And there is just time for a round of the perennially popular “Guess Who Friday!”
Who is this dashing gent, and why is he famous? Answers (so as not to spoil it)in a message please…
Refreshment Sunday
So I have given up beer and cider for Lent… I lasted a whole three days before I broke my abstinence … but that was by ‘accident’ when I drank a beer without remembering that I was supposed to have given it up… It’s been tough since then, but not too bad!
Anyhow, I was amazed to note this atop the page of the closing Evensong hymn yesterday… I should have looked up its meaning, but as it ticked my humour, I took a photograph instead.
What I would have found out if I had bothered to look it up (let’s be honest… it’s better that I dont actually try to sing the hymns…) is that I could have marched strait out of the church, into the nearest pub, and enjoyed a pint of wonderful beer with the full approbation of all Western Christianity… Refreshment Sundays are times in Lent and Advent when ‘fasts’ are relaxed and all sorts of vow breaking goes on… They are also known as ‘Rose Sundays’ but I have no idea why; however on both Refreshment Sundays, the colour of liturgical vestments and various church paraphernalia are changed to rose.
The good news is that I have researched a bit, and found that the 4th Sunday in Lent is also (perhaps) a Refreshment Sunday…so I only have to wait a couple of weeks more… or just hang on till the end of Lent… its only a few weeks!
Filed under Oxford: The Perspiring Dream, Timology
The Bayeux Travesty
This little nugget might just have slipped in under your radar over the weekend; the momentous news that the Bayeux Tapestry has finally been finished more than 900 years after it was commissioned… It seems that an enterprising group of residents of the Channel Island of Alderney have completed the concluding panels of the embroidery, which is believed to have lost its final sections… however the sections that they have ‘completed’ were left to their own imagination and interpretation (mostly sound) rather than any sort of original design or pattern…
The original tapestry is over 230ft-long tapestry and is thought to have been commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William’s half-brother, and made about 1070… give-or-take… However it ends before the coronation of William in London on Christmas Day in 1066. The clever stitchers of Alderney have added three new panels now depicting William arriving in London to be crowned… obvious and important historical details all missing from the original. This was all covered in very ‘Telegraph’ style (there is even reference to a Royal visit…) over the weekend, and can be found here on their website.
However, I have a better idea of how it should have all ended…
*I have never seen Star Wars…
Filed under Timology
A Man on Fire
This blog is often about music, but actually features very little. So, while the snow falls and we slip-slide and glide towards the weekend, this seems an appropriate anthem… the video is excellent and all shot on location in New York.
Come dance with me…
Filed under Timology
Snow Scooter!
As the more observant of you might have noticed it’s that time of year again when the British transport system grinds to a halt, schools are closed across swathes of the north-east, the number of ‘sick days’ skyrockets, and children everywhere seem permanently attached by their squished noses to to frozen window-panes; yes, there has been an inch of snow somewhere in the Highlands. Time to dig out those scarves and gloves, phone in sick, and head to the slopes with the dinner tray to whizz down the icy inclines.
But what’s this? No, kids these days don’t want a homemade skeleton bob cobbled together from biscuit tin lids, they want one of these: Snow Scooter! Or so ‘Discount Vouchers‘ would have you believe.
Described in the marketing as “The Latest Trend on the British Slopes” [I wonder where the mean.. surely mild inclines/ green and pleasant lands?] they retain at an eye watering £21.99 with another £6 hidden in there for P&P.
The developers seem convinced that “it is important to look good whilst hurtling down a hill and this snow scooter will do just that, as you cruise past sledges and leave them face first in your powder!” Form an orderly line…
Filed under Technology, Timology
Per Ardua Ad Astra
I went to have a look at the new Bomber Command Memorial this last weekend. It is right by Hyde Park Corner and the Royal Artillery Memorial. It was built to mark the sacrifice of 55,573 aircrew from Britain and the Commonwealth who lost their lives during the Second World War. There are some wonderful photographs of the memorial here, and you can download a great app with personalised histories, stories, and details, here.
