The magical world of Professor Pat Pending
“Pat. Pend.” is printed on the cardboard box containing statins. Can one have a patent pending on a generic drug? Perhaps anything is possible in the current times. “Pat. Pend.” reminded me of a name I have been trying to recall for years: Professor Pat Pending, he was one of the racers in The Wacky Races. Walking to school, I tried … [continue reading …]
Sweet smoke
Walking to the shop, there was the sweet smell of turf in the air. There is probably some bye-law against it being burnt in Dublin, but I suspect the old person burning it would have been unaware of bye-laws and had probably spent much of their life ignoring most other laws. The smell recalled an encounter with a cardiologist I … [continue reading …]
Thanks a million, Boycie
Without Boycie, Del Boy would not have been the character he became. It is the rivalry, the sparring, the oneupmanship, and the strange affection between the characters played by John Challis and David Jason, that gave Only Fools and Horses many of its most humorous moments. Boycie is so funny because he is an amalgam of the sort of characters … [continue reading …]
Heathercombe Brake School Photographs
There are 679 (or thereabouts) photographs here. Some of them are duplicates and some of them are in random order. Paul Pope sent me a zip file in 2014 and I have been meaning to sort and upload them ever since. To have digitized these from prints to computer files must have taken many, many hours. They are nearly all … [continue reading …]
The old scams seem to work
There can be few people with email addresses who have not received at least an occasional email that seeks details that would allow the sender to defraud them. The “Spanish Hostage” scam is the oldest approach used (thus named because when it began two centuries ago people wrote letters claiming to be held hostage in Spain and promising abundant reward … [continue reading …]
Bridgwater Fair
It is billed by this week’s Bridgwater Mercury as the biggest travelling funfair in the south-west. In a town known for its spectacular Guy Fawkes’ Carnival, it is not hard to imagine that the annual fair at Saint Matthew’s Field is also a large scale operation. The Showman’s Guild who run the fair have said it will be “Covid safe.” … [continue reading …]
A Sermon for Sunday, 10th October 2021
“many who are first will be last, and the last will be first” Mark 10:31 Christians through the centuries have been very good at avoiding the words of Jesus that we do not want to hear, either we ignore them altogether, or we assume that what is being said does not apply to us, that it is being said for … [continue reading …]
Picturing James Dean
James Dean died on this day in 1955, driving a car at the speed at which he had lived. Twenty-four years old, he had become an icon of restlessness, unease, discontent. His dislike of convention seems to have inspired a similar unconventionality in others. The photographer Denis Stock was sent on an assignment by Magnum. His pictures of Dean, a … [continue reading …]
The subliminal effect of Betcha, by golly, wow
Hardly using the car anymore, there is little possibility of listening to the CD player. I wonder what I shall do with my stack of Compact Discs, most of which were bought when I was driving thirty thousand miles a year and which became familiar friends on many journeys. There are some unlikely discs among the collection, music by artists … [continue reading …]
See Emily Play
The nurse changed the date. “Today is 1st May.” “Good morning, Emily. How are you this morning?” 1st May? Oh no, it would be so boring. Standing outside for hours and then a dinner where there would be very long speeches. All those old men and all those toasts. “Daddy, do I have to go today?” “Of course, we must … [continue reading …]