RECENT COMMENTS

Monday, May 31, 2004

bright smile

I was googling round Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still

and found another take at the same Tradecard site as the last link, but within the fascinating Shadow set.
... John Bufford, a Boston lithographer, created and copyrighted a set of stock trade cards featuring shadows. In these cards a shadow makes a comic and sometimes cynical comment about the pictured person or persons--perhaps revealing what's in their hearts or predicting what the future holds for them.


My Hat’s a Stunner if that Shadow’s right

tradecards

Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still

Spencerian Pen

The Pen is Mightier Than The Sword

from a Victorian Scrapbook of tradecards (via J walk)

parked

I think it's just me and my settings but I can't quite get this game to load.
Park The Caravan (via diversionz)

and I can't seem to play this related video either...
(via the presurfer)

and this is just the virtual. Outside of a parallel universe somewhere, I don't think I'll ever attempt the real:
Reversing is often considered a nightmare with a caravan

also related in a roundabout way: Which side of the road do they drive on
This is an attempt to list which side of the road people drive on around the world, and to find some reasons why (via things)


Comments: parked

The Caravan parking loads perfectly well at my end. The accuracy of the game to real life is reflected in my total inability to park the damn thing. Not once have I been successful.
Posted by Nora at June 1, 2004 12:49 PM

"Like any new procedure it only takes practice."
- RACV.
Posted by boynton at June 1, 2004 12:57 PM

and the ability to be cheerful under very very infuriating conditions..
Posted by David Tiley at June 2, 2004 01:38 AM


I think I will make this game mandatory for all drivers accompanying me to the outback in September. If they can't do it here... then please stay home! Good fun!
Posted by phlip at June 2, 2004 05:56 PM

- Or if they can't "remain cheerful" while failing anyway ;)
Did you qualify as a Driver? (I still haven't been able to play this)
Posted by boynton at June 3, 2004 11:53 AM

Saturday, May 29, 2004

playing in parkas

the weather dips again to where our speech makes idle condensation
and in that full dull lull of evening, as the cold fogs the windows,
and dogs hog the heater, I suggest a hit of table tennis, as you do.
And DF who was happily strumming away on his guitar says "Um...Ok"
So we prepare for our polar expedition to the carport
and a Parka feels slightly ridiculous and anti-nimble
and DF plays in gloves and layers
and I quickly notice the ground that a Parka gives away
a foot across the table, flat footed on the concrete
'I feel constricted' I say declining a smash
not getting the spin
but we agree it's better to be warm
like Lollypop people
and to work towards the objective
of shedding our handicap

And like running in gumboots or up sand dunes
it could be a recognised training routine, playing in parkas
because once we shed the cladding we change gear
and turn serious, and I stop ear bashing DF
about my so-called soap opera in lollypop
and take on my opponent

well as serious as random ping pong can ever really be
and as the top spin morphs across the rally
we exchange a mini smile casually


Comments: playing in parkas

Very neat - a nice balance of the conversational & the lyrical.
Posted by Dick Jones at May 29, 2004 04:39 AM

thanks.

I think a blog is a good place to practice that balance...
Posted by boynton at May 31, 2004 12:25 PM

See - you are neat, B.
And clever.


Posted by wen at June 2, 2004 02:44 PM

Friday, May 28, 2004

odd odd

BBubbly
OOdd
YYummy
NNeat
TTrustworthy
OOdd
NNaughty

Name / Username:


Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

So odd they named it twice...
The first N is definitely wrong. The B is, of course, miss b's preferred beverage.
And as long as the table is Blue I'm happy to post the results...

although I think this may be closer to the mark...

BBoring
OOld
YYakety yak
NNostalgic
TTwisted
OOdd
NName dropper




(via sarcasmo)



Comments: odd odd

not so, miss b. not so..
Posted by David Tiley at May 29, 2004 12:42 AM

merci

but you know - some days - so.so.
Posted by boynton at May 31, 2004 12:24 PM

blogliners

Blogliners
...It is meant to provide you with a little jump-start of inspiration on those "not so fresh days" when you just can't come up with a blog topic. Today's bit of brilliance not kicking over the ol' engine for you? Browse the archives - you're bound to find a quivering bit of zing nestled in there somewhere(about)

via fishbucket

Thursday, May 27, 2004

suits

no smirking and it's always prudent to keep a watchful eye out for merging suits

Username:

From Go-Quiz.com

I found this DIY warning sign engine via Lady Crumpet's Armoire but noticed the sign was a bit crushed upon transferral. Something to do with tables and tags I suspect. So this is a screen capture of my modified warning signs.

And for a smirk: The wrong contest at the most phallic building in the world contest
(via grow a brain)

fine lines

In between the flash games, the retro-photos, the nostalgia and the nostradamus generators there is a lot of fine writing on-line to find.

Up in the morning & off to school A series on Schooldays and Progressive Education in 1950's Britain at Dick Jones' Patteran Pages
Part One...Two ... Three.

everything at never neutral - but learning to live with love is very beautiful.


seventeen

Properties of 17 (via the ultimate insult)

boynton was born partial to seventeen of course, and endorses the birthday lucky number system for racing tips. Even though only 2 horses wearing number seventeen have won the Melbourne Cup in her lifetime. And she didn't back either of them.

Still, the ACCR Finds 17 to be the Lucky Number at July Meeting


Comments: seventeen

When in I was in The Hague my favourite tram route was number 17.
Now it's moved.
Posted by Nora at May 27, 2004 04:38 PM

Did you catch it 17 times?

oh, and nb:
"on June 13, 1997: A 17-meter high fairground roundabout was stolen in the Netherlands"
Posted by boynton at May 27, 2004 08:59 PM

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

hats galore

Hats Galore at Vintage Pix

see also Merry Widow Hats

If two is company and three's a crowd,
You needn't be bothered by that;
Just shut the third one out, girls,
Use your MERRY WIDOW HAT


See also the link to Put on your Easter Bonnet for a marvellous millinery slide show.

