Bad news, worse news and worserer news: I'll take them in order. The "bad news" is that God, or Donald Trump (if you can tell them apart), has fiddled with the clocks again so that I am an hour behind the times. Why do they do that? I don't mind when it gives me an extra hour in bed but this time I lost an hour which leads me to the "worse news" which is that I missed half the commentary on the Australian Grand Prix because the bloody-bloody clock was wrong! Of course, it hardly needs explaining but the "worserer news" is that that fine, pukka, British gent, Lewis Hamilton, was beaten into second place by a damned Hun! I think I'll go back to bed!
But here's some good news: With enormous courage and stamina I have beaten off that vicious attack of 'Man-flu' with which I was suffering - and, boy, I do mean suffering! - earlier in the week. God I'm good!
So, just another druggie yob, then: Everybody was, er, 'shocked, I tell you, shocked' when that low-life loon attacked people in Westminster and killed a policeman. It's another dastardly, clever ISIS plot, the prints all screamed. Nah! He was just another inadequate, pathetic psycho with a taste for drugs, as Peter Hitchens points out in The Mail. Do give him a read and calm down, dears!
Is nothing sacred anymore? You will not be surprised to learn - yet again - that I am shocked, I tell you, shocked! Some 'pint-puller', well, he calls himself a 'mixologist' - yeeeees, quite! - has seriously suggested that a drop of olive oil should be added to the ingredients of a dry martini in order to enhance its flavour. According to The Mail:
Davide Gagliazzo, bar manager of Gordon Ramsay’s Union Street Cafe in Southwark, South London, said: ‘I think Bond would love it. Olive oil enriches the drink – it gives it a silky texture and complexity.’
On second thoughts, perhaps I shouldn't be too dismissive. It was a London bartender who told me that I should always give the inside of the martini glass a quick wipe with the sliver of lemon (which I prefer to an olive) in order to spread the flavour. Anyway, I hope for his sake that 007 is not displeased - could be messy!
Don'cha just lurve this internet-thingie? Yes of course you do otherwise you wouldn't be wasting your time reading D&N! What I like is that you can pick at a thread, give it a tug and suddenly you are onto all sorts of other threads. Just now (via A&L Daily), I came across a review of a recently published biography of one of my favourite people, Machiavelli. I like him because he is one of the very few philosophers who make me laugh out loud - the Aussie, David Stove, is another one. Anyway, A&L Daily pointed me to a review by Terry Eagleton of a Machiavelli biography. Now, he has been around the edge of my consciousness (if you can call it that) for ages and I have rather dismissed him as just another Left-wing intellectual prat, er, without actually reading anything he wrote, natch! Anyway, his review was sharp and witty and that was enough for me to check his Wiki entry and that, in turn, led me into some of the bar-room brawls, ooops, sorry, I mean intellectual disagreements he has had with all sorts of people. There's nobody like high-minded intellectuals for producing copious amounts of blood, er, theoretical blood, of course!
It's the 'Don't Knows' wot'll win it: Reports indicate that the French centrist bloc is getting its act together now that the former front-runner, Fillon, has been caught out with his hand in the till. All 'les movers and shakers' (Damn, my French is good!) are coalescing behind Macron, a typical establishment 'man for all seasons'. The socialists have the French equivalent of 'Jezza' for a candidate so they're nowhere. Thus everything and everyone is combining with but a single aim - stop le Pen! Will they succeed? (French shrug), it all depends on the enormous number of 'Don't Knows'!
No more rumbles today
Good to read you are in, dare I say, higher spirits.
Posted by: Up2L8 | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 11:09
No stipulation whether virgin olive oil or not, so guess most any will do.
Posted by: Up2L8 | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 12:37
If nothing else, olive oil might be good for your coat.
I suspect the Memsahib deserves the credit for your speedy recovery?
Posted by: Whitewall | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 13:18
I am relieved to know the Westminster terrorist was just a druggie loser. Some news papers had begun to whisper that he was driven by that arch sin Racism!
Posted by: Whitewall | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 13:35
He was just a naughty Muslim. Drugs, booze, women, violence, theft. He wasn't going to go to paradise was he? Unless he killed an infidel or two. So he did. I've sent this to Scotland Yard, save them a lot of pondering on his motive.
Posted by: backofanenvelope | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 14:20
Eh, Whitewall?
https://audioboom.com/posts/5746134-1780-overmountain-men-defeat-king-george-rally-the-patriot-cause-patrick-k-o-donnell-combathistorian
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 17:17
JK, yep that's the place about 30 minutes west of my wife's home and her father's home county in South Carolina. Her family names are on the monuments atop that mountain. In 1780, things looked bleak. In every war things can look bleak, even today. The full write up and good read:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/24/odonnell-hillbilly-justice-how-the-battle-of-kings-mountain-changed-the-course-of-the-revolution/
Posted by: Whitewall | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 17:42
David, we have had a long-running fad over here for "martini bars" that offer a seemingly endless number of bastardizations. Examples here:
http://www.drinksmixer.com/cat/3315/
The chocolate martini, a favorite of one of our lady friends, isn't on the list, but you might like the breakfast martini.
JK, after having splurged on a bottle of Hübler absinthe I've decided it's worth the price. It's too rough to drink the way the Swiss do - at room temperature mixed with spring water - but a little sugar (about 2 tsp. per quart refrigerated water) mixed 3:1 is tasty. Best of all the "medicinal herbs" are soothing to achy old bones and pleasantly relaxing. Apparently the legends about absinthe causing insanity come from the "good old days" before governments had jack booted thugs that could legally require distillers not to poison people. Even if that's not true insanity might break up the boredom of old age. It's worth a try.
