Hugh's 2019 reading and notes, part 3

And so sort-of in honour of the Swallows and the Amazons, an aquatic picture. It's a barbel in the Kruger National Park, seen in 2015.

>1 hfglen: Hmmm, that photo looks a little fishy to me.

>2 MrsLee: ;-Þ~~~

>3 hfglen:

She's better at whistling.

>4 suitable1: To prove it, I tried again just now (husband isn't home), the cat didn't approve either.

At The Fireside. A new edition of Roger Webster's collection of short stories from the parts of South African history they don't teach in school -- not only because some of the stories are ongoing. Well-written and recommended to anybody interested.

Linked dumb questions arising from binge-reading the Swallows and Amazons books: 1. What age are the captains? and 2. What was the average age for onset of puberty in the early 1930s?

From which it should be obvious what's rather glaringly never mentioned in the books.

>7 hfglen: You mean the total lack of sexual tension?

I don't have definitive answers for either question, but IIRC, Titty is 10 in the first book, and the adventures run from 1929-1932 for the crews of Swallow and Amazon (except for Great Northern?, which I never actually read, as it wasn't in print when I was a child).

And, anecdotally, it was not unusual for female puberty to hit at around 16 in the forties.

So lack of sexual interest does not seem too far-fetched in the first book. The captains will probably have reached puberty by the later books, but presumably by then they were such good friends as not to be able to think of each other "that way".

Actually, in retrospect, I think a lot of Nancy's "Ruth-lessness" was intended to portray a girl who was resisting "becoming a young lady" in the sense of rejecting the "adult" world of boyfriends and romantic attraction.

>1 hfglen: Awesome photo.

>2 MrsLee: 😆

>8 -pilgrim-: Many thanks. That would make things fit. And you give another reason for loathing the G.A.

>9 clamairy: Thank you, Clam. Maybe one day I'll get to try again, this time remembering the polariser that lurks in the lid of my camera bag.

>6 hfglen: Definitely sounds like worth reading. I've made a note of it.

Sissinghurst: an unfinished history. A history of the estate from earliest times, interwoven with what the management are trying to achieve in the 21st century, their difficulties and successes. The author is Vita Sackville-West's grandson, lives at the manor, and is at least as passionate about the place as his grandmother was when she bought it. And so we are taken through what the National Trust have and have not done right, and Adam Nicolson's efforts to bring the place back to life as a mixed farm, mostly supplying the manor restaurant and shop. Interesting, and probably required reading for anyone who has visited or is planning to do so.

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth. Not, by any means, your average self-help book (thank goodness: I'd have tossed it if had been). Rather, the author's steps to becoming an astronaut, and what such a person actually does all day and why. He is clearly a very exceptional person, but the world would be a much better place if more of us could just occasionally be inspired to try the lessons he has learned. The story of his preparations and space journeys are even more fascinating.

Next read: Gold! Gold! Gold! by the normally reliable Eric Rosenthal. I had to order this through the library system, and it came surprisingly quickly. Why read it? I am committed to telling the Railway Society the story of the Braamfontein dynamite explosion as our "Guy Fawkes" offering. On 19 February 1896 a train composed of 8 (or 16) trucks loaded with 70 (or 24, or 50 or 80) tons of dynamite exploded accidentally on a siding at Braamfontein, Johannesburg, flattening about 1/4 of the town as then was and killing 75 (or 78, or 80, or 100) people. Why the confusion"? There was a commission of enquiry afterwards, which got almost exactly nowhere, as everybody who knew what happened was killed in the explosion. A quick skim suggests that I will be no less confused after reading the book properly. Nevertheless, more to follow.

>14 hfglen: I have had this one sitting around a while. I'm not sure why I bought a paper copy, but I think that's why I haven't read it. Perhaps I'll dig it out, or see if OverDrive has a digital copy. After finishing the audio of Scott Kelly's book a few weeks ago I have a hankering for more books about space exploration.

>16 clamairy: This one's a winner! I read a paper copy from the library, and have no hesitation in suggesting that you move yours to at or near the top of Mt. Tooby, if it's not buried in a box somewhere.

>16 clamairy: >14 hfglen: All being well I have Michael Collins’ autobiography Carrying the Fire and a bio of Neil Armstrong waiting for me in Bicester. Whither I am presently bound. Posting from the phone, somewhere about 34,000 feet over Turkey, thanks to the wonders of (free) onboard WiFi.

I gather Scott Kelly is an interesting bloke. When I was active on Twitter (before it got involved in a certain election, for which I have not yet forgiven it), I used to follow him.

>14 hfglen:, >16 clamairy: I also really enjoyed the Chris Hadfield book. It's also worth checking out his version of Space Oddity, done from the Space Station.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo

>19 NorthernStar: Thank you for that link; it made my day. I have listened to some of Chris' interviews from the ISS before, but not his singing.

>19 NorthernStar: What @-pilgrim- said. I'm coming back for some more of his videos!

Thanks for the link, it was a great version!

Gold! Gold! Gold!. A history of the discovery of, first, diamonds at Kimberley (Northern Cape) and, more importantly, gold in the then Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek (now mostly Gauteng and Mpumalanga, though after the demise of the ZAR very profitable continuations of the Witwatersrand goldfields have been opened up in North West Province and the Free State. Eric Rosenthal is a normally reliable writer fondly remembered by South African radio listeners of a certain age as one of the "Three Wise Men" of times gone by. Unfortunately, in this book he is let down by occasional lapses of fact and grammar (a less-than-perfect copy editor?) and some sloppy proofreading. For example: the book states correctly that the Jameson raid started from Pitsani, Bechuanaland, on 29 December 1895. How, then, could the raiders all be safely in prison in Pretoria already one paragraph later on 2 January 1895? Non-American readers may be irritated by the fact that nowhere is it made plain that prices that happened in sterling are quoted throughout in dollars, rarely with the original mentioned in brackets; nowhere is it mentioned that the conversion rate used is that applying in Victorian England: £1 = $5.