(found via hat society links via grow a brain)

infectious ties

Doctors who wear ties during their hospital rounds in efforts to look professional for their patients could unwittingly spread disease-causing bacteria, says new research.
Researchers found that nearly half of the ties worn by medical workers harboured bacteria which could cause disease.
(Guardian)
(via J Walk)


Don't know if it would help to wear a tie like the Staphylococcus Necktie by Infectious Awareables on the rounds.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

b loops



DIY Cereal box via Collision Detection
It was seeing Collisions's Steroid Flakes that inspired my own brand. Bronte has been treated with same for her chronic itch, and her normal terrier loopiness has gone up a notch. On the strength of a single dose of cortisone, she now charges around the garden leaping at trees in the manner of Flo after possums. Like a bad copy or an eager twin, she's got the moves without the menace. No crunch at all. Just pint-sized loopiness.


Comments: b loops

Wow, we picked out almost the exact design. I went with "Delicious and Nutritious" rather than "Outrageous Crunch," though. I tried to come up with the most unappealing design.
Posted by Mark at May 26, 2004 08:44 PM

Snap!
I should have gone for the Orange to match Bronte's tan, but it clashed with my haloscan blue links!
And yes, blue is not the most appealing or appetising cereal-box colour.
Posted by boynton at May 27, 2004 11:00 AM

cute

Cute might be thought of as a watered-down version of pretty; which is a watered-down version of beautiful; which is a watered-down version of sublime; which is a watered-down version of terrifying. In this regard, the cute is akin to the ridiculous, which is a watered-down version of the absurd, which is again a watered-down version of that which terrifies.
FRANCES RICHARD. Fifteen theses on the cute


From Cabinet magazine A Quarterly Magazine of Art and Culture Animals issue

via Apothecary's Drawer

(I've been musing out loud on cute and ridiculous so this quote jumped out, but there is such good reading in the archives here...)

more on hats

The "Boss of the Plains" came unformed and the cowboy could shape the hat to his individual taste. Judging by old pictures some attempts at hat shaping were not too successful. Regardless of how ridiculous the hat looked those old cowhands looked proud. (source)

(found googling ridiculous hat. As you do.)

Hat Etiquette tips at Stetson

Monday, May 24, 2004

hats

Most of the time he wore a ridiculous bowler on his head

Bowler Hat Heroes

Hat Spinning at Tricks with Hats

As was the fashion at the time, bowler hats were seen on men of all classes aboard the Titanic (source)


Dog. Boronia 1926
Museum of Victoria Biggest Family Album


Comments: hats

Actually, in the first link Winnie appears to be sporting a homburg not a bowler.
Posted by Nabakov at May 24, 2004 04:43 PM

Ah yes...
I've just referred to another link I didn't post:
http://www.hatsinthebelfry.com/page/H/PROD/derby_bowler_hats/Men%27s+Hats+98123

and can spot the difference in H and B.

(I like the pic of 3 generations of Bowlers, 1950 in that link.)
Posted by boynton at May 24, 2004 05:03 PM

That is a very fine dog image. Who knows if they knew what they were doing, or whether this is accidental art. The quality of the sky, the dim building, the completely crumpled hat tied on with string, the straight legs on the pooch, the dry dry dry stump and of course the worn out frock.

How does a small kid's frock get that worn out? There's a whole family in that one shot. I really wonder what happened to them.
Posted by David Tiley at May 25, 2004 12:17 AM

There are 13 Hectors now in the Melbourne phone book. They seem to favour Bayswater.
Posted by David Tiley at May 25, 2004 12:21 AM

Now you mention it...
It does seem High grade amateur snap at the very least, but there is no photographer credit there.

And yes - a whole history in one snap.

Daffodils would soon supplant the gums in Boronia.
O'er vales and hills. A host of stumps.
Posted by boynton at May 25, 2004 01:10 PM

nostradamus says

Nostradamus Quatrain Generator
(or, What Would Nostradamus Say)

(via Incoming Signals)


Comments: nostradamus says

The link doesn't work for me. Or is that the point? No future? That's just ruined my day...
Posted by Dick Jones at May 24, 2004 03:57 PM

Whoops. Yes indeed, what a link to break! And sadly I wasn't that clever, just clumsy.

Your future is restored now.

(And this was the last line in the latest mix:)

The brilliance of the translator will come to fail
Posted by boynton at May 24, 2004 04:30 PM

other melbs

Blogging from Melb. Aus. you soon get to know the other Melb. FL. through the Google Ads that direct us to hotels and furniture stores on the Space Coast.
But I was surprised to learn that Melbourne FL was indeed named after Melbourne Vic by one time resident John Cornthwaite Hector

Hector was described as “Tall, heavy-set with white hair and a great square beard”. He was "strong as a bull". Most of the time he wore a ridiculous bowler on his head

The official FL City of Melb site includes a link back to Aus in case you were looking for this other Melbourne
Evidently there is some confusion, as this guide indicates. Here the two Melbournes have been combined in a web collage which merges our skyline with FL's early history. And unfortunately we have nothing to match the beach in the other Palm framed photo from the Space Coast. ( Maybe Williamstown at a pinch)


Comments: other melbs

The Palm-framed shot could be West Gate Bridge from St Kilda if you squigged your eyes a bit?
Posted by Nora at May 25, 2004 12:41 PM

tCh...

as in Mr Magoo? ;)

