This is the Life of Billy archive

April 15, 2008

nature notes

Don't get excited. I'm not saying I'm going to get back to posting regularly again. I'm still prioritising life over blogging ;-)

But I thought I should log that I just witnessed a crow attacking a heron in Regent's Park. I was coming up to the gates where my route from town joins the inner circle, heard a squawking and screeching and looked up to see a very strange outline in the sky. It was a heron with wings and legs spread out randomly dropping towards me as if coming in to land. It righted itself and arrowed over my head pursued by an angry crow.

Earlier this year I heard woodpecker-like sounds two days in a row on my way to get the paper and decided to keep my eyes open on the way home. A spotted woodpecker was sitting on a tv aerial pecking away at it. Apoa saw it the next day so it obviously spent a few days there expressing itself.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 4:47 PM | Comments (0)

September 7, 2007

linguists still love jamie

All the linguists I spoke to were early adopters and big fans of Jamie Oliver when he first started off as a young lad zipping around London on his scooter picking up ingredients and drumming with his mates. He's still got the ability to come up with recipes that look simple, turn out to actually be simple and taste good when you've made them. We've just started a routine where the kids cook one evening meal each every week and Apoa is starting off by referring to the first Naked Chef book

Last night we had her own adaptation of 'Pappardelle with mixed wild mushrooms' It was, indeed, delicious.

We're impressed by her creative and artistic approach. Her first thought was to ask us if we could pick up any enoki mushrooms and she's had us out sourcing ingredients for the past few days.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

June 29, 2007

the end of fopp B-(

This makes me very sad. I was in Fopp last week when they were taking cash only but didn't realise it wasn't just a blip with their card machines. B-(

Posted by Billy at 5:00 PM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2007

the damned utd

Met Tim in the pub and lent him the excellent the damned utd which he hadn't read yet. He revealed to me he was living next door to Brian Clough when he was winning the league with Derby and stuff. Don't think he features in the book, though.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)

May 26, 2007

script frenzy

dug told me to sign up for script frenzy so I did

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:50 PM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2007

not dry

The party was great. Not dry at all. The wine was consumed rather slowly, but that may have been partly to do with the fact that there had been some consumption in advance. Nice to see students outside class and with no more coursework or anything hanging over them (in most cases). And to hear about plans for the soon-to-be-graduating and the views from the end of year 1 and year 2.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)

May 21, 2007

deadline day

It's the final deadline day of the semester so I'm sitting here typing this above a hall full of administrators gathering work from tired students. The union bar is closed until September so the only way the students can get a drink after handing in is if they come to our unbelievably hip and groovy 'handing in party'. I don't think the students know there will be alcohol available as I just heard one of them say it would be 'well dry'...

B-}

Posted by Billy at 3:32 PM | Comments (0)

May 4, 2007

Gilbert and George

Just caught a glimpse of them after a signing at the Tate Modern. Alice and I took in the exhibition while the Venturers we took there enjoyed the rest of the building.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 9:59 PM | Comments (0)

parkland walk

The Parkland Walk is one of the best things about the bit of Norf London I live in. The Friends of the Parkland Walk have just reawoken themselves and I've been co-opted as a committee member to represent our local Woodcraft Folk. Our main activity now is to respond to the 'Greenway' proposal to improve the walk with 400 thousand pounds the council have scored from TfL after putting in a bid no-one locally was consulted on until now. I went to a packed local area assembly last night where the consultation process began to get into gear. As Jed leaves local government (his time as a councillor has just ended) I find myself beginning to go to council meetings. And as Tony Bliar gets ready to leave, I think I agree with Jed that one of his main legacies is that no-one believes in consultation any more. I'm sure 'so-called' is one of its main collocates now.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 7:49 AM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2007

'Ahem..!'

'Billy

Peter says, "Get off the blog and hurry up and write the intro to the chapter for our book!"

Marina'

Posted by Billy at 9:45 AM | Comments (0)

February 9, 2007

recycling

A while ago, we started a battery box at the kids' primary school (now their ex-school, sadly). The council had no battery recycling at the time. The idea was that a parent would take them to the nearest recycling point (in Barnet) when the box was full. The kids got quite motivated, writing to the council. the queen, parents, tony blair and others about it. I just had this update (the dots indicate bowdlerisation). I love the idea of sending the crisp bags back to Walker's

B-))

Hi Billy,

How is it going?
Guess what, not only the battery box ... is still going, the children are still involved in the aftermath. The kids are now in Year 6, and last month, as a result of a letter they wrote to the Environmental Minister, they were invited to meet Ben Bradshaw and ask him some questions. The Minister was a bit of a disappointment for the children - one of them said to me "How come he is the Environmental Minister and we children know more about batteries than he does?", but I assume in time they might realize that this was their first taster of what government is sadly often all about

The positive side - ... the teacher who accompanied the children on
the trip and who taught them in Year 5, was telling me how this whole class as a result of the battery project has turned out to be very environmentally aware, not just the kids from potentially "green backgrounds", but all of them, also the ones you wouldn't expect to be.

Also - as a result of the trip some of the kids had a new idea - they are collecting Walkers crisps bags, which apparently are not recyclable, and want to send them back to the company.

And I unintentionally came home with some new ideas and inspiration. In the current Year 4 I am going to run a plastic bag project, and ...

... building upon our original idea for the battery project to expand we want to try to run the battery project at other primary schools. Some of my friend have long been interested for their kids' schools. So my friend Judith and I, whose kids are at ..., want to hopefully run it at ...her... Primary School in a few weeks (Judith has started negotiating with the Head there), and hopefully later on through another friend we might be able to run it at ...another school... in Islington.

I have written a summary of the battery project ... to have something on paper for the ... Head to start out with. ... Any ideas warmly welcome, please feel free to criticise and improve!

Thanks a lot, and all the best
Cathrin

Posted by Billy at 9:51 AM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2007

'late pronation'

Sorry if you're squeamish but I've been back to the physio this morning and finding out a bit more about the roots of my biomechanical failure. It seems I've got late pronation and a problem with my tibialis posterior which is leading to a bit of tendonopathy.

Meanwhile, yesterday's dentist visit revealed I'm at risk of 'cracked tooth syndrome' and the dreaded 'RCT' (root canal treatment).

B-}

Posted by Billy at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)

December 5, 2006

piano exam

I have no time to blog just now but I have to tell you that I got a merit in my grade one piano exam. I was emailed last night and told I could check results online so I don't have feedback yet, just numbers. I wonder how Theo and William, the candidates before and after me, got on?

I still have a way to go before I catch up with James Fenton, though. He's on grade five which is when everyone says it all begins to get much more interesting.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:16 AM | Comments (0)

November 1, 2006

'biomechanical failure'

This is the term for the problem I'm having physioed on my foot at the moment. Had a good time on a balance board yesterday - hard work, pain and new terminology. What more could you ask for?

B-)

Posted by Billy at 1:18 PM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2006

comedy academic

Just took a too big desk out of my office and replaced it with a smaller table. Of course, the big one needed to be taken apart and reassembled. As a linguist, I'm much better at the taking apart side of things but I did get it back together again, more or less.

Of course, all through it Billy Bragg was singing in my head about 'the temptation to take the precious things we have apart to see how they work...'

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

August 4, 2006

a tale of two saunas

It's a busy summer. Last week I was at a conference in Finland having a sauna in the woods and diving into a beautiful lake as the sun went down. This week I'm in a field in Kent with a few thousand young people from all over the world who have gathered together to change it. There is a home-made sauna here, built by some of the Finnish delegation. I haven't checked it out yet but hope to in the next day or two.

I started the camp as coordinator for a village containing 120 people, half from Norf London and half from Bad Doberan in Germany. Today, though, we had 'Governance Day' and after some discussion about how the camp is being run (apparently, I'm 'not controlling enough' which I kind of think of as a good thing) I have been deposed and two younger people are in charge. I could think about mounting a coup but instead I've sneaked off for a bit of blogging. I'll update you later but we are currently leaderless. The German leader lost interest straight away and the English leader made a few decisions (adults do all cooking tonight and get to bed by 10.30 - don't tell her we're all very keen on this) then proposed an anarchic system with no central authority (I don't think this sounds too different from my regime) and now says she wants to stand down. She hasn't found a replacement yet, though. She asked Val whose response was as direct as ever: 'Wouldn't touch it with a bargepole mate!'

B-)

Posted by Billy at 4:01 PM | Comments (0)

May 26, 2006

'a billy at work'

'You've got a Billy at work' said Harry, when Sylvia said she was going in to work yesterday.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)

'sick of the sight of them'

'I'm sick of the sight of them, to be honest' said the nice man who wiped my bike for traces of explosives in advance of Brenda's visit to the library on Tuesday. After a while the novelty wears off, it seems.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2006

le miserable

Well, I enjoyed the pre-match atmosphere round Highbury yesterday afternoon. 4 hours before kickoff, there were hundreds of Arsenal shirts heading through the 'tickets only -sold out' signs on the doors of the pubs, 'tired and emotional' youths were making noise on Upper Street, and cars with flags were tooting at them as they went by. I was dropping off Ohna's computer which those nice Apple people have agreed to fix despite it being past its warranty (actually past its 'repair extension programme' but anyway). I stopped for a coffee and came out to find my bike had been driven into (handlebars bent, pedal on floor, crank broken, back derailleur bent). I'd been sitting ten yards away but facing in the wrong direction. Just got the call to confirm that it's 'beyond economical repair'. Time to shop around and get into debt again...

B-(

Posted by Billy at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

May 11, 2006

all in the game 2

Well, it has some qualities, mainly some of Ray's 'colourful' language, but time for life to go on.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 9:51 PM | Comments (0)

all in the game

channel 4 - all in the game

Ray Winstone. always worth watching. And a nice use of Kasabian at the beginning. Might be a laugh. Hope it's not too good, though. I've got other things to do....

The football looked OK in the trailer, although not sure about the final shot. Reminds me of the time we were the crowd for a Comic Strip movie during half time at QPR.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 9:13 PM | Comments (0)

Warning: meltdown imminent

Just received this from the Guardian:

Welcome to Higher Noon, academic news and opinion, twice weekly from EducationGuardian.co.uk

Warning: meltdown imminent

11 May 2006

Latest

Universities face meltdown over pay, says lecturers' leader

Universities face complete "meltdown" if the lecturers' pay dispute is not resolved this week, the Association of University Teachers warned employers today.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/specialreports/lecturerspay/story/0,,1772449,00.html

It does look like we might be in for a bumpy ride. I'm still surprised how few people know about this. I'm still trasumatising students who are about to hand in their work and haven't heard about it yet. A common response when I explain the action is, 'What, again?!' It seems many of them thought the strike was one day of action and that was that.

I do hope it's resolved soon, though.

Posted by Billy at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

May 9, 2006

'I like the flowers...'

Off to lead a woodcraft music session this evening. Just found this interesting discussion about woodies on the Crouch End High Horse

I love it that the poster refers to our nation as 'Thatcher's Britain'.

We sing 'I like the flowers..' fairly regularly but not the plutonium version.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 3:16 PM | Comments (0)

rural london

Sitting in the park listening to jazz wafting as I work and surrounded by birdsong. Stood 20 yards from a wet and shaggy heron on the way in, then said hello to a man who was walking a very large pony on the patch of grass near Bounds Green Road. Gotta love the rural life.

Meanwhile, the lesser spotted thief has been having a go at my bank account. Seems I got 'skimmed' at the weekend.

Had a nice walk in Sussex with Dug on Saturday. Enjoyed the muddy, rainy bits best, although I'm not sure I'd recommend Dug's outfit - open Birkie sandals and a soft shirt (no raincoat).

B-)

Posted by Billy at 3:03 PM | Comments (0)

April 21, 2006

'practical alien linguistics could be pretty essential soon'

Yes, Suzette Haden Elgin has finally inspired me to read The Embedding by Ian Watson. It's a linguisticsy science fiction novel in which self-embedding sentences** play an important role. The article in which she mentions it is 'Waterships All The Way Down' in Rebecca Wheeler's 'Language Alive in the Classroom' where she passes on some suggestions for using science fiction to teach linguistics.

B-)

**like 'fish cats dogs chase eat swim fast' (which means 'fish that get eaten by cats that get chased by dogs swim fast'), or, to take a comprehensible one, 'the game those boys I met invented resembles chess' (as mentioned in Neil Smith's 1989 book 'The Twitter Machine')

Posted by Billy at 7:05 PM | Comments (0)

sharing in the library

Wow, we're up to at least 25 cafe del mar compilations now. I know this because I'm listening to music from Saira's computer while working in the library on the handout for a seminar next week. Sharing is great, but I need to get more stuff on this computer so I don't feel so guilty about having so little to bring to the party. It's also interesting to notice how similar all of our tastes are. Are there any academics who don't like Air?

B-)

Posted by Billy at 3:24 PM | Comments (0)

March 1, 2006

strike

I'm on strike next Tuesday. Luckily, a student mentioned it in a tutorial. I hadn't had time yet to read the emails from NATFHE, one of which had the info. It would be typical of an academic not to know he was on strike because he hadn't read the email yet. I wouldn't faint if I found out that more than one academic uses the day to catch up on some work.

One depressing aspect of this is how little anyone seems to care when academics go on strike. How many of you know about the long-running dispute and academic boycott of London Met, for example?

There has been some national coverage of the coming strike and assessment boycott on the BBC and national papers, but it seems indicative to me that the first info on media coverage on the website is that 'news of balloting appeared in the Belfast Newsletter, Portsmouth News and elsewhere'

B-}

Posted by Billy at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2006

mr. semantics

Ohna has often commented on the irony of a useless communicator like me making a living out of studying communication. I've always thought, though, that it might be what you'd expect. Sometimes you get interested in things when they go wrong.

The latest example is now on my head. The barber thought the missing constituent in my explicature was 'all over my head including the top' when I thought he'd realise I meant 'just the back and sides'. I realised his mistake after he had dragged the mower right over the top of my head.

B-}

Posted by Billy at 9:23 PM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2006

sleeper train

Had a weekend in Scotland last weekend. Mike and I went up by sleeper for Elma's 60th. A nice journey, although the plunge into darkness and silence when the engine failed at Watford was a bit weird. We arrived 4 and a half hours late, which is pretty significant when you've only got two days. It was a nice visit and good to see everybody. Kyle is at the one-word stage and has some nice versions of names. Kirstin is 'tin' and Kyle is 'me'. Kirstin is a laugh a minute and I was pleased to see her adopting 'Uncle Pongo' as a name for Mike.

I'd post a Scottish photo but blueyonder is letting me down again.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 2:02 PM | Comments (0)

January 3, 2006

back to work

There were a few funny tummies at Christmas, as well as a broken boiler (which chose christmas eve to pack in) and Hogmanay was also a bit sick. Donal had mumps so his 18th birthday party/hogmanay combo was cancelled and replaced with a small neighbours' party. Andrew caught it (them?) too and we had a rather strange evening with people disappearing for lie-downs and to pop into other parties before we all got onto the bathroom roof to watch the fireworks and toast the new year. We had a quick game of Buzz (playstation music quiz) after which Ohna suggested that reducing Dad's Competivitiveness might be a resolution to go alongside my main one about improving my contribution to the quality of family life.

The last couple of days have been really nice with all of us at home and no school or anything. It's ending soon, though. Apoa's back to school today. We weren't sure whether she'd be able to get up after having adjusted to late mornings and nights, so we were amazed to hear her up making breakfast an hour early at 5.30. She then went back to bed and was pretty tired by the time she caught her train. I'm back to work today but working at home before getting back on campus tomorrow. We've pencilled in a break later on to start taking down decorations and the tree. Kiloh's back on Thursday so she's PS2ing like crazy in the meantime.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

December 16, 2005

two films and an apocalypse

I would've sent this post at the weekend but you know.

We went to see the original King Kong at the NFT on Saturday afternoon. I had forgotten that it was the best film ever made. Kiloh gave me a hard time for saying so (this was an allusion to Mark Kermode - I'll tell you later). We then watched Four Weddings and a Funeral when we got home. I'm a big Mike Newell fan so I was delighted that the kids had insisted we rent it. Big excitement when we got to the scene at the NFT and then on the river at the South Bank. I've got a theory that the most obvious skills of Mike Newell as a director and of Hugh Grant as an actor are the same thing really, being all about timing, which is about judging what your audience needs to have happen when. Also one of the main things you need to get right in teaching.

Clemmie came out with us on Sunday, but the poor wee thing was suffering from a bit of a cold. Nicki came and rescued her at the end of the day.

I'm not sure what to make of the symbolism as I went out on Sunday to buy our Christmas tree under the almighty black cloud that was spreading over us from Hemel Hempstead.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)

December 9, 2005

cats and gorillas

Had a great time last night with Robbie and Dug at the John Martin Gallery

Robbie had four wee pictures in the show, which was Into The Jungle - a homage to Rousseau

It was a nice show with some great work, a good mix of styles, not too many people (you could move around), men in gorilla suits, African drummers, classy cocktails and nibbles. And one of Robbie's pictures sold while we were there.

The audience were appropriately beautiful and stylish, and they coped well with having three big scruffy blokes galumphing through the middle of them. I've made a note to get a gorilla suit before we go to see King Kong.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 2:07 PM | Comments (0)

December 3, 2005

'nice odd'

Just had an email from a student who finds it a bit odd that lecturers would be bloggers. 'Nice odd, though'.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 3:57 PM | Comments (4)

November 4, 2005

out of joint

Now I'm really getting confused. I'm getting emails inviting me to events that happened a couple of days ago and I'm having phone calls where me and the other speaker seem to be in different zones and reference points. This time travel is trickier than I thought.

B-}

Posted by Billy at 2:32 PM | Comments (0)

November 3, 2005

blustery day

It's a classic blustery autumn day, leaves spinning through the rain on the way to campus and cars shaving me and trying to send me spinning with them. Perfect day for pausing to look at all the amazing work that Robbie has been working through the night on.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:10 AM | Comments (1)

November 2, 2005

isolation

Big problems with the servers at work. Email has been broken since Monday and they're now saying it might be the end of the week before it's working again. If anyone needs to contact me, best to use one of my other email addresses, e.g. billyclarkie a la mac dot com or billyclarkie a la gmail dot com

The academics are divided into those who feel liberated and those who feel like their life support system has been cut.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 3:24 PM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2005

Forbes and e-julie

David Ewalt is doing a great job of publicising the excellent resources on language and communication at Forbes

I finally got round to posting about it on London Language today and found Mai had beaten me to it. I then discovered that the language nerds of the world are all linking to it.

One Forbers linker is The Language Legend This is an excellent resource mainly aimed at A Level English language students. I was shocked on Wednesday to discover that I had just met e-julie, the person responsible for it, but not realised that that's who she was. Could be a useful example for the sense-reference distinction (will make a nice change from Venus, the morning star and Ortcutt).

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2005

blogometer

Well, this is officially post number 1,000 to this blog. Imagine if I used my powers for good!

B-)

Posted by Billy at 1:35 PM | Comments (3)

October 6, 2005

OK with my decay

45 today and Grandaddy shuffled into my ears with this incredibly appropriate song:

I'm OK/With my decay/I have no choice/I have no voice/I have no say/In my decay/I have no choice/so I'll rejoice/

Ohna Apoa and Kiloh gave me an incredibly appropriate gift of a turntable so I can finally play all my 45s. Naturally, I'm hoping to get through 45 of them. I started by taking myself back once more to the 1980s in the Neill Lounge/Aitken Disco where Musical Youth were passing the dutchie to the totally wired fall and Robbie was breaking the DJ's lights dancing to Depeche Mode. Then I decided to let Kiloh break things up a bit with a choice of her own. She went straight for The American by Simple Minds leaving me straight back in the 80s and visions of young men in big coats.

I'll carry on my celebrations now by reading Steven Pinker and Ray Jackendoff to prepare for class this afternoon.

B-}

Posted by Billy at 12:23 PM | Comments (1)

October 3, 2005

congestion charging

On my way to the tube station last night I was asked to stop by four young women who looked to be around 14 or so. They asked me for 50p 'congestion charge'. One of them put her hands on the front of my bike and tried to stop me carrying on. Blinking flip!

B-}

Posted by Billy at 5:59 PM | Comments (1)

September 9, 2005

moving in

Remembered to time myself cycling to the new campus this morning. 45 minutes from when I started cycling at home to arriving at the bike rack here.

I've now got everything into our office (but not at all organised) apart from five crates of books. Sylvia has 6 more crates. We have no more room, though. An interesting little puzzle. I've got no idea what will happen when students come to discuss things (something I spend a lot of time doing).

No individual post trays yet so I went to the mail room, gathered all of our mail into a big sack and carried it fatherchristmaslike to the building where I sorted and distributed it. Several colleagues asked me whether I was being 'redeployed'

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

September 6, 2005

meetings with remarkable trees

Well, I'm fully back to Trent Park now and struggling to combine catching up with doing new things and unpacking. We have a desperate need of shelving which is currently being thwarted by the system.

It's nice to be here, though, and getting used to a new (and longer) cycle route. Really nice to cycle through the foggy woods yesterday morning, including a tumble when the bike jammed in the mud. Left my knee slightly iffy so today was a public transport day. Always an adventure.

I'm not sure how much I'm going to enjoy the extra time involved in cycling home every evening. This was added to yesterday by having to visit the police station on the way home to report Apoa's passport having been lost on the music trip to Paris at the weekend. A bit of a surreal experience as they constantly impress on you the importance of reporting it quickly and then make it very hard. I particularly enjoyed the policeman's first response at the station which was that Apoa would have to come in herself to prove that I wasn't 'making her up'. Luckily, he decided it would be OK seeing as she's only 12.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 4:44 PM | Comments (0)

September 2, 2005

starting up again

I've had a few real 3-D people comment on the lack of posts now so I guess it's time to get going again. I expect I'll post more after Monday when I'll be spending more time sitting among the unpacked crates in my new office.

Meanwhile, I'm at a conference trying to understand the apparent lack of recursion in Piraha syntax despite its obvious presence in the semantics of their utterances and thoughts, and keeping up with family life by email. Here's part of an update from Ohna on Apoa's first day back at school:

First day of school this morning was very typical. I asked her to make sure she had all her things packed last night, but of course as she was about to leave, she realised she didn't have her travel pass sorted, or her mobile phone or any money & I forgot to make her a packed lunch!!

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

July 22, 2005

shooting

I've been amazed at how cool the kids I've spoken to have been about the bombs and everything. Apoa was genuinely shocked today, though, when she heard about police shooting someone on the tube. She acted like she couldn't believe it. 'But that's the death penalty!' she said. She couldn't believe the police would administer justice on the spot. I pointed out that we don't know what was happening yet and we had a discussion about the law on self-defence and stuff as well. There's a discussion of this going at the Guardian's newsblog just now.

I have no time to blog at the moment as I'm trying to get my stuff out of my office before they move everything to the new campus and get everything sorted before we go camping tomorrow. Hoping to catch a glimpse of Ohna overnight on the way. Wish I had time to tell you about the conference I just got back from. Some other time.

B

Posted by Billy at 2:02 PM | Comments (0)

July 19, 2005

sampa

I'm finally finding out about SAMPA

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

pattern finding

I can never resit sneaky blogging when I'm meant to be doing something else. Right now I'm at a workshop learning about Pattern-Finder, software for finding (phonetic) patterns in texts. Will let you know more when I do.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)

July 15, 2005

restless night

Took Apoa through to my bed when I got home last night. She's off school again today. Kiloh came through at 4.30 saying she'd heard plates smashing and the dog barking next door. After some discussion we decided it was probably not what she thought and that it wasn't worth calling in the middle of the night to check. At 7.30 Andrew phoned from Ireland to ask me to check on Donal who said he'd phone when he got home last night but hadn't phoned. I went round to find the house very quiet apart from a not-tuned-in radio playing upstairs. Donal was bleary but fine.

I encouraged Kiloh to keep her ears open. She has scared off burglars from their garden in the past.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)

help

Have you ever found a conversation so strange that your anxiety takes on human form and rushes round the room screaming 'get me out'?

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)

phone saga continues

Well, they just delivered the wrong phone. They're trying again on Monday. In the meantime, I can use this different one. It has all the same functions but not the all-important radio. I wasn't sure I'd bother with it since my ancient phone still works but Apoa wants to play with it and I want to play with the camera over the weekend.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)

July 14, 2005

end of the mobile

Well, the groovy new phone is going back to the shop tomorrow and they're bringing me a new one. Still, I've already had a fair amount of photo fun (helped by both girls being off school today) and spent around a day working out how to do things and getting my old contacts onto the new phone. Now I'm about to spend half a day getting them back again. B-)

And Robbie and I have exchanged photos between here and Cyprus. I'm glad to see Robbie is blogging again. Got to work out that Cyprus/Hastings lifeshare for him.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 2:39 PM | Comments (0)

July 13, 2005

mobile life

[PICTURE REMOVED AT REQUEST OF SUBJECT]

Had a nice day at Alice and Justin's picnic on Sunday. Played a couple of hours of football until Tim ruined it by pointing out that grown-ups were taking a game against five-year-olds a little too seriously. Mai came with some friends and a birthday cake. Nicki came with Clemmie and they came home for tea and a bit of a play afterwards. And a Lancaster Bomber, a spitfire and a hurricane flew over fresh from dropping poppies on the mall.

This was likely to be the last we see of Ohna for a few weeks as she gets back from Milan just after we all leave for summer camp and we all get back from that just after she goes to New York B-(

After years of being the one with the ancient bashed-up phone, I leapt to the other extreme the other day and got a phone that does all those groovy things like taking photos, browsing the web, bluetooth, etc. My favourite feature is the radio as I won't have to think about packing one now. I hoped to be able to send Ohna some photos while she's away but phone and blackberry technology has been defeating us so flickr should do the job. This is the first pic I took.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 3:27 PM | Comments (0)

June 14, 2005

cooking on wood

Looks like I might be going on summer camp with the woodcraft folk again this year. I particularly enjoyed this bit of the information letter which I'm still trying to understand:

We understand that some people are concerned about the toilet arrangements. We will put up a shower tent and we might even get our 'solar water heater' working for it. For lavatories we shall get the farmer to dig a slit trench. The alternative would be to use chemical lats but over many years we have found that using slit trenches is more hygienic and pleasanter. If you have never used them it may sound unlikely, but let us assure you it's true. It's like cooking on wood being more efficient than cooking on gas. Certainly we hope that it won't put people off.

B-}

Posted by Billy at 1:24 PM | Comments (1)

June 13, 2005

illness predicted 22.6.05

Academics often get ill on the first day after term ends. The theory is that you keep yourself at full throttle as long as term's on and then something subconscious allows the illness to kick in as soon as you don't have a class/meeting/deadline for tomorrow. Some academics think it's a good idea to catch a cold a week or two before the end of term just to avoid being in bed for the first week of the break.

Another generalisation about academia is that workloads shoot up at the end of summer teaching as marking coincides with all those meetings that couldn't be scheduled in teaching time and with all those deadlines that got pushed back during the term. This year it's been madder than ever for me, which you'll already know if you've noticed the gap on the blog.

For several weeks now, I've had 22nd June pencilled in as the day when things will get a bit more manageable. So we'll see whether illness awaits (and yes, I do already have two meetings booked in for that day).

Anyway, I think I'm going to sneak the odd minute for a bit of blogging again now. This one is being posted between phone calls on a day of interviewing for a position that attracted such an international set of applicants that we're only seeing two of them in person.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 3:51 PM | Comments (0)

May 20, 2005

systems down

Well, like a lot of people I forgot about the email we got a few weeks ago to let us know that Middlesex systems would be down for the next few days. I'm out of email contact until Sunday night. Maybe I'll be able to get some work done!

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2005

surprise

Sometimes you find that life is getting on top of you with too many commitments piling on top of each other and not enough time to get to grips with any of them properly. And then out of the blue you get a message offering you a ticket to the cup final.

B-))

Posted by Billy at 9:27 AM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2005

music and adventure

Went to Apoa's music concert after work today and this is me just getting back from it at 11.30pm. Apoa and Kiloh got a lift home and arrived around 9.30ish.

All I can say is that I really appreciate a head teacher who thinks he's leaving a governors' meeting at 10.30pm and is heading off home, only to be met by a biker who's been waiting to explain that his bike is locked in the pupils' bike shed and that the caretaker hasn't got a key, and who still smilingly sorts everything out and sympathises with me for having had to wait so long. I even more appreciate a deputy head who gets out of bed to answer his answer machine and explain where the key is.

The concert was great, with a mix of styles and abilities. Some of the kids were amazingly good. The crowd's favourite was a violin soloist who performed a very complicated piece with no music and then had to return for a second bow. I particularly enjoyed Jessie's trombone version of 'Summertime' which hypnotised the whole room. I thought we were about to be sucked into the end of the trombone. There were also two memorable versions of the Titanic theme, one haunting voice (three vocalists) and piano version in the first half and later a completely different take in which Apoa and some classmates had worked out their own arrangement for two pianists, a bass guitar, flute, clarinet and oboe.

Deadline day is Monday which means I'm being swamped with last-minute drafts, so I spent my waiting time reading about things like case theory and the dative alternation.

Apoa's tube pass ran out today so I had the added pleasure of a visit to the tube station to renew it on the way home, and a cycle down the A10 on the way - not recommended around 11pm, I'd say.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:51 PM | Comments (0)

May 9, 2005

quizzing

I was feeling cocky after getting both of the mystery guests on Question of Sport on Friday, so imagine my surprise when I settled down to watch the final of University Challenge only to find that I could hardly process any of the questions, let alone answer them. I know I used to know some answers back in the old days! I didn't even get all of the linguistics questions! For the record, I got 'synthetic', 'agglutinative', 'Noam Chomsky' and 'article', but 'Mandarin' foxed me.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)

May 6, 2005

election post mortem

Well, Barbara Roche lost. I think it's a shame as she was a good local MP and worked really hard for her constituents. Here are some thoughts from a local Labour Party worker:

Iraq (and Blair more generally) were massive issues over on the western side of the constituency and cost us loads of votes. But genuinely it was hardly mentioned over in Wood Green (except approvingly as evidence of Blair's courage and leadership, but then only by Asian and Middle Eastern voters). There the determinants were apathy and possibly immigration. I was harangued at length by a Jamaican about the injustice of all the perks that the latest wave of immigrants get, while his family get nothing - I found it very hard to argue the point, although I've never had a problem doing so with white working class punters; I heard from other activists that they had experienced this same 'pulling up the ladder' phenomenon, so plainly some unlikely people were thinking what Mr Howard was thinking).

A little insight on apathy/tunrout for you. In Woodside (north east of Wood Green), where I spent most of yesterday, we had 40% of the vote just based on our 'promises' (supportive canvass returns); you can add at least another 20% or so to this if you factor up proportionately for those 'unknown'/uncontacted who also voted. This was not untypical, so in the Labour parts of the constituency, I think we were getting about 60% of the vote. However, turnout was barely over 40%, whereas across the whole constituency it was about 60% (so vastly higher in Muswell Hill, Highgate and Crouch End). We lost by 2500 votes. Had turnout in our 5 best wards (out of the ten in the constituency) been at the average, we probably would have won, albeit by a handful of votes. Differential turnout - it's how elections are won and lost. Still, the fact that we lost huge numbers of voters in the leafy west (but not to the Greens, whose vote and share fell) probably means we wouldn't have won anyway, so enough of the post mortem. We've got four more years to get it right and a much stronger Crouch End Labour Party, so it's not all bad.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 5:15 PM | Comments (0)

May 5, 2005

election

I held my nose.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)

May 4, 2005

election blog: too smelly?

Well, I would have liked to have had the time to pass on lots of thoughts and news about the election, but it looks like this will have to be your lot. I've been wavering like never before on this one. I can see that the Tories would be a disaster so 'hold your nose and vote Labour' seems sensible. On the other hand, the stink really is pretty bad and 'the other guys are worse' isn't much of a sales gimmick. On the other other hand, they have done some good stuff and it would be a shame if that was dumped because of their bad side. On the other other other hand, if that happens, isn't it their fault rather than ours? I mean, who is it who's been going round alienating voters? And isn't it good to send the mesasage that you can't get away with some things? I have to say that there have been more cases than usual of election messages pushing me to do the opposite of what they want me to do. The letter from our local Tory candidate began by saying what a good hard-working MP Barbara Roche is! Which she is, so that's quite a strong argument too. The most persuasive, though, was the talk of Blunkett yesterday, and, even more forceful, the talk by Blunkett (i.e. he's persuading me not to vote Labour by saying I'm a self-indulgent middle class whinger if I don't).

I've had a few interesting political discussions recently, including Roger suggesting that this might be 1970 over again, Ade worrying that it might be 1992, and Robert saying that it's everybody's fault if it all goes wrong. As he put it:

When we had two million on the streets we should have rioted for peace and brought down the government...

Although he did add helpfully add that:

That would not have worked either.

Meanwhile, Apoa's still quite engaged. Apparently, the Tories are the funniest in her school mock election. She can't decide whether to vote for the funny ones since it doesn't really count or go for who she might vote for in real life. Both Apoa and Kiloh are asking if they can come to see the polling booth with me tomorrow. Hope tennagerdom doesn't apatheticise them,

B-)

Posted by Billy at 5:46 PM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2005

justifying the licence fee

Can't believe they got to broadcast this story making an analogy between Tony Blair and evil aliens trying to destroy the planet ('aliens have incredible superweapons ... capable of deployment in 45 seconds ... weapons of mass destruction ... UN needs to grant us the power to use nukes... etc.') during the election campaign. I suppose they're counting on how stupid Tony would look if he kicked up a fuss about Dr. Who ;-)

Great to see Penelope Wilton in it too B-)

Posted by Billy at 7:53 PM | Comments (0)

whale's tails and princesses

Today I should have helped Ohna and Apoa sort out some of the mess in the spare room and I should have helped our local Woodcraft Folk sort out the camping equipment in the store. But I've done my neck in (probably partly to do with the bus trip to Oxford yesterday) so now I'm damaging my neck doing a pile of marking and listening to itunes shuffling around. The joy of 'shuffle' is of course the stuff you forgot you had. The Cocteau Twins singing Whale's Tails was the highlight so far, but they've just been topped by Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret's 'A Broadcast Message To Children' which they recorded during World War Two and you can hear on the British Library's The Century In Sound. Very spooky to suddenly hear this very posh child's voice from a whole other world.

I recommend the bus as a way of getting to Oxford, btw. A quick cycle down to Baker Street, the bike goes in the boot and you can fall asleep listening to David Bowie performing live and doing your neck in until you arrive, wake up and get cycling.

It was really nice to see Robbie and cycle round the pubs of Oxford with him. He needs to find some mates, though, and some artistic inspiration. Any friendly humans in Oxford?

B-)

PS Seminar task: spot the syntactic ambiguity in this post ;-)

Posted by Billy at 4:57 PM | Comments (4)

surprising sounds: whale's tails and princesses

Today I should have helped Ohna and Apoa sort out some of the mess in the spare room and I should have helped our local Woodcraft Folk sort out the camping equipment in the store. But I've done my neck in (probably partly to do with the bus trip to Oxford yesterday) so now I'm damaging my neck doing a pile of marking and listening to itunes shuffling around. The joy of 'shuffle' is of course the stuff you forgot you had. The Cocteau Twins singing Whale's Tails was the highlight so far, but they've just been topped by Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret's 'A Broadcast Message To Children' which they recorded during World War Two and you can hear on the British Library's The Century In Sound. Very spooky to suddenly hear this very posh child's voice from a whole other world.

I recommend the bus as a way of getting to Oxford, btw. A quick cycle down to Baker Street, the bike goes in the boot and you can fall asleep listening to David Bowie performing live and doing your neck in until you arrive, wake up and get cycling.

It was really nice to see Robbie and cycle round the pubs of Oxford with him. He needs to find some mates, though, and some artistic inspiration. Any friendly humans in Oxford?

