Big Ben stops ticking

LONDON (AP) - Big Ben, the landmark London clock renowned for its accuracy and chimes, stopped ticking for 90 minutes, an engineer said Saturday.
Officials do not know why the 147-year-old clock on the banks of the River Thames stopped at 10:07 p.m. Friday. It resumed keeping time, but stalled again at 10:20 p.m. and remained still for about 90 minutes before starting up again, a spokeswoman for the House of Commons said on condition of anonymity, citing government policy.
There has been speculation a recent spell of hot weather may have been to blame. Temperatures in London reached 90 Saturday, and forecasters called it England's hottest day in May since 1953.
Big Ben, which is operated by the Palace of Westminster, survived attacks by German Luftwaffe bombers during World War II, continuing to mark the time to within 1 1/2 seconds of Greenwich Mean Time.
However, the clock has experienced occasional problems.
In 1962, snow caused the clock to ring in the New Year 10 minutes late. In 1976, the clock stopped when a piece of its machinery broke. Big Ben also stopped on April 30, 1997, and once more three weeks later.
Big Ben is actually the clock's 13-ton bell, which was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the British commissioner of works at the time the clock was built.
The official name for the Gothic tower holding Big Ben is St. Stephen's Tower. Standing 315 feet tall, it was completed in 1858 after an 1834 fire destroyed most of the Palace of Westminster.

Domo-Kun now an iPod case

Shocking indeed...Domo-Kun has become an iPod case...NHK bs2 must be wondering....also his friend Usajii the rabbit

Patriot Act Stamps

Secret Service reportedly very unhappy about these stamps.

Hippopotamus poison

Quite possibly the greatest threat to the welfare of humanity!

Paper Shredding Solutions

With all the recent talk about paper shredding solutions, Mr. Fresh would like to share his own recipe for receipt soup, developed in February 2004. Directions:



Add freshly shredded paper to pot, cover with water, then boil 20 minutes.



Cook your receipt soup until desired consistency is reached. You can drain your soup in a colander, form into a ball, then let dry. The possibilities are endless! For example, you can spray-paint your receipt soup balls and sell to art galleries.

Regeneration

The Doctor regenerates in front of Rose's eyes and looks mysteriously like David Tennant.

Tardis

No journal would be complete without a gratuitous entry on the Tardis:



Gratuitous video clip of Tardis disappearing before being struck by a fireball.

The new Doctor did not like his job so there will be a new new Doctor.

Earl of Sandwich

The 11th Earl of Sandwich and his son Orlando Montagu (seen in front of the House of Lords):


Father and son Orlando photographed in Orlando (FL). Hmmm....

Dueling teacups

It should be noted the Earl of Sandwich's teacup (above) bears remarkable similarity to Lady Penelope's teacup:

Also seen near the Houses of Parliament

International Rescue was also recently spotted touching down near the Houses of Parliament:


Number Two was seen driving his Lotus at high speed into an underground garage located at Abingdon Road, just off the Houses of Parliament:

Here Number Two is seen standing near the Houses of Parliament and also driving his Lotus near Buckingham Palace:

Dealers in charms and spells

In 1920 Lord Ronaldshay took this photo; his absorbing 1923 book Lands of the Thunderbolt: Sikkim, Chumbi & Bhutan (1923) has enchanting place-descriptions, including the great chörten at Tashiding, the legendary university at Nalanda, and Gangtok. Also do not skip the chapter on necromancy! Then go read H. H. Risley's Gazetteer of Sikhim (1894).

Alex and his droogs

"There was me--that is, Alex--and my three droogs: that is Pete, Georgie and Dim. And we sat in the Korova Milk Bar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova Milk Bar sold milk plus, milk plus velocet, or synthemesc, or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultraviolence."

Seven salted piglets

Note that item in the lower-right corner:

Also worry about mortal injury from the effect on body of 10 inches of mud.

Apparitions of Gorgons

Apparitions of Hamlet

Yorick | Action

Kalketrappes

Rev. Skeat writes: "Kalketrappes, calthrops or caltrops; defined by Webster as 'an instrument with four iron points [fastened to a ball] so disposed that, three of them being on the ground, the other projects upward.'" (258) Now compare Go Go Yubari, using her morning star chain adaptation of this medieval torture device before Uma slices her:

Shown below on either side of her boss O-Ren Ishii, Go Go appears to have two different weapons:

Now listen to the music that starts the scene.

