‘Education, Education, Education’ seemed good rhetoric to Tony Blair, whatever he meant by it. So let’s stay with its advantages as three sustainable objects.

February 22, 2025

Fighting for a historic third term in government, Tony Blair drove to his constituency in Sedgefield and said that his three-pronged object of political desire remained ‘Education, Education, Education’, without using the by then much mocked word. Here is what he said: Education has been, is and will be the driving mission of a New … More ‘Education, Education, Education’ seemed good rhetoric to Tony Blair, whatever he meant by it. So let’s stay with its advantages as three sustainable objects.

‘In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing’. Hence why be Earnest, Ernest? Seeing Max Webster’s version live-streamed at the Gala Durham 20th February 2025.

February 21, 2025

My photograph of the screen in the interval of ‘ The Importance of Being Earnest’ at the Gala Theatre Durham The words cited in my title are from Gwendolen Fairfax, one of the two young women in this play in love with the name ‘Ernest’. Is the name or style of a man his reality? … More ‘In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing’. Hence why be Earnest, Ernest? Seeing Max Webster’s version live-streamed at the Gala Durham 20th February 2025.

Being ‘other than the things I touch’

February 20, 2025

The ‘intentional fallacy’ was proposed by Wimsatt and Beardsley in 1954 in The Verbal Icon. It suggested that no work of art, especially a literary one, should be read with an assumption that the author’s ‘intention’ with regard to the poem’s meaning or function as discourse should or indeed can be made. Yet scholarship remained … More Being ‘other than the things I touch’

Making a man of yourself for yourself – the strain of the 1950s

February 19, 2025

Making a man of yourself – the strain of the 1950s Image from The Science Museum archive: https://coimages.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/58/936/large_2000_0549.jpg (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) We all assume we know what DIY means (without troubling to extend the acronym to the term DO IT YOURSELF). However, it was not always thus as the ‘Brief History of DIY’ page from … More Making a man of yourself for yourself – the strain of the 1950s

Is a day being a mythical version of someone else, worth the crashing out afterwards? “Jackie is just speedin’ away / Thought she was James Dean for a day / Then I guess she had to crash / Valium would have helped that bash”.

February 18, 2025

Is a day being a mythical version of someone else, worth the crashing out afterwards? “Jackie is just speedin’ away / Thought she was James Dean for a day / Then I guess she had to crash / Valium would have helped that bash”. It feels easier for me to say why not I would … More Is a day being a mythical version of someone else, worth the crashing out afterwards? “Jackie is just speedin’ away / Thought she was James Dean for a day / Then I guess she had to crash / Valium would have helped that bash”.

“And these few precepts in thy memory /Look thou character”. This is not how to be ‘yourself’ – whatever that means!

February 17, 2025

Imagining yourself giving advice to your own teenage self is a thing more strange than we like to think. It is one of those moments when we see ourself as ‘double’, having two characters in one moment that interact with each other, sometimes in a contest of power and / or authority. There is because … More “And these few precepts in thy memory /Look thou character”. This is not how to be ‘yourself’ – whatever that means!

If I would like to ban a word, it would be a word like ‘like’, like!

February 16, 2025

‘No two corpses are the same’, the surgeon,In forensic and appropriate blankTone, as blank as this verse reversing onItself. ‘They are alike only when sankIn sordid life’.                            Yet only as a corpseIs a body named a ‘like’, a word likeThat ‘lych’ that names the gated part of t’porchOn which dead bodies rest, or that old … More If I would like to ban a word, it would be a word like ‘like’, like!

‘People who make things also have an ambiguous relationship with time’. Appreciating the motion of passing time in Tracy Chevalier (2024) The Glassmaker London, The Borough Press.

February 15, 2025

‘People who make things also have an ambiguous relationship with time. … Its surprising hard to gauge the rate at which time passes – whether it moves faster for others than it does for you’.[1]Appreciating the motion of passing time in Tracy Chevalier (2024) The Glassmaker London, The Borough Press. Is it a spoiler to … More ‘People who make things also have an ambiguous relationship with time’. Appreciating the motion of passing time in Tracy Chevalier (2024) The Glassmaker London, The Borough Press.

Drinking to ‘leave the world unseen’ or drinking ‘life to the lees’

February 14, 2025

Hippocrene source on Mount Helicon By GOFAS – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11613794 Like everyone else I fancy a sip of the Hippocrene. Above is a photograph claiming to be the real source of the river on Mount Helicon, long famed in mythology as the haunt of the Muses – those nymphs responsible for … More Drinking to ‘leave the world unseen’ or drinking ‘life to the lees’

Choose to be around people who make you wonder. ‘How beauteous mankind is! O, brave new world / That has such people in’t’ When one’s untutored eyes are opened the world is full of potential. Is that only because ‘’Tis new to’ us?

February 13, 2025

Choose to be around people who make you wonder. ‘How beauteous mankind is! O, brave new world /  That has such people in’t’ When one’s untutored eyes are opened the world is full of potential. Is that only because ‘’Tis new to’ us? The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is aiming to bring young people into ‘First Encounters’ with Shakespeare’s drama and spoken poetry. How did they fare with … More Choose to be around people who make you wonder. ‘How beauteous mankind is! O, brave new world / That has such people in’t’ When one’s untutored eyes are opened the world is full of potential. Is that only because ‘’Tis new to’ us?

To favour walking in another person’s shoes, or mocassins (or whatever) needn’t be in order to empathise with them.

February 12, 2025

The phrase ‘walk a mile in another person’s’s shoes is usually interpreted as a call to empathy – an admonition asking you to feel pinching you as they do them, ”the experiences, challenges, thought processes’ of the person’ before you judge them. White cultures often appropriate the wisdom of other cultures but there is no … More To favour walking in another person’s shoes, or mocassins (or whatever) needn’t be in order to empathise with them.

The ‘pattern of all patience’ is not to ‘say nothing’ but to ask and expect nothing.

February 11, 2025

This blog prompt is almost identical to a earlier one (see my answer here at this link). The title there was: What is the greatest gift someone could give you? Put yourself in a prompter’s shoes! What difference did they see in the prompts? Well, first, the question asked then for a chosen ‘one’ out … More The ‘pattern of all patience’ is not to ‘say nothing’ but to ask and expect nothing.