Much as I love the Bay, I think it's the tropical blue of the water that gives it away.
Posted by boynton at May 25, 2004 12:56 PM

Friday, May 21, 2004

bullet catch

we were hit with a stray question at Trivia the other night about William Robinson aka Chung Ling Soo, who died performing the world's most dangerous trick the bullet catch


Years after his death there was controversy as to whether it was suicide, murder, or just an accident, but the inquest decided on the story above, and returned a verdict of "Accidental Death".
The riddle of Chung Ling Soo

More on the trick and a list of Deaths associated with the Bullet Catch

Vintage posters of Chung Ling Soo at Magic Gallery

home decorating

Alcohol is served from birds of prey
A photoanthropological look at bachelorhood (via things)


A girl who makes marionettes has a tiny marionette stage set up in her living room, with footlights and spotlights ready to switch on. Her guests are always enchanted to see the newest of the 'little people' she has created
Rooms that Reflect Personality Decorating the Small Appartment 1949

Thursday, May 20, 2004

old books

January

from Liam's Pictures from Old books Scanned Images, Engravings and Pictures From Old Books
(via exclamation mark)

dogs and katz

another day another dogblog. (The recent post entitled "dogs" was an accident btw - a working title that I forgot to rebuild into something more specific and not a sign that content has gone to the wall.)

Barista links to a Jon Katz Slate story and refers to another about the semantic debate over guardian vs owner. Jon Katz is an owner:
I'm not convinced there will be concrete benefits from this metaphoric, even Orwellian revolution...

The guardian campaign is a vivid example of the growing tendency to blur the boundaries between us and our pets. Many Americans have already stopped seeing their dogs and cats as animals. They're family members, emotional support systems, metaphors for issues from our own pasts, aids for healing and growth, children with fur...




Katz quotes another Katz who endorses the change:
Eliot Katz, president of IDA, says change is crucial to elevating the public's perception of animals. "I know the importance of language, and how action follows language,"says Katz. "The change in this terminology [indicates] a change in the paradigm—to think of animals differently and think of one's relationship to them differently. It's terribly important because it's a major step in ending a great deal of animal pain and suffering


I can't see anything offensive or dangerous in the preferred word, and am happy to call myself both guardian and companion of three dogs.
I do flinch when casual speciests refer to my dog, or any dog, as it. It galls as it chases its ball or chases the old term/newspeak tail.

The anthropomorphic sins of pet owners that Jon Katz refers to, the indulgences of the pet industry, may indeed be challenged if animals are regarded less as possessions to be mistreated by neglect or indulgence and more as sentient beings to be cared for. And my dogs, in all their manifest non-human otherness and chance association are my companions. They share my space. Doesn't mean I mistake them for humans, or children with fur, or that I have to trade-off any human rights in the process.


Comments: dogs and katz

Just in passing last night I caught a clip from "Bambi". It's where the cute little Indian boy with his cute little bow-and-arrow has the cute little bunny (Thumper?) in his notch-sites, and he's all grown-up serious and just about to shoot, and the little Thumper-bunny is just so cute he outcutes the little Indian boy, who leaves without his prey. His food.
That that is a travesty beyond monstrous is lost now isn't it? While we read of beef cattle skinned alive, and chickens in Abu Ghraib factories, and veal calves and all the other atrocities that contribute to the diverse meats of the family table.
But no shooting cute little bunnies. That's a Morlock's job, down in the dark under the Eloi park. Where the food comes from.
Guardians are precious, and their companions are precious. And they live in a nice landscape that has gone nine degrees too far into the unreal.
Cat lovers who because their companions never bring them more than three or four dead birds insist the impact on songbirds must be minimal. But the studies done say hundreds of millions. And that's actual kills, think of the non-breeding because of no safe place. And the habitat gone. Having a serious argument about the terminology of animal/human relationships seems almost demonic under the circumstances.
Like that image of the cute little Indian boy, refusing to do something that was paramount in importance to young boys for millenia, absolutely healthy and vital to native cultures, and not doing it because of the blinding cuteness of his prey. For all its light, it's a very dark thing.
Posted by Lance Boyle at May 21, 2004 07:33 AM

"Having a serious argument about the terminology of animal/human relationships seems almost demonic under the circumstances"
Totally disagree. Obviously.

I agree with Eliot Katz (at the coalface):
"action follows language"

'Cute' is a word that goes with my idea of the worst excesses of 'ownership', the dark sentimentality that distorts an animal's nature, pampers pets with things. An ideal guardian would keep their cats in at night; an 'owner'(in this sense) might see it as their right to let their cat 'prowl'.

"The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality"


"Boundless compassion for all living things is the surest and most certain guarantee of pure moral conduct. Whoever is filled with it will assuredly injure no one, do harm to no one, encroach on no man’s rights; he will rather have regard for everyone, forgive everyone, help everyone as far as he can, and all his actions will bear the stamp of justice and loving kindness"
Arthur Schopenhauer
Posted by boynton at May 21, 2004 10:21 AM

