burns

I bought this Penguin Burns down at the local op shop. There is an introductory Life of the poet compiled from letters:



" I do not find my farm that pennyworth I was taught to expect, but I believe, in time, it may be a saving bargain. You will be pleased to hear that I have laid aside the idle éclat, and bind every day after my reapers." *



"As to my renumeration, you may think my songs either above or below price; for they shall absolutely be the one or the other"

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Comments: pennyworth

This has been freaking me out for days, and now I think i know why: Magritte.

Also I'm worried about the mental health of your op-shop's volunteers.
Posted by laura at November 2, 2005 01:05 PM

My great-great-auntie and role model Catherine Carswell wrote a quite passable biog of Burns. (She was a D H Lawrence groupie too, & wrote a biog of him called "The Savage Pilgrimage" but I forgive her for that 'cos she was escaping a pretty boring and hyper-religious Scottish upbringing.)
She also made legal history by divorcing her abusive husband on the grounds of insanity, which hadn't been done before.

I only found out about her when in my thirties because my grandmother disapproved of her violently and never mentioned her. I knew there must have been a good reason why I never liked that woman (My GM, not CC.)
Posted by Helen at November 2, 2005 02:13 PM

Yes it's hard not to see this as Art, Laura.
May have to look for a pattern...

(Ah & I missed the puns about ed. notes and spare bob)

That's pretty impressive, Helen!
She sounds like a good role model.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Carswell
Posted by boynton at November 2, 2005 02:39 PM

So ugly they needed 2 stickers?

Looks like his long-johns. They could have slapped an extra sticker down there. I wouldn't pay a dollar for the painting. (now you're going to tell me it's really famouslike and sold for 723 trazillion gazoos)

(nice story Helen)
Posted by peacay at November 2, 2005 03:08 PM

painting here:
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collections/magnify_search.php?closeUp=1&objectId=1961
u cn zoom and be the judge...

I used to love the sight o' 'two stickers' - as it often signified a further mark-down in price when the book didn't move...Nothing much beats a bargain on a bargain, especially when you can trace its history.
But this is merely duplication...
Posted by boynton at November 2, 2005 03:41 PM

ok ok. I be proved wrong. That be a fetchin' young lad depictionated.
Anecdotally I can only ever recall femmes being enthused by the sale-upon-sale device. I always think that they don't deserve the custom for having overpriced previously. Reminds me of all this '99% fat free' nonsense. Artifice.
Posted by peacay at November 2, 2005 03:52 PM

Poor fellow has a price on his head.
Posted by MG at November 3, 2005 01:53 PM

Spare bob to burn?
Posted by boynton at November 3, 2005 02:41 PM

Poor fellow has a price on his head

That's a real "shit! Why didn't I think of that?" moment.
Posted by Helen at November 4, 2005 10:14 AM

Indeed...

(footnote: it was also a weird moment as I then opened The Age to see:
"Robert Burns, pictured, was threatened with a charge of sedition in 1794. He is rumoured to have "tempered his writing", and written under assumed names as a result of the threat ")
Posted by boynton at November 4, 2005 10:28 A

aimless

or maybe a bimblelog...

to bimble

to wander aimlessly or stroll/walk without urgency to a destination.

 
Wikipedia: List of British English words not used in American English*

via the presurfer

*or in this case Australian English, though most of the words are familiar.

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Comments: aimless

mmh I thought that was "wombling" or "mooching"
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at October 30, 2005 12:35 AM

mmh I don't womble, but I do mooch.
I mooch too much, probably.
Posted by boynton at October 30, 2005 12:13 PM

To womble is to lurch and mumble like a wombat, no?
Posted by Kent at October 30, 2005 06:53 PM

Weapons Of Mass lurching?
Bat-talions of mumbling?
Posted by boynton at October 31, 2005 10:33 AM

tumblin'

A tumblelog is a quick and dirty stream of consciousness, a bit like a remaindered links style linklog but with more than just links. They remind me of an older style of blogging... kottke

from the comments:

tumblelog." Yet another Web 2.0 invented word*

Linklogs are so Web 1.0.*

 

via bifurcated rivets

another take

spooks

I'm rather fond of Lambert Hendricks and Ross so this track - Halloween Spooks - is a find. Kind of goes with the decorative pineapple.
(via PCL Linkdump)

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Comments: spooks

Whoah! My thirteen year old is having some of her friends over for a Halloween sleepover, so I must pull this site up when I get home. We can burn the most disgusting CD of shrieks, screams, bad Halloween tracks, gurgling noises...

They have just tentatively started doing the trick-or -treating thing around where we live. The neighbours don't know what's going on, panic and give them whole packets of stuff at a time.
Posted by Helen at October 28, 2005 01:45 PM

Hmmm...Halloween-creep...
Is it taking hold here?

That track is great for yoko-like vocal flourishes.

* Don't miss PCL Linkdump- lotsa audio there

and just seen via quiddity:
http://swapatorium.blogspot.com/2005/10/nightmare-on-elm-street.html
Posted by boynton at October 28, 2005 01:54 PM

tropical

Quite by coincidence after blogging about vintage pineapple plants, I found a vintage Golden Circle Tropical recipe book when I was out looking for Deighton.* I could share the aerial view of cannery which includes a small formal garden, yet this image somehow resonated.
Maybe it's my missing gravatar or a clever idea for Cup Day...

---

Comments: tropical

Robin Boyd might have had a point. (Unlike modern pineapples, which for some inexplicable reason are all appearing in the grocers this summer with neatly shorn craniums.)
Posted by laura at October 28, 2005 08:49 AM

I guess you could substitute a bunch of asparagus or something for the spikes.
Posted by laura at October 28, 2005 08:50 AM

Yes I read about this new trend at your place, Laura.
Pineapples sans crowns or 'topless' varieties rule apparently.

