one thousand days

A 1969 film reflects on the brief queenship of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII.

Anne of the Thousand Days tells the story of Henry's meeting and wooing of Anne; of her failure to bear him a son, and the unsuccessful attempts to politick her way out of trouble that end with her public beheading.

There are now One Thousand Days remaining until the opening of the London Olympics in July 2012.

Let's hope there is no public beheading (metaphorical nor actual) scheduled at the end of that story.

While we wait to find out there will at least be something for us to watch this evening - a spectacular firework display from the BT Tower in London, from 8.45 to 8.55 gmt, live on BBC1!

Brad & Janet

we hear there's an amazing spectacle in prospect tomorrow.

organisers in Brighton, the UK's south coast seaside resort, hope over a thousand people will dress in fishnet tights, stilettos and feather boas (which perhaps in Brighton would hardly be noticed) but -

after an hour's rehearsal, participants will attempt to break the world record for the largest group of people performing the Rocky Horror Show's Time Warp dance.

how brilliant is that going to be!

if there's unexpected thunder from a clear sky tomorrow you'll know that up in the clouds we just couldn't resist joining in:

with a jump to the left, then a step to the right ...

so, farewell then

norman painting
and phil archer.

hard to know
which
was the real character

when they had been
one person
for so many years.

but borsetshire
will miss
them
both.


(with apologies to ej thribb, now available in all good bookshops)

un-fair play

Seems a bit underhand of that tennis guy to boast in his book that he ran rings round the drug test system.

He obviously didn't have much else of interest to attract buyers for his story, but he's effectively ensured no-one else will ever get away with making a stupid mistake.

But he was all right, so what the heck?

ground control to Ares 1

commencing countdown, engines on
check ignition and may -

Alas and alack; I fear my liver isn't what it used to be.

That final goblet of wine last night was surely one more than it could cope with - as today's sorry weather bore witness.

But I promise you sunshine and fluffy cloudlets by tomorrow's dawn - or Bacchus shall bear the weight of my displeasure.

bad day for the glazers

Who'd own a sports team?

First Manchester United lose to Liverpool at Anfield in the English football premiership competition.

Then Tampa Bay are pretty much swamped by New England at Wembley in the American football NFL, or at least it's pretty much looking that way right now (Dewey defeats Truman, anyone?)

alors! asterix 50ans

Bonne anniversaire Asterix!

50th birthday celebrations aplenty at the moment for the indomitable Gaul and his village, still fighting the Romans after all these years - including a commemorative postal stamp in France.

For the first time we miss not being able to drop in a picture to illustrate our post - but alas that knack seems to be for mortals only.

a literary moment

The minor godlet reports that college work has started with a look at American writer Martha Grimes. Within her novella The Train Now Departing is reference to the lines by Wallace Stevens:

Beauty is momentary in the mind -
The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal.


which seem complete by themselves but are part of the exquisitely beautiful Peter Quince at the Clavier.

Wallace Stevens was apparently on dining terms with Robert Frost, and had the distinction of breaking his hand against Ernest Hemingway's jaw in an attempt to box with him.

Stevens' words about beauty bring to mind The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. The eponymous line being both the sinuous curve of the ogee, and a reference to the 1980s restorative of choice.

The book is an examination of the wild excesses of the 1980s in the UK; was 2004 Booker prize winner; adapted as a BBC television series three or four years back and probably merits a place as an EngLit classic. It is a book full of life and love, (gay) sex and drugs, and the sadness of watching the person you love die inch by painful inch in front of you.

London Calling...

News reached us today (sometimes I must admit we are rather behind the times) of an interesting sporting event to take place at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday.

We hear that American Football is to make another appearance in the form of a game between Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Patriots.

Last time a similar event was held the visitors complained that the grass was awful - I hope the Brits have learned their lesson and laid more suitable turf this time round.

