|
|
Here is a collection of notes to various really, really obscure references and puns and other stuff in the essays that, if either of us had a life, I wouldn't be writing and you wouldn't be reading. -Enjoy! RHB |
| No computers were harmed in the making of this essay.
1 Though, just to make things worse, the actual fourteen days of those weeks are largely non-contiguous.
2 In spite of what I said in Feathers an' Fluff last year I really do miss the little buggers.
3 Busily keeping Austin weird.
4 I really wish they'd deliver to Beccles.
| | | And don't just take it from me:
Seagulls don't deserve our protection
Seagull rage
1 Pringle Of Scotland® - Luxury Knitwear Since 1815
2 Desert Island Discs
3 2019
4 Only if you are really desperate, or really, REALLY curious (in all senses of the word)
| | |
1 That Du côté de chez Swann begins "Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure" is a mere coincidence.
2 British Emporium
3 I nearly said "spilling the Beans", but that would be a totally different essay!
4 British Egg Marketing Board E for B Commercial with Mr Best. As you can see from the link that chant was not as accurate as you might think. | | | 1 If you need to refresh your memory.
2 As sung by Ilona Massey in the 1939 musical Balalaika
At The Balalaika
music George Posford, lyrics Eric Maschwitz
When the melancholy shadows fall
My heart is melancholy too
Then I hear the Balalaika's call
And life is gay and bright and new
At the Balalaika
Where there is magic in the sparkling wine,
And mellow music in the candles' shine
I have a rendezvous!
At the Balalaika,
Who knows what ecstasy tonight may bring,
What lovely melody my heart may sing,
Before the night is through,
I hear a violin, a haunting gypsy violin
And when it sighs its strangely tender song
I know that I belong
At the Balalaika
Oh let me linger there till break of day
Where hearts are young and balalaikas play
I have a rendezvous!
At the Balalaika
Oh let me linger there till break of day
Where hearts are young and balalaikas play
I have a rendezvous!
3 Written just before WWII though of course portrayed as just before WWI.
4 Though I believe his politics was more marital
5 Actually, on reflection, I think this is more likely a song I made up a couple of months ago and just HAD to add. (A contrafactum on A Bushel and a Peck by Frank Loesser
I love you a bushel and a peck
A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck
A hug around the neck and a barrel and a heap
A barrel and a heap and I'm talkin' in my sleep
About you, about you
'Cause I love you a bushel and a peck
You bet your purdy neck I do
A doodle oodle oh
A doodle oodle oodle oh doo
I love you a bushel and a peck
A bushel and a peck though you make my heart a wreck
Make my heart a wreck and you make my life a mess
Make my life a mess, yes a mess of happiness
About you, about you
...
I love you a bushel and a peck
A bushel and a peck and it beats me all to heck
It beats me all to heck, how I'll never tend the farm
Never tend the farm when I wanna keep my arm
About you, about you
...
A doodle oodle oodle oh doo
A doodle oodle ooh doo doo
(My version is sooo much better!)
6 Population collapse cycles see
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
7 Extinction Events and a list of the buggers!
| | | 1 Rich with nourishing marrowbone jelly. Pedigree Chum dog food: 1974.
2 Fry's Turkish Delight is a chocolate sweet made by Cadbury.
3 Brylcreem. See also this YouTube.
4
A White Restaurateur Advertised 'Clean' Chinese Food. Chinese-Americans Had Something to Say About It.
| | | 1 On the origin of the poem. There is still a lot of debate about this: vide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf, https://www.ancient.eu/Beowulf/ etc
2 George R Sims: see my Shed 'em now. Here is a later, though inferior, version of the poem.
3 Sister. It has long been traditional to refer to dragons as 'he', but unlike amoebae they were sexual creatures: where do you think baby dragons came from? Eh??
4 The rhyme shows that Mr Sims didn't know how to pronounce 'Smaug' (/smaʊɡ/) or 'blog' (/blɒɡ/) or quite possibly both.
5 See the Wictionary entry for Wealas
6 This is no doubt a veiled reference to the scurrilous rhyme:
Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief; Taffy came to my house and stole a piece of beef. I went to Taffy's house, Taffy wasn't home; Taffy came to my house and stole a marrow-bone. I went to Taffy's house, Taffy was in bed, I took the marrow-bone and beat about his head.
7 For non-UK listeners that's "Extremely Hot" 270°C (520°F)
8 Wiggling and laughing is just what Wiglaf would do, even though it's pronounced [ˈwiːjlɑːf] and not as you might think.
| | | ¹ 𒄑𒂅𒈦, originally 𒄑𒉈𒂵𒈩
² 𒈹 or possibly, with a name like I-Nanna, his Grandma.
| | | ¹ Though I may be able to avoid the Re/De-cline after all! The Plano Rec Centers have re-opened, but with instructions that include "wearing of face masks is optional". This is officialese (as I'm sure you all know) for 'guess who will be the only one wearing a mask, when the main benefit is from everyone else wearing one'. To make up for this they do insist on gloves "...that cover the fingertips to the wrist when using fitness equipment..."!!??*
_______________________
* Update: they now say "...Members are encouraged to wear gloves..." and they don't mention face masks AT ALL!! | | |
1 Desert
"... creating a desert and calling it peace" 'solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant' was how old P. Cornelius Tacitus
put it in his Agricola. And here are some links to prove I don't make this stuff up!
Conkers hit by legal fears
Fury at lopped down conker trees
Conker trees face the chop
Pupils wear goggles for conkers
Dangerous Musical Chairs
Government urged to give children more opportunities for unstructured play
Even the French get in on the Conker act. | | | ¹ Though having said that, I feel I should be cautious, remembering the time, several years ago, that I got into dreadful trouble with the NRA, and considered having to go into hiding and change my name, when I compared baseball to the ancient English game of rounders, which it strongly resembles, and I happened to express the erroneous opinion that unlike baseball, rounders is nowadays only ever played by tiny, tiny children in the U.K. Boy are those officials of the National Rounders Association an unforgiving lot! Anyway, as Captain Edward Smith once said: let's plough on regardless! See the note to: Land of Glory? Not a Hope! for the full horror!
² Difficult circumstances: in cricket a damp, soft pitch may make the ball bounce in a less predictable way.
³ Extremely shocked or upset: from the highest scoring action, where six runs are awarded to a batsman who hits the ball over the boundary without it touching the ground.
⁴ Unfair: based on the surprising belief that cricketers were somehow absolutely sportsman-like and would NEVER break or bend the rules, or at least were in the mythical past.
⁵ Unexpected, odd or strange: from the area covered by the left fielder who has the farthest throw to first base.
⁶ Left-handed: from the orientation of early baseball fields to the same points of the compass, such that the pitcher's left arm was on the "south" side of his body. One of the few expressions for such chirality not based on superstition or jealousy.
⁷ XXX—I'm sure I don't need to explain what that means to YOU of all people!
⁸ Such as the one about the kid who was supposed to be up at bat, but instead was actually a fair way up a nearby tree.
⁹ Rounders, on the other hand... | |
 |
 |
| Home | Essays | Notes | Gallery | Miscellany | Contact |
All contents including writing, cartooning, music, and photography unless otherwise specified are
copyright © 1965-2023 howlandbolton.com and Richard Howland-Bolton. All Rights Reserved.
All logos and trademarks on this site are property of their respective owners. | Web work* by 
*as distinct from Wetwork
  |
|
| |
