The day after . . .

First let me offer up an exceedingly large 'Thank You!' to all you D&N readers who offered so many good wishes yesterday in celebration of my birthday.  I can say, along with Aufidius in "Coriolanus", but without his double meaning, that "I was moved withal."  I would also like to express my enormous gratitude to various personal friends who, with great insight - I mean, how did they know I am a 'book-a-holic'? - offered me a fascinating addition to my, er, 'library'.

For a start, the 'Memsahib' gave me a copy of Antony Beevor's latest military history "Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges" - and no, 'SoD', you can't borrow it straight away, you will have to wait and given the size of it, that might be some time!  Mind you, 'SoD', whilst I take on that behemoth of a book, you might like to borrow what looks like another intriging book called "The History of Tactics" by Capt. H.M. Johnstone, R.E. which might prove useful for you at your War Games club.  It begins with Frederic the Great which is a pretty shrewd place to start a book on tactics!

Another friend gave me a history book based, so to speak, on an unusual slant.  It is called "The Hungry Empire: How Britain's quest for food shaped the modern world", written byLizzie Collingham. Yum-yum, can't wait!  Also, the 'Memsahib' won extra 'brownie points' by giving me the DVD set of the latest episode of "Line of Duty".  This will assuage my feelings of guilt and loss when I tried, in my usual cack-handed way, to record all the episodes so that I could watch it all in one hit, so to speak.  Needless to say, with my ineptness in operating 'do-flicker-thingies', my machine failed to record a single episode!  That resulted in several weeks of avoiding all mentions of the series in the media.  Now I am going to set aside an entire day and watch the whole damned thing in one go!

The only slight 'downer' on my birthday was that some old and dear friends asked us round for supper and a game of canasta, a regular routine over the years.  It always take the form of us chaps vs. the ladies.  On this, er, special occasion, I thought the ladies might acknowledge the moment and throw the game.  Not a bit of it!  We were well and truly thrashed!  So no change there then!

Ooops, sorry, one more:   I forgot this one given to me by an old friend from my AmDram Society called "Swearing Is Good For You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language" - yeeeeeees, quite!  It may have stemmed from memories of my usual opening speech to the cast of any of the shows I directed, in which I decried the use of bad language during rehearsals but would admit that when matters became became tense I was very likely to revert to 'original Aldershot' from my army days!

 

 

 

Comments

[JK]

"Well and truly thrashed" were ye?

So I'm taking it David you "got lucky"? Meaning you didn't have to submit to the kind of oral sex I do?

What?!! I hear you exclaim.

Well mine is me sitting on the edge of the bed getting yelled at.

For whatever.

[JK]

Oh what the heck. You'll be needing some humor today David?

https://woodstermangotwood.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-blonde-or-rule-5-woodsterman-style.html

The jokes man. The jokes.

[Whitewall]

"The Hungry Empire" sounds like an interesting 'niche' read. I guess Empires like armies move on their stomachs.

[David Duff]

JK, have a heart, I am 80 years and one day old so you really must not bombard me with pictures of, er, well-developed blondes in their underwear! That 'Woodsterman' is a very naughty boy!

[Whitewall]

JK, the coffee in my cup seems to be jiggling too much to drink. What am I supposed to do...saucer and blow before sipping?!

[Whitewall]

AussieD, Andra,
Is this correct? https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/05/thunder-down-under-far-left-labour-party-suffers-shocking-loss-in-australia-after-holding-several-point-lead-in-polls/

[David Duff]

Whiters, I understand that Al Gore put in a late appearance droning on and on about global warming. For the Lefties, as we say over here - 'end of!'

[Michael F Adams]

IIRC, Miss Collingham also wrote "The Taste of War" aout food policy in both World Wars, mainly the second.

She has a useful insight, that Hitler invaded Poland and, later, Russia, for crop land, and the Germans resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in WWI because they were pretty sure that their food supplies could not hold out for another two years. This brought America into the war, which was, at best, a strategic blunder.

She is a Socialist, so she is convinced that the USA could have produced more food for Britain, if we had just had something like the War Ags, to "organize" things better. I note with amused, ironic interest that your War Ags pushed farmers to plant crops, like flax, on ground very poorly suited for those crops. As Michael Oakeshot said, central planning does not work, because no one knows enough to tell everybody else what to do.

So she is, on the whole so far, right half the time. Yes, food strategy explains the Germans miscalculations in attacking American shipping and invading Russia. No, central planning only works on paper, which is why Americans have mostly rejected it, so far, and why we pray for our Cousins' success in Brexit. Englishmen do not want to be micromanaged from Brussels or London, any more than Americans willingly tolerate the same from Washington or New York. They know so damned much, but so much of it is wrong.

[Whitewall]

David, Algore you say? That'll do it every time! The Left's "climate lingo" will have to be repackaged...

[Whitewall]

Michael, good observations!

[Richard]

Belated birthday greetings David!

[JK]

"The Left's "climate lingo" will have to be repackaged..."

Well Whitewall as a matter of fact ...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/does-the-term-climate-change-need-a-makeover-some-think-so-heres-why/

Not that I'm gonna be bothered to update myself but I figure 'our pal Bob' will, obviously, get right in the groove.

[AussieD]

G'day Whitewall,

I am happy to say it is true. The Labor Party [the bastards can't even spell] entered the election with all the so called pundits saying they would wipe the floor with the conservative side of politics [the Liberal and National Parties] Down here the Liberal Party is the conservative side of politics.

Wrong. The conservatives have sealed the event with a devestating win and it now only remains to see by how many seats in our Lower House. Senate results are not yet to hand. My wife and I sat up till after midnight watching the results roll in.

Labor moved just too far to the left and abandoned its traditional blue collar constituency to favour the extreme left/green ideology and was punished for doing so.

The so called "elites" who like to think they can manipulate "the plebs" will need to do a solid rethink. In the meantime down here in Oz we will have a conservative government for the coming three year term.

The family are assembling here for lunch today and a bottle of Moet will be broached to celebrate a win for sanity.

[Whitewall]

AussieD,
Well done Oz! Maybe the Conservatives can win enough majority and USE it good and proper.

[Andra]

Yep. The good guys won, not that I am particularly keen on our new Liberal leader. To me he's more like a used car salesman than a nation leader (!)
Nevertheless, its a good thing and happiness prevails once more in the land of Oz.
Now I'm off to Jazz Club and I'll raise a vodka and OJ for your belated birthday Duff.

[David Duff]

Er, nothing wrong with used-car salesmen, Andra, you can take my word for it as, um, a former used-car salesman! And make sure the vodka is a large one!

Congrats, AussieD, and perhaps, "Labor moved just too far to the left and abandoned its traditional blue collar constituency to favour the extreme left/green ideology and was punished for doing so" will apply to the Democratic nitwits in the USA next year!