"TRY ‘TOPLESS' PINEAPPLES
The traditional pineapple is becoming less important as people are discovering new varieties of ‘topless' sweet pineapples coming from Queensland. Consistently sweet and low in acid, they have a high Vitamin C content, pleasant crunchy texture and are less fibrous. Minus leafy tops these pineapples are more compact and easy to carry home. It was always an old wives' tale that plucking a leaf from the top indicated ripeness. A fragrant tropical aroma is the best indicator of ripeness and flavour as pineapples don't ripen after harvesting. (Incidentally, the reason tops are removed is to grow more pineapples !)"
http://www.harrisfarm.com.au/news3.htm

Dunno about the Old Wives' Tale but the Old Wives'
decorative arts will indeed be challenging...
apsaragus...celery, parsley, spring onions...?
Posted by boynton at October 28, 2005 12:4

ridin' of which

Wendy James sent me an email about the recent (second) launch of her novel.
She also sent me a link to Gizoogle, which transizlates urls or text into rap speak...

Ridin' of which, we had a second launch yesterday in old hometown (arranged by very stoked brotha in law) so tha review was a bootylicious way ta S-T-to-tha-izzart tha day dogg. tha launch itself was a bit of a hoot -- lots of rellies -- mah dads elderly aunties (who i aint seen since we lived in bourke, almost 30 years ago) came & all mah husbands very very big family where the sun be shinin and I be rhymin'. tha speech was delayed, coz a few of tha blokes had ta go n wizzatch tha cox(?) plate being run (it was held at tha rsl), tha fellow who launched tha book n gave tha pizzle away (mizzuch gang bangin' frizzay tha audience) n we out. all tha shawty children behaved in a completely feral drug deala hatin' no respect fo` tha sillies mak'n speeches. good fun. tried hard ta git smashed afta, but am runn'n out stamina.

 
Meanwhile: Rich period detail and a humane realism inform this stunning debut.
SMH review of Out Of The Silence
 

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Comments: ridin' of which

I especially like the "shawty children behaved in a completely feral drug deala hatin' no respect fo` tha sillies mak'n speeches" bit -- they were dealing in bits of chewed up sandwich & biscuit, actually....

And thanks fo` tha link, Miss B.
Posted by wen at October 27, 2005 12:37 PM

Diznont mention it...

And we dare disnont mention tha pizzle.
Coz ta give tha pizzle away is tha worst thing in tha world.
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2005 01:35 PM

What sort of a person reads during the Cox Plate?

http://governor_general.blogspot.com/
Posted by wen at October 27, 2005 03:14 PM

The bookies if the favourite storms home?

(Somehow I managed to miss one of the great racing moments. I forgot)

I'm hoping the GG drops by before next Tues with some tips. (ie 2nd and 3rd place - I hope the Diva wins)
Don't care if tha GG gives tha cup pizzle away ;)
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2005 09:25 PM

dalek music

Mr. & Mrs Dalek's musical evening.
 


Now (thanks to TT) when I see Dalek I think Vintage Osterizer.
(Guess Lounge music would be on the osterizer menu or some retro mash)

and who knew that Blendie was a dalek?

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Comments: dalek music

meanwhile the more authentic S&P shakers

http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=5727
via:http://del.icio.us/kevan/daleks

(the osterizer - which was generally an unfamiliar word in ostralia? - is more your example of 'found/ dalek'...)
Posted by boynton at October 28, 2005 02:06 PM

fully functional

bar briefcase (via collision detection)



seems to go with the cell phone hip flask

meanwhile make mine a chocolate thanks

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Comments: fully functional

If James Bond were a mixologist this'll be inside inside his brief too
Posted by Russell Allen at October 26, 2005 07:41 PM

.007?
Posted by boynton at October 27, 2005 10:05 AM

other dogs

A small footnote, but I read this quote by Murray Bail in The Guardian posted at Ramage:

It is only a matter of time in a Russian novel before a sturgeon arrives on a plate, a "fine sturgeon" or a "large sturgeon". It is like the appearance of bicycles in Irish novels, or the dog wagging its tail in every other Tom Roberts painting.

don't know much about Irish bicycles, but dogs in Roberts paintings?
Off-hand can only think of the Breakaway... even the iconic bailed up shearing the rams don't feature a dog, wagging or not.

anyway googling did not shed any light but did lead to this NGA Children's exhibition Dog (which only works here in IE)

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Comments: other dogs

Flann O'Brien's molecule exchange theory
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at October 24, 2005 07:48 PM

I always tought that was by McCubbin.
Posted by boynton at October 24, 2005 08:51 PM

aah McCubbin - didn't he do Afterbathing at Baxters?
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at October 24, 2005 09:25 PM

No, but maybe
A Small Package of Value Will Come to You Shortly
http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/australian/painting/m/apa00001.html

(spot the canine)
Posted by boynton at October 24, 2005 10:44 PM

thanks Boynton for the visually happy time spent on Roberts via Google images and for the improvement in my knowledge of Roberts via http://www.tomrobertsfestival.com.au/Background.htm
Posted by Brownie at October 25, 2005 01:01 PM

Well, they wouldn't allow me into the first parliament. And blowed (clever wool joke) if they would let me into the shearing shed.

Woof.

PS: You might consult my friend Irish Rover about bicycles in his books.
Posted by Fido at October 25, 2005 02:09 PM

Yes - the Festival looks good, Brownie.

Hmmm - must be a line about a bare-bellied-cujo going begging in there, not to mention a drover's dog...


(And forgot that Roberts' nickname was Bulldog)

"In a letter dated 6 November 1903, he says the work is nearly finished and includes a drawing of a bulldog (Roberts’ nickname was “Bulldog”) escaping from a collar and chain"

http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/education/Tom_Roberts_The_Big_Picture.htm


Posted by boynton at October 25, 2005 05:02 PM

Roberts: "A song then, Streeton."

Streeton: "Hey Bulldog?"
Posted by Tony.T at October 25, 2005 05:30 PM

Sorry - Working 9x5, Smike.
Posted by boynton at October 25, 2005 06:58 PM

meta things

What counts as wonder? Traditional esoterica remains a popular theme (you can look for anything, anywhere, if that's what you're determined to do), but the web also supplies us with contemporary esoterica, an emerging strand of visual culture that attempts to reconcile the immense realm of consumption and identity through curating, collecting, presenting, ensuring that objects set up a constant loop of feedback between memory and the present ...From the sublime to the ridiculous, or as Borges once noted, 'There is a kind of lazy pleasure in useless and out-of-the-way erudition.'

things on the web


also, the Walkey magazine on (pundit) blogs, citj v. proj - it's all about bonding...
Quiggin via barista

As for wikis - perhaps one day soon wikipedia will corner the market in the collecting and curating of the random and esoteric. Not only is it link central inc but dynamic, so the bonding can roll on.

resonian

Resonians in McNabbs Orchard, Ardmona.