B-)

Posted by Billy at 4:51 PM | Comments (0)

April 23, 2005

reader

I was shocked at 1am last night to peek in on Apoa and find she was still reading three hours after we'd said good night. She's still in bed now, though, which is good. Off to Oxford to see Robbie now (I've practically finished the validation document and have at least sent on the important bits, so I can do this with a bit less guilt than I would have otherwise).

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2005

a very long engagement

Ages ago Jed sent Ohna the piece on A Very Long Engagement from American Cinematographer. He wrote 'Go see!' at the bottom of every page.

After Robbie gave it the double thumbs-up ('best film I've seen in ages!') we finally managed it on Thursday. We were both tired and wanted to spend some time together so we weren't sure if a movie was the right thing, but it was great and just the right movie to see at that time - we even managed to stay awake long enough for a bite and a chat afterwards. Jeunet is very comic-booky which is only one reason why you'd expect Jed and Robbie to like the movie. The pacing was less frenetic and the storytelling a bit less gimmicky than Amélie but it was also a 'fabuleux destin'. This one was both a fairytale and also to do with real things (such as World War One). It was fascinating to read about it from a technical point of view (mainly Bruno Delbonnel the cinematographer's) in American Cinematographer, with details of lenses and colour mixing and testing to see which lenses would work with Audrey Tautou's face, given that Jeunet wanted lots of wide-angle close-ups with a slight tilt:

We saw that her face worked well with the 25mm and the 27mm. The 21mm still works for her, but you have to be careful; the 18mm doesn't work, nor does the 35mm.

I was particularly impressed with the 460-square-foot frame, with lights attached, that they suspended from a 70-ton crane above the trenches to block out the sun. The frame could also be tilted to change its orientation. Quite a contrast from some of Ohna's low-budget affairs, and of course totally pointless if the story's no good...

And then there was all the detail about the 'naked' camera with a foam cushion on the side so that offscreen actors could be really close to help the onscreen ones. And on and on...

Also interesting to hear him talk about how definitely he wanted it all not to be realistic ('Realism doesn't interest me! I strive for an unrealistic approach') but also didn't want the scenes in the trenches to be too beautiful to depict the horrors of war.

I could go on...

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)

April 21, 2005

work and play

Good morning. I've got a few things to say today but I guess I'd better get this blooming validation paperwork done first, not to mention the other things that are queuing up at the door.

B-)

NB The queuing bit is a metaphor. The things are things and not people. The only things outside my door are books on the bookcrossing shelf.

Posted by Billy at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2005

you say 'papam'...

OK. I know. I'm sorry. The cardinal who delivered the news pronounced the second 'a' fully but the reporters both used a schwa. I thought I did well to get the 'habemus' bit right...

B-(

Posted by Billy at 1:24 PM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2005

you say 'papum'...

According to a reporter on radio 5, we're about to hear someone say 'habemus papum'. But the next reporter said he'd say 'habemus papum'. The first one said 'pay-pum', the second said 'pah-pum'. That's what happens when you speak a dead language (it happens with live ones too, of course).

B-)

Posted by Billy at 4:59 PM | Comments (0)

April 15, 2005

civilisation

Went to bed at around 10 o'clock last night. This is early for me. I was drained after spending the morning at a rather charged meeting and then heading straight off to Cambridge for a conference.

I had to miss the first day of the conference because of the meeting but I had a nice evening cycling around looking at cows and popping into an overheated internet cafe where I bumped into Mai who had had the same idea. I've just left the conference room because I missed the speaker's handout and he's talking too fast for me to follow it. I then asked a couple of people and discovered that they have a room here with computers just for us to use.

It's all very civilised here. I made a joke about auditors to an academic downstairs and he said 'what are auditors?' (Maybe only academics will know why the next sentence might begin 'Picking myself off the floor, ...'). I also enjoy all the College stuff. Having breakfast in a big dark hall (candles are the only illumination on offer) and trying to get a proper view of the portraits (some top quality stuff), and I must make sure I stay up late tonight just so I can come in the night way (through a tiny door in the back garden, into the back of a building, out the front of it, and then along the terrace to our place).

I'm now very excited because I've been looking at this book on Grice longingly since it came out, not being able to afford it and not wanting to wait until the library finally gets it, and it was on special offer here for conference attendees (half price). Now I don't know whether to wait until I've polished off The Inheritors before getting into it.

The Inheritors is looking good, although I just started last night. Two days after Tim persuaded me I had to read it, Sylvia deposited it on the book crossing shelf outside my office. Tim is here and tells me he's also persuaded himself to reread it. We looked at in class the other day, doing a bit of Hallidayan analysis on it. It seemed appropriate, since Halliday's paper on it is a stylistics classic. The class was fun and, for me at least, the exercise demonstrated Hallidayan analysis, showed how it's useful for stylistics, revealed some of the style of the book, and made me want to read more.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 1:18 PM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2005

'Grandma, when is the world going to end?'

This was a question Kirstin asked Elma in the car the other day. I collected a few other nice bits of linguistic data today:

Daddy, you should be finished your class by now!

(A pouty voicemail from Kiloh at 4.37pm, with a dramatic pause between each word - class finished at 5pm)

PAEDIATRICS - Please remember gonad protection. This is a legal requirement

(Sign behind the screen when Apoa was getting her arm x-rayed. The diagrams were also cool, one with flesh and one with bones)

The other was Apoa's bewildered silence when the doctor asked her, 'How can I help you?' I thought it was because she was used to doctors talking to me rather than her, but she said it was because she didn't expect to be asked how the doctor could help. She says next time she'll just say, 'cream, painkillers and an x-ray please!' ;-)

You'll have gathered that I did have to take Apoa to the doctor and then an x-ray today. Bad choice of day. The doctor was very busy and the x-ray department was busy and had some broken machinery. The receptionist explained there'd be at least an hour of a wait and asked us to take a seat, pointing to a waiting area with no unoccupied seats. The floor was fine, though. There's no fracture so it's just a case of waiting for it to feel better. Meanwhile no PE or guitar or anything.

Missed my office hours this morning and ended up over half an hour late for my class (I did warn them, though). The topic today was grammar in schools so we looked at Debbie Cameron's discussion in Verbal Hygiene of the conservative obsession with grammar and standards in the 1980s. So, of course, we had to talk about Mistress Chloe

B-)

Posted by Billy at 5:50 PM | Comments (0)

April 8, 2005

don't look back/forward

This summer, Middlesex is closing its Tottenham campus and a load of us are moving to Trent Park, which is where I was based when I first came here. So today I left Mark fixing the flood and leak (he was there working on a bunch of things including our still malfunctioning and now electrically dangerous central heating system when a huge amount of water fell into the hall having slowly built up from a leak in a heating pipe under the landing (the water had risen to just below floorboard level before it came through)) and Apoa and Rachel on their way to the swimming pool (are your linguistic processing modules still with me?) and travelled by train and tube up to Oakwood and on to my former workplace (the bike is still in the shop after a bit of confusion about a wheel yesterday*).

It's weird coming back. I started by standing at the wrong place waiting for the minibus up from the tube station to the campus and since then I've been bumping into lots of people whose names I used to know and wondering whether or not to reintroduce myself. I'm sitting now in a large open-plan computer centre which includes what used to be my office and I'm also more or less underneath what will be my shared cupboard after September. Trent Park is a lovely campus in a country park that has a lot of history (George III used to visit here, the Sassoon family owned it at the start of the twentieth century, it was a POW camp for German officers during WWII, etc.), lovely views and great walks and cycle trails. Still, I've always liked Tottenham, which is more 'street' and has buildings named after Jimi Hendrix, Jenny Seacole and Toussaint L'Ouverture rather than mad king's doctors (forgive the syntactic ambiguity) and things.

I came for an open day and spent it meeting some really nice potential students and staff (although I'm now being made nervous by the student next to me whose mouse keeps getting too close to my left hand). I particularly enjoyed chatting to my History and English colleagues about Leavis and the legendary William Empson scandal of the condoms.

B-)

*I sent it in for a service and spoke repair. I'm collecting it later today with a new chain, cassette, rear wheel and saddle. The holdup was because I told the guy working on it I had a spare wheel in the shed, only to find out too late that it was a front wheel rather than a rear one. Soon my bike will be like the axe that's had its handle and blade changed several times but has been in the family for generations.

Posted by Billy at 4:20 PM | Comments (4)

April 6, 2005

'Labour's unthinking opposition'

Guardian Unlimited | Columnists | Labour's unthinking opposition

I agree with David Aaronovitch's criticism of the 'prejudice, cynicism and lack of political nous' of some people who oppose Tony Blair. It seems that humans are designed to like broad conclusions and over-strong generalisations, and to hold conclusions strongly without fully exploring all of the relevant evidence. This applies as much to academics as anyone else, even though one of the main aims of their work is to practice and teach careful analysis of arguments. (There will undoubtedly be some academics who disagree with this but, by definition, not in such a way that I could enter into an argument with them).

I think this will be an interesting election because the electorate is more aware than ever of things they don't like about the various voting options. I live in a fairly sheltered part of North London so I don't have much contact with the real world where there are people who are worried about immigration, who supported the war in Iraq, and even some who would ever consider voting Tory (I remember how the neighbours all pitied young Toby, the Tory candidate in our last local elections who was dutifully working the doorsteps asking everyone to confirm that they wouldn't be voting for him). The people I meet are quite unsure what to do in the election. There's definitely unhappiness with Labour, particularly to do with the war, but people don't seem too sure what they do want to do with their vote and they'd definitely hate to see the Tories get in.

Of course, there's also a general feeling of powerlessness associated with not being in the small group of voters who will really decide the outcome. I guess that's one thing that my world does share with the majority of the country.

Despite their shortcomings, I do see that Labour are far preferable to the Tories. The main thing that annoys me about them is still the war and the way they defend their decision to join in (mainly by pretending that anti-war people are pro-Saddam and anti-ever-doing-anything-about-it).

Locally, our MP is Barbara Roche. I know a lot of the 'literary dinner-party' people David Aaronovitch mentioned will be quite negative about her, but I do think she does a good job for people here (and not just because she has been supportive of The Lecture List). We see plenty of her in school and elsewhere, and she did get the graffiti off of Andrew's wall for him.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 8:14 AM | Comments (0)

March 23, 2005

producers, blackberries and holding your drink

It's been a busy week. Went to see The Producers with Ohna on Monday. It's not perfect, but I think you have to see it. Brad Oscar is great as Max so we didn't miss Nathan Lane. Interesting that I found the comedy gays a bit boring even though the show is nothing but tasteless jokes, with comedy nazis and comedy old ladies etc. Ohna's been given a blackberry by her work which I would think of as a disaster. Sure enough, she was being emailed in and out of the theatre. We went for a bite afterwards and she was outside on the phone when our food arrived.

Went to an opening with Dug and Alan last night and then Ohna joined us later. Found myself not coping too well with the alcoholic intake, so I'll try to be sensible tonight.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 6:55 PM | Comments (0)

if you can't lobby, go to the alley

I thought I was going to lobby parliament with Kiloh and Anna Clare today. The woodcraft folk have had their government grant stopped so we were off to try to persuade some MPs to do something about it. It turned out, though, that I had got the day wrong and the lobbying was yesterday. So we took the opportunity to go bowling and now I'm using the time before meeting Rupert for a movie trip to do a bit of blogging.

This article by David Batty says that some people think they took away the woodcraft folk's money because they were against the war. It can't have been a surprise that woodies were against the war, though. I mean, we spend a lot of our time sitting round campfires singing about things like the H-bomb's thunder and how we're going to lay down our arms and how you've got axes so we'll get axes too.... Like, woodcraft folk are against war, full stop. Anyway, hope they see sense. Kiloh and Anna reckon they might, seeing as how the election is coming up. I kind of think, though, that we've got another goverment who would put me in the category of 'wouldn't vote for us anyway'.

B-}

Posted by Billy at 6:46 PM | Comments (0)

March 18, 2005

flu

Well, the reason I've been quiet for a bit is cos I got a kind of flu-like thing last week (10 days ago) and after I got better I had a load of stuff to catch up on. I'm just about back up to speed now, although that partly depends on a few things getting done this weekend. I examined a PhD last Friday when I was just about recovered, which was fun despite my slightly less than 100% state. Since then I've been mainly catching up. Middlesex has carried on with its amazing range of speakers. I went to see David Putnam the other day giving a really good talk on how he moved from film to education. The main idea was that film can be a really important thing if it has to do with our common humanity and collective responsibility. He's fed up with films where bombs only land on just the right people and murders leave no widows. So maybe he was in education even when he was in film? I also made it to the session with Guy Jenkin, who wrote loads of TV comedy including some Spitting Image and Drop The Dead Donkey (I always thought that was a great title and a not quite so great show) and Graham Lineham who wrote Father Ted among other stuff (of course a great show but I've always had a bit of a problem with priests - not that I particularly know any or anything). I would have maybe seen Howard Brenton but he cancelled at the last minute, and I definitely would have seen Michael Rosen (on 'Are books for children worth reading?') if the subject review I was involved in hadn't taken 10 hours (from 9.15am until 7.15pm). This was in Middlesex's country park campus where I used to be based and will be again after summer. Funny to be moving back and it feels longer ago than I'd realised. I'll miss Tottenham but I'm looking forward to being back to the countryside. This week I also managed to miss Kiloh's appearance for the school team in the girls' football finals. I felt less bad, though, when I heard she didn't get to play. She's usually one of the subs but they didn't use any subs in any of their games, which was sad for the four kids who didn't get a game. I was pleased to hear that Kiloh took this really well and said it was the team that mattered. Or is she a bad player if she hasn't learned to get on the moby to her agent as soon as anything like this happens?

B-)

Posted by Billy at 8:43 PM | Comments (0)

March 4, 2005

happy birthday apoa

Apoa woke up at 3.30 and at 3.45 but then managed to sleep until 6. She enjoyed opening cards and pressies in our bed and then had a nice breakfast (brownie and milk - putting aside her anti-exczema dairy freeness for one day) but is particularly pleased that it's snowing properly on her birthday.

We finally gave in and bought her a mobile phone. We used to say she could get one when she could afford to buy one and pay for her own calls, but a train plus bus journey every day persuaded us it would be practical if she had one. We made sure the phone came with everything to get started but of course it came without a battery, so I'm off to Woolies this afternoon.

My bike has been in Crouch End for a couple of days now, following the double puncture on Wednesday (that's 6 in the past month) and I don't like cycling when there are icy roads, so I took the bus which was pleasant. Particularly enjoyed being reminded how ahead of their time Cabaret Voltaire were from the Mojo Beyond Punk compiliation, and everyone on the bus enjoyed the bus behind driving into us (slowly) at a bus stop on the way.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)

March 2, 2005

stroud green: a 'dormitory community?'

The Independent Online Edition - Money

Seems our neighbourhood is 'losing its anonymity'. Naturally, there are a few things us locals wouldn't agree with in this article but it'll be interesting to see if people will begin to have heard of Stroud Green. At the moment I always tell people I live in Finsbury park so that they don't have to ask where Stroud Green is. Crouch End is definitely a bit more heard-of these days, although it was news to me until some of our friends moved there.

When we moved here, Mrs Stefanou told us this was 'one of the nicest bits of Crouch End' while her son told us it was a great place to be because it was 'so easy to get to Crouch End from here'.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 1:03 PM | Comments (0)

March 1, 2005

me cyaan believe it

Got up this morning, went past the post office to collect a package containing Apoa's birthday presents from Jed and Ruth, took the parcels out of the box so I could fit them in the bike bag, headed off to Middlesex for a morning of equal opportunities training (more linguistic data than you could shake a stick at (whatever that means)) bought a sandwich and ate half of it before my first tutee arrived at 1.15, then finished it at 5 after the last one left, then went to hear Linton Kwesi Johnson talk about Michael Smith before (now) heading off for a night out with Ohna. Somehow managed to read the start of an MA dissertation and approve three more encyclopedia articles inbetween, which means I'm only waiting for two and then my only remaining job will be to look at the proofs and corrections suggested by authors (hooray). A busy day, but I enjoyed it. Linton Kwesi Johnson is a visiting professor here which is very cool. I pretended to be John Peel, though, and suppressed my starstruckness.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 7:16 PM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2005

good grief!

I might have mentioned that I'm writing encyclopedia articles just now as well as editing a section in the encyclopedia. There are just a few articles I'm responsible for that still need a bit of revising, but theoretically I have 6 more to write myself by Monday. Before I left last night I went over one of them changing some things, including stuff I was sure I'd already changed. Sure enough, I just found a version of the paper that already had some of the changes in it. Which means that where I am now is more or less where I had already got to a couple of weeks ago. Grrr! The reassuring thing is that a lot of the changes I made yesterday are more or less the same as the ones I'd made before.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:51 AM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2005

they won't let it lie

Way hay, snow! It's dying before it hits the ground, though. I'm totally bored with the freezing weather but snow makes it a bit more bearable.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 3:49 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2005

pictures fae the North East

Just got my pictures back from the Scottish trip. They're on my mac homepage if you want to see them all.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 5:23 PM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2005

more technology

I don't feel old for being amazed by skype

Oisin and Apoa were also excited when Dug and I had a free phone call via the internet earlier this evening. I guess one day they'll be remembering when they thought of this as a new and exciting concept.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 2:28 AM | Comments (0)

this charming man

Sitting up late reviewing encyclopedia entries. Thank you NME and Channel 4 for putting on the NME Awards shows to keep me entertained. I love hearing musos chat about each other and particularly enjoyed them talking about The Libertines with Pete Doherty being a member of the panel. He really is a charming bugger, isn't he?

I also still get a buzz from emailing an author in the states and getting an instant response at 2 in the morning. I remember when email was new and this was a truly amazing thing. Yes, that's right, I remember when we used the post, sending my first ever article off to a US journal and having to wait for comments to come back in the mail. On bits of paper!

B-))

Posted by Billy at 2:20 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2005

apple pie and memories

Had a really nice trip to Auntie Lorna's with Bessie and Ted today. Was surprised to see how much at home I felt in Inverurie with the shops full of lunch hour kids, having been one of those kids for just a couple of years many moons ago. Lorna served up a lovely meal of soup and apple pie and then we enjoyed a healthy helping of photographs and memories. In these days of deferred parenting, I think Lorna deserves some kind of medal for having great-great-grandchildren (she can gather five generations of Mitchells together in one place). Bessie offered a couple of good linguistic examples:

- Lewis calls his grandad 'dyde' as the Belger word for grandad is 'dydie'

- Philip used to call his great grandma his 'afa-grandma' ('afa'='awful')

Followed this nostalgia-fest with a nice evening with Kim in the swinging hotspots of the Broch.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:51 AM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2005

notes from the belger

I just made the radical move of taking a few days' leave during term-time to come and make a long overdue visit to Bessie and Ted in Cairnbulg (or the 'Belger' as the locals call it). Had a nice flight up and then annoyed the locals with my slow driving on the way out (I'm not an eagle at the best of times but I'm Mr. Magoo when driving at night). I felt sensible, though, when I heard about the latest horrible death on the Aberdeen-Fraserburgh road last week.

Bessie and Ted are in bed now so I'm sitting in the kitchen trying to catch up with encyclopedia reviewing in the hope that I'll also find some time to finish my own articles in the next few days. It's quite nice sitting in a quiet kitchen with a newly-double-framed Apoa and Kiloh watching over me while I work. Compensates a bit for missing Apoa's dramatic performance at school tonight (that's literal, as in acting in a play ;-)

I also enjoyed discovering Newsnight Scotland where the debate was about which kind of alternative the Scottish Socialist Party should be offering and how left wing it should be. A nice change from the election debate in England which, as Johann Hari put it, is all about whether Blair or Howard can seem the most rabidly right wing.

I'd have quoted Johann Hari's piece directly but, despite having paid 60p to read the print version earlier today, it costs another quid to read it on the web. I decided to go for it and went through some form-filling which included a question where you tick to receive spam followed instantly by a question where you tick not to receive spam (BT Click&Buy are the ********s who are responsible for this) but then they deactivated my account with no explanation at the end of the process B-}

It was interesting to read Johann Hari's piece straight after reading George Orwell on the rampant spread of socialism around the world in 1948 earlier today.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:43 AM | Comments (0)

February 4, 2005

ministry of truth

Spent most of yesterday in Senate House, a beautiful building that was used as the Ministry of Information during World War II and which was the model for George Orwell's Ministry of Truth. Funnily enough, Keith didn't know that when he referred to 'Room 101' during one of our meetings. When I met him earlier he said 'this is Richard the Third'. It took me a while to realise he was referring to the movie with Ian McKellen set in a fascist 1930's England. Also funnily enough, I'm currently reading Orwell - The Observer Years. He's such a good writer, but it's also fascinating to read his reports about what was happening 'on the ground' in Paris and Germany at the end of the war.

I followed two meetings of academics in Senate House with yet another meeting with Griselda, working on getting a partner/'angel' sorted for The Lecture List, which is doing great but really needs to find a partner now. (Any offers?)

I then fitted in a quick bit of work in Borders (just managing on the way to pick up a double bass book for Kiloh from a nice man in Denmark Street who was trying to lock up but took the trouble to get me the book before he did) and then I went to meet Ohna who had spent the day waiting for a meeting that still hasn't happened.

We thought we must have good karma when we managed to get the lucky window seat in the Dog and Duck, but this morning began with tax disasters and now my bike has a puncture and a broken rack.

OK, that should keep you going. Back to work.

B-)

PS Please, someone, find a home for Robbie in Oxford. I can't bear what that bus trip is doing to him.

Posted by Billy at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

February 2, 2005

sign language

Had a good session at woodcraft on British Sign Language

I can now sign the alphabet, ask for chocolate, tell you my name and ask you yours, ask if you want help and apologise for not being a signer.

I think the grownups' favourite sign was the one where you turn a key in your neck to tell people to turn their voices off.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2005

i'm a liar

Apoa just came in and objected that I hadn't explained to her what capitalism is. So we just had a quick seminar. The result is that she says she doesn't know what she thinks but at the moment she's definitely more like a communist than a capitalist.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:59 PM | Comments (1)

music and handouts

Don't tell bozo but I think the missing music on my itunes is only missing cos I downloaded it onto a different computer ;-)

Listening to Candyskin by the Fire Engines just now (thanks, Robbie). Takes you back. This was THE song for a wee while back in the day. I seem to be sinking in nostalgia at the moment, having been to see the Gang of Four last night. They were great and not really in a nostalgic way. Ended up going on my own as each of my 'dates' fell by the wayside one after another. Felt like a comedy character being there on my own with two big heavy bike bags, one of which had a computer in it, struggling to the bar with no hands free for my pint. I had remembered the Gang of Four as a bit funky and a bit rock-y but I hadn't thought of the rock bit as being as heavy as it was. They were quite industrial and brutal and didn't really sound like they were from the old days. I was delighted while I was there to be slipped a 'Capitalism? No thanks!' free-access card ('can be used to abolish global credit and debit systems') from http://www.worldsocialism.org

Followed that with a listen to metal box this morning. Mike gave me his spare copy last night. Hadn't listened for ages but it sounded great and Albatross is perfect Saturday morning breakfast music. Twenty odd years ago, we used to listen to Theme from the first pil album when we felt disgustedly hungover with ourselves.

At breakfast I showed the kids the worldsocialism card which meant I had to explain to them what capitalism is.

Meanwhile I think I've got a busy enough weekend without not being able to find my old handouts so that I have to redo the handout for Monday's first year class from scratch.

B-}

Posted by Billy at 8:15 PM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2005

Saturday

Don't tell the publishers, or the students, or the university, but I took time off from academia today (I know I shouldn't feel guilty about that on a Saturday, but there you go). Followed a nice game of football with a wee game of basketball. Martha takes it really seriously. I think that kind of competitiveness is at its height when you're around 10. I think I was around 10 when I started changing channels to check whether Aberdeen had really lost most Saturday teatimes. I remember one time the BBC said they'd won 5-0 at Ayr and I changed to ITV who said they'd lost 5-0. It turned out ITV had got it wrong. B-)

Followed the sport with a bit of computer play (partial success with using Airport to play stuff off the computers through the hifi system, but a bit of a worry that some of my itunes music seems to have disappeared when Dug fixed the computer) and some house organising. Had to borrow a drill cos I still can't find ours, but it looks like we're getting slightly more organised. Ohna did some major work with the help of Muji.

Just listening to some very groovy oldstyle funk on Radio Magnetic which is perfect for a Saturday night when you're getting ready to go out.

Went to a super gig on Dug's birthday on Thursday. Ian Broudie in a tiny room upstairs at the Enterprise. Reminded of when Gentleman Jim played my back living room for my fortieth. Particularly enjoyed the double bass - Kiloh is currently taking advantage of free double bass lessons from the Haringey Music Centre.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 7:55 PM | Comments (3)

January 16, 2005

back to life

Dug spent a good few hours today getting my computer back to life. Now I'm cracking on with marking again. Meanwhile, an author who's working on the encyclopedia emailed to say that his computer crashed on him a couple of days ago. He's based in Jakarta and has been travelling in Sumatra where the tsunami hit. Which kind of puts the panic over a linguistics encyclopedia entry into perspective. He was pleased to hear that I was in a similar situation. He then freaked himself out by making this comment:

'But if you hear a news flash of a meteorite smashing into Jakarta, you'll know
it's my encyclopaedia jinx again.'

and then waking up in the morning to find that there had been an earthquake in Jakarta that night (too small to notice, luckily). Hero that he is, he's now typed up the article that he had a hard copy of and also completely rewritten the one that was totally lost. Wish I was working that quickly.

Meanwhile, one of Apoa's friends just came round with her parents to apologise for telling stories that weren't true about relatives being missing in the tsunami. Apparently, during World War II, they did have a relative who was missing for a week after Sri Lanka was bombed and then turned up safe and sound.

B-}

Posted by Billy at 9:06 PM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2005

stereotype

I guess the stereotypical academic has a lot of marking to do between semesters. And is simultaneously trying to squeeze in various things - writing, editing and so on - that got squeezed out during the semester. I guess if your computer melts down making all of the writing work you've been doing inaccessible just when you're trying to get at least some of your writing off before the 'no no this time we really mean it, it really is the really really final final deadline' so that you can then stay up half the night marking but instead you spend a few hours trying to fix your computer but of course you're not a neek so you've got no idea what you're doing and it's probably a big job anyway, so eventually you give up and you might as well have given up earlier and just gone on to the marking even if the publishers are really going to be going crazy when the stuff you promised doesn't arrive, then it just makes you even more of a stereotype, right?

Topic shift: the new issue of Lore just came out with a little piece from me on being an academic who blogs Don't suppose this could count for the RAE, could it?

B-)

Posted by Billy at 6:29 PM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2005

Hi Robbie

Hope you're enjoying Berlin. I enjoyed the night out last week and taking part in the Laurel and Hardy sketch on Saturday morning.

Sorry you've been getting bored checking in to the same old 'poguetry' post for the past month (and for the rainy Hoxton blockage a while back).

See you when you get back,

B-)

Posted by Billy at 2:09 PM | Comments (0)

December 15, 2004

Blunkett

Blunkett resigns - The Guardian

When I started blogging, one of my main themes was having a go at Blunkett for lying about school selection and weasel words on immigration. I'm sure there's no connection with this, though.

Personally, I think singing Fred Astaire songs is pretty cool.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 6:23 PM | Comments (0)

ecard

Sam just picked up my ecard. Hope she replies to me instead of Brian ;-)

Posted by Billy at 5:56 PM | Comments (0)

goodwill from a stranger

For the first time I just received an ecard that wasn't meant for me. Strangely, I'm glad Brian hopes I'm better and is sorry for this morning.

B-)

PS Equally irrationally, I also feel sad when the machine at the gym doesn't say 'great workout!' when I'm finished.

PPS In fact, I received a copy of the 'email you sent' which means Brian put my email address in the box (yes, I can work out who he is)

Posted by Billy at 3:51 PM | Comments (0)

December 13, 2004

catchup

Over three weeks since I posted, and still not really time to post anything. In brief, though:

1. punkrockkaraoke is great fun
2. Robbie's 40 and doing well
3. thanksgiving was fun
4. Apoa was accosted by a policeman and a truant officer on her way home from the pool one day when her school was closed for the day
5. Lemony Snicket books are fun and shorter than I'd realised
(Kiloh insists I read the first three before the film comes out next week)
6. The Incredibles is great
7. Bessie and Ted are back at home after separately going to hospital - hope they're going to cope OK at home
8. I'm going mad trying to meet multiple deadlines before christmas (what about sending some cards or buying some pressies, though?)
9. I haven't managed to reply to Janelle yet who's interested in busyness on this side of the Atlantic (sorry)
10. Sorry, that'll have to do for now. No time for links or anything.

B-}

Posted by Billy at 8:31 PM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2004

teaching

Woke up early this morning to make sure Apoa finished the homework that was due today (getting more and more tempted every day to 'throw it on the fire and take the car downtown') and really didn't feel in the mood to go in and teach all day. Wednesdays involve two three hour sessions with an hour for lunch in the middle. But I had such a good time in the classroom that I hereby take it all back.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 6:14 PM | Comments (1)

November 14, 2004

neglected sim baby

Went to pick up the kids from their sleepover this morning. When I arrived, Anne said they'd just given birth to a baby on The Sims, '9 seconds from conception to birth!' By the time I got upstairs, social workers had arrived and taken the baby away cos the grownups had all gone to work and left the baby home alone.

B-}

Posted by Billy at 6:11 PM | Comments (0)

November 9, 2004

eavesdropping

I heard a student today saying:

'you hand it in and then they rip it apart, and that's how you learn'

B-)

Posted by Billy at 3:34 PM | Comments (1)

'hello, you're through to Animal...'

Not what you expect to hear when you finally get through to a person on a ticket booking line.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 3:00 PM | Comments (0)

November 6, 2004

a job for Robbie

I'm really pleased that Robbie has got a new job. It's in Oxford and is part-time, 3 days a week. Another artist told me that she does 2 days a week and that you should never take on more than that if you want to do your own work, but Robbie thinks it will work so we'll see. I think it's really important that Robbie gets a chance to work seriously on his art, like when the main concern of the literary establishment was to 'get Mr. Eliot out of the bank'. (Where did I read about that?)

B-)

Posted by Billy at 1:19 AM | Comments (0)

back to blogging

Well, there's been plenty to blog about recently but no time to do it. When lots of 'real' people and things are waiting for you to do stuff it's hard to justify sitting here typing for virtual entities.

But I've just been woken up on the point of bedtime by the sound of someone being beaten up outside and have been standing in the cold talking to the victim, the cops and a few other witnesses. The police radio was talking about a 'crack address' here but it sounded from what the others said more like he had got pissed and been beaten up by somebody he knew on his way home. Anyway, since I'm not sleepy any more, I'll add a message or two before I get dozy again.

B-}

Posted by Billy at 1:08 AM | Comments (0)

October 12, 2004

The Advantages of Using Elephants

Next door to me, Zaria is being Hannibal B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:42 PM | Comments (2)

PowerPoint Boudicca

Today I am mainly being Boudicca putting together a PowerPoint presentation to try to persuade the Iceni that now is the time to rise up against our Roman oppressors.

This is the second Tuesday in a row where I've spent the day being trained. Tomorrow, no doubt, I'll be using some moments from the course as real-life examples to discuss in class.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)

October 11, 2004

Avril and the week before

Avril Lavigne at Wembley Arena - official Wembley site

Just got back from this. We all agreed it was better than SClubUnited, which is the only other concert the kids have been to. We had standing tickets but took advantage of the offer to be reseated at the side of the stage, since the kids wouldn't have seen anything from the floor. Us oldies particularly enjoyed the cover of Blur's Song 2 with the bassist from Simple Plan on vocals and Avril on drums.

Earlier in the day, we went to a remembrance service for families who had lost babies at the Whittington Hospital, as Apoa's guitar group were playing there. It was a simple service and obviously a lot of sadness there. The guitar group played beautifully.

Earlier still, Kiloh went to her circus class and Apoa missed hers to go bowling for Rachel's birthday.

All of this inspired us to rent a car for the weekend. I'm glad we did as it made all the moving around easier, and we even managed a quick visit to Ikea 10 mintues before they closed, where we picked up curtains and a rail etc. for Kiloh's room. But I must say it reminded me how crappy it is driving around and being close to all the angry drivers.

Yesterday was much quieter, but we managed to fit in a visit from Nicki and Clemmie, who enjoyed capering with her cousines.

Earlier in the week I learned a new German word, 'schnapszahl', when I turned 44. The kids think a 'double-digit' is really cool. Maybe this can be mentioned in my meaning class. To celebrate we went to St. John and the following night we went to a dinner hosted by Fergus Henderson and Anthony Bourdain which was great fun, even though the food wasn't very good (!!). The audience were mean enough to mention that in the question session.

Anyway, sorry to splurt out a whole week (well, bits of it) like that. I'll try to get back to daily postings from now on.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:15 AM | Comments (2)

September 29, 2004

club nme

Just got another offer of free entry to Club NME. The first 300 get in free every week as well. I don't know if I could take the excitement, but luckily I'm busy tonight anyway.

Meanwhile, Donal is being teased by his mates because he went to the theatre last Wednesday while 'your dad and his mate were out clubbing'. Like, which ones are the wrinklies here?

Off to start teaching for the first time in ages now. Hope I can stay awake...

B-)

Posted by Billy at 9:59 AM | Comments (0)

September 27, 2004

busy day

After a quiet day at home tidying up the spare room for next week's visit from Daniel and Gemma, and a quiet evening in with just Kiloh at night (Apoa was off sleeping over), with a visit from Clemmie, Dug and Nicki squeezed in (with a bit of guilt as I took advantage of their SUV for a quick stock-up on cat food), we had a really fun day today.

First we visited circus school where Apoa took a massive step forward in the battle against vertigo and learned how to turn around on the flying trapeze. Meanwhile Kiloh mastered the 'big star' on the static trapeze and developed her skills on the walking globe and whatever those funny things with two steps and four wheels are called. Then we resisted stopping off at Virgin on the way to the Soho Theatre, where the matinee performance of Private Peaceful was followed with a discussion and question session with Michael Morpurgo (author of the novel), Simon Reade (writer and director of the play) and Paul Chequer (the one actor in the play). I've been to a fair number of these discussions and this was the liveliest and most fun, mainly because Michael Morpurgo is a right laugh and a great performer. When the host said we should be winding up soon, he said 'Why? I don't have anything on this evening, do you?' He capped it all by having his chair collapse under him near the end. His wife instantly leapt onto the stage, whipped out her camera and took a picture. She says it might appear on his Children's laureate website soon.

The play itself was really great. I could mention the few things I would have been tempted to change (there are always some of these) but the main thing to say is that the script and performance were great, totally involving and 'real'.

We followed that with a quick pizza stop on the way home and an almost instant passing-out from both kids when we got home. Maybe not the best prep for a busy week at school, but worth it imho.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 1:00 AM | Comments (1)

postal detour

Message to Jed and Ruth:

Hi guys,

Do you remember back on the 12th of September when you went visiting as many artists as you could in one day in Somerset? And you sent us a lovely card about it?

We wanted to say thanks for the lovely card and thought you'd be interested to know that we received it on Friday after the card had taken a slight detour to Australia and back! It arrived with a note on the envelope saying:

'Missorted to Australia. Return UK'

Well, at least it got here in the end!

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2004

the mosh pit revisited

Emily from the nme phoned me yesterday to tell me I'd won two tickets to the launch night of club nme at Koko

She had them biked over to me which made me think they were maybe a bit worried about the turnout.

They were gold VIP tickets, so when we got there Andrew and I had a look for the VIP area. We eventually discovered that these were the kind of VIP tickets that let you jump the queue on the way in but not much else.