I read this book in the hopes of some clarity on the Braamfontein dynamite explosion of 1896. (Come to think of it the first half of 1896 would have been an awful time to be in Johannesburg: the year started with the tail end of the Jameson Raid, followed by the largest ever (till then) accidental dynamite explosion on 19 February, followed by the Rinderpest that wiped out many herbivores and, helpfully, the tsetse fly that made the Lowveld uninhabitable, in March-April, and then the sinking of the Drummond Castle in June with the loss of 242 passengers, mostly Johannesburgers.) So did I get what I wanted? I already had figures of 24, 70 or 80 tons of dynamite in 8 trucks, and 75, 78, 80 or 100 dead, plus (gruesomely) four boxes of unidentified body parts. This account suggested 16 (not 8 as everybody else said) trucks, 55 tons of dynamite and unspecified casualties. Admittedly part of the difficulty is that when a commission of enquiry into this explosion tried to gather evidence, the first think they found is that the tragedy had claimed the lives of all the eyewitnesses.

Nonetheless, an interesting if dated read (it was published in 1970).

>23 hfglen: Hugh, you have to tell us what you're telling the railway Society! Any chance of some video?

>24 haydninvienna: There usually isn't any video, but I could send you the powerpoint by dropbox if you want.

It'll probably happen in November (think Guy Fawkes, and you'll agree with the rail nut who has commented on the "macabre sense of humour you guys have in Natal"). The working title is Safety Last!, and in the first half I talk about the Braamfontein explosion of 1896, as in #23 above, mentioning that at least the ZAR managed to produce a quite sensible code of practice for moving explosives by rail; admittedly it took them two years, but they got there in the end. Then I turn to the even bigger explosion at Leeudoringstad in 1932 -- 31 trucks, 320 tons of dynamite, 5 people and a herd of cattle killed (it was in the veld, mercifully), 11 injured. And I look at which ZAR rules were ignored -- the cause seems to have been simple carelessness. Ending up with a comment on how dynamite was moved across Johannesburg when I was in my teens, and how modern mining explosives (at least here) are now liquid and delivered by tanker, which is bad news for the railways.



Here are two of the pictures I'm using. On the left, an extraordinarily lucky shot of the Braamfontein explosion taken as it happened, from 4 miles away. On the right, the rails where the train had been parked. Both from the Transnet Heritage Collection, with thanks to Yolanda Meyer, their Curator.

The Women who flew for Hitler. Biographies of Hanna Reitsch and Melitta Schenk von Stauffenberg, both of whom were ardent fliers and test pilots in World War 2. Fr. Reitsch was a daredevil flier and fanatical Nazi sympathiser to her dying day, thirty years after the war ended. Countess von Stauffenberg was an engineer who tested her designs, and an old-school German patriot who was well aware that her government left much to be desired (to put it mildly). In the last few days she flew almost anything she could find all around Germany in search of the survivors of her family, and was shot down and killed while doing so. If her surname seems familiar, it is because her brother-in-law was Claus von Stauffenberg, who was at the centre of a famous plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944. Meticulously researched and well written; recommended for lovers of biographies.

>26 hfglen: I am impressed that Melitta Schenk von Stauffenberg managed to survive her brother's actions.

>26 hfglen:
That is very interesting. I am not a lover of biographies but you have reminded me of the aerodrome beside my home. It and the Irish Air Corps airfield were used during the making of the WWI movie, "Blue Max". A colleague's father was in the Air Corps at the time and worked as a stunt pilot for the film. Apparently that is where the movie people got all their pilots for the film.

>27 -pilgrim-: Her aeronautical engineering work was considered essential, and there was nobody else to do it.

The Game Ranger, the knife, the Lion and the Sheep. Strange stories from South Africa's history, such as Nongqawuse and the Xhosa National Suicide, Finch-Davies the bird-painter and art thief (later plagiarised for the illustrations in Austin Roberts's masterful bird book), and 18 more. The stories are interesting, but all too often let down by poor copy-editing and proofreading. For example, one may point to the Irish lass who, we are told, was born in 1795 and moved to Scotland in 1789, where she surfaced as Dr James Barry. Or the "wheel ... eaten up by the gaping yaw of a donga" (in the story of the Zeederberg Coach Line, which tried to use zebras to pull their coaches through areas of endemic horse-sickness. In this case I'm at a loss to decide whether he meant "maw" or "jaw". Either way that one could have been better worded. That said, this book is good bedside reading and if freely available overseas would be a good recommendation for @MrsLee's bathroom.

I've just watched a TV chef making what she was pleased to call "Leamingtons". Sure enough, she started with blocks of Victoria sponge. But then, she mixed lemon curd with white chocolate, and dipped the blocks in the result. She did at least sprinkle fragments of coconut flakes over them. But I can't help wondering if Dame Edna Everage would recognise the result as a Leamington. (Cross-posted in the Cookbookers.)

>31 hfglen: Hugh, I’ve just been trying to decide whether your TV is actually a portal to a parallel dimension. Among my people, lamingtons are sacred, and even the pink variety is viewed with suspicion of heresy. White chocolate (which is itself from a parallel dimension)? Lemon curd? What was this woman thinking?

