*Clicky, no! Porriño isn’t Spanglish for ‘it’s pissing down’… besides, it sounds much more Italian… But that’s not the point. It’s uncalled for, Clicky, people died…*
*Well, Red Frank did thank everyone for who’d triggered an idea in him and he’s into Franglish… perhaps you were already in that frame of mind, BlueFrank‘s been musing on language…*
*That’s a bike with stabilizers, not a trike… Hang on, is that woman smoking near her child? Fuck! The Shining could be banned… /nibbles nail… They won’t be happy until they’ve turned us all into not-sees…*
*Ah… Apollo rose… Rose, the colour of O Porriño’s famous granite…*
*Whoa! Way to derail a train of thought, Clicky… Or did you? /breathes in deeply… I’m gonna have to go and have a think about this. Give Dear Reader a Song… /wanders off muttering…*
Brexiter Michael Gove is being pilloried today for stating historical fact in a radio interview.
“We have to be careful about historical comparisons, but Albert Einstein during the 1930s was denounced by the German authorities for being wrong and his theories were denounced and one of the reasons of course he was denounced was because he was Jewish. They got 100 German scientists in the pay of the government to say that he was wrong and Einstein said ‘Look, if I was wrong, one would have been enough.’”
Seems today people aren’t much interested in where the smoking link to lung cancer originated.
It may seem paradoxical that the robust identification of one of the most important environmental causes of disease of the 20th century occurred in a totalitarian state. The first case-control study of smoking and lung cancer originated in Nazi Germany in 1939 and found that heavy smoking was strongly related to the risk of lung cancer.
In 1942 the Institute for the Struggle against the Dangers of Tobacco was established at the University of Jena, where a second case-control study of smoking and lung cancer was carried out.2 This was a convincing investigation in which the authors showed a sophisticated understanding of the potential biases that could distort epidemiological findings. The institute from which this study was run was supported by 100 000 reichsmark of Adolf Hitler’s personal finances.1
My nephew Jake has just returned from a trip to Rome. It was a surprise birthday gift from his girlfriend, Sam. Thoughtful Man and I went there, 25 years ago for our honeymoon.
Jake brought his mum back a gift. Something she would appreciate…
CLICKY: Florence?
*/squint… Yeah, we know David is in Florence knot Rome, Click. Butt I’m telling the story of my afternoon…*
*******
“Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday Mrs Minge…”
I opened the front door a little wider to let Juju in, without letting a very excited Poppy out.
“… Happy birthday to you.” Juju finished her greeting and kissed me on both cheeks.
Our dopey dachshund rolled onto her back, presenting her soft, pink belly and wagged her tail. An arc of pee hit Juju’s shoe.
“Ugh, Mistress Ploppy! Every time!” Juju laughed. I handed her a roll of conveniently place kitchen towel and made for the kitchen. Now, sister just loves to make an entrance but, as far as Princess Poppy is concerned, any accompanying splash is entirely the dog’s prerogative. It is her house, after all.
Later, ensconced in the Library with hot beverages and smokes, we caught up on each other’s news. Juju gave me my birthday cards and told Thoughtful Man and I about Jake and Sam’s recent trip to Rome.
“They loved it. Absolutely, loved it. Did you see what Jake got for me?” Juju handed me her cigarette case and her lighter. “I’d recognise those bollocks anywhere.”
“But isn’t David housed in Florence?” I lit a rollie and handed the lighter back. Reluctantly.
Juju smiled. “That’s what I said to Jake.But I don’t care. I love it all the same.”
“Florence? I’m just reading a story about Florence.” Thoughtful Man stirred himself from his computer screen and turned to us. Poppy was laying contentedly across his knees, on her back. He stroked her belly. Bond villain cats have nothing on our girl.
“OMG! Is that the time?” Juju clocked the time onscreen and eased herself off the library sofa. “I’ve got to go and get something for Jake and Sam tea. Give the boys a kiss from me.”
Poppy and I saw her to the door just as two shadows loomed large through the glass. The boys were indeed home from school.
“Happy Birthday, mum.” Louis smiled broadly as he handed me a bunch of flowers. “The card is from my friends.”
I turned it over.
I read the card out loud. “‘Dear Louis’ Ma. Thanks for giving birth to such an amazing friend. From Callum, the llama you adopted.’ That’s very sweet. And you went the extra mile in Design and Technology as well. Well done.”
Thoughtful Man joined us in the hallway and scooped up a hyper Poppy so she could give Juju a thorough goodbye lick. Juju hates that more than the wet shoes welcome, as Thoughtful Man is well aware.”They wanted to surprise you for your birthday. They swore me to secrecy. I gave them a fiver.”