It's a lovely building and we had a great time. It was all quite relaxed in the beginning and we enjoyed that there wasn't much sense of preciousness about the people. By the end of the evening, we had maybe consumed one kola kube tequila shot too many (OK, I only had one but anyway), enjoyed the Kaiser Chiefs, joined the moshers for The Others, whose set ended with a full stage invasion, and I had been snogged by a delightful young lady who introduced herself to us by stealing large gulps of Andrew's drink.

It's got to be over a decade since I moshed (I'm sure it wasn't even called that then) and I have to say I really enjoyed it, especially the bit where my specs were being bent in two onto my eyes and the bit where I did my spectacular backwards tumble (starting from the floor, not the stage or anything). It wasn't packed, so we remembered that bit in School of Rock when Jack Black dives from the stage and the audience politely stand aside to let him land on his face.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 4:11 PM | Comments (0)

September 17, 2004

security for peers

Two people I know were at the House of Lords last night. Both said the security was really lame.

B-}

Posted by Billy at 3:35 PM | Comments (0)

crystal anniversary

Yesterday was our 15th anniversary, but we decided to postpone it until today. We spent yesterday evening at the APA Show instead. Free drinks and nibbles, and a screening of 'the best' 50 ads from last year. In the V&A, which was very cool. My favourite ad was the one for powerade with the cameraman running faster than the racing athletes. I think it would have been better if the commentator hadn't mentioned the cameraman at all, though. No doubt it was that old fear of some of the audience not getting it.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 9:39 AM | Comments (1)

September 16, 2004

rumours

This story about Tony Blair reminds me that when we were on summer camp and away from the news for a week, we heard of two stories that had broken while we were away and which turned out not to be true. This was one and the other was that Gadaffi actually had taken over Crystal Palace.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)

don't worry

It's 0040 on Thursday morning and I'm watching investigative journalism being carried out by postmodern ironic puppets. A genuinely new concept. It's sort of like 'That's Life' with kiddie presenter puppets.

Tonight they're talking about the practices of drug companies, while making me think they might have spiked my drink.

Can't find a website but it's on the schedule here at 0025:

http://www.in4mer.com/schedules_c4.asp?xDate=22-09-2004

B-}

Posted by Billy at 12:37 AM | Comments (0)

August 4, 2004

if everybody else is doing it....

Might have to take a copy of The Da Vinci Code to the beach. We were planning to work through some more of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency and I've been wondering whether I'll squeeze in one book on the evolution of language, which is work but doesn't feel like it.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

July 28, 2004

the future of the blog

Yes, I've become one of those who hardly ever posts to their blog. I'm having a think about the future of this blog at the moment, wondering whether to carry on with a mish-mash of everything or try to be a bit more focussed. A good example of a well-focussed linguistics blog is languagelog which has multiple posters. I'm wondering whether to do something a bit more like that, and/or to focus more on using the blog as a resource for linguistics people. This partly has to do with my return to academia. I'm officially back now and I'm thinking about the start of the academic year and teaching and everything.

Meanwhile, we're all just back from our Woodcraft Summer Camp. 84 kids (ranging from 3 to 17 years old) and 16 grownups in a field in West Sussex. Me and Ohna were leaders for the 28 elfins (6-9 years old). It was hard work but also great fun. Highlights were: swimming, the day at the seaside, bivvying (sleeping outside) with the elfins twice, a merrymoot (kind of like a talent show where anyone can put on an act), a pea fair, and a walk with the elfins which left two hours late, meaning they didn't get their lunch until we got back at 4pm, and ended with an unexpected and very steep uphill climb. This was one of two occasions where I thought I might not get out alive, the other being when we had tickets for one ride each at the fairground but there were 5 spare. I made the mistake of giving them to the first five who asked and then nearly being lynched by everybody else.

Maybe the funniest part of the week was when 450 people from a different woodcraft camp moved into the field which we'd had sole occupancy of, causing much border tension. It's quite a challenge to stop all of 84 kids from saying or doing anything that might spark off a row.

We also had a bit of drama with two hospital runs needed on the last night. Both were scary injuries (one from an aerial runway and one from a fire) but both kids were OK after being treated.

While I'm thinking about what to do with the blog, I'll get back to posting a few things before I go off on holiday.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:03 AM | Comments (1)

June 11, 2004

legends

The day after Ray Charles died, Jools Holland has got Toots Hibbert (inventor of the term 'reggae'), Bebel Gilberto (daughter of the man who invented the music bossa nova) and Donna Summer (not an inventor but singer of the most famous version of the classic 'cake out in the rain' lyric) on the show.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 2:16 PM | Comments (0)

June 4, 2004

immature?

Steve Best is on telly tonight (12.20 ITV, on 'weapons of mass distraction', not the most inspiring title for a show, ITYA). Hope I can stay awake long enough to watch.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 7:26 PM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2004

Ludwig Bemelmans

Just listening to Book of the week on Radio 4 which is When You Lunch With The Emperor by Ludwig Bemelmans, aka the guy who wrote the Madeleine books

B-)

Posted by Billy at 9:49 AM | Comments (0)

May 11, 2004

still twitching

Following on from my heron experience, I stood under a tree on Sunday evening watching a woodpecker* hammering at a tree trunk.

B-)

*greater spotted variety

Posted by Billy at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)

midnight police raid

FORWARDED FROM VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS:

Dear Friends,

Brian has been removed in a very sudden police operation - see below. As of now, he is still in Charing Cross Police Station. He suffered hand-cuff injuries and is very agitated. A Bindmans solicitor is handling his case.

It is likely he will be charged in the next few hours with resisting a security cordon removal and with assault. The solicitor has no doubt these charges will not stick and it appears all Brian's concerns have come to pass and a trumped up situation has been manufactured. Apparently the officer who Brian was meant to have assaulted had no injuries. There is a possibility that he will be taken, if charged, direct to Bow St Magistrates Court for the hearing in the morning. As of writing the desk sergeant has refused his bail.

Maria, Kerry and Alexander were with him when it happened and remain on the site, continuing his protest. If anyone can go down there tomorrow as soon as possible with any placards, that would be great.

I will pass on any info as soon as I have it.

Please circulate as widely as possible.

thanks

Emma and Maria

EMERGENCY PRESS RELEASE

2.30am, 10 May 2004

PARLIAMENT SQUARE PEACE CAMPAIGNER ARRESTED AND 3 YEAR PROTEST SITE BROKEN UP IN MIDNIGHT POLICE OPERATION

Brian Haw, the Parliament Square peace protestor, who has spent almost 3 years in a continuous anti-war protest vigil opposite the Houses of Parliament (1), has been arrested and his possessions / extensive protest display removed, in a sudden midnight police operation.

At around 12.20am, he was approached by a number of officers under the command of Inspector Forsyth of Charing Cross Police Station. Apparently, police were concerned about a suspect vehicle, some distance away. They imposed a security cordon under the terrorism act and the area was cleared of other members of the public before an incident took place in which Mr Haw was arrested, and 3 supporters (including 2 women) who were present at the time, were also threatened with arrest.

Despite the supposed security threat the police van did not leave the scene for some time and Mr Haw was last seen being held down on the floor of the police van, having been detained by 4 officers. After Mr Haw's arrest, the suspect car was almost immediately identified to be posing no threat and the security cordon lifted.

Subsequent to his arrest, and despite there being no longer any current security concerns, the remaining officers removed all of Mr Haw's possessions and protest placards from the site. They even commandeered a passing WH Smith news lorry to effect the removal.

In March this year the police told Mr Haw and his solicitor that they were seeking to remove him from Parliament Square but were not able to say which legislation they would employ. This followed a landmark High Court ruling which found in favour of Mr Haw and his right to protest on the site (2).

Mr Haw has long voiced the concern that the various attempts to remove him have been, and continue to be, politically motivated.

Mr Haw is represented by leading human right practice, Bindmans. His solicitor, Michael Schwarz, said: "Brian Haw is peacefully campaigning on perhaps the most significant issue of the day at a place which is supposed to be the very heart of our democracy. It is difficult to think of a more compelling example of the deployment of the rights to protest"

Mr Haw is now being held at Charing Cross Police Station. He has suffered hand-cuff injuries.

Meanwhile, Mr Haw's supporters are currently continuing the protest in Parliament Square.

For more information contact: Bindmans Solicitors: 0207 833 4433 (Brian's on-going solicitor is Mike Schwarz) Maria (supporter on site and witness): 07812 355867 Emma Sangster or Gareth Evans on 020 8806 6272 or emma@drifting.demon.co.uk

Notes:

1. Brian Haw has been in Parliament Square continuously since 1st June 2001 in protest against the US/UK support of economic sanctions in Iraq, the invasion of Iraq and the 'war on terror'.

2. On 4th October 2002 Westminster City Council's High Court proceedings against him for obstruction of the highway were dismissed on the grounds that Brian was exercising his freedom of expression and assembly under the Human Rights Act.

Emma Sangster

----- End forwarded message -----

Posted by Billy at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)

The Lecture List

Very happy about this link to the Lecture List

Also just generally enjoying watching activity build up and checking who's joining in.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:17 AM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2004

Robbie Bushe

Robbie's site has just been updated.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 9:34 AM | Comments (0)

May 6, 2004

too late

It's gone

B-(

Posted by Billy at 4:54 PM | Comments (0)

one's train

This was in the Times today:

One's train is about to leave from Platform 5

By Alan Hamilton

THE worst form of communication invented by man has been made even less intelligble by the intervention of brandsmiths.

Brandsmiths are highly paid people who dream up swanky corporate names for humble enterprises. When four train operating companies serving East Anglia merged, the brandsmiths had a flash of inspiration; the enterprise should trade under the brand name One.

It has not worked. Smoke signals and jungle drums are models of clarity compared with the railway station announcement. The age that has produced the 3G mobile telephone still cannot talk with clarity to long-suffering commuters scurrying through echoing Victorian train sheds.

Announcements used to refer, for example, to the 7.20 Great Eastern service to Norwich. Recently they have been referring to the 7.20 One service to Norwich. Passengers have been bamboozled; were they referring to the 7.20 One service, or the 7.21 service, which is a minute adrift? After passengers complained, announcers will drop the name and say simply: The 7.20 to Norwich is leaving.

In the railway age of privatised unpunctuality, a minute either way would seem not to matter. A One spokeswoman said, however, that, although she knew of no one missing a train as a result of the confusion, there had been negative feedback. We did employ brandsmiths and consulted with customers and staff before deciding on the name One for the new company, she said.

The operator, formed from a merger of Anglian Railways, Great Eastern, West Anglia and Stansted Express, is registered as London Eastern Railways. The name was clearly not catchy enough, given that there is already a train and bus operator known as First, and mobile phone company called 02. The problem never arose in the straightforward days of British Rail.

If any railway enterprise is to be known as One, it should be the Royal Train. But as one always knows where one is going, one does not really need an announcement, does one?

Posted by Billy at 4:44 PM | Comments (0)

your name on our page

Just a few hours left to bid for this magnificent item

B-)

Posted by Billy at 1:01 PM | Comments (0)

languagelegend

This is a message from E-Julie about a blog for A Level English language students:

Just thought I'd let you know there's quite an online debate going on about language and political correctness on the language legend blog. It all started with Ron Atkinson's racist outburst, but it has developed. Issues raised so far = 'spastics', gay Vs queer, 'chav' and language used to insult working class men, and traveller insults for non-travellers. Am going to change the post when I think of something new to put up, so check it out if you're interested before I wipe the tagboard.

http:// languagelegend.blogspot.com

No advertising, no catch - just A Level English Language students talking about language... Anyone can post.

Posted by Billy at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)

May 4, 2004

weapons of mass destruction

I'm never sure what exactly I think of people who have the time and energy to carry out things like this:

For a good laugh - or cry - go to google, enter 'weapons of mass destruction' and click 'i'm feeling lucky'

B-}

Posted by Billy at 6:47 PM | Comments (0)

Re: Contact request from www.billyclark.net

That's great news, Peggy. Of course, linguistics is not boring at all. I think it is something that appeals to a significant minority of people. Let me know if you think I can help with anything. To see how important a subject it is, have a look at this article about linguistics by Neil Smith. It's part of the 'Good Practice Guide' created by the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, for whom The Lecture List is currently 'website of the month'.

Do let me know how you get on,

Billy

On Tuesday, May 4, 2004, at 14:06 Europe/London, Peggy wrote:

Hello Billy, I have interesting news for you: I am a student of linguistics now! Interesting because before I came to London I didn't know that something like linguistics exists... You told me some things about it, I became interested in it and always wanted to know more about it. Now I had the chance to start studying and of course I chose linguistics. But now I found out people say it is boring (most of the students in my course study English and HAVE to take "Introduction to linguistics"). So far. I don't think so. I really like it. Except syntax. I have the feeling I have to brush up my knowledge about English sentence structure. Please say hello to Apoa, Kiloh and Ohna!

Peggy

Posted by Billy at 2:18 PM | Comments (0)

April 28, 2004

What is an allergy anyway?

The weekend got off to a great start with Shockheaded Peter (thanks Hanna and Cookie ;-) Kiloh was slightly concerned that every episode ended with death but it was a brilliant show with amazing puppetry, sets, music, acting and, of course, death. We were glad that Kiloh had given up thumbsucking before seeing what happened to suckathumb. The big downside was that Apoa lost her treasured watch on the way home. She decided to go back with me and look for it so we were very late home.

Then I went camping with Kiloh in a beautiful bluebell wood near Welwyn. As a tree pollen hay fever sufferer, this was perhaps not the best place to be on the weekend when every tree in the country decided to shed all its pollen in one swoop (I know, Kiloh, you've told me a million times not to exaggerate ;-)

Anyway, the doctor has changed my prescription now and thunder and lightning has driven the pollen away. Kiloh and Ohna showed symptoms for the first time this weekend so I guess there really was a lot of pollen around.

I just found out about a talk on allergies on The Lecture List

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)

April 23, 2004

Larry Trask

Very sad to hear of Larry Trask's death. I've read a few obituaries and will post links soon. Here's how the news was reported on the website at Sussex.

Posted by Billy at 1:29 PM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2004

faster than a speeding camel (not)

Helen ran the marathon yesterday:

Managed to do the marathon despite the pissing rain and my knees completely going at 20 miles (ran until then though). Had to walk last 5 miles but then found myself living out all my Chariots of Fire fantasies as I picked up speed again down the Mall.

Great experience despite my miserable time of about 5hrs 55mins and not managing to get past the two-man camel or bloke in the telephone box costume.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:46 PM | Comments (0)

not one for The Lecture List?

I've a feeling this isn't quite the thing we had in mind when we made The Lecture List

1,000 dollars a head is pretty impressive, though.

FROM THE STOP THE WAR COALITION:

Give George Bush Senior the Reception He Deserves

Tuesday May 18th 2004 4.30pm till 6.30pm

Landmark Hotel, 222 Marylebone Road, London NW1, (nearest tube Marylebone Road, Bakerloo Line)

George Bush Senior, the architect of the first Gulf war, is coming to London to raise money for his son's re-election campaign.

He will be the main guest at a dinner party hosted by Republicans Abroad on Tuesday 18th of May. Tickets for the event are $1000 each!

Stop The War Coalition will be calling a mass picket of the event. Let's give George Bush senior the reception he deserves and a night that the guests would wish they had not paid $1000 each to attend.

For further information please call 0207 053 2153/4/5/6 or e-mail office@stopwar.org.uk

Posted by Billy at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)

April 7, 2004

Heron

Kim writes:

Strange but true

Kim Anderson (who went to Sievewrights dancing with Mike) and who now works with Jonathan and I, went out to her garden the other day to be confronted with a muckle great Heron stalking her goldfish, in her pond, in her garden just outside Fyvie and she had to run at it clapping her hands, it took off, somewhat reluctantly, circled a few times, but just came back when she went back inside - bold or hungry? - anyway no sign of her fish anymore.

So you can get close to them

How is Kiloh? They won't be told will they?

Kim

Posted by Billy at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)

April 4, 2004

'we need to talk'

Neal Ascherson just wrote in the Guardian about how the nation turned to talk

He's impressed by how many people are keen to attend public talks and debates at the moment.

Hope they also turn to The Lecture List to find out where they're happening.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)

always on a Saturday night

Kiloh and Anna have been playing at daredevils jumping from wall to wall outside the front of the house (and shouting at strangers, which I hope they've stopped now). Last night I told Kiloh that wall-jumping was not a good idea in the clogs she was wearing.

So then I spent 4 hours in the hospital with her. There doesn't seem to be a significant break so she's wearing a tubigrip, taking ibuprofen, feeling upset cos she can't play football this morning, and explaining how it wasn't really because of the shoes...

B-}

Posted by Billy at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)

April 2, 2004

dummy heron?

On 2 Apr 2004 at 14:46, Jed wrote from Devon to say:

The Heron you saw was actually a dummy heron used to scare the real birds away. Down here where the real birds are, I have never gotten closer than fifteen metres or so. Looking forward to seeing you all. I'll try to scare up some friendly herons for you. Cheers! Jed

OK, so it might have been 15 metres. I thought Jed of all people might apreciate a wee bit of exaggeration ;-)

Posted by Billy at 3:20 PM | Comments (0)

lectures

The Lecture List has just gone public at:

http://www.lecturelist.org

We're now concentrating on building up the number of talks. So tell all of your friends, especially if they put on public talks.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 1:05 PM | Comments (0)

'don't create, don't rebel'

Well, I finally made it onto the Gang of Four which was better than I'd remembered B-)

Now on to 'Typical Girls' by The Slits which is many happy memories and also enjoyable on its own terms (for me) in 2004 B-))

(Still keeping an ear out for Apoa, of course)

Posted by Billy at 12:25 AM | Comments (0)

April 1, 2004

denied

Well, I never made it as far as the Gang of Four.

Apoa has succumbed to a bug that's on the go around here and the puir wee craitur vommed all over her bed, her bedroom floor, her Beanos (tragedy), her pyjamas, the bathroom floor and the sink. The cats seemed a bit bemused as they watched me leap into action with my marigolds.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)

March 31, 2004

Anne Widdecombe, media whore

What more can you say?

Posted by Billy at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)

March 23, 2004

George Bush is an Islamic fundamentalist (obviously)

According to this analyst

B-)

Posted by Billy at 5:44 PM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2004

h*l*m*ts

Well, I think I've decided to start blogging again. Here's one of many issues on which side with regard to I don't know where I stand (sorry, it's deliberately-weird-utterance day, translations on request):

———- Forwarded message follows ———-

Hi all,

The London Cycling Campaign, in conjunction with the CTC (I've forgotten what this stands for), has produced a briefing document on why the current Private Members Bill seeking the compulsory use of cycle helmets for under sixteens should be opposed.

I have uploaded the document to our e-mail group...If anyone has difficulty accessing the document would like a copy, let me know and I will e-mail it to you direct.

I know that there has been some discussion on this list about the pros and cons of helmet wearing so I thought this document would help inform the debate.

The main reasons given for opposing the proposed law are:

The principal threats to children's lives are obesity, heart disease and other illnesses resulting in large part from inactivity. Cycling has a key role to play in preventing these illnesses. Less cycling through a helmet law would aggravate the situation.

- Cycling is a healthy activity, and the likelihood of serious head injury is widely exaggerated.

- Cycling becomes safer the more people who do it. Encouraging cycling is by far the most effective way of reducing risk of injury.

- Helmet promotion deters cycling and leads to poorer health.

- The benefits of helmets are greatly over-stated.

- Many other everyday activities could benefit more from helmets than cycling

- A helmet law would make it a crime for children to take part in a health-giving activity.

Best wishes

Stephen

Posted by Billy at 1:28 PM | Comments (0)

March 18, 2004

a worm's eye view

I've been thinking that I might have to abandon this blog, but I thought I could afford 30 seconds to forward this on.

B-)

The Wrap: A worm's eye view

18 March 2004

Terrorists declare war on evil, writes Andrew Brown. We should know better

Should terrorists be able to influence the outcome of elections? In one sense - and contrary to the impression you may have received this week - the right believes fervently that they should. Every advertisement suggesting that Mr Bush should be re-elected because of September 11 is based on the premise that terrorist crime should influence American voters. It just mustn't influence them to vote for his enemies, as appears to have happened in Spain.

Assume, for the sake of argument, that the election of a Socialist government is exactly what the bombers of Madrid intended. Should this have stopped the Spanish from voting as they did?

The first point to make is that if this is what they wanted, we are not dealing, in the words of one favourite cliche, with mindless terrorism. We are dealing with people much more effective at manipulating foreign electorates than the Bush government, which never managed to persuade more than a small minority of the Spanish people that the invasion of Iraq was wise and justified.

Fair enough. We are dealing with a subtle and determined enemy. Is it still wrong to do anything they want us to do? If it is, we're in dead trouble, because it would make them subtle, determined, and omniscient as well, since they would never want us to do anything which might in fact benefit us. Such terrorists would be figures of superhumanly gifted malevolence.

A worrying number of Bushies do write and behave as if their "War on Terror" were fought against supernatural powers. Barbara Amiel, for example, had an extraordinary rant in Monday's Telegraph: "Eta, Hezbollah and their many lookalikes have one thing in common. They all partake of the satanic nature of the terrorist culture ... a Satan that is evil incarnate, who can seize men's souls and turn them into his subordinates on earth."

She then goes on to compare Islamist terrorists unfavourably with the Nazis and the Stalinists, under whom "certain moral notions such as loyalty, conscience, support of the downtrodden or the innocence of the young, were never entirely dead even in that part of Satan's empire... such pinpricks in the darkness are missing from today's Satanists. No compunction mitigates or limits their murder. Only our actions on earth can stop them but their deeds are so transcendentally satanic that it genuinely leads to the invocation 'deliver us from evil'. One feels impelled to invoke the moral force of a deity against them."

Hang on. Let's take a few deep breaths here, Barbara. Al-Qaida has killed perhaps 10,000 people in the last ten years. Hitler and Stalin counted their victims in tens of millions. It is true that they appealed to some virtues to strengthen their vicious regimes, but so do the Islamists. "Loyalty, conscience, and the support of the downtrodden" are not confined to Nazis. They are some of the emotions appealed to by the jihadis and the recruiters of the suicide bombers.

The 21-year-old British suicide bomber Asif Mohammad Hanif said in the video released after his death, which was meant to justify his murders, "You spend the whole day in fields and then some dude comes with his truck and runs over it. How would you feel? You feel like standing him up, shooting him ... because you have worked for a whole day like that." This is hardly an appeal to an arcane religious principle. What Islam did was to persuade him, despite his British passport and education, that he had more in common with the wretched victims of the Gaza strip than with the free and democratic young people he blew up and mutilated.

Such people make a terrible weapon. But they are not forged in hell. They are made from recognisable human beings, with whom we were probably at school. Soldiering against injustice does seem more popular among young men than being a medical missionary. Our own culture glorifies the rebel, the misfit and the lone fighter against injustice. Jihadi Islam works with those materials. Suicide bombers are as often made in teenagers' bedrooms as in a mosque.

I hope and believe that Islam may be subverted by liberal capitalism, just as Christianity has been. But that happened by a change of hearts and minds, not a surrender to a head-on assault. No religion that has lasted 1,400 years can be exterminated by persecution: it can only be made more brutal and ignorant.

With all that said, I still think the new Spanish government should keep its troops in Iraq. We're all committed to imperialism now. Perhaps we shouldn't have conquered Iraq; I certainly wish we hadn't. But we did, and we must now help to run it as well as can be done. Throwing out Aznar, and Bush, and Blair, is not surrendering to the terrorists. It's an essential defence of democracy, by showing that in a democracy, people who lie their way into war will be punished. But pretending afterwards that the Iraq war didn't happen and that we can make it go away by withdrawing our troops is simply infantile.

• Andrew Brown, whose column normally appears on Fridays, is an English author and journalist and the author of The Darwin Wars: The Scientific War for the Soul of Man and In the Beginning Was the Worm: Finding the Secrets of Life in a Tiny Hermaphrodite. He also maintains a weblog, the Helmintholog (http://www.thewormbook.com/helmintholog/).

All comments and suggestions are welcome. Please send them to unlimited@guardianunlimited.co.uk.

If you have a query about your Wrap subscription, email subshelp@guardian.co.uk.

The Wrap is one of Guardian Unlimited's paid-for services. If you were forwarded this email and would like to subscribe, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/wrap

Guardian Unlimited copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004. Registered in England and Wales. No. 908396. Registered office: 164 Deansgate, Manchester M60 2RR

Posted by Billy at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2004

Oscar nominations

We're quite excited that Keisha Castle-Hughes got nominated for an Oscar and Jed picked up on the nice example of structural ambiguity in the Snowmail report on it:

Thank you Billy - that's fascinating reading. And being the language hot dog that you are you must have loved the quote for Whale Rider: '...Castle-Hughes was discovered by a casting director who visited her school and had no previous acting experience...'

It's the only time of the year I wish I had Sky to watch the whole terrible but unmissable award show live. We used to have Oscar parties to watch it all through the night!

Posted by Billy at 2:01 PM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2004

"pleasures are like poppies spread..."

Had a great Burns night at the weekend, the first one we've done with kids involved. Everyone joined in and some with great gusto. The kids all memorised small four-liner ones (2 graces and 1 little witticism about the joys of a highland welcome). We consumed decent but not outrageous amounts of usquabae, including some of Bonnie Prince Charlie's liqueur (in Edinburgh Fog as well as on its own - no rusty nails, though). If you fancy reading a bit of the bard, this is one of many well-stocked sites.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

January 27, 2004

'don't cheer...'

'...if Hutton brings down Blair'

Interesting article on spiked today

B-)

Posted by Billy at 3:08 PM | Comments (0)

January 19, 2004

Re: Explain

Elma asked me who had given Aidan the book. I had to confess it was the naughty neighbours (us). It got worse at the weekend. Kiloh, Anna and Makeda spent Saturday making cigarettes by rolling up paper and colouring the ends in red. Then they dressed up and went nightclubbing while 'smoking' all afternoon, pausing every now and then to drink some 'brandy' and 'champagne' (apple juice really). Hope they don't export this game to school as well.

Kiloh justifies her new smoking habit by saying 'it's better than sucking my thumb'

B-}

Posted by Billy at 3:22 PM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2004

debriefing

I just phoned Apoa who had her last selective exam today - she's still got a music audition and an assessment (which isn't selective) to do. As usual, I turned my lamp on her and asked detailed questions. Now I've got to resist the urge to tell Ohna all about it before she gets the chance to debrief.

Kiloh, meanwhile, seems to have pressed on both the intellectual and physical accelerators at once, with three books on the go at the moment (Lemony Snicket volume 10, Coraline by Neil Gaiman and The Subtle Knife on CD) and also having just restarted football club, gymnastics and swimming and also signed up for tag rugby. This was a first-come first-served deal and she was very impressive at making sure she was the very first to apply, getting straight on the phone to Ohna and filling in the form ready to hand it in first thing in the morning (she's also in the habit of leaving for school 20 minutes before the bell nowadays - the journey takes around 3 minutes door to door).

B-)

Posted by Billy at 4:25 PM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2004

going through the motions

Hi Dug,

Glad you're enjoying once more with feeling I haven't listened to it much because I haven't got round to watching the episode we taped a million years ago yet (not to mention the broken vcr I haven't had fixed yet even though it's only one phone call and it's rented so the repair is free and everything...) Your mum has a copy of the CD, btw

B-)

Posted by Billy at 9:25 PM | Comments (0)

January 9, 2004

high culture, low treatment

I've been busy as you can tell by the gap between this and the previous posting. Lots of postable stuff has happened but you know, life. I still don't have time to write this, but there does seem to be a general feeling that the later on a Friday it gets the more justifiable time-wasting is, which seems like a bit of a paradox but whatever.

Anyway, I won't tell you about all the stuff that happened over the last few weeks. Instead, I'll start by venting my frustration after spending an hour and a half this morning standing in the cold waiting to buy a day ticket at the Royal Opera House (while reading 'Crime and Punishment' - in for a penny...) only to be told when I got to the sales point that it was one ticket per person - something they didn't mention when I phoned to ask about it last week. I didn't want to go without Ohna and I have an overdeveloped 'let's-just-deal-with-it' module and didn't think about kicking up a fuss until too late, when I phoned up too late for them to do anything about it. So I left with nothing but memories...

B-(

Posted by Billy at 7:07 PM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2003

another negative comment

As with the last two, the effects were amazing with, inevitably, one or two disappointing moments (nothing as bad as the broomstick stuff at Hogwarts, though).

But if they've done such an amazingly good job of dealing with the relative sizes of the characters, why did the whole cinema erupt with laughter at the end when there were a couple of shots of hobbits next to Gandalf's knees?

B-}

Posted by Billy at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2003

animation

Luella has just updated her website. She has done a LOT of stuff, including one character who keeps popping up on my screen at home (clue: 'he's dour, he's French, he stands beside the bench...')

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

radio lullaby

We overslept this morning. Seems we're going to have to go back to the beeps as the radio makes us go back to sleep every morning. Kiloh has warned us not to do it tomorrow. It's her 9th birthday tomorrow so I've got a feeling there might be a human alarm clock in the house.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2003

this one's for the pigeons

I went to the opening of the Dead Bird Show at the Whitechapel Project Space last night (20 Fordham Street, E1 1HS if you're interested, tel: 020 7377 6289). The theme of the show is the fact that architects have been building buildings which don't allow animals to live in, on or near them (the gherkin being an obvious example, with no nest-building possibilities. A number of artists contributed work, including Sarah Lucas, paul Hamlyn, Peter Doig, Abigail Lane, Chris Ofili and David Harrison who's also the curator. The brief seemed to have been taken fairly literally, especially by Patricia Jordan's contribution 'Dead Bird' (can you guess what it was?) It was a really good, lively show. I felt a bit guilty arriving an hour early and persuading the curator to open the door to me. Within 5 minutes, there were about a dozen people inside which I guess means it all began an hour before he was ready.

Meanwhile, in another part of London city, the plight of birds in an urban habitat was also a theme at the Trafalgar Square plinth event

B-)

Posted by Billy at 5:12 PM | Comments (0)

this is him

B-)

Posted by Billy at 5:00 PM | Comments (0)

the new beckham

Kiloh mentioned to me that she took a Beckham-style free kick at football club yesterday, curling the ball round the wall to see it bouncing off the post. My enthusiasm has made her wish she hadn't mentioned it.

Where football and kids are concerned, I have a tendency to turn into Brian Glover in Kes

B-}

Posted by Billy at 4:44 PM | Comments (0)

December 8, 2003

weekend

The biggest events at the weekend were the christmas craft fair at school on Friday evening where I managed only to spend around 12 quid and then we went to a Children's Classic Concert at the Barbican on Saturday.

It seems that these are regular events where the audience has kids in it and they get to be noisy. At this concert, they screened two new animated versions of Oscar Wilde stories, 'The Nightingale and the Rose' (message: women are bad, well at least some women are) and 'The Selfish Giant' (message: don't be grumpy, let all the kids in the neighbourhood come and trash your garden as much as they like). We were told we could come dressed as princesses or as giants, and to bring flutes, recorders or percussion instruments. A lady in a wizard's cloak introduced it and told us when to make a noise. It was blooming noisy when everyone got going. And the older (13-14 year-old) kids joined in quite happily.

The films were good and the music that went with it was great as well, in a fairly traditional lyrical way. It was conducted by Debbie Wiseman who also composed it.

Sunday's highlight was a visit from Tim, Imogen and family who have moved to Bristol but luckily keep coming back because they haven't managed to sell their place here yet.

I capped the weekend by spending a couple of hours at Peter the school newsletter editor's house failing to upload pictures I'd taken at the fair onto his computer. Grrr!

B-)

Posted by Billy at 2:33 PM | Comments (0)

ice cream head

Mr Frost came in the night so my head froze when I went downhill this morning. Now I'm worrying about what it's going to do to my skin. Is there a product that protects skin from cold weather (other than a balaclava, I mean).

B-)

Posted by Billy at 2:16 PM | Comments (0)

December 5, 2003

about The Lecture List

We've just tried to do something about the fact that visitors to the Lecture List site have been left a bit confused about what the point of it is. Have a look and let us know what you think of it now. Has anybody got a nice picture of a lecture theatre or a seat in a lecture theatre or an ohp or anything?

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)

catching up

I finally saw Tanja last night. We decided it was 14 years that we'd let go by since we last saw each other, so there was a lot of catching up to do. I think Tanja's developments were definitely more dramatic than mine but we've both had exactly two kids in the meantime. We had both been under the impression that Apoa was a bit older than Jan but in fact he's about two weeks older than her. She couldn't believe that I'd forgotten the night of the 6am dog attack. I do remember bits of it, but I enjoyed the bits she filled in for me.

Posted by Billy at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

pea fair

Tuesday night was our Woodcraft pea fair, which means the kids worked in groups to prepare games or activities and then we dished out some peas to everyone and they went round paying with peas to take part in the activities.

I'm not completely sure what it is about trading or market forces that we're trying to show them but there were some interesting developments. The grownups didn't have enough peas and halfway through the evening half of the kids had run out. So the pea collecting stallholders swapped places with those who had spent their peas and we carried on like that for a while. The Bank of Pealand then announced a devaluation of the pea but still some kids were left pea-less so another announcement came which said that since 'this is woodcraft' some voluntary redistribution was in order.

The other main lesson was for the grownups. On a usual Woodcraft evening we struggle to keep 20 kids focussed but on Tuesday around 50 kids just got on with everything while the grownups stood around chatting.

My main contribution was to look after the hall users group's bric-a-brac stall. In little over an hour I took in around 12 quid for them.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)

December 3, 2003

vote muf

dug thinks we should all go here and vote for this.

So I did.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)

another mind-bending counterfactual

Another example from the cognitive linguists:

There was a similar one in a Randy Newman song ('The World Isn't Fair'): 'If Karl Marx were living today/he'd be rolling around in his grave'

It kind of reminds me of Samuel Beckett's line:

If I had the use of my body, I'd throw it out the window

Posted by Billy at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)

December 2, 2003

mind-bending counterfactual

Got this from the cognitive linguistics email list:

Rather interesting use of mental spaces here:

[Michael Jackson's defense attorney] said that if the accusations were true, 'Michael would be the first to be outraged.'

—NYT, 11/20/03

Posted by Billy at 9:50 AM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2003

the big conversation

This is a joke, isn't it? I'm sure genre specialists would be able to point out that it has all of the main features of satire. How many spoof sites are out there so far, I wonder?

B-)

Posted by Billy at 5:14 PM | Comments (0)

first dog in Space

Just nipped in to Bloomberg's Space gallery in Finsbury Square. It's a beautiful building with a great show by Goshka Macuga called 'Kabinett der Abstrakten' which consists of a cabinet in the front room, some pillars in the back and a selection of works placed in the library. It includes work by a number of other artists. The library is great and is permanent. Anyone can just walk in and sit around in a beautiful space reading books (if you've got time, of course) and spy in on meetings and workers above and below.

The highlight for me was the suit worn by the first dog in space which was inside the cabinet. It looked very comical but was in fact genuine and not just a corset with a plastic snout stuck on top.

The bad news is that the exhibition ends tomorrow so there's no time to bring anyone else along.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 3:06 PM | Comments (0)

'no way, Mrs. Queen'

I totally approve of this</ a>

Question Time didn't depress me as much last night as it did last week but I was still shocked by some of the opinions. Maybe the stupidest thing I've heard all week was the idea that Benjamin Zephaniah turned down his OBE in a cyncial attempt to generate publicity for himself.

