What to Write About?

Time to write something - but what to write about? Nothing has changed much since my last update, in relation to medical matters. I have found, after brief experimenting, that medical marijuana tincture - a drop under the tongue, does help to increase my appetite and decrease any feelings of nausea - side effect of my two anti-cancer medications. That's a worthwhile finding - I'd like to put back some of the weight I've lost. No more vaping the MM though, until the current findings about vaping in general are clarified as to whether nicotine or THC (part of marijuana) are involved - could even be both, I suppose. Pain-when-walking remains my main bugbear. Pain relief from my pain medication is good for a short time only, once it has kicked in. Sometimes I think the relief is improving, but not consistently, the following day can bring it back seemingly worse than ever at times. The radiation oncologist said, in regard to this, that bones are not consistent. It's something to watch and note. Perhaps the improvements will, as time goes by, last longer and longer - this is what the oncologist suspects, and I can but hope!

News on a wider scale continues, for me, to revolve around the UK's pantomime known as Brexit, and the USA's pantomime known as President Donald Trump.

Brexit news and the current doings of Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson (aka Donald Trump lite), become more unbelievable by the day - even by the hour this week. I didn't believe anything could possibly make Donald Trump appear to be more presidential - but this week's doings in the UK did it for me! It took a lot though. On President Trump, there's a long-running thread at Quora asking:

https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-best-Donald-Trump-joke-you-have-heard

I read through most of the thread but found most of the jokes a tad lame. Maybe my sense of humour has been lost along with my weight! This joke was the only one that managed to raise as much as a chuckle:

Trump is doing a meet-and-greet at a crowded venue and his security detail is being extra watchful. One of them is a new guy and he’s extra jumpy.

Suddenly, a gunman bursts from the crowd, aiming his weapon at the President. Pandemonium ensues. The rookie bodyguard screams “Mickey Mouse!!!” at the top of his voice and this startles the would be assassin to the point that his aim is off and the shot goes over Trump’s head.

Some bodyguards wrestle the assailant to the ground, while others hustle the President to safety. Disaster averted.

Later, during debriefing, the head of the security detail congratulates the rookie. Without his quick thinking, he tells him, the President might very well be dead.

“But I’m puzzled” he said. “Why on earth would you yell 'Mickey Mouse'?”

“I’m new”, explained the rookie, sheepishly. “I panicked. I meant to yell 'Donald! Duck!!'”

Medical Update plus Something Completely Different, with Ian Lang.

Radiation therapy course finishes this morning! YAY!!!!
My second 21 days of Ibrance began mid-week after 7 days free of the demon pill. Oddly enough the loss of appetite and nauseous feelings increased during that 7 days off - I was expecting the opposite. I really need to be eating more. I'm oncologistless at present, so I asked one of the senior nurses about the nausea. She very kindly sent a couple of prescriptions to be picked up - 2 different nausea medications specifically for problems caused by chemotherapy and other cancer-related therapies. One of these medications worked a treat on the first trial, not as well the second time - but I'm to take them alternately, and for a particular reason didn't do that initially- better luck next time, I hope.

On the medical marijuana front, I have an appointment at a local MM dispensary late tomorrow afternoon (I managed to get their last appointment - my stars must have been aligned!) I'll see a visiting physician who will (I hope) give me a recommendation letter to send to the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, so as to get me an MM Card. That card will enable me to buy product at any dispensary in the state. This appointment will cost me $75, a little cheaper than expected, and because I'm on Medicare the cost of the MM Card will be just $20 (as against $100 for those not on Medicare or Medicaid.) Around 10 days, after sending (online) proof of identity, residence, the recommendation letter, with a digital photograph of myself, and my Medicare card + the dosh, all to the OMMA, I shall hope to be set up to buy something which might help on several fronts.

And now for something completely different....

I'm calling on Ian Lang of Quora to provide a lighter note. As any regular readers will remember, Ian has very kindly given his blanket permission for me to use his writings on my blog. Here's what he had to say - waxing all poetic for a change - in answer to this question.

What do British people think of Boris Johnson as their PM?

Non-British readers will likely need a translation of "soss" : it's short for sausage; and should any readers in the USA be thinking of 'chips' as known in their world (= a bag of crisps in the UK), chips are something akin to steak fries in the United States - certainly not like French fries which are way too skinny for their own good!
So:

What do British people think of Boris Johnson as their PM?

I think unlike John Masefield, I’ll stay away from the sea

And focus all my wishes on soss ’n’ chips for tea.

I think I’d not like to be at work in summer’s hot enthrall-

I think that is much better though, than watching the football.

I think I really can’t be arsed, with who it is in charge;

Johnson, Corbyn, Hunt, Leadsom, or that bloke Farage.

For I think that in some future age, it will be so much fooey.

In five billion years, as well we know, the sun will go kablooey.

And all that we have said and done and all our silly rhymes

Will be vapourised. Including those with lines that don’t suit the rest of the metre and aren’t made into couplets.

I think then, that we should not dwell on our human worries of toss,

Yet cast our minds to glorious times, when there are chips, and soss.

And splendidly, egg as well, if you’re lucky.

Mid-week Movie ~ The Pumpkin Eater

Returning to the weekend's topic of TV/movie drama: a few nights ago we watched (via Amazon Prime) a British 1964 film, The Pumpkin Eater. I'd heard of it, but hadn't ever seen it, nor had my husband. I was persuaded to watch by the cast list : Ann Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason, Maggie Smith....what could possibly go wrong?

I'm still not sure exactly what went wrong, for me . It could've been Harold Pinter's screenplay (though this was much lauded by others). I'm not good at appreciating the arty-farty in film, so that could have been my basic problem.

I kept remarking to husband along the lines of, "People do not, and did not in the 1960s, as I recall, converse like this! " Apparently, in Pinter's world, they did. I simply was unable to believe any character in this movie, in spite of the A-list actors involved. They, of course, could use only the story and material presented to them.

