Saturday, June 23, 2007
Celebs rule
Two interesting celebrity snippets over the last few days. First, I read in an article about a recently dead comic - whose name now escapes me - that his custom was to interview lady journalists in just his (visibly dirty) underwear. What a jerk. And what a world that a journalist has to put up with this sort of thing. Why could she not tell her editor where to get off with such a person? Second, our favourite cherry has been hired by a porn king to fight her hubbies anti smoking law on the grounds of human rights or something. Now while I am delighted that some rich person is up for throwing money at the cause, cherry makes another error of judgement in getting mixed up with such a person on such a business. All this stuff about taxi rank rules is nonsense. I am sure that she was free to decline the brief if she did not like it and if I was hubby I would be deeply pissed off. Was it greed drawing her in or was it the free tour of club premises?
And the wave of pub refurbishments has hit the Half Way House at Earlsfield. Decent Youngs house in perfectly decent nick has now been gutted. Temporary absence of a handy place to wait for trains in. As I have moaned before, all this unecessary paint has to be paid for by the punters. Plus instead of what was a comfortable pub we now get some youth flavoured dump. The same disease seems to be getting into chains of petrol stations, with what look like perfectly serviceable petrol stations getting torn apart on some venture or other. Presumably the market for petrol is fairly static, so they are all fighting for the trimmings - in the form of food and drink - around the margins. But that again must be a fairly static market so it is not at all clear to me that, taken as a whole, all this activity is very productive.
Prompted by Miller's Doubles, have been reading 'The Nigger of the Narcissus'. Excellent book - but a good job that Conrad is an established author or there might be a certain amount of tutting about the title - also about the rather negative spin given to the nigger in question. I even offer a quote which struck me: "He looked upon the immortal sea with the awakened and groping perception of its heartless might; he saw it unchanged, black and foaming ... " (p87 of the Penguin edition). A bit thin out of context, but heavy enough in its place. Very elemental and no doubt Freudian.
No proper white fish from Hastings this week but treated to a rather old lady in lycra with her bicycle as a consolation prize. Had to buy some cutlets for tea to recover - having decided that cutlets are a better feed than chops.
Bought some varnish at Wickes - a shop which has always struck me as cheap and own brand. Not a place to go for for Dulux paint. But having forgotten this, went there for varnish and instead of the Ronseal I know and love got some of said own brand. Opened it up and instead of something looking like golden syrup found something looking like rather thin gloss paint and which smelt a bit odd. Thought I had the wrong tin, but the label was clear enough. However, gave the stuff a go, using a rubber rather than a brush. (We will see if it stays soft in a lidded jam jar). First coat did not do much but with the second coat the old sea chest is coming up quite well. At which point I remembered that white (French) polish was a similar white liquid - although a good deal more fiddly and unpleasant to apply. So maybe Wickes have not got it all wrong after all.
Pumpkins continue to grow slowly. Slugs are laying off and the ground is very warm, even damp as well, but they are taking a while to move. Maybe I damaged the roots too much when digging them out of the wash bowl. Anyway, the pumpkin plot is all carefully weeded now so maybe there will continue to be more pumpkin than weed for a bit. Half way through weeding the row of runner beans - the compost end of which has been fairly badly savaged by slugs despite the pellets. Maybe the compost heap is acting as a nature reserve or reservoir for slugs keen to have a go. But at the other end of the row the plants have now got to the poles and are on the move. Some of them looking quite sturdy even.
And the wave of pub refurbishments has hit the Half Way House at Earlsfield. Decent Youngs house in perfectly decent nick has now been gutted. Temporary absence of a handy place to wait for trains in. As I have moaned before, all this unecessary paint has to be paid for by the punters. Plus instead of what was a comfortable pub we now get some youth flavoured dump. The same disease seems to be getting into chains of petrol stations, with what look like perfectly serviceable petrol stations getting torn apart on some venture or other. Presumably the market for petrol is fairly static, so they are all fighting for the trimmings - in the form of food and drink - around the margins. But that again must be a fairly static market so it is not at all clear to me that, taken as a whole, all this activity is very productive.
Prompted by Miller's Doubles, have been reading 'The Nigger of the Narcissus'. Excellent book - but a good job that Conrad is an established author or there might be a certain amount of tutting about the title - also about the rather negative spin given to the nigger in question. I even offer a quote which struck me: "He looked upon the immortal sea with the awakened and groping perception of its heartless might; he saw it unchanged, black and foaming ... " (p87 of the Penguin edition). A bit thin out of context, but heavy enough in its place. Very elemental and no doubt Freudian.
No proper white fish from Hastings this week but treated to a rather old lady in lycra with her bicycle as a consolation prize. Had to buy some cutlets for tea to recover - having decided that cutlets are a better feed than chops.
Bought some varnish at Wickes - a shop which has always struck me as cheap and own brand. Not a place to go for for Dulux paint. But having forgotten this, went there for varnish and instead of the Ronseal I know and love got some of said own brand. Opened it up and instead of something looking like golden syrup found something looking like rather thin gloss paint and which smelt a bit odd. Thought I had the wrong tin, but the label was clear enough. However, gave the stuff a go, using a rubber rather than a brush. (We will see if it stays soft in a lidded jam jar). First coat did not do much but with the second coat the old sea chest is coming up quite well. At which point I remembered that white (French) polish was a similar white liquid - although a good deal more fiddly and unpleasant to apply. So maybe Wickes have not got it all wrong after all.
Pumpkins continue to grow slowly. Slugs are laying off and the ground is very warm, even damp as well, but they are taking a while to move. Maybe I damaged the roots too much when digging them out of the wash bowl. Anyway, the pumpkin plot is all carefully weeded now so maybe there will continue to be more pumpkin than weed for a bit. Half way through weeding the row of runner beans - the compost end of which has been fairly badly savaged by slugs despite the pellets. Maybe the compost heap is acting as a nature reserve or reservoir for slugs keen to have a go. But at the other end of the row the plants have now got to the poles and are on the move. Some of them looking quite sturdy even.
# posted by Jim @ 3:28 AM 
