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2003-11-28 lunchtime (utc)
1.
A good BBC article on the making of EU law:
- Laws proposed by European Commission Law adopted if position
taken by European Parliament (EP) at first reading is approved by
Council of Ministers
- Law also adopted if position taken by Council of Ministers is
approved by EP at second reading
- EP can reject law or propose amendments with backing of more than
half of total number of MEPs Law adopted if Council of Ministers
approves EP amendments by qualified majority, or (when the Commission
opposes an amendment) by unanimity
- If needed, conciliation is committee convened to find compromise,
which is adopted by majority of votes cast in EP (third reading) and
qualified majority in Council
We note in passing that the rat-bastards who endorsed the
Franco-German scuppering of the stability
and growth pact were the finance ministers of the Eurozone nations,
i.e., persons appointed at the national level. Faceless Eurocrats
this wasn't - the Commission is furious, as is the central bank.
2.
We have discussed, without resolving it, the question of when a group
of persons a people. One might also ask, when does mass murder become
genocide? The defence team of convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal
Radislav Krstic is apparently seeking a
lower bound:
Radislav Krstic received a 46-year sentence for his involvement in the
1995 killing of 7,000 Muslims [from Srebrenica]. His defence team
says the numbers were too "insignificant" for genocide and Krstic did
not plan the killings.
A thing that annoys me, although it is not the only thing, is the
apparent consensus that the Balkan states are natural future members
of the EU, notwithstanding that they've had a few domestics over the
years, while Turkey - a peaceful secular democracy - is widely
regarded as beyond the
pale. In the spirit of a Yoorpean siblinghood that transcends
a blame culture, we will refrain from pointing the finger at the
ring-leaders of this view, however German they may be.
3.
Point de Vue is back from sabbatical, hoorah! And it has an article
on prinsess Madeleine (hoorah, hoorah!) with the angle that she's
grown up and calmed down and it's all down to lurrrrrve, aww.
Besides, there's pictures.
4.
In a break from the BBC news site, how about the BBC "Big Read" site? (The
Big Read is a BBC organised poll to allow the British public to insist yet
again that Lord of the Rings is the greatest book ever written. We'll
keep having polls until you give a sensible answer, Public, and don't
think we won't!)
Grouching aside, the Lost in
Translation bit may amuse our Varied Reader: "See if you can guess
the foreign titles of some of the final 21 Big Read books and try not
to get lost in translation!"
It is a plug for their online language courselets, but why not?
[Permalink]
2003-11-28 early-ish (utc)
The new Harry Potter is out in French on the 3rd of December, and the
French media is doing
its thing
in the build up. From the excellent L'Express article:
Des traductions sauvages circulent: les m�mes se r�partissent les
chapitres, avant de mettre le tout en ligne. Discr�tement... �Sinon,
on risquerait des ennuis avec Gallimard�, reconna�t Clarisse, 14 ans,
hier m�diocre angliciste. A la stup�faction de ses parents, elle a
pass� son mois de juillet � plancher sur 50 pages pour avoir le
plaisir, � la mi-ao�t, de lire avant tout le monde L'Ordre du Ph�nix
en fran�ais. �C'est difficile, mais rigolo, � cause des expressions
invent�es par Rowling. Toutefois, je pr�f�re quand m�me la traduction
de Jean-Fran�ois M�nard�, explique cette sage �l�ve de troisi�me, en
hommage aux talents unanimement c�l�br�s de l'homme qui a su imaginer
des �quivalents �fran�ais� aux mots muggle (moldu), Hogwarts
(Poudlard), howler (beuglante) ou mudblood (sang-de-bourbe).
