The Official Nonsense Thread

[Minty]

Speaking of insane, why are we talking about going into another Middle East war? The US Treasury yesterday said they're not going to have enough money to pay their bills by mid October unless they're allowed to borrow more, & there's talk of more "cuts" over here forthcoming, yet here we all are sabre rattling over events in Syria.

[Caspin]

I wouldn't trust our current government to organise a pizza delivery, never mind a war. They don't pay any regard to information or evidence, e.g. the jury is still out on whether culling badgers can stop bovine TB - but they get started on culling them anyway. Or, the Australians have found firm evidence that plain packaging for cigarettes does discourage kids from taking up smoking - but this proposal is dismissed and not to be implemented here, despite the government previously saying that they are waiting for exactly this report from Oz to make the decision. They have no proper decision-making methods - Hercule Poirot would be appalled and so am I.

I am no sooner back from my travels but am out to the theatre tonight to see 'A Doll's House'. It was silly to book to see something tonight but I think they were offering half-price tickets. I should assign time in my diary for playing Sims or just laying down on the sofa.

In other news, lovely shower this morning. Just lovely. The water stayed a constant temperature and pressure and nothing smacked me in the face or fell on me. Speaking of showers, have you seen the sonic shower that will be included in the Sims 3 Into the Future EP? I wasn't initially keen on the future stuff but I think that EP might actually be quite fun.

[Minty]

I have to admit to having never saw an Ibsen play in my life, even though it's one of those like Shakespeare everyone ought to. I understand "Ghosts" is a bit depressing. If you're in the mood for going out rather than staying in, best run with it. Very soon we'll be back to the days of the weather forcing us all to stay indoors for our entertainment.

The bovine TB thing is depressing. Years ago someone pointed the finger to bottle nosed shrews as the vector, but as it's near impossible to control them without wiping out a lot of other wildlife in the process, they've gone for what they infect & is bigger. Innoculating the badgers would be easy - they are such creatures of habit there are setts deep in woods like the New Forest that have been used by badgers for centuries, & the side walls of the tunnels are near complete smooth from all the generations of badgers going through them.

I couldn't believe the Commons vote on Iraq - both the amendment & the motion rejected. A very good day for democracy, & now the Americans might think twice about sticking their noses in when they haven't got their sandbag to take the brunt of disgruntled jihadist nutters ("let's bomb Britain in revenge for invading us, they're nearer!"). My suspicion is that Al Quida was behind this - twice this year they've tried to overrun chemical weapons plants owned by the Assad regime & there was originally meant to be talks next week about a ceasefire with the Syrian government having regained the upper hand.

Tobacco products are no longer displayed in shops up here - they're kept behind plain cupboards so people have to ask for them by brand.

The dentist visit turned out to be an escapade. Three teeth needed treated on top of them all getting polished. As I insist on white fillings (they last longer), that was me £40 out of pocket (which is still incredibly cheap - I shudder to think what the cost would be if I was in America). But it left me with a numbed up mouth on all sides. I was no sooner back in the door home, a bloody employer phoned that day of all days wanting to do a telephone interview, & there I was sounding like I'd had a stroke. I did explain that I'd just returned from the dentists, but insisted on continuing (guessing that they'd never phone back as they promised they would) If I hear back from them again it'll be a miracle.

[Caspin]

I don't think I have ever seen an Ibsen play previously either, but I would recommend him after last night. Despite being knackered I really enjoyed the play. I can only imagine the moral outrage that it would have met with when first performed. I also cannot think of a topic that a new play written these days could offer that would result in such a reaction now. "Ghosts" is apparently a very grim play which Ibsen wrote in part as a follow up to A Doll's House. I would really like to see that and will be looking out for it.

They could vaccinate the badgers and in fact there are some pilot schemes to do so, although I can't remember where. They could also try vaccinating the cattle, but the EU won't allow it. They are unwilling to go down that route because then you can get the same positive result for a TB test for a cow that is infected as from one that has been vaccinated and some countries then won't accept our cows for export. I don't see what the problem is, really - surely these days we can just substitute some horse or whatever other meat is going spare!

