RECENT COMMENTS

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Elektronik

Elektronik ingenieur


Philips Electronic Experiment Kits in the various forms of the EE-series

(via the Cartoonist)


Comments: elektronik

Science! Technology! Your Friend Electricity!

I remember mucking around with these kits as a tweenie.

Not the Philips ones though. T'was some Brit outfit like Branners? - vaguely connected with Meccano in some way as I half remember.

Anyway the big breakthrough was discovering how to deliver mild electric shocks to an unsuspecting sibling. "Just hold this for a second, thanks."
Posted by Nabakov at September 1, 2004 02:25 AM

A qualifier. "unsuspecting" at first.It got quite Pavlovian after a while.
Posted by Nabakov at September 1, 2004 02:28 AM

I think I was the unsuspecting younger sib in our family. My brother had an Electronics kit - but it was the chemical set that was to be feared.
I preferred the milder sport of engineering crashes on his train set.
Posted by boynton at September 2, 2004 12:53 PM

labradorsky

Labradorský retrívr

from Vintage Dog Postcards (via life in the present)

It's been a lean month here for dog blogging. Who knows - this may be a good thing.


Comments: labradorsky

90 year old retriver (retrivr) and as sweet as ever (smile)
Posted by Jozef at August 31, 2004 08:26 PM

One gulp, they could do it in one gulp...
Posted by David Tiley at September 1, 2004 02:25 AM

yes, (my dog)Napoleon feels that a dog related post every once in awhile, keeps the balance right...
Posted by michelle at September 1, 2004 09:42 AM

yes, (my dog)Napoleon feels that a dog related post every once in awhile, keeps the balance right...
Posted by michelle at September 1, 2004 09:42 AM

Jozef - My old Labradorsky is even older, and sweeter ;)
Butter wouldn't melt in the mouth, David.
although I think there's a 'all for one' brotherhood look about that trio.
Napoleon is well balanced, Michelle.
(and thanks for all the great links)
Posted by boynton at September 2, 2004 01:02 PM

Monday, August 30, 2004

moon stroke

And googling Davies' Moonrise led me to this 1999 Poetry Kit interview with poet Coral Hull...

My mother mostly despised Beethoven and especially his fifth symphony, which I held as the essence of life. She also refused to visit art galleries with me when I was an adolescent, complaining to other relatives that I would stare at one painting for twenty minutes. I remember doing this with ‘Moonrise’ by David Davies. I went somewhere else through his work, although I don’t know how long I was away


A more recent interview: David Prater in Converstaion with Coral Hull

And in one of those moments of found synchronicity I read her prose poem
Pop’s stroke shortly after reading another: Mal at Dick Jones' Patteran Pages...

Strange word, ‘stroke’ - a gentle sleep
and then you wake up,
changed



Comments: moon stroke

I found some blogs I very much like on your roll. One, (can't remember which) has a Moon phase logo (advertising the moon?) which I liked so grabbed. Umm, I wonder where the word 'stroke' comes from?
Posted by Link at August 30, 2004 09:47 PM

I can't recall the blog either...but it looks good on yours.
There are some great blogs over there, and out there. I keep finding new ones - which is heartening and a bit scary at the same time.
One day soon the who world and her dog will have a blog.
Posted by boynton at August 31, 2004 01:43 PM

err - that is, the WHOLE world (and her dog)

Didn't correct this typo because I think the 'WHO' world may be closer to the mark.
Posted by boynton at August 31, 2004 02:24 PM

Update: Blog with moon phases is OKIR - of course.
And whose original Moon post has been tagged and tracked.
Posted by boynton at September 3, 2004 05:34 PM

moon web

wanted to wax lyrical about the moon on Friday night having been struck by the perfect beauty of a moonrise somewhere between Davies and Long that makes you want to dance or kick a football or find paintings that match.

Then I read Okir and thought of the web and the moon. The Globe.
And today read more at fait accompli, these reflexive connections.

And another moon story at Fragments - from Floyd. Milky Moonlight


Comments: moon web

it's the blue moon tonight... unfortunately the lympics are over, so it won't turn gold for the headline writers
Posted by nardo at August 30, 2004 03:19 PM

"And then there suddenly appeared before me..."
coodabeen a headline

Alas, the sky was cloudy last night. Missed it
Posted by boynton at August 31, 2004 01:36 PM

and pelty with rain to boot. We are doomed to astronomical disappointments. Remember Halley's wretched excuse for a comet, even though the light was literally unearthly?
Posted by David Tiley at September 1, 2004 02:27 AM

Sunday, August 29, 2004

paddle




Comments: paddle

When's she going to take a nap?
Posted by Tony.T at August 29, 2004 06:51 PM

when the drowning racket settles down
Posted by boynton at August 29, 2004 07:00 PM

shake

Serve chilled with Celery stick

A blogger's beverage. Bottoms up.

(via bifurcated rivets)


Comments: shake

Add an eggcup or two of vodka and you've got a spamshot.
Posted by Nabakov at September 1, 2004 10:41 PM

Saturday, August 28, 2004

verses

There is no season such delight can bring,
As summer, autumn, winter, and the spring

William Browne, in "Variety

Oxymoronic Verse
(via J walk)

The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form
(via bifurctaed rivets)

Higgeldy-Piggeldy verse collection
(via fishbucket)

sockless

I don't know if it's the sudden socklessness, the unlucky magpies on the verge, petals on the footpath, flowers in the air or the reacquaintance with a long lost hat, but spring seems to be here. Or a harbinger.
All I know is I was reading the paper in the sun and had to move. To that thing suddenly called shade.

Thursday, August 26, 2004

warm august night

Just heard in a distant room that it was a record overnight temperature last night, but didn't catch the exact figure.

Checking into the Bureau I see this month's feature

Find out what the weather was like yesterday....

Who knows. These days my forecasts may well be more accurate than my hindsights.


Comments: warm august night

What was it like yesterday?
Posted by Nora at August 26, 2004 10:37 PM

or: What will it be like yesterday?

It was a lovely day tomorrow.
Posted by boynton at August 27, 2004 10:09 AM

Apparently in Queensland, there are no Tropical Cyclone Related Warnings.

Also apparent, F goes before both N and P.
Posted by Tony.T at August 27, 2004 01:37 PM

always better alpahabetically to be placed within PR.

btw: T is a long way down the roll.


and yes - no current warnings.
or yesterday: warnings current no.
Posted by boynton at August 27, 2004 04:04 PM

weather update.

No cyclone warnings for FNQ

on the local front FNP will remain unsettled ;)
Posted by boynton at August 28, 2004 12:33 PM

oi oi oi

Australia didn't medal in the Art.

Art Competitions, Alpinism and Aeronautics - Medals Won by Countries (1912 - 1948)
Pl. Nation Abbr. 1st 2nd 3rd Totals

1. Germany GER 8 7 9 24
2. Italy ITA 5 7 2 14
3. France FRA 5 4 5 14
4. Great Britain GBR 4 5 1 10
5. United States USA 4 5 0 9
6. Switzerland SUI 4 4 1 9
7. Austria AUT 3 3 3 9
8. Denmark DEN 0 5 4 9
9. Poland POL 3 2 3 8
10. Belgium BEL 2 1 5 8


See also Artists and the Olympic Games (via a Media Dragon)

When Arts were on the Podium


Comments: oi oi oi

"Alpism" a dificult art form for us australians
Posted by Andy F at August 26, 2004 11:00 PM

and yet we're so close to austrians.
Just an al away.
Posted by boynton at August 27, 2004 10:12 AM

grip

The games are starting to grip everyone’s imagination
 

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

false positive

"People in a negative mood provide more accurate eyewitness accounts than people in a positive mood state, according to new research. "
(via Barista)

'(The researchers) found that women and men with asymmetrical extremities – ears, fingers or feet of different sizes or shapes – were more likely to react aggressively when annoyed or provoked'
Check ears before you pick a fight via diversionz

On such a spring like day, so many degrees above average, I can't say I could postively identify any asymmetrical strangers who may have crossed my path.