Bootleg translations are circulating: kids divide up the chapters,
and assemble the results online. Discretely... "Otherwise there's a
risk of trouble from Gallimard," acknowledges Clarisse, 14, previously
an indifferent Englishiste. To her parents' astonishment, she spent
the month of July slogging through 50 pages to have the pleasure, in
mid-August, of reading the Order of the Phoenix in French before
anyone else. In any case, I still prefer Jean-Fran�ois Menard's
translation, explains the wise third year student, in tribute to the
universally-celebrated talents of the man who has been able to come up
with "French" equivalents of the words "muggle" (moldu), "Hogwarts"
(Poudlard), "howler" (beuglante) or "mudblood" (sang-de-bourbe).
He's good at the jargon, for sure, but he does strip out flourishes
and specks of colour, we have remarked.
Still, I'm not paying 20-something euros for the hardback, and the
French paperback will be a long time coming, and frankly I'm not sure
I can be bothered anyway - the HP sequence was very helpful at
bringing my French reading skills to a new level, but these days I
think I'd rather read autochthonous French mental junk food.
[via la
muselivre, which is as excellent as it is prolific, and it is very
prolific.]
[Permalink]
2003-11-27 late-ish (utc)
[Update 2: The Thulepeople lost, but are going to appeal to the Yoorpean Court of Human Rights.
[Update: PF has more stuff on this]
In an update to a
previous post, it turns out that a Danish
court had already awarded the Thule hunters compensation, but some of
them are dissatisfied and are upping the stakes. In particular, they
have made the case that they are an individual indigenous people
distinct from the Inuit in general and thus entitled to the rights set
out in the UN charter on indigenous peoples to which Denmark is a
signatory, and that in particular, they have been turfed off their
particular indegenous territory, which is a bit of a no-no under the
charter, and that relocating them to other bits of Greenland just
doesn't cut it.
The state, on the other hand, is
having
none of it:
Som ventet var det en af Kammeradvokatens hovedpointer at bestride, at
Thulefangerne er et s�rligt oprindeligt folk, der adskiller sig fra
den �vrige befolkning i Gr�nland. Det er nemlig et v�sentligt argument
i sagsfremstillingen fra Christian Harlang. For det f�rste g�r han
g�ldende, at Thulefolkets eksistens er truet, hvis de ikke f�r lov til
at vende tilbage til deres gamle boplads og fangstomr�der. For det
andet har Danmark s�rlige forpligtelser over for Thulefangerne, n�r de
er et oprindeligt folk. Det f�lger af Danmarks tilslutning til FNs
konvention om oprindelige folk.
As expected one of the state advocates main goals was to dispute that
the Thule hunters are a distinct indigenous people, separate from the
main population of Greenland. This is in fact an essential argument
in the advocacy of Christian Harlang [representing the Thule persons].
Firstly, he submitted that Thulepeople's existence is threatened
if they don't get permission to return to their old livingplace and
hunting grounds. Secondly, Denmark has special obligations concerning
the Thule hunters given that they are an indegenous people. That
follows from Denmark's signing of the UN's convention on indigenous
peoples.
In particular,
Article 14,
Paragraph 1:
The rights of ownership and possession of the peoples concerned over
the lands which they traditionally occupy shall be recognised. In
addition, measures shall be taken in appropriate cases to safeguard
the right of the peoples concerned to use lands not exclusively
occupied by them, but to which they have traditionally had access for
their subsistence and traditional activities. Particular attention
shall be paid to the situation of nomadic peoples and shifting
cultivators in this respect.
So the question, which is a favourite question with the editorial
staff at Desbladet, is: Under what circumstances does a group of
persons constitute a people?
If�lge Kammeradvokaten er der dog kun �t oprindeligt folk i Gr�nland,
og det er gr�nl�nderne som s�dan. Det har Gr�nlands Hjemmestyre
erkl�ret sig enige i i en f�lleserkl�ring med den danske regering, da
Danmark i 1996 tilsluttede sig FNs konvention om oprindelige folk,
p�pegede Kammeradvokaten. Han sagde samtidig, at Thulefangerne siden
flytningen til et omr�de ca. 140 kilometer nord for Thule, har valgt
at indtr�de i det gr�nlandske Landsr�d og i kommuneordningen og dermed
har ladet sig integrere i resten af det gr�nlandske samfund.