Leading female character was played by Ann Bancroft. This woman, from what we could perceive from the script, was neurotic and self-absorbed to the nth degree. Why then did she continue having children, yet seemingly taking little notice of them as their numbers grew: 3, 4, 5, 6, and I think more, but lost count. She eventually passed on responsibility to a nanny and/or to her 3rd husband (played by Peter Finch) in a then-failing marriage. She gave little thought to the lives she was forcing onto those kids in an at times ugly, emotionally-charged, if fairly wealthy background. I felt little sympathy. Her 3rd husband was unfaithful on the one hand, but seemed to love the kids who were not his, equally to any who were (I was never sure which were which). I had no sympathy for him either, except a grudging admiration for his continued devotion to the kids, in spite of having warned his wife of potential difficulties in that area, before they married. I think they were, then, 3 in number. The two eldest were shuffled off to boarding school quick sharp, before getting to know their parents at all.

I'm sorry, but I could not dredge up sympathy for a woman who had hardly ever worked a day in her life, but insisted on procreating when it became obvious she did not have the required stability in relationships to be responsibly doing so. My sympathy was reserved for the kids.

The best thing about the movie, for me, was the lush black and white format. "Lush" seems an odd adjective, but, on our screen the black and white (or rather 1000 shades of grey) of this movie did come over much better than black and white format in other movies of the same age. I enjoyed just looking at the pictures!

I realise that my view of this film is not once shared by many. I haven't read the book by Penelope Mortimer upon which the film was based. I've read several reviews of book and film; the movie and its actors received plaudits and awards for their performances. Perhaps I'm just not up to appreciating certain nuances - or perhaps, if the screenplay and dialogue had been written by a woman it would have felt more true to life. I wonder if, and how, any re-make in 2019 would be different. Perhaps things have changed so much in intervening decades that this movie belongs among historical dramas, almost as much as do Poldark and Lorna Doone! (See last weekend's post). Or, alternatively, as a reviewer at Time Out wrote: " ..... the world of the Hampstead soap opera now seems so far away as to almost rate as science fiction. "

Saturday and Sundry Drama Series

During the past few evenings we've been time travelling - in mind only - as we watched two drama series, set in 17th and 18th century England.

Amazon Prime enticed us to watch, first, three seasons of the 2015 version of Poldark currently on offer, which I supplemented with a DVD of season 4. Season 5 (said to be the last) is still in production.

Poldark is set in the late 1700s, after the end of the American War of Independence, from which our hero, Ross Poldark returns as the tale begins. Ross Poldark is played by Aidan Turner with just the right blend of swashbuckling sweetness and a touch of the enigmatic. The setting is beautiful Cornwall, near Truro, in the far south-west of England. The series' female lead, playing Demelza, in true "My Fair Lady" tradition, is Eleanor Tomlinson.

I've been so taken with the story that I've now started on Winston Graham's set of Poldark novels, upon which this TV series, as well as an earlier one in the mid-1970s, were based.

The series has romance, politics, everyday life in 18th century Cornwall and London, human foibles and enigmas, with intervals of action and adventure. There's a satisfyingly evil villain of the tale, wonderfully played by Jack Farthing as George Warleggan. Coincidentally, we'd just watched Jack Farthing in a really whacky comedy series, Blandings, in a role which could hardly have been more different from that of George Warleggan. For an excellent example of a truly versatile actor, just take a look at Jack's performances in an episode of both Blandings and Poldark!

 Jack Farthing as George Warleggan

 Jack Farthing as upper-class twit Freddie

I suppose Poldark could be seen as a very well-done, well-acted and well-presented historical soap opera but really, it's much more than that.

The older 1975 series sounds, from what I've read of it, to be a little different in tone and detail from this more recent version. Perhaps in some ways it was nearer to the novel, but perhaps in some other ways not as true to the novel's basic intent and flavour. I won't know this until I find a way to watch the older version, and have read several of the novels. I intend to do both.

After we finished Poldark, I spied a dramatised version, aired in 2000/2001, of Lorna Doone at Amazon Prime. There had been an earlier version of this story too, in the mid-1970s.

I'd had a vague, and mistaken, idea that the story is set in Scotland ("Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon...."). It isn't, it's set in the Devonshire/Somerset area of south-west England, a little to the north and east of Poldark's Cornwall. It is an adaptation of a novel by Richard D. Blackmore, published in 1869. There is a link to Scotland but one that isn't explored in this short (3 episode) TV series. Any link to Scotland relates to a time before the Lorna Doone plot begins, when the once aristocratic Doone family, were stripped of their ancient Scottish lands and heritage. Reasons are left untold, but I'd like to know! The Doones moved to an area of Devonshire near Exmoor which became known as Doone Valley. The clan turned into outlaws, frightening, pillaging, burning and killing local farmers and villagers. Our hero and narrator, in Lorna Doone is John Ridd, a yeoman farmer, whose father was killed by the dreaded Doone gang. When both were children, John met Lorna without knowing her family background....Romeo, Juliet an' all that! But there's more, with a bit of 17th century British history thrown in!

Lorna Doone is a much shorter series, and therefore the tale is more rushed than Poldark's, more detailed and leisurely telling, but it's still a worthwhile watch. It could well serve as an introduction to a classic British novel. Lorna Doone was originally shown as a 3 hour TV film, now arranged into 3 episodes for Amazon Prime. Here's the starry cast list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorna_Doone_(2001_film)

I'd recommend both series as good ways to leave behind the cares of 2019, Trump, Brexit et al and do a bit of mental time travelling. It serves to remind us that though we do have problems in 2019, they are not nearly as severe as those many of our ancestors had to face.

Blame the Dog - or Blame Theresa May?

We've been otherwise engaged for the past few days so I haven't got around to preparing blog posts - blame the dog[-sitting]! Pooh-dog is back with his new humans now, bless his little running jumping feet!

From any news-reading I've done lately, I note that the Brexit scenario hasn't improved any. My jaw can't drop any lower than the floor, but it is certainly grinding the carpet to dust! Here are some good well-upvoted observations from Richard Lock, who Has Somehow Ended Up Working as a Patent Attorney. It comes from his Quora answer to the question:

Why do so many people blame Theresa May for the Brexit mess since it’s not entirely her fault?

This answer has already been "shared"; I'm taking it that a further sharing here would raise no objection - so a big thank you, to Mr Lock!

