Pink Elephants
There is an old joke about four men sitting in a compartment of a train. You can tell how old it is, as when did we last have compartments in a train? Three are just sitting there watching in astonishment as every time the forth man finishes a page of the Daily Telegraph, he shreds it to pieces , opens the window and throws the paper out with a determined throw.
Intrigued one of the others, asks what he is doing?
‘It’s to keep the pink elephants away!’ the paper-shredder replies.
‘But there aren’t any pink elephants!’ was the reply he got from the other three.
‘Effective! Isn’t it?’
It would appear that Dubya’s defence of waterboarding is very much on the same lines. He justifies it because there were no attacks after they tortured Sheikh Mohammed, the al-Qaeda mastermind behind the 9/11 attack.
Am I alone in believing that there would have been no 9/11 or at least a much more restricted atrocity, if the United States had employed some basic security at airports in line with what we had in place in the UK and Europe at the time? After all they had had a car bomb atack on the World Trade Centre in 1994 and the bombing in Oklahoma in 1995. So America can’t say it wasn’t warned!
I think Dubya is getting his strike in early with his book, which will go to the bottom of the worst seller lists.
Remember, the Mad Hatters are all for fiscal prudence and which President was not very prudent? Some will say stand up Dubya and be counted!
The Things You Find When You Turn Out!
C’s father was a bit of a collector and I know she was rather annoyed when her mother threw away a lot of his things, when he died.
However, I’ve just been going through some of his old books, as I really don’t want to take them with me when I move.
There were a few gems.
First editions of Winnie the Pooh and Now We Are Six! They are in good condition, but sadly there is no dust jacket on either.
First editions of five Neville Shute books including Requiem for a Wren!
First editions of two Hornblower books.
I’m now searching the rest!
I’ve Now Got the One and Other Book
I received Anthony Gormley’s One and Other
This is the video I took, whilst I was on the Fourth Plinth.
My Public Catalogue for Suffolk Came Today
My catalogue of publicly-held oil, acrylic and tempera paintings in Suffolk from the Public Catalogue Foundation arrived in the post today. And what a beautiful example of the printer’s art it is too! It was £15 well spent and over the next few weeks I’ll explore some of the galleries.
As most counties now have a catalogue, they make would good presents for those who have everything!
The Public Catalogue Foundation
I found a link to this organisation, when I was looking for more details on the art held by various councils, art galleries and museums in Suffolk.
This is their mission statement from their web site.
The Public Catalogue Foundation is a registered charity based in Covent Garden, London. It was set up to photograph and record all oil, acrylic and tempera paintings in publicly owned collections in the UK. This includes works in museums (both on display and in store) as well as paintings in council buildings, universities, hospitals, police stations and fire stations. It is estimated that there are some 200,000 such paintings in the UK. However, at any one time some 80% of these are hidden from public view, being either in storerooms or public buildings in official use.
The aim of The Foundation is to improve public access to these paintings by producing a series of affordable colour catalogues on a county-by-county basis. These will later go online allowing the public free access to the works they own. The benefits to the collections are considerable and include free digital images, improved records, an income stream for painting conservation and education, and improved publicity. These benefits come at no cost to the collections, many of which face severe financial constraints.
They have produced catalogues for most counties in the UK. And they are selling the catalogues for just £15, so that they are affordable.
What a good idea!
How Can They Get it So Wrong?
This is another story, that would make my father turn in his grave. There is no excuse these days for publishing a book with so many mistakes, as HarperCollins has done for Jonathan Franzen.
Are Dictators Stupid?
It would appear that Robert Mugabe has fallen for a scam where a mystic claims he can get diesel out of rock. The story is here in The Times.
So he proves my title for a start.
This is one of my favourite books. The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
Loss-Making Libraries
In an earlier post, I questioned whether we needed libraries. Now it is reported in Saturday’s East Anglian Daily Times that readers’ or should that be non-readers’ owe Suffolk County libraries £72,000.
Surely, the sooner we reduce public libraries to reference only, the better. We can’t afford them!
A Strange Law
This comes from Wikipedia.
According to The Strange Laws of Old England
by historian and author Nigel Cawthorne, it was against the law in Newmarket to blow one’s nose in the street and a person or persons going about the street with a head cold or distemper was liable to a fine. This law was introduced to protect the horses rather than the citizens of the town.
I don’t think it applies today.
Science Fiction about Market Research
Seeing some of the comments in The CEO’s E-Mail Address, reminded me of one of my favourite books; Counterfeit World (Simulacron 3 in the US)by Daniel F. Galouye, This is a classic science fiction tale set in the world of market research and computers. It is out of print now and hasn’t been reprinted like another of his books, Dark Universe (Gollancz SF collectors’ editions)
According to Wikipedia, GAlouye is one of Rjchard Dawkins’ favourite writers.
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The Anonymous Widower 