"After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one."
- Cato the Elder (234-149BC),
aka Marcus Porcius Cato
Roman statesman and historian (first to write in Latin)
Thursday, August 27, 2015
And still more limericks
Caution: risque humour.
“I like it now and again.
But I wish to explain
That by ‘now and again’
I mean now, and AGAIN and AGAIN.”
There was a young man from Calcutta
Who had an unfortunate stutter.
He said “P-p-p-please
Would you p-pass the cheese
And the b-b-b-b-b-b-butter."
On the chest of a barmaid at Yale
Were tattooed the prices of ale
And on her behind,
For the sake of the blind,
Was the same ㏌formatюn in Braille.
There was a young man from the War Office
Who got into bed with a whore of his.
She took off her drawers
With many a pause,
But the chap from the War Office tore off his.
One Saturday morning at three
A cheesemonger's shop in Paree
Collapsed to the ground,
With a thunderous sound,
Leaving only a pile of de brie.
A chap they all call Aloysius,
Of his wife and a guy grew syspysius.
And quicker than you'd think
He found them by the sink
But they were only doing the dysius.
There was once a choleric Colonel
Whose oaths were obscene and infolonel.
As the chaplain aghast,
Gave up protest at last,
But wrote it all down in his jolonel.
In Wall Street a girl called Irene
Made an offering somewhat obscene;
She stripped herself bare
And offered a share
To Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane.
(For the benefit of Oz readers, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane was a large American investment banking and brokerage firm. In 1941, Fenner & Beane merged with what was then known as Merrill Lynch, E.A. Pierce and Cassatt to become Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane. In 1957, Merrill discontinued the use of the name Beane, replacing it with Smith in recognition of Winthrop H. Smith, a longtime chief of the firm.)
And, a personal favourite, that has been previously posted in Bytes . . .
Ethnologists up with the Sioux
Wired home for two punts, one canoe.
The answer next day
Said,
"Girls on the way,
But what the hell's a 'panoe'?"
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Trivia
Some trivia about Paul McCartney . . .
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The Beatles had droopy moustaches because McCartney had a swollen lip and chipped tooth as a result of a moped accident:
I had an accident when I came off a moped in Wirral, near Liverpool. I had a very good friend who lived in London called Tara Browne, a Guinness heir - a nice Irish guy, very sensitive bloke. I'd see him from time to time, and enjoyed being around him. He came up to visit me in Liverpool once when I was there seeing my dad and brother. I had a couple of mopeds on hire, so we hit upon the bright idea of going to my cousin Bett's house.
We were riding along on the mopeds. I was showing Tara the scenery. He was behind me, and it was an incredible full moon; it really was huge. I said something about the moon and he said 'yeah', and I suddenly had a freeze-frame image of myself at that angle to the ground when it's too late to pull back up again: I was still looking at the moon and then I looked at the ground, and it seemed to take a few minutes to think, 'Ah, too bad - I'm going to smack that pavement with my face!' Bang!
There I was, chipped tooth and all. it came through my lip and split it. But I got up and we went along to my cousin's house. When I said, 'Don't worry, Bett, but I've had a bit of an accident,' she thought I was joking. She creased up laughing at first, but then she went 'Holy...!' I'd really given my face a good old smack; it looked like I'd been in the ring with Tyson for a few rounds. So she rang a friend of hers who was a doctor.
He came round on the spot, took a needle out and, after great difficulty threading it, put it in the first half of the wound. He was shaking a bit, but got it all the way through, and then he said, ''Oh, the thread's just come out - I'll have to do it again!' No anaesthetic. I was standing there while he rethreaded it and pulled it through again.
In fact that was why I started to grow a moustache. It was pretty embarrassing, because around that time you knew your pictures would get winged off to teeny-boppery magazines like 16, and it was pretty difficult to have a new picture taken with a big fat lip. So I started to grow a moustache - a sort of Sancho Panza - mainly to cover where my lip had been sewn.
It caught on with the guys in the group: if one of us did something like growing his hair long and we liked the idea, we'd all tend to do it. And then it became seen as a kind of revolutionary idea, that young men of our age definitely ought to grow a moustache! And it all fell in with the Sgt Pepper thing, because he had a droopy moustache.
Paul McCartneyAnthology
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Tara Browne, McCartney's friend mentioned above, was the Guinness heir whose death later inspired John Lennon to write the opening lines of A Day In The Life.
