Naoko's news, views and shoes thread

[oggbashan]

My oldest objects, apart from some Stone Age flint tools, are fossilled Sharks' Teeth - several million years old.

From historical times - genuine Roman coins from about 100 AD.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

I also can't help adding a pangolin story to this store of armadillo knowledge.

The scaly pangolin is famous in Anthropological circles (Tio will already know whose book I'm going to talk about here). In 1966, a woman anthropologist called Mary Douglas, who had been told not to bother being an academic but focus on housework, wrote a book called Purity and Danger. Later in life she would laugh and say, perhaps it was all about housework.

Its central argument was about 'dirt'. Douglas argues that 'dirt' is in the eye of the beholder. If dirt comes off your wellington boots in the house, then you have to clean it up immediately before I catch you ... I mean, it's 'dirt'. Whereas the same 'dirt' lying about in the vegetable patch is useful 'soil'. In its proper place it's 'soil'. Only when it's out of context does it become 'dirt'.

Douglas went on to point out that when things cross taxonomic boundaries they become pollutant and profane. For example, the pig has a cloven hoof but does not chew the cud. Douglas suggests that this may be part of the reason pork is regarded as dirty food in many cultures.

On the other hand, things which cross taxonomic boundaries may also become highly sacred. For the Lele of Kasai (central Africa), the scaly pangolin is sacred. (This doesn't mean they won't eat it but that they do so with great ceremony. Hopefully they cook it properly as per R.Richard's warnings.) The scaly pangolin is an animal which has scales like a reptile but is also warm-blooded.

Hello Hun, I'm back from the 1950's, did I miss anything? Will keeps insisting I need bed rest and soup, as steward of mine own body, I believe I need alcohol, in great, liver crippling gouts, preferably with an olive in it. I've been unchained, Will took off the Chinese finger traps and unlocked my laptop, so I'm racing to catch up with the world. Much like a Pangolin, I emerged warm-blooded and slightly scaly, but with all faculties awakened, and the alcohol radar twitching. Anyone got any?

It's nice to be back in the world of technology, lazing around is all well and good, but if darling hubby had plumped-up my pillows one more time I was going to apply one to his face while I punched him...
It's nice to be back among the allegedly sane, and the certifiably strange, and I can't quite believe I'm saying this out loud, but I missed you all, and it's good to be back on your planet after living for so long in the world of Pooh and rainbow-farting unicorns that my meds created.

As a side-bar, Will has chucked his hat in the armadillophilia arena by saying he likes them, too; apparently they're soft and crunchy on the outside, and chewy in the middle, like Mars bars...

 

[MrBennet]

iPad

Sorry to read about visits to GPs, who should always be avoided. Waiting rooms are worse than hospitals and full of sick people.
As for the cold, I can vouch for that as I'm fresh back from a yacht delivery on the south coast (of the U.K.) and it was also rather windy, touching force 7 on one looong day. I'm happily back at home, where it is warm, quite and free of other old gits.

Some interesting buildings in Plymouth including a huge wooden vaulted roofed ship house that I gather belongs to the MoD. One day I'll make time to explore the city better but we were all keen to jump on a train home.

 

[JackLuis]

I went ot the Dr. on Monday for my annual. SHe asked me if I had a cough. I said, "No" but the next day I had one! I think they spread them around so they have something to do. I felt like crap all week.

 

[NotWise]

It's nice to be back among the allegedly sane, and the certifiably strange, and I can't quite believe I'm saying this out loud, but I missed you all, and it's good to be back on your planet after living for so long in the world of Pooh and rainbow-farting unicorns that my meds created.

Well, I'm sure we're all happy to have you back from la-la land, too.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I think that th Wombat's tutors need to join a trade union and send Naoko as their representative to beat up the whole management system.

Unfortunately, that's what they do. When there's a problem, they don't tackle Wombadildo themselves, they surreptitiously phone/text/email me about it, hoping I will seize the cudgels on their behalves and I am often dumb enough to do it.

