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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Hey, remember John Dean of Watergate fame? Well, he put this up on Medium. The strapline tells you all you need to know
Benedict Arnold Trump Is at It Again
Trump encourages Russia to attack delinquent NATO members and, thus, the United States. |
So I thought I'd put in my British two-pennyworth
| I do not entirely follow your logic. Benedict Arnold was a patriot in a sea of treasonous malcontents. |
I assumed he would ignore it, great man that he is, but instead he offered this totally missed-the-point and airily dismissive reply
| I must have missed class that day . . . |
So I thought I'd unload a minor shotgun on him at point blank range
| It might depend who was teaching that class. To most Americans in the 1770's Arnold was speaking for them, though they ultimately lost, and it's the winners that make the rules. You are assuming you speak for America and Trump does not, but you have to check very carefully that it is not just you disagreeing with Trump as Americans. |
To which he gave three claps. It means nothing to him but the world to me.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Further to the Squires response, this encouraging exchange:
| Mick Harper wrote: | | I have been advocating this since the Friends scheme started. I entered into a bit of a discussion about it, for or against. It is just that the 'system' makes it difficult. For instance, this story is nearly a year old, has got twenty-eight views, fifteen reads, five clappers and one comment (yours) in that time. And that is massively successful for me! I see you have several thousand followers, I've got a hundred and some. But what is their purpose? Most of my stories get no views at all apart from a coupla friends (of mine, not of Medium). None of the hundred and some even click on them. How, for instance, did you stumble across this one? |
| Jay Squires wrote: | | How did I get your name? You are one of the Friends of Medium. Anyone who pays 300% more for his/her membership, is my adopted sibling in our sub-family of Medium. You are one of 429. I chose to engage with your piece instead of a random non-FoM's piece because if you engage back (clap, highlight, comment) your your action will yield up 400 percent more in my wallet. Mammon. I'll be posting an article about it in about a week, called, "I'm Not an Elitist". Now aren't you hoping you didn't ask me a second question? Your post, incidentally, is among the most valuable I've read on Medium since 2019. |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Have you noticed you can't get full length spaghetti any more? Just this half length stuff. Probably happened when Italy went metric. Actually Tesco didn't even have this, only something called Linguini No 7. I'm trying to think of a way of working, "Oh, really? I find linguini No 7 is probably best as an all-rounder but I expect you're fairly conservative in your habits" into a dinner party conversation.
The reason I've had to become a pasta expert is because I have taken to eating spaghetti for breakfast. Just olive oil, pepper and salt and parmesan on it. But here's the thing It's like bacon and egg, you never get fed up with it.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Medium.com wrote: | | Abu Talba subscribed to get your stories via email six hours ago |
I get these messages from time to time and they always throw me into an intense anxiety state. If he's like most people he'll click on it once, find whatever it is not to his taste after all, and never do it again. Such is the state of all our email in-trays. He must have subscribed because he was impressed by a story I wrote but since I don't know which one, I can't even begin to throw him a similar sprat. It's odds on my next eclectic offering will leave him cold, but I have to make a special effort all the same. Such relatively committed fans are not to be spurned.
Somehow though, sharing this with you has helped. It's what you're there for. Onwards and upwards.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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One of The Great Replies
Scotland, Red in Tooth and Claw They’re not pussy cats up there, I can tell you. Mick Harper
It was the Scottish Labour Party conference this weekend and some strident words were being bandied about by all and sundry. As they’re going to be half our government by the end of the year I thought I’d better take heed.
I couldn’t make a lot of it out because of the accents but, apparently, delegates who die will not suffer from rigor mortis if their cadavers are promptly swaddled in a special cloth. Yes, pretty extraordinary to these English ears. Fairisle I knew about. And Harris Tweed, of course, though that’s more a border thing, isn’t it?
This cloth of theirs has considerable more uses than the purely funereal. Faintheart bravehearts, for instance, will be emboldened by waving it around — it reduces opponents to idle mockery. But should that prove ineffective and you end up being led off to jug, executed even (this is Scotland, remember) there is nothing to worry about if you have that piece of cloth about your person.