Comments: false positive

I have no ear lobes & anybody who laughs gets their fucking face busted...
Posted by Dick Jones at August 26, 2004 05:43 AM

not LOL ;)
Posted by boynton at August 26, 2004 02:06 PM

o lympic

Robert Frost has been disqualified in the Pretentiousness 400 Meter Individual Medley after it was discovered he had been taking knowledge cavalierly when recent testing for illogical substances came up positive.

Grapez Out of the running


Obscure sport that is ignored until your country wins a medal
Olympukes a font of 52 pictograms
(via the ultimate insult)

The word "mascot" goes back to 1867 and is derived from the provincial French "mascoto" (1850), derived from masco - magician, witch - which comes from old provençal "masco" (1396) of pre-Roman origin
A timeline of Olympic mascots

staging shakespeare

Vitamin Q Twelve hard things about staging Shakespeare
Gloucester loses his eyes in ‘King Lear’
An old man is blinded on the order of his bastard son. The eyes are usually small condoms full of water


(News to me. I've only ever seen the lychee version. A friend once gave us a sneak preview over lunch. The lychees were very convincing.)

Eeksy Peeksy The Merry Conceited Humours of Bottom the Weaver

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

old ring

Unlike my nice cordless digital phone with its pleasing cadence, this Wesson Electric rotary has the sort of ring usually reserved for fire drills or warnings of invading armies. It shocks my cats into bolting under the bed. And when I pick up, a different sort of screech greets me. "You've been impossible to get ahold of," says my mother. "I don't like this experiment." Tech 54 Where are you?



A wired writer goes retro for 10 days, and contends with no remotes and rotary dial phones. (via Exclamation Mark)

I have a collection of 5 rotary phones. None of them works. But I miss the ring. However the fire-drill cadence of the door bell makes up for it. We also have a new small cooking timer shaped like a Hobbs kettle. It mimics the doorbell. I'm often rushing off to answer the kettle these days.


and a futuristic glance from 1961:

Will Life be Worth Living in 2,000 AD?
You may eat: Tablets, dried and processed food
You may drive: A hovercraft and a helicopter



Comments: old ring

Strange but true (and here I see my future).

Radio (probably a casein cased Kreisler) sat on shelf atop sink. Despite vigorous turning of the volume dial, nary a drop of water to quench the expectant parched kettle in mother in law's hand.
Posted by Sedgwick at August 24, 2004 03:27 PM

At least the washer held out on the Radio.
Otherwise there'd be a slow drip of Parliament,
or a torrent of talkback.

That's a great image, and rather inspiring.
I'd like to place such dials around the house.
Posted by boynton at August 24, 2004 03:56 PM

One of the few regrets in my life is hippin' my Mum to email. It just multiplied her options for asking me if I'm eating well. And getting in a tizzy when I don't email back IMMEDIATELTY!

An actual online dialogue.

(Mother in wary technophobe mode): "Are you there. Is this working?"

(Me in sarky mode): "No Mum, I didn't get this email."

(Mother rising to the challenge) "So should I send it again - or are you just going to answer this one you didn't get."

You can't outsmart a mum. They know where the nappies are buried.
Posted by Nabakov at August 24, 2004 08:38 PM

I'd run with "I didn't get this email" for as long as possible. Like a toddler, if I had to.

How about if mums n dads n kidz n aunts discover
Did they read it? - which I read about on J walk.
Very Scary product and site.
http://www.didtheyreadit.com/
Posted by boynton at August 25, 2004 12:28 PM

ogle




Update on the TV viewing choice of Sunday night.
If only a bare-chested Mr Darcy could play whiff whaff at Olympic level.


Comments: ogle

And if only a b... Elizabeth ...

(All in the interests of equal rights.)


Posted by Sedgwick at August 24, 2004 02:50 PM

Shutup and watch the B Volley Ball, Sedge ;)

Then again, it may well be a way to spice up the sport. "Squash" tried the same thing a while ago, didn't it?. But then, "squash" is well named for such experiments...
Posted by boynton at August 24, 2004 03:24 PM

Whiff whaff with lashings of bennetian bustle for me.
Posted by Sedgwick at August 24, 2004 03:33 PM

I recall Shakepseare playing at Wimbledon,
http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/001284.html
and I think that 'Round the (Regency House) Table' could possibly be an Exhibition sport at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Marvellous Melbourne.

Alternatively at least one of the endless dance sequences in P&P XXVIII could certainly be replaced with a round of Whiff Whaff, without the whole suffering too greatly. imho.
Posted by boynton at August 24, 2004 04:25 PM

If yer like a bit of historical cheesecake, check out Hillary Swank in "The Affair Of The Necklace." Sexiest sneer since Elvis.

Kit Walken's not bad either as Caligostro if yer that way inclined.

Unfortunately, despite Swank, Walken and Pryce's game efforts, the flick itself is more paste than diamond.
Posted by Nabakov at August 24, 2004 08:46 PM

"Alternatively at least one of the endless dance sequences in P&P XXVIII could certainly be replaced with a round of Whiff Whaff, without the whole suffering too greatly. imho."

Richard Curtis was onto it with the second of his studies of cold-climate love and mating habits, "Four Weddings, A Funeral and Several Ho-hum Fcuks."

"Love is like Ping Pong, except with smaller balls."
Posted by Nabakov at August 24, 2004 08:52 PM

I....love....him
Posted by mcb at August 25, 2004 08:07 AM

May check out Kit in historical kit, but meanwhile
that's gotta be the Ping Pong QOTD.

Yep - no dots about it, mcb.
Tenth time round, he's still looking good.
Posted by boynton at August 25, 2004 12:34 PM

what - only ten?!
I'm disappointed, B.
Posted by wen at August 26, 2004 03:24 PM

Scary thing is, wen -
I have the whole series taped. (natch)

And I still wait for next week's episode. In Anticipation.
It's that old thrill of the serial format.
Posted by boynton at August 26, 2004 08:37 PM

Sunday, August 22, 2004

p and p

Tough choice on the TV tonight.
Olympic Ping Pong on SBS or the games of the 28th Pride and Prejudice on ABC.
Think P&P might just win out over the PP.
But then Miss Boynton could always venture out into the carport for a hit herself, if she can muster up a partner.
Things have been a bit quiet on the whiff whaff front since the Regiment decamped.


Comments: P and P

Won't be watching P&P meself, I wouldn't want to risk missing one gripping minute of the last 3495 hours of the disco beach volley ball.
Posted by Sedgwick at August 22, 2004 08:02 PM

i HATE Beach volley Ball with a Prejudice.
But then I guess I'm not the target audience.