Good thinking, Ogg.
Just one snag, as I see it.
She prefers teaching. . . . .

Exactly - *sigh*.

Here's a pic of my departmental tea infuser:

infuser

And here's the tea service we've requested the facilities department order:

tea set

(For a heartier brew, my department depends on Boneshaker India Ale).

My oldest objects, apart from some Stone Age flint tools, are fossilled Sharks' Teeth - several million years old.

My oldest object is me.

OK, it's probably my writing desk. Or I may have some other older stuff around. I have some quite old books and a silver snuffbox and a Russian caviar dish (the glass bit is a bit cracked).

Hello Hun, I'm back ....

As a side-bar, Will has chucked his hat in the armadillophilia arena by saying he likes them, too; apparently they're soft and crunchy on the outside, and chewy in the middle, like Mars bars...

Yayyy! *hug*s


Good to hear you sounding so chipper. We were all very sorry to hear about what a tough time you'd had.

I don't know, Will's description isn't making me feel like scrapping my normal pink-in-the-middle beef for Sunday roast.

Well, I am off for the weekend. I'm taking Piglet to London, primarily to meet up with my cousins, parents and another aunt to go and scatter my aunt's ashes. I tried to fit in some educational exhibitions but the David Attenborough Great Barrier Reef one is for 13+ only for some reason, I don't think Piglet will be willing to go to the Design Museum to look reverently at Chris Hoy's bicycle and a 1969 chopper and she pulled faces when I suggested we go to the V&A and see the underwear exhibition. We're staying in Greenwhich so perhaps we will make it to the Navel Museum and do a bit of gazing. Piglet is keen to see the Naval College, and find out what it looks like after being ripped up by alien invaders in Thor: The Dark World.

Instead we're going to go to a film in Leicester Square, do some shopping and eat out in Chinatown. I took Piglet to Chinatown on our first trip to London and she loved it, especially the shops full of little junky things. She was much more interested in seeing five tier indoor fountains and battery-operated lucky cats that waved their arm than she was in seeing educational museums.

https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F518j7M8OOLL.jpg&f=1

 

[Hypoxia]

My oldest objects, apart from some Stone Age flint tools, are fossilled Sharks' Teeth - several million years old.

From historical times - genuine Roman coins from about 100 AD.

Note I specified *made* objects. Fossils don't count. Billion-year-old geological formations surround me but they don't count. Ancient crystals don't count.

What counts? Inherited musical instruments, daguerreotypes, colonial-era tools, vintage Native American weavings, and yes, old coins and jewels -- such occupy our remote California digs. My left hand strokes grandpa's century-old zither at this moment. A ca. 1800 Benin carving stares at me. A century-old crystal-set radio receiver sits nearby. I wish I'd kept that 1950's Heathkit analog computer -- they don't make'em like that any more.

I think my 1978 Sinclair digital kit watch qualifies as old.

 

[Handley_Page]

My oldest object is me.

OK, it's probably my writing desk. Or I may have some other older stuff around. I have some quite old books and a silver snuffbox and a Russian caviar dish (the glass bit is a bit cracked).

Well, I am off for the weekend. I'm taking Piglet to London, primarily to meet up with my cousins, parents and another aunt to go and scatter my aunt's ashes. I tried to fit in some educational exhibitions but the David Attenborough Great Barrier Reef one is for 13+ only for some reason, I don't think Piglet will be willing to go to the Design Museum to look reverently at Chris Hoy's bicycle and a 1969 chopper and she pulled faces when I suggested we go to the V&A and see the underwear exhibition. We're staying in Greenwhich so perhaps we will make it to the Navel Museum and do a bit of gazing. Piglet is keen to see the Naval College, and find out what it looks like after being ripped up by alien invaders in Thor: The Dark World.

She was much more interested in seeing five tier indoor fountains and battery-operated lucky cats that waved their arm than she was in seeing educational museums.

You might consider the Imperial War museum, complete with a largish chunk of Berlin Wall.

I think my 1978 Sinclair digital kit watch qualifies as old.