Browne was the son of a member of the House of Lords, who sat in the House from 1927 to 1999.
On 18 December 1966, Browne was driving with his girlfriend in his Lotus Elan at a speed estimated at 170kph. It is not known whether he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He failed to see a traffic light and proceeded, colliding with a parked lorry. He died of his injuries.
Lennon saw the coroner’s finding in the paper and wrote about it in a verse of A Day in the Life:
I read the news today, oh boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph.
He blew his mind out in a car
He didn't notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They'd seen his face before
Nobody was really sure
If he was from the House of Lords.
________________________________________
Sir Paul McCartney was granted a coat of arms on his 59th birthday in 2001. It depicts a guitar held by a Liver bird, a reference to his musical career and his Liverpool roots. The left-facing helmet has an open visor, as is customary for knights. The shield, featuring two black curved emblems, is divided in two. The resulting four shapes, resembling beetles' backs, symbolise McCartney and his fellow Beatles John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The two black circles above are representative of records and compact discs, with guitar strings passing over them.
The motto Ecce Cor Meum is Latin for Behold My Heart. It is also the title of an oratorio released by McCartney in 2006. In a religious context, the “Behold my heart” refers to the sacred heart of Jesus, the oratorio being a classical work in English and Latin he wrote for the new chapel at Oxford University.
_______________________________________
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Quote for the day
“He always thought of the sea as 'la mar' which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as 'el mar' which is masculine. They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
Monday, August 24, 2015
Monday Miscellany - Odds, Ends and Personals
A pic from Thomas:
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A pic from Tom C:
(He knows that spiders creep me out.)
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My daughter’s new puppy, in Dubai, a French Bulldog named Henry
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There is a new internet fun activity, trolling Donald Trump's hair. It is known as Trumpy Cat and it consists of the following:
1. Brush your cat
2. Form the hair you brushed into a toupee
3. Place toupee on cat
4. Share w/ #trumpyourcat or @trumpyourcat.
Here are some examples:
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Sydney Suburbs continued: Allawah - Annandale
ALLAWAH
Location:
16 kilometres south-west of Sydney
Name origin:
The word “allawah” means “live here” or “stay here” in aboriginal. Given the history of relations with indigenous Australians from colonial days to the present, I would say that it is unlikely that such word and meaning was ever directed to whites.
Further comments:
Part of a land grant made to Captain John Townson in 1808.
Received its own railway station in 1925 which stimulated a house-building boom.
Gallery:
Allawah Hotel
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AMBARVALE
Location:
54 kilometres south west of Sydney between Appin Road and Menangle Road.
Name origin:
Ambarvale is a suburb or recent origin. Established in 1973, the name of the suburb comes from the name of the property owned by ex-convict Samuel Larken, the land acquisition taking place in 1816. He had been sentenced to transportation for life in 1800 for stealing a watch and some silver spoons. Within a short time of his arrival he received a pardon and became a clerk to Governor King and later to Governors Bligh and Macquarie. Larken married Elizabeth, the daughter of John Wild, who owned the property adjoining Ambarvale. The two properties later became the site of the suburb of St Helen’s Park.
Further comments:
The suburb was developed as a project by Lend Lease, which named the streets after Charles Dicken’s characters. Dickens Road recognises the novelist himself, while Copperfield Drive acknowledges David Copperfield. There are also Barnaby Place, after the novel Barnaby Rudge, Boythorn and Jarndyce Bleak House, and Miss Havisham, Estella, Jaggers, and Joe Gargery from Great Expectations. Nickelby Way comes from Nicholas Nickelby, as does Lillyvicks Crescent, Squeers Place, Cheeryble Place, and Mantalini Street. Lend Lease didn’t go with Dickens character names, such as Mr Snawley, Sir Tumley Sniffim and Uncle Pumblechook.
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A major attraction to many early home buyers was a large 'ornamental lake', created to disguise a shale quarry. Criticised as being more of a 'drowning pool' for children, it was filled and turned into Fieldhouse Park , named after an early family.
Gallery:
Appin Road at the intersection with Woodbine Drive
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ANNANDALE
Location:
5 kilometres south west of Sydney.
