Paul, Basil and Rosalie
Anthropomorphism is defined as, “the attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to a god, animal, or object”. Thoughts of a snail brought the word to mind, the particular snail being Brian, a puppet from the children’s television programme The Magic Roundabout. Brian possessed an entire range of human characteristics as he and Dougal the dog held their conversations with Dylan … [continue reading …]
There’s no Twelfth on the Thirteenth this month
Among the cancellations brought by the Covid-19 crisis were those of the traditional Orange Order celebrations in Northern Ireland. Through respect for Sunday, the traditional Twelfth of July marches were due to take place next Monday, 13th July. Undoubtedly, the government, the police and numerous community groups will have welcomed the cancellations However, not a few ordinary, decent law-abiding people … [continue reading …]
The inexpressible pain
Siegfried Sassoon’s biography tells of his reaction to the news of the death of his brother in November 1915. Hamo Sassoon had been serving with the Royal Engineers when wounded whilst serving in Gallipoli, his wounds were such that he died on a hospital ship. Siegfried Sassoon’s written reaction was subdued. He wrote a two stanza poem, To my brother: … [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 Sapin and promising abundant reward … [continue reading …]
The 375th anniversary of the Battle of Langport
Three hundred and seventy-five years ago today, I know where men among my forebears stood. “We were on opposing sides in the Civil War,” laughed a local man. It seems his family had supported the Crown, whilst our family were Commonwealth people. Cavaliers versus Roundheads: ours had not seemed the sort of family who would support the beheading of a … [continue reading …]
A reflection for Sunday, 9th August 2020
“Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him.” Matthew 14:31 Why does Jesus reach out his hand? We know from the story of the raising of Lazarus that miracles do not depend on physical touch, so why does Jesus choose to reach out and take the hand of the drowning Peter? What is the purpose of the physical contact? … [continue reading …]
It should have been in a boneyard
The BBC reported on the thousands of aircraft grounded as a consequence of the SARS-Cov-2 crisis. It featured “boneyards,” remote airfields where aircraft are laid up, sometimes for decades. Doing a web search, I discovered that the oldest airliner in a boneyard dated from 1952. I remember an aircraft that might have been retrieved from a boneyard. It was late … [continue reading …]
Words without meaning
In teenage years, pop songs sung in French always seemed sophisticated, they possessed a certain je ne sais quoi which set them apart. It was only in later life, when my French vocabulary had developed beyond two words that I realized that Plastic Bertrand’s 1977 hit Ça plane pour moi was a banal tale of the exploits of a man when … [continue reading …]
Still waiting
Sunlight shone through a gap in the curtains. The sound of a tractor passing the cottage told Maggie that it was later than she thought. Her clock had stopped at some point and she had not replaced it. Normally waking at the same time each morning, Maggie had felt that a new battery for the clock was not necessary. The … [continue reading …]