Cigarettes are hidden down here as well, behind screens, but they are still in branded packages, which apparently makes them more attractive to young people and makes smokers feel attached to their chosen brands (even the ones with 'you will die' written in massive font and pictures of tarred-up lungs). The Australian study found that the youth really go for the shiny branded boxes and that if you put them in a plain box in a sludgy-green colour, the kids are less keen to smoke them and be seen with them. People are very susceptible to shininess and pretty fonts.

I am sorry about your dentistry woes, Minty. What a time for an important phone call. Hopefully you weren't also all tripped out on painkillers!

[Minty]

I was a little upset at yesterday's news about Seamus Heaney dying. I did his poems at school, and he was one of the few ones we had forced upon us that I liked.

He never got much credit when he was alive from the arty-farty crowd. It seems post-Yeats if you're an Irish writer, unless you write endlessly about potato famines, British brutality or being molested by Catholic priests/nuns, you're ignored or accused of "domesticality" - whatever that means! Now he's dead they're praising him to the skies - typical!

My favourite one of his was "Digging" - a simple but beautifully written poem about trying to write when his dad was out the back gardening, leading to him daydreaming about watching his forefathers digging.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:

My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.

My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.

[Caspin]

That was a very enjoyable read. I will look for more of his work.

We didn't read much poetry at school. We were very lucky to have a great English teacher and she made sure that we got to do a sort of triple English at GCSE (English Lang, English Lit and Theatre). That teacher certainly instilled in me my love of theatre, but perhaps it's a shame that we mostly read plays or novels, not really many poems. Can't have it all.

I do remember there was a poem on an exam that was written by a Northern Irish poet. It was extremely depressing and ended with a young soldier feeling obliged to throw himself over a bomb to take the force of the blast. Half the class sat sit through that exam crying their eyes out! The invigilator was also very sad. These days there'd be an outcry and everyone's grade would be artificially marked up for extenuating circumstances caused by being upset by the material.

[Caspin]

Oh come on Hearts! Someone get me a sausage roll.

[Minty]

Without Danny Wilson they were a shambles as expected. Lucky to get away with only losing by two.

Good to see Liverpool beat a Man U team more intent in playing American Football than real football. Giggs should have been booked for that first half foul that not only chopped down Coutinho but almost floored a United player as well. I don't see them retaining their title this year.

What's the story with Sterling? Every time I've saw him play, he gives it his all, but is always a sub, never a start.

I actually fell asleep trying to watch the North London derby, that was how good it was!

[Caspin]

Yes a very pleasing result against Man U indeed.

Spent most of today reading and did a bit of baking, very relaxing. I'm feeling pleased because I do in fact now have tickets for Ibsen's "Ghosts" play, which it turns out is being shown in two theatres this autumn. Yay!

[Minty]

Pretty cross about a job I'd applied for and wasted a lot of time preparing for only for it to end up a dud. I should have known it was a "read the small print" one when it turned out to be Reed doing the recruiting (those gits that advertise on TV), who are about as honest as a Barras merchandise supplier.

The job start was in October with the contract up for renewal at the end of December - exactly 12 weeks, the maximum you can have anyone on a temporary contract without them being becoming subject to the same rights as permanent staff. I would also have been employed by Reed, not the firm, which again pointed to it being temping despite her claim that this was merely a formality & it would be made permanent in the new year.

I wasted years after uni on the phony "temporary for now, but they are looking for someone permanent" circuit of the employment agencies. All it does is screw up your employment history & makes you look a job hopper at best, a loose cannon constantly being fired at worst, & will never get suckered back into it.

When I withdrew my application, the "resourcer" sent me an e-mail telling me to explain why I had done so (perhaps because she was about to see her monthly bonus for achieving target go up in smoke). I replied to her my thanks for sending it from the e-mail address ServiceDeliveryTemp@reed used for contacting temping staff to confirm my suspicions!

I didn't bother to point out to them that the advert on the company's own national website also had it stuck in their temping section, with the same wording used in their S1jobs advert claiming that it was permanent. It's the errors like that which allow you to weed out the con artists. But still cross at the waste of time. It's not though as if I don't have plenty more apps fired off all over the place, & now we're not going to be indulging in another expensive war confidence in the economy will be picking up big time.

Autumn appears to have arrived with a vengence. Three days of lousy weather, the leaves all turning yellow almost overnight, & the wasps now out in force. One good days worth of torrential rain to wipe them all out in one go please!