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.

---

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)

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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)

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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)

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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

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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?

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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.

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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...

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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