“We only spent £2.50.” Kit Kat whispered solemnly in my ear and patted his jacket pocket. His favourite lesson is Business and Finance. He loped off to raid the fridge.
We said our goodbyes and Juju made her escape from Poppy’s sloppy farewell kisses. Loopy went to look for a vase for the flowers and Thoughtful Man went looking for Kit Kat to get his £2.50 change. Poppy and I returned to the library sofa.
Juju had forgotten to pick up her cigarette case. I opened it and found a lone rollie and a promotion card she’d picked up from her recent trip to New York.
I examined the back of the card. “goUndergroundforlunch.com.” Curious, I opened another page on my PC and typed in the address.
I smoked Juju last rollie and smiled.
*******
*Pretty. Okay, Clicky. Let’s finish up this birthday with a Song.*
Last week in the Red Universe, MEROVEE Frank posted ‘Start the Collapse‘…
This morning in the Blue Universe, Mikef317 posted news of scientific crumbling on Frank’s ‘Dreaming of a Bad Dream‘…
*Hello Clicky. Is that you dreaming of the collapse of Action on Smoking and Health? Righteous bastards!*
The authors called this effect “ego depletion” and said it revealed a fundamental fact about the human mind: We all have a limited supply of willpower, and it decreases with overuse. Eating a radish when you’re surrounded by fresh-baked cookies represents an epic feat of self-denial, and one that really wears you out. Willpower, argued Baumeister and Tice, draws down mental energy—it’s a muscle that can be exercised to exhaustion.
‘A limited supply of willpower’? That’s Tobacco Control’s sole reason for being, because we smokers lack the willpower to ‘kick’ our habit.
*Baumeister and Tice? Sounds like ‘Baumeister entice’, Clicky… *
entice (v.)late 13c., intice, from Old French enticier“to stir up (fire), to excite, incite,” which is of uncertain origin, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *intitiare “set on fire,” from Latin in-“in” (see in- (2)) + titio (genitive titionis) “firebrand,” which is of uncertain origin. Meaning “to allure, attract” is from c. 1300. Related:Enticed; enticing; enticingly.
*Ha! You included some kicking? You flash sew and sew, Clicky… Is that the doorbell?*
*******
Thoughtful Man stood on the doorstep, clutching a plastic bag to his chest. “Got it!” He passed the bag to me with a flourish as he stepped inside and stamped his feet.
I peered inside. “A game?”
“Yes. It’s the one Kit’s been after. It came out today.”
“The Division… Hey, I’m just including that in a post!” I turned the box over and read the blurb on the back.
“Excellent timing, then,” Thoughtful Man buffed his nails. “As you would expect.”
I rolled my eyes – we have differing views on timing; he prides himself on his precision.
“I’m surprised you even know about it,” he conceded later in the Library over an invigorating Red Bull and cigarette. “I didn’t think you paid much attention to the boys’ games.”
“Are you kidding? I don’t play them but I have to listen to them playing.” Our boys are not quiet.
“In fact Loopy’s friends refer to me as The Fairy CODmother.”
“They want me to adopt them.” Now it my turn to nonchalantly buff.
Thoughtful Man didn’t miss a beat. “Well, you do make a good sandwich.”
Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be. (Marshall McLuhan)
CLICKY: Weapon of Choice
Rose, tickled pink, posted the scoop in comments with Frank in the Blue Universe…
CLICKY: Praise You
*Indeed, Clicky. Day after day, Frank, Rose, Harley, MJM and the rest of the commentators there debunk the lies that spew forth from the cancer-licking lips of the Anti-Tobacco Brigade… Nazi inspired lies that fall directly into the cauliflower ears of politicians.
Only Jeremy Scott could take a cue from a puritanical 1490s Florentine mobs and come up with ball gowns spliced with biker jackets, complete with singed edges and, at points, smoke rising out from their bustles.
The scene for his show was the destruction of decadence: his guests sat on plush velvet armchairs and chaise longues, in the centre of the space crumbled smashed-up chandeliers, crushed instruments and blitzed art work, an appropriation of that dark night, the so-called Bonfire of the Vanities, where the Renaissance ideology was viciously and literally attacked, with its progressive objects of beauty destroyed by arch conservatism.
Yup, Anna Cleveland’s tulle prom dress left a trail of white smoke billowing behind her as she walked. Other girls’ gowns had also been burned and tattered to shreds. All very derelicte, wouldn’t you say Zoolander?