I should have made that statement less general, I meant moral argument, I enthusiastically support theoretical linguistic arguments of all kinds, on all subjects, at all times.
And now I regret the demonic thing because it means very different things to different people.
-
At some point these loyalties conflict.
Compassion for all living things means you don't get to eat without either some kind of moral code that puts you above your food source, or hypocrisy.
People feel righteous about loving animals while at the same time they drive cars, because they don't see the corpses at the side of the road, because they aren't there. But the ghosts are. The carnage is immense. It's like the slaughterhouse, the way most kids wouldn't eat burgers if they saw the cows getting butchered from start to finish.
I guess what I'm trying for is a hierarchical compassion that doesn't start with people, as they've become, at the top.
I had this same kind of argument with someone about eugenics and the disabled and advocating some kind of filter on the gene pool, and it occurred to me that of course we're already filtering people, we're already eugenically selecting, we're just not doing it around handicaps, in fact we're selecting out the most fit, the natural, the wilderness-dwellers, the jungle guys, the bushmen. It's almost a mirror-reversal of eugenic theory.
Don't misunderstand, but I'm wary of people who are sheltered from the bloody results of their way of life presenting themselves as innocent and gentle. That Disney cartoon just seemed so obvious, I'd just read somebody describing a meeting between a young colonial boy and a native about his own age, in the still relatively untouched woods of northern Georgia. The Indian was talking about being trained from toddler-hood to be stoic and silent, to endure physical discomfort, and to hunt. Then about twenty minutes later here's Thumper on the TV being all cute. Point being the Indian kid in the cartoon didn't get supper. That native from the first part would have not understood the Disney story at all, would have probably seen it as I do, as basically weird and wrong. Because it's a lie and it tricks people by playing on their desire for niceness.
Compassion for animals in most people stops at the highway, which is a river of steel and poison gas, and death to thousands of animals every day. But it's invisible. So it's like it doesn't happen. Because they don't intend it.
I'm speaking from compassion here. But it's for the animals that don't care about us, who don't need us, and who mostly would be better off without us around.
That's harder, I think, that kind of compassion. And it sure is less popular than Bambi.
A few years ago this guy at a state park got arrested for attacking a young black bear that had caught a fawn and was killing it. So this guy jumped in to save the deer. They had to haul him off the bear, which was a yearling cub.
That looks like compassion but I don't think it is, I think it's something else that isn't at all healthy or good.
Posted by Lance Boyle at May 21, 2004 11:44 AM

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

nipper

Have I lost it? I look at this example of a quirky record player and see my dog...

(more...via things)

 
Captain Scott's re-creation of "His Master's Voice" picture during his exploration to the South Pole

(Erik Østergaard - The History of Nipper and His Master's Voice )

spork

I am a spork!

what kitchen utensil are YOU?

(via sarcasmo)

Spork sounds like a utensil for eating Spam.
If I really am "a mismatched hodgepodge of a personality, and as such, utterly useless" I'd rather be a splayd


10. just deserts
11 doesn’t faze me


Fairly Familiar Phrases A list of 50 homophones at Follow Me here.


Comments: spork

what about the splade? They were the last thing in culinary technology somewhere in the seventies. The 'mericans had them so they had to be brilliant.
Posted by David Tiley at May 25, 2004 12:10 AM

erm - yes I love a good splayd. (see link)
Booty of post-war weddings, often never used, and surfacing pristine in op shops for boynton to snap up if she ever gets the chance.
A 'Marvellous' invention, and buffets have never gone out of style round these parts.
Posted by boynton at May 25, 2004 01:15 PM

not spam again

two hours of deleting comments. Occasionally glancing at the bland text in the process...

sprawl, suburban functions whatever.

The so Bruce computer


Best I can do is to put a few straggly bits on a post.
Don't quite have the ticker to try to dress up the spam into something appealing.


Comments: not spam again

93 items of spam?

I think I need to show you how to use MT-Blacklist.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at May 19, 2004 04:11 PM

93!I forgot to count.
I would have used that title for the post!
Got a nice Nescafe-esque ring to it.

Yes instruction in MT-B might be handy.
Posted by boynton at May 19, 2004 04:15 PM

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

lost band

update on the lost ring in park

the sign now says Lost: One Male Wedding Band

which made me think the husband is anxiously searching for this.

Or else!

(image via)

dogs

Tyson the skateboarding bulldog (via the ultimate insult)

Feeling sentimental, I was going to link to this column on A worthy aspiration for most humans: To be like your own dog" ignoring my own reservations about some of the dubious habits of douglas, when I saw that diversionz has covered it well with an excellent fisk.

and while we're running with the cyncial: The Cynic Hall of Fame (via the presurfer)


Comments: dogs

Thanks for the kind review. I just cant see wanting to be like my wife's 2 stupid beagles.
Posted by peat at May 20, 2004 12:33 PM

My dog shares similiar dietary habits, so I'm not too keen to emulate him in that regard.
I don't want to nip the leg of random bystander when overly excited, so don't want to be more like the blue heeler.
And don't want to quiver while watching a plastic football for hours so don't want to be likethe Jack Russell either.

But we all keep forgiving each other. I don't know who started it. ;)
Posted by boynton at May 20, 2004 01:36 PM

nurse links

A vast collection of Nursing images and links at Exclamation Mark

One of many on offer is this Canadian site:
Symbol of a Profession 100 years of Nurses Caps

This link led to more treasures to be explored at the Canadian Musuem of Civilization.
This first group was composed mainly of Rideau Hall staff and the Aberdeen's teenage daughter, Lady Marjorie Gordon. The group performed a boisterous "polska". One of the Vikings lost his helmet and it rolled to Lady Aberdeen's feet The Historical Fancy Dress Ball, Ottawa
Dressing Up Canada. Late Victorian Fancy Dress Balls

Monday, May 17, 2004

spammers har

Which Nigerian spammer are You?
I am Luisa Estrada...
You are the wife of the former President of the Philippines. You wish me to go to Amsterdam to help you collect $30 million which you siphoned off. You enjoy reading, and stealing money from the poor.
(via J walk)


In other quiz newz, in Royal Wedding fever I took this Mary-quiz in Danish, and tried to crack the mysterious questions like :

I hvilke fag har Mary Donaldson en dobbelt bachelor?
Økonomi og sprog


I'm not sure of the resultat af test or even de rigtige svar but I think I may have bØmbed.

