The Sunday Rumble: 31.12.17

My New Year good wishes:   Alas, whenever I use that phrase I remember my old Mum and another of her favourite old Scottish sayings: "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride", och aye the noo and all that sort of thing!  Even so, for what they are worth - nottalot! - I do send all you D&N readers my sincere hopes that you dodge the bullets for another year!  

 

Talking of bullet dodging:   Has anyone seen or heard of 'The Big Henry'?  He has been 'MIA' for several weeks now and I miss him, even if he was sometimes a bit bruising.  Come back, Henry, all is forgiven!

 

The 'nibbly' chef strikes again!   Yes, I bet you all wish you were here in 'zunny Zummerzet' because tonight, by popular acclaim, I have been appointed 'nibbly' chef for our annual New Year dinner party.  Three couples join forces with each providing a different course.  I, of course, am famed the length and breadth of, well, my kitchen, actually, for my 'nibblies' - and I do the jokes round here, Andra!  This delicate operation would take the average housewife about ten minutes to complete but for me it will be most of the afternoon and I will need to take to my bed afterwards due to nervous exhaustion.

 

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow":   is Monday, of course, so if you are all suffering with hangovers let me assure you that I have an accumulation of 'Monday Funnies' to cheer you all up.  In addition, you might be vouchsafed a glimpse at 'Old Duff's Almanac', my forecast of likely "events, dear boy, events" for 2018.  They could be even more hilarious than the 'Funnies'!

 

And talking of Macbeth:   Yes, of course I was, and here is the full quote:

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing. 

I thought you would all like to know that in London in 2018 there will be, not one, not two, not even three but four productions of Macbeth!  That will be three versions of the play itself plus a production of the opera.  Extra large whiskeys needed, I feel!

 

Hey, man, that weed rocks!   Sorry, sorry, that's my pathetic Brit effort to sound 'Kalifornian' and, er, 'with it'.  My reason for making a prat of myself attempting the impossible is because it has just been reported that 'Kalifornia' has come top amongst all of the (dis)United States for reporting sightings of UFOs.  Any suggestion that this might be a result of cannabis being freely available is a disgraceful slur on the liberal 'dope-heads' of 'Kalifornia'!

 

'Didja see it, didja, didja'?   I refer, of course, to 'Spiral'.  Waddya mean, what the hell is 'Spiral'?  It's the brilliant 'Frenchie-poo' police and legal series which I have been boring raving about for years since it first appeared on BBC4.  Series 6 started last night and there will be two episodes every Saturday night.  Don't worry if you have missed the first two because I watched them last night and I haven't a clue what's going on - so no change there, then!  But I don't care just so long as mon chéri, Audrey Fleurot, is in it playing a tough but vulnerable lawyer.

Alas, my French must have gone a bit rusty over the years because she never replies to the many letters I send her!  She is not a classic beauty but, dammit, she is very, very attractive.

 

My 'nibblies' are complete:  And, of course, they are perfection!  In fact, it would be a shame to eat them!  In due course I will raise a glass to all four points of the compass to wish you well.

 

 

No more rumbles today - or even this year!

 

 

Comments

[Cuffleyburgers]

That's a cracking quote from The Scottish Play and would seem to be an accurate decription of the workings of parliament.

[Loz]

I hope BigHen's alright.

Anyone got any news?

SoD

[Whitewall]

David, regarding Big Henry, I have searched some myself and even called in JK to do some recon work but alas, we can't come up with him. We are concerned.

[Whitewall]

Four productions of Macbeth? No doubt you have been contacted to at least advise on one or more?

[David Duff]

Amazingly, no, Whitewall! I may have to change my agent!

[Whitewall]

In California, they are after all, governed by the Caliban!

[Kevin B]

Just a reminder for those of you who can't get up to London that Verdi's Macbeth will be broadcast live to a cinema near you in April, (even over there or down under). It would appear that none of the theatre productions will be broadcast but if you need a Shakespeare fix and you don't like too much music, the NT will be broadcasting Julius Caesar and Twelfth Night.

So Happy New Year David and thanks for all the entertainment.

[Whitewall]

Andra and AussieD...Happy New year!!

[Bob]

California has several air bases that routinely test experimental missiles and aircraft, usually unannounced. Most people near the coast have seen unexplained lights in the sky. Some are just more excitable than others.

Good 2018.

[Hyam Phokdefarneaux]

Love Spiral and Audrey and the ginger lawyer with a stunning figure. Cups runneth over in one very well made thriller .

[Uncle Mort]

Happy New Year.

[mike fowle]

I take it that the lines from the Scottish Play are aimed at SOD. The Big Henry's web site (Remembrance in Spacetime) has a last post on the 6th December. Not that long ago. Happy New Year to all.

[Buster]

Regarding Shakespeare: Having had it dunned into me as a schoolboy, and predictably thereby shunning it for years after, I find I’m coming around to the view that that there Wm Shakespeare was a pretty acute writer (and most of all imaginer!). I’m temperamentally averse to ‘luvvie’ histrionics, so prefer to read it, but the older I get the more I have to simply marvel at it. In two major respects, I reckon.

First, the outright singular genius of the self-effacing man himself. Perhaps I haven’t read enough to properly comment, but his writing (and thus even more so his thoughtful insight) does seem to be head and shoulders above that of his peers and near contemporaries, at least those that I have come across. Disinclines me to readily believe the wackier theories regarding the authorship of at least the greater part of his attributed works. Even in your little extract above there are at least half a dozen excellent and evocative book or movie titles just waiting to be nicked (I think one or two already have been).

Second, to marvel at and ponder on the ‘rough’ society that could foster such sensitivity. Elizabethan England was in so many ways an almost unimaginably hostile, harsh and dangerous place. Perhaps, and only overall, a smidge less shitty than what preceded it but most of us would probably last a week, max. Yet, somehow, people sort of managed, took it in their stride even and from time to time excelled.

Sometimes, one comes across stuff that makes you think. I still recall, just for instance, reading some while back a lament by Montesquieu (a bit pre-Shakespeare, I think, and French, not his fault) for his untimely dead young friend that was the most perfectly gauged eulogy and reflection. Not particularly designed to move, but all the more intensely moving for that. It comes down to the quality of the thought, the careful underlying intelligence, and the space, time and art to nurture and express it. Impressively, it speaks across centuries.

There’s an internet put-down that quite amused me when I first saw it. ‘TL;DR’ (Too Long; Didn’t Read). Now it sometimes seems to me that it should be better put as ‘TL;DT’ (Too Long, Didn’t Think).

Anyway, enough of that. Thank you, David, for your hard work and Happy New Year (and more of them) to you particularly and to your merry band of contributors. Even your wayward son. And appreciation to the crusty but ever worthwhile TBH, should he ever chance to read this. Who can know?

[JK]

Happy New Year Y'all!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWjTmXT58nk

[Andra]

Well, down in Oz we've survived the festivities and no news from the loonies so far.
I do hope all the Duffster's readers have an excellent 2018 and many more of 'em.
David, thanks for another interesting year and I do hope the memsahib is fully recovered and back in full flight.
JK - Watch them dangles and keep upwind of the still.
Big - come home. All is forgiven.
Sod - less is quite often terrific.
Pass the Chardy please..... greeting from Cairns to you all.

[JK]

Best Andra

[AussieD]

Happy New Year All.

I slept through the change of years. Getting the house ready to sell and just about buggered. Went to sleep in the arm chair with a brace of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels using me for a mattress.