When Ch7 delayed Roy and HG for this silly beach pastime, they lost the plot.Again.

More Darcy Watch for me.
Posted by boynton at August 22, 2004 08:08 PM

There's a target audience?!?!

(Pulls himself up to his maximum H.G. decibels and shouts ... TRAVESTY!!!!!!)

It IS a nonsense ... and not a very good nonsense at that.

Bring back rounders! In bathing costumes ... with modesty panels.
Posted by Sedgwick at August 22, 2004 08:34 PM

Pride & Prejudice was a definite for me, poor Jamin-kun went upstairs to bed because he couldnt handle the excitement I displayed at seeing Mr. Darcy.

Oh my!
Posted by Crayon at August 23, 2004 03:37 PM

The Men's Final was a real batbiter.
Posted by Nabakov at August 24, 2004 12:21 AM

the women's beach volleyball is evidence of all that's wrong with today's society... a greedy obsession for everything bared, when the shorts and knee-high socks of traditional volleyball e.g. russia vs cuba is infinitely better pervin... (incidentally, russia started ill-omened, with a player called gamova, and were never going to win)
Posted by nardo at August 24, 2004 12:50 PM

Yes, Crayon, and it was that vintage episode that sent all the hearts a flutter where Darcy takes a plunge. A Regency Triathalon. Equestrian, Swimming and Brooding.

So I missed the Men's Final.

And Sedge and Nardo - I endorse your sentiments entirely. Sporting attire should be more cumbersome. Pervin should be strictly heritage.
An edwardian flash of ankle or knee.
Posted by boynton at August 24, 2004 02:28 PM

toogle

I tested Toogle The most comprehensive image buggery on the web
(via Grow a Brain)

Apparently Miss Boynton looks like Ringo.

Alternatively boynton looks like this

A labrador unfurled slolwy but was worth it.


Comments: toogle

Just so you know
A Toogle for "star" returns this:
http://c6.org/toogle/index.php?phrase=star
Whereas a Toogle for "aus" gives us this dickensian character:
http://c6.org/toogle/index.php?phrase=aus
Posted by Lance Boyle at August 23, 2004 06:47 AM

Galaxy and Heaven R not US

Southern Cross is in order

but Aussie is very disturbing
http://c6.org/toogle/index.php?phrase=aussie
Posted by boynton at August 23, 2004 12:31 PM

http://c6.org/toogle/index.php?phrase=Toogle
Posted by Nabakov at August 24, 2004 12:19 AM

toogle's timing out today...
Posted by boynton at August 24, 2004 05:20 PM

Toogle's back...

http://c6.org/toogle/index.php?phrase=rorschach
Posted by boynton at August 24, 2004 07:10 PM

Saturday, August 21, 2004

rotary browser

Rotary dial browser. Now you're talking.

(via diversionz)


Comments: rotary browser

http://www.b3ta.com/challenge/victorian/

"You have a popup box, sir."
Posted by Nabakov at August 24, 2004 12:28 AM

I want one now.
Posted by Dick Jones at August 24, 2004 08:01 AM

Friday, August 20, 2004

boyo loophole

I was half tempted to learn Welsh having read in The Age of the new regulations for UK citzenship
British mockery of the Australian accent and vernacular has boiled over into outright hostility with new regulations demanding that Australians submit to English language tests before taking out British citizenship.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has decreed that applications for a British passport must be supported by certificates of proficiency in English, supplied by designated English teachers


An unnamed Australian writer with two degrees has failed.
I wouldn't like boynton to get the third degree in language proficiency, so would be tempted to opt for the welsh loophole myself.

Applicants who speak English have to demonstrate their proficiency, but those who claim to speak the notoriously treacherous and consonant-laden Welsh language, or the indigenous Scottish Gaelic, are exempt from testing


A Welsh accent might be just as challenging to fake as dinkum Aussie. The original Guardian article on this story, Pommie lingo test is unfair dinkum, mate claims that we still speak old strine:
They may describe women as "sheilas" and use "bastard" as a term of endearment but, apart from pedants, few suggest Australians cannot speak English.

Sadly, few of my cobbers ever use the word sheila now, the bastards.



Comments: boyo loophole

A propos "sheila". One of my chinas in travelling the same cockney road that leads us to china, uses the term "potato". (In unguarded moments, "spud".)

He also doesn't think there hasn't been a *real* poet since C.J. Dennis popped his quills.
Posted by Sedgwick at August 20, 2004 04:07 PM

The mind boggled but I googled and was glad to see that Potato is polite.

I wanted to add the disclaimer: I sincerely lament the passing of old strine and 'sentimental bloke' speak. Especially given the global net-speak that has replaced it. I wish there was a way of reviving old slang, and protecting the last stands from imports.
Posted by boynton at August 20, 2004 04:18 PM

Yo sista!

Gorstrooth! I think we well-meaning crypto-slango-troglo-dytes should appropriate the Eureka flag and make one last glorious stand.

(And make Lenny Lower compulsory reading.)
Posted by Sedgwick at August 20, 2004 05:37 PM

Here's luck, dude.

btw I have priors on both the slang (well an obscure dialect anyway)

http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/002694.html
and the flag.
http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/005414.html

so sign me up as a fellow crypto-slango-troglo-dyte.
Posted by boynton at August 21, 2004 06:59 PM

nothin wrong with strayan as she is spoke on the hibiscus coast, aaayyy

...and I always thought that punctuating aaayyy was a kiwi thing, but time amongst the banana benders (up and down the Bruce Highway) has set me straight...
Posted by nardo at August 22, 2004 02:47 PM

Is the Hibiscus Coast F NQ - or just Q?

A correspondent informs me that aaayyy is pretty big in the Latrobe Valley, too. I only ever noticed a thick rise of the inflections, but.
Posted by boynton at August 22, 2004 06:46 PM

err ... Improper use of the vernacular...
that should be of course be more:
"Can't say I noticed.
Did notice a thick rise of the inflections, but."
Posted by boynton at August 22, 2004 07:50 PM

if you're heading north, pass the Gold, Sunshine, Fraser, and Coral Coasts... you'll find it just past Mackay, aaayyy
Posted by nardo at August 23, 2004 06:53 AM

welsh

Appendix B Summary of When to Mutate

Lesson 6. How to Be *Emphatic* and Possessive


From A Welsh Course (via Plep)

drinking birds

My bird swings backwards and bangs it's head on the ground...

My bird dips into the glass of water then stays there...

My bird stops drinking after a while...


Drinking Birds FAQ from The Happy Drinking bird
 


I was reminded of these Birds of youth by seeing a DIY version at Science Toys you can make with your kids (via exclamation mark and plep)

I saw one in the local Milk Bar when I was eight, and for some reason coveted it. My best friend S owned one, which was probably why. Was given to me on my ninth birthday, and it drank happily for a while before it stopped, we moved on and it disappeared. Maybe my bird went west or flew north?)


Comments: drinking birds

Yeah. I remember the Looney Tunes episode with Tweetie and Sylvester where T mistakes one for his 'friend'. I think S ended up eating it and then had to pause and dip every few paces. Laugh. I nearly started.
Posted by Nora at August 21, 2004 02:15 PM

Missed that episode.