Members of Reso party at Snobs Creek Hatchery

factory garden

At Strange Thoughts via a link trail from PCL:
Fun with Gelatin featuring a scan of the aerial view of the plant at Sydney The Largest Gelatine Factory In The World


More here on the landscape heritage - a rare Australian example of a factory garden inspired by the Garden City Movement.

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Comments: factory garden

All set for a perfectly manicured slaughter.

"..airborne particles from the factory buildings needed to be filtered by passing through trees.."
Posted by peacay at October 22, 2005 12:57 AM

airborne blood and bone..?
Posted by boynton at October 22, 2005 10:23 AM

Mm..I guess. So many twisted images come to mind. No wonder the gardens did so well. *shudder*
Posted by peacay at October 22, 2005 10:32 PM

meanwhile: San Franciso in Jello
http://www.lizhickok.com/assets/portfolio/pages/01city.html

(via presurfer)
http://presurfer.meepzorp.com/archive/2005_10_01_archive.html#113013195729441389
Posted by boynton at October 25, 2005 12:14 PM

There's parenting advice in there. Jelly will bring out teh gay. Ground cow will bring out teh sport. Legumes are just confused.
Posted by peacay at October 25, 2005 09:29 PM

I did manage to find another aerial view, of a pineapple... plant/factory from the same time to offset the slaughter.

But then I got distracted by the Reso train and the gardens of Ardmona (canned fruit)
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/b/2/2/doc/b22309.shtml

http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/b/2/2/doc/b22310.shtml
Posted by boynton at October 25, 2005 09:48 PM

They're both gelatin prints.
Posted by peacay at October 25, 2005 10:02 PM

walk the talk

Last week in the park a woman lingered on the path ahead of me, walking around in small downcast circles
You haven't seen a mobile phone? she asked with a half-hearted nod to the long grass.
No but I'll keep my eye out.
You won't find it! she said, and then gave me her address, hopelessly.

She was right. I myself lost the tennis ball twice in a 10 foot square later on, taking 10 minutes to locate it.

Meanwhile Cell phone could identify its owner by their walk.

Ailisto says, using the simple motion sensing gait method, the prototype phone correctly identified when it was being carried by someone other than its owner 98% of the time. It also only triggered accidentally, when it was with its rightful owner, 4% of the time

(via as above - kevan)


It lends a poignancy to the lost mobile in the park scenario. Even if phone recognised by gait code the worried walk of its rightful owner, it would still be powerless to call out and be found.

---

Comments: walk the talk

Why on earth didn't she borrow your phone to call her phone so that she could locate it that way?

Whenever I have misplaced my phone, I call it with the home phone and find it that way. This happens more frequently then I would like.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 20, 2005 06:47 PM

a) Didn't have my phone on me.

b) We're talkin'... 40 acres or more. With lots of ambient birdsong ...

I don't think paging would work?
Maybe they need a coo-ee mode.


Posted by boynton at October 20, 2005 07:05 PM

...on silent? I have a friend whose phone never gets to ring.
Posted by Kent at October 20, 2005 08:40 PM

like a bird that never gets to sing...

More pathos in that scenario then...
Can recognise rightful owner, is called - but is on silent.
Posted by boynton at October 20, 2005 09:04 PM

mmh - so Scott - she runs home from the park - calls her mobile - puts home phone down and runs back to park - hoping it hasn't gone through to voice mail.
My suggestion is to train the dog to find it.

I saw Moser jogging with his latest bonk the other night and he had Rex carrying his mobile in his mouth and presenting it to Moser when the phone rang.

That's style.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at October 21, 2005 10:06 AM

Can Rex txt?

(think I used that joke on barista a while back...
'When an Inspector txts'...shaggy dog joke)

Actually I do think my late labrador could have been trained to do that.
Posted by boynton at October 21, 2005 12:14 PM

What? Tell shaggy dog jokes? Not bad for a smooth haired breed.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at October 21, 2005 02:06 PM

Yes it may have been tedious and anti-climactic but it was way too short for a yarn.
Posted by boynton at October 21, 2005 02:37 PM

I'm very slow on the uptake today, FX...

He had a sense of humour, (some dogs don't you know)
but usually acted out his jokes.

Of course I think the correct standard is coarse?
Posted by boynton at October 21, 2005 03:36 PM

shells

SO IS THE INTERNET TRULY CREATING CONNECTIONS AMONG PEOPLE? OR DIVIDING US AS WE HIDE INSIDE OUR PRIVATE SHELLS?

Time Magazine The Road Ahead via the presurfer

 

Location: AUSTRALIA; VICTORIA; BOWEYA;

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Comments: shells

Cool article.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 20, 2005 04:34 PM

Quite possibly the girl with the book also holds a shell; and we notice the girl to her left holds a book as well.
Posted by vernaculo ajax me at October 20, 2005 06:57 PM

And! Small human figures!
Look! At the edge of the table!
Posted by and again me at October 20, 2005 06:59 PM

oh yes! I missed them.

Is it that thing again of books blurrring the natural sense of distance and scale?
Posted by boynton at October 20, 2005 07:16 PM

bush life

Bush Life -- Lunchtime "Cooee"

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Comments: bush life

Are they Jack Russells?

- no they're mine.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at October 19, 2005 07:32 PM

You don't know Jack, Russell.

And how do we know it's a coo-ee? Could easily be gazing off into space while nibbling on hard tack.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at October 19, 2005 09:29 PM

How on earth did they get him to stand still? Pioneer discipline?
Posted by laura at October 20, 2005 08:58 AM

I'd say a Foxie, FX, Smooth.

Who knows if there was a cooee within a cooee?

