (about 295 times the standard 5 megapixel camera).
* More GigaPanoramas here (including Bembridge and San Francisco by night)
* Buy your own GigaPan at GigaPansystems.com
Tuesday 24 February 2009
Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Day
An unashamed plug for Taywell Honeycomb Ice Cream - ideal with pancakes. Click here for Taywell's site.
Available now in some London theatres, good farm shops in Kent and the venerable emporium of Harrods (soon...)
Sunday 22 February 2009
GEJ - 18th Birthday Party @ Just St James
Only 4 'A' grades at AS level between here and St John's Cambridge.
Fun, fun, fun...
One hip down and a grimace
* Freddy did his best, but we failed to knock 'em over twice in Antigua (the 'third' Test v W indies)
One cheap guitar trick, Rick
* Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick always had a few tricks up his sleeve...
* See Rick's collection of custom Hamer guitars here
* The 'Hamer Fan Club'
* The London Rock Shop imported the first full range of Hamer guitars to the UK in 1980
Harvey Milk - an honest man
Sean Penn plays Harvey Milk in 'Milk' (IMDB rating 8.1/10), nominated in several categories for the 2009 Oscars.
STOP PRESS: Sean Penn wins Best Actor Oscar.
Read about Harvey Milk in Time magazine's 100 Heroes and Icons here
Friday 20 February 2009
Grannie Slang
* Argy-bargy - what we did in the Falklands 1982 (dispute?)
* Booty - it's what you shake (a prize or gain?)
* Check out - wassup? (supermarket?)
* Clobber - 'im (clothes?)
* Flick - knife (movie?)
* Gay - only one in the village... (merry, lively?)
* Hip = hop (replacement needed?)
* Jiggery-pokery - get jiggy wiv'it (trickery, fraud, humbug)
* Jive - get down on it (swing, jazz)
* Mint - make a packet (peppermint confection?)
* Natty - dread (smartly dressed, spruce?)
* Poppycock - bullshit (nonsense, bosh?)
* Snifter - shot (small alocoholic libation)
* Wag - footballer's totty (mischievous humour?)
* Zeppelin - Led II, III rockin' (cylindrical, gas-filled airship?)
Laters!
Sunday 15 February 2009
Saturday 14 February 2009
The Blossom has faded
Jazz and cabaret singer Blossom (Margrete) Dearie, whose sweet, baby-doll, girlish voice you either loved or hated (there seemed to be no middle ground - she was a 'cult chanteuse' according to the NYT), died in New York on Feb 9 2009, aged 84. Her 'harmonically innovative' (LA Times) piano stylings were a distinctive part of her sophisticated performances. She left a legacy of wonderful albums: the first 6 on the Verve Records label (Blossom Dearie (1956), Give Him the Ooh-La-La (1957), Once Upon a Summertime (1958), Sings Comden and Green (1959), My Gentleman Friend (1959) and Soubrette Sings Broadway Hit Songs (1960) are cult classics and her last, Blossom's Planet, was released in 2000.
Thursday 12 February 2009
Serendip
* Serendip - the old Persian name for Sri Lanka
* Serendipity - the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely ('heureux hasard')
* Serendipity - the sagacity of being able to link together apparently innocuous facts to come to a valuable conclusion
* Serendipitous invention - Cornflakes were accidentally discovered in 1894 by W K Kellogg, who found that when cornmeal was left out for too long it went stale and then turned into flakes when attempting to press the mass into sheets as a bread substitute
* Serendipity - the sagacity of being able to link together apparently innocuous facts to come to a valuable conclusion
* Serendipitous invention - Cornflakes were accidentally discovered in 1894 by W K Kellogg, who found that when cornmeal was left out for too long it went stale and then turned into flakes when attempting to press the mass into sheets as a bread substitute
* Serendipity - a series of lectures at Cambridge University in 2008. Check out the amusing and felicitous The Unanticipated Pleasures of the Writer's Life podcast from travel writer Simon Winchester on iTunes U > Cambridge University > Highlighted lectures and interviews or click here
Monday 9 February 2009
Cruciferous veggies with glucosinolates
* The battle of the brassicas
* Cauliflower fans cheesed off with broccoli
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5689329.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5689329.ece
Sunday 8 February 2009
Dumbslog millionaires
51 is the 26th prime number
51 is the name of a pastis made by Pernod Ricard
51 is the atomic number of Antimony, a metal symbolising the animal nature or wild spirit of man and nature
51 is the name of a pastis made by Pernod Ricard
51 is the atomic number of Antimony, a metal symbolising the animal nature or wild spirit of man and nature
51 is the international dialling code for Peru
51 is the number plate of the VW car on Paul McCartney's 1993 album 'Paul is Live', a parody of the Abbey Road cover
51 is the number of the famous Parker pen
51 is the model number of a Fender Squier guitar
51 is for UK cars registered between Sep 01 and Feb 02
51 is the third-lowest score ever achieved by England in a cricket Test Match. Forget the day: 8 Feb 2009, Sabina Park, Jamaica.
In the West Indies, only Port of Spain, Trinidad on 25 Mar 1994 was bleaker, where the total was 46 (scorecard).
Read The Sunday Times report here.
Bravo, then, to Kevin 'dumbslog millionaire' Pietersen, who, after being auctioned (along with Flintoff, as one of the two most in-demand cricketers in the world) for £1.1m in the same week for the Indian Premier League, scored 1 off 3 balls! So, they can both win matches, but also lose them.
Saturday 7 February 2009
Pink, yellow, orange or white?
English cricket wakes up: inaugural floodlit Test match to be held in England in 2010. But what colour ball?
Wednesday 4 February 2009
Apostrophe matters...
Letter to the Editor, The Times, February 3, 2009
Making its mark
If snow brings the nation to a standstill, what would the loss of apostrophes do?
Sir, There will always be one school where the apostrophe will continue to be celebrated. The call for support to the 1st XV rugby team in Canterbury of “give me a K, give me an I . . . give me an apostrophe . . . King’s”, has always been one of the highlights of watching the team.Malcolm Roberts, London SE1
Tuesday 3 February 2009
Monday 2 February 2009
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