I really enjoy this podcast. Armando Ianucci (The Thick of It, Veep, and the Death of Stalin) talks about political language
In this ep, though, he’s mystified by Kier Starmer’s imho accurate assessment of Farage as a ‘plastic patriot’.
The reason Armando is mystified is that, AFAIK, he doesn’t follow football, whereas Kier is a fan of Arse**al. ‘Plastic’ is a common insult in football. It implies that someone is not a ‘proper fan’, that they only turn up for big games, or that ‘they only sing when they’re winning’.
I’m not sure whether this means Starmer need to find different words for the Brexit boys
I heard someone on a podcast use the word ‘behemoth’ , and I realized that I didn’t really know what a behemoth was.
It turns out it’s from the Book of Job, although it reads like it’s from a fairy tale
Take now behemoth, whom I made as I did you; He eats grass, like the cattle. His strength is in his loins, His might in the muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stand up like a cedar; The sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are like tubes of bronze, His limbs like iron rods. He is the first of God’s works; Only his Maker can draw the sword against him. The mountains yield him produce, Where all the beasts of the field play. He lies down beneath the lotuses, In the cover of the swamp reeds. The lotuses embower him with shade; The willows of the brook surround him. He can restrain the river from its rushing; He is confident the stream will gush at his command. Can he be taken by his eyes? Can his nose be pierced by hooks? — Job 40:15-24
The film poster below has the Behemoth as a ‘sea monster’. It’s traditionally very much a land monster, with Leviathan as a sea monster, and Ziz as a monster of the air. Great poster though.
Pic: Eros Films, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
It was bad luck for second goal, and bad luck taking off Estêvão and then Palmer going off injured
Their tails are up, and our heads are down :(
⚽ #ChelseaFC #cfc
Patrick Kielty interviewing up and coming singer-songwriter Cammy Burns (?) on the radio
CB: People have started singing my songs back to me
PK : Wow, what does that feel like?
CB: I started crying my wee Scottish eyes out
I just heard Paddy Kielty on the radio use ‘Bo Peep’ as rhyming slang for sleep
In all the years I lived in London I don’t think I ever heard that. Not sure if that’s just me not noticing, or if it’s a new bit of slang
Natalie Haynes on science, art and the Muses
You need to read this from the top, but the last sentence is both true and funny
A second point to note is that the Muses for all their focus on the arts - are also involved in scientific endeavours. If you want to be a successful astronomer, it will be Ourania to whom you must appeal. The Muses have chosen to inspire scientists as well an artists. We’re so accustomed to a dialogue which pits these two areas of study against one another utility versus beauty and yet the Muses wouldn’t recognize this division. Why wouldn’t you want your scientific pursuits to be beautiful? And why wouldn’t you apply forensic accuracy to your dance or song? The distinction that only sciences are useful and only arts are spirit-enhancing is a nonsensical one. I couldn’t write much without scientists designing my computer. And some of them must want to read about Greek myth after a long day at work. These Muses always remind me that scientists and artists should disregard the idiotic attempts to separate us. We are all nerds, in the end.
Currently reading: Divine Might by Natalie Haynes 📚
President Trump said yesterday that Putin had ‘let him down’
Coincidentally this was on the local news this morning - Putin has a history of ‘letting people down’
Ms Sturgess died after coming into contact with Novichok in June 2018, three months after a former Russian spy and his daughter - Sergei and Yulia Skripal - had also been poisoned by the nerve agent in Salisbury. Dawn Sturgess Inquiry report to come out in December - BBC News
I posted this over on Mastodon as part of #JukeboxFridayNight, and it’s interesting enough to me that I thought I’d post it here as well
It’s interesting for me both because it’s fab, and because I was there…although I haven’t spotted 17-year-old me in the video as yet
The Drummers of Burundi at WOMAD 1982
I got this yesterday. I collect postcards of Salisbury, but not usually the Cathedral because it doesn’t really change
I like this though because it’s got the old gas works in it, as well as Old Sarum. The gas works look a lot closer to the Cathedral than they actually were
I wondered what these people could possibly be arrested for. Apparently it’s “on suspicion of malicious communication”
The police said in a statement four adults were arrested on suspicion of malicious communications after an “unauthorised projection” at Windsor Castle, which they described as a “public stunt”. The four remain in custody.
I’m still trogging through my Twitter archive, and I found this, from November 2019
The inscription reads: “Mark Radcliffe loved sitting here … and still does thanks to advances in cancer research.” DJ Mark Radcliffe gets commemorative bench after cancer recovery - The Guardian
In July last year I was looking for somewhere to sit down, during our son’s graduation day in Manchester, and found this bench, and took this photo.
No memory of having tweeted about it
www.theguardian.com/science/2…
I’m disappointed to learn that a local MP has joined the odious Reform Party, but I like his line that “you cannot expect to get two ideas in a headline.”
Q: Danny, you wrote David Cameron’s ‘hug a hoodie’ speech. Do you still think that?
Kruger says he is still proud of that speech. He says it was profoundly conservative. It stressed that young people need care and support. But it was also strong on the need for proper crime to get a robust response.
Kruger criticises the way the speech was spun by Andy Coulson. He says he learned from that that you cannot expect to get two ideas in a headline.
#TodayILearned that if you stick ‘##[debug]’ in front of your debug lines in Devops pipelines i.e.
Write-Host "##[debug] Some old stuff"
Then your debug messages come out in a rather fetching purple colour
It’s not the most exciting thing in the garden, but it’s lovely to see a bit of green grass growing again
Those were the days
18 April 1930, the BBC’s news announcer had nothing to communicate. “There is no news,” was the script of the 20:45 news bulletin, before piano music was played for the rest of the 15-minute segment.
BBC News - ‘There is no news’: What a change from 1930 to today - BBC News
I’ve got very fond memories of the original Reggie Perrin, but the remake is terrific
I didn’t get where I am today by not saying the remake is terrific :)
I’ve got very fond memories of the original Reggie Perrin, but the remake is terrific
I didn’t get where I am today by not saying the remake is terrific :)
I feel this should have been bigger news
The Reform UK conference gives a standing ovation to “special guest” Lucy Connolly, who pled guilty to stirring up racial hatred after she called for asylum hotels to be set on fire with people inside them.