Lucky it's not a bluey cooee.
No pioneer discipline in the world would be effective.
Posted by boynton at October 20, 2005 02:18 PM

pipe trees

8 ways to use The Pipe Tree

View a scanned image of National Tube's "Pipe Family" tree from the February 1937 issue of US Steel News The Setting

Man with pipe - Basque tree carvings site

hearing glasses

Are the glasses listening?


*

 

 




*

 

 

Deafness in Disguise Concealed Hearing Devices of the 19th and 20th Centuries
via cynical-c

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Comments: hearing glasses

mp3 players just don't have the same panache as a dentaphone.

I wonder if they combined them with a pipe.
'I can't hear you, I'll have to light my hearing aid.'
Posted by peacay at October 18, 2005 07:21 PM

Pipe down...

Actually some of the trumpet pics
http://medcat.wustl.edu/cgi/arb.cgi?796758042:DID:ARS1:

do look like pipes...
http://www.manuelshaabi.com/html/verfugbare_pfeifen_available_p.html
Posted by boynton at October 18, 2005 07:48 PM

- um, that first link will still work if you search for "trumpets"...


Posted by boynton at October 18, 2005 08:44 PM

pardon? I've run out of matches.
Posted by peacay at October 18, 2005 10:14 PM

http://www.subclub.org/shop/camlite1.htm
Posted by boynton at October 19, 2005 10:12 AM

*sniff* Just like the zippo I left in a Thai gutter.

Boys need more accessorizing.
Posted by peacay at October 19, 2005 12:23 PM

not a tie in a seppo gutter? ;)

and seems there was a tie clip hearing aid in the 50's, along with some other accessories:
http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/did/20thcent/part3.htm
Posted by boynton at October 19, 2005 01:39 PM

three

boynton turns three today

I don't know which of these images best sums up one's thoughts on blogging
but thank you for sharing part of the journey.

---

Comments: three

Happy blogiversary.

I'll take the goat for mine.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at October 17, 2005 05:24 PM

Happy Birthday Dear Boynton, everyone knows it takes 3 years to get a garden or a Vintage going, and that the fourth year is the Masterpiece, so I happily anticipate The Very Special Old Pale Boynton VSOP.
Cheers!
Posted by Brownie at October 17, 2005 06:04 PM

I'll tether the goat here for a week and then send him over to the Tugboat for your celebrations, Gummo.
(not for a ragout ;)
Posted by boynton at October 17, 2005 06:05 PM

Cheers, Brownie!

I will certainly become older and paler ;)
Posted by boynton at October 17, 2005 06:10 PM

LOve your blog. Glad you've kept it up this long. Congrats. Many happy returns...
Posted by Gerry at October 17, 2005 06:19 PM

Quite a hurdle. Happy blogday oh pale one!
Posted by saint at October 17, 2005 06:19 PM

Hey thanks - appreciate that.

btw - just noticed that not only did 'the Age' first publish on this date 151 years ago (see last year's blogiversary edition) but National Geographic issued number one on 17/10 1888.*
*via Grow a Brain


(Think I've become old and pallid in the last year of blogging otherwise I might have whipped up a "National Boyntographic" commemorative edition...
Too late now)
Posted by boynton at October 17, 2005 06:34 PM

Happy B-Day.

Only one girl is applauding. One is eating her fingers and one is kneading a kitten.
Posted by Tony.T at October 17, 2005 09:18 PM

merci

I thought it was a digital camera, but maybe it is a digital kitten.
Maybe she's the third year of blogging - knows the score and can applaud and record at the same time.
Posted by boynton at October 17, 2005 10:11 PM

I suppose a rogan josh is out of the question too :(
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at October 17, 2005 10:52 PM

Good for a Cup Day celebration.
Posted by boynton at October 17, 2005 11:19 PM

Wow! Three! Well done.
Posted by Link at October 17, 2005 11:22 PM

http://www.qwantz.com/fanart/qwantz-FREE%20PENIS%20ENLARGER!%2050%24%20VALUE!.PNG
Posted by peacay at October 17, 2005 11:47 PM

Well done :)
Posted by Kent at October 18, 2005 12:59 AM

Happy B!
I am applauding this effort. You can't hear anything cos a) you are very far away and b) i've only got one arm.
Posted by Russell Allen at October 18, 2005 02:16 AM

All three seem appropriate, but from my experience I'd have to say the image of pulling the goat is most appropriate.

After four years, I find it amazingly easy to write some days and darn near impossible on others.

Still, it's always fun to watch someone else try to move that goat.
Posted by Loren Webster at October 18, 2005 04:01 AM

May I? "Garlands for Miss Boynton, beggin' y'pardon, mum...":

http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/search/reference.asp?index=13&imageUID=49438&main_query=celebration&theme=&period=&county=&district=&place_name=

congratulations!


Posted by Dave at October 18, 2005 12:06 PM

I like this, peacay :

"In the cool of morning
I fry up a slab of SPAM
A dog barks next door"

Alas I don't get the strange email spam anymore,
http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/009179.html

but I've tried to make that old spam scan:

It’s about your life
And it is more serious
Than A heart attack


you will spite yourself
to not read every word here
You still have a chance

Thnks Link, Kent, armless Russ
and Loren, yes I think the three girls applauding another bloggers' efforts at jumping over the daily hurdle sums up most of my blogging experience.
Still the Goat is part of a Beach Carnival afterall, so that's important.

And thanks ever so much, Mr Ramage.
Beautiful.
I like this description
"As the traditional customs generally involved noise, begging or the risk of bad behaviour, many people were happy to see them go. Henry Taunt, however, was among those who wanted to preserve the attractive parts of these festivities and to maintain a link with a more romantic past."


Posted by boynton at October 18, 2005 12:40 PM

This comment was sent least having enough control so as to be safe from slavery by any other species.
Posted by peacay at October 18, 2005 03:51 PM

Congrats Miss B.
Posted by cs at October 18, 2005 04:31 PM

please narrator let us know.
This kindred comment was enhance sent seventeenth century...

thanks cs
Posted by boynton at October 18, 2005 05:15 PM

Belated happy 3, B. Yes, as a Radio Userland client, it's the goat for me too!
Posted by Dick at October 19, 2005 06:21 PM

Thanks, Dick.
Seems like the goat gets the vote...

