MakemineVanilla

As torture chambers go it looks pretty benign but the comfy chair is a dead giveaway.

I certainly did and I was watching an old TV programme the other day, discussing modernism, and it go a mention. I think it might have been mentioned that modernist authors have terrible difficulty in finishing.

It must be the time of year, as I've just finished re-reading Wolfe's The Bonfire of The Vanities, which I enjoyed immensely. Starting anything new is now a problem, and I've already given up on a book by George Steiner and Anthony Bugess's Earthly Powers, but I just wasn't in the mood. I think the difficulty arises from the rather daunting anticipation of the new year. I probably need something trivial which doesn't require much investment of spirit.

The BBC is financed by a hypothecated tax, and so there is now not even a pretence that they are in anyway independent from the state. The fact that people say it can be fixed shows that it is understood that it is a branch of the state, open to political influence. Other countries have observed how the BBC functions and have thought it useful to create their own version.

The BBC is essential to the proper running of the state. How else are we to know what they actually want us to think, and how else could they rewrite history for the better enlightenment of our children? A lot of people don't like the BBC because they resent the manipulation but that is its raison d'etre. Sadly it has lost the subtlety which it used to excel at and these days tends to raise a middle digit to its critics and the hated gammons. Their latest piece of cultural vandalism is a woke version of Enid Blyton's The Famous Five. If it is as terrible as their updated version of Dr Who, it will surely be a huge pile of steaming ordure.

Villa showed they were suffering from battle-fatigue in this one, which revealed itself with a lack of a spark and several lack-lustre performances. This left us hoping for a favour from the referee, which was never going to be forthcoming. Not Villa at their recent best but a precious point well earned. Bournemouth obviously thought they'd done enough for all three points but Villa had other ideas.

I thought political mantras were the secular alternative to prayers?

Who could honestly say they don't like this?

Thomas Sowell claims that a lot of black culture is derived from the Irish, and as redlegs were very common in the West Indies, it would seem that a love for Jim Reeves might follow that pattern. My Irish neighbour had a picture of the sacred heart on his wall, which I quite liked.

One thing which amazed me and still does, is how come West Indians love Jim Reeves so much?

I always liked songs which told a story when I was a kid, which often meant country music, but then I quickly learned that country was not only uncool but beyond the pale, when I was in my youth. Much later, I was amazed to find, while reading biographies of respected rock icons, that they had been influenced by country stars. Every time I hear Elvis Costello's version of Good Year for the Roses, I am amazed at what a great song it is. These days I can't decide where country starts or where it stops.

They would be better built on the east coast because the wersterlies would blow the pollution on to Scandinavia, like we did with our sulfur dioxide. But it won't happen because we have a tradition of dithering and circumlocution.

I read Desmond Bagley's Landslide some years ago, which featured the word "thixotropic" - very nasty! I suppose we have to decide whether not having our own nuclear power stations, ensures we are safe from France's 56.

I am not sure how much of a fall or how much water you need to drive hydroelectric plants, but I should imagine it would need to be substantial to make a difference. At the moment the UK has over 1500 hydroelectric installations. By comparison Switzerland generates almost 60% of its power needs by hydro and over 30% by nuclear - their CO2 output is 28% of the European average. Nuclear is obviously the answer but no government I can think of seems capable of making such a decision.

I suspect that the reason they are offering £4 is because it is at peak load that they have to buy power off the French at a premium. Surely, if they built hydo-electric power stations in Wales, the government would just sell the electricity cheap to the English, like they did the water.

That's when people are getting home and putting on the kettle and starting to cook their evening meal. Its sounds like the infrastructure is lagging behind the demand, as per effing usual.

According to this source the ruling was correct: https://tinyurl.com/bdd7vm8p I assumed otherwise.

I am sure that the old chap is just as chagrined as yourself, and has been muttering "All I said was...", ever since.

There are not many matches bigger than travelling away to face your rivals for a place in the top-four, and from the start, Tottenham looked far more likely to take the points, but once again Villa came up with the guts to stay in the game and the finesse to finally win it. Some of the refereeing decisions were accentric and so it was wise of Emery to to withdraw Cash at the break, as Spurs were obviously determined to enjoy the luxury of playing against ten. In the end it was substitute Tielemans who supplied the perfectly weighted assist, to set up Watkins' match-winning finish. It was a remarkable turn around for Villa, who had looked second-best for long stretches of the game, but it took the brilliance of Martinez to secure the three points.

I suppose musical instruments could be said to have a personality. Presumably Keef named his guitar Micawber, because when he was writing songs, he was always hoping "something would turn up".

Someone told me years ago that once something becomes a synonym for a particular gadget, it is a matter of law that it ceases to contravene copyright. No doubt this must have been decided and established in case law.

That is actually slightly more bearable than people who give their car a name and a gender, and talk about it in anthropomorphic terms.

It just shows how it is better to travel hopefully, than to arrive.