I agree; and its rarity value is high.
Best I can offer is a couple of Victorian pennies, and some ancient Electrical Test Equipment.

 

[stickygirl]

I'd love to go to Greenwich again and the Science Museum is very cool indeed. They had a special exhibition for Alan Turing the code breaker mathematician, which was quietly upsetting

I have to side with Piglet by saying that the junk shops in Chinatown ( they have them?? ) sound intriguing!

 

[oggbashan]

Naoko and Piglet could consider the V&A's Museum of Childhood at Bethnal Green:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/

 

[ishtat]

1 One of my favourite things to do on all too frequent business trips to London(the city) is to pick one of the many city churches, research its history a bit and visit. The parish churches in the city all have fascinating histories and are often associated with particular guilds etc.

2 Bristol city churches are almost as interesting and much closer. It is said that from Corn Street you can walk to any one of ten churches within 5 minutes. A fair bit of funding of these churches depended on the trade of merchant venturers to the American colonies (conscience endowments of slavers in part)

Odd interest for a heathen , but there you are.

3 Talking about old objects, my family has researched a lot of our history as farmers and small landowners in Somerset and Gloucestershire. My sister found a will dated 1491 by which an ancestor left to his nephew "all my goods both dead and livestock... my horses sheep swine all other cattel and wife."

It was written in dreadful Latin but the bit about his wife is accurately translated.

 

[beachbum1958]

1 One of my favourite things to do on all too frequent business trips to London(the city) is to pick one of the many city churches, research its history a bit and visit. The parish churches in the city all have fascinating histories and are often associated with particular guilds etc.

2 Bristol city churches are almost as interesting and much closer. It is said that from Corn Street you can walk to any one of ten churches within 5 minutes. A fair bit of funding of these churches depended on the trade of merchant venturers to the American colonies (conscience endowments of slavers in part)

Odd interest for a heathen , but there you are.

3 Talking about old objects, my family has researched a lot of our history as farmers and small landowners in Somerset and Gloucestershire. My sister found a will dated 1491 by which an ancestor left to his nephew "all my goods both dead and livestock... my horses sheep swine all other cattel and wife."

It was written in dreadful Latin but the bit about his wife is accurately translated.

When I was a boy, I was a prep at Clifton College in Bristol, and we used to take services in a small church on the city Centre, opposite the Hippodrome theatre, which I only remember because the sword of the Lord Mayor was clamped to a pillar in there; it was a massive medieval longsword, maybe 8 feet long, with a huge, jeweled hilt and quillons, is it still there, I wonder?

 

[oggbashan]

When I was a boy, I was a prep at Clifton College in Bristol, and we used to take services in a small church on the city Centre, opposite the Hippodrome theatre, which I only remember because the sword of the Lord Mayor was clamped to a pillar in there; it was a massive medieval longsword, maybe 8 feet long, with a huge, jeweled hilt and quillons, is it still there, I wonder?

It was probably the Lord Mayor's Chapel:

http://bristolopeningdoors.org/lord-mayors-chapel/#

 

[beachbum1958]

It was probably the Lord Mayor's Chapel:

http://bristolopeningdoors.org/lord-mayors-chapel/#

No, it's not this chapel; the Lord Mayor's chapel is on College Green, the little church I'm talking about was on the Centre itself, more or less opposite the Hippodrome, on the Broad Quay side of The Centre; Bristol's my home town, I grew up in Clifton, I know Bristol well, and I know St Mark's; the church I'm talking about was a tiny little chapel tucked away in a little court off Broad Quay, not at the foot of Park Street, which is where St Mark's is. I remember there was a cut-through to St Stephen's Street, and St Stephen's church, which housed a huge collection of antique church plate and ecclesiastical vestments.

 

[ishtat]

No, it's not this chapel; the Lord Mayor's chapel is on College Green, the little church I'm talking about was on the Centre itself, more or less opposite the Hippodrome, on the Broad Quay side of The Centre; Bristol's my home town, I grew up in Clifton, I know Bristol well, and I know St Mark's; the church I'm talking about was a tiny little chapel tucked away in a little court off Broad Quay, not at the foot of Park Street, which is where St Mark's is. I remember there was a cut-through to St Stephen's Street, and St Stephen's church, which housed a huge collection of antique church plate and ecclesiastical vestments.