Lucky one of our mad labradors never chomped the drinking bird. They preferred ducks.
Posted by boynton at August 21, 2004 07:05 PM

Thursday, August 19, 2004

I miss

I miss the sound of telephones actually ringing, and having the
receiver feel heavy in your hand...
I miss 78 speed records which were ridiculously fragile,
but all the more likeable because when you handled the records more
carefully it seemed they were so much more dignified and then it seemed you
listened more carefully and treasured them more. I miss the funny (strange)
photographs on the "33" speed record albums. I miss "liner notes." I miss
"45's." I miss those little machines you played them on, making a stack and
then listening to the whole stack over and over.
...

Nick Piombino Fait Accompli
 


To those of us who remember with clarity, a world without zip codes, telegrams delivered by jockey-sized youths on motorbikes & black Bakelite telephones with bells, the computer must retain an element of the alien

Dick Jones In the Days of the Underwood Noiseless at the Virtual Occoquan


Comments: I miss

It all still happens round this neck of the woods.

I'd like to expand on the topic but there are stoves to be blacked, metal tips on shoes to be tacked (if I can find the shoe last), eggs to be Keep-Egged and butter to be churned.
Posted by Sedgwick at August 19, 2004 03:51 PM

It's all pretty bakelite round here, too.

But alas, a laminex table now costs $1000 according to yesterday's paper.
I bought mine for a lounge-era song
Posted by boynton at August 19, 2004 03:56 PM

I miss things that are off. I miss the black dark and the quiet, ungadgeted night. In the eternal always-on, machine-leeches suckle and glow.
Posted by eeksypeeksy at August 19, 2004 07:39 PM

"the eternal always-on" is exactly right.
Everything on stand-by mode is quite unsettling.
Luckily where I am is fairly dark
after years of never dark - with strong street lights and street noise
(But then not rural dark, which like a night sky full of stars, is always a reality check)
In the meantime, this is a fairly no glow zone.
No digital clock, no PC flickering, only the odd power point here and there.
Posted by boynton at August 19, 2004 11:57 PM

Dudes. I got a hotmail acct on Dec. 31 1999, at an internet cafe in the town I went to for supplies.
I was living in a one-room shack 5 miles down a dirt road, with only cold running water and paraffin lamps and a wood stove for heat. Cooking was propane unless the little tank ran out, then it was fried potatoes on the wood stove. Two years later I got a generator and a second-hand pc.
-
Sitting on the porch sometimes, when one of the neighbors drove by, because there were so few cars passing, maybe in the middle of the day one every couple of hours, you could smell the exhaust, even though the road was a few hundred yards away. Noticeably smell it.
What I realized was, when I went to town I couldn't smell the cars, even standing on a busy corner, with two four lane streets intersecting. Something evident in its absence.
Like silence, or as e.p. said, the black dark.
Think of how many thousands of years the night belonged to itself.
-
We didn't get a TV until I was 7. I'm relatively mature now, it was rare but not uncommon for families not to have gotten one yet in those days. I remember some kids' show where you sent them money and they sent you a plastic sheet that fit the TV, and some colored pens to dreaw on it, a little square of some film you could stick on the screen and draw on it along with the guy on the show. And the pictures (black and white) would show through only they'd be colored.
I'm old enough that until I left home at 18 we hadn't had a color set. I always wanted something like that draw-on-it thing.
Now I have one.
But I miss the stars and quiet; and I'll trade back without a second thought, when the time comes.
Posted by vernaculo at August 20, 2004 12:16 PM

"Something evident in its absence"
Exhausted in the city.

I'd trade it too, I think.

I love the plastic sheet to colour-in the TV.
Sounds very post-modern, and if it was on sale again now, I'd buy it.
I might make the colour go B&W though
Or change the picture entirely.
Posted by boynton at August 20, 2004 01:40 PM

shakespeare kit

“The eureka moment for this project came when we realized it was possible to reproduce the play in its entirety as one continuous line of text. Romeo & Juliet at a glance.”.
Shakespeare on your sheets (via J walk)

Shakespeare dating chart
Shakespeare fishing tackle
how old is my reel?

After Shakespeare Mints

Shakespeare Slippers

iron poem

Inspired by dirty beloved's magnificent Scots valley iron
I pressed a poem on the fridge

(update: my poem now reads a bit serious in the dreaded bittery-twisted genre. Wasn't meant to sound quite like that. I used the "revelations" wordset - so merely tried to fashion a lightweight mundane ode out of the beholds and hath delivereds)


Comments: iron poem

A wise woman once said: "Never touch a hot iron"

I never do.
Posted by Nora at August 19, 2004 04:54 PM

Very wise.

The more I look at that poem, the more it seems bad-bittery with all the "dragons, and moons and stars and heavens" removed.

I should have just left it at this:
"The iron appeared. Behold a miracle."
Posted by boynton at August 19, 2004 04:59 PM

An hour and a half on and my poem now appears to me to be the dumbest poem in the world.
There was meant to be a shot of iron-y there,
but now I can't see it at all.
Posted by boynton at August 19, 2004 06:28 PM

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

cricket bet

another day another cricket story via diversionz

100 busted for betting on cricket fights
The operation, which included 115 people, was held in the same building that housed a cricket lovers' association.
The gamblers were caught betting on battles between huge crickets


Giant Licorice Cricketers


Comments: cricket bet

I saw a couple of cricket fights at the main gambling venue (apparently this software doesn't allow the c.a.s.i.n.o. word)in Macau back in 1987.

They took place in a bamboo and plastic sheeting cage about the size of a milk crate, sitting on a billiards table in a side room, with about 50+ very serious and vocal Chinese gamblers and few curious roundeyes like myself watching.

For those who couldn't get a consistently clear view of the action, there was a video camera trained on the cage, fed to a couple of TV sets.

This came in handy when the results of the first match were hotly contested ("Bullshit!", "No way man" etc in loud Mandarin) and they played the video back. Some outcome was reached but I have no idea what it was, 'cept a lot of HK dollars were passed back and forth with much bad grace.

So yeah, how do crickets fight? Well it was pretty crowded and Chinese are champion jostlers but what I saw glimpses of was first the two Crickteers?Owners?Trainers? producing their crickets in separate bamboo cages about the size of three ciggie packets for inspection by the punters and a through scrutiny by the ref (presumably looking for steroids or a roll of coins hidden up a wing).

Then while everyone else got into discussing the form guide and offering odds to each other, the two handlers psyched up their boys, muttering through the cage bars while teasing antenni with straws.

Our rather distracted guide (I think he had few bucks riding himself) gave us a quick rundown on the names of the gladiators which was along the lines of "Special Golden Man", "Pride of Autumn" and (I may have misheard him through the hubbub) "Bruce Lee"???.

Then at some signal I didn't see, the top of the fight cage was opened, and the two bugilists were ceremonially and simultaneously decanted within.

After a bit of wingbuzzing, facescrubbing and general WTF, the crickets sprang at eachother and grappled around, trying to use their big hind legs to rip stuff off eachother for a few seconds, then sprang off again for a breather.

In the first match, this went on for about two minutes before they retired to separate sides and just gesticulated rudely at eachother. WWF it wasn't. To me, it looked like they'd both taken a dive but apparently it was decided on points during the video replay.

The second match was the real thing. Over in about 30 seconds after one (possibly the favourite judging by the outcry and money flung at grinning punters) lost a hind leg and wing covering to a lightening roundhouse kick worthy of Bruce L himself.

After that your correspondent made his excuses and left (to have a flutter at Baccarat - where I won $HK200 while only losing $HK250).

