Ominous
In case you missed it, the Grim Reaper walked past the doorway during the coronation Saturday. I haven’t read an official explanation, but it’s surely a non-ghostly member of the cathedral staff who put his hood up at an inopportune moment.
Yes, I watched. I wasn’t going to, but my cousin from Alabama called to tell me she got up at 4am to watch (who knew I had a monarchist in the family?) and that shamed me into it.
I was astonished at how much Jesus there was in the ceremony. So many prayers. If I had to guess, I’d say most of the sermonizing was from the Reformation – all that emphasis on upholding Protestantism.
Penny Mordaunt held that sword straight up for two freaking hours and looked good doing it. Mad respect. It’s a shame she’s a WEF stooge.
Anyway, it was a heck of a spectacle and I’m glad I watched. Brits do spectacle. I had hoped to find pictures of the Barons of the Cinque Ports at the do, just to round the week out, but nobody’s published any yet.
Tomorrow – back to work!
May 8, 2023 — 7:01 pm
Comments: 7
Shithouse for sale
Today, I had coffee with a woman who has a Grade II listed outhouse in her back yard. It lost its seat years ago and has been a garden shed since forever, but it was once and for a very long time the privy that served the whole street. (!!!)
That’s not it in the picture, though. That’s a modern shed that you can buy fully assembled for $3,044 (the kit is a little cheaper).
Anyway, we fell to talking. All of us live or have lived in very old houses. So, naturally, we began to discuss ghosts.
Not me. I’m as psychic as a potato. I live in a 500 year old house and I haven’t experienced so much as a cold spot.
They weren’t exciting stories – footsteps in an empty house, being poked in the ribs by a Nothing There – but I felt cheated that I don’t seem to have that sense. It’s like being color blind. Or, I dunno – maybe they’re nuts.
Any psychics out there?
p.s. Why do outhouses have moons carved in them. Nobody knows for sure.
p.p.s. RIP Dame Edna. New Dead Pool Friday.
April 24, 2023 — 7:00 pm
Comments: 10
Where now?
Always makes me laugh that there’s only two manuscript parchment copies of the US Declaration of Independence and they are located in:
1) the US National Archives
2) the archives of West Sussex County Council, where it was found by chance in 2015.
Following up on that, it’s true. There are lots of copies, but that’s the only other one on parchment. Most copies are 19th C, but they believe this one was about ten years after the original.
Back to work tomorrow after a fabulous four-day break. I am sad.
April 10, 2023 — 6:48 pm
Comments: 7
Imagine if one pooped on the windshield
Six chinooks flying over Sussex. We were right in the flight path and I’m sure we heard them, but not sure when. There have been several times lately we heard something go over, like what the hell was that?
It was a jet once, for sure.
Flightradar24 isn’t great with military aircraft (but I prefer their interface). ADSBexchange does a more complete job. I haven’t seen anything like six of these go over, though.
There are plenty of chinooks in the RAF, but the article says these were American. What’re y’all up to?
April 5, 2023 — 7:39 pm
Comments: 12
This is a test of…
Britain has never had a nationwide emergency alert system. They’re about to get one and they’re flipping out about it.
Sunday, April 24th everyone’s smart phone is going to make what has been described as “a very loud noise” for ten seconds, or until acknowledged by the user. There has been speculation that people will drive off the road or have heart attacks. There are concerns that the government is harvesting who does (and doesn’t) have a smart phone.
It does seem a little pointless (and therefore a little sinister). Britain has very placid weather.
It doesn’t have earthquakes, a tornado alley, wildfires to speak of or a hurricane season. Some flooding, but you can usually see that coming. They had a couple of apparent tsunamis in the Middle Ages – at least, the sea snuck in and ate a couple of villages. They were never quite as directly threatened in the Cold War, though last year Vlad did promise to nuke London first if the current thing goes sour.
In the end, probably a nothingburger. Instructions are making the rounds how to claw the app out of the guts of your phone, though the article I linked said you can just turn your phone off.
I’ll probably decide to experience it. Curiosity and all that.
April 3, 2023 — 7:00 pm
Comments: 12
Oh, c’mon!
This one is a reach. Local news site has accused Upper Dicker and Lower Dicker of being “rudely named Sussex hamlets.” I’ve been to both and they is innocent.
Dicker is a perfectly cromulent word. It’s no Pratt’s Bottom
I know what happened. All these local news sites run on a steady diet of “this pretty Sussex village” and “this quaint Sussex pub” stories. And, while we have a lot of both, they soon blow through all the really good ones. Then they get desperate.
We are situated on a road that runs several miles between a village and a town. Not surprisingly, we’re on this road a lot. It was recently featured in one of these items as one of the prettiest drives in Sussex.