Asked how he chooses his themes, Scott was simplistic in his response. “I was thinking about cigarettes and people’s addiction to fashion,” he said. “I don’t ever really dissect and wonder why I’m doing it. I just do it and put it out there.” Point and shoot.
CLICKY: Sunset
CLICKY: Rocking Skank
*Fuck /BEEP me… Fucking /BEEP beautiful, Clicky! Have a Song 😀 *
For her upcoming trip to New York, Sister Juju has bought herself a pair of shoes.
*’Converse’, Clicky… adjective or verb?*
converse (adj.)“exact opposite,” 1560s, from Latin conversus “turn around,” past participle of convertere “to turn about” (see convert). Originally mathematical. The noun is attested from 1550s in mathematics. Related: Conversely.
converse (v.)“to communicate (with),” 1590s; earlier “to move about, live, dwell” (mid-14c.), from Old French converser “to talk” (12c.), from Latin conversari (see conversation). Related: Conversed; conversing.
*Both! /Claps hands… Okay you start*
*Black star, white star?… /thinks… Oh, David Bowie!*
*That reminds me, the smiley face badge – Thoughtful Man and I watched ‘Watchmen’ the night before last. Now that was extremely dark… I feel-good romp if ever I saw one.*
*DB’s first hit song, but you really don’t have to slow down on my account, Clicky. Cheek!*
*Yes, he smoked. Do you know, some fuckwits believe that was what killed David Bowie? Even though he’d done their ‘right thing’ and given up.*
*Painted black on the inside… well, that’s the world we live under now, Clicky… he did rather predict it…*
“Actually, I want to say a few things on the album.
“Like, ‘Right’ is putting a positive drone over. People forget what the sound of Man’s instinct is – it’s a drone, a mantra. And people, say: ‘Why are so many things popular that just drone on and on’. But that’s the point really. It reaches a particular vibration, not necessarily a musical level.”
And that’s what ‘Right’ is…
“Oh, alright … let’s talk about the rest of the album. Very decadent this is [laughs]. ‘Somebody Up There Likes Me‘ is a ‘Watch out mate, Hitler’s on his way back’… it’s your rock and roll sociological bit.
“And ‘Across The Universe‘, which was a flower power sort of thing John Lennon wrote. I always thought it was fabulous, but very watery in the original, and I hammered the hell out of it. Not many people like it. I like it a lot and I think I sing very well at end of it.
“People say I used John Lennon on the track … but let me tell you … no one uses John Lennon. John just came and played on it. He was lovely.
“‘Can You Hear Me‘ was written for somebody but I’m not telling you who it is. That is a real love song. I kid you not. And the end of the thing is ‘Fame‘ which was more or less sung about what we’re doing now.”
*Back to the other side of Juju’s shoes, Clicky? Yes, well currently things are looking rather ‘in the soup‘ /titter… *
Clicky for a Song
*That’s right, David Bowie portrayed Andy Warhol in ‘Basquiat‘… sounds like ferocious biscuit, if you ask me 😉 *
No ‘back to work’ ‘for me today, sew … I’ll just continue from 1.8 whilst I figure out what to do with my life. And it’s knot as if Part 1.9 wasn’t already prepped… 😉
*******
*******
*Thank you, Clicky, for help with this ‘Pointless Exercise’, so far… you’ve been very well behaved. Hear, have a Song… 😉 *
It’s Friday and on Friday mornings I receive digital copies of ‘Building‘ and ‘Estates Gazette‘ magazines. I usually post the issue covers onMEROVEE because they sync so much, but with the overflowing comments, the latest page has become difficult to load…
So for the Meroveeps, or Mirror VIPs, here’s what’s…
Ding Dong, Clicky! What does the little Gazette (‘e states *rolls eyes*) have to say?
Kinda black and white, Clicky. I wonder what it means…
Etymologyonlineis a fantastic resource if words grab your inner rest…
property (n.) c. 1300, properte, “nature, quality,” later“possession, thing owned” (early 14c., a sense rare before 17c.), from an Anglo-French modification of Old French propriete“individuality, peculiarity; property” (12c., Modern French propreté; see propriety), from Latin proprietatem (nominative proprietas) “ownership, a property, propriety, quality,”literally “special character” (a loan-translation of Greek idioma), noun of quality from proprius“one’s own, special” (seeproper). For “possessions, private property”Middle English sometimes used proper goods. Hot property“sensation, a success”is from 1947 in “Billboard” stories.