Spilling a bucket of cowshit on the hallway floor may be considered an accident.

Tap-dancing in the resultant mess so that it sprays high and wide up the walls and ceiling, running through the house flinging handfuls of it around the living room, and then finger-painting the kitchen and bedrooms…cannot.

The referendum was held in June 2016. It is now nearly March 2019.

Consider the following. These are all Theresa May’s actions. Hers, and hers alone. Roughly chronological:


~ Appointed David Davis as Brexit Secretary (13th July 2016). Kept him in that position even when it was clear that he was doing nothing and achieving nothing. He resigned - not fired, resigned - in July 2018.

~ Triggered Article 50 (March 29th 2017). There was (and is) no ‘roadmap’ to leaving at the time she (and she alone) did this. Triggering Article 50 sets a two-year fixed time period for arranging an orderly withdrawal.

~ Called an unnecessary election (June 2017) partway through the two-year Article 50 process, diverting time and effort from all parties into the campaign. Manages to lose 13 Conservative seats and cannot form a Government.

~ Decides to solve this problem by allying with the 10 MPs of the DUP, a Northern Irish party who believe the earth was created 6,000 years ago, and who are known for being somewhat…inflammatory, not to mention stubborn, in their viewpoints. Gets them onboard by somehow finding 1.5 billion pounds going spare in the public finances. At a time when the country is undergoing huge and sustained cuts in public spending.

~ Sets up a bunch of ‘red lines’ in her negotiating position with the EU. The result of these is to exclude certain solutions such as continued membership of the Single Market and Customs Union (e.g. the ‘Norway’ option and various other forms of ‘soft’ Brexit), and to put any possible solution that would fit within the red lines in conflict with the Good Friday Agreement, an international and legally-binding treaty which the UK is signatory to.
Refuses to modify the red lines to accommodate this (for example by keeping Northern Ireland in the Single Market), almost certainly because she has to rely on the DUP to stay in power.

~ Finalises an agreement with the EU (25th Nov 2018). This needs to pass the UK parliament. The vote is scheduled for 11th Dec 2018.

~ Is defeated in three preliminary votes on 4th Dec, including being held in Contempt of Parliament.

~ Announces on 10th Dec 2018 that the vote scheduled for 11th Dec is postponed. Admits that it’s because she would lose the vote. This is rescheduled for 15th January 2019.

~ Vote is put to Parliament on 15th Jan 2019. May loses by the largest margin ever (230 votes). She very narrowly survives a confidence vote held directly after this.

~ Another vote is scheduled for 14th Feb. She loses this one as well.

~ Another vote is, or rather was, scheduled for 27th Feb. This one was supposed to be the next ‘big’ vote - following the delayed and rescheduled Dec/Jan votes, the theory was that further changes would be negotiated with the EU, and UK MPs could then re-vote. This has not happened, as the EU has made it very clear that further changes cannot and will not happen. The vote is currently re-scheduled for 12th March. It is highly likely that this will be more-or-less the same deal that Parliament already voted down by 230 votes.

In short, ‘so many people blame Theresa May’, because she has made a bad situation almost infinitely worse, as a direct result of her own actions or inactions.


Edited to make an addition. This is from ‘Times’ correspondent Matthew Parris in his column over the weekend of 23rd/24th Feb 2019:

Time and again I’ve protested that she may not be the answer but she didn’t create this mess. She’s just a dogged politician, overly cautious and rather shy, but time and again my informants, MPs, former MPs, civil servants, special advisers, tell me eyes flashing that I’ve got it wrong, and the public have got it wrong and she’s so much worse than that.

She’s not normal, she’s extraordinarily uncommunicative, extraordinarily rude in the way she blanks people, ideas and arguments and to my surprise there’s no difference between the pictures of her that Remainers and Leavers paint. Theresa May they tell me (in a couple of cases actually shouting) is the Death Star of modern politics, she’s the theory of anti-matter made flesh. She’s the political black hole because nothing, not even light, can escape: ideas, beliefs, suggestions, objections, inquiries, proposals, protests, loyalties, affections, trust; while careers, real men and women are sucked into the awful void that is Downing Street, and nothing ever comes out, no answers only a blank so blank that it screams.

Reputations, they lament, are staked on her and lost, warnings are delivered to her and ignored, plans are run by her unacknowledged, messages are sent and unanswered, she has become the unperson of Downing Street, the living embodiment of the closed door.

Unwelcome Atlantic Cross-overs

I've been away from Britain for long enough now (since October 2004) to feel a little out of touch with goings on there - other than news about flippin' Brexit! What follows isn't Brexit-related, thanks be, but it has some relevance to both sides of the Atlantic - a question from Quora, posed recently. The link leads to a complete thread of answers. I like the lengthy answer provideded by Simon Mark Blackburn, and have extracted a nap selection from Mr Blackburn's contribution.



Which American habits and mannerisms do you wish Britain hadn't adopted?

Parts of an answer by Simon Mark Blackburn, Chartered Architect RIBA

I am not anti - American. Americanisms are fine coming from North Americans. They often sound dynamic, humorous and colourful to my ears.

So much good has come from America. STEM, Medicine, Soul, Funk, Jazz, Chuck Berry, Elvis, the Moon landings and NASA, JFK, guitars, Hollywood's great past and the silver screen giants, generous funding of the Arts, the culture of philanthropy and enlightened self-interest. Don't forget "bring me your huddled masses etc...." And that lot's just for starters.

BUT….

It's a just a pity that us over here are now so culturally diminished that we now mainly absorb America's crass and pretentious characteristics. I’d feel less saddened if we at least adopted some of its better habits.

Sooooo…in no specific order and without further ado….

[These are just a selection extracted by your blogger, for the full list see Simon Mark Blackburn's answer at the link above]


The baseball cap. That ubiquitous symbol of the idiocracy.

"Can I get...?" instead of "I'll have..." or "may I have..." if one is being posh.

A grubby little one bed-roomed flat over a chip shop being described as an apartment! Pretentious estate agents watching too much US telly I think. It's in a piddly little suburban town in middle England, not Greenwich Village or LA!

Black Friday.

Oriented instead of orientated.

