The cricket is so enjoyable that I almost regret the fact that tomorrow I’m going to the Dorgogne to spend a week eating, drinking and being merry with a bunch of friends. Here’s a picture of Marie Lloyd for you to look at during my absence:
Author: Harry
Categories
Come on, Freddie!
Last summer Flintoff demonstrated that he’s capable of playing himself in and getting big centuries. Now let’s see him do it again. And let’s be greedy – KP hasn’t got a test century yet.
Mike Snider asked ‘why do people insist on calling any 14-line poem a sonnet?’ and KSM replied at length. His argument is very reasonable. If ‘it is next to impossible for any poetry-literate reader to see a fourteen-line poem and not think “sonnet”‘, it seems a pity, since that dilutes whatever interesting distinctiveness sonnets have, but if readers really do see sonnets everywhere that battle is already lost.
I slightly wonder
I slightly wonder whether it’s true;
If I saw a fourteen-line poem which
was laid out in a little block on the
page, with those sonnet-y proportions,
a little bit taller than it is wide —
shaped, in fact, like a sonnet, I would
probably make the connection; even
more so if there was a little gap
to mark a notional ‘volta’ and divide
the preambulary or thetical octet
from the conclusive or antithetical
sestet; and even if the implied
sonnetesque rhetorical structure
turned out to be just white space.
I’m not
on the other hand
so sure
that
faced with a poem which
meandered in an irregular
wander
down the page,
I would
even
notice whether it had
fourteen lines.
If it occured to me it might,
I’d have to count them to check,
anyway.
Categories
Charlie sticks his oar in again
The Queen’s greatest virtue is that that I have no idea what her political views are. On that basis, Prince Charles could be the one to kill off the monarchy. Sometimes I agree with his opinions, more often I don’t – but I don’t want to know them. The monarchy is tolerable as long as it’s powerless, but Charlie-boy needs to understand that his anachronistic existence comes with conditions. If he wants to become a political activist, he can abdicate any time he wants to; otherwise he should keep his fucking mouth shut.
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Gillespie out for Trent Bridge test
I feel for Gillespie, a bit. He’s clearly deeply commited to the Aussie cause and has been heroic with the bat. But as an England supporter I’m sorry to see him go because Tait sounds like he could be a handful – although they’ve been coping quite well with Lee so far, and Tait seems to be in a similar mode, from what I’ve read. With Lee, Tait, Flintoff, Harmison and Jones, it could be a fierce old match. I suspect Australia will have pulled themselves together a bit over the break, so England are going to have to keep up (or even increase) the pressure. Though it’s hard to believe it can possibly be more intense than the last two.
EDIT: On the other hand, McGrath not playing is definitely a bonus for England.
I went to get my hair cut today, and the barbress said “Your hair’s nice and shiny – you obviously don’t smoke.” She’s right, I don’t, but I’m surprised she could tell by looking at my hair. The conversation turned to a documentary on TV last night that followed various taxidermists in their preparations for what they all called ‘the World Show’ and thus, inevitably, to Jeremy Bentham.
The head at the top of the picture is a wax replica, because the real head was damaged in the preservation process. In this picture the real head can be seen between his legs, but apparently it has since been put into storage as it used to be a target for student pranks.