Best lamington I’ve had recently came from an Aussie pie shop .... in Los Angeles. Santa Monica, to be precise. Run by a bloke from Adelaide.

(X-posted from Cookbookers or nearest parallel dimension)

Heading over to Cookbookers for more info.

I had to google "lamington" and the first entry said that "they are almost considered a national treasure in Australia", which explains >32 haydninvienna: I guess ;-)
Apparently the confection is called "cupavci" in the Balkans. A matter of same thing being thought up in multiple places, or is one of these the place of origin? The spelling "laemington" seems to indicate a spa town in Warwickshire - is that the origin?
The things you learn that you don't know is a never-ending avalanche...

>34 Busifer: The things you learn that you don't know is a never-ending avalanche...

I find that the more you know the more you know you don't know.

Following that to its ultimate conclusion, the more a person learns the greater becomes the extent of their known ignorance.

>34 Busifer: >35 pgmcc: Which sort of ties into Umberto Eco's thoughts on his personal library...

>36 ScoLgo: I see we think alike. :-)

>32 haydninvienna: The spa town in England is Leamington, which I think I’ve seen mentioned somewhere recently. I did a bit of digging in Wikipedia and find that there is a village called Lamington south-west of Edinburgh, and the title of Baron Lamington was created for a mate of Disraeli’s called Alexander Baillie-Cochrane. The second Baron became Governor of Queensland and it is generally agreed that the cake was invented by his French chef.

Incidentally, never mind about our ignorance. If we keep hanging out in the Pub, we will all eventually know everything.

>39 haydninvienna: I respectfully disagree. I concur with >34 Busifer: Busifer, Eco and Aristotle... BUT the Green Dragon will know ALL!

>40 -pilgrim-: Respectful disagreement accepted. I have to say though that I'm continually amazed at the extent of things one can learn in the GD. Even though my practice in regard to my own library is closely similar to Eco's.

Especially in response to a request from @-pilgrim- this week. These are the last of my pictures of the 2005 Chihuly glass sculpture exhibition at Kew.

First, two Ikebana sculptures:



And finally, an interpretation of the sun:

Nice

Shakespeare: the biography. Yes, but is it a biography in the strictest sense? More an examination of his works and environment, and as such a powerful incentive to (re-)read some of the plays. And to mourn the baleful influence of a certain overly narrow-minded, prim-and-proper English teacher who avoided pointing out the bawdy bits that might have kept the teenage boys he taught, focussed. Too late now. Instead, we have this book which is broadly but not always chronological, looking in agreeable detail at sources, influences, constraints and what other contemporary playwrights were doing. All in all, a good and enriching read.

>42 hfglen: Wow. Before now I knew about Kew Gardens, in a general kind of way. Had no idea about the exhibitions. I feel like I need to go there, some time.

>35 pgmcc:, >36 ScoLgo: etc. In total agreement, here. A moderately famous Swedish poet (Nils Ferlin) once wrote, approximately (I'm not that good at translating poetry) "While I was young I had all the answers, now I'm old only the questions remain".

>44 hfglen: Sounds interesting. Shakespeare is not a big feature in Swedish education - I read Hamlet as an assignment when I was 17, and that's it (we read far more of Moliere and such) - and the rest of it I've had to read on my own. Getting context has happened in a bit of haphazard way, and so "enriching" was the key word for me!

>43 pgmcc: Thank you, Hugh. They are beautiful! I am now seriously considering attempting the trip (if only I can work out something practical regarding transport!)

>44 hfglen: Interesting. I went to an all girls' grammar school. My English teacher there was so incensed by the bowdlerization of the printed texts of the Shakespeare plays that we were studying, that she distributed photocopies of all the expurgated bits, so that we shouldn't miss a thing!

>46 -pilgrim-: re bowdlerised Shakespeare: fascinating, and my felicitations to the teacher! We did a fair amount of Shakespeare at high school (even in fairly uptight 1960s Queensland), and so far as I know the texts weren't bowdlerised, nor were the notes, which often explained the bawdy bits.

>46 -pilgrim-: My pleasure!

"A carrot is a vegetable, but a pee is a relief."

New Zealand wisdom, quoted by Alexander Elder in Straying from the Flock, which I am enjoying greatly.

The Disinherited. Lives of the five illegitimate children of Lionel, second Lord Sackville, starting in Queen Victoria's Glorious Days and ending just before the Second World War. How very much trouble the world would have been saved if Lord Sackville had kept his flies buttoned up at the critical moments! On the other hand, the court cases undoubtedly boosted the circulations of at least some London dailies. Flora, Amalia and Henry Sackville West tried valiantly to wrest Knole from Victoria and her husband (who was also her cousin, another Lionel, Lord Sackville); but they ran out of money, and their evidence was all too clearly forged. Thinking of the Lord of the Rings re-read currently being minuted elsewhere in the Pub, I can't help wondering if the episodes of the Sackville-Bagginses were by any chance inspired by the events in this book (the court cases took place about 30 years before the writing of The Lord of the Rings). There are certain similarities.

>50 hfglen: I have heard of a lot of putative influences on Tolkien before now, but that is a new one! I see what you mean, though

>50 hfglen: Interesting.

>51 -pilgrim-: An influence or a creative recycling of a story he'd long been familiar with? Is there actually a difference in this case?

Straying from the Flock: travels in New Zealand Wealthy American tourist travels the length of New Zealand from South to North, and mostly loves it. Details of an eight-week journey, noting the spectacular scenery and great friendliness of almost all the locals. Possibly his omissions are revealing: there's no mention of Hobbiton (was it built already in 2005?) or the Murray Ball tribute statue in Gisborne (ditto). Could I have wanted the book longer? Yes, but only if the extra space were devoted to pictures, of which there are none.