There was other material in the same vein but this was what I was able to scribble down verbatim by watching the on-stage signer:
“The people’s flag is deepest red, it shrouded oft our martyred dead. And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold, their hearts’ blood dyed in every fold. Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer, we’ll keep the red flag flying here. With heads uncovered swear we all to bare it onward ’til we fall. Come dungeons dark or gallows grim, this song shall be our parting hymn. Tea and shortcake are being served in the cafeteria at competitive prices.â€
| Barry Robinson wrote: | | What is a competitive price in Scotland? |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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A Fuller and Franker Explanation
| John Douglas Porter wrote: | “If . . . Then . . .†An observation
I sigh whenever I hear “If . . . then . . .†in constructions like “If you want to call our station, then the phone number is 1–800–123–4567.†That construction is objectionable because if the phone number is in fact 1–800–123–4567, it’s still the number whether or not you want to call the station. |
| Mick Harper wrote: | | Sorry, I'm English so at a bit of a disadvantage. In our dialect, then is a conjunction denoting a sequence of events as well as indicating intention, so the if...then construction would be considered correct. Not any more it won't, I can assure you of that. |
| John Douglas Porter wrote: | | Mick, thanks very much for your response. I may have expressed myself poorly. I'll try again. I object to "If . . . then" constructions in which the information in the then-clause is true regardless of the condition stated in the if-clause. For example, let's say I have an apple, I hear your stomach growl, and I say, "If you are hungry, then I have an apple." I object to that use of the "if . . . then" construction because whether or not you're hungry, I have an apple. Does my example help to explain my objection? Regardless, I really am grateful to you for responding to my article. I'd like to suggest another article you may be interested in: https://medium.com/writers-blokke/british-and-american-traditions-of-style-and-usage-e753f117825a Once more, Mick, thank you. John |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Here's a curious thing. As you have probably gathered by now, my Medium stories tend to get about one view if they are general, supposedly amusing, squibs. They can get a dozen or so if they are about something topical--Ukraine, Gaza, Post Office etc. They are all forgotten about within days in the sense it is rare if any of them get any further views subsequently. Occasional dribs and drabs is all.
You may remember, thanks to Wiley, I did a piece on the Croydon Playboy murder back in the summer of last year. That has got forty views thus far in February alone. Why, I have no idea. They all come from outside Medium itself so it's not as if it's people scouring my back-stories. There's nothing on the internet to account for it that I can see. Whatever it is I wish I could bottle it.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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I was not in Croydon, so it couldn't have been me.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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No, sorry, I remember now. You were responsible for Lucy Letby, a companion piece I was doing at the same time. This one came courtesy of a description of the murder in Medium itself by John Welford that immediately raised my AE antennae. The two stories represent my only significant successes on Medium so far.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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I haven't seen much on Medium to interest Wiley, but I did find fascinating "Did the Easter Island Have a Written Language?" "New research discusses the origins of the Rongorongo script"
It was by Sandee Oster.
Ms Oster holds similar interests to Wiley, and a highly commendable skillset, none of whose best qualities I will ever match.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Yes, that was sent to me too (great minds are recognised by great algorithms). I didn't read it--I find Easter Island thrillingly dull--but I will do so now. Which reminds me... it's happened to me again!
| Tales of a New York Cabbie |
By Loren Kantor with whom I have an affable relationship. Longish but I skipped through it dutifully -- it has to be for thirty seconds or more to count as a 'read'. And, since we boost each other's earnings by responding, I responded with
| Mick Harper wrote: | | My own view of cabbies, albeit from the other side of the partition and well away from NYC, can be found here https://medium.com/@mickxharper/mick-vs-the-dorsetshire-cabdrivers-a24a71549e29 You might care to know that black cab drivers in London require several years to learn 'the knowledge' before they are allowed to take to the streets. It takes Uber drivers several minutes to fill in the forms. Not much difference between them from the passenger's point of view though. |
| Loren Kantor wrote: | | Look forward to reading your story. |
It only takes a minute to read, Loren, couldn't you have read it rather than spent a minute saying you were going to?
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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My evaluation of this book is 9 out of 10, the author provides a compelling account based on an extraordinary and diverse range of the latest evidence. This is a well researched, original book set to become the standard text for the next 10 years.
My evaluation is 4 out of 10, admittedly the author has written a large book based on a diverse range of sources. Please note if you are already able to work with and evaluate evidence from source yourself, you will understand that you have no need to purchase this book, which will anyway quickly become dated.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I've had this brill idea or at least it was brill half an hour ago. The technology is now so cheap you could build a semi-permanent set and shoot half hour episodes with the original scripts of On the Buses. There are five characters and people pay to play one of them. They have a souvenir of it. The only question is whether there is a market and how much it would cost them. I mean, come on, people pay thousands for being in videos in weddings and holidays and testamentary wills ... don't they?
Yes, all right, it's getting thinner and thinner as I think about it but that means there is something else or it wouldn't have occurred to me. Amateur dramatics for shy people. A cult YouTube series. It's really a sociological experiment. Something. Come on, I'm finding myself seriously exposed here.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Oh no, I've turned into a giant Kafka.
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