Name origin:
Major George Johnston (1764-1823) captained one of the First Fleet ships. He was granted 100 acres (0.40 km2) of land in the area around Annandale and Stanmore, which became known as Johnston's Bush. He later renamed it Annandale after his birthplace Annan in Scotland. His name is remembered in Johnston Street, Johnston Lane, Johnstons Creek and Johnstons Bay.
Major George Johnston
Further comments:
Johnston is the stuff of which a movie should be made.
He went to America with his regiment, and took part in the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill, an early part of the Revolutionary War. He of course was on the side of the Brits and he distinguished himself by seizing the colours and carrying them into action after the standard-bearer had been mortally wounded. During the fight, his father received a chest wound, from which he subsequently died. The Duke of Northumberland, who had held Johnston's father in high regard, became Johnston's guardian, and throughout his life the nobleman retained a keen personal interest in his fortunes.
He subsequently served aboard HMS Sultan in the East Indies in 1781, suffering a severe wound in action against the French. Returned to garrison duty in Portsmouth, he volunteered to join the New South Wales Marine Corps, which would accompany the First Fleet to New South Wales. He sailed for Australia aboard the convict transport Lady Penrhyn in 1788.
On arrival in the colony Johnston served as adjutant to Governor Arthur Phillip, and was promoted in 1789 to the rank of Captain-Lieutenant of Marines. He transferred from the New South Wales Marine Corps to the locally-raised New South Wales Corps in 1791 with the rank of captain.
In 1804 he led a military force that broke up the rebellion of Irish convicts at Castle Hill, attacking several hundred armed convicts with a small force.
He also arrested Governor Bligh at Government House during the Rum Rebellion in 1808. Sent to England where he was tried for mutiny, he received a very light punishment and returned a private citizen.
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Johnston had 7 children by Elizabeth Abrahams, one of the convicts aboard Johnston’s First Fleet ships. They built Annandale House on his land grant and farmed the property. He married her in 1814.
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George's son Robert inherited his estate and in 1877 sold it to John Young, who was a businessman, architect and mayor. Young began turning the Johnston estate into an attractive suburb by building a number of picturesque houses. One of those houses was Kenilworth, with a "witch's cap" style of roof common to that period of architecture, which Young rented to Henry Parkes, father of Federation and former Premier of NSW. Other houses in the group wereThe Abbey, Oybin, Rozelle (now demolished), Greba, Hockingdon, Highroyd and Claremont (now demolished). Some of the houses are popularly known as "witches houses" because their towers resemble witches' hats. Of the various houses in this group, The Abbey is the most notable. Of the various houses in this group, Built by John Young, The Abbey has been described as a stone Gothic Revival mansion, modelled on Scottish manors. Young gave his imagination a free rein and the house incorporates gables, arches, gargoyles, lions, quatrefoils, chimneys, turrets, a cloister and a tower with copper cladding (it was rumoured that Young may have stolen gargoyles from St Mary's Cathedral, which he built, but there was no proof). Young was the highest ranking Mason in Australia and The Abbey incorporates Masonic themes. It is possible that the building may have been used by Young as a Masonic Lodge.
John Young
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American author, Mark Twain, stayed in Johnston Street, in the home of Sir Henry Parkes toward the end of Parkes' life
Gallery:
Former tram service, corner of Booth and Johnston Streets 1955
Four houses of the Johnston Street group today: Kenilworth, Highroyd, Hockindon and Greba
The "Annandale Post Office, Annandale (NSW)" is most likely the original Petersham Post Office, renamed the Annandale Post Office in 1872.
The Abbey, sold in 2009 for $4,860,000. More of the real estate agency photos follow. It has since been restored, I believe.
Johnston Street Annandale, around 1890
Johnston Street, Annandale looking South c 1888
Hunter Baillie Church in the distance
Young Street, Annandale c 1955
Looking east along Johnston Street Annandale, from Johnstons Bay, ca.1888
Panoramic view of Annandale and surrounding district looking south from the top of new Annandale Theatre, c1920.
Johnston’s Lane
From a series of images showing the areas in Sydney affected by the outbreak of Bubonic Plague in 1900. Taken by Mr. John Degotardi, Jr., photographer from the Department of Public Works, the images depict the state of the houses and 'slum' buildings at the time of the outbreak and the cleansing and disinfecting operations which followed.
Witches' Hat houses, date unknown
Johnston Street, Annandale, date unknown.
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