According to the State advocate is there only one indigenous people,
and that is the Greenlanders as such. Greenland's Home-Rule declared
themself unanimous in this in a joint declaration with the Danish
government, when Denmark signed the UN convention of indegenous
peoples in 1996, the State advocate pointed out.
I am not a lawyer (and these translations are very much for
information only, for sure), but I think that point is going to play
against them.
Kammeradvokaten pointerede over for de syv h�jesteretsdommere, at
det kan f� alvorlige �konomiske konsekvenser for Gr�nland, hvis
fangerne f�r medhold. For dermed f�r Thuleboerne rettens ord for, at
de er et oprindeligt folk, og s� kan Gr�nland eksempelvis ikke l�ngere
n�jes med �t uddannelsessystem. For s� skal der afs�ttes millioner af
kroner til at servicere Thulefolket og andre gr�nl�ndere, der m�tte
kr�ve anerkendelse som s�regne, med helt egne institutioner.
The State advocate told the seven high court judges that there could
be grave economic consequences for Greenland if they found in favour
of the hunters. For this would establish a legal precedent that the
Thulepeople are an indegenous people, and so Greenland could, for
example, no longer make do with a single education system. Thus it
would require millions of krone more to service the Thulepeople and
other groups of Greenlanders that would require recognition as
individual, with their own institutions.
Education is covered by
Article 28, paragraph 1:
Children belonging to the peoples concerned shall, wherever
practicable, be taught to read and write in their own indigenous
language or in the language most commonly used by the group to which
they belong. When this is not practicable, the competent authorities
shall undertake consultations with these peoples with a view to the
adoption of measures to achieve this objective.
and Article 30 has some more stuff:
1. Governments shall adopt measures appropriate to the traditions and
cultures of the peoples concerned, to make known to them their rights
and duties, especially in regard to labour, economic opportunities,
education and health matters, social welfare and their rights deriving
from this Convention.
2. If necessary, this shall be done by means of written translations
and through the use of mass communications in the languages of these
peoples.
So there you have it. Today the thing I would want have grown up to
be is a lawyer - I find this wildly entertaining. Tomorrow, you may
be relieved to note, I will try to find other things entertaining.
Sources:
Radio coverage: 1,
2
Berlingske tiden: 1, 1
2 (the
one quoted)
Information:
1,
2
[all links via Birgitte, tack s� mycket]
[Permalink]
2003-11-27 15:10 (utc)
The Grauniad has a thing called Netjetters in which persons of no
discernible talent are sponsored to go travelling and write
cheap hilarious copy for their online site. One of their
'jetteurs did a brief stint
in Stockholm, sleeping on his ex-girlfriend's
floor:
I crept out of the flat promising not to be back too soon and went to
look around the Royal Palace. Still the official residence of the King
and Queen of Sweden, it seemed more like a neglected old museum. Some
of the royal coaches hadn't been used in over 150 years. This may be
explained by the fact that no Swedish king, including the current one,
has actually had a coronation since 1905. "Personal reasons," said the
guide. "Like what?" I asked, more than a little confused. "Well they
thought it would be too expensive and they didn't want all the fuss
and bother." God knows what Princess Madelene [sic] would make of the
House of Windsor.
Sigh. It is all of about the same quality, you will exult to hear.
Bill Bryson's many chins will no doubt quake with chortling at the
lack of danger his bank balance is in, but there's little to amuse
anyone else unless you find misspelling the names of Swedish
prinsessor funny...
[Permalink]
2003-11-27 14:01 (utc)
My next poetry exercise is meant to be a rondeau,
but the examples there look to be pedagogical, and I haven't been able
to find a real example in Engleesh of any consequence. (I mention this
as a cunning plan to incite my Varied Reader to remark that I have
foolishly overlooked Ezra Pounds classic "I farted while eating a
sausage, begging your pardon your Ladyship," adapted from the
Proven�al of Guillome Caboer (n� Sauvignon).)