If you clicked on ‘property’ EOL you’ll see four pages of listings where the word is used. These can be fascinating – both ‘black’ and ‘white’ via ‘bleach’ are Shining words, revealed to me whilst looking for hidden things in‘The Shining’
Look down the first page for ‘Property’ and you’ll find ‘waif’…
waif (n.) late 14c., “unclaimed property, flotsam, stray animal,”from Anglo-French waif (13c., Old French guaif) “ownerless property, something lost;”as an adjective,“not claimed, outcast, abandoned,” probably from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse veif“waving thing, flag,” from Proto-Germanic *waif-, from PIE *weip-“to turn, vacillate, tremble ecstatically” (see vibrate). Compare Medieval Latin waivium“thing thrown away by a thief in flight.” A Scottish/northern English parallel form was wavenger (late 15c.).
Meaning “person (especially a child) without home or friends” first attested 1784, from legal phrase waif and stray (1620s), from the adjective in the sense “lost, strayed, homeless.” Neglected children being uncommonly thin, the word tended toward this sense. Connotations of “fashionable, small, slender woman”began 1991 with application to childishly slim supermodels such as Kate Moss.
Look again at the ‘Building’ cover *scrolls up* and find the waving flag…
Anyway, it was whilst I was taking digital snapshots of the magazine covers, when the fire alarm suddenly screamed into life. A drill – just enough time to grab cigs, phone, hat and coat before being ushered down the spiraling fire escape by orangefluorescent wardens.
Too wet and windy to smoke during roll call, so I waited until everyone else sprinted for the lifts and settled my back into a covered corner to smoke and read. “Yippee!” there was a new post from The Slogto think about…
Now if you add all this mayhem up, you could be forgiven for concluding that the two government institutions Britain should steer completely clear of are The United States of America, and the European Union. And if you then look at their disgraceful citizen rights record and parlous econo-fiscal positions, you’d probably add Saudi Arabia, Turkey and China to that list. So it does say quite a lot about the judgement of the so-called British élite that they continue to laud the Special Relationship with the US, are desperate to stay in the rapidly collapsing EU bed, like nothing better than selling arms to the Saudis, have hired Beijing to oversee our nuclear power development, and toddle off to Ankara at regular intervals in order to praise Recep Erdogan to the Heavens.
15th of January was Mum’s birthday. On that date in 2003 she turned 58. She’s deadnow; now I’m the elder mother in the family.
costume (n.) 1715, “style of dress,” an art term, from French costume (17c.), from Italian costume “fashion, habit,” from Latin consuetudinem (nominative consuetudo) “custom, habit, usage.” Essentially the same word as custom but arriving by a different etymology. From “customary clothes of the particular period in which the scene is laid,” meaning broadened by 1818 to “any defined mode of dress.” Costume jewelry is first attested 1933.
OMG, Clicky! How can you be bored with language? And English is the language of angles. Let’s carry on, shall we? If you can be bothered to, Click.
custom (n.)c. 1200, “habitual practice,” from Old French costume “custom, habit, practice; clothes, dress” (12c., Modern French coutume), from Vulgar Latin *consuetumen, from Latin consuetudinem (nominative consuetudo) “habit, usage, way, practice, tradition, familiarity,” from consuetus, past participle of consuescere “accustom,” from com-, intensive prefix (seecom-), + suescere“become used to, accustom oneself,” related to sui, genitive of suus “oneself,” from PIE *swe- “oneself” (seeidiom). Replaced Old English þeaw. Sense of a “regular” toll or tax on goods is early 14c. The native word here is toll.
Click. Tell me about it… 😉
play (v.)Old English plegan, plegian“move rapidly, occupy or busy oneself, exercise; frolic; make sport of, mock; perform music,” from West Germanic *plegan “occupy oneself about” (cognates: Old Saxon plegan “vouch for, take charge of,” Old Frisian plega “tend to,” Middle Dutch pleyen “to rejoice, be glad,” German pflegen “take care of, cultivate”), from PIE root *dlegh-“to engage oneself,” forming words in Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, and possibly Latin.
Meaning “to take part in a game” is from c. 1200. Opposed to work (v.) since late 14c. Related: Played; playing. To play up “emphasize” is from 1909; to play down “minimize” is from 1930; to play along“cooperate” is from 1929. To play with oneself “masturbate” is from 1896; play for keeps is from 1861, originally of marbles or other children’s games with tokens. To play second fiddle in the figurative sense is from 1809 (“Gil Blas”). To play into the hands (of someone) is from 1705. To play the _______ card is attested from 1886; to play fair is from mid-15c. To play (something) safe is from 1911; to play favorites is attested from 1902. For play the field see field (n.).
Please, Clicky, for the love of god, no..!!