B-}

Posted by Billy at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

November 27, 2003

bicycle police

Another fun thing about Hoxton in the evenings is lots of these

B-)

Posted by Billy at 5:38 PM | Comments (0)

art music dance

Ohna thinks Hoxton is a bit like the Lower East Side. We were hanging out down here after going to the White Cube for a 'ritual' performed by Susan Stenger, Michael Clark and dancers in the space now occupied by the latest installation by Cerith Wyn Evans. It was fun hanging out with names that can be dropped and the music (by Varese, Stenger, Debussy and John Cage) and dancing was great. Susan Stenger is best known (by me anyway) for playing bass guitar but she was playing the flute last night. The most funnest thing, though, was being in an unusual space where people weren't sure where to stand or what to look at.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 5:32 PM | Comments (0)

owzat

Just so you know, 'Vicky's accent wobbles' will score you only one run in Eastenders cricket

My favourite score is four runs for 'an extra gets served a drink at the Vic without speaking'. Do you think extras usually don't speak because:

a) they would then need to be paid more?

b) the writers are worried about how they'll deliver a line.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2003

debriefing

Apoa enjoyed her day out test-taking. She got a bit confused with the multiple choice, put some answers in the wrong place and for various reasons there were a few that she didn't answer. But at least she's got it out of the way and can get back to being a normal kid for a while. Her next exam is next Wednesday.

Posted by Billy at 5:09 PM | Comments (0)

rain

I'm enjoying all the rain we're finally getting. It feels great once you've unpeeled all of your layers and made yourself a cuppa.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)

November 24, 2003

another busy weekend

This weekend included a visit from Rebecca and Derek who came for lunch with Thomas and Benjamin. It was fun watching them all playing together. They were very excitable in a way I associate with kids who don't see each other very often. We used to go mad whenever we saw our cousins. A big difference between Apoa and Kiloh and my childhood is that being on a farm in the countryside meant that we hardly ever saw any other kids so we always went a bit mad when we did.

We also went to a party where the dress code was '1963'. This was interpreted fairly loosely in general but one guest arrived in a full 1963 England football strip (although the shorts were suspiciously short, imho).

The highlight, though, was seeing Ray Harryhausen talking to Nick Park about animation. I mentioned this on Lecture List as well, but I didn't tell them about my shame as I tried to jump the book-signing queue and was told to get lost. My excuse for this terribly un-British behaviour was that I'd been first in the queue, i.e. first out to buy a book from the stand, but then went back to find everybody else, not realising that this would mean losing my place. We didn't have time to wait around and I'm not really bothered about signatures anyway, so we gave up. I did manage to get Nick Park to sign it, though. Is that a major breach of etiquette?

I haven't had time yet to get the book out of Ohna's bag and see what it's like. I know the cover's good, though.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:58 PM | Comments (0)

test result

We heard this morning that Apoa got through the first exam she's taken for the two selective schools she's going for. The second exam is next week. Meanwhile, her first exam for the other school is this Wednesday. It'll be good when this is all over, although she is coping with it all very well.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)

never leave your bike at work

I did on Friday which meant it took me two hours to get to work this morning (half an hour by bike). The bus was delayed because of a road closure caused by someone trying to jump from suicide bridge. It's funny how people in London are so used to this as well as to tubes being delayed by people falling or jumping under the trains. My brother saw someone jump under a train recently. It's always a gruesome thought but if it doesn't happen in front of your eyes, then people seem to be able to shrug and carry on trying to get to where they're going.

Posted by Billy at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2003

a shitload more brevity

I enjoyed this follow-up to Geoff Pullum's post about brevity on language log but I'm fighting hard not to get all pedantic about the bit of pragmatics in it.

By the way (he said, following the blogger's digression maxim), a linguist once joked to me that she was a pedant, pronouncing it 'peedant'. I still don't know whether the joke was that she was pedantically pronouncing it 'correctly' or pretending she didn't know how to pronounce it thus revealing that she was an amateur peedant. I wonder why I've never looked it up?

B-)

Posted by Billy at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

P.S.

And when did Clive James start taking nasty pills?

Posted by Billy at 5:33 PM | Comments (0)

we fought the law and the law lost

This story is number two in the blogdex chart of most contagious web pages at the moment, beating Michael Jackson into third place and beaten only by a joke from the toque

I must admit I'm not that shocked as I have always thought the American government was really only making a minimal effort to pretend the war was justified on moral grounds, let alone legal.

I'm more shocked by the extent to which the British public seems to be going along with the pro-war arguments at the moment. I was seriously depressed watching Question Time last night and had to turn it off in the end. The misrepresentation of anti-war views, the squashing of people trying to express them and the extreme rudeness to Vanessa Redgrave really got to me.

For the record, I'm pro-American, anti-Saddam, anti-terrorism and have no problem with Bush coming to visit. But I think it was wrong to go to war in the way they did. This combination of ideas doesn't seem to be permitted at the moment, except in those terrible North London circles I move in....

Posted by Billy at 5:20 PM | Comments (0)

On Planning

Jed sent me this:

The Nobel Prize Winning economist, Kenneth J Arrow, was in the USAAF meteorological unit during World War ll. He quickly came to the conclusion that the medium-term weather forecasts which he was producing were no better than randomly right, and so asked to be relieved of this duty. USAAF Headquarters replied: 'The Commanding General is well aware that the forecasts are no good; however, they are needed for planning purposes...'

It seemed particularly appropriate when I was waiting for the bus with Apoa and everyone in the queue was laughing at the totally inaccurate and constantly updating LED display saying which bus was supposed to be coming when.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:25 AM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2003

more linguistic blogging

If you have any free time, then language log is a great way to use it up. I particularly enjoyed Geoff Pullum's long discussion of corpus fetishism, including the Morrisseyesque comment on certain reviewers who he decides it would be unkind to name:

...the only thing a fair-minded man like me can wish upon the reviewers is that they should die in obscurity

He followed this post with an (implicit, naturally) apology for his failure to follow one of Grice's maxims of manner.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

talking seals?

I haven't been living up to my status as a linguablogger very well recently so here is a highly dubious story from mirabilis

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:07 AM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2003

where do I live?

This is the kind of thing that makes me think I live in a weird little world that doesn't connect much with the rest of the country. It reminds me of the feeling I got when all those people queued up after the queen mother died. I still haven't met anyone who had any interest in that, and I still haven't met anyone who thinks the Iraq war was definitely a good idea.

B-}

Posted by Billy at 5:01 PM | Comments (0)

let it be - naked

I was slightly sceptical, partly because I quite enjoyed the strings. But it is actually very good, and a definite improvement on the original, mainly because it feels like a coherent album now. Mind you, I don't think the relative incoherence made it untypical. All of their albums were a bit disjointed, weren't they?

B-)

Posted by Billy at 4:40 PM | Comments (0)

nice to see you

Andy got us into the studio audience for Bruce Forsyth's return to the BBC on Saturday night. It was fun to see some of the technicalities and very cool to see Brucie in action close up. What a professional. It took him about three seconds to find the best people in the audience to work with - three ladies called Rita, Iris and Doreen who fell about laughing after every rude remark he made. Some of his jokes and routines must have been travelling around with him for around 50 years. But they're still funny.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 4:37 PM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2003

what brand are you?

winnovators

Posted by Billy at 1:13 PM | Comments (0)

scary thought ;-)

kippers

B-)

Posted by Billy at 1:04 PM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2003

naked beatles

I'm quite excited that the 'raw' version of Let It Be is finally coming out on Monday.

The NME says it might be the best garage rock album of all time. But the BBC says it's 'not so much naked as, say, removing a jumper or loosening the tie a bit'

Anyway, I don't think it will be realistic competition for Bleach

B-)

Posted by Billy at 6:15 PM | Comments (0)

hormesis

Thanks to Lecture List I went to the Ergonomics Society Lecture last night, which was fun, especially being introduced to concepts like 'hormesis'. I left my bike in town afterwards and went out with Mike and Ohna. So I had the pleasure of public transport this morning. So weird to be surrounded by so much misery and the ongoing soundtrack of announcements about strikes and 'no trains running' and so on...

B-)

Posted by Billy at 3:45 PM | Comments (0)

I'm animated

Way-hay, I just did 'weirdly well' on the Guardian's animation quiz (well, you can't work all day, can you?)

B-)

Posted by Billy at 1:52 PM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2003

stimulants needed?

I gave up caffeine ages ago (was it one year or two years? I'm not sure). I was having one of those 'isn't parental life tough?' conversations with Alan outside the playground and he told me he's just started consuming caffeine again because he can't keep up with his work otherwise. He starts drinking coffee at 9 in the evening after the kids have gone to bed, so that he can get enough energy together to do some work at home. I'm going to continue with trying to avoid that, though.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 1:48 PM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2003

what is a blogger?

This was one of the questions in our pub quiz last night. It was approximately the only one we knew the answer to.

The quizmaster said about one question ('what are canopus and caloosahatchee?') that this referred to a news story we would all have heard about. But it turned out I hadn't even heard the story. It made me realise that I've been reading books lately and not reading newspapers. I think I'm just keeping up to speed with the top two or three stories every day. On the radio today, this story entered the top three and I heard about it for the first time. I'm not complaining, though. The books have been good.

The answer, btw, is that they're the proper names of the toxic ships George Bush is sending in advance of his own visit next week. And not, as we guessed, the proper names of Jake and Dinos Chapman's two plastic shagging people (well he did say it was topical and 'coming to a head' next week).

B-)

Posted by Billy at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2003

a big amarone

Ohna came home on Saturday B-))

She had been enjoying some rather fine food in Milan and brought some of it back with her, including a huge wedge of top quality parmeggiano and a bottle of Amarone which was absolutely delicious (for connoisseurs it was a 1999 Villa Borghetti). Apparently, this was the wine which complemented Hannibal Lecter's meal of census taker with fava beans. I remembered it as being a 'fine chianti' but apparently it was a 'big amarone'. Maybe the book is different from the film, or maybe I'm remembering the French and Saunders version rather than Anthony Hopkins. Anyway, it was very good, even if we didn't have any fava beans or anything.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

November 4, 2003

'he just drove away'

I missed the beginning of the Flaming Lips because I was at the bar being held up by members of the support band Alfie (I think - they could have been just good lookalikes) so Robbie has described the beginning for me and also explained what happened on his journey home. When we heard that trains were disrupted and he had to get a replacement bus at Bognor we thought he might be in trouble (seeing as how the words 'bugger' and 'Bognor' have been known to go together in the past). Robbie's message:

Been to the lips website to get more info and also to Alfie's site which is great. I listened to some of their tracks as well - I think they are even better recorded

The beginning is difficult to describe as it happened so fast - the music came on (forget what that piece is called) all the balloons billowed out with sparkly stuff - lots of coloured light on audience and on stage - and then they went into the song...

When I got to Bognor there were three of us waiting for the bus which did eventually come but refused to take us to Chichester as he was at the end of his shift. He just drove away...

The train people called us a taxi which they paid for - got home about 1.10pm

Posted by Billy at 9:56 AM | Comments (0)

November 3, 2003

Flaming Lips

I had a great time with Robbie in the delightful cartoon town that is Brighton (yes, I mean that in a good way, although I guess I am implying that I'm not certain I'd like to live there). We had a look at the fallen pier which looked great at twilight with raging winds and waves crashing all around it. Then we visited Food For Friends for some partly healthy food and then we went to the gig in the Brighton Centre which took us back to younger days. It's a big 50s/60s municipal building that feels like an odd venue for a pop concert. We enjoyed wandering through empty corridors and rooms with our plastic guinnesses before the show.

All three acts made good use of the video projections behind them, combining little films with live footage from a camera on the singer's mike (I can't write 'mic') stand and, for the first act (Steve Burns) on the drummer's head. Alfie were promising in a Coral/Small Faces kind of way and the Flaming Lips were excellent combining their traditional 'crazy' showpersonship with some serious moments. The showbiz included big balloons bouncing over the crowd, dancers in animal costumes, santa, bleeding heads, singalongs, happy birthday being sung to everyone in the audience who (claimed to) have a birthday, snowflakes being hurled onto the audience and some top pop tunes, including a version of 'Seven Nation Army' being squealed into a megaphone (that was the clincher that persuaded Apoa and Kiloh that they want to come next time). The serious bits were about doing something about things you think are bad (following the communal booing of Scwarzenegger, Bush and Blair) and about the death of Elliot Smith, who did a lot of work with the band and their sound man, and, in this context, about how life has no meaning and you have to work to make yourself happy. They were both introductions to songs. I can't remember which song was about how we all have to decide whether we're going to try to make a change but the song that was about working on making yourself happy was 'Waitin' For A Superman'.

Two other highlights of the day were cycling through the spookily deserted City on a dark windy, autumn-leaf afternoon and then again in the middle of the night on the way home.

B-)

Posted by Billy at 2:47 PM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2003

political comment

John(P) just reminded me of this post from November 2002 and the 'portentous political comment' in an email I sent him a year ago:

Yes, IDS is just one big open goal gaping in front of the satirists, isn't he? I've been making reference to this story quite a bit in my pragmatics class. Great examples of someone saying something and being taken to mean something quite different, e.g. Portillo says he's not interested in being leader and being taken to mean 'make me leader'

I'd feel clever if it wasn't for the fact that every single person in the country who isn't in the Tory party took the same view.

Can't believe they're going for someone as obviously dislikeable as Howard but I agree with Michael Portillo who said that at least he'll give them some definition. But is that really how they want to be defined?

B-)

Posted by Billy at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2003

football debut

Every football fan knows that the first real game they ever go to is always an amazing and unforgettable game. For me, it was a glorious sunny day when Aberdeen beat St. Johnstone 5-0 in the Scottish League Cup, including a hat-trick by Jimmy 'Jinky' Smith who went on to be sold to Newcastle for a then Scotland-to-England record sum of ?100,000 (I've just been checking and it might have been 3-0 in 1966, but anyway).

Last night, I finally got to take the kid (Apoa, Kiloh and Aidan) to their first game, thanks to drastically reduced ticket prices caused by the decision not to play most of the first team in the League Cup. I was worried that I'd let them down by taking them to a League Cup game against lower division opposition with not too many star players on the pitch (although who knows whether there was a future Beckham on the pitch?)

With five minutes to go, Arsenal were up 1-0 and things were petering out when Apoa needed the loo. While she was there, Rotherham equalised and we ended up with extra-time and a penalty shootout (at our end) in which everybody from each team, including the keepers, took a penalty and they had to start again before we finally won 9-8. It was half past eleven and the kids were passing out on their doorsteps when we finally got home. Pretty good value at 5 quid a ticket!

Posted by at 1:06 PM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2003

IDS

Does anyone else think it's a bad sign that he himself wants to be known as 'IDS'?

And is there a difference between a vote of confidence and a vote of no confidence?

B-}

Posted by at 3:20 PM | Comments (0)

exam

Apoa's chance to use my ipod came on the way home from her first selective school exam. This is a school where 1800 kids apply every year and 180 get in. There was a lot of nervousness around, most of it being felt by grownups. Most of the grownups I overheard were talking about how cool their kids had been about it all. One of them said:

I couldn't sleep last night, but she's been completely fine

Apoa too was very cool about it. We had to wait around in a crowded hall for half an hour before the exam. She just sat there calmly making a friendship bracelet while I read a bit more of my current book, which is Sidetracked by Henning Mankell. It's a really good crime novel, although there were a few moments in it where I've been wondering a bit about the translation (you know that feeling where you don't know whether the original author or the translator decided to put it like that).

Apoa did show one sign of nervousness, though. She went to the loo just before she went in and then thought she needed to go again straight away. By the time she came out of the exam, she didn't need to go any more.

The pencil she used for the exam was 3 centimetres long. I did persuade her to bring in one full-length spare but she insists that these little stubs are easier to use.

B-)

Posted by at 2:33 PM | Comments (0)

where the kids are at

Thanks to Ohna, I've now got one of these and am enjoying it very much. The kids are enjoying borrowing it and I enjoy checking out their listening preferences. On Sunday, Kiloh went straight for the Super Furry Animals (Rings Around The World) and yesterday Apoa went first for Brain Damage by Pink Floyd before moving on to the White Stripes. The White Stripes are really big in the primary schools of North London and Seven Nation Army will be featuring in Apoa and Kiloh's next school orchestra performance.

B-)

Posted by at 1:47 PM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2003

more on the language judge

Another message to LINGUIST gives some more links to stories in the Omaha World Herald about the judge who told a father not to 'speak hispanic' to his daughter (he's stepped down now). The links are here, here, here and here. The original article is here

The person who sent the post comments:

...I'm also impressed that Judge Reagan's office is returning calls about his ruling forbidding a father to speak Spanish to his child...It sounds like Judge Reagan has been getting quite a lot of flak on the ruling. Some community groups have requested to meet with the judge, and others are taking the opportunity to do a little public education on bilingualism. So maybe some good will come of this in the end

LINGUIST List: Vol-14-2859

Posted by at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2003

success for Jed

He writes:

Wow! We just won one! That's so unusual I thought I'd tell you about it:

When you are lucky enough to live in a good place, you would like to keep it that way. Developers, however, make their money by building new things - not by protecting the old. And they make a lot of money doing it, so they tend to be much more persistent than your average resident/protester. In this part of the world, if the building project doesn't 'fit in' (and most don't) The Town Council gets first vote - and in this case they refuse it. So it moves up the planning ladder to The District Council - who also refuse it. The Developer (who wasn't expecting anything else) now takes the last and most expensive step - he appeals to The Department of The Environment. Now that's a wonderful title ('Environment and all..') but what it really means is - John Prescott! - who, in his office of Deputy Prime Minister is in total control of all local government (stop and think about that for a moment). Now, continuing the amazing magic trick of our Labour Government being more Conservative than ever the old Conservatives would have dared, John Prescott has decided that if it is a building application, it should not only be approved, it should be encouraged. So, appeals, though costly to the applicant, mostly lead him to the approval he was seeking. I have very few arms to fight this. But in this case, I was able to get the hearing moved to our local Town Hall rather than the Inspectors Offices miles away. Some judiciously planted local Press stories generated a large public turnout (40+ ain't much to you, but for a planning meeting here, that's a crowd!) The Building plans (large block of flats on coast) had been discussed to death but by forcing them to look at the plot and not just the building I was able to show that they intended to tarmac the garden completely and provide parking for twelve cars - which would change completely the street scene from the small town treescape it is into an urban parking lot. I thought we had lost it. But just this week I got the notification - the appeal (against our refusal to allow building) was dismissed! Jubilation in Budleigh Salterton!! But to paraphrase The Governor of California: 'The builder will be back'. Yes he will, but his next bid will be more in keeping with this funny town.

Cheers! Jed

Posted by at 7:49 PM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2003

FBI Internships

I enjoyed receiving an email just now from James R. Fitzgerald, Supervisory Special Agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation. to let me know that the FBI internship programme has now been expanded to include linguistics graduates as potential interns. The message was sent to the Forensic Linguistics mailing list and forwarded on to a different list which I'm on. The first sentence of the email was 'Some of the List members are familiar with me'. I enjoyed both the ambiguity and the echoes of Blur's 'We've Got A File On You' which I'd just been listening to and which had been reminding me of Gilbert and Sullivan's song in the Mikado, 'I've Got A Little List', as well as that joke about ex-Stasi employees getting jobs as taxi-drivers after the Berlin Wall came down (the one about them being great taxi drivers because they 'know where you live')

B-)

Posted by at 3:18 PM | Comments (0)

latest scores

The judge was right: 587

The judge was wrong: 697

Undecided: 45

No opinion: 31

Posted by at 3:07 PM | Comments (0)

language judgement

LINGUIST readers were shocked the other day to hear about a judge in Nebraska who had apparently told a father not to 'speak Hispanic' to his daughter or risk losing his visitation rights. Apparently, he had said 'it's hard enough to learn English, you know'.

Anyway, here's what happened when another linguist phoned the judge to protest:

I was so alarmed after reading the article mentioned yesterday on linguist list (Linguist 14.2777) that I googled the judge's name to get his address/phone number and then I called and left a long message saying that the ruling was harmful and ill-informed and went on to say why this was so, and who I was etc.

To my surprise, I got a call from Judge Reagan's secretary this morning, responding to my message of last night. She said she has been getting a lot of responses like mine and she wanted me to know that both sides are not coming out in the press and that in the courtroom the judge had said that he is for bilingualism and wishes he were bilingual himself. She said that the issue is that the father was in jail for the first 5 years of his daughter's life and the girl doesn't know him and he wants to speak only Spanish with her and she doesn't understand any Spanish. I told her that linguistically there is nothing wrong with being immersed in a language at age 5 and in fact that would be a better way for her to become bilingual than the 'this is a carro, that is a mochila' method, but that it sounds like the real issue is that she didn't know her father until now and that her current discomfort with her father seems magnified (to her, her mother, the judge) with the additional linguistic difference. So, I still don't think that was the right ruling, and I don't know about the whole 'speaking Hispanic' thing, but I sure was impressed that someone actually called me back.

The Omaha World Herald is now running an online vote asking whether the judge was right. You can find a link to the story near the voting buttons at the bottom of the page.

B-)

Posted by at 2:48 PM | Comments (0)

saved 2

The guy on the bike wasn't injured at all, by the way. It looked like his brakes weren't working but he managed to slow down enough to get onto the pavement, despite the fact that another cyclist who'd just taken refuge there was in his way.

B-}

Posted by at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

saved

Being a Hayward Explorer got me an invite to a breakfast reception plus a tour of Saved this morning, which was coolissimo. A cup of calm, a mini-muffin, a danish, a short guided tour, a free audioguide, a rokeby venus poster, and getting to see the exhibition before anyone else with only around 40 people in the gallery. Highlights included a letter Mary Queen of Scots wrote the night before she was executed, the burghers of calais on the terrace, some golden treasure from a spanish armada boat, the only spherical astrolabe still in existence, and loads of things.

On the way there, I saw a man nearly die by driving into the side of a lorry who was turning left (the most common cause of death for cyclists in London) just before reading a stencil telling me I was travelling over the spot where a bicycle messenger was recently killed and then being terrified by a car who was passing me as I was about to pass a stationary bus. On the way back another driver shouted at me as he passed me, I think because I wasn't close enough to the kerb for his liking. It's still better than the tube, though.

B-}

Posted by at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)

spirited away

Thanks to UNISON being on strike in Haringey yesterday, I finally managed to take the kids to see Spirited Away.

It really is a fantastic movie. When it ends and you come back to the beginning, it seems like the beginning was a long time ago and that an awful lot has happened since then.

I didn't think the kids would enjoy subtitles so we went to the Coronet in Notting Hill, which was nicely nostalgic (even though it's changed a bit since our day, including no longer allowing people to smoke) only to discover that Time Out had made a mistake and it was subtitled after all. I'm glad because I now know that subtitles are no problem for them and also because the word is that the dubbed version is a bit dodgy, for example translating what should be 'sorceress' as 'witch' and what should be 'gods' as 'spirits'. I have no way of knowing whether that's right but I prefer the subtitled words anyway.

It was also interesting introducing the kids to the concept 'rush hour' when we took the tube home.

B-)

Posted by at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)

October 13, 2003

holes

Holes is a fantastic book that we all read recently and so we were excited to hear it was being made into a movie

Yesterday, we went to a special preview screening at the Phoenix, which was a charity event to raise money for new seats. It was great fun as loads of people squeezed in for free food and lucky dips and stuff before the film. Probably the most exciting thing for the kids was that Dick N Dom were there with a little bit of bogies.

The film was good but there were a couple of creaky bits in the conversion from book to film. We wondered what it would be like for people who hadn't read the book.

We had a problem on the way home when Ohna's tyre broke (yes, it could be described as a hole), so we had to ask Justin to help out with his Hiace. We're still resisting buying a new car, though.

B-)

Posted by at 9:23 AM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2003

fight fight fight bite bite bite

Went to see Kill Bill last night and it was lots of fun, partly because there was such a huge crowd (largely male and twenty-to-thirty-something) crammed together on the way in but mainly because it's an incredibly impressive movie. There's been a lot of talk about all the other movies it alludes to but for some reason nobody has mentioned Itchy and Scratchy which is by far the most obvious influence.

The plot is simple and 'a roaring rampage of revenge' covers it pretty well (Lawrence confirmed that this will be mentioned in at least one Hamlet seminar in the near future) but I don't agree with David Thomson who suggests that in this film Tarantino decided to 'ignore character and conversation'. There's not much conversation but there are real characters, even though they're the kind you get in action movies, and it's very skilful in helping you to get to know them quickly. But it is the 'other stuff' that's the most obvious, including another great soundtrack and some amazing editing.

B-)

Posted by at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

October 8, 2003

rotten film?

This could be good. I really enjoyed the book, even though it was kind of incoherent, with a lot of repetitions and things. It seemed like he'd been interviewed and then the bits had been put together quite quickly. But I did think his story was interesting. I guess it all depends on what they do with it...

B-)

Posted by at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

October 3, 2003

above the below

Went to see David Blaine with Kim while she was here. She said she had promised Jonathan she'd have a look. I don't think it's as stupid as most people do. I mean, everyone's talking about him, aren't they? I'm sure that's his main aim. And it was slightly interesting to stand there looking up from beneath the above the below.

B-)

Posted by at 4:05 PM | Comments (0)

tea leaves

Well, I really could have done without having to spend two hours (and a load of dosh) replacing my bike saddle today after some tea leaves half inched it. Funnily enough, this happened outside the Barbican where I met someone last week who'd just had his bike nicked. I guess everywhere is equally dodgy in London but maybe that bit of pavement is made more dodgy because there aren't many pedestrians there.

Enjoyed Mike's show on Wednesday and had a nice time with Kim and Mike and Gerry then and yesterday, exploring family and other pasts and presents. Being a kid in Kintore feels like a really long time ago now. Meanwhile Bessie and Ted are in Blackpool having a romantic holiday to celebrate the anniversary of their first wedding, which was 60 years ago next week. I can't imagine what it feels like to look back that far over all the things that have happened in between.

B-)

Posted by at 4:01 PM | Comments (0)

October 1, 2003

I just can't find reverse in this thing

If you're interested, the full text of Blair's speech is here

Posted by at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

Blair and Brown

I enjoyed The Deal. I think my favourite bit was when Blair told Brown to say hello to Patsy Palmer (well, I think that's who they meant) on his way out of Granita and when they showed us the real Blair and Brown together right at the end.

I do think Blair's performance yesterday was brilliant as a performance and I do think there was some substance there, but not about actual policies or decisions or anything. What gets my goat, though, is when you hear him talking about the Iraq thing and constantly focusing on whether it would have been OK if they had done nothing at all about Iraq (he says 'we', of course but that word sticks in my throat). Surely everyone can see that there were more than two options available? There are surely a lot of people who think something should have been done but not the things that they have done. Nearly all of the members of the UN, for example?

The thing I always remember is that Blair stated quite clearly that he wouldn't support Bush if there wasn't a new UN resolution and then changed his mind when it became clear there wouldn't be one. And nearly everybody must see that there was a huge amount of deceit and dishonesty when he was trying to persuade people to support the war. I think he might survive, though. I'm not sure that people care too much about honesty when it comes to politics. I bet Dirty Den would have a fair chance of getting elected if he stood. (Arnie and Dirty Den - now that would be a special relationship.)

Apparently, when some Hollywood producer was told that Reagan was standing for president, he replied:

No, no. Jimmy Stewart for president. Reagan for the best friend.

B-)

Posted by at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)

on the road again

Well, I had to take the bus again to go and collect my bike and it was even worse. 40 minutes to get from one end of Upper Street to the other. How many million people are being made miserable like this everyday? I'm glad I've got my bike back.

B-}

Posted by at 9:44 AM | Comments (0)

September 30, 2003

brave new world

My bike is in surgery today so I decided to enjoy the brave new world of more buses, shrinking journeys, and so on.

Please god don't let it happen again.

B-}

Posted by at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)

busy family

My brothers show is on this week and my family are so busy that I have to go three times, once with Ohna, once with Apoa and once with Kiloh (Stefanie's going on her own).

Ohna did a night a shoot last night so she got home at 6.30 this morning and got into bed in time for me to get up.

Meanwhile, me and Kiloh are only 120 pages away from the end of the Harry Potter book. Only 649 pages in and we're already getting a feeling that something might actually happen soon. OK, I am being a bit unfair. I have enjoyed it. The Ofstedding of Hogwarts is fun, and the bit where you find out more about his dad and mum and the other growns when they were at school is really good. But I do think it would have been a much better book if the first 650 pages had been reduced to around 100 pages. On the other hand, the kids do like all the detail. Anyway, I spent most of the evening last night reading it and we had to continue over breakfast. Looking forward to another instalment tonight.

B-)

Posted by at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2003

comics for growns

Did a few fun things this weekend, including skating with Kiloh and her friend Sally, who hurt her feet because her socks were too short. Hope they're mending now. Also went to see a tribute to Peter Tinniswood at the NFT, which was fun, although I was expecting a bit more talking than we got.

But the highlight of the weekend was visiting our little local library where I not only became a hero by getting 8 Mile out but also discovered that they now stock graphic novels (OK, comic books). The first thing you see as you come in the door are rows of brand new books just waiting to be borrowed. I started by getting a collection of rare and not so rare work by R Crumb called Odds and Ends, a Daniel Clowes collection that I haven't read yet and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which I also haven't read yet but feel I should before that awful-looking film comes out and ruins everything.

B-)

Posted by at 2:53 PM | Comments (0)

Raising Victor Vargas

Raising Victor Vargas does have a lot in common with Kids. New York, sex-obsessed kids, realism, realistic dialogue, good performances, a swimming pool,... But it's much less gruesome, with no HIV-related plot or anything. Believe it or not, it's also got a lot in common with American Pie. It's more realistic and not over-the-top/cartoony, but the characters have a similar innocence and the same obsession with sex. And there's one clear echo, which might or might not be deliberate, when one of the female characters tells her man that he is 'my bitch'.

B-)

Posted by at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2003

movie massacre

There's an interesting little story about film in the interview with Emo Philips in this week's Friday Thing:

In his absence, some of you may have seen his name attached to the Robert De Niro/Ben Stiller farce 'Meet the Parents'. You probably thought, that must be nice for Emo. But no.

Philips made a film called 'Meet the Parents' for £22,000 in 1991 - which he showed at Edinburgh, and at the NFT and which got rave reviews on the arts pages. Universal bought the remake rights and then, seven years later, butchered it in the remake.

'They put my name on the film in the same way we name streets after Indians we've massacred,' he explains. 'I haven't been to the cinema since. I hated the ending. In mine, everyone died. But then, mine was a film and theirs was a movie. In a film, anything can happen. In a movie, you know exactly what's going to happen. But I've learnt my lesson. I'm not planning to do any more movies. I know my limitations. I'm a good stand-up. A lot of my contemporaries are now writing gags for sitcoms. That's rather like giving up bullfighting and becoming a meat packer.'

B-)

Posted by at 3:04 PM | Comments (0)

Mr. Arkadin

Went to see a fairly mad Orson Welles movie last night called Mr. Arkadin, also known as 'Confidential Report' (I seem to be on a run of movies with more than one title). It started off reminding me of the backwards Seinfeld episode but the film it most reminded us of was Beat The Devil, which it was even more hammy than and not as consistently entertaining as (ooh, dangling prepositions, you won't tell, will you?). It was so over the top that it was hard to take seriously and the main character was really horrible, so it wasn't really that engaging, but there were still some fun scenes, including a really funny turn by Michael Redgrave.

Afterwards, Geoff wanted to show me the architecture in Southwark tube station. When we asked if I could go in for a look and come out again, they sold me a platform ticket for 40p, which was quite exciting (you have to come out again within 70 minutes). The station is definitely worth seeing, btw, but the best way is to take the tube there and start from the platform.

B-)

Posted by at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

September 25, 2003

Now that's what I call apathy

Just read this in the Guardian's backbencher email:

Arkansas NBC ('Coverage You Can Count On') was in polemical mood last week. 'Carl Miner of Blytheville has gotten a very important lesson on why voters should go to the polls,' it admonished readers. 'Miner was on Tuesday's ballot, unopposed for a school board seat in south Mississippi County. No one voted for him - and the candidate didn't even cast a ballot for himself.' Common oversight, surely? 'Miner says he tried to vote but the polling place near his zone was closed,' reports the channel, adding perspicaciously: 'He says he thinks he gets the seat because no one else was on the ballot.' It was the first time in Mississippi County that a whole precinct had failed to vote. Now that's what the Backbencher calls post- democracy.

B-)

Posted by at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)

September 24, 2003

free ride

Saw a kid stealing a lift on the back of a lorry this morning. Haven't seen that for a long time. I think it was one of those moralistic cyclists who finally made him get off, but he made it most of the way from the top of Blackstock Road to the bottom of Highbury Grove.

B-)

Posted by at 9:53 AM | Comments (0)

rain effect

When it rains you can really smell the poo on the Parkland Walk

B-)

Posted by at 9:49 AM | Comments (0)

les triplettes de belleville

Finally made it to see Belleville Rendezvous (or 'Les Triplettes de Belleville' if you're watching it in a Francophone country) last night. Well worth the wait and definitely makes you cycle differently after you've seen it.

B-)

Posted by at 9:32 AM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2003

devon swingers

This is for anyone who thought Budleigh Salterton was boring. Jed and Ruth have never mentioned this, and they also kept pretty quiet about the nudist beach for a long time (apparently, the closer you get to Exmouth the wilder it gets). I found this after discovering that 'budleigh salterton nudist beach' was a search phrase which led some surfers to the Lecture List page.

B-)

Posted by at 1:48 PM | Comments (0)

egg heads, noise addicts and pain freaks

According to the BBC Black Dice review Jonathan mentioned, these are the groups who will clutch this to their hearts. I've now heard two 29-second excerpts and it sounds good to me. I find you can enjoy it through headphones which you're not even wearing, which is kinda special.

B-)

Posted by at 1:38 PM | Comments (0)

Jonathan's in love

Jonathan says:

hi, how are you doing - thought I should let you know about Black Dice, who you may already know about. I'm currently in love with their album and this is a review of one of their gigs from a while back.

crayzee man

Posted by at 12:12 PM | Comments (0)

My Computer Told Me To Do It

Today's afternoon play is written and directed by Jim Poyser, so it's bound to be good, and funny.

B-)

Posted by at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)

Vicky's accent

Just got back on track with Eastenders in time for Dirty Den's return. They've just done a really bizarre thing with Vicky's accent. Vicky is Michelle's daughter, born and raised in the states, who recently came back to the square to hang out with her half sister and who now also lives with her recently discovered half brother (who, btw, has sexual feelings towards the other half sister, which she half shares but is in denial about), who is about to meet her long-presumed-dead father who didn't die in the canal a couple of decades ago after all. (God, it's like a bleedin soap opera, innit?)

Anyway, Vicky (who is apparently a graduate of the Mountview Theatre School down the road from us) has just come back to the square after going home and then visiting Europe for a bit and her accent has suddenly changed to a slightly weird version of an English one. I need to re-view the omnibus to hear the exact exchange but one of the characters commented on it and she gave a reply which suggested that this was something she decided to do since she had decided to fit in. Since then we've noticed a very English 'a' in 'can't' and then a self-correction when she said was going to 'see a movie' and then tutted and changed it to 'going to the cinema'. Does anybody else find all of this just a wee bit unrealistic?

B-)

Posted by at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2003

play

Had a good weekend with Robbie. Ohna and Kiloh were away camping and Apoa had a number of engagements so it was good to have some company. It was Open House Weekend so we had a look in St. Pancras Chambers, which used to be a big posh hotel and is about to be redeveloped into ... a big posh hotel. Also had fun at a comedy night on Saturday. I had my mind read and Robbie got picked on a wee bit (so you're single? since? did she dump you or did you dump her? somebody else? that's even worse, isn't it?) The main act were Men In Coats who do really good visual comedy, even if they did repeatedly fire a water pistol in my face for a few seconds.

I'm off now (well, not actually moving, but you know) to listen to the Afternoon Play on Radio 4. It's 'Occasional Swim' by Annie McCartney who's really good. The website says:

Rosa and Colm meet at their local pool, and romance soon blossoms. But Colm's past requires more than a little explanation.

