"In the summer of 1900 I went cycling with some cousins to Scotland where we had a thrilling time which was duly reported to Edward by letter. The result was that when I returned to Malvern I found that he had bought a bicycle which he had been taught to ride by Mr Little of Birchwood and on which at the first opportunity he wobbled round to The Mount with the suggestion that I should go for a ride with him.Elgars overige hobby's waren golf, houtbewerking en scheikunde.
Black Eyed DogNiemand thuis, Blackie. Ga weg. Vort!
A black eyed dog he called at my door
The black eyed dog he called for more
A black eyed dog he knew my name
A black eyed dog he knew my name
A black eyed dog
A black eyed dog.
I'm growing old and I wanna go home
I'm growing old and I don't wanna know
I'm growing old and I wanna go home.
A black eyed dog he called at my door
A black eyed dog he called for more.
Nick Drake, Black Eyed Dog, (filmpje)
"But is one familiar with one's tumbs? I mean if one were suddenly confronted with them, detached as it were, would one recognize them? In looking at my own, they do not somehow seem terribly identifiable. Even two spots under the skin which I think must be ancient wounds involving pen and ink I only notice because of scrutiny, and presumably they must have been there for years. What an abyss I seem to have opened up at my feet? Are they my feet? They are looking rather red and podgy and boneless, and I would just as soon they weren't mine. It is necessary to go into French. Au secours!"Wie Edward Gorey niet kent, kan beter eerst naar de prentjes kijken (hier). Zo, nu weten we waarover we praten. Gorey en Neumeyer maakten samen kinderboeken. En correspondeerden. Wonderlijke brieven. Soms enigszins kop en staart ontberend, maar net daardoor nog wonderlijker. Ze schrijven over de boeken die ze lezen, over tekeningen die ze mooi vinden, over Japan, over pannenkoeken en over, ja, wat niet. Uitermate geweldig is dat ze ook de enveloppes afdrukken waarin Gorey zijn brieven verstuurde (zie prentjes).
Edward Gorey aan Peter F. Neumeyer, in Floating Worlds. The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer, Pomegranate press, San Francisco, 2011.
“A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”Zoals steeds: spot on, Dr. Johnson.
On one point of fact, too abstruse to detail here, I was right (as it happens) and she was wrong. But she would not concede this and so, rather than be a bore, I gave her the point and made a slight bow of acknowledgment. She pierced me with a glance. ‘Bow lower,’ she commanded. With what I thought was an insouciant look, I bowed a little lower. ‘No, no – much lower!’ A silence had fallen over our group. I stooped lower, with an odd sense of having lost all independent volition. Having arranged matters to her entire satisfaction, she produced from behind her back a rolled-up Parliamentary order-paper and struck – no, she thwacked – me on the behind. I reattained the perpendicular with some difficulty. ‘Naughty boy,’ she sang out over her shoulder as she flounced away. Nothing that happened to the country in the next dozen years surprised me in the least.
"using a catapult-inspired “firing system” to send a 10×6 aluminum and copper rocket holding ten Zambians and a 17-year-old African girl (and her cat) to Mars".Nkoloso ging er van uit dat hij in 1965 al op de maan kon zijn: "All he needed was $700 million from UNESCO to fund the project".
"In a newspaper editorial, Nkoloso claimed to have studied Mars for some time from telescopes at his “secret headquarters” outside Lusaka, and announced that the planet was populated by primitive natives. (He graciously added that his missionaries would not force the native Martians to convert to Christianity.)"Dat krantenartikel staat overigens boven dit stuk afgedrukt, ten behoeve van wie geïnteresseerd is in de échte ruimtevaartgeschiedenis.
"Darwin, charmingly, kept pots of worms in his study in order to carry out experiments on them. He tried to discover for instance whether they were sensitive to light and sound. Darwin would wander into his study and play a succession of musical instruments to the worms and observe their reactions. He records that the worms took no notice 'of the deepest and loudest notes of a bassoon', and he concludes that they are deaf. He was also found to be playing a C on the piano to ascertain if they reacted to vibrations."
22.11.38: Two eggs.
23.11.38: One egg.
25.11.38: Two eggs.
28.11.38: One egg.
29.11.38: Two eggs.
30.11.38: One egg.
Uit: George Orwell, Diaries, Londen, Harvill Secker, 2009.
Paul said: ‘It was a 50th birthday present to myself, my wife and I have been working with blind elephants for many years, and I thought it might be something they would enjoy to listen to.Zo'n mens verdient de hemel.
All money is a matter of belief.En dat is, als je er over nadenkt, inderdaad de essentie van de zaak.
'E Pluribus Unum' is likely derived from a recipe found in a once famous poem often attributed to Virgil, 'Moretum'. The poem describes a farmer making something rather like pesto: he pestles together cheese and garlic and herbs and oil, and sees that, though the whole is something quite new, each little green or cheesy bit doesn't completely blend in but keeps its own character. Out of many, one - without betraying the many." (New Yorker, 21.11.2011)Het prentje: een échte Romeinse kleurplaat. Afprinten op groot formaat en vanavond met de kleurpotloden aan de slag. Leuk!
"Ian Fleming, both a secret agent and a bird-watcher, borrowed the name James Bond from the author of a manual called 'Birds of the West Indies'". (The New Yorker, 24.10.2011)Meer over de ornithologist in kwestie: hier.
"What is the object of all government? The object of all government is roast mutton, potatoes, claret, a stout constable, an honest justice, clear highways, a free chapel." (Geciteerd in A.N. Wilson, The Victorians, Londen, 2002.)Dat, vrienden regeringsonderhandelaars, is de kern van de zaak. En nu weer aan de slag!