(Murray Ball enriched the world with the Footrot Flats series, a delicious depiction of farming life. The statue as shown on Google Maps shows Wal Footrot and Dog.)

One of my favourite cartoon series is The South African Byrd Book and its sequels, in which "Doctor Jack" takes the mickey out of some common names of well known birds. Or maybe byrds. One that often comes to mind is a drawing of a spice jar marked "Bobson's Ground Hornbill". So this week I offer a pinch of Southern Ground Hornbill to add flavour to your week.



Seen near Mlondozi Dam in the Kruger Park in March 2014.

>50 hfglen: I am seriously tempted by that one (on the basis of its subject matter) and by your suggestion as it pertains to Tolkien. Very striking idea.

>56 jillmwo: *carves notch in keyboard* Enjoy it! It shouldn't be too hard to find.

Dunstan. Fictionalised re-telling of the life of the 10th-century saint. Sticks (by all accounts) quite close to such historical records as survive, as appears to be Conn Iggulden's wont. Reading this story and then checking with Google, it comes as no surprise that (1) Dunstan was the most popular saint in England before Thomas à Becket and (2) he is the patron saint of silversmiths. He was a robust gent who had no compunction in fighting back, often to devastatingly good effect when wronged. He entered the Benedictine monastery at Glastonbury (which seems to have been terminally corrupt at the time) and did much to clean the place up and add to the good name it retains to this day. He went on to be Bishop of Worcester, Royal Treasurer and Archbishop of Canterbury. It seems to me not at all coincidental that until about 30 years ago, silver pennies of late 10th-century England (i.e. when Dunstan was stamping out corruption and forgery) were both collectable and affordable -- they are now hideously expensive! A good read, this.

I had no real idea who Dunstan was, but thanks to you I now do.
*bows*

A picture of the remains of St Dunstan in the East Church Garden, a Wren church in a back alley not far from the Tower of London (and only one block from another Wren church).
(By Wren church I mean "church that Wren added to after the 1666 fire". None of them are original Wren designs. The part of St Dunstan/East in the photo is partly from c:a 1100.)

>59 Busifer: My pleasure! I take it this is one of the churches that "came off second-best" in World War 2? I don't recall seeing it, though must have been nearby once or twice.

I gather that St. Dunstan was once among the commonest of dedications among English churches.

And indeed, he's not an unknown dedication elsewhere in the English-speaking world. There's been a church school called St. Dunstan's in Benoni on the East Rand for over 100 years, and the (relatively new) Anglican Diocese of the Highveld operates from St. Dunstan's Cathedral in, you guessed it, Benoni. This makes sense, as Benoni is a gold-mining town, and the area of the diocese is largely hidden under a miasma of industrial pollution. I leave it to @haydninvienna and others to tell us about other dedications in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and elsewhere.

>60 hfglen: Crikey, mate, no pressure! I've actually not encountered a St Dunstan's in Australia, although Google tells me that there are several. But what you did remind me of was Robertson Davies' character Dunstan Ramsay. I should probably think about reading the Deptford Trilogy again. Sigh--so many books, so little time.

>60 hfglen: No Dunstan in Sweden, but then we are Lutherans. And yes, after wwII it was decided not to rebuild it. There are already several congregation-less churches around there, not to mention St Mary on the Hill, famous for Samuel Pepys taking refuge in the bell tower during the fire.
One definitely won't just stumble over the ruin. It's behind several smallish back alleys. It's just that it's behind the hotel where we sometimes stay, and I had spotted it on a map survey I did the first time.
It is a nice place if you're in the vicinity, but not a destination in it's own right. If you're not a Wren church completist - I think he did the bell tower, and that one still stands.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-ruins-of-st-dunstan-in-the-east-london-e...

Interesting, indeed.

Interestingly, there are Orthodox churches dedicated to St Dunstan too. He is early enough to be part of the Orthodox calendar.

As you say, interesting. But it makes sense.

>63 haydninvienna: I could see myself wanting to sit there for hours in quiet contemplation. Those ancient builders certainly knew how to inspire awe.

>67 MrsLee: Ahem. Yes, @MrsLee. But I can't wrap my mind around Wren as an "ancient builder" -- even Cape Town has one or two buildings that antedate him! But the rest of your post is certainly true, given decent weather.

You remind me that one wet February weekend I dragged the Better Half off to West Kennet Long Barrow, with the promise of a reasonably decent pub lunch afterwards in Beckhampton, one mile down the road. Now there you really can talk of "ancient builders": the barrow was built c. 3600 BC! And it was just us, the ghosts and the freezing, dripping rain, which certainly inspired awe.

>68 hfglen: I can top that, although I don't have any pictures of my own:



That is the entrance to the passage tomb at Newgrange in Ireland. I have actually been down there. They get you right into the tomb and then turn the lights off.

ETA: point is, Newgrange is older than the Pyramids.

>69 haydninvienna: Been there! It is amazing, but you go with a guide (and we went on a beautiful spring day). In winter we were alone at West Kennet, just us and the ghosts. The atmosphere was indescribable and unforgettable!

>69 haydninvienna: >68 hfglen:
I first became aware of New Grange about 1980. I was watching the TV programme, "The Mysterious World of Arthur C. Clarke". My recollection is that it was the first episode of the programme I had ever seen and it may have been the first episode of the first series.

I was watching the credits and the voice-over was describing the items that were going to be in the episode and I was shocked to hear the voice say, "...and we will be visiting the oldest building in the world* in Ireland."

