Oh this gets my goat….
Feb 8th
Catching up on what’s farciacally described as “news” these days, I noticed in a BBC Report this little ‘gem’ (yes, dear reader, that’s sarcasm):
A spokeswoman for Ms Smith said: “The home secretary has always abided fully with Parliament’s clear rules on expenses and has long-standing written approval from the Parliamentary Fees Office for any agreed expenses.
Now, correct me if I’m wrong but the article relates to Jacqui Smith as a CONSTITUENCY MP, not a frikking Cabinet Minister. I find it quite wrong for the spokeswoman to refer to her office, when it’s a matter of legislature, not executive.
Please, please, please, can people get SEPARATION OF POWERS, into their heads. It’s really not that difficult to understand.
gin
Jan 5th
well, it’s been a while since my last post, but on a mailing list recently, a subject close to my heart liver came up: gins (‘amyl.org.uk machines are named after spirits, after all)
So, erm, here are some thoughts:
Whilst I still mainly buy tanq (it’s just so easy to drink, and v. nice), I prefer drinking Miller’s neat, or Old Raj for hair-of-the-dog/breakfast
(seriously: in a high balloon’d wine glass, a couple of inches, swirl, knock back before brushing teeth/going to the khazi).
I’m also rather partial to Blackwood’s — particularly to add a little more to Pimm’s, and other drinks.
If i’m poaching fish, i’ll use blackwoods’ too: it’s not too over-powerful in the taste department.
Afternoon gin: Hendrick’s is quite nice — if you like cucumbery tastes.
Drinking nice gins, however, does encourage me to buy nice tonic-water (fentimans’ or fever tree – stupid fucking javascript URIs.). I’m not really a fan of Schweppes’ tonic: too much sugar for me. I quite like Sainsburys’ & Waitroses’ own brands of tonic; the Sainsbury’s with lime’s quite nice on its own, too.
As for Pimm’s, well, I have been known to make it without a ‘conventional’ mixer: my approach falls along these lines (but is always a case of each top-up will be different):
- ⅓ ‘garden’
- various fruits
- various legume
- sprigs of mint
- a couple of handfulls of ice-cubes
- ⅓ Pimm’s Number 1 cup
- a very generous slug of either
- gin,
- cider,
- beer (ale),
- good quality white wine
– gin & cider sometimes work well together;
If there’s space, fill the rest up with lemonade, and stir well. Allow to fester for a couple of minutes, and serve.
1000 Twits
Nov 21st
Yes, yes, I know Twitter wants us to call them “tweets”, but I think “twits” is far more appropriate.
Anyhow, I’ve just made my thousandth post (shamelessly plugging this article), and thought: “given its gravitas (the number, not any of my drivel), let’s make it a bit more than the usual moans”. So, to Wikiquote I wandered (or should that read “wander’d I”) to get inspiration from others. After all, to use another quote:
Derek says it’s always good to end a paper with a quote. He says someone else has already said it best. So if you can’t top it, steal from them and go out strong.
So, here are some random quotes on “1000″, with the odd multiple thereof for when there’s a good ‘un:
- “May our children and our children’s children to a thousand generations, continue to enjoy the benefits conferred upon us by a united country, and have cause yet to rejoice under those glorious institutions bequeathed us by Washington and his compeers.” — Abraham Lincoln (Second Speech at Frederick, Maryland (4 October 1862))
- “A single Voltaire will do more hono[u]r to France than a thousand pedants, a thousand false wits, a thousand great men of inferior order.” — Friedrich der Große
- “If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied.” — Alfred Nobel
- “It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death.” — Maimonides (The Commandments, Neg. Comm. 290, at 269-271)
- “I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I’m an optimist. We will reach out to the stars.” — Stephen Hawking
- “Take the best orgasm you ever had, multiply it by a thousand and you’re still nowhere near it. When you’re on junk you have only one worry: scoring. When you’re off it you are suddenly obliged to worry about all sorts of other shite.” — Renton explains smack, in Trainspotting
- “One thousand years from now there’ll be no guys and no girls, just wankers. Sounds great to me.” — More wisdom from Trainspotting
- “The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition thicksighted: thence proceeds mawkishness, and the thousand bitters which those men I speak of must necessarily taste in going over the following pages.” — Anne Rice
- “Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss!
Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies!” — Christopher Marlow’s Faustus - “Pain… pain of the flesh. Like no Dalek has felt for thousands of years.” — Hybrid Sec, Evolution of the Daleks, Doctor Who
- “The battle is between big money combines who spend a thousand pounds or more on every constituency they fight. Or when they speak democracy, they don’t mean government by the people…they mean financial democracy, in which money counts and nothing but money.” — electioneering in 1939, as viewed by Tom Mosley
- “I became the murderer of many thousands of that fine race.” — William I, R
- “The germs of existence contained in this spot of earth, with ample food, and ample room to expand in, would fill millions of worlds in the course of a few thousand years.” — Malthus
- “When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.” — J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan
- “Anyone can stop a man’s life, but no one his death; a thousand doors open on to it.” — Seneca (the Elder)
- “Hitler was undoubtedly a genius but he lacked self-control. He recognized no limits. Otherwise the thousand-year Reich would have lasted more than twelve years.” — Wilhelm Frich
- “For thousands of years, human beings had screwed up and trashed and crapped on this planet, and now history expected me to clean up after everyone” — Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club
“Well, my conclusion is: Hate is baggage. Life’s too short to be pissed off all the time. It’s just not worth it. Derek says it’s always good to end a paper with a quote. He says someone else has already said it best. So if you can’t top it, steal from them and go out strong. So I picked a guy I thought you’d like. ‘We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.’” (via Wikiquote)
I guess there’s a wee bit of an irony here: in musing over a 1000th post of <160 characters, I've rather gone on a bit... rather than ending with a quote, would any of my half-dozen victimsreaders care to throw some quotes to the comments box? Preferably on the “1000″ theme….?