The thing about the guy with a past is really typical of Annie McCartney's work, which often has to do with people working out what the deal is with other people (and often getting it wrong at first).

For some reason, I'm suddenly thinking of the gun in the drawer when David Hunter first moved into the Crossroads Motel, but her stuff is in a whole different universe from that, of course.

B-)

Posted by at 2:27 PM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2003

lyrics

dug occasionally posts a message about pop lyrics. I still don't know which song the last lot came from.

But I've been having fun reading the lyrics to Violaine by the Cocteau Twins. For the full effect, you need to be listening while reading them, of course.

B-)

Posted by at 5:41 PM | Comments (0)

rscheearch pocejrt

I've read this in so many emails in the past few days I can almost recite it by heart. I'm too lazy to check out the source or anything.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

Posted by at 5:33 PM | Comments (0)

word pirates

This is fun and sometimes also serious.

B-)

Posted by at 3:17 PM | Comments (0)

Closure of Linguistics at Durham

This is really sad news from the linguistics department at Durham, which is definitely one of the best in the country.

Dear Colleagues,

Last June we announced the proposals by the University of Durham to close its highly successful and internationally respected Department of Linguistics and English Language. We have been very gratified over the past three months with the amount of support and solidarity we have been shown by the linguistics community in general and the LAGB in particular. University administrators themselves have commented that they were surprised by the number of letters they received on our behalf.

Nevertheless, the university administration has chosen to ignore our research rating, our teaching excellence, our international standing and the arguments of the worldwide community of linguists. It is with deep regret that we let you know that the University Executive Council has decided to close the Department of Linguistics and English Language at the University of Durham. No redeployment is being proposed, although negotiations are apparently in progress with the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, with a view to transferring the linguists at Durham to that institution. However, that move would obviously require the full support (including financial backing) of HEFCE, and as yet we have no idea whether that will be forthcoming.

We will keep the list informed of any further developments. Once again, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all our supporters.

Posted by at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2003

lecture list

The Lecture List project is coming along nicely at the moment. There are a lot of different things to be doing at once, but we're getting there. We've got a data entry screen up now so that anyone can input data about forthcoming talks. We're hoping that kind people will use the form even though we won't be giving the talks much publicity yet. If you hear of anything, please fire away.

I'm a bit disappointed that this rather groovy project probably doesn't count. If I can get enough stuff done in the next half hour I might try to get along to tonight's event. It's not looking too promising at the moment, though.

B-)

Posted by at 7:13 PM | Comments (0)

let it be - naked

The version of 'Let It Be' with Phil Spector's production input removed is coming out in November. xfm report it here

Seems like a pretty extreme version of a director's cut, especially since it's not clear how many directors there were, nor what John Lennon would think of it. I'm quite pleased that 'Don't Let Me Down' is going to be on it, partly cos it's a nice song but also cos the kids used to do a good version of it when they were wee. Mind you, they originally got into Gene's version rather than the one by the beatles band, believe it or not.

B-)

Posted by at 6:02 PM | Comments (0)

Popculcha

Casper writes:

For the readers who don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of your archives, this is the post I was referring to (yes, I did read that far back):

http://blogs.pumpernickle.net/billy/permalinker/?pid=22&blog=billy

B-)

Posted by at 1:37 PM | Comments (0)

popular culture

Just had a message from Casper, who was a student I taught a long time ago. Among other things, he says:

'I don't remember Deirdre Wilson as being any more au fait with popular culture than you, although her lectures were great.

B-)

Posted by at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

secondary transfer

Here's a nice long message for you. Looks like they're getting less frequent but bigger at the moment.

Apoa's in her final year of primary school now which means it's time for us to come face to face with the tragic reality of England's education system (actually, the system as a whole isn't bad but the secondary transfer deal is terrible if you live in a decent-sized town or city). Historians will remember that it all went particularly wrong in the 80's when Thatcher decided to give choice to schools and to a small percentage of families, while leaving the majority to worry.

We're lucky in that we have a good state school just down the road from us, even though it's just for girls (until sixth form). Apoa's quite likely to get in there, but we can't be completely sure. I think I've gotten over my aversion to single-sex education enough to go for that if she gets in.

If she doesn't get in there, then the only thing we'll know for sure is that they won't send her to one of the other choices we put on our form (since they'll fill up with people who have put them down as a first choice). So we've decided to let her try for two selective schools, which means I have now to get over my aversion to selection (you know, that thing that there would be none of under a Labour government, according to the writing on David Blunkett's lips).

I went to the grownups-only open evening on Monday and I have to admit I was feeling physically sick by the end of the evening. I think the main cause was being reminded of my problems with selection, but it was added to by the presentations from the staff who said a little about education and a lot about why everyone should think carefully before putting their kid in for the exams and about the standards the kids will need to meet to get in. It reminded me of those helplines where the message begins by asking you to think carefully about whether you really want to be phoning. Then there was the general 'scramble for the lifeboats' atmosphere among the audience, which was pretty unwholesome. I think only one question was a general one and all the others were about the questioner's kid and their chances of getting in.

Last night, we went back for the grownups+kids open evening and got a much better impression. The kids were very friendly and relaxed, and seemed to be enjoying being at the school. Anyway, I guess it's up to Apoa really, and she seemed to think it looked pretty good. There were a few famous linguists and a showbiz celebrity in the audience and a most enjoyable standoff between two cars on a narrow road on the way home. One of the cars had a bus up its exhaust pipe but the other one still wouldn't back down. Glad I'm no longer a car owner.

Robert Elms had a piece about secondary transfer in Time Out last week but I can't point you directly to it as you have to pay to get it online.

B-)

Posted by at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

September 15, 2003

i excellent ladri di biciclette

Some of the Haringey branch of the London Cycling Campaign are off to see Belleville Rendezvous on Tuesday, since it's got a cycling theme. I can't go but, funnily enough, Ohna came home from the library on Saturday with Vittorio di Sica's Bicycle Thieves, as well as both Waynes World movies for the kids.

The kids enjoyed 'partying on', and found both films 'excellent'. It was interesting to see how much they'd dated, which I guess is inevitable with something that's basically just a silly idea and is based on a particular pop culture moment. There was also some humour that had to be explained to the kids, mainly the jokes that were based on the idea that this was a movie made by Wayne and Garth, e.g. product placement jokes and the bit with the subtitled Cantonese where Wayne stops speaking and waits for ages while the translation comes up at the bottom of the screen.

The Bicycle Thieves is one of those classic movies I've actually seen a few times, but I enjoyed it just as much this time. The actors playing the two main characters were amazing, especially since they were amateur actors, and I've always liked the idea of films with real people and locations in them. Viewing it was also affected by having seen The Player where a key event is Griffin Mill's trip to see the Bicycle Thieves, which represents the kind of great cinema Griffin has moved far away from, and also of course has a main character who is driven to badness by the cruelty of social circumstance, which will have a particular significance for Griffin.

Since the videos were due back today, I then had to get on my bike at 1am and go and post them through the library letterbox, taking in a fox or two on the way. I remember seeing my first fox in London, probably in the late 80s, and being amazed. Now it seems like it's only a matter of time before they start applying for council houses and taking our jobs.

B-)

Posted by at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2003

the dark house

I forgot to mention that Donald Davidson also climbed mountains and wrote radio plays (some of which featured Edward G. Robinson). I wonder what he'd have made of The Dark House?

B-)

Posted by at 1:20 PM | Comments (0)

dead or alive

Just heard this conversation:

'Johnny Cash just died.'

'Oh, is he still alive?'

B-)

Posted by at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)

Ballad of a Teenage Queen

Those lyrics take ages to load, so here they are (sorry I couldn't be bothered to make them lay themselves out properly):

Ballad Of A Teenage Queen

Artist: Johnny Cash (peak Billboard position # 14 in 1958)

Words and Music by Jack H. Clement

(Dream on, dream on teenage queen prettiest girl we've ever seen) There's a story in our town Of the prettiest girl around Golden hair and eyes of blue How those eyes could flash at you (How those eyes could flash at you) Boys hung 'round her by the score But she loved the boy next door who worked at the candy store (Dream on, dream on teenage queen prettiest girl we've ever seen)

She was tops in all they said It never once went to her head She had everything it seems Not a care, this teenage queen (Not a care, this teenage queen) Other boys could offer more But she loved the boy next door who worked at the candy store (Dream on, dream on teenage queen you should be a movie queen)

He would marry her next spring Saved his money, bought a ring Then one day a movie scout Came to town to take her out (Came to town to take her out) Hollywood could offer more So she left the boy next door working at the candy store (Dream on, dream on teenage queen see you on the movie screen)

Very soon she was a star Pretty house and shiny car Swimming pool and a fence around But she missed her old home town (But she missed her old home town) All the world was at her door All except the boy next door who worked at the candy store (Dream on, dream on teenage queen saddest girl we've ever seen)

Then one day the teenage star Sold her house and all her cars Gave up all her wealth and fame Left it all and caught a train (Left it all and caught a train) Do I have to tell you more She came back to the boy next door who worked at the candy store (Now this story has some more, you'll hear it all at the candy store)

Transcribed by Ronald E. Hontz

Posted by at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

Johnny Cash

Just heard that he died. The first thing that immediately springs to mind about him is his music. I was listening to an early song by him recently called 'Ballad of a Teenage Queen' (lyrics here) which I'd love to make a promo video for, and we were all enjoying the most recent Rick Rubin-produced album last Christmas. The second thing I remember is how he told an audience he had Parkinson's Disease. Apparently, he dropped his plectrum and then nearly fell over trying to pick it up. When he said he had Parkinson's the audience laughed, thinking it was a joke, and he replied 'It ain't funny. But it's all right. I refuse to give it some ground in my life'

They're just talking about him on xfm right now.

Posted by at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2003

Donald Davidson obituaries

Berkeley have put up a page with links to obituaries of Donald Davidson, including a brief interview with Richard Rorty on NPR

Posted by at 7:30 AM | Comments (0)

semantics etc

This is a good blog for semanticists.

Posted by at 7:16 AM | Comments (0)

September 9, 2003

punks in science

Just had an email from Kleanthes, one of the founders of punksinscience, who wanted to know whether I was 'the crazy guy with a bike' (I was) and whether I cycled all the way from Middlesex to Bangor (not quite).

B-)

Posted by at 11:46 AM | Comments (1)

donald davidson obituary

Donald Davidson was quite a guy. The Guardian had a good obituary of him which you can find here and there was one in the New York Times which is here (you need to subscribe to read it, but subscription is free)

When I started working on Davidson I had imagined him to be less interesting than Descartes, the other philosopher I've just been writing about, but as you'll see I was wrong. He wasn't just a philosopher but also a skier, surfer, glider pilot, electronics buff (building radios and tellies for fun), radio ham, amateur dramatist, and a friend of Leonard Bernstein who he duetted with on the piano and who wrote the music for his student production of 'The Birds' (Aristophanes, not Hitchcock). He travelled Europe in the 30s and was later shocked to think that he and his friends had treated the Nazis as a bit of a joke. At the time, he and his friends were 'dupes of the Communist party line' as he put it himself.

I found most of these things out reading his intellectual autobigraphy in this book, which is unfortunately reprinting right now so you'll have to go to the library if you want to read it.

I particularly enjoyed reading about his romantic adventures. He seems to have had a thing for exotic names. The love interests he mentions include Dolores Dewilder (when he was around 11, other kids would try to tease him by writing 'DD loves DD' all over the place while he ignored them and went back to 'smooching' in his hammock), Lola Borgemeister, Tatiana Riabouchinska, Tamara Toumanova and Shirley Bernstein, Leonard's sister. He decided not to follow up his interest in Shirley when Leonard threatened to kill him 'if you do anything with my sister'. 'Those were the days', is Davidson's comment.

Posted by at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)

back in one piece

Actually, I've been back for a while now but too lazy to get back to writing anything here.

The biggest event on holiday was the accident we had on the French motorway. We had a blowout and wrote our car off, but all of us were miraculously unhurt. We each wrote an account of it so I'll post our version of Rashomon when I get time (OK, if).

Meanwhile, I was just finishing my essay on Donald Davidson when I discovered that he died. It's sad news but of course I now need to read the obituaries before being able to say the essay is completely finished. As ever, the bloggers were the first to say anything public about it. Here is one place to start looking at them. B-)

Posted by at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

July 24, 2003

gap

If all goes well, I'll finish the essay I'm working on and send it in tonight so that I can go on holiday tomorrow without feeling guilty. (Yes, I know, just like a student). I'm going to take the old-fashioned blogger's approach and not sit sending emails from the beach or anything.

And I won't be sending any postcards either (well, not to here).

B-)

Posted by at 8:15 PM | Comments (0)

July 23, 2003

mel against email

more from Thomas:

well it's the same problem as with the use of web standards, some people (like me) use the word naturally (and don't even know that it is the official translation), but most people still use 'email' mostly because they aren't sure they will be understood (like AOL TV commercial here...) so it's just a matter of using the word and it will spread. as of the pronounciation of 'mel', it is the same in french and english. and actually, people still using the word 'email' in french pronounce it 'ee'-'mel'...

Posted by at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)

'mel'

Thomas writes:

about the french 'email', actually, it has been decided by the french standard organisations, that the french word for email would be 'mel', shrinkage of 'message' and 'electronique'. voila :^) —

Posted by at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2003

pas d'emails

I was setting various email subscriptions to 'no email' today and I noticed I was setting the French ones to 'pas d'emails'.

Then I read this

'Courriel' doesn't sound great to me (although not as bad as 'consignia' or anything).

Does anyone know whether 'email' is (or was) pronounced the same in French?

B-)

Posted by at 5:33 PM | Comments (0)

ghost of the happy eater

'All material on this site is fictional and bears no relation to reality'

B-)

Posted by at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2003

crisp twaddle

At last, some discussion of Alexander Walker that makes me feel like they're talking about the same guy. This is Xan Brooks in The Informer today after discussing The Hulk:

We will never know what Alexander Walker would have made of Hulk. After 50 years on the London Evening Standard, the critic died last weekend at the age of 73. Intriguingly, yesterday's Hot Tickets supplement still appeared in a state of denial about this, insisting instead that 'Alexander Walker is away' (in heaven, presumably). In the meantime there came a flood of tributes from rival critics and film makers, many of whom had previously regarded him with open exasperation.

I never knew Walker but I saw him many times. You couldn't miss the man. He would parade into morning press screenings in his spotless cravat, pass a few waspish comments with the regulars and then take his seat; a little duke presiding over a kingdom of pallid, coffee-drinking serfs. Much of what he wrote was reactionary twaddle, but every now and then he would startle you by championing a film you thought he'd hate, or destroying one you'd assumed he'd love. Walker's prose was crisp, sharp and passionate, and you had the sense that he believed every word he wrote (even when it was patently nonsense). Those morning screenings will be less interesting without him.

B-)

Posted by at 2:36 PM | Comments (0)

double bill

First, I went with Apoa and Kiloh to see Bruce Almighty, a classic 'self-centred whingeing twit gets comeuppance and learns to be nice again' movie. You can probably sketch out the story yourself but there were some good funny bits along the way. On the journey, Apoa and Kiloh learned a few more things about the etiquette of London bus travel (that's right - there isn't any).

Then I took them home and rushed off to Enfield to catch Hoover Street Revival, an excellent documentary, directed by Sophie Fiennes (who also directed my mum's wedding video). It's really impressive and she's a very talented director. It's literally a documentary, i.e. it documents Noel Jones's sermons, the people who attend them, and the context in which they take place, but it doesn't have a strong narrative shape and it doesn't really probe what's going on. Which has left some audiences unsure about it. There are stories there, though. It definitely made an interesting contrast with the 'high concept' first feature of the evening.

I wonder what film would be the right one to complete a trilogy of god-related movies?

B-)

Posted by at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)

Bored Out Of The USA

It seems it's such a bore getting an academic teaching visa now that Peter Trudgill won't be going to the LSA Summer School (not to be confused with the Louisiana Sherrifs' Association) this year.

Read about it here

B-)

Posted by at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)

Lavender Linguistics?

The esperanto swearwords remind me a bit of Palare/Polari, which you can read about here

And here is a correction.

B-)

Posted by at 9:45 AM | Comments (0)

do I make you volupta, baby?

Here are some rude words in Esperanto.

B-)

Posted by at 9:07 AM | Comments (0)

July 17, 2003

a 'volatile structure'

That's how the vet described Jazzy after she attacked Roxy last week. She didn't do physical harm but did terrify her enough to make her empty her bladder and bowels and leave her too shook up to have her first vaccination.

Apparently all tortoiseshell cats are 'volatile structures' so we don't know whether it will be 'viable' for them to live in the same house. We now have to lock Roxy up when we go out (apparently, they're also sneaky and might well act friendly until we turn our backs). She's definitely doing a good job of acting friendly at the moment. So let's hope it's not just an act.

B-)

Posted by at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)

'Oi you! You was nearly famous!'

Enn Reitel, that is.

B-)

Posted by at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

July 8, 2003

make Larry famous

Here is an article on a linguist who is neither Noam Chomsky nor Steven Pinker.

B-)

Posted by at 1:13 PM | Comments (0)

'you're no John Humphrys'

I enjoyed this even though I don't agree with everything it says.

I do agree that most of the public think we were cheated on the way to the war. There's loads of evidence that doesn't seem to be getting discussed very much at the moment. I think one thing people remember is Blair always emphasising that we wouldn't do it without a UN resolution until it became obvious there wouldn't be one.

B-}

Posted by at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)

July 7, 2003

devilled eggs

We had a barbie on Saturday, partly a kind of 4th of July thing, partly cos it was near Ohna's birthday, partly just for the fun of it and partly for summertime. It was a very enjoyable event. I especially appreciated having guests who were happy to dive in and cook their own food, and watching the kids enjoying themselves. You know that excitement they get when they're running wild at a big do? There was a definite sense of two separate worlds - one for kids and one for growns - which just happened to be sharing a space.

I also enjoyed the pre-party panicking and Ohna's catchphrase for the day - 'I still haven't had a chance to do the devilled eggs'.

And Roxy gave us her first rendition of the disappearing cat party trick, finally showing up in Apoa's room at one in the morning.

B-)

Posted by at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)

July 5, 2003

more cats leave home

Sparks and Pusscat found a new home last night so now Roxy is our only kitten. I think she's missing her siblings a bit but Jazzy (mum) doesn't seem to care about the reduction in numbers. I'm looking forward to having less mopping up to do, and to knowing who to blame for puddles and things.

B-)

Posted by at 7:45 AM | Comments (0)

July 3, 2003

clarification

Whoops, I confused everyone. Ohna's in her 40th year now, i.e she's 39.

B-)

Posted by at 7:10 PM | Comments (0)

July 2, 2003

camera thieves

Well, Ohna just entered her 40th year (no discretion in this family) so we were able to go public with what happened when we bought her present. We got her a very nice digital camera (canon ixus 400 for any techie folk) from a small branch of Jessops in Hampstead (the kind of place we go to cos we think it's nice that they exist even though we could save money by buying online). I'd phoned up to discuss it and get them to keep one aside for me and then it got stolen from the shop while we were trying to buy it.

We had a look at it and the assistant left it in its box on the counter while he pulled out memory cards from some drawers under a display cabinet. When we got back to the counter the camera was gone. Two guys had come in and pretended to look in a display case. Then one of them picked it up under his jacket on the way out. They were captured on cctv but I guess the cops would need to catch them with the camera before they could nail them.

The shop assistants took it very well, sighing and cursing but also smiling and giving the impression it wasn't the first time it had happened. The main thing they said to me was that it was lucky they had another one in stock. It occurred to me that they could have accused me of being in league with the baddies. I suppose the fact that I paid for the other one makes that less likely. It makes more economic sense to get one camera for nothing than two for the price of one, doesn't it?

B-}

Posted by at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)

July 1, 2003

cyclists on the phone

This is where you can read about the new law making it illegal to use a mobile phone while driving. It doesn't apply to cyclists, apparently:

'The new offence will apply to all mechanically propelled vehicles, including motorbikes. Although some respondents suggested that it should be extended to cyclists, we do not consider this is a significant problem that justifies extending the offence to non-motorised traffic.'

I guess they think the person you're most likely to kill on a bike is yourself. There was an interesting typo in the message I got telling me about this:

'Some of you may be interested to know that the DfT has recently published the results of their consultation on the use of mobile phones whilst driving ... They have recommended it should be an office to use a mobile phone whilst driving a moving vehicle.'

I like the idea of it being an office to use a mobile phone ...

B-)

Posted by at 1:08 PM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2003

one down, two to go...

Well, Ginger Nut has left home now, which is sad but also a bit of a relief. Four kittens is just too many by the time they're eight weeks old and not properly litter-trained. Sparks went to Lily's on Saturday but came straight home because the cat they already have couldn't cope. We're hoping that a neighbour will be taking Sparks and Pusscat soon. Things will be much easier once we know who to blame for the accidents.

B-)

Posted by at 6:06 PM | Comments (0)

Do they want to force me to get a driving licence or what?

Hanna sent me a link to this site about Germany's bicycle capital, Muenster.

I advised her to look in Hill's in Muswell Hill for a second-hand bike. They didn't have one, so she said to Mr. Hill that she might be better buying one in Germany. he replied:

'Oh yes, they are much better there, everything is better in Germany, they should have won the war, then we would have all the good stuff here!'

B-{

Posted by at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

'I need no introduction'

From the point of view of the Lecture List, there was an interesting article by the pianist Susan Tomes in Saturday's Guardian.

She talks about the pros and cons of musicians and conductors discussing a piece before performing it. The main con is that it's difficult for the performers. The main pro is that audiences like it and seem to enjoy the performance more for having had an introduction. She says:

Sometimes it was almost galling to be told what a difference one's spoken words had made. Clearly, it did cause the audience to see us as real people rather than... well, I still don't know what the alternative is: frightfully posh people who inhabit a different world altogether?

The main thing I take from it is that audiences are really keen to have an encounter with the performers that's more direct than just watching them perform. Which is kind of what the whole Lecture List thing is about.

B-)

Posted by at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

more music

Had another busy weekend starting with the school summer fair on Saturday, preceded as is now traditional (well, they did it last year) with the procession of the fish. The route was a bit longer this year, so I'm still hopeful that this could be the start of something big.

Yesterday we went to Kenwood to see the Haringey Picnic Concert with a huge number of music groups, including Apoa's guitar group, playing and dancing in a huge number of different styles. It wasn't Glastonbury but it was good fun. And a lot easier to recover from.

B-)

Posted by at 9:54 AM | Comments (0)

music news

Kiloh can't decide whether she's more into Diana Ross or Avril Lavigne.

B-)

Posted by at 7:37 AM | Comments (0)

June 19, 2003

celebrating Orwell

Well, Silvio Berlusconi has gone further than most in celebrating the legacy of Orwell. It looks like he really did describe himself as 'more equal than others' before getting the courts to agree that they can't do anything about his bribery charges while he's running the country. What a guy

Posted by at 5:47 PM | Comments (0)

June 17, 2003

George Orwell

I'm enjoying all the Orwell stuff on the BBC just now. George Orwell: My Life In Pictures was really enjoyable, although the choices they'd made about how to tell the story were really up front, and there was something a bit simplistic about the main component of the narrative, which was 'bullied for bedwetting at 8 years old leads to lifelong commitment to fighting totalitarianism' (or is it my interpretation that's simplistic?)

It seems particularly relevant today when parliament is trying to work out the size of the lies that led to the war in Iraq. I'm still not totally sure what I think about the Iraq thing but I know the way our government got us there was wrong.

I'm also enjoying the essays being read every day on radio 4.

Today's started with 'Confessions of a book reviewer' which is very funny and also relevant since I've just been reading Jonathan's review of two books that some editor thought would 'go well together'

That was followed by a discussion of borrowings in English, which was amusing and opinionated. He mentioned a few borrowings from German which followed the war. 'Schadenfreude' wasn't one of them, though.

B-)

Posted by at 3:03 PM | Comments (0)

the cats are real

They're not some ironic postmodern comment on blogging or anything. We've got them all back from Devon now. I joined in for the last few days and enjoyed a combination of swimming, football, park-visiting and lying around in the sun.

Yesterday, I took Jazzy to the vet to be spayed. The vet advised keeping her away from the kittens overnight to protect the stitch, and keeping her inside for ten days until the stitch comes out. We felt really guilty locking her up in the bathroom overnight. But when we got up in the morning she was outside. She'd jumped to the very top of a sash window and squeezed through a tiny gap.

Anyway, she seems to be recovering well. Hope the hair grows back quickly. Without it, you can see just how skinny breastfeeding has made her.

B-}

Posted by at 2:19 PM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2003

schadenfreude 2

Last night, Ohna drove to Devon in the dark with a car full of stuff, including two kids and five cats. My mum wants me to write a poem about it based on the one about going to St. Ives.

Meanwhile, I have finally managed to clean the kitchen floor.

B-)

Posted by at 9:30 AM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2003

dinner party inspectors

This, on the other hand, is exactly my kind of programme. I think my favourite piece of advice was 'when even the non-smoking guests are sneaking out to join the smokers on the terrace, it's time to change the subject'

B-)

Posted by at 9:35 PM | Comments (0)

schadenfreude

Phew, this makes me glad I didn't sit through Dale's Wedding

It really was an incomprehensible show. The premise wasn't funny, none of the individual bits were funny and no-one made much effort to disguise the fact that they were pretending. Why did they do it?

Posted by at 8:28 PM | Comments (0)

Dale comes in

Did anybody watch that programme about Dale Winton's Wedding last night? It was weird. It was purporting to be a documentary about Dale getting married and thus shocking the nation by turning out not to be gay after all. It seemed to be a joke as everything in it was acted and there were weird stories about women throwing themselves on him and him switching from Mr. Ladykiller to Mr. Camp when he was on air. The one thing that made us think it might not be a joke was that it wasn't funny. Intrigued though we were, we got too bored after twenty minutes to watch it to the end. Somehow, the central question wasn't quite as pressing as all the stuff about interest rates and currency management on the other channels. Can anyone fill us in?

B-)

Posted by at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)

The Men From The Agency

Simon told me about this interesting programme on BBC4 about Saatchi, Parker, Puttnam et al and their advertising work in the 60's. It's on tonight as part of the 'BBC4 on 2' thing.

B-)

Posted by at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

baps fae Buckie

Had a nice lunch with Jonathan, Jennifer and Lawrence yesterday. I was surprised to discover that Jennifer hadn't heard the expression 'gi wa ti Buckie n buy baps'. Always glad to pass on new data to a linguist (Jennifer is an expert on the Buckie dialect and is currently having some of her work 'squeezed into a minimalist framework')

B-)

Posted by at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

June 7, 2003

disappearing kitten

Ohna, Apoa and Kiloh are off camping this weekend while I stay at home to do a big pile of external examining and to try to keep on top of the cat piss which the kittens are trying to flood the kitchen with.

I just spent half an hour panicking when I popped into the kitchen to find only three kittens instead of four. After searching most places I could think of and speculating about various possibilities (Sparks is pretty nimble - could he have actually jumped out through the cat flap?) I put my hand to the back of a shelf full of jigsaws and felt something fluffy.

The experience reminded me of when Apoa was 2 and she ran away in Selfridges, in a huff because we wouldn't buy her one of those little coloured plastic things you put on yale keys. We eventually found her hiding behind a tv.

B-}

Posted by at 9:12 PM | Comments (0)

June 5, 2003

Derren Brown - it's just magic

Brilliant piece by Simon Singh in today's Telegraph on Derren Brown. Here's an extract:

Derren Brown is one of the biggest TV sensations of the year, and now he is bringing his amazing mind control to the West End. But is he a genius of psychology or merely a skilled magician?

I don't like to think of myself as a spoilsport. I wouldn't dare question the veracity of Father Christmas, the Tooth Fairy or even the Easter Bunny. But I draw the line at Derren Brown.

I'll let you know if they put it online.

B-)

Posted by at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

tape day

Lot of taping today. Eastenders, obviously, but also:

Lawrence's lesbian vampire play with an amazing cast, including David Warner, Celia Imrie, Kenneth Cranham and Jacqueline Pearce aka Servalan, and:

Secret History featuring yet another media appearance for Bessie and Ted.

Oh, and some of you might also be interested in Alternative Servalan

B-)

Posted by at 9:48 AM | Comments (0)

June 4, 2003

me old china

And here is another great example of diplomacy from another of Bush 2's mates.

B

Posted by at 6:34 PM | Comments (0)

you'll never guess what that war was all about

What can you say about this ? I suppose it's good that someone is just admitting what's really going on for once.

B

Posted by at 6:20 PM | Comments (0)

Scottish Exclusive (again)

Bessie and Ted are in the media spotlight again. Read all about it here

I guess this is what it must be like to have Posh and Becks as parents. Maybe I should offer Brooklyn and Romeo some tips?

B-)

Posted by at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)

leave the dude alone

Remember Oli and his tale of what the 'dudes 'n' chicks are up to? The poor boy is seriously and serially savaged in this week's london by london, including various Nazi comparisons. But one voice came to his defence:

Just before the inevitable festival of abuse starts about Oli's comments last issue, I'd just like to point out that I remember when I was that irritating and, given the fullness of time, I turned out to be alright. If you think hard enough, you'll remember that you were that irritating when you were 16 too. Any suspicions you have that you weren't that irritating are entirely false and should therefore be disregarded. You were. Leave the poor boy alone. Anyway. As you were.

B-)

Posted by at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)

fight the evils of the night bus.

Just got a message from London by London which said, among other things, that:

London is an amazing city. A city of culture, history and diversity. A city with a mayor who collects newts. A city with a huge Ferris wheel. A city where the clubs and bars stay open 'til three at the weekend... But a city that's an absolute nightmare to get home from after midnight.

We're creating a petition to be sent to both The Mayor and Transport For London - the two bodies who together control London Underground - demanding that the Tube be kept running until at least 3am on Friday and Saturday nights.

The petition is here

B-)

Posted by at 9:50 AM | Comments (0)

June 3, 2003

cremola foam = traffic

Mhairi wrote to say:

Hiya there Billy.....u don't know me but i was doin a search on Yahoo for Cremola Foam and it came up with a reference to ur page. What im lookin for is: Is it still available and where can i buy it? I am livin in Hampshire now (originally from Edinburgh) and no-one down here has ever heard of it. If u have any ideas then please e- mail me back.

I had to break the bad news to her. I wonder if we should get a campaign going so they start making it again. When I was a kid, some schoolkids in Glasgow picketed a tv station (can't remember if it was BBC Scotland or STV) and persuaded them to keep showing Scooby Doo. Wonder what those young activists are doing now?

B-)

Posted by at 6:31 PM | Comments (1)

June 2, 2003

shades of denunciatory support

So, it the difference between Bush/republicans and X/democrats still narrower than the difference between whatshisnameagain/Tories and Blair/Labour? I wish we could convince the people of this country to take the Lib-Dems seriously. It's hard if your government turns your stomach and you've got nowhere credible to move your support to.

Posted by at 9:44 AM | Comments (0)

'denunciatory support'

Just read this interesting idea from Norman Solomon via ZNet (I've posted the whole message since you can't access it online without paying a premium subscription fee):

A Different Approach For The 2004 Campaign May 31, 2003 By Norman Solomon

Eighteen months from now, citizens will vote for president. If the 2004 campaign is anything like the last one, the election returns will mark the culmination of a depressing media spectacle.

For news watchers, the candidates and the coverage can be hard to take. Appearances on television are apt to become tedious, nauseating or worse. Campaign ads often push the limits of slick pandering. Journalists routinely seem fixated on "horseracing" the contest instead of reporting about the huge financial interests that candidates have served.

Media-driven campaigns now dominate every presidential race, badly skewed in favor of big money. And while millions of progressive- minded Americans are eager to have an impact on the political process, they often face what appears to be a choice between severe compromise and marginalization.

Remarkable transitions occur during presidential campaigns. People who are usually forthright can become evasive or even downright dishonest -- in public anyway -- when they declare themselves to be fervent supporters of a particular contender. Nuances and mixed assessments tend to go out the window.

Too often, "supporting" a candidate means lying about the candidate. Flaws rapidly disappear; virtues suddenly appear. Replicated at the grassroots, some kind of PR alchemy transforms longtime opportunists into profiles in courage and timeworn corporate flacks into champions of the common people.

This sort of dissembling was a big problem in 2000, when many left-leaning supporters of Al Gore ended up straining to portray the vice president as a steadfast foe of injustice. Under the perceived rules of the media game, they could not acknowledge Gore's sleazy aspects or the reality that he had done a lot to help move the nation's center of political gravity to the right. In countless media debates, Gore supporters tried to promote their standard-bearer as an implacable enemy of privilege -- notably unlike the actual candidate.

For a long time, many Democratic Party activists have privately bemoaned the party's subservience to corporate power while publicly extolling Democratic leaders as exemplary. The rationale for this schizoid behavior is that it's necessary for promoting a coherent media image.

There's at least one big problem: For millions of potential voters, that tactic just doesn't ring true. When they're invited to go along with a political line that lauds nominated hacks as visionaries, a lot of people would rather not vote -- or would much prefer to cast ballots for a small-party candidate who has no chance of winning but whose campaigners at least seem interested in being truthful and building an honest movement.

But what if progressive supporters of the Democratic presidential nominee tried something different next year? What if they resolved to be candid for all the world -- including all the news media -- to hear? The contrast would be striking.

Old mode: "Candidate X is an inspiring leader."

New mode: "Candidate X is rather phony, but compared to President Bush he's a knight in shining armor."

Old mode: "The record of Candidate X shows that he will return integrity to the White House."

New mode: "The record of Candidate X shows that he's a craven servant of corporate America. But I'm going to vote from him because George W. Bush is even worse."

Old mode: "Candidate X will bring balance to U.S. foreign policy."

New mode: "Candidate X is a deplorable militarist, but Bush is even more dangerous."

The new mode might sound a bit strange, even bizarre. But that ought to tell us something -- when candor seems weird and preposterous claims seem quite normal.

Such an approach could attract many progressives who want to end the Bush presidency but also want to be truthful in the process. For those who find the Democratic nominee to be odious but not as odious as George W. Bush, a new option would emerge -- what might be called "denunciatory support."

Candor during an election year may seem like a radical departure with hazy consequences. Admittedly, it's no guarantee of anything -- except more clarity and less obfuscation in American politics.

________________

Norman Solomon is co-author of "Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You." For an excerpt and other information, go to: www.contextbooks.com/new.h tml

Posted by at 9:31 AM | Comments (0)

May 30, 2003

boobah

Those Friday Thing folk said that boobah is 'a bit odd'

You know, they just might have a point.

B-}

Posted by at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)

post-watershed tv

With Ohna still in Wales (past Cardiff by now I hope), the kids just watched 'The Big Impression' and 'HIGNFY' with me. They laughed at some of the impressions but I think a lot of the rest went over their heads (and mine).

B-)

Posted by at 10:06 PM | Comments (0)

kids and tv

Today I sent off Kiloh's entry for the Saturday Show S Club 8 Karaoke competition. She's singing 'Wherever You Are'. Fingers crossed.

On the way, Apoa called me to tell me she was stuck with her homework. She left a message which said:

'Hello Billy. It's Chris Tarrant here. Apoa's doing quite well with her homework but she's stuck on one question. We were wondering whether you might be able to help her?

If you want to test yourself, the question was:

Which of the following is most similar to 'dog' and 'cow'?

bull, camel, whale, lion, python

B-)

Posted by at 8:51 PM | Comments (0)

who salam pax is

They found him. You can read about him here They've even given him a column in the Guardian.