Lootenant (somebody renting a toilet) instead of lieutenant (a subaltern).

Snuck instead of sneaked.

Burglarized instead of burgled.

Regular? As opposed to what? Irregular? What does an irregular coffee look like?

And so on.

Narcissism. Self-delusion about one's own importance and attractiveness. This is a real problem amongst our youngsters.

Victimhood. I'm fed up with hearing about LGBQTABCDEF or whatever the latest Venn diagram of gripes that we’re importing from America.

Social inflation. I heard a dinner lady referring to her...profession. Dinner ladies are great. Best people in a school, maybe the World even, but… surgeon is a profession, astronaut is a profession, barrister is a profession. Dinner lady isn’t.

Idiots driving about in cars painted with American flags and or US style plates (either Union or Confederate).

Honestly, does the Brit idiot who suggests we "touch base" realise how ridiculous he sounds?

As a postscript I'm adding contributions from two others - I liked these:

Mish Armo (Teacher at a Primary School 1990 - present) ended a list with:

The following are non-negotiables. If we ever adopt the following, I will stick pins in my eyes as I sail across the North Sea in a blizzard

Gun culture.
Healthcare that isn’t free at the point of need. Long live the NHS.
Saying Happy Holidays.
Telling a stranger our life stories when we aren’t drunk.

Nigel Foster (Much travelled writer) His 4 points:

Facebook. Twitter. Both are crimes against humanity.
Whooping to show appreciation.
Political correctness used as virtue signalling.
Virtue signalling.

Music Monday ~ "...they try to sock it to ya...."

Joe South - I remember him only from a hit song he wrote from the late 1960s, with its interesting and ever-relevant lyrics: The Games People Play. The song's title was taken from a book by Eric Berne, a bestseller on the psychology of human relationships.

There's a full post about Joe South and his natal chart in an old post of mine HERE.

That old song often comes to mind when reading about Theresa May's Brexit fumbles and foibles. Is she playing games, running out the clock, gaming the dissenters to her Withdrawal Agreement until toes are over the cliff edge and that dreaded "crash out" is nigh? Or is she.......?

On this side of the Atlantic, our current president has his own favourite gaming table: Twitter! Also, it's more than likely that games are already being played, prior to the 2020 presidential election, to ensure that anyone daring to voice policies even a smidgen left of establishment Democrat line (which, translated, means conservative) will never bask in the sunlight of media celebrity, but be constantly ignored, criticised or dismissed as "socialists". Socialist, a term which describes nobody currently on the list of candidates, and probably no more than a few dozen individuals in the whole of the USA! The word 'socialist', even though most don't understand its meaning, has gathered the same kind of horror here as 'leper' had in biblical times. ("Unclean, unclean!").

For this Music Monday, I was about to post Joe South's own rendition of his song, when I noticed this exuberant old version of it by Engelbert Humperdinck (now 82), Tom Jones (now 78) and Billy Preston (who, sadly, died in 2006 aged 59). Joe South, the song's writer died in 2012, aged 72.




Oh the games people play now
every night and every day now
never meaning what they say now
and never saying what they mean
while they while away the hours
in their ivory towers
till they're covered up in flowers
in the back of a black limousine

la da la da da da da,
I'm a talkin' about you and me
and the games people play

You know we make one another cry
we break our hearts and we say goodbye
we cross our hearts and we hope to die
that the other was to blame
we need a woman that will give in
so we gaze at our eight by ten
wanderin' 'bout the things
that might have been
and it's a dirty rotten shame

[chorus]

People walkin' up to ya
singing glory haleuajah
and they try to sock it to ya
in the name of the Lord
they're goin' to teach ya how to meditate
read your horoscope and cheat your fate
furthermore to hell with hate
c'mon and get on board

[chorus]

Look around tell me what you see
what's happening to you and me
God grant me the serenity
to remember who I am
cause you've given up your sanity
for your pride and your vanity
you turn your back on humanity
and you don't give a damn da da da......

Brexit the Bastard Monster

The Brexit saga continues, a not-so-mini drama series that I had never expected to see! I've been away from the UK for more than 14 years now, so can't fully appreciate how things must have changed in that relatively short time. I follow Brexit news daily, out of self interest and general concern about my native land. Self interest, because my two pensions come from the UK. The vagaries of currency exchange reduce my income substantially when sterling dips or crashes, as it surely must if "no deal" were to become the saga's last episode.

This answer at Quora a few days ago makes a point, in the third paragraph, I hadn't fully grasped. There was no facility to comment on the answer, so I am unable to ask permission from the writer to use it here; I'm confident he would not object. I especially like the imagery in the last paragraph.



Question
Was Brexit ever going to be easy and uncomplicated?


Answer by
Brian Coughlan, QRAFT Solution Expert at Volvo Trucks (2011-present)

Yes, in a funny kind of way.

You see, although the current deal is the result of 2 years of agony, and it disappoints almost everyone, it could have been completed in the first month after the referendum.

Because, it was always going to be this way: be part of the EU or be it’s vassal - this much the Brexiteers have gotten right. That even if the EU disappears, the UK - if it doesn’t fall to pieces due to the economic havoc brexit will wreak - will be the vassal of whatever nearby federation absorbs the fragments of the EU. That in the 21st Century this is the fate staring every country with less than 100 million citizens in the face: join voluntarily with someone or have a nearby economic colossus numbering their citizens in the hundreds of millions - the EU, China, the US, India - tell you what to do.

How you leave doesn't matter — other than the amount of damage it does — crash out, EFTA or Canada Cubed, it's all the same. You'll still be a vassal of the EU. This is a fundamentally pointless exercise. The economic gravity the EU exerts is Hotel California strength: you can checkout, but you can never leave. A fact - that even I, as pro EU as they come - had not fully grasped.

The worst thing of all? It’s not even a plot. That there is no conspiracy. It’s just fucking arithmetic. The implacable numerical reality for a country of 65 million in a world of 7,500 million+ and single states now numbering their increasingly well fed, educated and ambitious citizens in the billions.