Anyway it may not have been cricket but it certainly was killer krickets, by krikey.


Posted by Nabakov at August 18, 2004 09:30 PM

A fascinating account, Nabakov.

The image of the small crate on a b.i.l.l.i.a.r.d.s table with a video feed...

A change of scale, but it's still essentially cruel if poor old Pride of Autumn loses a hind leg in the deal.

Wish people would have a f.l.u.t.t.e.r without inducing fluttery fights.
Posted by boynton at August 19, 2004 12:44 PM

My favourite memory of Honkers and Maccas back then was the same guy who took us to the cricket cage fights, cheerfully pointing out a then fairly new skyscraper with all circular windows as the "The House Of A Thousand Arseholes."

Unlike Jardine Matherson who are just a Noble House with room only for a few arseholes at once.
Posted by Nabakov at August 20, 2004 01:58 AM

"The House Of A Thousand Arseholes"
with a 1001 stories?
Posted by boynton at August 20, 2004 01:32 PM

abstract

Meanwhile I'm working on this.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

model city

How To Build a 1:1000 Model of Your City (via Interconnected)


Some model accessories:

Block of Flats

Suitcases

Rats Content: 28 Resin Parts (Including 25 Rodents)

exact and varied

It happens frequently that the word which one thinks of first does not express the exact shade of thought one desires to express and some other word of similar meaning is necessary. For this reason there is, for those who want to write and speak with precision and effectiveness, an important use for collections of synonyms

Putnam's Word Book A practical aid in expressing ideas through the use of an exact and varied vocabulary
BY Louis a. Flemming, 1913 (via wood s lot)


cocoa, n. Associated word: theobromine.

cock and bull story. canard.

cricket, n. Associated words: stridulate, stridulation, stridulator, stridulatory, stridulous

missile, n. projectile, dejectile.

old-fashioned word. archaism.
old iron, glass, etc. junk.


vest, n. waistcoat.
vest, v. invest

ADDENDA
automobile, n. motor car, autocar, motor. Associated words: garage, tonneau, carburetter, chassis, automobilist, chauffeur, mechanician

birth rate. Natality

Monday, August 16, 2004

catch of rabbits

Blazing Bunny Spreads Cricket Club Fire (via diversionz)


Two fire engines were called to extinguish the blaze. The rabbit's skeleton was discovered in the charred hut.
"The firemen were certainly concerned about the rabbit. They felt sorry for it," said Bedbrook.


This story still seems odd given our rabbiting heritage.
A colonial difference - where cricketers were likely to be sunday rabbiters.

People hunting rabbits on Dudston farm, Managatang 1930
Record Number: MM 002484

A group of Men and Women with a Catch of Rabbits Yea District 1930
Record Number: MM 006982

(Museum Victoria Biggest Family Album)


Comments: catch of rabbits

In keeping with tailended tradition ...

http://www.cricketaroundtheworld.20m.com/photo6.html

... the blazing bunny was followed by a fiery ferret.
Posted by John A Lot at August 16, 2004 06:16 PM

Only ever heard the word "bunny" before.
"Rabbit" sounds rather rarified, airs and graces.
(wonder if Doc DW had a "Bunny"?)
Never heard of Ferret.

Anyway - have found a pic from the Biggest Family Album just for you, Mr Lot.
"A girl holding two rabbits caught with the use of ferrets, circa 1948"
http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/DBImages/PA009523.JPG
Posted by boynton at August 16, 2004 06:45 PM

I can heartily recommend the rabbit and stout pie at Watt in the Powerhouse arts complex at New Farm, Brisbane.

The best end-use of a bunny I've come across so far.
Posted by Nabakov at August 16, 2004 08:04 PM

Apparently Big Bunny was a tearaway speed merchant (unfortunately for bardy bunny punnies not from Venice though) and more than handy with the willow.

Or the rabbit and leek pie at the All Nations in Richmond, Crimewave, Australia, Frank Sinatra, The World.
Posted by John A Lot at August 17, 2004 07:32 AM

Bunny where it oughta be, or not, no fish ever started a hut on fire, not even this one.
Posted by vernaculo at August 17, 2004 12:44 PM

Which is to say,
http://runyon.lib.utexas.edu/r/RUN03000/RUN03600/RUN03624.JPG
this one.
Posted by vernaculo at August 17, 2004 12:46 PM

A Rabbit pie at either New Farm or Struggletown
sounds sufficiently Old Fare to tempt.

vernaculo - that's a great catch.

Is this a hutch for such a catch?

http://www.asianartmall.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=12603&Category_Code=cricket
Posted by boynton at August 17, 2004 01:22 PM

err...caught out.

Of course I *meant* W G Grace (aka the Doctor)
http://www.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/PLAYERS/ENG/G/GRACE_WG_01000043/

From Bristol.

Dunno who Doc DW is.
But then he might have been from Venice.
Posted by boynton at August 17, 2004 05:26 PM

Doc Dor Who?
Posted by John A Lot at August 17, 2004 06:12 PM

hunting rabbits at Dudston farm, Managatang reminded
me of stories my father used to tell me about the depression when there was a group of men living in humpies in our farms back paddock. They survived by catching rabbits and selling the skins.
Posted by andy at August 18, 2004 08:58 PM

a land fit for akubras...
Posted by boynton at August 19, 2004 12:30 PM

Many a Dinky toy and Triang N Gauge Train were bought from the proceeds of rabbit skin sales, mushrooming (despatched by steam train to SPC) and, (think it might not be environmentally pc nowadays) wattle-barking. (And then there was the nicking of cherries from the Allwood's orchard ... "they won't miss half a dozen sugar bags' worth.")
Posted by Sedgwick at August 19, 2004 04:05 PM

How many mushrooms for a malvern star?
Or skins for a Dinky?
skinned shins.
Posted by boynton at August 19, 2004 04:09 PM

Friday, August 13, 2004

virtual village

- and I think it was in one of the Girls' Annuals of yore that I first saw a picture of Beckonscot Model Village (via I like). The Model Tudor village in Fitzroy Gardens just didn't compare.

On this filthy day of wind and rain with the Olympics on in the other room, I've been happily building virtual villages, arranging terraces of Lighthouses and banked up bridges, and kooyongs of tennis courts all with synchronised tennnis- which could possibly be an Olympic sport.

beware

Triumphantly Jill went ski-ing down the slope. It seemed that she would win the race after all. But suddenly she saw Brian lying on top of the snow-bank, holding out a startling notice.




This is a detail from a larger illustration of the story "Not Wanted at the Holiday Chalet" one of several in Girls' Crystal Annual 1948 which I purchased today on this most ominous of days.

The sign in the op shop said Please Ask for Assistance for items displayed in Window. So I did. But Alas! I encountered difficulty in communicating with the kindly attendant, who misinterpreted my pointing and after some degree of physical contortion, kept furnishing unwanted items. Suddenly there was a startling noise as in her quest she brushed several pieces of crockery and miscellaneous teak. I apologised of course, although nothing had been broken. The elusive 48 was finally fished out and bagged, and has been added to my crystal collection.

Other stories in this volume include The Mongrel who made Good, The Harum-Scarum's Surprising Half Holiday and Carol's Strange Adventure in China by Enid Boyten - which sounds like a hybrid of B and Blyton. In the great tradition of Schoolgirl Literature, it seems Enid was a man, in this case a Horace.