I have visited it twice and my neice and her family who are over from New Zealand for a holiday visited New Grange yesterday.

Knowth & Dowth are two neighbouring neolithic sites that have also been excavated and are open to the public.

During the very warm and dry summer of last year, aerial photography revealed many more sites in the area that will now be investigated and excavated.

*Arthur C. Clarke's words; not mine.

>71 pgmcc: AFAIK that is an entirely accurate claim (about the oldest building in the world). I understood from our guide that the bit in >69 haydninvienna:'s picture has been restored to within an inch of its life. Ireland (and UK) have some truly amazing sites! Another that would have been atmospheric but for the gorgeous weather when we were there was Skara Brae -- which is not so heavily restored.

>68 hfglen:, >69 haydninvienna: Now you are making me wish that I could find the photos of myself inside Weyland's Smithy (English Neolithic narrow mound).

Much smaller, but no reconstruction work at all, as far as I remember.

>67 MrsLee: It's very VERY small, and not that quiet - it's a thoroughfare just adjacent. But very nice.

>68 hfglen: Wren didn't really build a lot of it. The main church, even the remains, is from ca 1100, which predates him by quite some centuries. After the fire he added the bell tower. And that's it. The rest was just restored as needed.
It's not a match for New Grange, though. Which incidentally is on my bucket list.

Hey, I'm a youngster. Anyone building things before 1850 is ancient. ;)

>75 MrsLee: Half of me sympathises, in that I grew up in Johannesburg, which was founded in September 1886. Very few Johannesburg buildings date back before 1900. However the other half remembers that the Cradle of Humankind is just an hour's drive from the house I grew up in. And Mrs Ples, whose remains were found there, lived some 2-million years ago. So that cave is really ancient!

Talking of "ancient buildings", I am reminded that 50 years ago at the end of this month, the Western Cape suffered its worst earthquake in its recorded history. The epicentre was at the historic town of Tulbagh, and the quake measured 6.3 on the Richter scale. The historic Church Street was essentially flattened, but the good citizens were able to retain the services of the gifted restoration architect Gawie Fagan. And so what you see today in Church Street is (give or take the odd motorist) exactly the same as the good citizens knew 200 years ago -- Church Street was laid out circa 1812.

>76 hfglen: Wow. I live in a house that was built in 1886, and it's in a "new" part of Stockholm city proper.

That said about all of the 16th and 17th century (and older) buildings outside of the Old Town were levelled with the ground in the 1960's, when the ideal city was a "machine for living", ie not living at all but thoroughfares for cars. Though enough buildings remain, mostly because the people who lived in the city rebelled against the city planners, for a 1886 building not to be considered old.

I feel like I lack in perspective.

The town that I grew up in is still referred to as "New X", to distinguish it from neighbouring "Old X". New X was established by 1170. Old X is older, of course, appearing in 10th century records.

>79 -pilgrim-: And that, in a nutshell, is what gets "colonials" / or "new-world residents" about UK.

>78 Busifer: Johannesburg also suffered a period of prosperity in the late '60s, with the same results. In our case matters were not helped by a narrow-minded provincial authority who went out of their way to "do Johannesburg one in the eye" at every opportunity.

And @Busifer, you most certainly have a perspective; just maybe not the same as other pub regulars. Vive la différence!

And while I think of it, here is a link to Gawie Fagan's website.

>80 hfglen: And that, in a nutshell, is what gets "colonials" / or "new-world residents" about UK.

And we may also have a difference in vernacular here. To me, to "get" something is that moment of enlightenment when you understand it, but I don't think that is what you meant

In fairness, I should add that my hometown is only called "New" in official documents nowadays.

However Edinburgh New Town, first proposed in the 17th century, and planned and constructed 1769-1850, is always referred to as such.

Matt's Old Masters. How to look at works by Titian, Rubens, Velásquez and Hogarth (!) and understand them without going fashionably dewy-eyed. Includes a nor to contemporaries and influences of each of these. Evidently the book of a Channel 4 TV series, which would have been worth watching.

100 Great Kings, Queens and Rulers of the world Pedestrian writing, not-quite-faulty but often incomprehensible grammar ... clearly a pot-boiler in a series of pot-boilers. Not even the underlying facts have aged with any grace. The best that can be said is that I'm glad it's the library not me that has to find shelf space for this one.

Alex through the looking glass aka The Grapes of Math, apparently. Entertaining romp through the world of maths. I didn't get bored by this, but there's no way it would turn me into a mathematician.

My Russia. I can't help thinking this one was written about a decade too soon. Otherwise, an interesting and beautifully illustrated history of Russia. Leaves me quite grateful that I have no chance of visiting the place.

>85 hfglen: When was it written? I have read an Ustinov autobiography, but not, I think, that one.

>85 hfglen: Published 1983. Which is why one could wish for a continuation into the 1990s.

It's a while since I last posted a wildlife picture. So here's a male kudu seen in the Kruger Park in 2015.



He almost seems to be smiling!

>88 hfglen: Glanced at quickly while one is reading posts above, it looks like a bug-eyed alien! I mistook the ears for great big eyes. A handsome fella when looked at properly though.

>89 MrsLee: :-D He's a big fella, too; the ears are a good seven feet above the ground.

>88 hfglen: Love that capture! He is almost smiling :)

Today is fifty years to the day since the worst earthquake in South Africa's recorded history. The epicentre was very close to the historic town of Tulbagh, which was largely obliterated by the quake. Fortunately some, at least, of the historic buildings were restored. Here's one of them:

White Sands. Eminently forgettable essays on authors one has never heard of and music one dislikes. Three days after finishing it, that is about all I recall of the book.

