Friday, April 28, 2023
FRIDAY MUSIC: The Alehouse Boys, by JD
Friday, April 21, 2023
FRIDAY MUSIC: Golden Oldies - the 1950s, by JD
There are, on our televisions, a number of channels dedicated to playing 'golden oldies' music from the 60s, the 70s and the 80s. But there is no channel dedicated to 50s music for some reason. It cannot be because the music was bad, perhaps it is because of the lack of video/film showing the artists performing their songs.
So as a small contribution to keeping the music alive, a selection of goldne oldies from more than 60+ years ago. I think it would be fair to say that musically the fifties ended in October 1962 with the release of the first record by the Beatles and their inspiration came from the music of that era. Without the 50s popular music of today would be very different.
Sunday, April 16, 2023
CULLER SUPPLEMENT: Cullercoats, by JD
Friday, April 14, 2023
FRIDAY MUSIC: Mose Allison, by JD
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Those evil, greedy doctors!
The BMA says the pay of a junior doctor has fallen by 26 per cent in real terms since 2008/09 because pay rises have been below inflation. It is calling for 'full pay restoration', which would amount to a 35 per cent pay rise and be worth up to £20,000 extra for some medics.
Never mind the 'some medics' - a ploy to get us envious and angry; the maths is correct.
If your real-terms pay drops by 26 points from 100 to 74, you need (1.35*74) to get back to 100 where you started, i.e. a 35% increase.
This is not a pay rise but, as the doctors' association says, a restoration - and I haven't seen a claim for the money lost in the intervening years.
It's what happens when a government loses control of inflation.
In a way it's a rerun of the 1970s, when Arab oil producers retaliated against the West for supporting Israel in Middle Eastern conflict, by inflating the price of oil. This made everything pricier in our energy-dependent economy and triggered a wave of industrial action as groups of workers tried to recoup their real-terms earnings losses.
Yes, there were some Marxists in unions trying to destabilise the system so that - the great Marxian dream - a better world would magically arise from the ruins; but there was a lot more going on that was not doctrinaire-political.
I remember two words cropping up again and again in these disputes:
'parity' - a claim to get the same pay as another group doing the same work somewhere else; and
'differential' - a claim for higher pay by more skilled workers who found that despite their more valuable expertise, their earnings were getting closer to that of less skilled workers as the latter won their pay bargaining cases.
The 'oil shock' started in 1973, the Conservative government fell in 1974 and the incoming Labour Government had to deal with industrial disputes for the next five years.
It was a very long time before I found out that Alan Bleasdale's BBC drama series 'Boys from the Blackstuff', described as
'TV's most complete dramatic response to the Thatcher era and as a lament to the end of a male, working class British culture'
may have been screened in 1982, but was based on Bleasdale's 'The Black Stuff' Play For Today, scripted in 1978 during the Prime Ministership of Labour's James Callaghan.
In rugby there is a move called a 'hospital pass' where you throw the ball to a colleague who is then obliterated by the fast-oncoming opposition. Similarly, some political parties may be tempted to lose a General Election so that the 'other lot' has to clean up the mess and take the blame for all the hard things they are forced to do.
This could be where we are now. 'Demirep' speculates that both Labour in the UK and the Democrats in the US are trying not to win the next election because they can see what is coming:
Saturday, April 08, 2023
WEEKENDER: The water company scam, by Wiggia
Perhaps water should be charged as to area that needs to covered, just a thought………….. |
Friday, April 07, 2023
FRIDAY MUSIC: Easter, by JD
"Every Orthodox Holy Saturday in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, thousands gather to witness a flame “miraculously” appearing in the tomb of Jesus.
Orthodox Christians believe it’s a potent symbol of the resurrection.It’s the Church's most important miracle. And it’s believed to have been happening annually for the past 1,200 years.
The ritual begins with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem (or another Orthodox archbishop), descending into the empty tomb of Christ within the church and reciting special prayers. A non-Orthodox Christian is also said to examine the edicule (a small structure surrounding the tomb) to make sure no oil lamps have been left burning inside that the patriarch could use to light his candles."~~~~~Victoria Clark recounts a conversation she had with Orthodox Bishop Theophanis in which she asked about the miracle. He replied: “In this ceremony we are offering created fire and from it comes uncreated light, by the grace of the Holy Spirit…before the ceremony begins, a kantila – a little oil lamp – is placed, already lit, on the tomb. The patriarch lights his candle from it while he says a special prayer.”Bishop Theophanis likens the miracle to Holy Communion when the bread and wine becomes the body and blood of Christ (transubstantiation/ metousiosis). The natural is transformed into the supernatural. In his mind the Holy Fire really is a miraculous fire because the prayer has changed it from ordinary fire to Holy Fire.
Tuesday, April 04, 2023
An Everyday Tale of Online Banking, by Wiggia
This was one of those moments which did not come to light until I returned home and tried to start normal procedures in my life after a spell of oblivion, it transpired that various updates re banking, shopping, Google and other sites had updated their log on procedures and in the case of banks two had actually frozen my account making access unless I updated all the info and supplied new paswords and security information.