(via oschlag via palnatoke)


Comments: spammers har

"in what subject does she has a double bachelor degree?"
Posted by grow-a-brain at May 21, 2004 02:28 PM

Thank you!

I tried to find an on-line translator, so now the mystery is solved.
I hadn't been thinking that kind of bachelor.

Despite signs of cyncism here, we watched a replay of the wedding
and some of us were even seen to shed a tear...
Posted by boynton at May 21, 2004 04:26 PM

beethovens

Portraits of Beethoven (via Plep)

I compared this collection to the Google Images Gallery, and I wasn't disappointed to see the odd thumbnail turning up as expected.

Sunday, May 16, 2004

sixteen rules

The sixteen first rules of fiction

(via as above)


Comments: sixteen rules

That first sentence from the Da Vinci Code reminds me of people who at first meeting tell you things like; " I'm a very sensitive person, you know..." or " I really need my space...".
Maybe 'show don't tell' should be rule #1 in life too. (okay --maybe rule no 1c). But then again rule no 6 ('never take yourself too seriously') is a pretty good one too - and would probably negate the necessity of rule #1c.
Posted by wen at May 19, 2004 10:51 AM

"negate the necessity'"??? ugh.

But you know what I mean.
Posted by Wen at May 19, 2004 10:53 AM

Uh oh. Makes me wonder if I've ever been guilty of blurting out:
"Hi. I never take myself too seriously"
when first introduced to someone...

Think I probably have, but then I always like to experiment with subtext y'know. ;)

Such statements are usually ambit claims?
Posted by boynton at May 19, 2004 02:45 PM

caravan

Theremin Caravan
 
(via space age pop via bifurcated rivets)

miss b's book

I invested $2 at St Vincent's on Friday for the 1930's novel Miss Buncle's Book by D.E Stevenson with half a thought to doing a Pillikin. The plan was thwarted as soon as I got it home and saw that the text was comic and, according to the foreword, provides plenty of smiles and chuckles . Alas, a text has to be perfectly straight to skew. However obsolete, any chuckle will kill the deconstructability.

In the meantime Miss b may be developing a soft spot for the easy chair genre. Which is disturbing.


but also comforting to see from this history of easy chairs, the universal appeal of a large, comfortable, well-upholstered armchair for ease and sumptuous seating ...while sipping a beverage, reading, conversating, resting, sleeping...

(While Miss Buncle would probably choose a Classic Club chair, Miss b might favour a Featherston from the fifties)


Comments: miss b's book

"In the meantime Miss b may be developing a soft spot for the easy chair genre. Which is disturbing."

I read (and enjoyed, damn me) my first Miss Read this year, and I just bought a used _Lark Rise to Candleford_ (http://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/flora/), which isn't on that list but surely should be.
Posted by Eeksy-Peeksy at May 17, 2004 11:22 PM

checking that page
http://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/flora/index.htm

makes me covet your purchase
and I'm thinking of building up an easy chair library myself
as opposed to the high chair (children's classics)
bench (books to read in public)
clerk's chair (dry reading, manuals etc)
dentist's chair (classics)

I hope to read Read, and will look out for Flora Thompson etc.
Posted by boynton at May 18, 2004 12:32 PM

Saturday, May 15, 2004

more on board

Sign seen at the park:

Lost : Man's gold wedding ring.
Wife will kill me if I don't find it...


more fodder for ex husband on board

Friday, May 14, 2004

coloured past

In our mind's eye, much of the past exists in black and white...

Poverty's Palette A striking slideshow of photos of Depression era America - in colour.
(via life in the present)

If colour helps to break the black and white otherness of the past, this article against Nostalgia is also confronting for a retrophile. It includes this quote from Dennis Potter:

Nostalgia is a second-order emotion. A nostalgiac looks at the past and keeps it there - 'Oh those dear dead days.' Which is what is dangerous about nostalgia. And what makes it a very English disease. I use the immediate past to intrude upon the present. If you don't have an alert awareness of the past, then what you're actually doing is being complicit with the orthodoxy of the present - totally."

(via follow me here)


Comments: coloured past

I'm nostalgic for the days when people left nostalgia alone. It's my favorite disease.
Posted by Mark at May 14, 2004 08:50 PM

Excellent photos.
Have you seen the Prokudin-Gorskii colour photos from Tsarist Russia?
Posted by James Russell at May 14, 2004 09:32 PM

Yes I did. Rather grand.
Same effect of challenging the B&W sense of 'history.
There was a slight sense there though of "colourisation" diminishing/filtering the veracity?
Posted by boynton at May 15, 2004 06:50 PM

- and Mark, I forgot to reply, but yes it's definitely one of my favourite diseases too.
Posted by boynton at May 16, 2004 10:27 AM

Thursday, May 13, 2004

like list

the other night late night surfing, I stumbled across a semi-meme of sorts occurring within a distant literary community (that I'm probably not part of, but the spirit of which makes me want to hook my poor audacious webbed wagon to its star)

Against the gloom: What can we do today to provoke a smile, a wink, a hug, a kiss, some sort of heartfelt exchange?

