Friday, December 21, 2007
Value for money
Readers will be pleased to hear that the hundred's of thousands of pounds spent by the council on computerised car park signs all over the borough have not been entirely wasted. I learnt on the way back from Cheam that as at 1027, of the several thousand paying car park places in central Epsom, a paltry 47 were left. Option 1 the signs don't work, option 2 commuters to London take up most of the space in car parks and option 3 a wave of shoppers has arrived in Epsom. Not sure which option I back.
Not impressed by yesterday's DT which tells me that while the Bermudas have the highest standard of living (on average) in that part of the world, the two thirds of the population which is black is poor. Much anguish in the DT about the black two thirds getting a bit cross. But why on earth do the whites not see sense and transfer a good chunk of their wealth to the blacks before these last get seriously cross and they all lose the lot? I'm sure the BBB here could be full of good advice about how to do this - and that might get them off our backs for a few weeks.
We deduce that the world has not moved on much. Now half way through my 1,000 page tome on Louis XVI bought at a knock down price from the Library of France, and have learned that the aristos around 1780 were pretty hopeless too. The king, who might not have been the best thing since sliced bread, was no fool (despite what I thought when I started out. No fool, despite being a bit feeble on the husband front and being rather too keen on a middle class suburban life style (with hobbies) than was appropriate for an absolute monarch (a disease which, it seems, afflicted quite a lot of them, including his predecessor, Louis XV)) and meant well. He knew the state was bankrupt and that something had to be done to cut down the payroll and to make the tax burden fall more evenly across the country and across the classes. But the clergy and the aristos could not see further than their own greedy noses and faught tooth and nail against any sort of serious reform. The result was, as they say, history. I guess we were lucky in England that Henry VIII had sorted out the clergy, and that the wars of the roses and the Tudor monarchs between them had sorted out the aristos - at least the aristos of the sword sort which plagued France. Perhaps also, being a smaller country, we had done more to iron out the provinces. A few anomalies up North like the Prince Bishop of Durham and the Lord President, but that was about all. Whereas the French were still stuck with lots of provincial anomalies plus powerful people to fight for them. Fascinating stuff. One can see why people are still writing books about it all.
Yesterday was the day of the slide rule. Having acquired a posh slide rule (made by Thornton) some forty two years ago, the thing has been preserved at the bottom of my desk for the last thirty eight. Two years ago I let the instruction book go. But yesterday I found out that for some sorts of sums a slide rule is a lot quicker and more convenient than a calculator. The only thing missing is a couple of linear scales so that one can use it for addition as well as multiplication. Thing worked fine and smoothly despite the long interval. Didn't need greasing or anything like that.
Unlike the large wooden slide rule I have, which needs to be waxed regularly to keep it in reasonable running order. Elaborate box wood affair (same style of engraving as a carpenter's folding rule of yesteryear) about two and a half feet by one foot, with an effective length of about ten feet, acquired from the Department of Employment, where it used to be used, along with lots of others, for the compilation of employment statistics. Wonderful thing which, failing use, ought to be in a glass case or hung on the wall. But not used because far more fiddly to use than a plastic one - if running to rather more decimal places - and no funny scales to do powers and sines and things. And not hung up because no wall space left. Must find a good home for when I wind myself up to parting with the thing.
Today will be the day of the fish cake. Bubble and squeak having morphed into same as reported on 4 December above. Let's hope it turns out as well as the first time.
Not impressed by yesterday's DT which tells me that while the Bermudas have the highest standard of living (on average) in that part of the world, the two thirds of the population which is black is poor. Much anguish in the DT about the black two thirds getting a bit cross. But why on earth do the whites not see sense and transfer a good chunk of their wealth to the blacks before these last get seriously cross and they all lose the lot? I'm sure the BBB here could be full of good advice about how to do this - and that might get them off our backs for a few weeks.
We deduce that the world has not moved on much. Now half way through my 1,000 page tome on Louis XVI bought at a knock down price from the Library of France, and have learned that the aristos around 1780 were pretty hopeless too. The king, who might not have been the best thing since sliced bread, was no fool (despite what I thought when I started out. No fool, despite being a bit feeble on the husband front and being rather too keen on a middle class suburban life style (with hobbies) than was appropriate for an absolute monarch (a disease which, it seems, afflicted quite a lot of them, including his predecessor, Louis XV)) and meant well. He knew the state was bankrupt and that something had to be done to cut down the payroll and to make the tax burden fall more evenly across the country and across the classes. But the clergy and the aristos could not see further than their own greedy noses and faught tooth and nail against any sort of serious reform. The result was, as they say, history. I guess we were lucky in England that Henry VIII had sorted out the clergy, and that the wars of the roses and the Tudor monarchs between them had sorted out the aristos - at least the aristos of the sword sort which plagued France. Perhaps also, being a smaller country, we had done more to iron out the provinces. A few anomalies up North like the Prince Bishop of Durham and the Lord President, but that was about all. Whereas the French were still stuck with lots of provincial anomalies plus powerful people to fight for them. Fascinating stuff. One can see why people are still writing books about it all.
Yesterday was the day of the slide rule. Having acquired a posh slide rule (made by Thornton) some forty two years ago, the thing has been preserved at the bottom of my desk for the last thirty eight. Two years ago I let the instruction book go. But yesterday I found out that for some sorts of sums a slide rule is a lot quicker and more convenient than a calculator. The only thing missing is a couple of linear scales so that one can use it for addition as well as multiplication. Thing worked fine and smoothly despite the long interval. Didn't need greasing or anything like that.
Unlike the large wooden slide rule I have, which needs to be waxed regularly to keep it in reasonable running order. Elaborate box wood affair (same style of engraving as a carpenter's folding rule of yesteryear) about two and a half feet by one foot, with an effective length of about ten feet, acquired from the Department of Employment, where it used to be used, along with lots of others, for the compilation of employment statistics. Wonderful thing which, failing use, ought to be in a glass case or hung on the wall. But not used because far more fiddly to use than a plastic one - if running to rather more decimal places - and no funny scales to do powers and sines and things. And not hung up because no wall space left. Must find a good home for when I wind myself up to parting with the thing.
Today will be the day of the fish cake. Bubble and squeak having morphed into same as reported on 4 December above. Let's hope it turns out as well as the first time.
# posted by Jim @ 3:19 AM 