Doctor Faustj Grewlich End vnnd SPectackell

Also geschahe es zwischen zwelff vnnd Ein Vhr jnn Mitternacht / Das gegen dem hauß her ein grosser vngestiemer wind gieng / So Das hauß vmbgeben / als ob es alles zugrund wolt gehn / vnnd das hauß zu Boden reyssen Darab die Studenten vermeinten zuuerzagen sprangen auss dem Betth vnnd hueben an einander zutrösten / wolten auss der Kamer nicht/

Der Wirt Lief auss dem hauß / Da Er sonnst jnn den andern heusern kein vngestyem spiret / dann eben jnn seinem hauß / jnn dem Wind (.dann die Studenten neher lagen bey der Stuben / darJnn Doctor Faustus ward.) hörten Sie ein grewliches pfeiffen / als ob Schlanngen/ Ottern / vnnd anndere Thier jm hauß wehren / Bald geht Doctor Faustus thur jnn der Stuben / Der hueb an Mordio vnnd schrey vmb hilff / aber kaum mit halber stym / Da hört man jn nicht mehr schreyen.

Wie es nun tag ward / Vnd die Studenten die gantze Nacht nichts geschlaffen hetten / seind Sie jnn die Stuben ganngen / Darjnn Doctor Faustus gewesen / sahen sie kein Faustum mehr / sonder nichts dann die Stuben Voller Bluett / Das hyrn klebt an der wand Dann der Feindt jn von einer Wand zu der Andern geschlagen hett / jtem seine Augen Da/ vnnd ettliche zeen ein greuliches Spectacul.

Die Studenten hueben an zu Clagen vnnd zu waynen suechten jn allenthalben / Da Sie herauß bey dem Myst den Leyb funden / welcher greulich anzusehen ward/ Der Kopff vnd alle glyder schlotterten.

Dise Studenten vnnd Magistrj so gemelt vnd bey dess Doctor Faustj Todt gewesen / haben souil erlanngt / Das man jn / jnn disem Dorff begraben hat / sein darauff auch jnn dess D: Faustj Behaussung ganngen/ Da Sie sein Famulum den Wagner gefunden / der sich seines Meysters vbel gehueb /

(usw.)

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space

Boccioni's "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space" has returned home to the new MoMA. But just how does MoMA's Boccioni differ from the "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space" at the Met? Here are the details:

MoMA catalog: Umberto Boccioni. (Italian, 1882-1916). Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. 1913 (cast 1931). Bronze, 43 7/8 x 34 7/8 x 15 3/4" (111.2 x 88.5 x 40 cm). Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest

Met catalog: Umberto Boccioni (Italian, 1882–1916) Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913 Bronze; H. 48 x 15 1/2 x 36 in. (121.9 x 15 1/2 x 91.4 cm) Bequest of Lydia Winston Malbin, 1989 (1990.38.3)

Domo-Kun & twin brother go noodling

Just back from NHK tour in Japan, Domo-Kun and his twin brother were seen noodling in a refrigerator, stumbling over a package of Chinese-style noodles.

Death Mask of Agamemnon

Ancient and modern versions:


Pounded Gold (?1550 BCE) vs. Contemporary Radioscopic (2005)

Padang food

friend wrote:
Aha.  Oops.  There are some genuinely delicious Padang places in Indonesia, and the Indonesians seem to treat Padang food as the most natural thing to eat in restaurants, even versus the Javanese and Balinese cuisines amply represented in the larger cities, or Chinese food. This is mysterious to me because Padang food here is normally arranged on plates and bowls in the restaurant window; it sits there cold all day attracting flies. Sometimes it's warmed up when served, sometimes not, and except in the very best places, it's nothing special. Nothing special. (In fact, sometimes it's downright disgusting.) In Padang itself, I know of several simple places where the Padang food is indeed good. The idea that Padang food is the world's spiciest is puzzling; some is spicy, some less so, but it doesn't hold a candle to the fire of roadside tandoori food outside of Bombay in my memory. All of Indonesian culture, including cuisine, bears the imprint of nearby India, and a glance at the map one day showed me this place Indonesia is geographically nothing more than the continuation of the Indian geographical features that run down under the Indian Ocean popping up now and then to become the Andaman and Nicobar Islands til they emerge again as Sumatra. Which means the food smells and tastes something like Indian food, especially the food of south India (particularly the Karnataka-Kerala southwest coast, with its heavy use of coconut, oils, chile pepper, and fragrant spices. It doesn't resemble Tamil cuisine much at all.) The great revelation in Padang is a little joint which serves a terrific ikan bakar (baked fish) which has a tandoori-ish sauce. In fact, it reminds me of the fish tandoori places in Khar, the Punjabi area in Bombay (if it hasn't changed since I left in 1985.)  (Nothing like a Friday night visit to the Hazara Hotel in Khar, passing blocks of stands red with hanging tandoori fish. Kebabs are the thing at the Hazara Hotel, if it's still there, and the toilet in the tiny, cheap place is probably still the most frighteningly vermin-infested I've seen in a career of unsanitary toilets.) What a disappointment after my first visit to Padang, coming back to try a recommended ikan bakar stall in Medan where the fish was bland, bony and unappealing. Now that I'm off Atkins, I can do martabak without guilt. Which, now that you mention it, is what New York needs next; a good martabak joint.  (Now that Mexican boys are selling fresh churros on the lower steps of the IRT at Grand Central Station, why not, finally, some hot fresh martabak down there, where the culinary need is so great?) Perhaps some young Palembang entrepreneurs would be willing to move to the U.S.
 