In a wierd way BREXIT has strengthened the EU, as we watch the UK’s miserable, desperate and weakening struggles to square the circle that BREXIT was always doomed to be. This process has inadvertently highlighted the substantial value of the EU and the terrible loss that leaving represents. Comic-Tragic.

And yet, if someone had had the guts to tell the UK voters this, and convinced them, this could have all been over in a weekend by strangling this misbegotten, hideous child at birth.

Now, I fear, it’s too late. The bastard monster is up on its mishapen little hooves and trotting about the place. The UK will just have to go through the crucible and see what survives to the other side.

Think Brexit is a Nightmare? It's a walk in the park compared with Battle of Hastings and The Harrying of the North.

Tomorrow, 14 October, in 1066 saw the Battle of Hastings, and Norman Conquest of England. It took place on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, on England's south coast. The forces of William the Conqueror defeated the English army and killed King Harold II. The full story of the Norman Conquest, and lead-up to it is told at Wikipedia, HERE.

The Norman Conquest was a pivotal event in English history. It largely removed the native ruling class, replacing it with a foreign, French-speaking monarchy, aristocracy, and clerical hierarchy.


Battles didn't end in 1066. What is known as "The Harrying of the North" followed:

The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–70 to subjugate northern England, where the presence of the last Wessex claimant, Edgar Atheling, had encouraged Anglo-Danish rebellions. William paid the Danes to go home, but the remaining rebels refused to meet him in battle, and he decided to starve them out by laying waste to the northern shires, especially the city of York, before installing a Norman aristocracy throughout the region.

[NOTE: One of my ancestors, on my father's mother's side, could well have originated from one such individual, his name does derive from the French - though whether he was an "aristocrat" or just some well-behaved servant elevated to overseeing a parcel of land and its inhabitants in the wild north is another matter!]


Contemporary chronicles vividly record the savagery of the campaign, the huge scale of the destruction and the widespread famine caused by looting, burning and slaughtering. Some present-day scholars have labelled the campaigns as genocide although others doubt whether William could have assembled enough troops to inflict so much damage and have concluded that the records may have been exaggerated or misinterpreted.

Pupils in English schools have the year 1066 engraved on their hearts (or they did in my school days) - it's often one of few dates to be so well remembered. A couple of 20th century humourists, W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman wrote a series under the title 1066 and All That, for the famous British Punch magazine. The series, later developed into a play and a book, is a parody of English history. I have a copy of the book on my shelf, so immediately reached for it when faced with Wikipedia's reminder of the date of the Battle of Hastings.

I'll not go into much detail of the book's content, it truly is an acquired taste, to the uninitiated, those unused to this type of humour, it'd sound just silly. You really had to be there (in England over many years) to "get it". I did notice something worth mentioning here though, with a possible astrological link.

Skipping through the years from 1066 to what's known as the Tudor Age (or Middle Ages), we come to King John, noted in the book as "An Awful King". During his reign, in 1215, came the Magna Carta, which I guess could be likened to the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

1066 and All That parodies the intent of the Magna Carta, which King John was compelled to sign by the Barons (members of the nobility/aristocracy, mainly of French descent).
The Magna Carta, as described in the book, said:

1. That no one was to be put to death, save for some reason - (except the Common People).

2. That everyone should be free - (except the Common People).

3. That everything should be of the same weight and measure throughout the Realm - (except the Common People).

4. That the courts should be stationary, instead of following a very tiresome medieval official known as the King's Person all over the country.

5. That no person should be fined to his utter ruin - (Except the King's Person).

6. That the Barons should not be tried except by a special jury of other Barons who would understand.

Magna Carta was therefore the chief cause of Democracy in England, and thus A Good Thing for everyone (except the Common People).

The Common People in most countries, even nowadays, are still in the category "except for"! And Number 6 sounds eerily familiar too. Things do change, but remain much the same.....as the French are wont to say, but rather more prettily - "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."


An astrological note:
Does anything in astrology link to Magna Carta? Google searches some years ago uncovered something of interest relating to Jupiter/Uranus and Saturn/Uranus cycles, but the link I had has become defunct - as Monty Python would say "It's an ex-link!" Here are the details from that ex-link that I used in a post on this subject some years ago:

Human Rights: The planetary cycles of human rights

In astrology the development of human rights is often associated with Uranus and Aquarius, and the periods of history that coincide with the rise in awareness of human rights and human wrongs are usually linked with the Jupiter-Uranus and Saturn-Uranus cycles. But does this stand up to scrutiny?

This article examines landmark events in human rights in the UK, the USA and France, as well as major political thinkers/philosophers whose work influenced the way human rights were thought about and practiced, and looks for correlations between these and the Jupiter-Uranus and Saturn-Uranus cycles.

Landmark events
These are said to be some of the major landmarks in the development of the current Western thinking on and practice of human rights :

Magna Carta
15th to 19th June 1215
Saturn conjunct Uranus (approaching)


USA - State of Virginia's Declaration of Rights
12th June 1776
Saturn trine Uranus


USA Constitution
4th March 1789
Jupiter conjunct Uranus (the aspect is wide but approaching and growing in strength)

USA Bill of Rights
15th December 1791
Jupiter just past sextile Uranus
Mars on the midpoint of Jupiter/Uranus

Other examples were included too, but I have not kept a note of them.

The astrological observations on Jupiter-Uranus and Saturn-Uranus seem to hold true. Awareness of human rights, and the relationship between the establishment and the people, does seem to correlate with the cycles of these planets. How, or if, the fact that Saturn and Uranus are currently in trine aspect, between early degrees of Taurus and Capricorn (Earth signs), relates to the above remains to be seen. Guess what might soon become a "landmark event", major or minor, regarding human rights, and relationship between the establishment and the people!

On 5 June, in 1963.....

From Wikipedia's list of happenings on 5 June, it is noted that on this day, in 1963 (now 55 years ago!) British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, was forced to admit that he had lied to the House - an unforgivable offence in British politics. He resigned from office, from the House, and from the Privy Council. Profumo had been at the centre of a scandal involving his affair with high class prostitute, Christine Keeler.