Despite those days when blogging gets my goat...
http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-humour/goat%2000%20Bridge%202%20Troll%201.htm

(for troll I mean spam from messrs dEXcLatWkB etc ;)
Posted by boynton at October 20, 2005 02:06 PM

Feel it would be foolish to attempt to improve on the immortal words of Martin the Loofah King:- "Three at last! Three at last! Thank God Almighty, she are three at last."

(Sorry, the congratulationalisations are unconscionably belated, however we were in the culpable hands of the Significant Other-in-law as he moved us painlessly across to Internode broad bean.)
Posted by Sedgwick at October 21, 2005 12:28 PM

cheers, Sedge.

Broad bean land beckons, (somewhere near broady?) but I'm still in languid has been land.
Posted by boynton at October 21, 2005 12:48 PM

wardle doodle

Be confident and face a swooping bird... the government

For the second time in my life I got swooped by a magpie.
It's hard not to take these things personally.
It may have been my Swans 109th Grand Finalists cap that made it see red
Anyway I was confident and faced the bird as it contemplated a third swoop from the top of the telephone pole.

quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle *

* Dennis Glover via Wikipedia.

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Comments: wardle doodle

Heh.
http://static.flickr.com/28/48245125_92e3cb9f70.jpg?v=0
He was on holidays.
Magpie attacks are the new weapons of intercity rivalry.
Posted by peacay at October 15, 2005 10:20 PM

I find the small branch of a gum tree held just above head height and shaken continuously while strolling through enemy lines seems to deter these pesky kamikazees.
Posted by Link at October 16, 2005 12:29 AM

peacay - your city's maggie looks like it is adopting Link's strategy - theough with a bunch of celery held by the feet.
(apologies to serious iconography/ornithography)

I have to say I like that solution, Link.
Better than the dreaded drawn-eyes-on-a-hat look.
I think I did read something about certain colours being bad - like red and orange, so may have to stop gloating about the football and wear my white hat again.
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2005 12:55 PM

I'm probably the one who should apologize, for that's a 14th century Hungarian family crest.

I always thought the eye-scream container on the head was novel fashion defence.
Posted by peacay at October 16, 2005 01:22 PM

Mouthing nasty threats to them as they flap nervously about in the trees works for me.
Posted by Kent at October 16, 2005 01:22 PM

So does that very scenario explain an eye-scream container?

Sounds like you are sufficiently confident, Kent, to see them as the nervous ones ;)
Actually - I'm not phobic or even very anxious about swooping magpies - still having great regard for their oodle.
http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/002927.html
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2005 01:44 PM

Great to see you at the grogblog Boynton.
I hereby present you with the award for the Blogger Most Like Their Blog.

I LOVE magpies and wish humans guarded their children as assiduously as the maggies do.
I love their morning song and their mournful going home in the evening song. I enjoy provoking their sidelong WTF? glance with my convincing mimic of a hungry chick. My advice to Magpie battlers is: just wear Spring hats.
Posted by Brownie at October 16, 2005 01:54 PM

Great to meet you, Brownie.
Hope to see you (and youse all) at the next big rantwittering.

I love magpies too - which is maybe why I took it personally. I've always tried to "keep an eye out" for their predators...
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2005 07:19 PM

Yesterday I watched swans on the pond in the middle of the Botanic Gardens swooping on unsuspecting waterbugs drifting round under the surface.

So sorry I missed this grogblog - Fridays I work very late. Next time, I hope.
Posted by Laura at October 16, 2005 08:29 PM

m a g p i e

sounds like a drag racers nourishment.
Posted by peacay at October 16, 2005 09:03 PM

Swans flooding the pond?


or
m a g p i?
suped-up circumferences?
http://www.wethepeople.de/2004/product.php?nr=224
Posted by boynton at October 17, 2005 01:20 PM

Rainbow lorikeet or lyrebird pie would be more easily digested t'would think.
Posted by peacay at October 17, 2005 04:45 PM

Hmph, auspicious use of bullets would result in natural selection of a breed of maggies better suited to living with humans.

**Ducks, as several bloggers swoop hard**

Good seeing you at drinkies, thanks for coming, I had a top night!
Posted by armaniac at October 17, 2005 05:16 PM

Only pigeon pie on the avian-rich menu, peacay:
http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/ebindshow.pl?doc=f990_1_c/a086;seq=13


Yes - you'd better wear sunglasses on the back of your head at the next rantwittering, armaniac.

Thanks for organising it - a very enjoyable evening spent in coolsville Rucker's Hill.
Posted by boynton at October 17, 2005 05:57 PM

parade

There was talk of a parade....

osterizer

From a flickr set of vintage cookbooks:Recipes for the Two-Speed Osterizer

The Deluxe osterizer recipes seem a dash more existential.

---

Comments: osterizer

If I took one of them things to a BBQ would I be shunned and osterasized by the cognescenti?
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at October 14, 2005 05:54 PM

Depends on the snag ratio?
Posted by boynton at October 14, 2005 05:56 PM

It's what Davros prepares his food with. "Puréed broccoli please, Doc. Torrrrr."
Posted by Tony.T at October 14, 2005 06:37 PM

You're right. Very Dalekian.

"Osterize it! ...

Perhaps the terror could be quelled by a cup of tea and staring at a waffle.
Posted by boynton at October 15, 2005 12:26 PM

vanishing

At The library of vanished sounds, it was the Grandmother Clock ticking and striking (found under Various) that struck home.


via I like, there are some good clips at BBC 4's The Lost Decade, but I took a diversion to the 1950's Home style and got lost in the 1950's kitchens at the Museum of Modern Design

I think I would find so many cupboards quite stunning


and New! Parakeets Available...Parakeets rest on your finger and sing to you

---

Comments: vanishing

That 'stunning' kitchen has really odd perspective else that's the smallest mixmaster I've ever seen.

No, it's odd.
Posted by peacay at October 14, 2005 03:37 PM

Oh yes I see what you mean.

I thought it was the 50's geometrical thing happening but no, the walls are falling in...