Comments: beware

An illustration worthy of the great Glenn Baxter. I have a modest but carefully selected collection of boys' public school novels. Probably my favourite is 'The Hill' by Horace Ansley Vachell, as close to homo-erotic as the Victorians allowed themselves to go. The dust-cover announces it as 'A fine, upstanding, thoroughly manly novel'. Mm...
Posted by Dick at August 13, 2004 04:56 PM

The great Baxter indeed - (an inspiration).

Hmm - only read a few Manly books, but 'the Hill' sounds intriguing. Last year I read Pillikin of course, by Hylton Cleaver
http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/005529.html
and read about Percy Westerman.

I always loved the the 'Picture Stories' in the Girls annuals as a child, and am quite disappointed to find that the old faves hadn't arrived by 1948.

I've also just discovered where the wonderful site Collecting Children's Books and Magazines is now located
http://www.collectingbooksandmagazines.com
A great reference site.
Posted by boynton at August 13, 2004 07:00 PM

I used to teach Glenn Baxter's son, Harry. I met GB several times at report meetings & the like & found him to be a very friendly, very funny guy with few illusions about his son, who at that time was exploring the outer reaches of what adolescence is all about.

On the subject of writers of schoolgirl fiction who turned out to be men, have you ever checked out the Philip Larkin schoolgirl stories? I believe they're all published now.
Posted by Dick at August 14, 2004 08:23 AM

I'm not sure what happened, it might have been 'Enid to Eden', but that index of authors led to 'The Flint Heart'
http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Bookmark/1999/December/mahy.asp
a book I myself once owned.
Which led to this:
http://www.homescreen.com.au/title/161820/
and in its turn to this:
http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5026

and there you go.
Posted by vernaculo at August 14, 2004 11:02 AM

Drats. I came looking for ice-cream, and all I find is this book-talk.

PS: Enid Horace? Gosh. That's an odd name.
Posted by Julian Dick at August 14, 2004 02:20 PM

Dick - I hadn't known of Larkin's larkin' (or not) with the genre, but googled and it looks good.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,6761,709502,00.html
although one can get a little 'lost in transgendering...' of blokes writing as girls with crushes on seniors. I notice in 1948 there's a about a girl who masquerades as a boy.
"What's your special line of sport, my boy?"
Susy gulped trying to look suitably nonchalent.
"Net- I mean football, Uncle!" she gasped...

written by Renee Frazer/Ronald Fleming.
A text to study.

Thanks for the links vernaculo. The endorsment of The Flint Heart makes me want to seek a copy.
And a copy of The Farmer's wife.

Sorry Julian - No Ices here on such a cold august day.
Not even some Toffee Shocks, Google Buns or Pop Biscuits to go.

PS this is the closest I could get to your order.
http://www.ledbury.clara.net/icecream.htm

Posted by boynton at August 14, 2004 03:51 PM

how and where

A Gallery of How and Why Wonder Books (via Incoming Signals)

A bonus for us melburnians is the log which includes info on where the books where found. A list of op-shops new to me, but obviously worth a serious south eastern trek one day.


Comments: how and where

Oh yes, that brings back memories of when I was going to be the world's leading 10 year old space dinosaur volcano marine astronaut discoverer.

And I brought back some sea shells from FNQ for you.

http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/haeckel/kunstformen/natur.html
Posted by Nabakov at August 16, 2004 02:15 PM

they are simply stunning...
or intricately beautiful anyway.

wonder how & whether the How & Why 5014 pics compare?
Posted by boynton at August 16, 2004 02:28 PM

I was going to be an Icthyologist. I remember them well, I just loved them, we had "Rocks & Minterals", "Ants and Bees" and my favourite - "Fish".
Posted by Averil at August 17, 2004 08:06 AM

I often see them about in op shops this side of the Monash, Averil.
I'll keep an eye out for Fish
Posted by boynton at August 17, 2004 01:24 PM

Thursday, August 12, 2004

old smokers

The cool cowboy flicks his cigarette into the street
But he lives in an old movie.


Smokers World (via Pop Culture Junk Mail)

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

dog portraits

sterno.jpg

It's that ephemera thing again, but a collection of old cans can always make me swoon.
(via exclamation mark and j walk)

And a can of Sterno may have been useful the other night to keep a stern eye on the fondue. The fuel we used played up and set off the smoke alarm.

can



It's that ephemera thing again, but a collection of old cans can always make me swoon.
(via exclamation mark and j walk)

And a can of Sterno may have been useful the other night to keep a stern eye on the fondue. The fuel we used played up and set off the smoke alarm.

sisters

Nicholas Nixon 25 Years of the Brown Sisters

Through this picture-history of the four Brown siblings, Nixon chronicles, almost methodically, slivers in time of the dramatic, ever-changing aging process by way of which familiarity and permanence may also be found

(via J walk)

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

the 39 films

Yes I've been reading The Thirty Nine Steps having picked up a Nineteen Fifty Two edition for One Dollar.
It is rather devoid of women, so I'm glad that Charles Bennett added a few, including the glamorous Pamela for the dashing Donat and all that romantic handcuffing subplot stuff in the classic Hitchcock screenplay of 35. In fact, Bennett's other additions are quite remarkable for being film savvy but complementary to the spirit of Buchan and his protagonist. Loosely based in this case means subtle developments of loose images or lines in the novel, or new fabrications that match.

I posted this when I last saw the film, and re-visiting it found this essay The Hitchcock Universe: Thiry-nine steps and then some which discusses the adaptation:
17 Further notes on film adaptation. Although it is obvious to point out just how greatly Hitchcock's movie differs from (and improves upon) John Buchan's novel, I find it intriguing to note how the screenplay writers ... may have been inspired by phrases, sentences and images in the novel:

another comparison here
Though I knew Hitchcock seldom brought any book to the screen without "Hitching" it up quite a bit, I wasn't prepared for the extent that Hitchcock and his frequent screenwriter Charles Bennett had gutted the Buchan novel and fabricated all-new contents.

The book and its adaptations (including the latest by Robert Towne) are discussed in this Guardian article
In the public's mind, Hitchcock's movie and Buchan's book have become as intimately entwined as Donat and Carroll in handcuffs on the moors. No subsequent film-maker has been able to escape Hitchcock's shadow


Interesting to read that this lastest version has been gestating for a very long time. Back in the late 1990s, Warner Bros tried to make it.
(For a time it seemed that Mel Gibson was to be Hannay in a downunder-outback production - would that be spaghetti haggis?)


See also:
An extract from Charles Bennett's memoirs
At a cocktail party celebrating my 47th birthday, Hitch wrote a facetious remark into my party book, 'You owe everything to me, including your love life!' Everything? Hardly! By the time of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), I had staged seven plays and directed five, written more than fifteen films, and had succeeded as an actor! Arguably, Hitch owed me! My Shakespearean experience and sense of melodrama built his reputation for suspense. My play BLACKMAIL was his 'FIRST SUPER TALKEE'. My story "The Man Who" launched his international reputation. My construction of The 39 Steps put him out front by inventing motifs he would use in subsequent films. My recommendation to David Selznick helped bring Hitch to Hollywood. Etc., etc. ...