In any case, one can hardly get much of a feel for a form without ever
seeing it used well, so let's have a French
one, Clemont Marot's "De sa grande amie" ("Of his great
woman-friend").
Dedans Paris, ville jolie,
Un jour, passant m�lancolie,
Je pris alliance nouvelle
� la plus gaie demoiselle
Qui soit d'ici en Italie.
D'honn�tet� elle est saisie,
Et crois (selon ma fantaisie)
Qu'il n'en est gu�re de plus belle
Dedans Paris.
Je ne la vous nommerai mie,
Sinon que c'est ma grande amie ;
Car l'alliance se fit telle
Par un doux baiser que j'eus d'elle,
Sans penser aucune infamie,
Dedans Paris.
(I'm working up a post on Inuit indigenosity - see the guestbladet for
sources if you read Danish, don't already know, and can't wait.)
[Permalink]
2003-11-27 10:28 (UTC)
When I actually buy Lib� on
actual paper I like to get my money's worth by actually reading it.
Last night, then, I had a look at their chess problem du jour,
which is essentially the same as "Winning Move" in the times - find
the combination that forces an immediate win in a position usually
drawn from a real game. I am very bad at chess, but these are usually
within reach of my abilities: it is, of course, a lot easier to spot a
something if you're told there's a something to spot. It still took
an hour to go through the possible variations, about 57 minutes of
which is attributable to me losing my place.
So of course I had to get today's paper to check I was right, and I'll
have to check out their lines against mine in detail tonight. It's a
fiendish hook, and I'm caught on it.
[Permalink]
2003-11-26 15:56 (UTC)
It's not just the Roma ("gypsies"), you know!
If you're indigenous and ethnique, you too could be brushed
aside as an irrelevance!
Tout a commenc� en 1941, en pleine Guerre mondiale, quand le Danemark
autorisa son alli� am�ricain � implanter des bases a�riennes au
Groenland, � Thul� notamment. Cet accord de coop�ration militaire fut
renforc� dans le cadre de l'Otan en 1951, �tant donn� la valeur
strat�gique de la colonie danoise au d�but de la guerre froide. Le
Danemark ne prit pas la peine de consulter la population locale,
repr�sent�e par un conseil des chasseurs, pour donner son feu vert �
l'agrandissement de la base a�rienne, et ordonna en mai 1953 le
d�placement des autochtones, une petite communaut� inuit vivant de la
chasse et de la p�che traditionnelles.
It all started in 1941, at the height of the war, when Denmark
authorised its ally America to establish airbases on Greenland,
notably at Thule. This agreement of military cooperation was
strengthened by Nato in 1951, given the strategic value of the Danish
colony at the start of the Cold War. Denmark didn't bother to consult
the local people, represented by a hunters' council, before giving the
green light to the enlargement of the air base, and authorising in 1953
the eviction of the native persons, a small Inuit community living by
hunting and fishing in the traditional manner.
These days, of course, even Persons of Ethnicity have recourse to the
law:
Un demi-si�cle apr�s avoir �t� chass�s des terres de leurs anc�tres,
les Inuits du Groenland poursuivent l'Etat danois devant les sept
juges de la Cour supr�me de Copenhague. Les Inuits r�clament le droit
de retour sur leurs terres ancestrales ainsi qu'une indemnisation de
234 millions de couronnes danoises (32 millions d'euros), pour le
pr�judice qu'ils subissent depuis cinquante ans.
Half a century after having been evicted from their ancestral lands,
the Inuit of Greenland are bringing a legal action the Danish state
before the seven judges of the Supreme Court in Copenhagen
("Shoppingharbour"). The Inuit claim the right of return to their
ancestral lands and compensation of 234 million Danish krone
("crowns") for the prejudice they've endured for fifty years.