Might think the yellow wallcupboard syndrome, but it looks too amusing. Like the after coffee entertainment.
Posted by boynton at October 14, 2005 03:46 PM

I was thinking that it's like vortexvision, the homogenized vanilla virgin 50s vista. Our kitchens (and our decade) will warp your space-time continuum.
Posted by peacay at October 14, 2005 04:26 PM

The Modern Miracle You See Without The Use Of Tumblers!
http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/i_have_seen_the_robe-2.htm
Posted by boynton at October 14, 2005 05:21 PM

heh. Now that's some understated prose!
Posted by peacay at October 14, 2005 05:49 PM

btw - this is actually the kitchen my blue canisters and I would prefer:
http://www.moda.mdx.ac.uk/tellingtales/aids/1950/pop/50kit_01.htm

looks fairly stable in comparison to the (canary) yellow...give or take a few onions?
Posted by boynton at October 14, 2005 05:51 PM

Just needs a preening skirt wearer and a gun chef ;-)
Posted by peacay at October 14, 2005 06:31 PM

Perhaps that's why Len D was armed.
In case the cupboards advanced?
Posted by boynton at October 15, 2005 12:17 PM

ok, that made me laugh.
Posted by peacay at October 15, 2005 10:14 PM

Whilst cleaning out the shed today I came across a bunch of reasonably well preserved 1950s- 1960's Australian Picture and Post Magazines.

Are you a collector Mrs Boynton? If you would look after them I could arrange to lend them to you for a long lend.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at October 15, 2005 11:26 PM

Used to collect magazines of that era- but not Picture and Post. Sounds fab! A short lend would be wonderful.

(Mrs? are you having a lend of me, FX?
Usually ms, though I'm still so amiss, but might accept 'reasonably well preserved')
Posted by boynton at October 16, 2005 12:46 PM

the times

Sing Along with some of the most defining and popular War (Protest) songs of the 1960’s from Brownielocks and the 3 bears

---

Comments: the times

That webpage design will enter the kitsch hall of fame, probably before it has fallen off its host.

There endeth my protest.
Posted by peacay at October 14, 2005 12:39 AM

I could get nostalgic for the heritage myself and blog about it.

Possibly the one-horse blog and its default template will be seen as heritage soon.
Posted by boynton at October 14, 2005 01:03 AM

enthusuastic

It was her wedding day, she was married at home and the guests played tennis thereafter.


Elastic Enthusiastic (via the presurfer)

---

Comments: enthusiastic

Catchy title? Or is it a caption? It may well make a huge difference.
Posted by Tony.T at October 11, 2005 01:35 PM

It's Catchy.
Or is it?
...the tension...
Posted by boynton at October 11, 2005 01:39 PM

The wedding guests in the background seem disinterested.

I'm disappointed I couldn't strangle her or get her to land on their heads. That said, I'm embarrassed about how long it stole of my attention.
Posted by peacay at October 11, 2005 03:10 PM

Another match in progress on the outside courts?

I thought she was going to cause an upset too.
It all seems very chivalrous really.
Posted by boynton at October 11, 2005 05:47 PM

thereafter? - for ever and ever - Amen?
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at October 12, 2005 01:00 PM

a match made in...a higher court...?

Amen is something never heard on Foxtel I believe.
Posted by boynton at October 12, 2005 03:36 PM

I would pay for Foxtel is they showed the Friesian Open Tennis Championship
Posted by Russell Allen at October 14, 2005 08:17 AM

Yes it's become rather tedious with the dominance of the Herefords, and the Hereford style of play.
Posted by boynton at October 14, 2005 11:11 AM

authority

What makes Cheryl such an authority on dog bites? She gets bitten by dogs for a living.


found while musing on the general question of why the bluey nips (in the air mainly when she's in the zone where none can go in and negotiate)

---

Comments: authority

Dog Scouts?
Dib dib dib dob dob growl.
Posted by peacay at October 10, 2005 11:27 PM

Scouting bites
http://143.216.21.253/mpcimg/57000/B56774.htm
Posted by boynton at October 10, 2005 11:39 PM

car sales

A series of portraits of Car Salesmen by Phillip Toledano (via things)

Ford Times 1966
(via old children's books set via grow a brain)


"Dad, what will cars be like when I grow up?"
Informed men hesitate to predict exactly how future cars will look...pastelogram

contents

Open All Night is a place to visit alright ...

and incindentally, when I read this Kafka Table of Contents recently, (via this space )
I recalled the postings there on other indices ...

world qotd

And it was a disastrous start for the World with the loss of four early wickets


(or something like that, caught as I walked through the lounge when the ABC news was on...)

---

Comments: world qotd

So atlas played cricket?

Feh. I have my ups and downs with cricket. The ashes was great but I fear my interest is waning. I think my yearly sport timeclock is out of whack.
Posted by peacay at October 9, 2005 11:32 PM

This silly series has barely registered, peacay.

The Ashes, otoh, quickly became compulsive viewing...
Posted by boynton at October 9, 2005 11:42 PM

- just heard Gideon Haigh on 774 describe it as "piped music" compared to the Opera (Ashes)
Posted by boynton at October 11, 2005 11:56 AM

dream warning

This one doesn't exist in reality, as far as I know. This is a quick sketch of a warning sign that I saw in a dream, posted on a side wall of a freeway lane that was under construction. I got sort of lost trying to find a way to get a clear picture of it in the dream

Stick Figure Warning Signs via Daily Jive

beatle dreaming

The Savage Young Beatles Photos of the Beatles 1950's-1963

Many of these photos are very well known and have been seen throughout the past 40 years but it's certain that you will find a great many that you've never seen.

via PCL Linkdump and presurfer
 

The further we get from the Beatles, the bigger they become — in importance, influence and as a subject for research...

Yet the bigger the Beatles become, the smaller are the fragments unearthed. Almost everybody remotely connected to the band, from tea boys to chauffeurs, has now given us their memoirs...Hunter Davies

(and I missed the significance of yesterday apparently... but you soon find out that every milestone is covered in the beatle-dreaming...)

John stole the harmonica used in this song in a music shop in Arnhem...

---

Comments: beatle dreaming

Well if you didn't know about it, perhaps it is not true. Adelaide radio has been known to be wrong before.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 7, 2005 05:10 PM

I thought it was 11/9 but that's only one of the recording dates apparently...

