Avaunt

Someone wrote a book about  a Witch all that time ago?.

Is it a religious work? I shall googlely !.

Edit to add, the first hit on Google was this piece of publishers bumph, from a time  when publishers were kinda talking to  very few people, kinda friends, and he was saying, casual, "Itsa Me, Morrio".

 

"Reprinted by me, William Morris at the Kelms-cott Press, Upper Mall, Hammersmith, in the County of Middle-sex. Finished on the 15th day of September, 1893. Sold by William Morris, at the Kelmscott Press"

That wig is a pretty good John-alike !.

The Secret War ( spies, codes and guerrillas 1939-1945 )  by Max Hastings

is the last notable book I have read. Always love Hastings' staggering scope of research, and his rolling between droll and mordant for the asides. Of course, you do have to remember the man is an Anglo-phobe, and take a grain of salt alongside his constant carping and criticism of everything British, it must be very sad to have a soul that hates itself that intensely.

That aside, it is astounding how much time, brain-power and resources were spent on the espionage and the counters to espionage during WW2. And he is extremely even handed, everyone gets  a fair deal, Allies, Axis, and the fence-sitters.

Wright's  2000's The Golden Age series was great, plot, characters, pacing, everything, really top work which I enjoyed so much . . . ( edit to say I have gone and looked at a synopsis of the stories, and it was the Agents of Chaos  that he truncated and left without resolution, because of his medial issue/revelation ) until the time he had a minor stroke and misunderstood it as religious revelation of the truth of christianity, loudly and obnoxiously announced his conversion from the evil that is atheism,  hurriedly and messily ended the series with obvious disdain for his readers and no resolution of the plots, then announced that he hated the works because they referenced devils and not gee-bus.

So he has some explaining to do, re-visiting the evils of heresy . . .

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1500-paul-giamatti

The pleasure in their voices.

Wow. Sorry guys, missed saying Merry Christmas to you all.

I have had a reasonable year. Been gardening and growing vegetables, reading books, playing games.

Two new great nephews born. Two of my four brothers separated from their wives over the Xmas break. Or more accurately, their wives said "I have had enough McLaren in my breakfast food, thanks, bye".

I was sure positive he would never get elected the first time. I don't want to have a repeat of that, thank you.

We could easily  end up in a real shooting war when the time came for him to quit, and he was looking around for a distraction to allow  for the seizing of power through a faux martial law..

Those covers tho ! hahahaha.

On 7/28/2023 at 2:42 AM, Lou K said:

I am still working on it.

Me too mate. Best of luck.

I did the first months standing on my head, as the old expression has it. The last month, I have been really dreary, discontent . . . I loved beer. I have taken up building projects, and walk my nephews dog, and play games . . . and go open the fridge 10 times a day, looking for something worth having.  I have had to be cruel to myself when at the supermarket, because I felt like I was going to replace beer with chocolate or something , so no choccies either.

And eventually one gets to wondering why one wakes up . . .

But still have not taken a drop.

Denise Schmandt-Besserat.

This scientist spent her life studying the earliest forms of writing, and their precursors. Really interesting body of work, and the work itself is so important to understanding humanity.

Seriously, Lou?. BOURBON ?.

I joke/am made of respect for you. Glad you didn't suffer worse. I haven't had anything like as bad, and the quitting part for me is easy, I have this facility to follow through on things. If I decide to do a thing, it is done, no credit to me, just my nature. Haven't touched drink for 2 months. Won't touch it again.

I was only drinking half as much spirits, though my poison was Nelson's Blood of course. And three or four beers. I have just been drinking because I am sad, my parents were such a large part of my life, went and saw them almost every day for the last five years and I was with Dad all day every day for the last 5 months of his life, and with mum through the lockdowns and then she died . . . so I was numbing my brain.

Yeh, I really enjoy the interviews where someone has taken the trouble to study their subject. The guy made him really engage and then let him run.

As well as Milligan's obvious talent, he sounds like someone you could learn "Manning" from.

Did you guys already see this ?.

" And a comic book of mine is on the way of being made as a film, and I can’t say what it is, or who it is, but a very well-known British actor is going to be in it, and the reason why he wants to be in there is, when he was young, a teenager, he loved this comic. And he said, "let’s try to do something a little bit different," and this comic landed on his desk, and just by coincidence, he said, "oh my god, it’s this."

https://www.tcj.com/the-past-does-not-exist-an-interview-with-peter-milligan/

I am playing a HARD  rings mining simulator called delta V : Rings of Saturn. It is interesting, but I am really bad at it, and it gives you almost zero tutorial.

In other news, I quit drinking alcohol cold turkey because the joke of the day was "No, I don't want to go with you and the dog for a walk, I am busy drinking myself to death".

And I guess it was stopping  to be a joke, and being more of a statement of fact. I miss Beer very much, and really it hardly matters what happens to me, except it would make my Nephews and Nieces annoyed.

Mother Shipton was good enough for my Gammer, she is good enough for me when I need soothsaying.

Not me. I have been avoiding the news for weeks.

Tina Turner passing away made me break into floods of tears.

Of course, sad for her, but  as is normal human experience, I never hear her songs without remembering my Mum and HER Mum belting out "River deep, Mountain High" together.

At the risk of perpetuating stereotypes, Maori families in my day turned every get together into an excuse to have too many beers, and get the record player going, or put the guitar into Uncle Jimmies' hands, and have a singalong.

And my Nanna used to think it CHEEK ! that my Mum was considered the better singer. They were both PDG.

History writing has changed all out of mind now so many people have access to databases.

They are not even remotely the same disciplines, if you consider say, 1950s historical biographies to the present.

Well, that was Parliament keeping their hold on ITS only power, The Commons, even if it were only theoretical. You can't be a little pregnant, kind of thing.

I wish the man well, but I hold firmly to the Institution. Every four years we ( here in NZ ) have a mock hate session and the "winner" gets elected to be The King's Loyal Government, and the "losers" get to be His Loyal Opposition. And the King('s representative) is powerless until she/he is not and uses  their ONE power to keep everyone honest.

But we DON'T have to have an only-semi-mock hate session to choose our Head of State, ala Turkiye, France, The USA, etc etc. And the Head of State doesn't get absolute power or any avenue to follow TO absolute power.

Long may it continue.

Jason. WHERE do you find these things?

The King IS politics, right, he is the Head of State? More than one State?.

He wants "we the people" to swear before god to be faithful to him. I don't think so. His Mum,yeah, I would have gone along with that, merely substituting "Dog" for the other bloke.

His Nanna, yeah, Sure, she was cool. His Grand-dad ?. The Good King ?. I already DO swear by his Service.

Charles?.  No, sorry.

Since you have written that first thing about the Ahern books, I have seen them in three different secondhand shops. And I remember reading one, which soured me on them.

spoiler follows.

The main characters are lost in high scrublands, run out of food, and a small pack of living teddy bears comes and acts like gentle pets. So they eat the bears.

Mr Gary Lineker, OBE.

And the people who refused to undermine his stand.

I am super proud of him, that is proper Manly behaviour.

OH MATE !

I have read that twice, I love that book. It is so good on so many levels, so very many.

For one thing, it is an education in itself about many things from that alien country, the past.

The language is pleasing to me.

The action, well, PIRATES you know.

And a wry, knowing love affair between equals. I loves me a high-born sheila forced to admit her love for our Stirling, Stalwart Commoner. ( Probably explains why I am single.

And loyal foredeck-hands, and the treasonous John Foreigner, who is at least a BRAVE wretch.

Double plus-good.

It is funny because it is true.

But when the truth is so existentially horrid, the laughter smacks of hysteria.