>93 hfglen: I bought this awhile ago, started it, and decided that I didn’t need it. I don’t even know what I did with the copy. Unlike you, Hugh, I didn’t finish it.

ETA My catalogue shows it as “discarded/lost” but I don’t actually know what I did with it.

>94 haydninvienna: At least the library has the problem of housing the copy I read, and not me.

>17 hfglen: Will do!

>19 NorthernStar: That was just too awesome. Thank you!

As usual all of your photos are wonderful, Hugh, but I'm very partial to >88 hfglen:.

>96 clamairy: - glad you liked it. Apparently David Bowie did too.

>88 hfglen: & >96 clamairy:
I love that picture too, but what really blew me away was your subsequent comment that the ears are about seven feet off the ground. That reminded me of the time was beside a bison (in a park with big, strong iron bar fence between us) in Germany. I had no idea they were so big.

>98 pgmcc: Some years ago Family Glen spent a most enjoyable couple of days in a cottage at a place called Swadini, in the lower part of the Blyde River Canyon. Almost the first afternoon I went for a stroll ... tried to go for a stroll ... to be stopped at the door by a sub-adult female kudu begging an apple. I had to reach it up to her. Males, of course, are bigger.

PS: A bit of scratching around, but I found the picture I wanted.

Here's the Young Lady concerned. As you see, she only just fits under the veranda roof.

In other words, a kudu is about the size of a thoroughbred horse (just checked in the all-knowing: an adult greater kudu bull is said to be about 63 inches, or 15 hands plus, at the shoulder). Difference of course is that thoroughbreds don't usually have great big horns on their heads. But kudu are still pretty cute.

ETA: Your young lady looks like she could have done with more than an apple or two. Was it a hard year?

>100 hfglen:
She is very pretty.
Did she get the apple she was after?
Did she come back for more?

>101 haydninvienna: Those are stripes, not ribs! It was quite a decent year, actually.

>102 pgmcc: Yes and yes. She has something in common with our cats: she knows how to block the doorway until she gets what she wants in sufficient quantity.

>103 hfglen:

How big are your cats?

>104 suitable1: Domestic kitty size, but they're very good at winding themselves between the pet hoomins' legs and threatening to trip them up if not fed instantly on demand. They say they're being adoring.

As @pgmcc I was blown away when you mentioned the size of the kudu, and the picture in >100 hfglen: really hits it home.
They look very cute, though. Not that wildlife has to, or that it translates to being nice. Our moose are quite that size, but very aggressive. If I found one of those on my lawn, blocking the door, I'd not go out without having the means to scare it into running away.

>106 Busifer: I never knew that (or needed to know it) about moose! It's amazing the number of different things about wildlife that can kill you, that visitors don't know and the locals take for granted.

Actually kudu can be lethal too, but not intentionally. At night, they have a bad habit of jumping across the road immediately after the lights have passed, which invariably ends badly for both the car and the antelope. So visitors especially to Namibia are warned NEVER to drive at night. I was reminded of this a couple of weeks ago when I borrowed a picture guide-book to Sweden (Eyewitness) from the library, and saw a picture of a moose running across a road, with a caption warning intending visiting drivers that, in effect, these animals have no road sense and are therefore dangerous, sometimes fatally so.

>106 Busifer: >107 hfglen: Kangaroos in Oz too.

Oh yes, no road sense at all. They are also known to use railroads as highways in winter, when the snow gets too deep in the woods and on the fields. I think it was the winter before last when a train driver posted a video of him trying to get a very insistent yearling to move off from the tracks.
The reindeer are somewhat worse, though. They are minuscule, compared to moose and kudu antelopes, but extremely well camouflaged. Southerners have no concept of how vigilant one must be when driving in reindeer country... and sometimes they just camp on the road.
This video, from northern Finland, went viral some years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH63N0GyvxM&t
Can happen in Sweden, too, when travelling inland in the upper 1/3 of the country.

>108 haydninvienna: I have heard stories, told by friends who have travelled the Australian inland... mainly of truck and bus drivers casually wiping off kangaroo remains from the front of their vehicle at gas stops. Certainly added to the general reputation of Australians as a bit, um, weird ;-)

>109 Busifer: Heavens, there are hundreds if not thousands in that herd! Behaving like unsupervised cattle (sheep or ostriches in some places) in rural South Africa generally, or Cape Buffalo in the Kruger Park. Though they don't seem to leave as much manure on the road as buffalo do.

The Crown and the Swastika. Well researched but ultimately unsatisfying account of the intrigues between the Nazis and the Duke of Windsor in 1940-41. I conclude that the egregious Wallis Simpson did Britain one favour, probably unintentionally: she got an idiot off the throne.

Unfortunately, the book is written in a style that comes across uncomfortably like a snake-oil salesman peddling pseudoscience, and I have read much better ones on the dirty tricks in use at this time. However, it is possible that this one made it easier for better, more recent works to be written, by convincing the Powers That Be that the world would not end if the files underlying the story were declassified.

Hidden Figures. Fascinating story of the women who developed the equations and crunched the numbers that got the American space effort (and many postwar aircraft) off the ground. The barriers these good ladies had to overcome are, sadly, all too familiar from elsewhere, too. (Nothing more explicit here, so as not to contravene the sign in the doorway.)

If it comes down to a choice, I'd recommend reading this one rather than the one in #112; I got them both in the same batch from the library.