I found this here via Okir and through a subsequent link trail.
(The Blogspot posts all occur around May 6th to 8th)
 

because I like the positive
even as a gesture
like singing old hymns by heart

I like this time of the year
and then having to settle on crisp as a tag for autumn
when spring reigns in the blogosphere
I like our stamp- the seasons as a last stand of regionalism

I like the smell of lemon scented gums
and finding a random gumtree in the googlepile
and seeking the place from where the link was stripped

I like maps (via)

I like the pure purple of cadbury's
and I like that dogs can smell of chocolate (via)

And I like the company of dogs
as my old dog dozes away
I like a dog's accumulated days
as his eyes lose that pose
his wag is still as keen as ever

like Elvis I like The Beatles and fellow beatle fans

and I like this medium that sometimes makes you link

as a back-up to an inkling or a conspiracy of kindreds

the sudden serendipitous trip

I like the way spam can go glam with a bit of imagination

I like thrift shop voices and the possible metaphor of web as thrift store
of random encounters with ephemera and the profound in a pound store
or opportunity shop to use the proper local vernacular
I like the joy of collecting and the why of it

I like a glass of champagne
and the very thought of
a big wine bottle in the real world (via)

I like a comment or two

and I like I like and the hunters and curators

and the thousand and one tacit endorsments of the wondercabinet in any world wide week


Comments: like list

Nicely done. Poor audacious webbed wagon indeed!
Posted by fredf at May 13, 2004 07:50 PM

well, i just like this post.
Posted by Gianna at May 13, 2004 08:49 PM

Cheers, Fred. I like everything at Fragments, of course. But your photo of Tsuga - in the summer of his life, and doug approaching winter - seemed to be like polar labrador bookends ;)

merci b, G.
Posted by boynton at May 14, 2004 01:20 PM


 

date space

Boy Dates Girl: Dating tips from 1955

What can you do if your date's family clutters up the living room and you haven't enough money to take her out somewhere?

Grin and bear it and hope that your date's head works as well as her dimples! Almost any home has a date space, if somebody will find-it and fix-it. An unused basement or attic room can be transformed with a paint brush, needle and thread, and inexpensive materials. The dining room may not be exactly cozy, but a vic or radio can warm up the atmosphere considerably. And what's wrong with the kitchen? Cookie and fudge making aren't exciting, but they're better pastimes than spending the evening with the family! It's a girl's responsibility to make her home "dateable" and any girl who shrugs off this responsibility is missing a sure road to popularity.


Lisa's Nostalgia Cafe via things


Comments: date space

What about the cellar, boynton? You can tipple if the family wont give you date-space and the boyfriend's too cryptic.
Posted by Nora at May 13, 2004 05:30 PM

and what about the bathroom? the shower would be as good a place as any to get to know each other.
Posted by Gianna at May 13, 2004 08:47 PM

Not all of us are in a hurry, Gianna!
Posted by Scott Wickstein at May 13, 2004 11:28 PM

yes Nora, no cross words in the cellar...

Of course, G, the shower sounds most dateable

And what's wrong with the bath? A slower and cozy pastime.
Posted by boynton at May 14, 2004 01:31 PM

Count me in as a cellar-dweller.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at May 14, 2004 05:19 PM

common verbs

Barista links to a story about a French author who has written a book with no verbs.

An author attempting the same feat in English might have to avoid using these names for characters.
Common or Famous First Names That Are Verbs (via bifurcated rivets)

(although if you throw in a Roger, Hope and a Sue you've already got the basis of pretty good pot-boiler.)

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

hiatus r us

I had thought this would be the best.hiatus.ever notice (as noted here)
but I think this one is pretty good.

(Shame that it signals A separation, aperture, fissure, or short passage in an organ or body part for The Eyes Have It)

fords

"Fords to the left, Fords to the right, But Ford's never tell, what they see every night..."
Up and Down The 8 Mile Road

"We won't go far—just down the boulevard--"
Come Take A Trip in My Automobile

America on the Move Music and Mobility Cars! Cars! Cars!

(via Jerz's Literacy Weblog)

words

word association (via diversionz)

I am

Monday, May 10, 2004

drums

Acoustics researchers at IRC have completed a comprehensive survey of the nature of the disturbance caused by air conditioner noise. The researchers found that annoyance was highest among neighbours who lived in quiet neighbourhoods and who did not own air conditioners themselves...

However it was the noise level relative to the ambient background noise that caused neighbours to complain about being disturbed. Specifically, when the air conditioner noise level was at least 5 decibels (dB) above the ambient background noise, complaints increased significantly.
(source)

In this quiet neighbourhood, the ambient noise is only disturbed by bouts of nocturnal winter ping pong and summer monster air con. But just down the road I did hear a house almost exploding with the boom tish of drumming teenager as I walked past with the blue heeler who usually throws in a few bars of barks at least 5 dB over the ambient noise level. We should all go virtual.

Ken's Virtual Drumkit (via Unity of Multi)


Comments: drums

OMG LOL, that might be us!
We have a house with no air conditioner but a monster unit next door. We have a drum kit set up in my daughter's room which is at the front, but we have a "not before 10 AM or after 8 PM" rule. And our house borders on a large dog walking park, too.
Cruickshank Park...?
Posted by Helen at May 16, 2004 11:03 AM

Alas - nowhere so Kool as Yville, Helen.
(I wish.)
This is a small pocket of sleepy x-ville ...OMG boroondara OMG...which is why I'm turnin' all middle-suburban and notcing these ambient intrusions.
Perhaps it's time I headed back to the inner city where a drumkit would never be noticed above the sirens, and where a monster air conditioner two doors down was a striking piece of contemporary urban sculpture.
I think your house rules re drumming are very civilised btw.

throw the ball

takes me back to drama school...
Throw the Ball (via Exclamation Mark)

old fords

A 64 Ford party
1963 and 1964 Ford Brochures

67 Interior
1967 Ford brochure


The Old Car Manual Project
(via J Walk)

Sunday, May 09, 2004

ping pong party

so there we all were playing ping pong under the fluoro in the carport late into the night
suburban moonlight

Even though it seemed a suitably retro activity - perhaps it wasn't quite retro enough? Reading this article on the sonics almost prompts me to swap the foam for the old fashioned paddle.
In the old days, rallies would be 30 or 40 strokes. There was a dialogue between two players that even a child could understand." The beautiful sound of"kerplock-plock, kerplock-plock" was reduced, according to table tennis writer Howard Jacobson, to "squelch-plock, squelch-plock...