Prejudice? Denmark? Surely
not! As long as you nod and smile when they start going on about
the war, they're pretty harmless, isn't it?
[Permalink]
2003-11-26 12:35
The traditional Twinkletree
truncation is transacted:
The Norwegian Christmas tree which will adorn Trafalgar Square in
London this year was felled in the forest outside Oslo on Tuesday.
The 100 year old spruce is 22 metres tall and weighs 3,500 kilos.
The traditional tree-cutting ceremony was attended by Oslo Mayor Per
Ditlev-Simonsen, the Lord Mayor of Westminster, Jan Prendergast and
the British Ambassador to Oslo, Mariot Leslie.
Every year for more than 50 years, the City of Oslo has cut five
Christmas trees which are sent to London, Rotterdam, Antwerp,
Reykjavik and Washington.
What no Mette-Marit? No, sadly, her daddy-in-law (her daddy-in-law is
the King!) is a bit
poorly. Last year she was in London and did the illuminations,
you will recall. (*Wistful sigh*)
Make a
note in your diaries for the uplighting:
Det store juletr� p� Trafalgar Square bliver t�ndt den 4. december
klokken ca. 18.15. Tr�et er som altid leveret af Norge som tak for
briternes indsats under 2. verdenskrig.
The towering Twinkletree in Trafalgar Square will be illuminated on
the 4th of December, about 6:15 pm. The Tree is always delivered by
Norway in thanks for British help during World War II.
Typical Danes, isn't it, always bringing the war into everything...
[Tack to Anna Louise for the Mette-Marit link]
[Permalink]
2003-11-26 10:10 (UTC)
In an attempt to reduce the already modest amount of time this blogs
devotes to Forren Affairs, we will henceforth assume that anyone who
cares about that stuff is reading Cinderella
Bloggerfella.
Since we of this 'bladet spell Tblisi "Tblissi" and assume you read
yesterday's Le Monde (it was the first time for me, and in many
ways reminded me of the pre-Murdoch Times of my childhood, back when you
didn't need to dim the lights to mistake it for a newspaper), we will
forbear to comment on events there, and instead swipe of an article
closer to our abiding preoccupations.
From a quote
of a unlinkable review of a book I
may never read, then:
The controversy between "Romanists" and "Germanists" gripped public
debate from the Renaissance onwards. Under the influence of certain
Protestant thinkers, such as Hotman, a powerful current of thought
would try to link the French monarchy to its Germanic past. A way for
these monarchomaques to fight growing absolutism by affirming
that the King of France was descended from the King of the Franks, a
simple warrior elected on the pavois [here=shield]. Realising
the danger of this Germanist thesis, the monarchy, after a brief
period where it entertained a dream of Trojan ancestry, responded by
insisting on its Roman past. It was from the Roman Empire that the
King of France drew his power. Hadn't the Eastern Emperor Anastasius
delegated his power in the West to Clovis in 508?
As Calvin once said, "I cannot divulge that information, as it might
compromise our agents in the field."
A nation needs its myths like anyone else, of course, and I remain
fascinated by the uneasy interaction (the problematical dialectic, if
you like, which I do) of the requirements of such myths as sources of
idelogical legitimation with what scholarship at any stage claims to
have established actually happened.
The real superiority of the Republic would be to turn its back on this
historical debate without rejecting it as such. Because it's a
characteristic of our nation to raise itself to the level of the
universal. "Germany's vocation, " said Lavisse, "is to claim
everything Germanic - What is ours? There is no doubt that we are charged
with representing the cause of humanity." So the nation of
Vercingetorix, of Caesar and of Clovis, through its very
indeterminacy, managed to rise to the level of universal genius as
articulated in Enlightenment thought and Revolutionary Messianism.
Which was of course a vast improvement.
[Permalink]
2003-11-25 14:43 (UTC)
3.