>111 hfglen: Reindeer are tidy animals, thankfully. And they are cattle, in one way: they live in the wild, but every single reindeer belongs to someone. They are generally supervised by herdsmen (and women), but not herded as such, except when they are moved from winter to summer pastures, and when they are rounded up to be marked, and the herd culled.

>113 hfglen: How does it compare to the movie adaption?

>114 Busifer: (#113) I have no idea. I don't think the movie has ever been shown here.

>113 hfglen:, >114 Busifer: & >115 hfglen:
I have the DVD at home but have not watched it yet. I am looking forward to seeing it.

>116 pgmcc: In that case, when you get around to seeing it, you get to tell us about it.

>113 hfglen: etc. I liked the movie of Hidden Figures better than the book. I found the book interesting, but a bit rambling and disorganized.

>118 NorthernStar: I can agree about the book. Quite often she seemed to start telling a story, get distracted by something else and end the chapter without finishing the story she'd started. Mind you, I know people (starting with me) who do exactly the same in conversation, so I have little room to complain.

>119 hfglen: yes, but a good editor could fix that in a book, but not a conversation.

>120 NorthernStar: True indeed. Enjoy your visit to the "south".

Seeing I mentioned Cape Buffalo the other day (in #111 above), here's part of a herd in the Kruger Park. They're about the size of cattle, not very tall at the shoulder but heavy, weighing half a ton or more (each). They're generally mean-tempered and so haven't ever been successfully tamed. No wonder they have the reputation being the animal third-most likely to cause human fatalities (after hippos and crocodiles) in Africa.

Adventures in Stationery. More interesting than I expected, and written with flashes of a great sense of humour. Unlike one of the LT reviewers, I remember much of the stationery from primary school. But then we were still a Dominion in the Commonwealth (still British Empire in some minds, not least of the school I went to), so of course the equipment was all Made in England. It was good (for at least a second or two) to learn of the individuals and companies that contributed to the distinctive schoolroom smell.

ETA: There are, of course, also accounts of recent changes in the contents of the world's stationery cupboards. He even notes how digital software mimic stationery.

Behind the Scenes at Downton Abbey. Many thanks to the kind friend who gave us this. The pictures are gorgeous, and the few pages of text I've read so far suggest that this is a book to sit down with and savour.

Head over Heel. Australian journo breaks up with girlfriend and goes to Dublin to experience places mentioned by James Joyce. In one of the pubs he meets an Italian girl: broken heart instantly cured. Two visits to Australia later, she invites him to Italy. He stays two years, then marries the girl. The book relates his often hilarious efforts to adapt to life in Italy's Deep South. Definitely worth reading.

>125 hfglen: Lovely story.

Of course, antipodeans in Dublin might also be looking for places celebrated in The Ginger Man.. I encountered at least one such antipodean.

Myself, I’d rather Davy Byrne’s, touristy though it is.

In response to a question on @-pilgrim-'s thread, here is a picture of the Glen family camp at Tsendze (Kruger Park, about 30 km south of the Tropic of Capricorn) in 2012.



Believe it or not, there is a river just a hop, step and jump behind the big tent. It is usually dry.
One of the advantages I didn't mention in Pilgrim's thread is that there is a resident herd of elephants in the area, and they often block the access road to the campsite. On the other hand there is a disadvantage to this happy place: there is a resident herd of elephants in the area, and they often block the access road to the campsite, especially at sunset just as the gate is due to close.

>128 hfglen: I presume that, unlike the kudu, they are not susceptible to bribery by apple. Or, maybe you do not have sufficient apples?

>129 -pilgrim-: No they aren't. And SANParks would take an exceedingly (and correctly, IMHO) dim view of anybody who tried.

>128 hfglen:
Great picture.

Do the resident her of elephants ever trample through campsites? I think that would probably fall firmly on the "disadvantage" side if it were the case.

When the river is not dry, is the campsite at risk?

>131 pgmcc: Yes. I think it was during this visit that an elephant flattened the fence and gave some other campers a fright before discovering that he really wanted the fridge in the picnic site nearby. Fortunately the man who manages both facilities is well up to negotiating with ellies, and peace was soon restored.

No. The banks are high (something like twice elephant-high) and steep. There are pools in the river bed for quite long periods, so game viewing from the picnic site is often good. Also, there is a dam about 15 km upstream.

A Yorkshire Lad. Autobiography of the noted chef Brian Turner. May arguably have been improved by more philosophical musings and recipes, and less childhood reminiscence, but a fun read nonetheless. Towards the end he raises the interesting point that not all that long ago, chefs seldom emerged from their kitchens, and were definitely low on the totem-pole, but now the best ones are celebrities in their own right. Pity it took him so long to get there; the reasons for the shift would be a fascinating study. Some of the recipes look mouth-watering, but as the book must go back to the library tomorrow I shan't be trying them.

Brief Lives by W.F. Deedes. A curious selection of essays on the lives of some, mostly British, significant political and other figures that the author met in the course of a long and interesting career on the Daily Telegraph and as a Tory parliamentarian. In such company Imelda Marcos, Ian Smith and Helen Suzman stand out like sore thumbs ... or do they?

The Land of Green Gold. Three quarters of the story is "old news" better told somewhere else. The rest is of decidedly limited interest, and will not travel beyond the boundaries of the province I live in. Unless you have a passionate interest in sugar farming, production and marketing. Maybe one day I will develop a resistance to self-published books, but until then at least the library gets to house this one. (Saved from being a DNF only because I skipped most of the first two sections, and chunks of the third.)

Inspired by Our Clam in her own thread, today I offer you a sunset giraffe, from the Kruger Park in 2015.

