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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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When I were nobbut, every pair of men's trousers came with ten buttons. Four for the fly, six (four at the front, two at the back)for attaching braces to. Everyone wore braces as a matter of course save children who were elasticated or 'other'. Part of growing up was your first pair of long trousers and your first pair of braces.
All this changed at some point. A zip replaced the buttoned fly and belts or 'other' replaced braces. Only grandads still wore braces.
Until now, when a regime of waist-changes and belt-tightening have led some of us back to World of Braces on the high street. Before you yourself contemplate such a step let me assure you it is not a simple matter. Everyday you find out something new about wearing braces.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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We often suppose that billionaires live in a privileged world of their own, bought by amounts of money we can never aspire to. True enough maybe but they still don't have quite the clout of the haute bourgeois/minor gentry of the Belle Epoque.
Here is an account of a minor German noble married into a wealthy Berlin Jewish family. The count is living in obscurity in southern Spain when his brother, an army officer, is killed in a shooting accident.
1. A telegram is sent to the German embassy in Madrid who institute enquiries and send a telegram to the count.
2. A private carriage for the count and his retinue is attached to the Madrid train at his local station.
3. A Spanish official boards the train and explains the carriage will be coupled to the San Sebastian express. There will be changes at the French border and at Bayonne.
4. But then straight through via Angouleme, Poitiers, Paris, Liege, Aix-la-Chapelle to Cologne.
5. At the German border a sheaf of telegrams is brought to him.
6. From Cologne to Berlin is not recounted but at Berlin the group are met by a family member 'wearing the longest pair of fox furs and a huge hat', a footman and a chauffeured car.
7. There follows a discussion about where to go: one of several grand houses or a hotel.
Now this is all fictional but it is taken for granted that governments, railway companies, the world is at the service of privileged people. Money doesn't come into it.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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This is the kind of Amazon order I like
Hi Michael, Thank you for shopping with us. All Kindle content, including books and Kindle active content, that you've purchased from the Kindle Store is stored in your Kindle library on Amazon.com. Order details Order #D01-0844464-5323822 Placed on Friday, April 18, 2025 Sold by :Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part B. From Henry III. to Richard III.
David Hume
£0.00
Item Subtotal: £0.00
Total Before Tax: £0.00
Tax Collected: £0.00
Grand Total: £0.00
Paid by credit/debit card | |
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | Now this is all fictional but it is taken for granted that governments, railway companies, the world is at the service of privileged people. Money doesn't come into it. |
Nowadays the wealthy and privileged wouldn't be seen dead in a railway carriage. So lower class, darling.
It's all private jets these days.
Some friends of M'Lady (with their own chateaux in France) were normally resident in the USA, but just before Covid Lockdown were visiting a daughter here in the UK. Thanks to Lockdown, when they wished to return to the USA, with their dog, no scheduled airline would take them and their dog. Similarly, Cunard declined to take them on the Queen Elizabeth ship.
What was available was a private jet flight from Manchester to New York. From arrival at Manchester private jets terminal, to onboard the aircraft, time taken (including passport control and customs clearance) was just 10 minutes. Take-off from Manchester was two minutes later than scheduled. For which the pilot apologised. Breakfast included smoked salmon, Eggs Benedict and Bucks Fizz. Their dog had its own basket on a seat next to them.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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So let's have another list in descending order
1= Big shots of yesteryear
1= Yer modern billionaire
3. Known associates of a Mrs Boreades except
4. Mr Boreades
5. The rest of us
6. Worms, amoebae etc
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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M'Lady Boreades is currently agitated by shocking news from Toblerone.
The dark chocolate version of Toblerone's most popular bar has been discontinued after nearly six decades on confectionery shelves.
Sweet treats manufacturer Mondelēz International confirmed in a statement that its 360g dark chocolate bar would no longer be sold in the UK. | |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Just completed my first full Saturday shop with braces, with wheelie bag, with an independent air, he makes the girls despair, he must be a millionaire, the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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An altogether different shopping experience when I got home. It was time for a new suffusion of coffee pods so I went on the Nessun Dorma website where Nescaff had an Easter Offer. I seized it gratefully. They then said I couldn't add anything, it was the offer or nowt. So I pressed the OK dubry and received an 'On its way, sunshine' back.
Of course it wasn't nearly enough for my gargantuan caffeinated needs so I went back to the site later and made a fresh order of a gargantuan nature. It wouldn't allow me to. Then Nescaff started bombarding me with 'You have outstanding items in your basket' but refused to allow me to change anything.