Ask the lady what she thinks about martabak (MAR-tuh-bock.)  Maybe there's already a place to get it in Queens?

mister_fresh wrote:
Oh yessir I knew that's what you meant. What I wanted to ascertain was whether the Indonesian laundry lady knew of Padang places that we'd not heard of. It seems although she thought she had, in actuality she had not. In other words, she did not wish to say she did not know, which of course, she didn't.

Dead dictators

Pol Pot (dead) | Bokassa (alive)

FQ Book V

THE FIFTH BOOKE

Contayning

THE LEGEND OF ARTEGALL


SO oft as I with state of present time,
The image of the antique world compare,
When as mans age was in his freshest prime,
And the first blossome of faire vertue bare,
Such oddes I finde twixt those, and these which are,
As that, through long continuance of his course,
Me seemes the world is runne quite out of square,
From the first point of his appointed sourse,
And being once amisse growes daily wourse and wourse.

Flapdragons and hogsheads

Love's Labor's Lost

The Winter's Tale

II Henry IV

Traditional weights & measures (PDF)
friend wrote:
All brewers in this country are faced with the hogshead situation. For beer may not leave the bonded premesis of the brewery in any vessel larger than a hogshead. Our hogshead is exactly 62 US gallons, actually an unwieldy vessel when full, weighing in excess of 600 lbs, much bigger than the largest common UK size vessel, the kilderkin.

Malbecco - a bad host

FQ Book III, proem
One doesn't hear much about peevish jealousy these days.

UFO UFO

There are three types of UFO in Manhattan, those on walls....

UFO UFO

...and those on trucks...

UFO UFO

...and there are mailboxes taken over by UFOs:

Blancmanges and creeping puddings

I. Blancmanges, historical
A. Blancmanges in medieval times: "Blammanger is Chaucer's blancmanger, Prol. 389. Tyrwhitt, in his Glossary, remarks that it 'seems to have been a very different dish in the time of Chaucer, from that which is now called by the same name....One of the ingredients is "the brawns of a capon, tesed small."' Mr. Furnivall says—'Blanchmanger, a made dish of Cream, Eggs, and Sugar, put into an open puff paste bottom, with a loose cover.' He also quotes—'Blamanger is a Capon roast, or boile, minced small, planched (sic) Almonds beaten to paste, Cream, Eggs, Grated Bread, Sugar and Spices boiled to a pap.—R. Holme.'" Skeat, 193.
B. Blancmanges since medieval times

II. Blancmanges via Monty Python

III. Creeping puddings
A. H.P. Lovecraft connection
B. Danger of creeping puddings

Demons and devils (assorted)

Rev. W. W. Skeat has much to say about devils, reminding us: "...we must remember that it was a common belief that a dying man saw devils all around him, seeking to terrify him, and make him despair....In old woodcuts, it is not uncommon to see representations of devils gathering round the bed of a dying man..." (p.119).
Here are the order of devils from Le Dragon rouge (Avignon, 1522):
Lucifer - empereur
Belzebut - prince
Astarot - grand duke
Lucifugé - prem. minister
Satanachia - grand général
Agaliarept - aussi général
Fleurety - lieutenant général
Sargatanas - brigadier
Nebiros - mar. de camp

We begin at the beginning - FQ Book I

Rev. W. W. Skeat tells us: "To prick is to spur, to ride....The expression princeps huius mundi is from St. John xvi. II; Vulgate version. Mr. Wright remarks that 'until the fifteenth century there appears to have been a strong prejudice among the lower orders against horses and horsemen; their name was connected with oppressors and foreigners.'" (The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman In Three Parallel Texts Together With Richard the Redeless by William Langland, edited from numerous manuscripts with preface, notes and glossary by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, Volume II [Introduction, Notes and Glossary], page 139 {First Edition, 1886, repr. Oxford U P 1979}). Volume II is an extraordinary medieval chrestomathy.

PP, B. Passus XVIII

"Cam prykye, came riding; lit. came to ride." (249) Rev. Skeat writes that "This is, upon the whole, at once the best written and the most interesting Passus in the whole poem," (247) and indeed his three full pages of notes just on the above passage makes this clear.