It must be springtime. The Sunday papers are full of ads for plastic Christmas trees and their decorations. (sigh)

>116 pgmcc:, >117 hfglen: & >118 NorthernStar: Why would it not have been shown there? A marketing or proprietary issue?

I agree that I enjoyed the movie more than the book. I think the book should have been edited a bit more robustly. It was repetitive.

>136 hfglen: That is wonderful!

>138 clamairy: I don't know about the others, but I watched Hidden Figures on DVD, which I borrowed from the library. We have a small theatre that usually shows only one movie a week, and they don't tend to get in films they think won't get a lot of viewers (such as anything slightly intellectual). Also, sometimes I miss things as the movies usually only play Friday to Monday, and sometimes I'm busy. Also, I have no cable right now, so I can't just watch things on TV. I'd read the book a few months before, and definitely liked the movie better!

>138 clamairy: Marketing probably. But then I have to add that as I only stick my nose int a movie theatre roughly once a decade, and pay little attention to the listings, it could easily have come and gone unnoticed. I'd guess that the local marketers would see it as the kind of movie that would only get an audience for one or two screenings on an "art-house" (ultra-highbrow) theatre. Those are only ever perfunctorily advertised. I may consider looking in the local DVD-hire place if the family are ever up for that.

A House in Sicily. Englishwoman finds herself running a house (which she inherits, but not directly) just outside Taormina, within months of the end of World War 2. So between exchange controls and rationing life was far from easy. The house's assets included friendly locals, a fantastic view of Etna and a dining-room decorated by the Arts-and-Crafts master Frank Brangwyn. In order to make ends meet she took in paying guests, and so became hostess to, among others, Tennessee Williams, Roald Dahl and the wife (widow? it seems to have been about the time he died) of Dylan Thomas. The introduction suggests that the house now has some kind of official protection. The book is interesting, and the people are clearly the same nation as those in Head over Heel, but although this book is definitely acceptable, the other is definitely more fun.

>138 clamairy: It was on the repertoire of the big cinema chains (I mean, they even show Jim Jarmusch movies on prime time slots, even though it's only in the larger cities and only in select theatres) but despite having planned to see it reality conspired against it.

Curiosity ... I could hardly call it a noise; it was too low. But the neighbourhood definitely vibrated for a good half-minute this afternoon. Turns out it was a magnitude 3.7 (i.e. quite small) earthquake that we're told was felt over much of the southern KZN coast, and inland to Lesotho. Not sure where the epicentre wa; one report says "44 km north-west of Port Shepstone", which would put it somewhere in the southern Midlands.

>143 hfglen:
Oh dear!

Keep safe.

>144 pgmcc: Many thanks!

No sign of any damage in my immediate area, but I'll be reading tomorrow's newspaper looking out for more than just the usual funnies, crossword, "on this day...", motoring and weekend sections.

>143 hfglen: What @pgmcc said.

>143 hfglen: And again. earthquakes are surprisingly common unless you're prepared to move to somewhere like Alice Springs or Winnipeg, inside a nice big continental shield.

>147 haydninvienna: Er, sometimes. I grew up in Johannesburg. They have gold mines. Deep ones. The mines don't always maintain the upper, worked-out levels, and even underground props rot. We had constant earth tremors. And yet yesterday's event felt different; not scary, just different.

Tobias in Conversation. Prof. Phillip V. Tobias was head of the Department of Anatomy at Witwatersrand University for many years, and was probably one of the most brilliant intellects ever to grace the University. He also made major discoveries of early hominins at Sterkfontein, and worked with the Leakeys on East African hominins until this was no longer politically possible. He was a doughty fighter against apartheid from his student days (read the book: further details here would be against pub policy) until long after his retirement. This book is a transcription of conversations, a sort of autobiography, with two of his students. Tobias was always a captivating speaker, and this book is every bit as riveting as those who had the privilege of hearing his public lectures would expect. It is therefore well worth searching out and reading, even for non-medics.

Seeing this is about Prof. Tobias, I have to tell a story. My daughter Melissa was just on the cusp of her teens, when it was announced that Prof. Tobias would lead a guided tour of the fossils at Sterkfontein, unkindly arranged for Melissa's birthday. So I steamrollered the family into going, and somehow the Prof. heard that it was Melissa's birthday (remember, he didn't know any of us from a bar of soap). But nothing would do but he must meet our daughter, wish her personally a happy birthday, and autograph a copy of his guide to the hominins to her. Now there was the ultimate gentleman!

>149 hfglen:
That is a lovely story.

Deadly Outbreaks. Sort-of goes with the above; an account of seven epidemics all but one in the U.S.A., but all of previously unknown diseases, and what the Powers That Be learned from them. Interesting, but somewhat dry and in places potentially stomach-turning. I see one of the reviews on LT is for an audiobook. I cannot imagine even an Olivier or a Gielgud making this one work in audio! Go for paper if you decide to follow this one up.

For some time I've been considering a problem, namely the rate of growth of this thread. Do I cut it short now and organize a piffle party in the week between Christmas and New Year in order to get a continuation-thread for 2020, or do I hang on to this one until the end of December, and let it get unwieldy? I have decided on the former. See you all in the new thread!

>152 hfglen: That will be an epic piffle party!

>149 hfglen: Your Professor sounds like a civilised human being.

>153 -pilgrim-: Maybe not too bad, if we keep up the observations, reading and chatter in the next two months :-)

>154 haydninvienna: He was, very. And an example to us all.

When do the invitations for the piffle party go out? Can we RSVP now?

The party seems to have started already in part 4. By all means drop in!