(Yeah yeah yeah - you should see how many Beatles questions I get wrong at Trivia these days...
can't even recognise the songs anymore ;)
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2005 05:16 PM

I started to look at the photos and could not go on. all too sad. in the 1950's one with the caption about 'the future Mrs Lennon in an eyelock with Paul', John looks so much like his son Julian it's scary for me and must be worse for Julian.
In high school (1964) we loved the ANNA track from With the Beatles LP and 15 years later, my friend Joanne named her daughter Anna after it. awww.
Posted by Brownie at October 8, 2005 12:43 PM

I know what you mean about the sadness.

George looks scarily like his son Dhani too.

One of my nephews was named after one of the fab four...(not Ringo)
Posted by boynton at October 8, 2005 01:19 PM

water

Prompted by a comment by TT on the Doomed Engineers link, I googled my way to Water Medicine ... Its tour follows the life of C.Y. O'Connor, who designed the pipeline that supplies water to the goldfields in Kalgoorlie.

C.Y. O'Connor's suicide note...

action cook

Len Deighton's Action Cookbook - one of NPR's Author's Lowlights
(via As above, kevan)

more at gremolata

The cover shows Deighton stirring a pot of spaghetti while a woman runs her hands suggestively through his hair. He’s got a gun hanging loosely by his side and is looking out at the reader with the kind of knowing glance that’s usually accompanied by a wink.

---

Comments: action cook

Personally, I preferred the gremolata review; great book, lousy cover.

"While a chapter entitled “Bachelor Foods: (The Quick Cook)” contains two pages on sandwich-making, he also thinks that a vol-au-vent or a Potage Saint Germain should be well within any novice’s grasp. All of the recipes are easy to follow and all, amazingly, work."

This sent me a-hunting through the recipe books for Potage Saint-Germain. Here's a recpe for it:

1 lb dried green split peas; 1 carrot; 1 onion; 1/4 lb bacon trimmings; 2 cloves; 1 bouquet garni; 1/4 lb butter; 1/4 pint cream; 4 pints white stock (chicken or veal).

Soak peas overnight in cold water, bring to the boil in water, skim and drain. Put the chopped vegetables together with the peas, diced bacon and bouquet garni into a saucepan and sweat (saute) slowly for one hour and mix in the stock, bring to the boil, season with sugar and salt. Remove from the heat and add the butter and cream. Serve with fried croutons.

I'd go with the veal stock (much richer than chicken); chopped herbs or a faggot of herbs would be OK substitutes for the bouquet garni. Ham might be preferable to the bacon.

I've been cooking something very similar to this for years, minus the cream. I've even found something a lot like it in tins at the supermarket.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at October 6, 2005 03:50 PM

Yes - it was mainly the cover and the title that caught my eye. In this related link, (which I forgot to post)
http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0539,essay,68210,10.html
it's explained that:
"It is not a good cookbook. It is a shockingly good cookbook: I can attest that thanks to his "action strips" of cooking instructions in comic-strip form, you and Len can create a fine chicken paprika. How can this be? Hidden within his explanation of dessert trifle is the spymaster's top secret: Deighton was an assistant pastry chef before he turned his attention to pistol silencers and femmes fatales."

I also like recipes in comic book form. I have a great example from England post WW2, with a narrative about a new bride coping with austerity cuisine and unsolicited matronly advice about jerusalem artichokes. Unfortunately, my books aren't here, so can't scan at the moment...

Thanks for the recipe. Might have to subsitute something for bacon ("Not Bacon"?) and - would go for the chicken stock over the veal.
Wonder how that would go in comic book form?
Posted by boynton at October 6, 2005 05:03 PM

"Not Bacon" would have to be something salty and smoked, I think. Eel might be interesting.

Not sure how that would look in a comic book though.

PS - I refuse to get dragged into that old veal stock vs chicken stock controversy again.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at October 6, 2005 06:11 PM

Yeah but can he sing "Melancholy Baby"?
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at October 6, 2005 07:55 PM

That Potage Saint Germain looks a bit like my Pea 'n' 'am Soup. Whats the essential difference?
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at October 6, 2005 08:00 PM

Maybe he can whistle Morricone - looks like Spaghetti Western...

I'm almost up to speed now on the history of this book...from Deighton's columns in The Observer
and the Trivia re Ipcress...
"As Deighton was writing a cooking strip appearing in the London Observer, copies of this strip were plastered on the walls of Harry Palmer's kitchen. One trick the spy used, cracking two eggs together with one-hand, was beyond Caine's ability. Viewers of the film might notice Palmer's hands have dark hairs in that shot and not the blond follicles of Michael Caine--they were the hands of Len Deighton. "
http://wbritton53.home.att.net/caine.htm
Posted by boynton at October 6, 2005 11:16 PM

FX,

I dunno what the essential difference would be. And the recipe I found might not be definitive either. Puzzling, isn't it?

It does suggest an easy cheat when you find yourself stuck for a soup for a dinner party though; a couple of tins of pea 'n ham and 200 mls of cream from the supermarket and bingo: Potage Saint-Germain!
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at October 7, 2005 01:22 PM

So it's a gun that's been missing from my veggie curries. The fawning woman and choosing an impressively large dish I have down pat.
"Add smith & wesson 38 special, pause, glance nonchalantly". "Eat".
Posted by peacay at October 7, 2005 02:17 PM

a gun cook

fire up stove...
walk ten paces
shoot cupboard open...
take out the pasta
pump 5 rounds of spaghetti into saucepan
ponder fwiw

graze...
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2005 04:02 PM

cheery

Various Cosy Catastrophes and Dreadful Dooms (via things)

Apocalyptic Appendages
Post-apocalyptic disaster stories and nuclear nightmares with a twist
(via cynical c)

Doomed Engineers
a list of the tragic and failed
(via topher tune's times)

---

Comments: cheery

Just finished The Chrysalids. Mutants couldn't hold a stinging to a triffid.
Posted by Kent at October 6, 2005 05:59 AM

You're right...
http://www.netomer.de/flickrtagfight/chrysalid.triffid.fight


Posted by boynton at October 6, 2005 12:52 PM

There's a story O'Connor (the guy what built the pipeline to Kalgoorlie) turned on the tap at Kal only to discover there was no water. He was shattered, so he shot himself and then moments later the water came out.