H�jt fra tr�ets gr�nne top
str�ler juleglansen,
spillemand, spil lystigt op,
nu begynder dansen.
L�g nu smukt din h�nd i min,
ikke r�r' ved den rosin!
F�rst skal tr�et vises,
siden skal det spises.
From atop the Twinkletree
Twinklelights a-glancing,
Troubadour, play merrily,
As we start the dancing.
Put your pretty hand in mine
Leave the raisins, they'll be fine!
First enjoy the tree-time,
Then it will be tea-time.
There's even a scan of the
original with music, for this one, so I've made a special effort to
preserve the rhythms of the Danish, although I don't actually know any
Danish and I didn't cross-reference with the music so I may have got
it completely wrong.
[also via Birgitte, of course.]
[Permalink]
2003-11-25 13:44 (UTC)
You couldn't make it up,
could you?
Doctors are still trying to find out exactly why foreign accent
syndrome occurs. But Dr Jack Ryalls of the University of Central
Florida, said it is a real medical condition, which can occur after a
patient has a brain injury.
[...]
The first case of foreign accent syndrome was reported in 1941 in
Norway, after a young Norwegian woman suffered shrapnel injury to the
brain during an air raid. Initially, she had severe language problems
from which she eventually recovered. However, she was left with what
sounded like a strong German accent and was ostracized by her
community.
Now that's neighbourly!
("You're not from round here, are you, our Julie from next door who's
lived here all her life?
"Are you a German spy?
"You're fooling no one with that accent which you didn't used to
have, you know.")
[Permalink]
2003-11-25 10:28 (UTC)
We will be taking liberties with the translations, and then some.
1.
Juletr�et med sin pynt
venter p�, vi f�r begyndt.
Aldrig har det v�r't s� gr�nt
aldrig har det v�r't s� k�nt
Twinkletree, all up-tarted
Waiting till we can get started
Greener than it's ever been,
Prettier than we've ever seen.
2.
Pyntet smukt af en usynlig h�nd
st�r nu tr�et der med lys og b�nd.
D�ren �bnes, og man str�mmer ind,
kredsen sluttes med begejstret sind.
B�rnene de hopper rask af sted,
bedstefader han er ogs� med,
lad os tage del i deres sang,
br�dre, vi var ogs� b�rn engang.
Gang, gang, gang, gang, gang, gang,
br�dre, vi var ogs� b�rn engang,
gang, gang, gang, gang, gang,
br�dre, vi var ogs� b�rn engang.
Secretly bedeck'd at night
The glitt'ring tree now beams with light.
The crowd streams through the open door -
At last they're done with every chore!
The childrens rush around pell mell,
Grandfather is there as well .
Let's join in with their refrain
And feel the joys of youth again.
Again, again, again, again
And feel the joys of youth again
Gamle danske - like
Danish only even weirder. (Good grief.)
There's another one to come that I haven't started working on yet -
tremble with horror or anticipation according to taste, by all means.
[Linkages via Birgitte, whose fault the translations aren't, of course.]
[Permalink]
2003-11-24 16:54
1. Yoorp, Democratic:
You wish. Still, they're trying:
The EU agreed this year to provide funding from next June for any
European political party with an appropriate manifesto and members in
a certain number of EU states.
The hope is that they will one day become strong enough to fight
elections, select candidates and run campaigns independently of their
sister parties at national level, which currently call all the shots.
Indeed, the political blocs in the European parliament are currently
not parties at all, but simply alliances of national parties (which
sometimes bring together unexpected bedfellows).
Bring it on, I say.
2. A King without a winkle is of course a Queen
Sveriges Kungen has been
disempramming his toys on a constitutional nicety that may or may
not be a proxy for less savoury opinions. In particular, the law that
promoted kronprinsess Vickan as heirdom over the head of her leetle
brother was implemented with retrospective effect, and that's just not
cricket. ("Just not innebandy"? What do they say in
Sverige?) Anyway:
- Jag tycker det �r enkelt. En grundlag som arbetar retrospektivt, det
�r lustigt, [sager kungen]
"I think it is simple. A constitutionalamendment that works
retrospectively, that's a joke," says the king.