So I am now in a position of not knowing whether the original order still stands until it does/does not arrive. If it is the latter I will have run out of coffee pods and will have to enter a Carmelite monastery, or similar.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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What do you do about people who have got one of these new algorithms that lets emails through that it predicts the recipient will want to see and 'loses' without trace those they don't? It's happened to my emails quite a lot lately. I must be one of those 'acquired tastes' one reads about.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I'm in need of a bit of help over a project I've got going. It involves British education policy, about which I know everything except one vital point
| What makes one school better than another. |
Not having children myself, and not having chosen either of the two I attended as a child myself, I am sorely ignorant. I assume none of you chose your schools either but most of you have children who are or who have been to school. So I need to pick your brains. And your spouses' brains insofar as you know it. On two points:
1. To what extent did you have any choice?
Even if it is 'Oh, the nearest', this must have ruled out other possibilities, so let me know what they were.
2. Insofar as you did have a choice, state what factors played a part?
A list of things--large or small--would be more helpful than a disquisition. But feel free to chuck in things that might not have affected you and yours but you know from listening to the gripes of others, I need to hear about.
Don't worry, all respondents, even the most niggardly, will be entered into a prize draw.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Today's Delivery Whine
I decided to go on a Kombucha binge so went on to Amazon and ordered a bunch of bottles, raspberry and lemon mostly since you asked. They said if I ordered something else and it came to£35, I could have free delivery. So I added some batteries and an oven lighter dubry. Well over. It makes sense, I thought, they can bundle them all together, save their end, save my end.
| So then they added a fat package + postage charge |
No reason given. Now it was well, well over. It would have been cheaper lugging 'em back from Tesco. But that's not why I'm bending your ear. It's coming in three different deliveries. That makes no sense.
PS And one of them is Royal Mail so that's the last I've seen of my oven dubry. Which, by the way, is needed because the automatic lighter thingy has ceased to work since I cleaned the oven when my sister was due to visit. Moral of the story: don't have a sister.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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You might recall I only had one biggie during my Medium career and that was The Ukraine War Is Winding Down, written six months ago so possibly predictive, possibly not. It's still earning! I got 67 reads this month contributing to a total of a hundred and fifty bucks all told. And a wondrous response this morning
| Solarstone wrote: | | LOL... it's been NO success for the west. In fact, its been a unmitigated disaster with BILLIONS pissed away and EU losing access to cheap energy thus committing industrial suicide. Now Russia gets their DMZ and eastern Ukraine to harvest and the west gets western Ukraine to harvest. Sadly, the real losers are the Ukrainian people who should have hung Z dicktator at the start and made peace on day one. While they continue to suffer, he will jet off to his 10 million flat in London or the 8 million villa in Italy. |
He can have mine for two.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Here's something that's been taxing you all. The government! No, seriously, biscuits. You remember when you were a kid you were allowed one and you got another one if you made a sufficient fuss. 'One, mind.' So you snaffled two. But that's still three all-in and they won't be coming out till the vicar calls round again. Though that's quite often with Dad away in Singapore.
But now you've got a whole pack of them, haven't you? Sure, you deliberately buy boring biscuits but it's surprising how many ginger nuts you can put away when no-one's looking.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkmRDPzB0o8&t=185s Spend thirty seconds listening to this for me, can you?
It's Arsenal Daily Talk and quite informative in its way. I watch it now and again, but I would watch it a lot more if it weren't for the dreary (I assume) AI-generated voice-over. It/he has an American accent--why would you choose that?--who constantly mispronounces things (PSG have just drawn 1-1 with a nice football team), often uses idioms bizarrely and repeats himself.
What is the economics of it all? Presumably it costs a fair bit putting these things together so why wouldn't the person or persons putting it together do the voice over? Or is AI putting it all together? Perhaps AI is putting it up on YouTube and no humans are involved in the process at all.
Since I'm trying to enter the biz I need to know stuff like this.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Cardinal Frizolio: Is that you, your holiness?
Pope Francis: Yes, you're coming through loud and clear.
Cardinal Frizolio: Everything to your approval?
Pope Francis: Bit too much of a fuss for my taste but I suppose it's inevitable.
Cardinal Frizolio: Trump is rather stealing the limelight.
Pope Francis: I noticed. What do you expect from a Proddy Dog?
Cardinal Frizolio: And Zelensky.
Pope Francis: What do you expect from an Ikey Mo?
Cardinal Frizolio: At least they're discussing peace in Ukraine.
Pope Francis: That would be worth dying for.
Cardinal Frizolio: We'll miss you. Over and out.
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