But Hitch would not acknowledge it. It always had to be Hitch! He would not acknowledge any writer. A very ungenerous character flaw, actually, as Hitch was totally incapable of creating or developing a story. Without me there wouldn’t have been any story. Hitchcock was never a constructionist, never a storyteller. I would take a story and turn it into something good.


Realism coloured by poetry: Rereading John Buchan

Monday, August 09, 2004

oddnesses

Reading John Buchan's The Thirty Nine Steps I quite liked this quote:

...But my necessities did not allow me to contemplate oddnesses or to pick and choose my supports

Chasing the quote Google thought I was on the wrong track:

Did you mean: But my necessities did not allow me to contemplate addresses or to pick and choose my supports


Comments: oddnesses

Great book, and the movie with Kenneth More is still one of my all-time favourites
Posted by Niall at August 9, 2004 08:27 PM

Picked up the book for $2 and I'm really enjoying it, Niall.
I like the More film, but I think I prefer the Hitchcock. Does More quite cut it as Hannay?
I think Donat definitely does.
I was reading about the films and may post something tomorrow. It's interesting to see what was added in the screenplay of the 35 film. I think it was quite complementary.
Posted by boynton at August 9, 2004 11:05 PM

err...

that'd be of course
1) One dollar
2) Moore
Posted by boynton at August 10, 2004 02:03 PM

Sunday, August 08, 2004

frisbeetarianism

I don't think I've ever been negligent
(Describes a condition in which you absent-mindedly answer the door in your nightie)

but I might just subscribe to Frisbeetarianism
(The belief that, when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck there)

having been converted slowly over 15 years of frisbee practice with doug.

Some new words for the OED at Dick Jones' Patteran Pages

(I've noticed lately that there's a new sect of muscular chuckit-tarianism springing up in the parks around here. On Sundays it seems that nearly every dog owner now walks with a rod or a staff of the flexible plastic kind with a whipping action, and can be seen flicking tennis balls piously and lustily every twenty paces for their whippet, poodle or labrador cross.)

sailor

I picked up this sailor as I walked along the road yesterday...


That is, of course ha ha, I picked up this small picture - the inset - found inland on the wet footpath.
Don't know much about his origins.
Fugitive from some parlour game I imagine.
Didn't know what to with him.
But I have placed him within one of the Ontological Museum's Department of Objects - the most obvious really - an antique bit of paper with nautical information.

This was inspired by seeing all objects used in this wonderful collage: 60 ways to serve Ham. (via fishbucket)

On reflection I think he might have been better placed in this company.

unwritten various

Library of Unwritten Books
An art project travelling the UK, this library is collecting stories and ideas for books people would like to write - but never have, and probably never will.
Its two librarians - Sam Brown and Caroline Jupp - have collected more than 400 stories over the last two years, and are aiming for a total of 1,000...

Unwritten books are different to the books that they would write," he says. "A good unwritten book doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be a good written book

(via I like)
 


Sum for screams
(es + u + cs+t) 2 + s + (tl + f) + (a + dr + fs) + sinx -1 = ultimate scary movie

In the latest attempt by the scientific community to offer algebraic explanations for the seemingly inexplicable, mathematicians have come up with a formula for the best kind of scary movie Guardian
(via Jerz's Literacy Weblog)
 

Virtually magnetic
The fridge

(via dirty beloved)

Friday, August 06, 2004

might had

Funny that Gus Kahn wrote both the standard It Had To Be You and the less romantic It Might as Well Be You.

Guess there is some swinging between those two poles on the bumpy old road to love.


(Google took me to the unframed It had to be you which is part of a lovely site for listening: Robert’s delightful old Schmaltz Archives)


Comments: might had

What a great site - Robert's Old Schmaltz! Check out Arkanas Blues by the Broadway Broadcasters, recorded in 1921. Unknown musicians but what sounds like a baritone - or maybe even bass - sax solo & some very blue clarinet. Spirited stuff. Thanks for this link, B.
Posted by Dick at August 7, 2004 08:31 AM

Yep - I agree with Robert's notes - it is "joyous" indeed, and the joy really kicks in in the latter half.
As it does with Marion's singing on 'It Had to Be You'.
Definitely a site to put into Favourites and sample at leisure.
Posted by boynton at August 7, 2004 02:02 PM

rocky

This amazing image seen at dirty beloved can't be topped even if it did remind me of this local geological variation.


Comments: rocky

Fabulous image. Do you think it's genuine?
Posted by mcb at August 6, 2004 05:23 PM

One tiny difference, Boynton. The FENCE!!!!
Posted by Nora at August 7, 2004 12:32 PM

oh - I hadn't even thought about the possibility it might be staged, mcb.
I'm willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of the kick.

Quite, Nora. But the FENCE doesn't look all that reassuring to me.
Posted by boynton at August 7, 2004 01:29 PM

It's old enough the tech required to alter it seems to preclude the possibility.
Interesting commentary on current attitudes though - about imagery and the reality we build from mediated images.

First hit: Wow!
Second hit: Hmmm... Is it fake?

Because there was that time when you reacted all genuine but it was a doctored photo. Nothing worse than being enthusiastic about something and then finding out it was all in vain.

That kick indeed. Jackson's work is filled with the odd and dramatic. No need to fake it.
It's real. I get vertigo just looking at it. Upholstery-puckering vertigo.
Posted by Lance Boyle at August 8, 2004 06:15 AM

Glad to hear to it. Love the oddly dramatic combo.

And having been to the second site myself, I get remembered vertigo looking at it, despite that slight fence, which may even make things worse.
Makes people lean and dangle at hazardous angles.
Posted by boynton at August 8, 2004 02:23 PM

Thursday, August 05, 2004

spooky

I was reading some of these American folkloric ghost-stories, which in the correct web potted style are well suited to browsing, being a screen full each, no scrolling required. (via exclamation mark)

I was drawn to the title The Ghosts of Ringwood Manor (for the prosaic reason of having grown up near a ringwood, and Manor is not a word I would have instictively twinned with that outer eastern shopping suburb)

The house and haunted theme reminded me of the imagined house of the text adventure game Deadline. This was the only such game I ever played, and it seems it was a lucky casual choice.
Despite the limitations of an early parser and very difficult puzzles that require multiple restores, Deadline in my opinion is the best mystery game of all the ones Infocom released (source)


I had read about Infocom on this snarkout post on Interactive Fiction, and an interview with Marc Blank, the game's creator.
Echoing the sentiments of Lebling, Blank maintains that the text adventure games used words to evoke settings and mood. He says while all games have their strengths, he believes the text adventure games had "imagination" which has been "lost" in today's graphical games. "I think the other thing - it's more of a gaming thing - is when it comes to point-and-clock interfaces or interfaces where you're either picking words or picking objects, I think the one thing that gets lost is the sense that you could do anything and the sense you could use any word or any verb [in the text adventure games] and it might work. So there is a sense of open-endedness [in the text adventure game] and the possibility that you could do anything. I think that is lost." He continues that he and the other Imps would think of responses to absurd words or verbs so the gamers could have some comic relief.

I remember playing Deadline quite obsessively until I solved it. The sense of the house was strongly created through mentally travelling the worn pathways and blind alleys of cupboards and hallways, until it became quite fixed in the mind.
But alas, I missed out on talking with a ghost - not encountering this hamlet-like bug of being able to talk to the dead Mr Robner if his ghost was encountered.
I'll have to dig up my copy and revisit the territory, archived in memory.