B-)

Posted by at 8:21 PM | Comments (0)

May 28, 2003

give it a rest

Can't believe I missed this

B-)

Posted by at 4:29 PM | Comments (0)

May 26, 2003

what the dudes 'n' chicks are up to

Just enjoyed this insight into our younger citizens, from London by London:

THIS ONE TIME, AT BAND CAMP

Dudes, I just wanted to know if anyone happened to be wandering around the Golders Green area last Saturday from around 9:00 to 12:00.

If you were then your probably still baffled about what you saw happen. If you were not there, I shall explain what did occur last Saturday night! Basically, all the dudes 'n'chicks in year 11 (15 to 16 year old) broke up from school last Friday, to go on 'study leave' for their GCSEs. I am one of these dudes and right at this moment I am meant to be 'revising'. To celebrate this two week holiday, *opps did i say holiday? I meant 'revision period' all the dudes from Westminster school decided to meet up at golders green station at 9:00. Yet one friend told another, and in the end chicks'n'dudes came from all over the capital including: UCS, City of London, Highgate, Westminister, Francis Holland, South Hampstead Girls school, St Micheals and word even got as far as my school (QE Boys) in High Barnet.

When I arrived at Golders Green station, it was absolutely buzzing, with 200+ peeps just chilling with each other. The chick to dude ratio was about 9:1, so i was definitely In there. After-a-while I went, with these two chicks ,from some french school, to buy some booze in the local 24/7. He denied to sell it to me, which really pissed me of, but God must have been watching, cause some guy gave us his un-opened bottle of Smirnoff vodka to share. And, oh boy, did we share it!

Around 10:00, someone must have called the cops, so this big group of 200+ went marching up towards Hampstead Heath. It was too dark in the heath, so we continued up to the high street, where we carried on the party.

In the end, one girl was knocked out somewhere on the street, and everyone else was either (1) harassing the rich snobs in Hampstead, (2) exchanging vodka from mouth to mouth or (3) in a fight. My good friend got attacked and beaten up. I found it funny at the time, and to be honest, still laugh about it now. About 12:00, it seemed to be getting a bit boring, so I headed back home on a night bus.

God I loving being me.

Oli, NW8

[For the avoidance of doubt, this years 'dudes n chicks' quota has now been exceeded. Subscribers should avoid using either or these words in future correspondance. - ed]

Posted by at 1:00 AM | Comments (0)

May 25, 2003

(Fwd) cremola foam forever

from jennifer:

Cre(a)mola Foam found as far south as Sheffield? I thought it was an experiment on us Scots only. So did they have the poll tax in Sheffield too?

When my uncle was a young lad, he used to work on a farm up at Glenlivet. Every day they'd stop off by the burn to have lunch. What better to help waash doon the hale coo inside twa shaves o' loaf than a pitcher of beautiful clear burn water... wi' five speens o' cremola foam (raspberry) added.

The image of these hardy farmers quaffing cremola foam is imprinted on my mind forever. Fabulous.

Posted by at 9:42 PM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2003

sad news

Just got news that the Eat More Words project has been defeated:

Hello Eat More Words subscribers.

Alas. After months of delays and elaborate plans and hopes for the future and dreams of words, words, and more words, we have some sad news. The powers that be in the land of the OED Online have decided that EMW does not qualify for access to their services. Despite our non-profit status through the Apicule Foundation. Despite the fact that other organizations provide online access to the OED to their members in very similar ways to what we proposed. We've tried to appeal the decision, but have had no luck, and unfortunately have to abandon the plans to provide OED access.

So now we have some of your money and we need to figure out what to do with that. We'd like to offer you a few choices - please select one and let us know.

1) Refund the full amount of my subscription/donation (in most cases, $10)

2) Refund my subscription/donation minus the Paypal fees we incurred (in most cases, $9.41)

3) Donate my subscription/donation funds to the National Center For Family Literacy (www.ncfl.org) or PEN (http://www.pen.org/)

We're sorry this didn't work out as we'd hoped.

There are other ways to access the OED online, if you're interested. In the US, you might see if your library offers online access. If it doesn't, you can join the Multnomah County library online (http://www.multcolib.org/card/cardnew.html) for $70, which gives you access to various other online databases as well (http://www.multcolib.org/ref/remote.html).

We're really sad that we couldn't bring you the heaps of words we'd hoped to, and we hope that you will still be our friends and still send us interesting word-related things when you find them.

Best,

Caterina & Judith

ps. Want to use the EMW site for something spectacular? Let us know. The best idea (with a demonstrated commitment to actually get something going there, unlike what we did) can have the domain name.

Posted by at 5:47 PM | Comments (1)

'sometimes when I smile my face aches'

On top of all that I also had to turn down free tickets at the weekend to see Patti Smith performing at Charleston, Vanessa Bell's (well, it used to be hers) country house near Lewes. John says it was great but you can't do everything I suppose.

B-}

Posted by at 5:26 PM | Comments (0)

'it isn't easy having a good time...'

Well, I thought three nights out in a row last weekend was impressive but after I go out for a drink with Eddie tonight, I'll have been out six nights out of seven. Monday was my night in but I went out for lunch with John that day as well. John says the main thing about my blog is that 'you never know what you're going to get' and he sometimes feels like he's tuning in to a soap opera having missed the last few episodes. So here's an omnibus edition just for him (and you):

Last Friday: Tiger Lillies in Gorey End. Thirteen songs inspired by the work of Edward Gorey, based on unpublished work he sent to the Tiger Lillies before he died (too soon, unfortunately, to hear any of the songs). The evening was a kind of 'in memoriam' with Julian Bleach as compere and readings from Imogen Claire, Rosalind Knight, Alan Rickman and Josie Hall. It was a great evening and made me even more fed up that I never got it together to see their Shockheaded Peter last year. I've been enjoying my foyer-purchased CD all week (between nights out).

Saturday: a most elegant party at Rob and Jemima's swish, modern Highgate home (I know they were built 37 years ago as I met the neighbours who moved in when they were new). We started sipping champagne and apple martinis and nibbling sushi and ended up helping ourselves to more drink and fighting the rodeo bull they'd put in their central courtyard. This was karaoke-like in that the evening began with no-one wanting to go on and ended with everyone fighting for the next go. The operator was a bit of a sadist so Ohna made him get on so that she could dump him a couple of times.

Sunday: Neil Young solo and acoustic with no support at the Hammersmith Odeon (well, Apollo these days). They crammed loads of people in and we stood with two rows of people at the back of the circle, i.e. miles away. We passed binoculars around all evening and I tried not to Bogart them. It was a great show. Like the Tiger Lillies, he was presenting a new album. For the first hour and fifty minutes he talked us through a story about Earl and Edith Green, their daughter Sun, the Double E ranch and the community of Greendale. Quite Garrison Keillor-ish. Some great songs and moments, some slightly less gripping. And nice to get a whole narrative, together with some funny bits about how he writes and records ('I wake up in the morning, I think of three chords. I say 'that's it. those are the chords' and I don't change them. That's why all my songs are so simple'). Then he took a break and came back to perform a few oldies. The highlight for me was a speed-hymn version of 'After The Goldrush' with harmonica and organ (and of course Mother Nature was now on the run in the 'twenty-first century' rather than 'the nineteen-seventies').

Check out Neil's Garage for more on the Greendale album (not much yet, though).

On the way home, I was squeezed next to Rico on the tube. I didn't talk to him as two other guys got in first. So I just eavesdropped as he reminisced about his days with the Specials.

Tuesday: Apoa's (ex-)teacher's band's launch party for their new CD. They were very good, i.e. skilled, competent, etc. But sadly, it wasn't really my kind of thing (even though they jumped around different styles/genres). Read about the band here

Wednesday: watched Celtic lose with Alec and Kirsty. A great night despite them losing. Started off in Bradley's Spanish Bar, which is still a really special place. Tiny but everyone manages to get in. And a great atmosphere with 'Itchycoo Park' and 'White Horses' on the jukebox and a picture of Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin naked in bed together behind the bar. What more could you want? We then continued the Spanish theme by staying up too late in Bar Sol Ona, one of those late licence places that all Londoners need to know a few of.

Tonight: drinks with Eddie.

Anyway, that should keep John happy for a while. Me, I need some rest.

B-)

Posted by at 5:18 PM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2003

natural foodstuffs

Jennifer writes:

Def no e for me either in that second vowel. but marshmallow was one of my favourite foodstuffs as a kid. In fact, that/those and cremola foam were staples for me.

Anyway, funny word, so I looked up its etymology: it was originally made from the root of the mallow plant which grows near salt marshes.

This is disasterous news for me: it means I actually had something natural in my daily diet. Feel I've been had somehow. Bet I now find that cremola foam is derived from brussel sprouts.

I've got two bits of bad news:

first, this and also this which reveals the presence of 'gum, acacia'. Sounds a bit natural to me.

Still, I think adding vodka to it as advocated here would be a good enough antidote to any wholesome qualities.

B-)

Posted by at 4:52 PM | Comments (0)

May 14, 2003

marshmellows

How common is the pronunciation of 'marshmallows' with 'e' as in 'pet' for the second vowel?

I knew it existed but I was surprised to discover I'm the only one in my family who doesn't do it.

B-)

Posted by at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)

lack of generation gap

Just checked what's in the kids' discmans (it can't really be 'discmen', can it?). Apoa has Dusty In Memphis and Kiloh has Elephant (she's taken this over, so I haven't had much of a chance to listen to it yet). They do like TaTu and Girls Aloud and stuff but it's good to see they haven't reached the stage yet where 'my dad likes it' is conclusive proof that something is rubbish.

B-)

Posted by at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)

3 in a row

The parents at school are awestruck by the news that I'm going out three nights in a row this weekend: the Tiger Lillies, Rob's birthday party and Neil Young. Hope I can cope...

B-)

Posted by at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)

Gorey by name...

I'm going to be going to see this

B-)

Posted by at 3:29 PM | Comments (0)

'organised coincidence'

As well as the main critical mass ride there's now a north london version.

I passed the starting point a wee while ago and there were only a small number of cyclists. I guess it might pick up, though, especially now that they've obviously splashed out on an advertising campaign.

B-)

Posted by at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)

May 9, 2003

I want to go to school

I went with Dug and Tania to an event that was very much a Lecture List kind of thing last night.

The NFT is showing a retrospective of films by John Krish, who's a top British documentary maker. Among other things, he also worked on The Avengers, and he made an interesting contrast in his introduction between the tantrums and problems when he was on set with Steed et al and the sanity of working with schoolkids.

The films were great in themselves but it was also fascinating to look back in time. Most of the kids were just a little bit previous to my generation but I certainly remembered the various attitudes and looks and fashion statements. Also fascinating to see the institutions as they were then and compare with my own experiences as a kid then and as a parent now. One of them - 'I Want To Go To School' - was commissioned by the NUT and designed to let parents know what their kids got up to at school. One way things have changed is that most of us know exactly what our kids do at primary school these days and, at least at our place, we're welcome to go in and help as much as we want. (Not in France, though, as Tania pointed out).

There are a million things to say about how the films were put together, the documentary style and etc. and etc. But right now I've got some shopping to do.

You can read more about John Krish in this piece which was in the Guardian the other day.

B-)

Posted by at 5:00 PM | Comments (0)

the lecture list

I meant to tell you that Dug has created a blog for the Lecture List (or should that be The Lecture List?) It's here. Do let us know any thoughts you have about it.

B-)

Posted by at 4:34 PM | Comments (0)

jamie oliver meets fhm

This is a message from Andy:

Hiya, I'm after a quick fav.

My mate has just started up a new website that needs a bit of advertising. Could you please forward on this address to as many people as you know, and ask them to look at it and pass the address on to as many people as they know etc..

The site is still quite basic at the minute but will be updated and added to on a regular basis. The address is:

http://www.lovespuds.com

The creator says it's like Jamie Oliver meets FHM.

Posted by at 3:57 PM | Comments (0)

May 5, 2003

pictures

The big news today, apart from how the kittens have been getting bigger and fluffier, is that Jazzy has moved herself and her babies out of Kiloh's tiny drawer and into the nice big box we got ready for her.

Apoa's little digital camera doesn't cope too well with cats in boxes but I've put a couple of (quite big) snaps of Jazzy and her babies (current temporary names: Roxy, Sparks, Thingie and No-Name) here and here

We'll put some clearer pictures up when we've got some.

B-)

Posted by at 1:39 PM | Comments (0)

kittens and kids

Well, Jazzy our very small cat just had four kittens. We all knew she had it in her.

She chose the tiniest drawer at the bottom of Kiloh's wardrobe for the delivery and did a very professional job of cleaning them up and looking after them. Kiloh didn't think much of watching her eat the cauls and afterbirths as a spectator sport.

There are now four children sleeping on the floor next to the babies. And we're off to sleep with the sound of a contented mum purring carrying through from the maternity drawer next door.

B-)

Posted by at 12:36 AM | Comments (0)

May 2, 2003

BBC bike site

Here is a site the BBC have made about cycling in London.

B-)

Posted by at 4:58 PM | Comments (0)

results in East Devon

You can read the composition of Jed's council here.

As you'll see, he's got his work cut out for him as even with three seats lost the Tories still control the council. They've got 35 seats, the LibDems have 18 seats and Jed is one of 6 independents. The Labour Party in East Devon are like the Tories in Scotland, having lost their one seat last night.

Dug has posted a message from Jed about it. B-)

Posted by at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

councillor jed

He won.

B-)

Posted by at 9:30 AM | Comments (0)

May 1, 2003

letters

Looking for info on today's elections, I discovered that the Guardian now publishes letters online. I thought the first two today were quite interesting.

B-)

Posted by at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

vote for jed

Today's the day my dad-in-law runs for office in the local elections in Budleigh Salterton (in Devon). Enlightened people in 'the Budleighs' (Budleigh Salterton and East Budleigh) are fed up with living in a place where 'if you pinned a blue rosette on a donkey people would vote it in' and where the donkeys have then gone on to do 'baaad things' (I'm not really up to speed on it all but I think their worst behaviour from Jed's point of view has been to do with planning - letting developers put whatever they want wherever they want) so some of them have decided to run as independents. Let's hope the electorate seize their opportunity.

B-)

Posted by at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

no free lunch, thanks all the same

We've decided not to bother with the free holiday.

I checked the company's website (Grand Vacation Club) and I've a feeling there might be a catch to do with having to be a member of the club as well.

Anyway, it all feels just a bit suspicious and we know we'll be paying somehow or other. I think the bottom line is that Stevenage is too high a price to pay. We're going to follow Jennifer's advice:

go to Cair*i*nbulg instead: no timeshares there: just tons of cultcha

(Not sure how long it is since she's been to the Belger, though)

B-)

Posted by at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

April 30, 2003

free lunch?

I'm quite perturbed by a phone call I got today telling me I'd won a holiday. It's got a large number of the danger signs which suggest that I'm about to be reminded that there's no such thing as a free lunch. On the other hand they claim we only have to pay 34.50 each as a booking fee and then we get flights + car hire + 7 days self- catering accommodation all for nothing. We also have to go to Stevenage and have them tell us all about their holidays (this seems extremely suspicious to me and reminiscent of those timeshare scams which they claim they've got nothing to do with).

I'm deeply suspicious but it also comes at a time when we're desperate for a holiday. They claim to be working with Points of View and Watchdog on a piece about dodgy people ripping people off with scams like this. Maybe I'll give Watchdog a call. Hope I don't end up transferring loads of money into a Nigerian bank account.

B-}

Posted by at 5:01 PM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2003

you say eye-rack

Karen Chung just sent this to LINGUIST:

NPR's Fresh Air Online has the following audio report:

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the way politicians and journalists are pronouncing place names associated with the war on Iraq.

Click on the appropriate link on this page:

http://freshair.npr.org/

B-)

Posted by at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)

April 23, 2003

i like oyl

You couldn't call this subtle but what the hey. Also good to see from this that some people won't let esso lie.

B-)

Posted by at 9:55 PM | Comments (0)

field trip

Yes, I've been away again. Manchester for the Massive Attack concert and then Sheffield for Linguistics conferencing, including a session on community languages. Found out that:

- 34% of the population of Leicester speak Gujerati

- Urdu is studied by more students for GCSE than Irish, Welsh or Italian

- 'linguisticism' is thriving in government policy (languages like French and Spanish are treated preferentially compared to languages like Urdu, Gujerati, Bengali, Kurdish, etc.)

- Sheffield seems to be built on seven hills like Rome (went for a cycle in the countryside and tired myself out just getting to the starting point)

- the USA spends 400 billion dollars a year on military hardware (Russia is in second place on 60 billion dollars a year)

- the Peak district is a good place to look at peewits

Here is a link on community languages.

B-)

Posted by at 5:06 PM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2003

moral dilemma

Got a stupid blooming parking ticket last week even though I don't even drive (obviously).

I did a quick double-park outside Birte's house while picking up Kiloh and Susie and found a ticket on my windscreen when I got out. Obviously, it was a speedy moded-riding traffic enforcer who got me. If I'd just left the front door open while I was collecting the kids I would have probably been OK. So now there's a 50 pound bill to add to the best part of 400 I'd just spent on getting the car fixed.

The thing is, I've just noticed that the speedy moped person was hurrying so much that s/he's got one letter of my registration number wrong...

Do you think it's worth the gamble of not paying and waiting to see whether they track me down? If I do, I guess the least I could do would be to broadcast the story on the internet to give them a sporting chance?

B-)

Posted by at 2:51 PM | Comments (0)

an imitation of honesty

Well, elephant is as good as they say, especially the one that sounds like they're hanging out on Lee Hazlewood's porch, but I've gone back to start listening to the first White Stripes album, which is very led zeppy. You know, I just didn't like this kind of music back in the day. I did try my hardest for a while before the punk revolution decreed that I wasn't meant to like it anyway.

I like their concept of not using anything that was made later than 1963. Now there's something you can't do on the internet.

Why 1963, I wonder? Could it be anything to do with that poem by Philip Larkin about the invention of sex?

B-)

Posted by at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

April 7, 2003

street photos

Jonathan told me about this collection of street photos from edinburgh (mainly) and glasgow. He particularly likes the ... anti-war postbox, which is on my street. Turning the infrastructure of State communication against itself'

B-)

Posted by at 9:48 PM | Comments (0)

bad dad

Well, I've just discovered that Kiloh broke her arm 9 days ago.

She was pushed from a wall (not malicious - she was mistaken for someone who was asking to be pushed) and banged her elbow. As I watched her trampolining yesterday with her arm held constantly at a 90 degrees angle, I thought it might make sense to have it checked out. So I spent today in various waiting and medical rooms and we discovered there's a 'small # in L. radial + joint infusion'.

Not only did it take us 9 days to take her to a medical person but since it happened we've also watched her trampolining, playing football and drama games, and I even forced her to take her swimming lesson yesterday.

My final crime is that I was joking a couple of weeks ago about how lax it was of her not to have broken any arms yet (I had done two arms out of four by the time I was her age).

B-}

Posted by at 2:22 PM | Comments (0)

April 6, 2003

To the power of ten

from jed:

Hullo Team!

I always loved the films of Ray and Charles Eames in the Sixties. (Do you know my favourite: 'Toccata for Toy Trains'?) One of them has now been updated to the computer age and it makes fascinating viewing whether you are nine or ninety. I thought it must have been made for you guys so I pass it on to you as a link:

powers of 10

I do hope it works

Looking forward to seeing you soon

Love Grandad

Posted by at 1:40 PM | Comments (0)

blooming homework

On Friday I was working in a Northern university so I decided to make it worthwhile by going up a day early and spending half a day cycling in the countryside.

The cycling was great, but I'm paying for it now by having to stay at home to do my homework while Apoa suffers the same fate in the room next door.

One of my tasks is to write an exam paper. Part of the paper is textual analysis so I'm looking for interesting passages to use. While browsing around, I found these interesting pieces I won't be using:

(not online but) Tony Blair in February's Reader's Digest explaining why this war won't be about liberating the people of Iraq but instead about getting rid of Saddam's weapons of destruction. Glad he cleared that one up.

David Mamet on truth and the withholding of emotion in acting.

loads of stuff about censorship. This is especially relevant for me today as we followed Apoa's guitar exam yesterday with a trip to the West End to see Maid In Manhattan. It only scores 4.6 out of 10 on imdb but it's a good movie for our kind of family and had some nice relevant bits about coping with nerves (we all had to face this at exam time). It's a 12A which means we wouldn't have been able to take the kids a year ago.

Also on censorship, Welease Bwian is an interesting piece about the making and censoring of Monty Python's Life of Brian

Damn, Apoa's already finished the first part of her homework and is now enjoying the reward of 15 minutes on the trampoline. I'd better get back to work.

B-)

Posted by at 12:37 PM | Comments (0)

April 3, 2003

and there's more

More on political weblogs:

Edward Davey

Tom Watson

about Tom Watson

Tim suggests that what's special about Tom Watson's blog is that he's the first politician to use a blog to tell us what he really thinks instead of just telling us what's in his diary.

B-)

Posted by at 12:27 AM | Comments (0)

remember Gary Hart?

Gary Hart has a blog. B-)

Posted by at 12:15 AM | Comments (0)

vote jed

Jed is standing for office. Dug has some interesting thoughts on it. I'm freaked out by the fact that election rules say that he's banned from buying anyone a drink. Jed is the last person I know who could cope with such an imposition. (Some people, on the other hand...)

B-)

Posted by at 12:11 AM | Comments (0)

are you talking to me?

Here's the straight dope on ape communication. Well, that's what it says on the tin.

B-)

Posted by at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)

camping

Had a really nice weekend last weekend camping with the Woodcraft Folk. We slept in a hostel rather than in tents. I have to admit I missed the rough edges that come with tent living.

B-)

Posted by at 12:06 AM | Comments (0)

deja eu ce deja vu

Just picked up a newspaper I thought was today's but which turned out to be 8 days old. The headline was 'Battle For Baghdad Begins'

B-}

Posted by at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)

March 31, 2003

latest scores

The Iraq-o-meter is keeping track of things in Iraq. They also have this quote from Bush 1 on 'Why we didn't remove Saddam':

While we hoped that popular revolt would topple Saddam, we did not wish to see the breakup of the Iraqi state. Extending the war into Iraq would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land.

B

Posted by at 6:29 PM | Comments (0)

March 27, 2003

the final straw

REM have followed the Beastie Boys and put up a song in response to the war.

B-)

Posted by at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

raf and sheta shonesh

Hanna (who's German) writes:

these RAF "wanted posters" they put up in '71. They must have been around a very long time, I remember seeing them everywhere, and I was born in '72. Maybe I've seen them on telly in German crime series or something, but one way or another they have been around extremely long! And I wonder if this is me being extremely pedantic now, because I really would like to know whether someone left out a word by mistake in the Ben Lewis interview (BBC4), or whether he got it all wrong: 'I think young Germans were very guilty about the past...' I think that's part of the problem many Germans have with their German identity, that they often cannot differentiate between 'being guilty' and 'feeling guilty'. I don't know, but I do think about this sometimes. Did you see that banner on the demo on Saturday, 'For the first time I am proud to be German'? I quite liked that.

And then Sean Connery handing over the Oscar. I watched the 'highlights' on Monday, presented by Jonathan Ross, and I clearly remember Connery saying 'Kasherine Sheta Shonesh' (sorry, I'm not pasting in any special (phonetic or other) symbols anymore on this email software since I kind of joked around with funny Greek, Arabic and whatever the other stuff was, letters in an email, and the software sent three digit numbers instead), and then Ross made a funny(not) comment on it, something like 'how he said her surname, that must have been tough for him' (of course it was slightly more 'subtle' than that). So am I just imagining remembering Connery saying the surname? Or did they put it in afterwards? Very strange.

My guess on the guilt is that he did mean 'felt guilty' rather than 'were guilty'. On Sean Connery, I do know the answer, though. He said her name when reading out the nominations but not when announcing the winner. You can double-check here

B-)

Posted by at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)

Gorey life

Today's afternoon play is about Edward Gorey.

B-)

Posted by at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

hassled by The Man

This is about how some of Godspeed You! Black Emperor were held for questioning as suspected terrorists in Oklahoma recently. They clearly forgot their 'we are not terrorists' bumper stickers.

B-)

Posted by at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

culture

Crammed a lot in yesterday. Started with breakfast and a meeting with James and Dug, then a riverside cycle for a quick burst of Max Beckmann, and Anish Kapoor, at the Tate Modern, a bit of work at the library and a late afternoon seminar (on one way in which children are more logical than adults) followed by a trip to the South Bank to meet Ohna for a bite to eat and the George Piper Dances at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

I didn't really know Beckmann's work which is lively, theatrical and comic (in style even though not always funny). Time Out says the self-portraits are best, and I agree, but I also liked the bronze sculptures.

Anish Kapoor's 'big plasticky thingy' is really impressive, taking over the big turbine hall and making you feel like climbing in.

The seminar was fascinating. It seems that kids are less likely than grownups to think that 'some cows are mammals' is false. Or, to put it the other way round, grownups are more likely than kids to make the jump to thinking 'some X are Y' must mean 'some X are not Y'. Confused? You will be.

I love the South Bank. The architecture makes you feel like you've time-warped back to a glorious age where there are always lots of people enjoying cultural activity. The people are a good mix of young and old, smart and casual, X and Y. Of course, there's some pattern here - the older ones tend to be smarter. And why are there always busloads of older folk dressed very smartly in ballgowns and evening dress? We weren't convinced that the buses had started their journey in our world. And you never know when a poet laureate will just appear and start signing books next to you.

The dances were great, btw. The first half of the evening was made up of five new pieces by top choreographers accompanied by short films about how they work. At the end of the evening they showed some out-takes and other funny bits. Soon, all dance events will have to have one.

B-)

Posted by at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2003

baghdad blogger

Salam Pax is fed up with people wondering whether he's genuine or not. I believe him because why not, but you can see why people are suspicious. Here are some reasons:

- it's on the internet where 'you are who you pretend to be'

- he uses a nom de blog

- he doesn't tell us much about himself or other people he refers to

- he writes in English

- his language and style have lots of Western features

I wonder if we should get forensic linguists on the case?

Has anyone been working on stylistic analyses of blogland?

btw, Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare's plays and this is the best evidence.

B-)

Posted by at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)

nuns, whores and femmes fatales

This is an interesting article by Stephanie Zacharek at Salon about what counts as a good role for women. She writes:

I'll take a lace-and-leather sexpot over Nicole Kidman's prosthetic-honker performance in 'The Hours' any day of the week.

It hit a spot with me as I wasn't sure what Catherine Zeta-Jones's reference to 'an amazing year for women' meant.

While I'm here, was anyone else irritiated by the way Ms Zeta-Jones lost her surname at the oscars? Sean Connery announced that 'the oscar goes to ... [pause] ... Catherine' (possibly confusing Kathy Bates for a moment) and no-one mentioned her surname again. Was this a coronation ceremony or something?

I liked how Xan Brooks described 'Zeejay''s award:

6.40pm: Heavily pregnant and orange-skinned, Catherine Zeta-Jones steps up to collect the best supporting actress award for her turn in Chicago. Zeejay thanks husband Michael Douglas and confesses that she loves everyone (literally, everyone) in her native Swansea. In the audience, Douglas is most satisified. It looks like the cash he recently spent on that full-page advert in Variety, bigging up his wife's performance, was money well spent.

You'll notice Salon wants you to pay to read their stuff now, btw. You can always pay one day at a time by viewing a 15-second commercial with the option of muting the sound. I found that the sound of 21st-century commercialism blended rather well with Godspeed.

B-)

Posted by at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)

'the skyline looks beautiful on fire'

Nothing gets you going in the morning like a bit of Godspeed You Black Emperor. Somehow 'The Dead Flag Blues' off of 'F#A#Oo' really hits the spot at the moment.

B-)

Posted by at 9:58 AM | Comments (0)

March 24, 2003

the German Rolling Stones?

Actually, I guess I'd like to watch a documentary about the Baader-Meinhoff group. I wonder if I can get access to BBC Four by the time this is aired in April?

B-)

Posted by at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

another country

Saw another film last night that not many people will be getting to see. Baader is a fictional movie about the Baader-Meinhof group of which only one print is in existence. Vertigo brought that print to London for one screening last night. I don't know when or if it will be screened again.

There were a lot of good things about the film but it left me a bit unsatisfied. The director said it was deliberately fictional and not attempting to present 'the truth'. On the other hand, it was about real people and some of the scenes were based on what he had found out about them. What disappointed me, though, was that I wasn't really sure what the film was supposed to do to me beyond asking me to imagine a person who was like the fictional Baader.

Found a new late drinking venue after the screening. Do you think it will be sad when they finally scrap the licensing laws and there's nothing special about knowing where you can get a drink after midnight?

Came home and watched half the oscars, which was kind of an opposite extreme from a one-print no-budget arty movie. Steve Martin was funny and not afraid to be offensive. I'm glad some of the celebs didn't chicken out from saying something about Bush and Iraq and everything. I don't know how representative it is, but the main emotions the war is causing in people I've been coming across are sadness and depression.

B

Posted by at 9:58 AM | Comments (0)

starting at the end

After joining in on the beginning of the last one, we took the other option on Saturday and went straight to Hyde Park for the main part of the demo. I don't know how many hundred thousand were there (I think people think somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000) but it was pretty impressive. The last time, the kids seemed to be a bit unclear about numbers but on Saturday they were seriously impressed when they got on my shoulders and looked at all of the people. Sadly, the photos they took from there didn't come out.

This time we managed to do the whole thing without the kids declaring war on each other.

B-)

Posted by at 9:48 AM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2003

deep concerns

ZNet just sent me an essay by Chomsky which sketches some of the reasons why we should be more than just a little bit worried at the moment.

I'm still quite sickened by the crude 'arguments' put forward by the Bush-Blair people in support of their war, so I'm grateful for the continuing protests. A journalist on the radio yesterday was suggesting to a Parliament Square protestor that they should go home because the war has now happened and so it can't be stopped. But I think it's important that we try to keep people aware of the way they brought this about, including their constant self-contradictions, the fact that the war is illegal, and the lack of international support for it.

And what are we meant to think of the US claims that their 'coalition of the obedient' keeps growing? According to this, Ari Fleischer is impressed by the support from 'countries of every race and faith'. Apparently they have 27 trillion dollars worth of GDP supporting them, or 35 countries.

Another statement said that 30 countries are publicly in support and 15 are secretly telling the US they support them while publicly pretending not to. Thank goodness for the defenders of openness and democracy B-(

Posted by at 9:43 AM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2003

lexical gap?

Is there a word for when you've taken a bit of chewing gum out of your mouth for a minute while you make a quick phone call because you don't think it would be cool to be chewing away during the conversation and the conversation goes on a bit longer than you thought it would so the gum gets all sticky on your fingers and you can't get it off so you get an old tissue out of the bin and wipe it with that so you spend the rest of the day with bits of tissue paper stuck to your finger and thumb?

B-}

Posted by at 1:36 PM | Comments (0)

eat more words

I've just signed up for eat more words even though I'm not sure what it's offering.

Still, it's only $10 and if you can't trust Caterina, who can you trust?

B-)

Posted by at 9:08 AM | Comments (0)

chunky monkey

Last night, I became one of the few people in the world to have seen Chunky Monkey, a mental movie which was shot three years ago and has been involved in litigation and re-editing ever since. It is incorrect in many ways but the main problems had to do with the main character's fantasy of performing anal sex with Julie Andrews using Chunky Monkey ice cream as a lubricant while she sings 'The hills are alive...' For some reason, there were objections from Unilever (owners of Ben & Jerry's) and the estate of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The film was a lot of fun but I don't know when it will ever be screened anywhere. I got to see it because Lawrence got me into a screening at the Cobden Club which is a sort of Groucho-like establishment in W10. We did a little bit of schmoozing before nipping off for a quieter drink at the Golborne.

Cycling involved a few more hiccups. First, I performed my common trick of forgetting where I was going and cycling halfway to Soho before remembering where I was actually meant to be going. Then I decided to use the canal through Camden only to find they've blocked part of it off. It was nice while it lasted, though. After the pub, some major police activity meant I had to make a great long detour before getting round to my bike again. It was in one piece but somebody had adjusted the front wheel slightly for me. They must have thought the quick release lever operated the D-lock as well as the wheel.

B-)

Posted by at 8:48 AM | Comments (0)

March 19, 2003

more vigil photos

http://www.moveon.org/vigil/

Posted by at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)

more on clicks

The language hat discusses more nonsense about click languages, this time from the NY Times.

B-)

Posted by at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

metaphors that kill

This is another article by George Lakoff on metaphors used to justify the war. My only quibble is that I'm not sure about his explanation for why the facts don't prevent (some) people from thinking the war is 'just' or 'legal'.

B-)

Posted by at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

non-virtual linguablogger

Had an enjoyable cup of camomile tea with Mark yesterday as he passed through London on his way home. My first face-to-face meeting with a linguablogger

(Enjoyable not just for the tea, of course)

B-)

Posted by at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)

March 18, 2003

FWD: French Military Victories

Someone's being cheeky:

------- Forwarded message follows -------

Hope I'm not offending anyone...

1. Go to google.com 2. Search for 'french military victories' 3. Click the 'I'm feeling lucky' button

B-)

Posted by at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2003

normal wacky or wacky wacky?

Some people thought the Guardian's cricket journalist had seriously lost the plot, btw. In fact, this is just the kind of thing those crazy Guardian people do. The Guardian's own online blog had a post about it on the day.

B-)

Posted by at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

journo's bad day

You don't have to be into cricket to enjoy this

B-)

Posted by at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)

Jonathan Richman and candles and stuff

Apoa took these photos at our most local candlelit vigil last night.

Shepherd's Bush scared me (it often does, actually). Gangs of cyclists without lights were charging around all over the place, scaring pedestrians on narrow pavements and arguing with each other. I noticed quite a few bits of bikes chained to railings. I was relieved to find all of my bits still there at the end of the night.

Jonathan Richman gave a most impressive multilingual performance, although to be honest I don't know how accurately he was speaking all of the languages he used. The Hebrew bit might well have been just nonsense syllables with a few velar fricatives (correct me if that's not the right term) thrown in here and there. Still, he was great. He made it feel like he was performing in a little room rather than in front of 1,000 people (I'm guessing). My favourite bits were when he would step away from the mike to say something. First, you were surprised that you could hear him and then you realised that that meant everyone in the place was listening in silence. He was accompanied just by Tommy Larkins on drums, who was also most impressive, btw.

Near the end, he said he'd give us just one verse about the war. The words were:

Not in my name in Baghdad Not in my name any more Cos the children We'll be killin Did not put anyone in power

Then he went straight into another of his 'wild and crazy' songs about his night in the lesbian bar with Pablo Picasso warning his ex-girlfriend about the possible drug issues surrounding her new boyfriend, or something like that. He didn't do anything like Road Runner, Ice-Cream Man, That Summer Feeling, etc. etc. But he did do Stop Your Sobbing as a tribute to Ray Davies (since he was in his home town).

On the way home I passed the site of our vigil. It was around midnight and two candles were still burning. Pretty amazing, especially around here.

If you'd like to visit a website about Jonathan Richman, check out this site, aka 'The Abominable Lesbian Vampire Cappuccino Bar in Cyberspace'

B-)

Posted by at 9:42 AM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2003

copping out

Well, you could say this has been an eventful weekend. Big hair dos on Friday, a birthday party + sleepover for Apoa on Saturday, a square dance for the rest of us (with the grumpiest dance-caller of all time, but still good fun), sun, gardening and a bit of a picnic this afternoon, swimming this evening and all capped off with a candlelit vigil this evening. Our nearest vigil is on an ex-bombsite which is now a 'green space' round the corner, which seems especially appropriate.

But I'm copping out of the peace movement for one night, cos my brother has got a spare ticket for Jonathan Richman...