"It soon became apparent to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (photograph on right) that Profumo's position was untenable. On 5 June 1963, Profumo was forced to admit that he had lied to the House, an unforgivable offence in British politics. He resigned from office, from the House, and from the Privy Council. Before making his public confession Profumo confessed the affair to his wife, who stood by him. It was never shown that his relationship with Keeler had led to any breach of national security. The scandal rocked the Conservative government, and was generally held to have been among the causes of its defeat by Labour at the 1964 election. Harold Macmillan had already gone by then, having resigned in October 1963 to be succeeded by Alec Douglas-Home."

John Profumo, Britain's disgraced Secretary of State for War had been at the centre of a scandal, with potential to bring the entire government down. Profumo was one of Dr. Stephen Ward's "clients". Ward was a successful osteopath with a client list filled with some of the wealthiest individuals in the UK. As a sideline, he procured the services of high class prostitutes for the use of many prominent people in public life, some of whom were his clients.

John Profumo (left) entered into an affair with high-class prostitute, Christine Keeler, not realising that she was also sleeping with (among others) a naval attache at the embassy of the Soviet Union(Russia), and this was during the Cold War! The affair resulted in John Profumo eventually resigning his government post on 5 June 1963.

I think I'm right in saying that those who lived through the "Profumo Affair" in Britain have never forgotten it, it almost brought down the whole government.

Profumo, in betraying his wife, film star Valerie Hobson, and carrying on a affair with Christine Keeler, thought his powerful position made him invulnerable. There have been many men in similar situations since, there were many before, and will be many more in the future.

The late Robin Williams once said: "God gave us all a penis and a brain, but only enough blood to run one at a time". Yes indeed!.

When eventually arrested, Stephen Ward, the procurer, was accused of living off immoral earnings, he committed suicide rather than go to jail.

Shortly after his resignation, Baron Profumo was invited to work as a volunteer by Walter Birmingham, the warden of Toynbee Hall, in a charity based in the East End of London. He continued to work there for the rest of his life. He became Toynbee Hall's chief fundraiser, and used his political skills and contacts to raise large sums of money. All this work was done as a volunteer, since Profumo was able to live on his inherited wealth. Profumo died, aged 90, on 9 March 2006. His wife, the actress Valerie Hobson, stood by him and also devoted herself to charity until her death in 1998.

In the eyes of most commentators, Profumo's charity work redeemed his reputation. His friend, social reform campaigner Lord Longford, said he "felt more admiration [for Profumo] than [for] all the men I've known in my lifetime".

See Wikipedia biography

For Profumo's natal chart see astro.com
John Dennis Profumo, 5th Baron Profumo - born on 30 January 1915
Place Kensington, London, England.

"HELLO!"

Last weekend's, and yesterday's posts related to differences between UK and USA culture. Differences within the relatively tiny UK still do exist too; here's one, presented slightly tongue in cheek - but there is a kernel of truth in there!

Saturday and Sundry Cultural Differences

During the week, at Quora, I read some entries in answer to this question:

"If an American were to visit the United Kingdom, what would they be culturally shocked by?"

 Husband in England holding a US local newspaper

I enjoyed the read, then asked my husband what, if anything, had shocked him during his year in England. He told me that nothing had actually "shocked" him, but some differences were interesting, mainly age of historic buildings, public transport readily available. He could well have been "softened up" by having spent time in Canada in the past. Canada, though not the same, might still retain some semblance of Britishness in certain cultural tones.

It's 13 years since I was in the UK myself, the Brexit vote happened, some things will have changed, but deep seated culture will, no doubt, still live on much as it was.


From answers at Quora I extracted snips in relation to the most mentioned areas of potential "shock", mixed and matched, grouped them together. I've added a few illustrations to the mix. When I began this post it was rather compact, but over a couple of days it has grown, as other answers appeared - now it straggles on...and on! More answers could well have been added by the time this is posted - but got to stop somewhere!

Names of the Quora writers whose words are included below - some are from the UK, others from the USA:
Vince Millett, Quentin Stephens, Neil Anderson, Sean Foster, David Craig, Nick Hughes, Lee Dennett, Matthew Sullivan, John Mulhall, David Barton.

The Flag & National Pride
We don't have the same kind of national pride. Those that vigorously wave and salute the flag are viewed suspiciously as probably a couple of short steps from racist or fascist. Don't mistake this for not being proud or grateful to be from the UK.

We don’t worship our flag. It’s just a piece of cloth and there are a variety of attitudes to it.


Guns
We don’t generally have guns or live in fear of guns. Most of our police are unarmed.

History

We’ve been around longer. When someone says that their family or house has been there for over 900 years, they can probably point to the relevant entry in the Domesday Book.

There's a lot of history. There probably isn't a town in the nation that doesn't have some buildings older than the US. We still use them, they aren't all museums, sometimes they're just pubs, shops and offices.

The extremely old nature of many towns and cities puts restrictions on road size and layouts. About a dozen cities originated as Roman settlements 2 thousand years ago. We're still preserving plenty of buildings that are older than the American colonies by a few hundred years. It can give us a very different perspective on time and relevance.


Size and Distances

Just as 100 years ago is relatively recent to Britons, 100 miles is a really long way away.

Everything is probably going to seem smaller and more compact. From portions to houses to shops to roads to cars to towns to the countryside. You can drive the length of the UK in a long day.
[Note: See here for other size comparisons]



Getting around

Most cities and large towns have decent public transportation that means you can do perfectly well without a car, remember smaller. If you do hire a car the fuel prices will be a surprise, not in a good way, but our cars are generally more fuel efficient.

You drive on the wrong side of the road....and yes we actually do pay that much for petrol!

The thing that shocked me was how everyone walked. Not, as some others have suggested that everyone walks, because I live in Boston and people walk plenty here. Specifically the thing that shocked me was that people did not keep to the right or the left. They just sort of went every which way. I figured it would be one or the other, but it was just a free-for-all. I was starting to get used to it by the time I left, but it was disconcerting.


Multiculturalism

You may or may not be surprised at the levels of multiculturalism and how integrated cosmopolitan areas are. We've had waves of integration from a world spanning Empire. It's not that there are no frictions or problems, but nothing in the scale of parts of the US.