Laws with retrospective effect are odd - the recent decision
to apply the disqualification of peers of the (UK) realm who were
given constodial sentences for criminal offences was retroapplicative
in a gesture of calculated spite to the lamentable Jeffrey Archer.
With such shameless breaches of legal custom, then, you need a
compelling cause to outweigh the embarrassment, as was the case in
both these cases. So there, kungen! (Kungen �r ju inte en prinsess,
s� bryr jag inte om honom...)
[Tack to Anna Louise for the link]
3. Leave Lofoten Alone!
Can we trust the Norwegian environmentminister to do the
right
thing, in the face of concerted lobbying from oil companies?
No, we cannot. Oh, well; I've already been. It's a very pretty
place, while stocks last.
[Permalink]
2003-11-24 13:16
I was up early anyway on Saturday, and I put the radio on in time for
the kick-off, and listened until the commentators' rapture at the
Australian try made me wish I could actually watch the game. So despite the
rain I set to find a pub which was showing it, telling myself that I'd
pick up Lib� and the V'Lobs and maybe a tyska trashbladet at the
newsagent by the Arches on Gloucester Road that's the best in town for
Forren.
But at the Hogshead it wasn't so much standing room only as a question
of getting in the door, so I didn't bother. Up the road all the other
pubs where the same, and I was thinking maybe I should give up and go
to the supermarket, but that's a long walk and it was still raining,
and my nice bladets were getting wet.
But lo! A caff ("caf�") has got a little TV propped up on a chair,
and plenty of space to sit, and a breakfast of intense righteousness
(bacon, sausages, black pudding, fried bread, beans, mushrooms and two
fried eggs on toast) for six quid, and I can sit and keep an eye (an
ear more like, from where I'm sat) on the second half. And what with
one thing and another, I munch my way through the action and at full
time the scores are level and my plate is long since empty.
So rather than wait - if you can't win a game of rugby in 80 minutes,
then forget it, frankly: I don't care anymore - I go and peruse the
Amnesty bookshop (a decent collected verse of Mr A Pope (no relation)
at last, hoorah!) and when I come out persons are pumping their heroic
fists in pubs, and while I walk home they start to spill out, a bit
pissed at 11 am, and there is some chanting of "Engerlund" although
not very much, because it is, after all, a wet and dreary day in
November, and it's surely hard to get seriously pissed from an 8:30
start, and I can't imagine what it was like trying to get to the bar.
A bit later I went shopping and whiled the afternoon away trying to
write a sonnet on Beaujolais Nouveau and reading Mr A Pope (no
relation)'s The One About The Lock. (Google and referral logs
are a compelling case for self-censorship, is it not, Varied Reader?)
(Douze
Lunes has the French perspective, Julie
has the Strine.)
* England won the world cup in Proper Football in 1966, and this is so
important that even persons like me who weren't born at the time can
recite the TV commentary from the closing moments.
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2003-11-24 09:30 (UTC)
("The handsome
jolais has arrived!")
Grapes swifly pressed and bottled, immature;
Rush'd shore to shore and just as swiftly glass'd,
Bless'd sentinel with no thought to endure
First hint of future for the harvest past:
In Beaujolais Nouveau are juxtaposed
The youthful grape, ripe red of Nature's loom,
Emblem of summer, now long since depos'd,
And its usurper Winter, in whose gloom
We languish now, and with mixed feelings taste
This jejeune draught sped out before its time:
An aug'ry sacrificed to greedy haste
Of vintages to come, perhaps sublime.
Sweet Beaujolais! remind us, who're now piss'd,
Of summer days already so long miss'd.
So it's a rushed sonnet of, um, indifferent quality. That, you see, is
the Clever Bit.
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