B-)

Posted by at 6:36 PM | Comments (0)

from Mark

Here are some thoughts from Mark:

Entirely agree on your letter about asylum seekers, by the way. I suggested to Conservative ministers a decade ago that they should set quotas for northern towns, universities and employers to fill by inviting migrants if they wished or not. So as to liberalise immigration by freeing it from the Home Office's dark clutches, and to ensure a welcome in receiving communities, by letting them decide for themselves. After all, I think at least a quarter of houses in towns like Preston and Rochdale are empty. A ridiculous waste. More immigrants are exactly what depressed parts of Britain need [they did an enormous amount for my city, Manchester], provided localities get a chance to positively choose that option.

B-)

Posted by at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)

March 13, 2003

get your war on

Get Your War On is out as a book (or maybe just as some pages stuck together, I'm not sure). There was a bit about it in the Guardian on Monday but it doesn't seem to be online. It's published by Soft Skull Press and you can buy it here. The UK distributor is at: 020 8829 3000 or: orders@turn-around.co.uk

B-)

Posted by at 3:04 PM | Comments (0)

language testing

I think I'm adding my name to the bottom of this letter which will be sent to the Guardian and to the immigration minister Beverley Hughes:

As teachers and researchers in linguistics, we wish to object strongly to the language tests for asylum seekers that have been introduced recently ("Language tests to uncover bogus Iraqi asylum seekers", Guardian 12 March). As the eminent linguist Lord Quirk said in the House of Lords in June last year, "placing people on the basis of their accent is more parlour game than forensic science". The government says that "language experts" will conduct the tests. We would like to know what kind of expertise will be called upon, and what qualifications, training and monitoring will be used to select these "experts". We are very doubtful that reliable expertise exists to enable people to identify where a speaker of a language comes from. We also deplore the government's emphasis on "bogus" asylum seekers at a time when an impending war looks likely to create a huge wave of refugees. We call on the government to treat all asylum seekers sympathetically and fairly. Yours sincerely,

The Guardian Report is here and you can find Randolph Quirk's remarks in the Lords here

B-)

Posted by at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)

really free music

Jonathan wrote (a while ago actually):

Obviously it's hell living in Scotland, but one of the good things is Radio Scotland's eclectic music policy, and you can listen to it on the web

There's a good jazz/laid back beats programme called Be-Bop to Hip-Hop (nb the very nice Finnish jazzy/dancy track about 30mins in):

Be-Bop to Hip-Hop

And last night I found myself listening to an hour of bagpipes, and liking it:

pipeline

Now I'm off to sit in a pub and complain about the English

I particularly enjoyed pipeline. 'It ain't Beethoven but it sure bounces'

B-)

Posted by at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)

orwellian tyros

Read here about the fantastic idea two republicans had of changing the names of 'french fries' and 'french toast' to 'freedom fries' and 'freedom toast' respectively, thus niftily linking the concepts 'French' and 'freedom' in the minds of people who hear about it.

B-)

Posted by at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)

fight the non-violent fight

The Beastie Boys are top of the pops on blogdex at the moment.

Quite right too. They've put a new song up there for free download. It's called 'In a world gone mad' and, as they say, it's 'not an anti-American or pro-Saddam Hussein statement. This is a statement against an unjustified war'

You can read the lyrics there, too. Here's an extract:

Mirrors, smokescreens and lies

It's not the politicians but their actions I despise

You and Saddam should kick it like back in the day

With the cocaine and Courvoisier

B-)

Posted by at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

war and language

On the Today programme, I just heard John Humphreys (presenter) talking to Terry Jones (writer and ex-Python) and Ian Hargreaves (journalist) about language. Humphreys introduced the piece by saying that some have said that 'if the first casualty of war is truth, the second is the English language'

Humphreys didn't want to get political. Terry Jones, on the other hand, began by using the word war as an example. In his dictionary, war is a fight between armed people. In this case, the US has forced Iraq to disarm and is now going to bomb them. That's not a war; that's a turkey shoot'. Later, he discussed the use of the phrase 'attack Saddam' to refer to 'bombing hundreds of thousands of innocent people' while Saddam makes himself safe in a bunker somewhere.

Near the end, Humphreys said that while he believed the BBC was non-partisan (polite coughs - or were they giggles? - from the others), they did tend to use the phrase 'collateral damage' rather than 'children being blown to bits'. Hargreaves responded by saying he hoped people would switch off immediately if they did ever do things like that.

You can hear the clip from here if you've got the patience to work out how to get to clip 6 and then move forward to the last fifth (roughly) of it.

B-)

Posted by at 9:43 AM | Comments (0)

March 7, 2003

academia

These thoughts from Naomi have inspired quite a bit of discussion about academia among linguabloggers and others.

B-)

Posted by at 2:31 PM | Comments (0)

protect your domain name

Have a look at this then this

B-)

Posted by at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)

March 5, 2003

swings and roundabouts

daffodils and hay fever

B-)

Posted by at 3:49 PM | Comments (0)

a new one

Just had breakfast with my brother. On the way out a man with a hangover who was sipping an alka-seltzer at the counter asked Mike if we were father and son or brothers. When I asked which one he had thought was the dad he laughed, pointed to Mike and said 'him!' Which confirms, of course, that he thought I was the aged P.

B-)

Posted by at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

March 4, 2003

understudies step in

I'm so glad I still had the best part of a bike in a bin liner in the shed.

B-)

Posted by at 4:30 PM | Comments (0)

sociable psychologists

This reminds me of two things linguists spend a lot of time complaining about: being asked how many languages they speak, and some of those funny myths about language like the one about eskimos having lots of words for snow or people in X remote community (it varies a bit, but the people of the Appalachians are a popular choice) who 'are still speaking Shakespeare's English'

B-)

Posted by at 4:16 PM | Comments (0)

well, he's happy

him, I mean

B-)

Posted by at 4:12 PM | Comments (0)

grrrr!

Well, I've always been Mr. Super Safe when it comes to things like locking up my bike. But recently I decided to reinvent myself as Mr. Slightly More Casual. So I've just come out of the cafe and found my rear wheel missing.

B-(

Posted by at 1:02 PM | Comments (0)

tenimeminem

Apoa is ten today and I'm sorry to have to tell Fiona that I just gave her the 8 Mile soundtrack as a present. She's been into Eminem for a while but only found out at the weekend that I had all of his CDs guiltily hiding on a grownup shelf. Aidan was a bit surprised to find that I don't think Eminem is the devil. In fact, it seems like there's a bit of a movement to 'kiss his ass' among the middle class chatterers of North London.

Apoa and her mates don't only like him because of the 'plop-plop poo-poo' value of the swearing and she does say that there are some of the songs she doesn't like ('Kim', unsurprisingly, for example). She is currently setting her CD player to wake her with the 'public service announcement' announcing that the artiste does not make a defecatory donation what the listener might think if him, nay! he has said artiste's permission to fellate said artiste, and that the purchaser of this musical compact disc has, in the act of purchasing, performed an anal osculatory act in so doing (or words to that effect).

Diane (who has a 14 year old daughter) thinks it's important not to take too much of an interest in your kid's musical experiences when they're teenagers. So I'll have to train myself not to try to 'own' her music (or to giggle too much at the 'plop-plops')

B-)

Posted by at 9:42 AM | Comments (0)

March 3, 2003

boycotts

Here's what the LSA (Linguistic Society of America) just resolved:

At the 77th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America held 2-5 January 2003 in Atlanta, Georgia, the members attending the business meeting approved the following resolution opposing discrimination and political sanctions against scholars on the basis of their ethnicity, religion or country of origin. The resolution arose in response to sanctions in several European countries against scholarly collaboration with Israeli or Jewish linguists and other academics. These moves are intended to protest Israel's treatment of the Palestinians but target individuals irrespective of their personal stance on the issues involved. The text of the resolution follows:

Whereas there have been calls for and instances of boycotts of individual scholars (faculty, students and administration) and their universities, in response to the actions and policies of the governments of the countries or regions where these scholars work, or to the scholars' religion or ethnicity,

Let it be resolved that

The Linguistic Society of America opposes all discrimination and political sanctions against scholars in any aspect of professional life (such as employment, publication, promotion, conference participation, educational exchanges, and research collaboration), where such discrimination is based not on the conduct of the scholars themselves, but solely on the scholars' religion or ethnicity, or on the actions or policies of the countries or regions in which these scholars live and work, or of which they are citizens. Such boycotts violate the principle of free scientific interaction and cooperation, and they constitute arbitrary and selective applications of collective punishment.

This resolution will be sent to the full membership of the Society for their consideration.

I think they're right. I might think differently if it were part of a larger boycott that had had more discussion, especially with the people it's designed to help. But boycotting individuals in this context seems to me to do more harm than good.

B

Posted by at 7:02 PM | Comments (0)

March 1, 2003

from Fiona

Hi Billy,

I just wanted to let you know how much I've enjoyed browsing through your thoughts of the last few months. I'm an old friend of your Mum's and of Kim's, I think we met briefly at Bessie and Ted's wedding - I was the one with the 3 children who all managed to disgrace themselves in equal quantities that night for one reason or another!

It was the David Bowie dream which prompted me to write - the dream to the tune of Starman? I thought that was just priceless - "chasing after me, eating up my tea" - just wonderful.

My daughter Natalie has discovered Bowie at the tender age of 13, (you still have to encounter 13 from your two girls) - beware - tonight I have been called a bitch and a coward but "knock off the a r d" Good eh? And they talk about the joys of parenthood. Yes, I do remember your two charming little girls, with small red tartan kilts and thick wooly tights, girls who were impeccably behaved at Grandma's wedding, this is why I am writing to warn you........ ....... beware the ides of teenage years, when it all begins, you do wonder if your own puberty has only just gone. Small snippets of guilt rear their ugly heads as you remember vaguely snarling at parents in a similar (albeit with curbed language) fashion. Can you not steer the dear child towards the Beatles or something similar?

Good luck! And if you are talking to your Mum or to Michael tell them Fiona said hi!

B-)

Posted by at 1:48 PM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2003

a 'pedant' (;-)) writes !!

The anti-frivolous bastardisation person has just said:

Just to confirm that my original post:

'Frankly, this kind of issue is nothing compared to the endless colon, dash, end brackets that I see being used so frequently online. This, and such variants as semicolon, dash, end bracket and colon, dash, capital o are ruinous to online textual integrity.

Frivolous bastardisation of our punctuation is one of the key witnesses to the current decline of our wonderful nation.'

Was indeed a joke. :-) (did you wonder why I didn't actually write a smiley in it?)

In fact, I use far too many dashes, unnecessary inverted commas, capitalisations and exclamation marks, and unnecessary repetition in my writing to be textually 'accurate' - so there!

Also, I write the word 'website', not Web site, or web site. Double 'so there'!!

This reminds me of a recent debate caused by Dame Edna Everage saying bad things in Vanity Fair and being taken seriously. The enigmatic mermaid posted it and you can read the original post and some interesting comments about it here

B-)

Posted by at 3:50 PM | Comments (0)

being a pedant doesn't help sell stuff

This question on a list for net marketing people:

A bit of a pedantic grammar question here. When writing sentences for web pages that contain a URL or email address at the end should the sentence finish with a full stop or not. The approach taken seems to vary on the sites I've reviewed.

stimulated a fair amount of discussion, including this comment:

Frivolous bastardisation of our punctuation is one of the key witnesses to the current decline of our wonderful nation.

(He might have been joking, of course).

The consensus, though, seemed to be more with this response to the anti-frivolous bastardisation person:

straight from the telegraph comment pages!

utter nonsense of course. what works on the page doesn't necessarily work on screen. simple as that. punctuation which doesn't follow 'the rules' but makes screen text easier to read is fine by me and would be fine by most people reading it. being a pedant doesn't help sell stuff!

I can't help noticing the violation of the 'no exclamation marks' rule though ;-) !

Posted by at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2003

visual thesaurus

I've just joined the English Language list where teachers of A level English Language discuss stuff. They pointed me to this which is good fun.

B-)

Posted by at 7:29 PM | Comments (0)

strange song

Last night Apoa dreamed this (to the tune of 'Starman' by David Bowie):

There's a strong wind Staying overnight Eating all our tea Chasing after me

What does it mean? (She sang it in a cock-er-nee accent, btw)

B-)

Posted by at 7:23 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2003

another one

Just went to Sainsbury's and picked up a copy of X-Ray magazine (seems to be an xfm production) which has a good 'free' CD and cost only 2 pounds 50

B-)

Posted by at 3:32 PM | Comments (0)

more from Jonathan

magazine's ??? really Dr Clark!

but here's an ace link:

http://www.dagbladet.no/download/readmylips_blush.mov

(Well done, Jonathan, for being the only reader to pass my proofreading test ;-)

Posted by at 3:21 PM | Comments (0)

no bush

Can't argue with this can you?

B-)

Posted by at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

more free cds

Jonathan writes:

free cd update: March issue of Mojo has a punk cd mixing then and now (Clash vs Strokes etc) - some absolute classics (ATV, 'Action Time Vision'), and some curiosities (Modhoney cover Hawkwind's 'Urban Guerilla')

Unfortunately no sign of the supreme punk track: Subway Sect's 'Nobody's Scared' though

xjonathan

I picked up the Mojo one while shopping for Muzik, and am also enjoying bits of Uncut's free Bowie tribute album.

I notice, btw, that we refer to these as 'free' CDs but the magazines they're 'free' with cost nearly four quid each...

B-)

Posted by at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2003

licensed to drive too fast

First day of half-term. I just took Apoa, Kiloh and Oisin to the 007 exhibition at the Science Museum. I was a bit disappointed as the main event was queueing up to answer questions on computer screens, something that's easier to do if you're sitting at home. What interested me most were the design drawings and storyboards, but it's hard to look at them properly when you've got three kids to look after (and to help with the quiz questions on their monitors). I was also less than impressed that the 'death-defying stunt' they promised meant holding onto a girder and looking at yourself on a screen clinging on to the Golden Gate bridge. The effect was slightly spoiled by the poor quality of the image and the fact that other folk in the room were walking around in the sky behind you. Oh well.

It was also interesting to head into town on the first day of congestion charging. The tubes didn't seem any busier than usual (although I don't use them that often) but crossing roads with kids in South Kensington made clear what I think is the main flaw with the scheme. If the scheme 'works' then traffic will be able to get around faster. The last thing we want cars to do is to speed up. Up until now, the scariest bit about cycling in London has been being passed by cars going too fast and passing too close. This is usually less of a problem in town than our here in the boondocks. Hope this scheme isn't going to change that. I've always thought that banning cars altogether is the best way to deal with traffic, but maybe this is just the first step?

B-)

Posted by at 5:44 PM | Comments (0)

a finnophile writes

hi billy - just reading the blog listening to the free cd on this month's muzik mag - a mix by Gilles Peterson - definitely worth the 3 pounds 65, especially considering the first track's in Finnish

xjonathan

Posted by at 5:08 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2003

half a demo

Well, we're home already.

The kids declared war on each other before we even left the house, which was not a good omen. Their friend Guy was bringing his catapult on the march so he could sort out any Iraqis he might meet. Not sure he's really with the programme.

We waited at Finsbury Park for half an hour then tubed to Russell Square. An hour and a half later we'd made it to Bedford Square and at that point I gave in and took the kids home.

We enjoyed the bit we joined in on though. The kids were impressed by the noise every time a wave of shouting passed through the crowd and we enjoyed various chants, banners, drummers, and stuff. I enjoyed being out in a crowd of amiable grownups. I had more conversations with strangers in two hours than I usually manage in a month, including people on the tube who weren't going to the demo.

I would have liked to see Hyde Park but at least we got a taste of it all. And I don't suppose this is the last such demo we'll ever see...

B-)

Posted by at 3:25 PM | Comments (0)

madhouse

Ohna's at work, six kids are running riot in my house, I've just about got the lunches together. Someone's at the door. Oops, must dash. We've got a war to stop.

B-)

Posted by at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2003

tooth fairy fails to show

Well, we've taken advice from various sources now and Apoa has decided to give the fairy another chance. Unfortunately, her mum has got the tooth somewhere and she's only ever here for the odd moment every day just now. Must remember to get the tooth back and give it another go. Tomorrow Apoa (and the fairy) will have been waiting two weeks to finalise their transaction. Is this a record?

B-}

Posted by at 4:07 PM | Comments (0)

valentine

Ohna has been too busy to do any valentine's things

B-(

Apoa and Kiloh, on the other hand, have been very busy. They've been hiding in their rooms a lot recently and they were up at 6 this morning to deliver various items including handwritten cards and handmade hanging hearts. Apoa also left a cherry drop with a heart stuck on top of it by each of our beds.

B-)

Posted by at 3:00 PM | Comments (0)

captain corelli

Just read Captain Corelli's Mandolin, part of a process of teaching myself to read bigger books (534 pages) and take longer over them (2 months). Obviously, he's a great writer and in the end I thought it was a great book. The main effect it had on me was to make me miserable by getting across a profound sense of the horror of war. The main things that struck me about his writing were how happy he was to digress and enjoy chapters and subplots and so on, regardless of how essential they were to moving the plot along. And, obviously connected, how strong a sense you get of him enjoying his writing. I enjoyed it too, although I had to struggle with the usual impatience that I was reading this book to train myself out of.

I followed the book by watching the film on video. A lot of good things about it, despite the problems of having to reduce 534 pages and all those digressions to something more streamlined. I couldn't understand why they chose to get the actors to perform it in funny accents, though, and I giggled when they had the Italian soldiers singing while shaving rather than singing on the bog.

But I felt cheated by the much-happier-than-the-book ending. For me, this meant removing what was the most powerful thing in the book. I guess it's typical of movie adaptations, but I thought it was a real shame. Maybe they should have gone for a two-part Jean de Florette kind of approach.

And one more thing, both the book and the film fail to raise questions about guilt surrounding the main characters which I would have thought inevitable given what happens in both the book and the film (I'm being inexplicit for the sake of anyone who hasn't seen or read either).

B-)

Posted by at 2:25 PM | Comments (0)

get off the fence

I get really fed up with the way arguments get polarised. In the Iraq thing, this means you can only be either for war (gung ho imperialistic swine) or against it (Saddam loving cheese eater).

Timothy Garton Ash wrote a good article arguing against polarisation and explaining why he's on the fence about Iraq.

It's worth pointing out, though, that the people on one side of this argument are a lot more keen to polarise than the other. According to the US government, and a lot of other pro-war folk, you're either desperate to pull the trigger now and who cares what anyone else thinks or you're 'irrelevant', 'insignificant', 'pathetic' etc. etc. etc. Bush 2 began all this with his 'if you're not with us you're against us' speech - what Chomsky described as the USA declaring war on the world.

The other thing that strikes me is that the reasons Garton Ash gives against the war are much stronger than the ones he gives for it.

B

Posted by at 1:08 PM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2003

Bush interrupts Oprah

This came from Academics for Justice. It's good to hear that on US TV 'the British correspondent said at one point that it was hard to find anyone in Britain EXCEPT TONY BLAIR that supported the war' (even though I can think of one or two others)

Understanding What Just Happened on The Oprah Winfrey Show

Today, Oprah Winfrey started a two-part series focusing on the impending U.S. war on Iraq. About halfway through the show the broadcast was pre-empted by coverage of Pres. George Bush, with Colin Powell at his side, reading a prepared statement on Iraq. The coincidental timing of this pre-emptive press statement raised immediate questions about the motives of the White House war strategists. Students of the Civil Rights Movement will recall an incident in 1964 when activist Fannie Lou Hamer sat before a live television audience and gave a riveting account of the oppression she and other Blacks faced in the South. President Lyndon Johnson was so convinced of the power of her appeal to undermine his own political/racial agenda, that he hastily called a press conference to pull cameras away from Hamer's impassioned revelations. Though the networks pre- empted Hamer's testimony to cover the president, the newscasts later showed her entire presentation.

The pre-emption of Winfrey's show today should be seen in the same light. Oprah's audience is a vast and powerful--but largely apolitical--force of middle-class white women. It is likely that most did not watch Colin Powell's live testimony at the U.N. yesterday. In fact, it is likely that this huge audience was being oriented to the issues of the Iraq war for the first time. Bush and his handlers are also aware that powerful Republican voices, including Rush Limbaugh's, credit Bush's pre-election appearance on the Oprah Show with "turning the tide" in his favor. It is unlikely that they treated this show with anything but intense propaganda interest.

The first 30 minutes of the show was decidedly anti-war and highlighted not only worldwide unanimity in opposition to the war but presented many of the heretofore unheard voices of ordinary people speaking forcefully against Bush's motives. CNN assisted the Oprah Show by presenting overseas confirmation of this from Great Britain and Iraq. For instance, the British correspondent said at one point that it was hard to find anyone in Britain EXCEPT TONY BLAIR that supported the war. Other voices repeated their conclusion that the war is "for oil," not "against terrorism." Those familiar with the Bush administration's network cheerleaders at ABC, NBC, and CBS would, no doubt, view this expose' with raised eyebrows. Then, without warning or introduction, Bush is seen at the podium reiterating Powell's statement at the U.N. yesterday! One immediately had to assume that Bush was actually declaring war on Iraq, given the urgency of this interruption. Soon, however, it became clear that OPRAH herself was the target of this sabre-rattling and not Saddam Hussein. Bush simply summarized Powell's presentation for Oprah's audience, hitting key emotional points for this afternoon women's gathering. He said nothing more of any import at all. Returning to the show, 15 or so minutes later, found still more impassioned, but reasoned, anti-war input from members of Oprah's audience. There was indeed a balance of pro-war input but the net effect of the show--in spite of Bush's strategic Johnsonian interruption--was to embolden the anti-war voices and to make opposition to the war as "patriotic" a position as that of the warmongers. What we just saw was a replay of an old propaganda ploy of an ol' Texas politician, Lyndon Baines Johnson, against the scarecropper's daughter from Mississippi, Fannie Lou Hamer. In 1964, enough of Hamer's message was heard to force Johnson into acting against his own political desires. Bush's ploy in 2003 may have backfired as well.

B-)

Posted by at 9:57 PM | Comments (0)

another memo to me

'Cleared my desk' on Friday. The quotes are because it's not a permanent departure. Most of my stuff is still in the room, but I cleared enough space to allow someone else to work there.

I've just spent a weekend that didn't have an urgent Monday deadline ruining it and followed it with a fairly pleasant and productive Monday.

I could get used to this ...

(Must remember to make sure Apoa doesn't get tempted by academia)

B-)

Posted by at 9:48 PM | Comments (0)

homework pressure

Memo to me: must remember to make sure Apoa does her homework early in the week. She doesn't cope well when she's up against a tight deadline.

B-{

Posted by at 9:42 PM | Comments (0)

they're not really lesbians, you know

Mark predicted tATu's success back in September, the old svengali by proxy that he is. He also points out that ' the (Romanian) Cheeky Girls are unheard of (musically) in Romania, although of course became newsworthy when they topped the UK charts.

B-)

Posted by at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)

February 7, 2003

notebooks out, plagiarists

Academics have been worried about plagiarism for a long time. This is going to make it a bit harder to persuade the students that it's not a good idea. Still, I suppose it's justified if you're trying to deal with the 'master of deception'...

B-}

Posted by at 9:12 AM | Comments (0)

February 5, 2003

co inky dinky

Hanna was just talking about my tooth fairy story and then last night Apoa announced that she too had been experimenting with the tooth fairy.

Both our kids have now tried the experiment of removing a tooth, putting it under the pillow and not telling anyone.

Strangely, the fairy doesn't seem to come under such circumstances.

The latest incident involves Apoa removing a tooth on Saturday and secretly stashing it. After four nights, there's still no sign of the fairy, which Apoa thinks is pretty strong evidence. Being a good scientist, of course, she realises that this is not totally conclusive. But we're not sure what should happen next, especially since the playground is now buzzing with discussion of this latest piece of research....

B-}

Posted by at 2:41 PM | Comments (0)

shazam fails me

Well, I've just been listening to something really groovy on radiomagnetic so I tried shazam and they couldn't tag it.

B-(

Posted by at 2:32 PM | Comments (0)

pre-madge

Some poor sod on a discussion list just objected to the 'laughably simplistic notion that all designers are pre-madonnas'

As you can imagine, other members of the list have failed to resist the open goal.

B-)

Posted by at 9:49 AM | Comments (0)

February 3, 2003

this is ... uncool (not)

Went to see the Rezillos on Saturday night.

I felt like I was in an adaptation of 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. They hadn't changed at all, but you should have seen the state of us lot in the audience.

It was great to see men in their forties tumbling upside down onto the stage and into the loving arms of the bouncers.

The gig was over by 10pm so that the venue could be used for a club. So an added irony was for us wrinklies to be heading out of the West End as the youngsters headed in to begin their evening.

The final highlight on the way home was to find the Jeremy Bentham was selling banana bread beer on draft. Yes, it does taste of bananas. Andrew impressed me, as he managed a second pint.

Anyway, the Rezillos are still great and they've even got some new songs. They began the evening with the instruction to 'make noise, not war' and ended it with 'Somebody's Going To Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight'. Keep your violence local, that's what I say.

B-)

Posted by at 11:26 PM | Comments (0)

February 1, 2003

UK traffic rules

Just heard this via the London Cycling Campaign. It seems it's now illegal for cars to stop within those green bits with bikes on them at traffic lights (what these 'ASLs' are for is to make sure cyclists are at the front of the queue when waiting at a red light). Also, cyclists now officially have right of way over cars on cycle paths.

It's going to make such a difference, isn't it? (No, me neither)

The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002 come into force on 31 January 2003 replacing the 1994 version. Highlights include making ASLs fully enforceable - a motor vehicle crossing the first line when the signal is not showing green (unless it's gone to amber and stopping would cause a collision) will be seen as jumping the lights and could be fined or have penalty points imposed. Also s25 gives those on cycle tracks priority expressly for the first time:

(6) Where the transverse lines [give way markings] are placed in advance of a length of the carriageway of the road where a cycle track crosses the road along a route parallel to the transverse lines, then the requirement shall be that no vehicle shall proceed past such one of those lines as is nearer the cycle track, in a manner or at a time likely to endanger any cyclist proceeding along the cycle track or to cause such a cyclist to change speed or course in order to avoid an accident.

Full text and illustrations here

Posted by at 4:19 PM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2003

Click Commercial: Ricoh Responds

(This is a long one)

Remember the letter to Ricoh Geoff Pullum copied to LINGUIST objecting to their advert?

Here's Ricoh's response, and Pullum's response to that:

FROM RICOH:

Dear Professor Pullum:

On behalf of the Ricoh Family Group of companies worldwide, please consider that the advertisement to which you refer in your recent letter was not intended in any way to derogate the Khoisan people or their complex, beautiful language.

Ricoh, as a culturally sensitive organization, had been assured by our advertising agency that a noted South African anthropologist was employed to advise it during the production of this campaign. The anthropologist, who has worked with this tribe for a number of years, made sure that they were being depicted accurately and in a positive light.

In the advertisement, Ricoh intended to present Chief Obijol's use of his language as an example of efficient and effective communication, and used the word "simply" to highlight this. While there are many interpretations of the word "simple", we used it to mean "readily understood". We hold simplicity as the gold standard in communication, because, to us, it stands for easy, clear, and effective interaction. The advertisement, part of a campaign entitled "Experts", is intended to highlight and celebrate people who have learned that the most important ideas can be more powerful when shared directly and effectively. We are sorry if you did not take this message away from the advertisement.

We are alerting our parent company, Ricoh Company, Ltd., the originator of the campaign, of your concerns and your letter. I would like to thank you for taking the initiative to bring this matter to our attention.

Sincerely,

Jim Ivy

cc: The Linguist List, The Economist

FROM GEOFF PULLUM:

Dear Jim,

Thanks for your eloquent letter of January 13. I fully accept your claim that Ricoh meant nothing derogatory. My concern was only that the ad I referred to had inadvertently lent support to an insulting myth.

The general public does seem eager to believe that at least somewhere in the world there are incredibly primitive people with languages that are almost subhuman in their simplicity (or, else preternaturally complex, as with the hopelessly exaggerated stories about the Eskimos' having hundreds of words for subtly different types of snow). And many sources obligingly supply suitable stories for the credulous.

Your advertisement brought back to me my experiences in the early 1970s, when I used to advise Norris McWhirter, the editor of The Guinness Book of World Records (it used to be less dumbed down, and included an interesting page of records and superlatives concerning natural languages). Several times over I had to warn Norris off repeating nonsense he had picked up about "primitive languages". In the early 1960s, the book actually had an entry for "Most Primitive Language" (the honor went to Aranda, an Australian Aboriginal language on which in fact there was a well-known literature describing amazing complexities). Then the book picked up something from Time about a primitive language called Taki-Taki (it's more usually called Sranan, and everything Time said about it was wrong, including some nonsense about it having only 300 words).

I spent hours and hours on correspondence aimed at persuading the editors to keep such insanities out of their book. But when Norris and his brother Ross were invited on a trip to South Africa, they came back with stories of yet another primitive language myth: that the `Bushmen' had a language that was entirely composed of a few dozen clicks and grunts. I had another grass-fire of ignorance to stamp out.

Your advertisement's phrase "a series of simple clicking sounds" brought it all back thirty years later! But I am fully prepared to believe you when you say that the implication was completely unintended, and I thank you for your thoughtful letter, and for sharing its content with the many linguists who read The Linguist List.

Sincerely,

Geoffrey K. Pullum

Professor of Linguistics

Posted by at 12:34 PM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2003

Blair is less clean

The Mirror isn't pulling any punches in its antiwar campaign at the moment. Today they've got a piece by John Pilger, which gets front page billing.

I find it quite surprising given how Orwellian things are in general these days. What are the chances of USA Today publishing the latest thoughts of Chomsky? And agreeing with them?

B-)

Posted by at 9:39 AM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2003

I am clean

Back in July, work started on our new bathroom. We thought the job could be more or less finished within a couple of weeks but maybe a month would be more realistic. It's still not finished but today, six and a bit months later, I took a shower.

B-)

Posted by at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

January 25, 2003

words from Rabbie

Address to the Unco Guid. My Son, these maxims make a rule, An lump them ay thegither: The Rigid Righteous is a fool, The Rigid Wise anither; The cleanest corn that e'er was dight May hae some pyles o caff in; So ne'er a fellow-creature slight For random fits o daffin.

O ye, wha are sae guid yoursel, Sae pious and sae holy, Ye've nought to do but mark and tell Your neebours' fauts and folly! Whase life is like a weel-gaun mill, Supplied wi store o water; The heapet happer's ebbing still, An still the clap plays clatter!

Hear me, ye venerable core, As counsel for poor mortals That frequent pass douce Wisdom's door For glaikit Folly's portals: I for their thoughtless, careless sakes, Would here propone defences - Their donsie tricks, their black mistakes, Their failings and mischances.

Ye see your state wi theirs compared, And shudder at the niffer; But cast a moment's fair regard, What makes the mighty differ? Discount what scant occasion gave; That purity ye pride in; And (what's aft mair than a' the lave) Your better art o hidin.

Think, when your castigated pulse Gies now and then a wallop, What ragings must his veins convulse, That still eternal gallop! Wi wind and tide fair i your tail, Right on ye scud your sea-way; But in the teeth o baith to sail, It makes an unco lee-way

See Social Life and Glee sit down, All joyous and unthinking, Till, quite transmugrify'd, they're grown Debauchery and Drinking: O, would they stay to calculate Th' eternal consequences, Or your more dreaded hell to state - Damnation of expenses!

Ye high, exalted, virtuous dames, Tied up in godly laces, Before ye gie poor Frailty names, Suppose a change o cases: A dear-lov'd lad, convenience snug, A treach'rous inclination - But, let me whisper in your lug, Ye're aiblins nae temptation.

Then gently scan your brother man, Still gentler sister woman; Tho they may gang a kennin wrang, To step aside is human: One point must still be greatly dark, The moving Why they do it; And just as lamely can ye mark, How far perhaps they rue it.

Who made the heart, 'tis He alone Decidedly can try us: He knows each chord, its various tone, Each spring, its various bias: Then at the balance let's be mute, We never can adjust it; What's done we partly may compute, But know not what's resisted.

Posted by at 1:00 PM | Comments (0)

the star o rabbie burns

Jennifer writes:

I hope you're doing sth in honour of our national poet this weekend. (no, not McGonagall, but I fear Tay Bridge Disaster may get an airing at my gaff the morn's night).

Jonathan is charged with a toast to the lassies, and being a fairly literary type, has done something iambic or euphoric or something. He should just stick to Cock up yer Beaver and other such Rabbie classics.

For once, I'm not involved in a Burns night. But I am going to dinner with J.R. Firth's grandson. I will wear my kilt, though, and maybe give them a bit of a recital.

B-)

Posted by at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)

what the war will bring

Hope that modal is wrong. Robert writes:

The satire on this website may be beneath your dignity but it works for me:

idleworm

B-{

Posted by at 11:16 AM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2003

'fairly...but'

Jonathan just sent me this:

Jennifer spotted your blog on the Kensal Green visit, and has been laughing about your description of us as 'fairly' literary ever since - it's the 'but' that comes after that worries me...

These (fairly) literary types, eh? What are they, like?

Sorry, I meant what are they like?

B-)

Posted by at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2003

is v always for victory?

This is the unborn grandson of the Mexican president, Vicente Fox, giving the 'v for victory' sign. Full story here

I'm not sure how accurate these things are. Our scan photo of Apoa showed her wearing my specs and reading a book.

B-)

Posted by at 2:45 PM | Comments (0)

way to go, wombat

Holly sent me this:

Three US Airforce bases in East Anglia inspected in a month

Weapons Inspectors arrested at RAF Feltwell

At 16:30 on Friday 10th January, a delegation of 5 weapons inspectors from Cambridge Students Against the War entered RAF Feltwell, to confirm reports that the base forms part of a US Weapons of Mass Destruction development programme. Amongst other concerns, the inspectors believe the base is assisting in target acquisition for the expected US attacks on Iraq.

Inspectors entered through the main gate, much to the surprise of the guards, and continued into the base, collecting evidence of activities carried out on the site. The watching US soldiers were powerless to do anything but close the gates to the most sensitive areas and await the military police. Hindered in their progress, the inspectors asked to speak to the RAF personnel nominally in charge of the installation, but it turned out to be entirely in American hands. They then demanded that the base commander and his family be removed from the country for questioning.

However, authorities at the base failed to comply with requests for cooperation and the weapons inspectors were arrested as they left the site. The 4 person support team was then arrested across the road from the main entrance and a vehicle was impounded. All were taken to police stations in Norfolk and Suffolk and released without charge 6- 8 hours later. One was ordered to report back to the station in the next few days.

A total of three East Anglian US Airforce bases (Feltwell, Lakenheath, and Mildenhall) have now been inspected within the last month - apart from anything else revealing an astonishing lack of security at bases storing weaponry including suspected nuclear weapons. Interviewed after his release, inspector 'Spikey' said, 'Unfortunately, all our findings confirm local fears that East Anglia is being conscripted into US military programmes without any democratic discussion or accountability. The presence of nuclear weapons is not only illegal and immoral, it also makes this area a potential target for enemies of the US.'

The base at Feltwell is run by the US Air Force as part of a network of 'near-space tracking facilities'. These tracking facilities are part of US attempts to militarise space. Details of these USAF plans can be found on their website here . The plan - known as 'Vision 2020' - states that 'space forces will emerge to protect military and commercial interests and investment in the space medium...' Feltwell also plays an important role as an electronic warfare and surveillance site - surveillance equipment at Feltwell is used as part of an ongoing US National Security Agency effort to monitor commercial, personal, and military electronic communications (phone, email, and radio) worldwide - for more information, see the Guardian story here

RAF Lakenheath is the largest US Air Force-operated base in England, and the most important tactical nuclear bombing base in Europe. The 48th Fighter Wing at Lakenheath is the US Air Force in Europe's only F-15 Fighter Wing. It has a long history of use in the Gulf, being the first F-111 fighter unit to deploy in the First Gulf War in 1991, and was involved in bombing in 1998 and since. NATO and U.S. leaders have asserted that if America is needed again in this region, the 48th Fighter Wing will be called out first (see here)

RAF Mildenhall, just 20 miles from Cambridge, is a staging post for US flights to Europe. This includes the nuclear weapons based in Europe under the NATO nuclear sharing agreement. The US Air Force runs aerial refuelling, special operations, air mobility, reconnaissance and intelligence out of RAF Mildenhall. The base's website asserts that RAF Mildenhall is used by the US Air Force to provide 'global power and global reach. Anytime. Anywhere.'.