It sounds dramatic, but it looks like the reality is somewhat more mundane. Well, as mundane as suicide can be.
Posted by Tony.T at October 7, 2005 01:43 PM

Riding his horse into the Ocean...
poetic and tragic...

http://kitezh.com/watermedicine/tour/kal/cy5.htm
Posted by boynton at October 7, 2005 03:45 PM

pismronunciation

Vale Ronnie Barker...

Ronnie Barker monologue: Pismronunciation

Audio here (pismonunciation ) with other mp3s

---

Comments: pismronunciation

They are two different versions..pismorunciation. That would be hust go dard to streak eden myth a stripped.

That's all my childhood now gone in a matter of a couple of weeks. *sigh* RB was the best. Gilligan/Max were just fluff.
Posted by peacay at October 5, 2005 02:03 PM

Oh dear ... Haudio ear...
Once I found the audio I forgot about the text, but yes 2 different versions.

Not forgetting Dave Allen in March...

Gilligan was fluff - never really liked the show, but liked him, and had heard of him in Dobie.

But Max! was Max! is Max.
One out of the box...
or off it...

And RB - one out of the box...

What a sad year...
Posted by boynton at October 5, 2005 02:24 PM

Was going to say much the same myself boyn, at the risk of being glib, alas tis true, the world has got a lot less funny.
Posted by Link at October 6, 2005 08:36 AM

I'm hearing good reports about Lenny Henry's show coming to ABC TV. Heres hoping that comedy might once again be funny.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at October 6, 2005 10:13 AM

Tis...
Hope so...
Posted by boynton at October 6, 2005 01:04 PM

Must say, Open All Hours was my fav RB. Never have I seen the small business mentality captured so hilariously. If only they would repeat the series ...
Posted by cs at October 6, 2005 01:41 PM

Didn't ever see Open All Hours, so a repeat would be great.
Posted by boynton at October 6, 2005 02:24 PM

Miss, you have missed an absolute gem. The hilarity turns around the way shopkeeper (RB) is totally incapable of seeing any part of the world in any terms other than his own selfish interests. Each episode sets up challenges to this, which always fail completely. Like Yes Minister, it humorously hovers only slightly away from recognisable truths. Cracks me up, I tell ya.
Posted by cs at October 6, 2005 02:43 PM

Sounds good, cs. Wonder if you can hire it...
Posted by boynton at October 6, 2005 04:53 PM

dashing

Ramage has the lowdown on dashing men with eye patches

but that quote is from a review of "Shag: The Art of Josh Agle"


House as art, dig?

---

Comments: dashing

The other Ramage wouldn't have taken no nonsense from them high-seas buccaneers.

http://www.personal.usyd.edu.au/~slaw/SuesPage/ramage.htm

Huzzar!
Posted by Tony.T at October 4, 2005 03:41 PM

Hmm...
wonder if Pope smoked a Pipe...
(another dashing mid-century accessory apparently)
Posted by boynton at October 4, 2005 05:00 PM

- actually the Man with Pipe in the second pic on the "Shag" link (Fondue Set) does indeed cut a dashing figure. V-neck, serving cocktails in presence of Fondue *and" Canine - that's tres suave.
Posted by boynton at October 4, 2005 06:55 PM

first man

NASA did not broadcast the departing utterance of Apollo 17’s Eugene Cernan, the last ever made from the moon, but his words—“Let’s get this mutha outta here”—now seem less canned than Armstrong’s immortal banality about “one giant leap for mankind.”

Moon Walker How Neil Armstrong brought the space program down to earth.

A review of First Man by Thomas Mallon
(via Jerz's Literacy Weblog)


The Cartoonist: Mattel's Man In Space

inamnimate

Thing is - when I saw the dead fruit bat hanging from barbed wire above the creek, I mistook it for an umbrella. Poor thing, with its magnificent unbroken wing.

But then on the way home from the park, the blue heeler mistook the common black garbage bag for some sort of herd-able fauna. She had several takes and did not seem to correct her original vision.

---

Comments: inanimate

~ http://www.oliversacks.com/hat.htm
Posted by peacay at October 3, 2005 10:43 PM

Problem with bluey is that often I am the woman who mistook her dog for a pet ;)
Posted by boynton at October 4, 2005 01:22 PM

barrackville

A former Westralian
interstate player
Richards is defending
grandly for South Mel-
bourne. He is the
model of consistency,
and his clearing dashes
are effective.

I have scanned some of my father's collection of old South Melbourne Football cards from the 1930's. This is number one in Hoadley's Series of 100 League Footballers.
(Apparently Hoadley's Chocolates were based in Barrackville, Melbourne)
Each carries a cryptic Safety Council Warning, like Don't play on Railway Lines or Any Wire May Be a Live Wire.

A Classic Spring Day today when one has to watch for cricketers emerging from hibernation in the parks, but the glow of football victory has not quite disappeared...

---

Comments: barrackville

--------------------
Effective?
--------------------
Posted by peacay at October 2, 2005 07:43 PM

- - - Affective? - - -
Posted by boynton at October 3, 2005 01:51 PM

++++++++++++++++++++++

Silly Season

++++++++++++++++++++++
Posted by Scott Wickstein at October 3, 2005 04:05 PM

- - - - - - -
affective disorderly dashing

- !

-
Posted by peacay at October 3, 2005 04:32 PM

-
damn! --parsed effectively -
-
-

- -
Posted by peacay at October 3, 2005 04:35 PM

Richards (for South Melb) would display an
es em dash...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash_(punctuation)#Em_dash

an ability to suddenly break out into parathentical play.
Posted by boynton at October 3, 2005 05:38 PM

Too stupid to learn how to do trackback...

http://dox.media2.org/castironbalcony/archives/002441.html
Posted by Helen at October 8, 2005 10:58 PM

I think ubersp...trackback was disabled after a spam blitz, Helen...

My own trackback would be: I'm honoured to be cited in such a great cast-iron post. Hope everyone springs over to the balcony...
Posted by boynton at October 9, 2005 08:28 PM