Mastering the neurophysiological skills of a sport is not just learning the game. It’s attuning yourself to the inner life of the sport, to the poetry in motion. A player masters the game the way a thief opens a safe: ear to the combination lock, breaking into the inner chambers through the subtleties. Players become part of a community that knows what it feels like when the shot is hit right.
Chop slam The Inner life of Ping Pong


Of course I have to work on the outer life of Ping Pong too.


In this lesson, you should try to hit with your partner 100 times without miss on both the right- and left-hand sides...
Say out loud, "ping", when the ball bounces on your side of
the table and "pong" when it touches your paddle
Jump when the ball bounce on your side of the table

Lesson Seven
HOW TO SERVE A CHOPPED BALL
When your serve is carrying your game, you are on a win streak.
Paddy-caking rallies, however intense and arobatic they may
appear, are for the birds. The serves become the nails for the coffin.
Conversely, good returning of serve can stop the bleeding.

From How to Play Ping Pong

Friday, May 07, 2004

uncooked

Although half tempted, I managed to avoid using this phrase in the previous post...
And this. And that.


Comments: uncooked

At least you didn't go off half cooked.. err, you know what I mean!
Posted by Scott Wickstein at May 7, 2004 08:18 PM

cook's cottages

All over historic North Yorkshire and Cleveland, from Middlesbrough to Great Ayton; Redcar to Marske; and Staithes to Whitby; there are places with Cook connections to visit and explore. This area is known as Captain Cook Country
Captain James Cook Celebrated North Country Navigator

(via Plep)

This cottage in Great Ayton looks familiar, and it is interesting for a Melburnian to see Cook's Father's House aka Cook's Cottage in context.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of Cooks' Cottage, the home of Captain James Cook's parents, being shipped from England and rebuilt in Melbourne...
Despite initial claims of a close link to Captain Cook himself, it is not certain whether the pioneer navigator ever stayed in the cottage.
The Age


Comments: cook's cottages


We have always had a 'thing' about Cook in my family. I have regularly derided a so-called explorer who could sail past the heads of Sydney Harbour and not go in. They are super impressive from off the coast, what was he thinking? Still, he had just had to make a toilet stop for the kids in Botany Bay, maybe he was just trying to get some kilometres done before it got too dark... I don't know.

Other than that, his major defect was the amount of imagination he put into naming things. Whitsunday Passage because he sailed through on Whitsunday, Thursday Island, discovered on a Thursday, New South Wales because it looked like South Wales, etc. Please - these things create lasting impressions, for goodness sake! We refer to such names as "Cookism's" and look out for them everywhere. Our hypothetical worst case Cookism (as yet unseen) would be to name a lovely flowing stream 'Wet Creek'. You sure don't need to drive too far in the outback to find a 'Dry Creek' but the converse has yet to show up.
Posted by phlip at May 7, 2004 03:58 PM

have a captain cook here...
http://www.belltrees.com/landsales.html
Posted by boynton at May 10, 2004 12:55 PM

Thursday, May 06, 2004

poem hunter

PoemHunter.com Poetry Search Engine (via bifurctaed rivets)

The news headlines section is a good resource. In the current crop, it's interesting to see 8.12pm Australian up for literary prize

wonder what 8.13 pm brings?

names

boynton is a very rare female name.
Very few females in the US are named boynton.
Be proud of your unique name!
source namestatistics.com


...and I imagine there are even fewer females named boynton in Australia...

(as for my real names, first and last, I would have to be proud of my uniqueness in the US apparently. But my middle name sits at #86)

(via J walk)


Comments: names

Sorry - a friend has alerted me to the fact that I tell a lie.
My first name IS a unique name for Males in the US.
But not so unique for us females apparently - and sits at #37 - even more common than my middle name.
Who knew?...
I was distracted.
Posted by boynton at May 6, 2004 10:10 PM

I spy with my little limpid pool peeper, a name listed at Number 11.

http://www.ozracing.net.au/cgi-bin/rsb/public/form_format.cgi/0805M_V_.FRM+3

Resplendent in:- BLUE, OLD ROSE CROSSED SASHES, SILVER SLEEVES, BLUE AND SILVER QUARTERED CAP, OLD ROSE BOW

Female hoop atop.

What could it all mean?

As ein Stein once cryptically said: "An omen, is an omen is a no man is an island except after 'c' which has 28 days except in the leap year of the dog that got the cream that lived in the house that Jack built."

Simple '99', when you look at it that way.

A sovereign and a half each way if you don't mind, my good turf accountant.
Posted by Sedgwick at May 7, 2004 03:57 PM

Just been informed by the better 3/4s that we shall be gracing MVRC tomorrow on account her deciding to use a dining package freebie she obtained by being part of a MVRC survey. (Errrr, you need a survey to find out if hiking the price of Cox Plate entry to $50 had anything to do with the smallest crowd for a decade?!)

Anyhow, we shall cast critical eyes over the aforementioned No. 11. (a) Before the race to see whether an investment of Kerry Packer proportions would be justified. (b) After the race (if said investment comes unstuck) with an eye to broadening Doug's dietary intake.
Posted by Sedgwick at May 7, 2004 05:20 PM

OMG - 'What a thrill!!!'

What could it all mean? A wager on myself?


Posted by boynton at May 7, 2004 08:11 PM

She rarely has a tip y'know.
Posted by Tony.T at May 7, 2004 08:13 PM

This is getting sillier! (And all true.) She has been informed this evening that she was the winning contestant in the competition to suggest a new name for the MVRC members' news magazine.