Religion

Compared with the US, Britain is relatively secular. Note we are not actually hostile to religion, just indifferent. Of course you will find true believers of all religions here and sadly some genuine hostility towards some faiths, but there isn’t typically the same kind of appetite or fervour for faith in the UK compared to the US......




Healthcare related

Healthcare: the NHS. As an American, you will be expected to pay, but only afterwards, and it won’t be the zillions American doctors and hospitals charge. If you can’t pay, you probably won’t be chased.

Teeth. We have them, there just the normal colour rather than some shade designed in a lab to look like moonlight on an elephants graveyard.



Alcohol

Americans don’t get the British drinking culture.................Sunday morning in the police station is usually awash with hungover twenties and middle aged men and women who’ve been in pub brawls and can't remember what happened. I’m not aware that this is seen outside of teens and students in the states. Excessive drinking is seen as normal here. It would not be unusual for someone to describe a night out as follows:
“I had ten pints, and a load of jäger bombs, then I had a fight with some matey who looked at me, and then had a kebab and threw up, then went to a club and can’t remember a thing, and couldn’t see straight until Sunday afternoon. It was brilliant.”

Beer isn't warm, but it's not ice cold larger type stuff in many places.


Accents
There is no such thing as a British accent. How people speak changes from area to area. There are whole parts of the country where you won't be able to understand a word, but it is still counted as English.

 Note from your blogger - these are not even all of 'em!

Eating Out

Our eating habits and cost of eating out - indeed the whole cost of living especially food and housing [potentially shocking].

Tipping: restaurant staff in the UK are paid a decent wage, tipping is much appreciated but 15 or 20% is well over the norm here!



Sport
[There's a recommendation that US visitors should watch a soccer or rugby game...]

Get to a pub near the ground a couple of hours before kickoff to get beered up and you’ll be amazed by the tribalism that exists in modern life. The chanting and singing makes you feel you are really a part of that club like your family. No National Anthems here (unless it’s an international game), just singing about past glories and taunting the opposition. There’s no racism, homophobia and no singing about death either, but pretty much anything else goes.

Music Monday ~ Veni, Veni....

There's a particular piece of beautiful music that brings back memories of High School assemblies, long ago in England. On icy December mornings, we out-of-town students hurried from the railway station to our school, in double-file - a 10 minute brisk walk - we were not allowed to run, even if the train had been late. The train was often late during winter weather. We didn't have the luxury of "snow days" leave of absence, a common occurrence in the USA, or of being driven to school - we were a hardy generation!

On these early December mornings, at last arriving in school, hanging up our warm coats and changing winter boots for indoor shoes, we'd shuffle into our rather elegant assembly hall. Morning business had, quite often, already begun, and the choir, up in the organ gallery, would be singing..."O come, O come Emmannuel...." - my favourite Advent hymn.

These days I'm not into religion; it wasn't always the case, so distant whispers do remain. In a strange way, I now view New Testament Christmas, and other stories in similar light to another interest of mine - astrology. In both cases there was/is "something going on", though probably not exactly what we were/are told, and not exactly what some people would hope and like to believe, or would like others to believe, but, nevertheless... "something".

Anyway, less waffle, more music. Here are two gorgeous versions of O come, O come....(Veni, Veni...) . This wonderful music is centuries old, some surmise it came from 12th century manuscripts, though it wasn't associated with the words of the Advent hymn until mid-19th century.

Music Monday - for Lancashire

Wikipedia tells us that today, 27 November is Lancashire Day, in the UK. Lancashire is a county in the north-west of England.

Lancashire Day is the county day of historic Lancashire in England. It is held on 27 November to commemorate the day in 1295 when Lancashire first sent representatives to Parliament, to attend the Model Parliament of King Edward I.

I'm a Yorkshire gal, a northerner, but not a Lancastrian. I did live and work in parts of Lancashire at various times in my 60+ years in Britain. I always enjoyed Lancashire and mingling with Lancastrians - warm-hearted, friendly folk, and many display a fine sense of humour.

In honour of Lancashire Day then, on this Music Monday, a trio of songs ~




From very early 20th century written by C.W. Murphy, Dan Lipton & John Neat in 1906:






"Dirty Old Town" was written by Ewan MacColl in 1949. The song was written about Salford, Lancashire, England, the city where MacColl was born and brought up. This song has long been a favourite of mine:





And...Lancashire got a mention by the Beatles in this song (of course it did - they were Liverpudlians and Liverpool is in Lancashire. I think, nowadays, that the region around Liverpool is termed Merseyside - but it's still Lancashire to me!)

Listen for the line "...four thousand holes in Blackburn Lancashire...." at around 3.29 minutes:

To "plough and to sow, to reap and to mow..."

As indicated at the end of yesterday's post, a little about the life styles of English farm workers - "agricultural labourers" of the past. Many of my own ancestors were part of this group, in Yorkshire and in the south-east and south-west of England. Information following comes from writings of someone who must be a distant relative of mine, in Yorkshire, her website is HERE. (Illustrations added by me).

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, farm service was a common, perhaps the most common, way of dealing with rural youngsters when they reached working age and became too big and too hungry to fit into the crowded cottage of the agricultural worker. Children of farmers often went into service, so it was not only an institution catering for the labouring poor. The youngsters benefited from being housed and fed by the farmer whilst learning the skills needed to carry them through their working lives. They gained freedom from parental control and were able to broaden their horizons and mix with other workers within the system; they also received an annual wage from which the thrifty would save towards the future and marriage and which the not-so-thrifty would spend on beer and tobacco. They might, in their time as servants, work on several farms, usually within a radius of 10 or 15 miles of home.

Farm servants were different from other agricultural workers in that they were hired for a year at a time. These workers found employment through the annual hiring fairs, which were held in the market towns of East Yorkshire during Martinmas week at the end of November. Hiring fairs were held in places like Beverley, Bridlington, Driffield, Hedon, Hornsea, Howden, Hull, Malton, Patrington, Pocklington, and York. Here the agricultural servants – male as well as female – would gather in order to bargain with prospective employers and, hopefully, secure a position for the coming year. If a bargain was struck, the farmer would seal the transaction by giving the hired lad or man fest, or fastening, money – a small sum – in recognition of the hiring. In the late nineteenth century the amount was usually 5s[hillings] for a wagoner and 2s[hillings]& 6d[pence] for other workers. Once the fest had changed hands, a legal contract had been entered into.

