Hasn't it just? Conrad was actually panting with thirst in the car as he drove to collect a codebook at the Sorting Office. 18 degrees is tropical to me, after all, hailing from the distant iceworlds of Tau Ceti IV. The heat was bearable due to low humidity, a nice breeze and cobalt skies overhead.
The rumour is that this weather is to continue into next week.
Not gloating or anything, just saying.
| I lied! I AM gloating! |
Gilbert And Sullivan's Knots
My late dad used to read Shakespeare for entertainment, something I still regard with undisguised bemusement. Another of his tastes was Gilbert and Sullivan, those Victorian tunesmiths who created <thinks> "The Mikado", "The Pirates of Penzance" and "The Gondoliers*".
Bear with me on this, the link is tenuous but it's there.
One verse from The Gondoliers runs thus:
Let us grasp the situation,
Solve the complicated plot** -
Quiet, calm deliberation
Disentangles every knot.
As an appeal to logical analysis over emotional fumbling this would be endorsed by Mister Spock. Or Sherlock Holmes, who had appeared in print only two years earlier.
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| Mister Spock. No, hang on - |
Harold MacMillan's Knots
Who he? Well you might ask. British PM from 1957 to 1963. Here Conrad will lightly, fleetingly, transiently venture into politics as BOOJUM! seeks to love everyone equally. Anyway, "Supermac", as he was known, began a withdrawal from Empire, established the Nuclear Test Ban, reduced the working week, was badly wounded during the Battle of the Somme, and was known for being both witty and imperturbable. He was Conservative MP for Stockton, which is some achievement as it was a profoundly working-class area.
Let us get to the meat in the sandwich. Mac wrote out a short memo for his staff when he was PM:
"Quiet calm deliberation disentangles every knot"
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| Superman. Close enough |
Yes, I know, this sounds like a rubbish sitcom character from ITV in the Seventies about the hilarious life of a chartered accountant with a secret life as a male stripper - something like that. And it would star Richard O'Sullivan***.
No! Not a bit of it! The Gordian Knot was a fiendishly complicated knot that tied an ox-cart to it's yoke, with no visible ends, . There existed a prophecy that whoever undid the knot would go on to rule Asia.
The knot sat unsolved until young Alexander Meglos^ turned up, fresh from conquering the known world east of Macedonia. he couldn't find the ends of the knot to untie it - so he hacked it apart with his sword. Job done. He also went on to conquer Asia, until he dropped dead unexpectedly early.
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| Reminds one of Ken Dodd and the Diddymen - you know, Knotty Slash |
I am currently reading a "History of Amphibious Warfare", which features many photographs of whacking big things like "Landing Craft Tank" or ""LVT(A)4" or "Landing Ship Infantry", all of which have their speed described in "knots".
Come again? "Knots"? Why not a sensible and logical term like "Miles per hour^^"
Apparently a knot is the equivalent of a mile, except it's a nautical mile, not the standard Imperial mile, and it's the equivalent of 1.151 miles per hour as against exactly 1.00 nautical miles.
Where did nautical miles come from? If I look that up then I'm going to find some nonsense about nautical seconds, minutes and hours, aren't I? And if I look them up -
Oh - the term "knot" comes from speed-testing where a knotted line would be drogued from the stern of a ship (the "end bit" for any non-nautical persons reading) for a set time.
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| Nautical knots are boring. Here's a heavy-duty riveter instead. |
Not sure quite why I bought "Austerlitz" by Chris Duffy - oh hang on yes I do it had free postage.
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| All will become clear on Facebook |
More Thomas Pynchon
I didn't remember ordering this one, but the postie left a note saying "could I go pick up a parcel"?
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| Indecently naked minus it's dust-jacket |
Biarritz
Another Napoleonic connection here. Napoleon the Third's wife Eugenie contributed to the growth of Biarritz as a fashionable place to stay by having a palace constructed there.
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| Beer, it's. Close enough |
** Which "Against The Day" undoubtedly has. See, these things all mesh together!
*** No relation to the composers - that I know of.
^ To you, Alexander the Great. To the Iranians, the devil incarnate.
^^ Imperial measures only here at BOOJUM!
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