Posted by: Bob | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 18:02
"The chocolate martini"! Bob, you Americans have much to answer for!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 18:20
Bob,
I'll take your suggestion to Barney which, I expect, he'll probably take under advisement - the trouble'll probably be since the Magroos ain't too "hip" on the Interwebs (Barney particularly) getting the Hübler's family recipe might take some time.
But like I say, I'll give it a go. Thanks for lookin' toward my health Bob.
(Price isn't the problem a'tall I assure - I do Glenfiddich right regularly.)
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 19:43
Glenfiddich...sounds like something along the line of a "medical embarrassment"--one where you go at least a county away to visit their clinic for treatment.
Posted by: Whitewall | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 20:00
"At least a county away"!
Jeebers Whitewall, make that a whole 'nother state!
Yep. Gotta go all the way (which for me admittedly ain't but nine mile) to Misery.
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 20:28
WW,
That sounds like a bit of "in-yo-endo" :)
Posted by: TheBigHenry | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 20:44
JK, Glenfiddich was my favorite for years. And sorry about the typo, the name is Kübler.
Posted by: Bob | Sunday, 26 March 2017 at 23:02
Martinis? Glenfiddler? Sheesh! It it isn't rum [undiluted] or a good beer or stout it isn't worth soiling your taste buds. Though with some Pussers Rum there is probably not much left of the taste buds.
Posted by: AussieD | Monday, 27 March 2017 at 00:54
"Pussers Rum"? I'm not going to touch that one ...
Posted by: TheBigHenry | Monday, 27 March 2017 at 01:07
Shalom TBH
Pusser is the slang term for a sailor in HM's navies and so Pusser's Rum the name given to the rum issue which was discontinued on "Black Tot Day" 31st July 1970. Twenty two long years before I hung up my uniform for the last time. For a synopsis of rum issue see http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/29/how-the-rum-soaked-royal-navy-sobered-up.html.
A tot of rum after a miserably cold night on watch is nectar of the Gods.
Posted by: AussieD | Monday, 27 March 2017 at 03:30
Shalom AD.
I should have proceeded as I usually do, namely Googled it: "Pusser is Royal Navy slang for a purser, a ship's supply officer, now called a Logistics Officer, in the Royal Navy."
Instead, I made a lame attempt at a wisecrack. My bad.
Posted by: TheBigHenry | Monday, 27 March 2017 at 07:52
AD,
Just sos you know ... I spent abit o' time (43 days to be precise) aboard one of your ships TAD which portcall happened to coincide with a USN CV making a "same time/same place" visit into Hong Kong.
Oh what an adventure! ... A "chance meeting" at the China Fleet Club wherein I *un-accoutered* as a 'regularly attired USN guy' got stuffed behind something hefty (and properly protected) by ... was it one or two maybe three[?] of your guys thus resulting in my person coming out "not overly unscathed" by *my guys* once the various SPs showed up settling the matter.
Ah those were the days ... I was much younger then of course.
(Sometime ... if the opportunity likewise presents itself AD, I might, allude to another adventure wherein a contingent of Aussies and Yanks on a "sightseeing trip" wound up on the same USN helo which, somewhat unfortuitously, happened to get stuck setting down in a just drained paddy on Mindanao. To the supreme embarrassment of - He Who Shall Forever Remain Unnamed - my USMC CO.
That too was an adventure - darn the luck.)
Posted by: JK | Monday, 27 March 2017 at 21:21
Shalom TBH
The term managed to get itself extended to sailors in general rather than just pursers.
JK the "place" for misadventure in the Far East was Bugis Street in Singapore. Commonwealth service men [and "cousins"] gravitated to it like bees to a honeypot. The women were exquisite if you overlooked the fact that some of them, I am told,had testicles. It was of of course "off limits" to officers - one of the disadvantages of being commissioned. The Singaporean gummint sanitized the place and it became pretty dismal.
I had the pleasure of visiting various vessels belonging to the USN and the only one I didn't like was USS Queenfish purely because it was a submarine [I hate submarines]
Posted by: AussieD | Tuesday, 28 March 2017 at 01:35
The way to distinguish between the girls and the boys in Bugis Street was to remember, despite sinking eight pints of Tiger beer, that the 'good lookers' were the boys!
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 28 March 2017 at 08:11
So you have been there too Duffers?
Haven't had a Tiger for years. Not a bad drop really.
Posted by: AussieD | Tuesday, 28 March 2017 at 10:08
Oh yes, AussieD, a proper old Far East hand, I am! You have obviously missed my oft-repeated tale of an evening spent in Bugis Street watching some matelots from a visiting aircraft carrier (we had some in those days!) and seeing a young'un being encouraged by his mates to go off with a very pretty lady. His return was rapid and he was white under his tan!
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 28 March 2017 at 18:07
Aye Singapore ... the single place in the whole wide world for USN "Patriots" to *enjoy* the proper comeuppance of the USN's "Yankee contingents" ... oh God whatta place - "Fat Leonard" aside ...
https://warisboring.com/u-s-navy-officers-allegedly-traded-favors-for-an-orgy-in-gen-macarthurs-room-2aecdc0aca1f
"Corn-cob-pipes" an' all doncha know ... past "my time" ... waaaay past but the reports 'n all have been an enjoyment. *O'Barmy's Navy* seemingly reflecting his hmmm ... Oirish Roots an' all went with it.
Singapore ...
"Gateway to Danger" ... we called it
Posted by: JK | Tuesday, 28 March 2017 at 22:37
JK, that is UNBELIEVABLE! But then I read the Wiki report which confirmed it. Can't wait for the film!
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 29 March 2017 at 08:30
Here David, is the *preliminary* screenplay:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/948061/download
(But I suspect the Wiki version'd result in something abit more ... uhm, "racier"?
Posted by: JK | Wednesday, 29 March 2017 at 18:14