You have me puzzled BB. I first thought of St John on the Wall (John the Baptist) because it's at the junction of Broad Street and the Quay. But that is not opposite the Hippodrome and the Quay isn't the same as Broad Quay. Besides the perpendicular tower of St Johns with the walkway underneath is so distinctive. So still a don't know.

My memory of Bristol is derived from the fact that I grew up 15 miles north of the city, and later worked for a couple of years on the corner of St Stephen's and Corn Street.

 

[beachbum1958]

You have me puzzled BB. I first thought of St John on the Wall (John the Baptist) because it's at the junction of Broad Street and the Quay. But that is not opposite the Hippodrome and the Quay isn't the same as Broad Quay. Besides the perpendicular tower of St Johns with the walkway underneath is so distinctive. So still a don't know.

My memory of Bristol is derived from the fact that I grew up 15 miles north of the city, and later worked for a couple of years on the corner of St Stephen's and Corn Street.

As I remember, the semi-derelict church John the Baptist is on Broad Street(?), kind of opposite St Mary's on the Quay; the little (19th century, Pugin-style) chapel I remember was much further back down, on Broad Quay itself, or rather just off it, in a little dog-leg court, which appears to be no longer there. Walking through there eventually brought you out onto Marsh Street, my mistake, it's been 35 years. We used to have to walk along Marsh street, cross Baldwin Street, and get back on the school bus on St Stephen's Avenue, behind the church, as the bus wasn't allowed to wait on Broad Quay.

Back then, the Centre was a civic garden, with St Augustine's Parade outside the Hippodrome, and Broad Quay on the other side of the gardens, and you could drive all the way around from St Augustine's Parade and back up Park Street. Now that's all gone, it looks like what was the Centre is now a pedestrian precinct of some sort, with steps leading down to water, and no cut-through to College Green and Park Street for traffic.

I left Bristol for good in 1975, boarding school and university kept me from ever going back, and my parents left the house in Clifton to go back to the family home in Wellington, so I never had any real reason to go back. When I had a look with Google maps, where the little church/chapel was is now a row of shops and eateries up to the corner of Baldwin Street. They say you should never go back, this is probably why.

Apart from a couple of functions at Clifton College before I met my wife, and we've been married 19 years, I've not been back at all since 1975, and the last time I did go back the Centre was unrecognisable. I used to sing in the choir at St Mary Redcliffe, and I thought I'd go and take a look, but because of the way they've re-jigged the traffic priorities couldn't work out how to drive there from St Michael's Street, everything had changed so much; I got confused, ended-up missing my turn and driving all the way up to Bedminster Bridge just to reorient myself.

Clifton is pretty much unchanged (except for Whiteladies Road, which seems to have become Bistro-land), ditto the Downs and the Observatory, but the middle of town is too different for me to want to ever go there again.

 

[JackLuis]

Revealed: Walt Whitman penned ‘eyebrow-raising’ guide to ‘manly health’ — and it’s available online

A long-lost book-length guide to “manly health” by Walt Whitman, in which the great American poet tackles everything from virility to “care of the feet” and the attainment of a “nobler physique”, has been rediscovered by a scholar, more than 150 years after it was first published under a pen-name.

Written under the pseudonym Mose Velsor, a known pen-name for Whitman, the 13-part Manly Health and Training series was published in the New York Atlas in 1858 and runs to nearly 50,000 words. Zachary Turpin from the University of Houston stumbled across it when searching digital archives for Whitman’s pseudonyms, and finding a single hit for “Mose Velsor” in the NY Tribune, advertising the fact that his “original articles on manly training” were shortly to appear in the New York Atlas. He sent away for the Atlas microfilm, and was astonished to discover the 13-instalment series.

