Is it my imagination, or has Google been hit with something nasty? It’s behaving strangely at present and searches result in an attempt to download something my computer can’t understand. I’m temporarily using www.dogpile.com instead.
Police are hunting members of the Real IRA after a hit on an army barracks in Northern Ireland over the weekend. So does that mean the last lot was the Joke IRA? Hope not, as they were bloody effective enough at what they did and God knows what professionals could do.
Have you noticed how the only jobs being advertised in the Sunday papers now are those in various aspects of academia, the upper echelons of the NHS / local government and a variety of public sector quangos?
I wonder whether once the house has been built we could open the caravan as a bijou restaurant or nightclub. It would be a shame to just torch it. I’m sure another family member could find a use for it. That’s one of the benefits of living within a nuclear/extended family – you share stuff. Another benefit is the support network it provides, which is lacking in a lot of families today as the children move far away when they grow up.
We were watching a documentary of photojournalism and its association with art. One of the photojournalists interviewed had refused to have some of his work included in an exhibition, as he considered that the message of the exhibition was trying to portray was at odds with the message he was giving in his work. I wondered if the irony of his statement had impinged on his consciousness, as I’m sure he doesn’t ask permission from the subjects he photographs in the streets to be exhibited in his art statements. He was so hypocritical and far up his own arse as to be inside-out.
This sparked off a discussion with Hay about exhibitions that incorporate others’ works being works of art in their own right. Say Picasso had compiled an exhibition of other artists’ works – surely that could be considered a Picasso work, as the choice of exhibits and their juxtaposition would have said a lot about Picasso himself as an artist. A classic example of the ordinary as art is the famous 1917 work Fountain, by Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp, which is nothing more than a urinal with his alias (R Mutt) signature on it. According to a write-up accompanying the work shortly after it was first exhibited: “Whether Mr Mutt made the fountain with his own hands or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object.”
Another bête noire of mine and a recurring blog theme: Unilever, the makers of Flora margarine, have taken out adverts extolling the virtues of margarine, using the strapline ‘Big FAT lie, Big FAT truth’ and aligning it with a website. They say that margarine is healthy due to it containing essential oils. What they neglect to mention is that margarine is totally unnatural and there is no need to take your essential oils by having them suspended in a crappy goo that you spread on your toast - they can be obtained from natural products like oily fish, olive oil, nuts and seeds.
Hay was looking out of the caravan yesterday and noted how the bacon fat she’d left out for the birds had disappeared. However, she started bemoaning the fact that the crackers had not been touched. I told her that it was hardly surprising, as everyone knows that bacon fat goes with sprouts and crackers go with cheese. The mix was simply too incongruous and no self-respecting bird would do bacon fat AND crackers.
Police are hunting members of the Real IRA after a hit on an army barracks in Northern Ireland over the weekend. So does that mean the last lot was the Joke IRA? Hope not, as they were bloody effective enough at what they did and God knows what professionals could do.
Have you noticed how the only jobs being advertised in the Sunday papers now are those in various aspects of academia, the upper echelons of the NHS / local government and a variety of public sector quangos?
I wonder whether once the house has been built we could open the caravan as a bijou restaurant or nightclub. It would be a shame to just torch it. I’m sure another family member could find a use for it. That’s one of the benefits of living within a nuclear/extended family – you share stuff. Another benefit is the support network it provides, which is lacking in a lot of families today as the children move far away when they grow up.
We were watching a documentary of photojournalism and its association with art. One of the photojournalists interviewed had refused to have some of his work included in an exhibition, as he considered that the message of the exhibition was trying to portray was at odds with the message he was giving in his work. I wondered if the irony of his statement had impinged on his consciousness, as I’m sure he doesn’t ask permission from the subjects he photographs in the streets to be exhibited in his art statements. He was so hypocritical and far up his own arse as to be inside-out.
This sparked off a discussion with Hay about exhibitions that incorporate others’ works being works of art in their own right. Say Picasso had compiled an exhibition of other artists’ works – surely that could be considered a Picasso work, as the choice of exhibits and their juxtaposition would have said a lot about Picasso himself as an artist. A classic example of the ordinary as art is the famous 1917 work Fountain, by Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp, which is nothing more than a urinal with his alias (R Mutt) signature on it. According to a write-up accompanying the work shortly after it was first exhibited: “Whether Mr Mutt made the fountain with his own hands or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object.”
Another bête noire of mine and a recurring blog theme: Unilever, the makers of Flora margarine, have taken out adverts extolling the virtues of margarine, using the strapline ‘Big FAT lie, Big FAT truth’ and aligning it with a website. They say that margarine is healthy due to it containing essential oils. What they neglect to mention is that margarine is totally unnatural and there is no need to take your essential oils by having them suspended in a crappy goo that you spread on your toast - they can be obtained from natural products like oily fish, olive oil, nuts and seeds.
Hay was looking out of the caravan yesterday and noted how the bacon fat she’d left out for the birds had disappeared. However, she started bemoaning the fact that the crackers had not been touched. I told her that it was hardly surprising, as everyone knows that bacon fat goes with sprouts and crackers go with cheese. The mix was simply too incongruous and no self-respecting bird would do bacon fat AND crackers.
5 comments:
Hmmmm! Picky Peckers - can't get excited about that! Obviously the general standard of bird table food is far higher in Old Sodbury than Norwich
I do have a problem with food companies that pretend that their food is healthy whilst all the while hiding contrary arguments - not sure what I do about it though - I do believe that we are over legislated so saying pass a law is not acceptable. Perhaps every website should have - automatically - a contrary website - just as we have the Tesco website and Tesccopoly at www.tescopoly.org/ - every little hurts!
Meanwhile, back at the breakfast table -I am confused as to how, in a democratic society and with a government which claims to want to reform the House of Lords we can have a senior Minister - Lord Mandleson - who has been appointed by the virtue of giving him a peerage and NOT elected.
Richard x x x
Crackers for birds? Perhaps they wanted table water with them, to soften them for their delicate little beaks?
I agree the whole IT shebang has gone to the dogpile - All behaving oddly, and probably worm-ridden!
How about the caravan having a new life as one of those new out of town, politically correct, lap-dancing clubs - Might bring in some revenue, Sir, as the girls apparently make very little out of it?!
I used crackers for the rats, it takes so long for them to chew and swallow I can line them up in my sights & get a decent shot at them with the air rifle, still miss though!
War time margarine gave me a loathing of the word, as well as the substance. Anybody in BLogland old enough to have sampled this horrible substance must surely feel the same? I'd be interested to know...
Richard: if you're the PM, you can invite any old dosser into your government.
Woman: I traced it to Internet Explorer and have now moved to Firefox.
CG: Our neighbour has an arsenal and regularly throws scraps out to attract the rats before blowing them to kingdom come.
Jinksy: Wartime margarine was real transfat, not this namby-pamby stuff you get today.
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