If the skies are not too cloudy we hope to take a peek at the proceedings on Sunday - all those padded shoulders and tiny waists hurtling towards the opposition do make quite an entertaining spectacle even if the rules of the game remain a mystery to most of us.

Rome v. Canterbury

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has graciously given the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams fourteen days notice that the roman catholic church seeks to boost its numbers by kindly permitting dissatisfied anglicans to convert to catholicism whilst retaining their anglican traditions.

This recruiting tactic aims to draw in those from the Church of England who are so far from enlightenment that they cannot stomach the notion of a female bishop. Shame on their misogyny.

One positive outcome of the exercise could be earlier consecration of female bishops in the Church of England, as those opposed to such consecrations would be free to transfer to Rome.

So maybe that old saying about god's mysterious ways isn't so far from the truth after all.

constellation consternation

NASA's Ares 1-X rocket was heading for its launch pad earlier today, ready for a two minute test flight later this month.

But with money short, the future of the Constellation programme, intended to replace the existing space shuttle fleet, is now in doubt.

An expert committee reviewing manned space flight is expected to report back to the White House this week.

All our fingers are crossed, but if the report goes against, I guess we'll just have to wait for Zefram Cochrane.

time for a change.2

Two weeks today since I told the big wheels at work that I would be leaving. And since then the place has seemed altogether better. Mostly because I'm concentrating strictly on my own work now, instead of forever looking round to see if anyone else needs a hand.

Today I made a start on typing up handover notes and tidying up the mess and muddle of computer files I inherited three+ years ago.

The checklist of regular jobs I jotted down the other day looks as though it would take an acre of print to explain, so I may just do a few headings and hope to fill in the detail face to face with the new person. Let's hope it's someone who has done a similar job before.

And someone who doesn't mind not taking more than three days holiday at a time during most of the year...

the future fights back?

Following continuing problems with the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and the cancellation in 1993 of the United States Superconducting Supercollider, two eminent physicists have suggested that these machines may have sabotaged themselves from the future in order to prevent them manufacturing the hypothesised Higgs boson (aka the God particle).

Nielsen is one of the founders of string theory, and respected for his 'deep and original' (physics speak for 'apparently crazy but might be proved right in the end') thinking.

This latest suggestion is curiously reminiscent of stories about the Ultimate Answer to the Universe and Everything, and supercomputers multi-networked until they are indeed capable of controlling the universe.

But at least those were just stories.

telling the future

interesting book published by a professor from NYU, giving details of how he takes known facts, leavens them with the psycholocigal insight that people always tend to act out of self interest, purees them in his computer, and hey presto - the Future unfolds before him.

apparently his predictions have been statistically tested and found to be outside the limits for random success.

strange how you mortals have always felt compelled to look ahead in this way.

doubtless you will say it's part of what makes you human.

fit, fun, forever young

What a glorious story about the 100 year old woman winning a gold medal in a super-seniors shot putt event.

It isn't clear whether this has always been her event, but competitive spirit drove Ruth Frith to train six days a week, bench pressing 80 lbs.

Ms Frith claims the secret of her success is that she Hates Vegetables and never eats them, so I suppose that's a vote for a high protein diet then!

the hundredth day

all good things ... was the title I think of the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation

but holds true here to mark the final day of the 4th plinth project in London.

The cherry picker collected the last plinther shortly after 9am this morning, having to remind her to bring her belongings with her as she left, and returned a few minutes later bearing men with cutting equipment to remove the safety netting.

There has been far more publicity today at the close of the project than there ever was during it, which must say something about what news editors think are good stories.

Up here we have our ceremonial t.shirt safely preserved for posterity - and are grateful to be in that place where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt.

Though we're not quite so sure about mildew.

now you see it ...

Looks like we'd better take care next time we're earthbound.

New security scanners are being trialled that can detect weapons hidden inside clothing.

Unfortunately they achieve this by detecting everything hidden inside the clothing - including an accurate outline of the person wearing the clothes.

Which sounds a trifle embarrassing for the ordinary mortal, but nothing to the incident that might occur should one of our number be subject to such a scan.