Both Lakenheath and Mildenhall are seeing massive increases in air traffic as USAF transport, bomber, and fighter aircraft are funnelled towards their deployment in the Persian Gulf region ready for attacks on Iraq.

CamSAW supporter Nick Gill, hearing the news of the inspections, said, 'The weapons inspectors should be commended for seeking to apply the same standards to the East Anglian air bases as are currently being applied in Iraq. In the event of war on Iraq, the so- called RAF bases will be used to inflict horrendous casualties on the innocent people of Iraq. This cannot be allowed to happen.'

Asked about the value of such actions, inspector 'Wombat' said, 'While these inspections were planned with a sense of humour, they send a signal that the anti-war movement is absolutely serious about opposing this unjustifiable war. People all over the country are organising demonstrations, vigils, die-ins, sit-downs, base incursions, and much more. We will not have Iraq destroyed in our names. These actions are just the beginning.'

24 MPs have signed an Early Day Motion supporting the Lakenheath inspection on 12th December. The text and signatories can be seen here

Cambridge Students Against the War (CamSAW) was founded as a response to USA's 'war on terror' and attack on Afghanistan in 2001. With another unjustified war imminent, this coalition of students from Cambridge University, Anglia Polytechnic University and local higher education and sixth form colleges is continuing to plan actions. More information and some photos can be found at www.camsaw.org.uk

B-)

Posted by at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2003

fine things to be seen

I used to live right next to it but fifteen years later I finally made it to Kensal Green Cemetery yesterday. I went with some fairly literary people but there was something here for everyone, creeping around the catacombs with a torch to look at the decaying coffins of outrageous earls, starfucking (we took in Brunel, Thackeray, Birkbeck and a couple of royals among others yesterday), manmade and natural symbolism, engineering (dig the recently renovated hydraulic pump which lowers the catafalque in silence at a rate of one inch per hefty pump), lessons on economics, theft and vandalism. You name it, really.

The scariest moment was when we looked at the monument whose pillars have turned to dust. They've fenced it off with a sign saying 'Beware - Keep Out' which translates into child language as 'Climb Over Here - Unless You're A Great Big Chicken'.

Our guide couldn't resist scraping a bit of dust away from one of the pillars. They should really just knock it down now rather than leaving it up to the monument to decide. Maybe they could charge admission and make a few bob at the same time.

B-)

Posted by at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2003

click languages and advertising

If you're interested in the discussion on LINGUIST of the offending ad about click languages, Karen Chung has just passed on this url

She has also updated some links to audio samples of click languages here

B-)

Posted by at 4:28 PM | Comments (0)

January 10, 2003

looking back

Here is the poster Jed designed that annoyed William Safire back in 1967. The apostrophe-less one he told us about earlier

B-)

Posted by at 9:54 PM | Comments (0)

hands off, human

You'll believe an ape can talk. Well, BBC online do anyway.

B-)

Posted by at 9:43 AM | Comments (0)

an open letter

Geoff Pullum just told LINGUIST about this letter he sent to Ricoh:

December 30, 2002

Dear Mr Ivy,

The Ricoh Corporation's advertisement on page 2 of The Economist Technology Quarterly [insert following page 48 of The Economist, Dec. 14--20, 2002] shows a picture of a Khoi tribal leader named Chief Obijol. The legend reads:

'With a series of simple clicking sounds, he can teach a force of 200 men to hunt, to treat an illness, even how to find an appropriate mate.'

This is not the first time I have read racist nonsense about the hunters of the Kalahari desert just clicking and grunting at each other rather than using a proper language with sentences like the rest of us. Your corporation and its advertising agency should be ashamed of repeating such stupidness.

The ad makes an unobjectionable point: for explaining traditions and skills to a couple of hundred people in the face-to-face context of a hunter-gatherer tribe, oral communication in a human language 'works exceedingly well,' it says; but for the kind of communication involved in running a large modern business one needs document and image sharing of the sort Ricoh offers. The trouble is all with the unnecessarily demeaning and offensive way the first part is put. It makes Khoi-speaking people sound more like exotic animals than like human beings speaking a human language.

The Khoi people of Southwestern Africa do not communicate in 'a series of simple clicking sounds.' Their languages are ordinary human languages with the same kinds of complexities as are found in English grammar. It's true that Khoi languages have velaric suction consonants that are informally described as sounding like clicks, but they are merely consonants, and they occur with vowels and more ordinary non-click consonants in syllables, words, phrases, and sentences as in any other human language. To refer to Chief Obijol's speech as 'a series of simple clicking sounds' is as stupid as calling your own speech 'a series of simple uh sounds.'

I will be sharing this letter with the 16,500 linguists who subscribe to The Linguist List as well as the editor of The Economist. I very much hope you will share it with the people at your advertising agency who did this to you.

Sincerely,

Geoffrey K. Pullum Professor of Linguistics

Posted by at 9:37 AM | Comments (0)

eliza the chatterbot

Yesterday was Joseph Weizenbaum's 80th birthday. He created Eliza, the world's first chatterbot.

Eliza was the first computer who could have conversations with humans. She had no idea what words meant but she knew a few tricks that could fool you into thinking she did. Apparently, there are also some psychiatrists who have learned how to do this.

Here is some info about the pair of them from tecsoc

B-)

Posted by at 9:24 AM | Comments (0)

January 9, 2003

on the whole it's been jolly good

Peter Tinniswood died today

B-(

Posted by at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)

look out English

John Prescott is if plain English speaking here, no?

B-)

Posted by at 4:42 PM | Comments (0)

consume this, students

Caterina has a nice message today about teaching methods.

I also enjoyed 'squoze'.

B-)

Posted by at 4:37 PM | Comments (0)

snow in London

Only the second time the kids have seen snow here. It's sad but it makes it more exciting when it happens, I guess. What worries me are the strange creatures made of snow that are appearing all over town. One appeared on my doorstep yesterday.

They say nothing. They just stand. What do they want?

B-{

Posted by at 4:30 PM | Comments (0)

fox on the campus

They're everywhere nowadays, aren't they?

Well, marking is finally over. I think I'll let 2003 begin.

B-)

Posted by at 4:25 PM | Comments (0)

December 30, 2002

devon to dingle

Hope you aren't missing me too much. Had a nice time in Devon (despite having a bit of marking to do) and just checked in at home long enough to flood the bathroom and stuff before heading off to Ireland for hogmanay.

See you next year,

B-)

Posted by at 8:12 AM | Comments (0)

December 23, 2002

starfucking for linguists

Just finished a weekend of parties (5 in 3 days, including 1 put on by us, and 1 we didn't go to).

One of our guests (on Friday) and hosts (on Sunday) revealed to me that he is the grandson of J.R. Firth. I've been trying to find someone who'll be impressed with this ever since.

B-)

Posted by at 8:43 AM | Comments (0)

more on apostrophes

Jed writes:

Billy!

I just read your blog on apostrophes and wondered if you are interested in my apostrophe story: A million years ago when I was making TV Commercials with D.A.Pennebaker (he of 'Primary' and 'Woodstock' then and 'Startup.com' now) I also helped Penne in the closing post production on his film of Bob Dylans English tour. I designed the poster (now a collector's item - and No, I don't have a copy) and took his title 'Don't Look Back' and did an all caps title that became 'DONT LOOK BACK'. We had a lot of talk about it ( and I have some current emails from Penne discussing it again) and when it came out Safire of The New York Times went ballistic - never mind the movie, he wrote a whole column blasting the movie just for that missing apostrophe. I was quoted by Penne as saying something like 'Well, we wanted to be controversial' (which I'm sure I never said!). But today, all over the world that movie and my poster are still working together quite well without the aid of that apostrophe.

Cheers

jed

ps. did you notice the apostrophe he missed out on this message too? ;-)

Posted by at 8:43 AM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2002

back for now

Well, I'm back in London after a most enjoyable trip to Scotland to see Bessie and Ted and everyone. The kids particularly enjoyed seeing their Scottish cousins. Another highlight was not having millions of reasons to jump out of bed every day and run around like headless chickens until we use up our energy supplies. I'm trying hard not to get straight back into the old ways now that we're back.

Today is Kiloh's birthday so we've had a house full of e-kara and have just seen The Two Towers followed by a pizza. The movie was an improvement on the first one, partly because it had something more like an ending, but I got bored for the first chunk of it as one fight followed another and everyone took turns at being presumed dead and then turning out to be alive after all.

Pizza Express was fun, reminiscing about the (alleged) previous bigger size of the pizzas and hoping the kids weren't going to get us thrown out. I took care to make sure Kiloh didn't cut her finger off while cutting the cake, and so managed to get her to cut me instead (not too badly or anything).

B-)

Posted by at 9:52 PM | Comments (0)

December 10, 2002

billy fails the cat audit

Our cat flap's broken which we think is the reason why the cat's peeing everywhere. This is apparently how cats tell you they're pissed off.

So today I've just finished laying out all the stuff I'm packing for my trip on the bed when she decides to express herself on my Belle and Sebastian CD. I'm praying there hasn't been any trickle-down. Three days in a hotel room with the smell of cat wee is not my idea of a nice change. Luckily, I have discovered the antidote.

Why can't she just learn to talk about things like other people?

B-(

Posted by at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)

I'm not dead

I'm just busy.

This is 'audit-culture-gone-mad' week for me. I'm off to external a linguistics department while another group of academics are doing the same to us (by post). Today, another committee is looking at an application we put in to them. Meanwhile, Robbie just sent us a beautiful Christmas card informing us that 'Santa fails the audit'. I think it's Santa's wife they should keep an eye on. I don't think I can stand another discussion of the story of whether or not the story we're discussing is a story - has academia taken over the media or something?

B-}

Posted by at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

December 4, 2002

Sapir-Whorf For The Day

Thought I was dreaming yesterday morning when some religious geezer was giving us his 'thought for the day' on the Today programme (they won't let you talk unless you're a religious geezer, which is quite a phenomenon in itself, imho). Anyway, he was giving us a hardline version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. He went as far as to say something like that if you say 'he walked through the mud' to a Spanish person he'd think about where the walker was going while if you said it to an English speaker they'd think about what it felt like to be walking through mud. This being because 'English is a dynamic language'. Maybe I WAS dreaming...

B-}

Posted by at 8:10 AM | Comments (0)

a modest proposal

ZNet just sent me a modest proposal from Chomsky which seems not to be up on their site yet but will be soon, I guess. I'll tell you when it is but in the meantime, here's the basic idea:

One simple plan seems to have been ignored, perhaps because it would be regarded as insane, and rightly so. But it is instructive to ask why.

The modest proposal is for the United States to encourage Iran to invade Iraq, providing the Iranians with the necessary logistical and military support, from a safe distance (missiles, bombs, bases, etc.).

As a proxy, one pole of "the axis of evil" would take on another.

Chomsky is talking at the Institute of Education in London on the 10th of December, btw. Tickets are 10 quid and details are at Red Pepper

B-)

Posted by at 7:58 AM | Comments (0)

December 3, 2002

you say tomato's...

Enjoyed listening to Lynne Truss this morning on a programme called Cutting A Dash where she revealed how seriously she takes punctuation.

It was all about the endangered apostrophe and the vigilante groups who are out to protect it, using marker pens to add apostrophes that have been missed and sticking stickers on apostrophes that shouldn't be there. (One guy on the show was also a member of 'pipe down', a group who stick protest stickers in restaurants with muzak).

They had David Denison, a linguist from Manchester University, on explaining why people find it so hard to get the rules right, and also suggesting that the existence of 'greengrocer's apostrophe' errors is evidence that apostrophes are on the way to extinction.

Personally, I'm on the side of the exterminators even though I have some sympathy for the people who report that they feel physical pain when they see apostrophes misused.

B-)

Posted by at 3:09 PM | Comments (0)

get your war on

Jonathan's University net nanny won't let him visit grammarporn, surely the most seductive sounding website of ever.

I've decided not to tell him what he's missing, but I will mention that there's a link there to get your war on which is where I keep myself up to date with current US thinking.

B-}

Posted by at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2002

don't mind if I don't

buy anything, that is.

B-)

Posted by at 1:30 PM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2002

why they're not returning your calls

Our family is partly American, so we do thanksgiving, but we're compromising by doing it on Saturday. You can find out why Americans (apart from turkeys and native Americans, and ...) are giving thanks here

B-)

Posted by at 11:22 PM | Comments (0)

take the skinheads bowling

Remember Camper Van Beethoven? 'Take the skinheads bowling' is the blindingly obvious choice as opening number in Bowling For Columbine. It's blindingly obvious and it's low budget (sound quality really pretty poor) but still great to hear it again. And that pretty much sums up the movie too. The question it asked was: what is it about Americans that makes them go around killing each other? The big surprise for me was that the answer isn't just that there are too many guns. (Canada being the big counterexample). I still think you can't shoot someone if you haven't got a gun, though.

Anyway, I enjoyed the film while feeling guilty about enjoying something that's reminding me how bad things are. I felt guilty again the next day taking the kids to see Pierce Brosnan and co playing with guns and things.

What's the world coming to when seven year olds are so media savvy that they go in knowing about the film's classification as containing 'moderate action, violence and one sex scene' and then object when they see Pierce getting horny with Rosamund Pike after already having 'sexed' (that's the word they use for it) Halle Berry?

They know about the classification because the Odeon emailed us this message:

The certificate for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is confirmed as 12A. However, the correct certificate addendum is in fact, "contains intense combat and fantasy horror scenes". It is NOT, "contains moderate action, violence and one sex scene" which was attached by mistake. This is in fact the correct certificate addendum for James Bond: Die Another Day.

B-)

Posted by at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2002

Jamie is Mr. Chips

I guess all teachers have fantasy students, don't they? And I guess we'd all pick the same dream students. I mean, Eminem and John Lydon would be on anybody's list, wouldn't they? And the scariest thought in the world would be to have Billy Bragg show up in your seminar (only joking, of course).

But do people make lists of teachers manques? (Sorry, dunno how to do the acute accent).

Anyway, I'm one of the few who never got bored of Jamie Oliver. I even took the 'mullarkey' phase in my stride. I'm enjoying the fact that he's managed to keep making must-see programmes after all these years.

The main interest for me is discovering what a good teacher he is. I mean, I knew he was a good communicator in general, but I'm really impressed by how he deals with his 'problem students' (and by the patience and goodwill of the teachers at the catering college). The one mistake I think he's made is hopping into a car after some of his hardest one-to-ones with Nicola or Kerry-Anne or Michael and telling five and a half million people what he was really thinking.

B-}

Posted by at 4:15 PM | Comments (0)

no matter how I treat my guests...

Mojo's free CD this month contains Dillinger's Cocaine In My Brain'. Thanks, guys, I'd forgotten.

'...a knife a fork a bottle and a cork, that's the way we spell New York...'

(For phonologists, I'm pretty sure the /t/ in 'bottle' is a /k/, btw)

B-)

Posted by at 4:05 PM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2002

fuck is fucked

The taboos they are a-changin'

B-)

Posted by at 2:43 PM | Comments (0)

goodbye joni

she's giving up

B-(

Posted by at 2:40 PM | Comments (0)

ghost of robert robinson

The play was called Anton in Eastbourne and was about Chekhov checking into a hotel in Eastbourne. Apparently, he wrote it specially for Paul Schofield, a big Chekhov fan, who played Anton. It was great but I was a bit put off by the similarities between Schofield's way of speaking and Robert Robinson on Brain of Britain

B-)

Posted by at 2:08 AM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2002

good radio news

Peter Tinniswood is a bit of a god among radio dramatists, and his work is always inventive linguistically as well as in other ways. He wrote today's afternoon play. The extra good news is that you can now 'listen again' to the afternoon plays for seven days after they're broadcast. So you've got until next Tuesday to catch it if you missed it.

B-)

Posted by at 11:26 PM | Comments (0)

watching you

samizdata discusses this poster which has been appearing all over London. So spooky that some non-Londoners thought it was a joke. But I can confirm it's true. I've even picked up a leaflet which I've carefully analysed and I can confirm that it contains no markers of irony whatsoever.

;-)

Posted by at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

(don't) say the word

This is a tragic tale if you're a fan of Word of Mouth

B-(

Posted by at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)

going through the motions

Sadly, I might be the only person left who didn't see Buffy's famous musical episode. Luckily, this meant I was in for a treat yesterday.

After the massage Ohna treated me to, where I not only got my back a good seeing to but also found out more than anyone needs to about building and racing bicycles and motorbikes, including a few tips for motorbike pursuits (Alfie Cox for a groovy biking holiday in South Africa, Si Pavey in this country, 'a wet weekend in Wales won't prepare you for Dakar') and the shocking news that they have traffic cops specifically out to catch speeding cyclists in Richmond Park (speed limit is 17mph), and after a visit to Ivor Mairants where I got to play for as long as I liked with some extremely beautiful guitars by Amalio Burguet, Manuel Rodriguez and others, I visited the getting-ever-more-popular cafe in the basement of Virgin, which now has listening posts and really old computer games like Galaxians and stuff on the tables. I've always been a fan of the Virgin cafe, which used to be upstairs and next door. The new version is pretty ugly as an environment but I enjoy the functions.

Anyway, imagine my delight as I found a listening post with the soundtrack to the Buffy musical episode (aka Once More With Feeling) and got to discover what all the fuss is about.

It made me wonder whether there's anyone left out there who still thinks that the nation with the most well-developed sense of irony on the planet doesn't get irony. (I mean people who really think it rather than just people who say it ironically). I have heard a theory that presidential election results are affected by people who just can't resist voting for the most absurd candidate, as their sense of humour makes them forget how serious the consequences can be...

B-)

Posted by at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2002

the new rosetta

Just found out about the Rosetta Project via this wired article. The Rosetta project is an open-source collaborative project with the aim of creating a modern Rosetta stone (in this case a 3-inch nickel disk) archiving 1,400 of the 7,000 (who counted, btw? and how?) world languages.

Reading about it also led me to OLAC which is:

'an international partnership of institutions and individuals who are creating a worldwide virtual library of language resources by: (i) developing consensus on best current practice for the digital archiving of language resources, and (ii) developing a network of interoperating repositories and services for housing and accessing such resources.'

All this collaborative, open-source grooviness. And the joy of following one interesting link to another. It's like some kind of 'world-wide-web' or something. How long until it all gets spoiled by commercialism and we end up with pop-ups all over the place?

B-)

ps 'interoperating repositories' - wish I'd coined that one

Posted by at 9:32 PM | Comments (0)

social research projects

Went back to the Institute of Visual Culture yesterday with Alan and some students.

I was quite impressed with my stamina, having only slept for two and a half hours the night before. It was an enjoyable day. It began with a traditional one hour wait before the third of the timetabled trains decided it could be bothered to go to Cambridge. Before going to the gallery, we strolled through Cambridge and Alan explained some stuff about the town and the university and everything. Luckily, none of the students decided to transfer.

The exhibition was 'Cognition Control', a collection of work by Stephen Willats and a few others. The work on show was from the 60s and 70s and, as they say, it:

'represents a vital period in British art, when Willats and his colleagues proposed activating the audience as an integral factor in the conceptual formation of a more open-ended and inclusive art practice. Each of these projects shares a common objective to use visual arts practice as a tool for social enquiry and transformation. Their radical intervention in the cultural infrastructure of the time still resonates with, and influences, many artists working today.'

Part of the idea was to break down barriers between art and science/academia, partly by carrying out research projects that ignored the usual conventions.

The exhibition was a bit perplexing, partly because it's hard to leap back through the decades and imagine what it would have been like then, and especially to feel confident that you understand what they were trying to do. Was it ironic? sincere? incoherent? incompetent? Were they poking fun at scientists/academics? Or what?

Luckily, Stefan, the director of the institute, was there to discuss it all and I enjoyed listening to Alan and Stefan discussing it all.

I like the idea of using the world and the people in it as the materials for your art. And it was interesting to look at similarities and differences between this work and some of the work that goes on now. Stephen Willats hadn't really bothered to keep track of his work, catalogue it or anything. There aren't many artists around now, who would be so relaxed about what they do.

One thing it got us thinking about was hippiedom and the extent to which remnants of that survive. One of our students grew up in a series of communes. Are there any communes still around?

B-)

Posted by at 1:11 PM | Comments (0)

guitar hero

John says that Steve Jones played all the guitars and bass on Never Mind The Bollocks and that he only used two fingers. is this possible? I want to see a picture.

B-)

Posted by at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)

messing about

Been up half the night working a couple of times this week, and keeping dug awake even though he's still suffering the results of multiple workstation destruction.

Now I've got time to catch up on all the important work I let slip. But first, it's time to carry out some serious research. I've started with a project to find good internet radio stations. At the moment, I'm enjoying radiomagnetic, a groovy station operating from Glasgow which Jonathan told me about.

I've got to use today wisely as tomorrow I will mostly be on strike

B-)

Posted by at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)

November 11, 2002

he was word mad

Here is an obituary of Allen Walker Read, who just died. He was mad about words and apparently traced the origins of 'OK' to the Boston Morning Post of 1839.

B-)

Posted by at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)

txtng a bit :-( ?

Yet another article on how texting is changing English (or 'what txtng is doing tot he English language'.

John Sutherland suggests writing might be taking over from speech. On the other hand, David Crystal thinks email (+mayB txtng 2?) is a new medium, distinct from both speaking and writing.

B-)

Posted by at 7:46 PM | Comments (0)

godspeed

I don't know anyone who isn't a fan of Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

I'm pleased to read here that they've sountracked 28 Days Later but I'm confused and ashamed that I wasn't aware that they'd moved the exclamation mark. When did I fall out of the loop?

B-)

Posted by at 2:08 AM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2002

pictures of Lewis

For any family members out there who haven't seen Bessie's newest great grandchild yet, I've got three (fairly big) pictures here, here and here

B-)

Posted by at 4:38 PM | Comments (0)

November 8, 2002

'and' and 'or'

So it seems the UN resolution finally came down to whether to use 'and or 'or'.

Who says linguistics is irrelevant in the real world?

B-)

Posted by at 8:23 AM | Comments (0)

profanity

John thought Joseph's language might be too rude for me. Ha! I thought. I'm not scared of three year old toilet humour!

Then I got an email from the machines at the place where one of my students works telling me that my email (I sent them the text of the Simon Hoggart piece) 'contained profanity' and that it was in quarantine pending deletion in 30 days. I thought quarantine was something you got let out of after a while when they thought you were safe? So inhumane. As my student quipped when I told her:

Ha Ha! Our IT department will be happy with you. Ha ha!

Whatever happened to deference? I'm sure they never spoke to Mr. Chips this way ;-)

Posted by at 1:36 AM | Comments (0)

Bob takes over

Joseph from Glasgow writes:

Bob the builder He can poop Bob the builder On! Your! Head!

(Joseph's 3, btw)

Then Ohna comes home and tells me that she got Neil Morrissey to sign some Bob The Builder Christmas Crackers for her (don't ask) and then had them nicked before she got home.

I'm sure all of this must mean something.

B-}

Posted by at 1:28 AM | Comments (0)

November 6, 2002

grammar for writing

Have a look here if you're interested in the ongoing debate about grammar teaching in schools. I'm off to spend the afternoon discussing this along with questions about linguistics in education more generally. One particular question we'll be discussing is whether grammar teaching can help kids with their writing. What do you think?

B-)

Posted by at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)

bastarding bastard of bastards

Top piece by Simon Hoggart today. It's hard to pick one bit to quote at you cos it's all so funny. But here's one little extract:

Another [Tory MP] said, 'That bastard was the most disloyal bastard of all the bastards John Major had to cope with. And do you know why? Because he's a bastard!'

'Come off the fence and tell me what you really think!' I wanted to cry.

B-))

Posted by at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

the town that was lost at sea

Jed drew my attention to this seriously depressing article about the drug problem in Fraserburgh. My mum and sister live just along the coast from 'The Broch', as the locals call it, and my niece is in Fraserburgh hospital with her new baby boy as I write. I knew things were bad there, but one misjudgement I'd made was to infer that things were bad everywhere rather than that Fraserburgh was particularly bad. It doesn't make the situation any worse but it somehow makes me feel worse about it.

By the way, does anyone know how many 'drug capitals' various countries have? Scotland, Britain and Europe all seem to have quite a few. Is it that the charts keep changing or is it that there is more than one chart?

B-(

Posted by at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)

November 4, 2002

Bob the Builder meets the real world

Today, Apoa and Kiloh spontaneously adapted the lyrics to 'Bob The Builder' to make reference to two builders they know.

Original lyrics are:

Bob the Builder Can he fix it? Bob the Builder Yes! He! Can!

Apoa's new lyrics were:

Fred the Builder Can he fix it? Fred the Builder May! Ay! Be!

Kiloh's new lyrics were:

John the Builder Can he fix it? John the builder He hardly! Ever! Comes!

(names have been changed, btw)

B-)

Posted by at 1:06 AM | Comments (0)

November 2, 2002

the enemy within

For Mark and anyone else interested, here is the Gore Vidal article from last week's Observer. Thanks to unanswered questions for presenting it to the world.

B-)

Posted by at 7:07 PM | Comments (0)

November 1, 2002

thoughts from a 'jobless blackspot'

Told you.

Is it just me or do you think there's something a bit simplistic in the conclusion he draws from noticing 3,500 unemployed people in Tottenham and 4,000 vacancies in nearby jobcentres?

B-)

Posted by at 2:31 PM | Comments (0)

Gore Vidal

Mark writes:

Dear Billy,

I enjoyed the paragraph where you cycle locally but worry globally - interesting to see Gore Vidal is on the case with September 11th.

That there were plans to bomb Afghanistan before then is fairly clear now, but if he can prove that extra claim the administration sat on its hands as the hijackers approached, that would be serious for Americans, wouldn't it? Making Bush into a sort of SuperNixon.

I can imagine Vidal alone might have the connections and tenacity to follow that one through, terrier-like, all the way down the tunnel. Since I'm in exile, I can't buy that Observer - did you get that issue to read his full claims?

Cheers, Mark

I did read the article but I didn't keep it. I wonder if dug kept a copy?

B-)

Posted by at 1:55 PM | Comments (0)

toffee apples are SO delicious!

The kids did notice more than the sweets. On the way to school this morning, I listened to ten minutes on the delights of the Nicholas Nickleby (our local pub) and all the other sweets they scored. Then they moved on to eggs and things. Kiloh told Aidan that 'some people were kicking old men all over the place!'

B-)

Posted by at 1:51 PM | Comments (0)

unemployment solution?

I'm just off to Tottenham to do some work and I've heard that in today's speech Gordon Brown (our chancellor, i.e. the guy who spends our money for us) will be picking on Tottenham as a place with over 3,000 unemployed people even though there are jobs in other bits of London they could do. Why doesn't he send them all to University? I've heard there are some good ones in London full of teachers sitting around just waiting for someone to teach.

B-)

Posted by at 7:53 AM | Comments (0)

urban halloween

So, if you ask the kids I was with tonight what halloweeen was like, they'll tell you it was fun and that they scored loads of sweets.

If you ask the grownups, they'll also tell you it was fun. But they might also mention that three houses they visited had had eggs chucked at their front door, that two pumpkins on the doorstep of Jessie's house were smashed to bits (Jessie and the other kids who live there will tell you how 'two of our pumpkins EXPLODED!'), that they watched five guys kicking the shit out of someone and when they checked it out they found the five guys were workmen and that the other guy had been trying to steal stuff off of their van (a 'pick-up' kind of thing so you could just take stuff off the top without any 'breaking and entering'), that when we were in the local pub (the kids trick-or-treated the pub and found tables of sweets there waiting for them) they heard the same guys boasting about how enjoyable it was to feel their feet connect with the thief's face, that they saw a woman walking down the street talking to her mobile in tears while a kid from the gang who had traumatised her followed her asking 'are you all right?' while his mates yelled after him to 'fucking come back here, you fucking idiot!' (none of these kids could have been over 12 years old), and so on. Rashomon!

Reminds me of the moment at woodcraft when we sent the kids into a patch of woodland (left there by a WWII bomb) to find green sticks for marshmallows and the leader of the session had to explain to the naive 6-9 year old kids that they might find things there that they should 'NOT TOUCH!', i.e. condoms and syringes.

B-}

Posted by at 12:28 AM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2002

horror story

Thatcher speaks again

I'm surprised she didn't wait until tomorrow night.

B-)

Posted by at 9:47 PM | Comments (0)

but seriously

Peter's bored with hearing about my bikes. Does he think I'm running this blog as some kind of public service? Anyway, here are some links just for him.

Find out here what gas the Russians used, as well as about a more efficient alternative the US has developed.

Read here about another fascinating Gore Vidal essay, suggesting that Bush and his mates allowed the towers to be hit as a pretext to carry out an existing plan to attack Afghanistan. The full article's not on the web, though.

And if you want to worry about whether Osama's got nukes, try here.

Sure you wouldn't rather hear about bikes?

B-)

Posted by at 1:30 PM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2002

on the road again...

Well, I've got it. They didn't have the blue and black one, so I've got a silver one instead.

It's not the most flash bike you could get, but it's perfectly fine. I believe the 'limited lifetime' warranty applies to this one too, so they could be supplying me with new bikes for the rest of my life. Can't complain, can you?

Right, I'm off to try to control 60 fiend-obsessed kids at a halloween party. Don't you just love the little horrors?

B-)

Posted by at 4:19 PM | Comments (0)

rude boy

But this IS funny.

B-)

Posted by at 12:34 PM | Comments (0)

rogue state

This isn't funny.

B-|

Posted by at 7:38 AM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2002

mysterious figures

This makes no sense to me. The latest RAJAR figures claim that Radio 4 is doing better than Capital FM and Virgin in London. So how come I can't find anybody who listens to Radio 4 outside my little elite clique of guardian-reading liberati?

B-)

Posted by at 4:41 PM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2002

on the road again (soon)

Just heard from Cycle Surgery. They've heard back from Trek who say that a new frame will be too much bother, seeing as how my bike was made back in the days when the Starship Enterprise was still considered fairly modern. So they want to give me a whole one of these instead:

Now I just need to pick up an old frame, shove all the bits that I've got in the garden shed onto it, and we'll become an 8-bike family (yes, I know there are only 4 of us - sad, isn't it?).

B-)

(2 of our bikes are in Devon, btw)

Posted by at 3:00 PM | Comments (0)

October 23, 2002

Foreign Accent Syndrome

More links from Karen Chung:

The 'Vital Signs' section of the October 15, 2002 New York Times online has a short piece entitled 'Complications: After a Stroke, a New Accent by John O'Neil

A news release from the original source of the research findings, Oxford University, together with the 'before' and 'after' audio links, can be found here

B-)

Posted by at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)

language learning

This Science Daily report says that 'Kids With Down Syndrome Learn Language Beyond Adolescence'

B-)

Posted by at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2002

words of the day

Karen Chung is a regular contributor of useful links to LINGUIST. Here is her latest posting:

I expect lots of us are subscribed to Anu Garg's 'A Word A Day' - considering his circulation of over 300,000. I've been aware for some time, though, that there are other 'Word of the Day' sites and services, and thought I'd do a Google search and put some of the links on my site for my students, to add some interactivity.

I was a bit amazed to find just how many 'Word of the Day's there are out there, and the sheer variety! There are 'Word of the Day's for all different levels of English proficiency for one thing - but even more intriguing were the non-English ones I found. There are the more pedestrian 'Wort des Tages' and 'Mot du Jour' and ones for other well-studied European languages, to be sure, but also daily words in numerous native American languages, with Alaska and Hawaii especially well represented! Many include sound files. There are also a 'medical' word of the day, and a bilingual one for Chinese civil law! I'm not sure how conscientious each Webmaster is about updating their material, but I did choose what looked like the best of the sites I visited.

The 21 'Word of the Day' links are available at: http://ccms.ntu.edu ..tw/~karchung/Extras.htm

- just click on 'Words of the Day' in the index at the top of the page.

Please write and tell me if you know of other 'Word of the Day' sites you think should be included.

Also of possible interest are the 'Language and Linguistics' links at: http://ccms.nt u.edu.tw/~karchung/linguistics.htm

Karen Steffen Chung, karchung@ccms.ntu.edu.tw

I told her about wordlog. Do you know of any others?

B-)

Posted by at 7:50 AM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2002

I told you she was on one

Remember Ellen? The student who blamed it on her PC?

Right, now type 'stoned chicks' into google...

B-)

Posted by at 3:21 PM | Comments (0)

October 20, 2002

Kurt's journals

You can read Kurt Cobain's journals here

B-)

Posted by at 4:42 PM | Comments (0)

make my pseudo-imperative

According to quote...unquote on Radio 4 today, Clint never used the word 'punk' when he said go ahead, make my day. My memory is that he said it a bit later when he said:

The question you've got to ask yourself is 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do you, punk?'

Looks like I'm going to have to watch Sudden Impact again. Next thing they'll be telling me there was no red-eyed baby at the end of Rosemary's Baby ;-)

Posted by at 4:36 PM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2002

you say Lie-Chester, I say Lester...

Interesting discussion of placenames at the languagehat. Should we really change from Peking to Beijing just because trhe Chinese government ask us to? Apparently, 'Beijing' is closer to the Mandarin pronunciation than 'Peking' but both are pretty far from 'Pak-king' which is the Cantonese, i.e. equally Chinese, way of saying it.

Reminds me of the great HimALayas debate

B-)

Posted by at 2:03 PM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2002

lexical semantics

There's a good article by John Harris about Nirvana in the Independent today.

I liked the bit about Kurt being in a dilemma over whether or not to spend $55,000 on a guitar that had belonged to Leadbelly. Apparently, he couldn't decide whether buying it would be 'a punk move' or 'an anti-punk move'

B-}

Posted by at 11:26 PM | Comments (0)

woody for president

I like his style (in more than one sense)

B-)

Posted by at 9:41 PM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2002

bike pining for the fjords

Yes, my bike died today. After twelve years of loyal and trusty service, the frame broke on my way to work this morning. B-(

But now the good news. Trek frames come with a 'limited lifetime guarantee'. This means they'll replace it with the nearest contemporary equivalent if you are the original owner and have the receipt. And guess what? Ohna just found the receipt. So this evening I will be mostly collecting my bike and stripping it down before visiting Cycle Surgery tomorrow am.

Even better news. Sylvia is going to lend me a bike until the new frame comes through. Ah, the camaraderie of the road.

B-)

Posted by at 6:05 PM | Comments (0)

is this for real?

You know how everyone knows by now not to believe the Nigerian letters that seem to come through email inboxes every day?

Well, now I don't know whether to believe this report of someone going for the world record of being scammed-dom . .

B-)

Posted by at 5:58 PM | Comments (0)

October 12, 2002

science puzzles

Also found some science puzzles and links to pages on Simon Singh's 5 Numbers programmes here

B-)

Posted by at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)

listen to Noam

Just listened to Chomsky and others on Talking Politics. You can hear it via the bbc's listen again page.

B-)

Posted by at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

October 11, 2002

pax americana

So Pax Americana: the United States discretely unveils its plans for a new American state in the Middle East. It will be called Iraq, and will be run by the American military. There will be war crimes trials held to try the previous regime.

From today's 'snowmail', a daily message sent out by Channel Four News.

B-{

Posted by at 3:51 PM | Comments (0)

we're not talking abo