Also on a ghostly theme, I was walking my old dog earlier today in the drizzly chilly park, which was empty and slightly sinister. Or was this only because the reedy lake reminded me of that haunting image from The Innocents?
I think a sudden casual vision of a ghost in the suburban algae would be mundane and paranormal enough to be quite chilling.


Comments: spooky

Ah, another eastern suburbs girl.
I grew up in Ringwood.
My first casual job was at Eastland.
Posted by mcb at August 6, 2004 05:21 PM

I grew up "near" Ringwood - but spent some of my childhood and youth within the malled halls of Eastland. (Not to mention Ringwood Lanes!)
Posted by boynton at August 7, 2004 01:46 PM

bubbling over

I held over this link to Historic American Sheet Music sent by nardo - fearing it would get buried in the bubbly.

Shortly into the thumbnails I had found one that was sort of champagne related:
Bubbling over

But today on sober reflection it seems more fondue than champoo.
Not that the two can't combine. In fact, I have been promising to do a champagne fondue for some time now. And now we are really in bleakest winter, seems like it's the high fondue season of Aout.

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

bubbly day

There comes a time in every woman's life when the only thing that helps is a glass of champagne." Bette Davis

I heard Red on the radio announce that today marks the anniversary of the invention of champagne.
I'd better make sure I have a glass or two of Aust sparkling tonight to celebrate...

"I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes, I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and drink it if I am; Otherwise I never touch it - unless I'm thirsty."
- Madame Bollinger, one of the "grande dames" of French champagne (1884-1977)

More quotes and fizzy trivia at the Story of Champagne

Bubbly words


Comments: bubbly day

I'm one of a small, select group on whom the charms of champagne are entirely lost. To paraphrase Mark Twain who said of the cauliflower that it was merely a cabbage with a college education, with champagne I taste only cider with pretensions. But I love the bubbly words - there's a poem amongst them.
Posted by Dick at August 6, 2004 04:13 PM

I agree about the Poetry-in-waiting in those words:
"when the neck of the bottle is placed in freezing brine"...

And one of my local favourites is a blend that might reign in the pretensions?

http://www.kellybrookwinery.com.au/products/champagnecider.htm
Posted by boynton at August 6, 2004 05:01 PM

The link that you give attributes Dom Perigon with the invention of champagne.
This site gives the English the credit
http://www.vino.com/explore/article.asp?AID=139&CID=9&Cat=1

"Dom Perignon is often credited for inventing Champagne, but it is generally believed that he spent most of his time trying to remove the bubbles that appeared naturally in wine, as these were considered a fault."
Posted by andy farnsworth at August 6, 2004 07:05 PM

Hmm...curiouser, Andy.
"Sparkling champagne is commonly thought to have originated in France, but this is not quite the case"
Maybe the English can claim the Bubbles - in the case.
In any case.
Posted by boynton at August 7, 2004 01:41 PM

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

sad love

We’re sitting there, talking: she about how we can’t go on like this, me about why we must go on like this; and during our conversation, this talk we are having – what she meant when she rang me at work and told me ‘we need to talk’ – we never really look at each other unless it’s to stare directly into the others eyes
dumb riffs She wore these shoes (via never neutral)

tragic animal love stories (via plep)


Comments: sad love

Girls are pretty
Posted by informant at August 4, 2004 04:23 AM

Or more precisely:
http://girlsarepretty.com/

girls are pretty
Posted by informant at August 4, 2004 04:24 AM

happy Jeckyl day

boys are pretty good too
Posted by boynton at August 4, 2004 10:54 AM

elgar navy

thing is - had I quoted the bit about the underpants in Elgar Unmasked it would probably sell the otherwise unclicked link of yesterday.

...in addition to this, I have letters from twenty different women who, when young, sang Elgar's music in choirs or played it the ordhestra when conducted by the composer, or when the composer was present. and all these women write of how Elgar insisted they wear navy blue knickers and that his walking stick could be used as a means to inspect that this was so. When these twenty women wrote to me in the early 1960s they lived as far a part as Cornwall and Thirsk, Newfoundland and New Zealand and their united testimony cannot be gainsaid. Furthermore, my great uncle , Sir Ivor Atkins , also recalled this perversion...


further discussion here


Comments: elgar navy

This very same "perversion" was rife at the C of E girls school I once attended. In this instance the inspection was performed by a gaggle of eccentric senior staff who would then separate the non-conformists and set about them with ridicule and mirth. Happy days...
Posted by Nora at August 3, 2004 04:19 PM

though no walking stick was involved.
Posted by boynton at August 3, 2004 11:15 PM

power tools

mcb of Invisible Shoebox is back

and has found a good short course
Safe Chainsaw Operation for persons using chainsaws around the home...
Please bring strong boots, gloves, hearing & eye protection, and a chainsaw if you have your own, and your lunch


It made me a little nervous at first but I got used to it
Men, Women, And Fear Of Power Tools
...males rarely verbalize any fear of common "guy things" like power tools...
That in itself, I believe, is a fundamental difference between men and women - the willingness to express fear
.
(via making light)

Monday, August 02, 2004

ciphers

Famous Unsolved Codes and Ciphers (via Making Light)

I was reading up on Elgar's Dorabella Cipher - in a letter the composer wrote to Dora Penny.

- and found this unflattering view of the man and his work.

The objections to Elgar's music by the professionals were for musical reasons. It is badly written. "It is like receiving a long awaited and important letter and not being able to read any of the handwriting," said Vaughan Williams.


Comments: ciphers

A completely unrelated comment, Boynton, but I found myself thinking yesterday "Ah, August. This is Boynton's least favourite month". But I'm not sure if I've entirely made this up. Perhaps you love August.
Posted by mcb at August 2, 2004 03:25 PM

spooky - mcb
I think telapthy?
I was thinking of my 'aout'(ooh) post of last year yesterday - looked it up - and read your own comment earlier today...
http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/002215.html
I see it's the great mcb family birthday month - so no offence against August.
It's just the memory of some August days that were rather horrible weather on foot and on public transport.
Yesterday though - what a classic lovely August day with hint of spring and wattles that tide us over.
Posted by boynton at August 2, 2004 03:33 PM

Yes, it's been great return to Melbourne weather. Blue skies, sunshine, rain overnight rather than while I'm walking. A wonderful welcome back.
And as I probably said last year, I normally appreciate the longer days, but as I've just come from days that started at 5 and ended at 10, the days seem very short all of a sudden.
Posted by mcb at August 2, 2004 04:29 PM

vintage 1966

serving the Iron and Steel industries....

Coke and coal...
Specialist in Small Sizes of Coke
For Sintering, Smelting and All
Metallurgical uses



American Steel and Coal Industries A collection of 24 vintage print ads
(via the Cartoonist)


Also from 1966 Let's Play 66
How much do you think you know about the 1960s? Let’s Play 66 enables you to become a virtual contestant in a 1960s-style game show so that you can test out your knowledge of the 1960s
(via diversionz)

(Alas - I'd like to play 66 - but doesn't seem to load on this narrowband connection- reports welcome.)


Comments: vintage 1966

Sorry. I'm too young :D
Posted by Scott Wickstein at August 2, 2004 05:36 PM

Not a student of ancient history then - like young miss b?
An outdated Flash Player.
Maybe her problem.
Posted by boynton at August 3, 2004 01:14 PM