Bearing in mind our visits with you sometimes fail to be skin deep.

education otherwise

Schools in the uk are having a bit of a bad press at the moment.

Send your children to nursery and they run the risk of suffering abuse from staff and having pictures of the atrocity posted on the internet.

Allow your teenager to follow an art course and run the risk that a novice teacher will not see the danger as your child plunges their hands into a bucket of plaster of paris in order to make a mould.

Unbelievably both these horror stories have been in the news this week. The nursery abuse has only recently come to light, but the art class incident happened three years ago - the school has just been ordered to pay a fine, equivalent to 2,000 Euros for each of the eight fingers the student lost when her hands were burned almost beyond repair when the plaster heated up as it set.

The biggest drawback people usually cite against home educating is that your children will not have the opportunity to mix with others in their age group.

Suddenly this doesn't seem so much of a price to pay.

vegetarian spiders?

This seems to have hit the news today, though apparently the spiders have been observed since the 1890s.

Unusually these spiders don't hunt for prey but eat the tasty leaf-tip buds of the acacia tree. Their main problem seems to be avoiding the ants that try and preserve these buds for their own use.

Rumour has it that despite their 'vegetarian' diet the spiders do occasionally eat each other when leaf tips are scarce, and help themselves to ant larvae too - presumably on the well known basis that eating flies is murder but larvae are justifiable homicide - though I suppose that should really be justifiable larvicide.

As to why a thumbnail-sized central american spider should be named after a black panther - that is the secret of George & Elizabeth Peckham.

peace to the world

Your media have had so much to say about the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama that we can hardly add anything new.

Maybe it's an indication of the battle-ready state of much of the world that the committee fell so eagerly on the late nomination of the new boy on the block. Someone who must surely have attracted no negative comments if only because of his short time on the global scene.

Here is a leader with worldwide influence who seems to embody the notions of peace & love even if there has not yet been time for his underlying philosophy to effect any changes.

We wish him the human support he will need to see the changes he dreams of take place over the next few years.

He certainly has our support.

(except for our belligerent friend Mars, of course, who took to his bed in utter despair this time last year).

moonshine

Oh dear. NASA has almost caught us out.

Your scientists are so right that water was to be found on the Moon.

It's just that we've been mining those reserves for as long as we've needed water to distill our triple strength nectar and ice for our ambrosia sorbet.

Let's hope there's still enough left for your human needs when you take up residence.

unionised deathwish?

Here we are trying to recover from economic meltdown caused by the recent collapse of the financial system. And what are the trade unions in the UK doing? They seem to be going on strike. Are they completely mad?

Understandably the refuse collectors in Leeds are taking action. Following a job evaluation scheme of council posts the rate for their job has tumbled and many seem likely to take a substantial pay cut. At least that's the way the workers see it, though the council of course has a slightly different version despite having to agree that wages will fall.

Maybe jumping onto the West Yorkshire bandwagon the local bus drivers seem to be out on the streets too. Protesting perhaps against the reduced services proposed by the bus company. Though goodness knows how the company justifies such reductions when revenues must be sky high if the price of a bus ticket is anything to go by.

Moving to London there is trouble underground, where workers on the tube system are apparently unhappy with conditions that include such eminently non-Victorian entitlements as - eight weeks holiday a year...

But the granddaddy of them all of course is The Royal Mail. A venerable institution with a union unfortunately committed to a policy of suicide by strike action. With personal mail already converting to the internet, strike action will surely provide the spur for the Royal Mail's remaining business customers to transfer allegiance to the parcel carriers now offering mail distribution services.

Membership of a workplace union is a right all workers need, to ensure there can be no exploitation by the employer. But it begins to seem that workers might need protection from their union - when the union is a big business itself, with entrenched interests in maintaining a high profile and demonstrating its power by encouraging strike action.

physics v literature

Here in the uk there is concern over a continuing decline in the number of students opting for the traditional science subjects.