I told Uncle B and he laughed. “The one with the industrial estate?” The very one. Sheep are quaint in lambing time, though.
Have a good weekend, everyone!
March 24, 2023 — 8:08 pm
Comments: 5
Land of the Giants
Yes, we went to a model railway exhibition this weekend. It was a big one. Well, a bigger one than I’ve been to before, anyway.
This is a real thing here. Uncle B points out that we have plenty train enthusiasts in America, model and otherwise – and it’s true – but I don’t think trains are quite woven into the fabric in the same way.
They were advertising any number of other shows in the area in the coming months. We could do this all year.
I love going to these because I love anything in miniature…plus all the little tiny tools and pots of paint. Yes, I bought a couple. I don’t know why; I don’t do any kind of anything any more.
Phew, this would be an expensive hobby for real, though.
February 20, 2023 — 8:06 pm
Comments: 7
And they’re off…!
Today I was bored, so I stuck my finger in a socket.
This is Ngozi (not her real name) Fulani. She was born in London to Caribbean parents. She runs a charity for battered women. Yesterday, she was invited to a charity do at Buckingham Palace.
It’s unclear if she was dressed like this, but it would appear so.
While she was in the reception line, Lady Susan Hussey (eighty-something-years-old and Liz’s bestie) moved Fulani’s hair to read her name tag (microaggression!) and then asked, “where are you from?” (MICROAGGRESSION!) and kept asking until Fulani admitted her parents were from the Caribbean (HATE CRIME!).
Naturally, Lady Hussey has stepped down. No, seriously – she lost her job over this.
You can imagine the reasoned discourse on Twitter. Or perhaps you can’t – British blacks are insanely touchy, not least because when they throw tantrums they get big results from people like the BBC.
I’ve made a lot of bland comments in a lot of stupid threads today, but I’m watching one of them like a horse race.
The tweet, currently weighing in at 119 likes:
And the challenger, standing at 140:
I’ve been losing this race for hours. Twitter is a crazy place.
November 30, 2022 — 6:38 pm
Comments: 9
Yes, that Ragnarok
This is one of the doors to All Saints Church, Staplehurst, Kent. The ironwork depicts Ragnarok, the Norse apocalypse.
The South door of Staplehurst church illustrates the Scandinavian myth of Doomsday, when the serpent which holds the world together will loosen its grip on its own tail, the world will fall apart, and chaos will ensue. The fish will jump on land. The gods will fight. Only one man and one woman will be spared to start the world again. Surt the sunwheel is top centre. Above flies Nithoggr, who eats the dead, and above him is the small cross which turns the pagan myth into Christian art.
The only door in England resembling this one is at Stillingfleet, ten miles south of York, in the middle of what was Danish-held territory in 1000 AD. Taken from Canon Walker’s 1938 edition of the Church Guide.
From A Brief History of Staplehurst from Acorn to Oak (pdf). (The Stillingfleet door is pretty special, too).
The door has been reliably dated to around 1050; the church was built in 1100. Perhaps the door came from somewhere else, or perhaps there’s enough wiggle in the dating that it really was made for the church.
The big-C Church – in Britain, anyway – was remarkably chill about mixing in ancient pagan-y bits. Remember this Mithraic altarstone in the little village church? Elizabeth I had a court astrologer (though Mary had him imprisoned once for the crime of doing math, the blackest of arts).
Not my photo, alas. But Staplehurst is close enough — just — for a day trip. Maybe when the days get longer again.
October 26, 2022 — 6:17 pm
Comments: 11
What it is to be rich
Oof! I’ve had a beast of a day. I know – I haven’t done a real estate post for a while.
Behold, Plumpton Place, a charming Elizabethan estate on 60 acrres. It’s on the market for the first time in thirty years.
Edward Hudson, founder of Country Life magazine, bought it in 1927 and spent his remaining years working with architect Edwin Lutyens and garden designer Gertrude Jekyll to do it up (those names might not be familiar, but I guarantee you Uncle B read those words and started to drool).
It went through several hands before it was briefly owned by Michael Caine, who sold it to Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. Several more hands later and George Harrison tried to buy it but, according to his ex, the owner said “she didn’t want rock’n’roll musicians buying her lovely house and sold it to the local doctor instead.”
Here’s how it works: Hudson bought it for £3,300. Ten years later, 1937, it sold for £9,000. Paige bought it in 1972 for £200,000. Ten years later, it went for £650,000 to a property developer who quickly flipped it for £800,000.
They will now entertain offers in the region of £8,000,000.
October 6, 2022 — 7:12 pm
Comments: 5