Written in 1858 this is an interesting glimpse into the language of the time. I'm just now reading it and find it a bit tedious, but only because the language was so different from the 140 character Tweet mentality of today.

http://ir.uiowa.edu/wwqr/vol33/iss3/

There are hints that contained in this are suggestions of Whittman's homosexual tendencies. I haven't gotten that far into it but thought you literary lot might find this interesting.

 

[Hypoxia]

London schmondon. I like Antigua Guatemala, the old cultural capitol of Central America. La Antigua (the old one) has a fascinating, turbulent history. Founded by a conquistador, the first capitol (El Viejo, the older one) is nearly gone. A viceroy died; his wife cheekily claimed the throne; a volcanic mudslide wiped out the city and her court. Divine justice?

A new capitol, the current La Antigua, was built a few miles away. Many great secular and holy building were erected. Most have been knocked down by constant temblors. After many such, gov't moved away to what's now Guatemala City, although the colonial power Spain's fortress-like embassy building remains in La Antigua. Superb bargain eateries are across the street.

(The gov't fills some ruins with prisoners. They rebuild and activate the place, then are moved on to the next ruin. Might as well put them to use, eh?)

I love La Antigua, set in a scenic valley surrounded by smoking volcanoes, gridded with cobbled streets clotted with polyglot global travelers, and inexpensive lodging and treats and wonderful entertainments. You wanna do Holy Week? La Antigua throws the best outside of Valencia, Spain. Ya wanna see colorful traditionally-garbed Mayas? Right here. Ya want incredibly beautiful crafts and arts? Return to La Antigua after mercado days in Chichicastenango. Ya want cheap tasty food, drinks, smokes? ¡Me gusto!

Nim Po't is a former movie theatre converted into the world's greatest supermarket of Mayan artifacts. The entrance is next to Club Frida Kahlo, across from a residential convent, and under La Arca, the arch over the street leading up to lemon-meringue Iglesia la Merced housing the western hemisphere's largest fountain. I stood in Nim Po't's doorway one morning as a formally-clad equestrian danced his horse along the cobbles while a marimba band's rehearsal music echoed from a deep window. Just fucking magic!

London schmondon. I may get there someday.

 

[redzinger]

Sorry I haven't responded to your messages - my mother passed away on Thursday.

It hurts so much.

She was still at the local hospital - we didn't kick up enough of a fuss on her behalf to get her to Swansea. Bloody, bloody NHS.

Hurts.

 

[curl4ever]

Plot bunny!

... so if she takes the horses out, it'll be in her underwear (cor, that's a thought, Lady Godiva in Fredericks of Hollywood...) or a cocktail dress, because those are her hacking options right now...

Seriously, though, I'm very happy to hear that Lori is recovering so well!

- curl

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Sorry I haven't responded to your messages - my mother passed away on Thursday.

It hurts so much.

She was still at the local hospital - we didn't kick up enough of a fuss on her behalf to get her to Swansea. Bloody, bloody NHS.

Hurts.

I'm so sorry for your loss, please accept Will and my heartfelt condolences at this sad time.

Lori

 

[legerdemer]

Sorry I haven't responded to your messages - my mother passed away on Thursday.

It hurts so much.

She was still at the local hospital - we didn't kick up enough of a fuss on her behalf to get her to Swansea. Bloody, bloody NHS.

Hurts.

My best wishes to you, redzinger. I'm very sorry for your loss.

 

[stickygirl]

Hurts.

It feels so lame adding sympathies when you probably need hugs, love and tea so sending you thoughts instead x

 

[Handley_Page]

It feels so lame adding sympathies when you probably need hugs, love and tea so sending you thoughts instead x

Jane, me dear, I quite agree. Red does indeed need some Big Hugs.
Are you well ?

 

[NaokoSmith]

Sorry I haven't responded to your messages - my mother passed away on Thursday.

It hurts so much.

She was still at the local hospital - we didn't kick up enough of a fuss on her behalf to get her to Swansea. Bloody, bloody NHS.

Hurts.

I'm so sorry, Toria.
*hug*s