Little wonder perhaps when, given the opportunity yesterday to publicise the winner of a science prize and the winner of a literature prize, the media tended to total overkill with the literature story - which was mentioned in every news bulletin after the announcement was made, and to ignore almost completely the physics prize - which seemed to merit only one mention.

Not much encouragement for would-be scientists there then.

This story seems even more depressing given that the science prize was the Nobel prize for Physics, half of which was awarded on Tuesday (to a British/US citizen who had studied and worked in the UK) for groundbreaking achievements in fibre optics - which are surely a cornerstone of today's global communication systems.

Set against this the Man Booker prize for literature, awarded to the British author of a historical novel.

Somehow there doesn't seem much comparison between the value of these contributions to global society, and it's a shame to see the broadcasters opt so wholeheartedly for the easy story.

without the minor godlet

after a long & lazy summer break the minor godlet has girded up his loins and returned to his chosen seat of learning.

the very clouds seem less comforting in the early days of his absence, and we take what little ease we can from morpheus' gentle embrace.

in time for sure the stillness around us will become a gift to cherish.

a signal for the loud return no doubt of minor godlet, belly empty and bag of laundry overfilled - to shake us up again from our hard won tranquillity.

time for a change

Exciting times ahead maybe; there is a new job on offer which promises a supportive atmosphere for staff and clients. Downside is a substantial cut in salary.

After the misery of recent months this seems a complete no-brainer and I have leaped at the chance with open arms.

The office bad guy sweetened his expected toxic rant with the most audacious string of lies - and this time I was able to look him in the eye and tell him so. And he didn't even look abashed - just changed tack to try and win my sympathy. The sad truth is the guy has major emotional and self esteem problems, but thank goodness I no longer feel I have to stand there while he beats me over the head with them.

Welcome to my new stress free life!

(I hope... )

can people learn to be happy?

It tends to be accepted that some people are naturally optimistic and cheerful, while others are born to be miserable negativists.

But maybe all is not lost for those of a gloomier outlook - maybe a little gentle meditation before bedtime can soothe away the worries that prevent a good night's rest. Help show the way to a central stillness where it might be possible to put aside the pressures of everyday busyness.

Try your search engine with Happiness through Meditation and see if anything looks good to you.

Maybe we can turn the world into a giant bubble of happiness.

Except for the places suffering from horrendous natural disasters of course. It's up to the gods to fix those.

soul music

is the title of a fascinating programme on Radio 4 that runs in short series from time to time; the last one's just finished.

Each programme takes one piece of music that has the ability to affect listeners deeply and plays that one piece of music while five or six people talk about what it means to them, how it is significant in their lives.

Over the years the programme has introduced me to some pieces I probably would never have discovered otherwise.

The ones closest to my heart include Vier Letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs), composed by Richard Strauss in 1948 towards the end of his life; Spem in Alium written for eight choirs of five voices around 1600 by Thomas Tallis ; Gregorio Allegri's Miserere from 1630, written for performance in the Sistine Chapel using the text of Psalm 51, and Georg Friedrich Handel's coronation anthem Zadok the Priest, composed in 1727 for the coronation of George II - although this last piece I did know before I heard it discussed on the programme.

If you don't already know these and you get the chance, spend a little time with some of them and you might fall under their spell too. Or on the other hand of course, you might just think they're boring old rubbish and wish you hadn't wasted your time!

old news

At last details have been published about the incredible fossil finds made in Ethiopia fifteen years ago.

The fossils were found in a sedimentary layer dated at 4.4 million years ago, and included the shattered skeleton of a female human ancestor which has been painstakingly reconstructed - and named Ardi.

Unexpectedly she seems to have lived in woodland - it had previously been thought that human ancestors only learned to walk after they had moved to the grassy savannas.

This news is exciting even for us, as we have to admit our own history does not go back nearly so far, mankind having conjoured our existence a mere 750,000 years ago.