Phew! That could have been sooo much worse…
*flicks lighter* At the beginning of the month, 3rd October to be exact, I wrote an email to MJ, my online friend who lives in Tennessee, US of A:
Mary Jo, I like the title, I want to use it for a post at the LoL – I will quote some of this email, just so’s you know 😉 It’s how WE get to write the script 😉 …Vik’s ‘crack the code’ *shakes head*. And it’s all true – this is an after thought, another level… Clicky!
Now MJ, what do you and Charlie have cooked up, costume-wise for this Halloween? The boys did costumes once for a Halloween party that some woman at work threw. It was horrendous. The less said, the better. If I wrote a post about it for the LoL, it would be called ‘A Freakishly Boring Night Out’.
We don’t do Halloween, so wishing to live vicariously… MJ, you are my only hope!
I love your Charlie photo updates – he’s a gorgeous child and you are a gorgeous mum. You’re just the sort of mum I never was to my boys. I made a decision, you see, to treat them exactly the same. Very noble of me 😉
As it happens, they are complete opposites to each other and have very different interests, and to split my time and energy in half… no, there’s Steve and WORK (a huge amount of my time is spent there)… to give equally, I just let them get on with their own play. Mostly I did homework with them or painting. Costumes were for school trips & photos and mostly shop bought. Cheap and cheerful and the boys weren’t really that interested in them anyway. Now if it was Star Wars school trips…
Also, Halloween is not that big of deal in the UK and the night itself is celebrated more by adult- kids than children-children. Well, where I live anyway. And Steve will tell me all about that when he gets home from driving them about that night 😉
So spill, I want to enjoy knowing what I didn’t get or choose for in my life… a proper Mother and Child run up to Halloween… 😉
*deep draw* A nice woman, MJ, she replied straightaway. Now how long would it have taken, to correspond with your overseas girlfriend, in days of yawn ?
Roobee! So good to hear from you! About to run some errands so this won’t be as long as it should be. Charlie is going to be
and I’m going to be
But we probably won’t look just like that. We will probably look more like
😀 😀 😀 😀
It doesn’t mean we aren’t “super” though!
Oh Clicky! You shouldn’t hide stuff behind MJ’s illustrations. I know you do it to mine, but did you ask her? …*tumbleweed*… No, I didn’t think so *tut*
Then *flick, flick, shakes flick* then today, 30th October, I arrive at my place of work, with a Song playing in my head, to find it’s Dress Down Friday. Goo goo g’joob I’d forgotten… nobody needs to see me in my jimjams… except maybe for me and I really don’t think that’s what Management intended.
I took off my hat and coat, fired up my PC (no resemblance to The Flash in that piece of hardware, believe me) and ventured into the kitchen to make myself a cuppa joe.
Now I must tell you, we’re getting new toilets at work, so all kinds of doors that are normally held open have been allowed to close. To cut down on the noise and the dust, from the men at work.
On returning to my desk I had to turn the handle of a door that I never normally have to touch. As I pushed it open, more concerned with whether I’d forgotten to add sugar (again), I was surprised by the looming presence of another, on the other stood of the door. I look up and to my utter astonishment, there stood… MJ!
Okay not Tennessee MJ, Clicky, but a woman who looked so like her I just stood there staring…
I told you, Click, I’d forgotten it was Dress Down Friday *rolls eyes*
*Exhales plume* Who’d of thought? I had the title of this post weeks ago; I had no idea what kind of shambles it would make. The whole idea of ‘Selfie Sounds Like Sophie’ on Sync Miss For Him was to develop a long exposure selfie of the goddess, in an ‘as below, so above’ amateur experiment.
On Merovee, the site of MJ/Isis’ love Frank/Osiris, ‘WE’ is major meme. Shambles are magical things and I’d managed to conjure a goddess 😉
In honour of that fact, I decided to do something I’ve never actually done before, unless you count capturing the odd stray hand or foot in the odd photos I taken. I took my very first selfie. And I took it in what our office new ladies loos is going to look like, courtesy of the 2nd floor, which has already been renovated…
LOL! A ‘now you see me, now you don’t’ sort of thing, Click? Blimey that’s a grey tongue – must be all the smoking. Or it could be that the manufacturers have missed a trick 😉 Maybe I should tell them…
Why? Y knot, Clicky? ‘Cos play’s the thing *wink*
Have a happy Halloween everybody and… Do, please Doo have a Song 😉
“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
I AM the SynchroMiss planted on Earth, here to share my downloads, intel, and code-cracking, integrating the art of synchronicity as we transition to a higher state of consciousness and awareness.
Library of Libraries 