Local newspapers reported on these colourful and sometimes rowdy gatherings.

The Driffield Times, 15 November 1873:

Early in the morning the great stream of humanity rolled into the town, conveyed thither in every conceivable appliance that could be obtained for the occasion; but conspicuous among the rest were the heavy wagons with their living freight, which were deposited amid the greetings of those who had chanced to outstrip them in the drive to town. Other vehicles, from heavy wagons to the humble donkey and cart were to be seen threading their way through the streets to their several destinations. The railway Company, too, brought hundreds into the town by special and regular trains, which were literally packed. At nine o’clock the bustle was commenced in earnest, for by that time most of the servants had congregated …
One former Farm Servant described the fair -
"We lined ourselves up on one side of t’road and farmers on t’other. They looked you over, talked to one another, and asked each other if they knew you and what you were like. They’d discuss you among themselves. Then they’d come across and say, “Noo, lad, dos’t thoo want takin’ on?”"

This tradition continued right through into the 19th century. The hirelings lived with the farmer or farm foreman, whose wife looked after them and on whose cooking skills, care and consideration their well-being depended. Living conditions were basic and on the rough and ready side; sleeping in crowded attic rooms, sweltering in summer and waking to frozen-stiff clothes in winter, they had no bath or washing facilities except a cold tap in the yard outside the kitchen door

An old rhyme about Martinmas:

"Come all ye dames arise
and let the maids lie still
They've risen all the year
It was against their will"

“Martinmas" [Note from Twilight: pronounced in East Yorkshire as "Mart'mas"] on the twenty-first of November, was when the farm servants would go to the Hiring Fairs in places like York and get hired by a new farmer if they didn’t want to remain with the farmer they were with. If they were "stopping on" they had to stay at home and do a days work. I remember hearing the workers talk about Martinmas.
"Is 'ta stopping on Jack?"
"Nay. I've packed me box. I'm off to the hiring's tomorrow. Bert."
"If you get taken on Jack, don't spend your fest all at once. Tha could get drunk for a shilling!"

The fest refers to when a man was taken on by a farmer, he was given a shilling to seal the bargain. The fest was probably a corruption of feast -a chance to go and treat yourself.”

Investigating DNA

“DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.”
― Bill Gates, The Road Ahead

Husband and I, some weeks ago, submitted our saliva samples to one of the several outfits specialising in providing DNA testing for genealogical reasons. We chose autosomal testing, it's not as expensive as some other tests, and good enough, as an experiment.

It so happened that the chosen outfit, unknown to me at the time of ordering, turned out to be based in Houston, Texas. Our order was submitted just as that horrific hurricane started knocking hell out of Houston. I eventually received confirmation that our "kits" had been safely received and the company was out of the direct line of devastation. Some 4 or 5 weeks later our result "kits" of data arrived online.

What I really would like from my own results is to be able to break down a few "brick walls" in my family tree, caused by illegitimate births or iffy data. I'm now knee-deep in data! Most of it isn't truly relevant, or particularly helpful in the quest mentioned. Of course, information available is limited by the number, and spread, of people who apply for the testing. Computers can spew out only what has first been put in! The long list of possible "cousins", one of the services provided gives no matches, for me, closer than possible links, several times removed, from around 4 or 5 generations back - impossible to recognise, unless a recognised surname has survived, passed on to the website.

I'm still wading in the shallows. The simplest part of the trail to sort out, for a beginner, is general ethnicity. What I have discovered, so far, is my spread of ethnicity. This is culled from known DNA ethnicity definitions. Data from the company we used, cross checked by uploading my raw data to GEDmatch, indicates that I'm proven, according to Family Tree DNA test, to be 95% European which includes 84% British Isles, 7% Iberian, 4% Finland, along with 4% West-Middle East, and some bits and bobs, trace elements probably serving as what the experts call "noise". GEDmatch has my ethnicity sorted under slightly different headings, but comes out broadly similar, and breaks down the British Isles element to specify DNA elements that match known patterns originating in Orkney, Kent, Cornwall, among others. That, rather neatly, brings together the north, south-east and south-west of England, which is a very near match for my four grandparents' original family locations.

So far, I'm finding this DNA testing experiment is something akin to Sun sign astrology - there's a whisper of truth to be had, and a reasonable amount of entertainment value.

From my research in past years, at Ancestry.com, I'd already discovered that my (known) direct ancestors, as far back as the 16th century, were all English, though from different areas of England. There are, though, 2 grandparents whose fathers remain unknown, due to birth out of wedlock; also another great-grandparent's place of birth remains unknown, but was likely to have been within the British Isles. The 2 completely unknowns were fairly unlikely to have been other than British - but I can't be certain of that.

Because DNA definitions stretch back 1 to 2 thousand years, British people would expect to factor in a good deal of of DNA "mongrelism". Bloodlines from Vikings (Scandinavia, inc. Finland), German strains (Saxon), Mediterranean strains (Roman armies culled from many lands), French, including arrivals from 1066 after the Norman/French took over and brought along boatloads of hangers-on. The Iberian 7% in my DNA is a little strange, but as "Iberian" can include, as well as Spain and Portugal, parts of France and North Africa, I guess it could well be my extra dose of "mongrelism"...or, perhaps one of my unknowns was a wandering Spanish sailor - or Spanish gypsy/Romani "gitano" ? I'll never know.

 Hat-tip HERE

My known ancestors were sons and daughters of the soil, agricultural labourers and domestic servants, with a few exceptions (a tailor way, way back; a parish clerk; a miller and a tradesman). My grandparents' offspring, though, found their metaphorical feet were able to take them well away from the soil. Still, I retain much respect for my agricultural worker kin in past eras.

"Whoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together." (Jonathan Swift)

Farm work might be considered by some to be a fairly cushy job: working outdoors, often unsupervised. It was, for certain, preferable to life in the coal mines, cotton mills or steelworks, back then. Farm work had its benefits and customs....about which, more tomorrow.