Thus, on Cox Plate day 2004 the Vice Regal couple will be looking down on the hoi polloi in between knocking back plate after plate of complimentary truffle-larded lobster humidor nestled on a bed of taylor made honey-glazed broad beans and glass upon glass free Moet et Morwell from a complimentary dining box overlooking the finishing post. How to invest the $10,000 complimentary betting money? (Sorry, that was the mandatory untrue bit.)

(However, being Fawlty MVRC Towers, we could end up with now't more than powdered egg over our faces and a cold cup of Uncle Tone's herbal tea spilled on our laps by Narelle Smiggins the work experience table-top dancer.)
Posted by Sedgwick at May 7, 2004 08:55 PM

Many large parcels of bit-sized nourishment headed in Doug's direction on the morrow.

The horse-racing patois is I believe, "ran an inglorious last".
Posted by Sedgwick at May 8, 2004 06:08 PM

Yes...

I was too busy too get to the TAB. Luckily.

But I did tune in time to to hear the words:

"...And last of all was Boynton"
Posted by boynton at May 9, 2004 07:38 PM

Ne'er
despair.
Dylan
willin'...

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
Posted by Sedgwick at May 9, 2004 10:38 PM

Where have all the donkeys gone?
(Gawn to douglas every one...)

But in the spirit of Seabiscuit I hope Dylan is indeed prophetic, and I shall be keeping an eye on the form of Boynton.

(btw - congrats to Mrs. S for the win and may the Cox Plate deliver the Moet to the Vice Regals.)
Posted by boynton at May 10, 2004 12:29 AM

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

ask dog lady

To bump up the waning canine quotient on boynton: Ask Dog Lady ...lighthearted advice – and wisdom – with a serious nip if neccssary - on dogs, life and love
(via fishbucket)

and via the favourite sites page, a link to Valentine's Dog by Lynda Barry

random pics

Let the fun begin... says this Random Personal Picture Finder (via Twists and Turns)

I've always found a standard Google Image search to be both fairly random and fun. You can almost rely on at least one of the 20 thumbnails being the odd man out

So often there is a plant hiding among the poets, or even a saco de torro somehow finding its way into a Thomas Hardy collage (These are real leather. They are made from big herd sires. The bulls don't give these up easy)


Comments: random pics

Odd men out?

Back recently from a trip to the Horn of Africa, I was looking for images of the crazy Marabou Storks found there.

The image search returned images falling into three distinct categories:
* women in fluffy lingerie;
* fishing flies; and
* the storks themselves.

The combination of lures, sexy nightwear and storks seemed a little uncanny, as though the Googleverse was trying to send me a message or something...?
Posted by talis at May 6, 2004 02:00 PM

"Lingerie" (or the genre) may be the "S" or "E" of the tiles in the Goggle-Images Scrabble Box?

Though it's the "Q"s like lures that make the mix exciting.

Trying to find the x link is rather diverting...All I can say is it's a good 'game'...

(Still struggling with the Hardy/Saco connection though)
Posted by boynton at May 6, 2004 02:56 PM

slogan

This recent search from the referrer logs might just be my new description

Monday, May 03, 2004

retro tv

TV Will Change your Life Australian House and Garden, September 1956

It's going to have quite a big impact on our living.... It could mean actual room change-overs.

however:
Those who prophecy a decline in culture could be wrong

This is from the Social Aspects section from a fabulous site:
Domestic TV Sets in Australia The Valve Era, 1956~1970


Comments: retro TV

"It could mean actual room change-overs" -

you mean someone actually prophesied the dullest manifestation of reality tv? -- shoulda pulled the plug then.
Posted by wen at May 3, 2004 08:25 PM

oz radio

an idle search for Pan led to The Peter Pan radio
This is yet another bizarre offering from Melbourne, a very modern creation

from the wonderful Oz Radio Australian Bakelite Radios

See also the Healing range
What the hell was going on in Melbourne in the 1940's and 50's?

Saturday, May 01, 2004

found qotd

Pan pan situations may develop into Mayday situations

(there is always a found quote of the day glinting in the googlepile)


Comments: found qotd

Happy Birthday To Me!
Posted by Nora at May 1, 2004 04:40 PM

http://fly.wabyn.net/FlightTraining/PSTAR/3Qs.htm#3.18
Posted by boynton at May 1, 2004 04:51 PM

A Joke never gains an enemy but often loses a friend...
Posted by Rod Kratochwill at May 6, 2004 05:51 AM

Hope I haven't lost any...
(or I might have to find some more)

A good joke is hard to find. ;)
Posted by boynton at May 6, 2004 03:15 PM

prune pipe

Prune pipe from Classic Pipe Shape Chart

(via Incoming Signals)


Comments: prune pipe

Fancy m'self as a very cavalier pipe type. Indeed most fancy.
Posted by Sedgwick at May 1, 2004 03:59 PM

Lovat
Posted by boynton at May 1, 2004 04:16 PM

mayday

the tail of doug brushed the light that fell on the table knocking over the small alarm clock that suddenly started playing a tune maybe the william tell overture or mission impossible but it may as well have been the first of may by the bee gees in full tilt midi because I had managed to catch a few stray bars of that song in the small hours as the radio imaginatively welcomed in may.

Meanwhile Come and hear Miss Hotson...
from Mayday Pictures at Melbourne's Mayday


Comments: mayday

A mayday present?
Posted by nora at May 6, 2004 04:34 PM

lizzie lines



lines from a late night lizzie borden verse box session (via quiddity)

if the parameters start to get a bit bleak, there's always Dog Lover to restore order.