The whole thing is hugely impressive and has been done really well… there is something very real and lifelike about the flight crew that stare wistfully into the middle distance, captured in bronze as they return from a bombing mission. It is a little known fact that British bomber crews through the second world war suffered a more than 50% casualty rate of young men killed and seriously wounded. The memorial is perhaps imposing and grand because of the nature of their deaths… few bodies came home… Quite how and why these brave airmen were not afforded a national memorial before was a subject of much disgrace and heated debate.
The memorial has a strong association with the Canadians that enlisted in the RAF and Royal Canadian Air Force during the war, indeed aluminium from a RCAF Handley Page Halifax that had crashed in Belgium in May 1944 was used to build the roof of the memorial. The heavy bomber was found in a swamp in in about 1997 … tragically with three of the crew found still at their posts. At the time the airmen were buried with full military honours and the remains of the aircraft sent to Canada… it is poignant therefore that the metal has been recycled in such a fitting memorial.
At the foot of the statue there is an inscription, a quotation from Pericles; “Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.”
A Sign of the Times
In a great ‘short’ by the New York News & Features site Kevin Roose points out that Jack Lew is President Obama’s reported pick to replace outgoing US Treasury Secretary.
Lew is known as a no-nonsense backroom negotiator with wonkish tendencies, but he also has a really silly signature… it even was commented about this side of the pond (spoiler alert) on The BBC News site this morning in their ‘Seven Day Quiz.’
This would not normally be a problem, except for in the same way as Chris Salmon’s (The Chief Cashier) signature graces our bank notes if Lew is confirmed as Treasury secretary, his signature will feature on U.S. dollar bills… and that would look really silly!
Indecently, it is actually Salmon who holds that “promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of …” etc, not the Queen or the Governor of the Bank of England… so he must have a bit of cash lying about the place…
Filed under Timology
Happy 150th Birthday London Underground
So, London Underground is 150 years old today… despite the drivers, the striking (get it…) thing about this feat of engineering is still its sheer breadth and beauty.
There is a really good birthday article in today’s Guardian (and it must be good for me to recommend it from the Gurinad) that you can read here. There is also a fascinating website all about those disused stations and odd turnings that trains no longer use here. The site is not brilliant, but the content is really impressive!
However, I can’t recommend highly enough this blog. Basically to celebrate the 150 years of the underground this chap has listed and photographed his 150 favourite bits of the network. Its a really impressive selection and images, and serves to highlight just what a wacky and wonderful creation it all is…
My current favourite image is this one from South Ken Station… it’s so evocative of the museum quarter of london that I love so dearly, and I entirely agree with him that “Everything about this entrance, the layout, the lettering, the curve of the pillars, the curl of the brackets, screams – or rather sighs – breezy elegance!”
Filed under Photography, Timology
London Tank
I have just found this brilliant photograph of a Soviet T-34 tank, that can be found, of all places, on Mandela Way in Bermondsey, South London.
Leaving any ‘Only Fools and Horses’ jokes about Mandela Way aside, the tank was an elaborate 32-ton gift one father gave to his seven year old son… some toy! Local legend also has it that the tank was installed by a disgruntled landowner who had apparently lost a planning battle with the local council. The council once tried to have the tank removed from the wasteland it occupies, believing it had been dumped, but then found out that the son owns the rights to the land as well as the tank! The tank’s gun sights are also rumoured to be set on the council offices,
Only slightly more mundane rumours tell how the tank took part in the bloody Prague Spring of 1968 before it was imported to London to be used in the 1995 film version of Richard III before being abandoned on wasteland.
I want a tank for Christmas now!
Young and in love? Eat LARD
It’s that time of year again; middle Britain gets all doe eyed about this year’s overly smug John Lewis Christmas advert, and ASDA are encouraging us to buy an even larger water filled festive turkey … yep, it’s the start of the Christmas advertisement season. Joy. (The more observant of you might just be able to sense my unbridled enthusiasm for all this…)
Anyhow, and humbug aside, this gem from the ‘British Lard Marketing Board’ has to be one of the worst advertising campaign ever…. are they drinking lard?
And for those of you who just can’t wait for Christmas, here is the British Lard Marketing Board’s seasonal merchandise offers… I bet you would just love a lard themed pair of boxer shorts…
Filed under Timology
Tim Myatt 