Bear With Me, This Will Take A While
Yesterday I indulged myself with a trip on the bus, which is always conducive to getting reading done, especially if it's a particularly heavy or complex work. Captive audience, you see - unable to seek refuge in codewords or a comic book or a DVD or two.
ANYWAY what popped up in my mind but 'Emanuel Swedenborg' for no particular reason. Go on, I bet you've never heard of him, have you? Conrad was aware of the name and that he was associated with philosophy, perhaps. Art!
Then there's this invention, which is very impressive, whatever it it
(Note description in Latin)
He was a bit of a polymath, being a scientist and inventor before he abruptly changed tack and became a religious philosopher. He was a couple of centuries ahead of the field in terms of his hypotheses about neurology, good for you Swedey! The apparatus above is probably to do with mining, as this was one of his official responsibilities, and which he pursued for decades. His theological writings were so influential they led to the creation of the New Church. Art!
Contemporary map of the Swedish town of Visby
I suppose you also want a picture of the man himself? O very well, of course an actual map of the time isn't good enough, even though I went and looked it up on the Riksarkivet official Swedish cartographical website. Art!
Manny
There you go, an outline of Ol' Manny and a picture to boot. What Conrad wondered about next - for with Conrad every answer begets two more questions - is where the word 'Philosopher' comes from. Of course you guessed it from the first half, 'Philo' from the Greek for 'Lover of' and 'Sophos' for 'Wisdom'. Conrad, being habitually and perpetually liverish ('grumpy and bad tempered' according to my Collins Concise) simply couldn't resist the pun.
And there you have today's title.
Motley! Do you like Swedes? Good, because this is a plane ticket to Stockholm.
Back To IWM
We've covered Imperial War Museum London, Duxford and the Churchill War Rooms. There is a third site in London, namely HMS Belfast, a cruiser launched in 1938 which saw service in the Second Unpleasantness and beyond, and which is berthed on the Thames River. Art!
Reading the 'Accessibility' blurb at least they don't ban rucksacks. There are nine decks to get up and down, so a fair bit of ladder work and the recommended time taken is at least an hour and a half. Okay, enough of the exhibit, let me explain what a 'cruiser' is, exactly. Technically, at the time of Belfast's launch, a cruiser was a ship designed to operate over large distances, weighing less than 10,000 tons and having guns of up to 8" calibre. So, bigger than a destroyer, smaller than a battleship. There is an amusing note on Wiki about cruisers -
"I say, steward, those blasted guns rattle the ice in my G & T every time they fire, and I can't find my way to the swimming pool ..." Art!
Someone ashore is about to have a very bad day
One wonders if it would be possible to fit in a visit to all three London IWM sites in a single day. I shall have to check opening and closing times and get back to you on this one. I can only guess at your eager anticipation of same.
Argos
Not to be confused with Argus, because that was the giant who had a hundred eyes all over his body and who never fell asleep, which means he must have gone quietly mad because that's what permanent sleep dep
ANYWAY we are still in the same desert, if a different tent. You are probably more familiar with 'Argos' as being a chain of catalogue stores, at least if you reside within the hallowed borders of the Pond Of Eden (yes it is raining again). Art!
However, if you are a citizen of the Hellenic Repblic, then you very probably recognise the name as belonging to one of the more powerful city states of Antiquity, up there with Sparta, Athens and Thebes. The site has been in continuous occupation for seven thousand years, so it must have something going for it. Art!
Given the geography of the Pelopennesian peninsula, it was inevitable that Argos and Sparta would come to blows, and they did. This resulted in an Argive defeat, which, oddly enough, provoked a revolution that brought in democracy (ancient Greek version thereof). After this defeat Argos tended to sit out the various wars that were a perpetual feature of Greece in those days, meaning that they were never on the losing side, but never on the winning side, either, and they declined in stature and power. Art!
Shades of the past
There you are, a whistle-stop tour of ancient and classical Argos. We may cover an 'Argosy' tomorrow*.
Quickly! Check and see that Ben Folds is still hale and hearty! <checks> why yes he seems to be in fine fettle. Planning a tour, even. Phew! I'm so glad my intuition was off this time. Art!
Where were we? O yes -
Finally -
Your Humble Scribe is currently sitting in his window chair, eyeing the wet outside with a wary, weary eye. High summer? Ha! You must be joking. Clammy is what the weather is, meaning that if you wear a waterproof coat when walking the dog, you come back so sweaty that it would have been better to go coatless.
Which has nothing to do with "Yes Prime Minister" as I re-watched the first episode last night. Simply classic stuff, about nuclear deterrence and conventional forces, with the PM trying to get the better of his wily civil servants, and the fate of the free world depends on a cook**. I remember watching it first time round, and one suspects that it is actually a lot more accurate than we would care to believe. Even if it is 35 years old. Erk. Also, it allows Conrad to subtly introduce Politics into BOOJUM! un-noticed***. Art!
The triumvirate in power
* Or we may not. I'm fickle that way.
** Kind of.
*** Tee hee!
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