The Great War and poetry go hand in hand. For Rupert Brooke “If I should die, think only this of me…” For Wilfrid Owen “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest / To children ardent for some desperate glory, / The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori.” Both Brooke… Continue reading #OTD 6 December – War, poets & Santa Claus
Category: The Calendar
#OTD 5 December – The mysterious Russian soul
On 5 December 1991, Ukrainian voters decided to secede from the Soviet Union and Leonid Kravchuk became Ukraine’s first president. On 5 December 1941, the Russians launched their counteroffensive against the Germans in the Battle of Moscow. The plan had been hatched by Generals Georgy Zhukov and Aleksandr Vasilevsky. The European winter was the coldest… Continue reading #OTD 5 December – The mysterious Russian soul
#OTD 4 December – Lies and cherry pies
Great sea disasters and fiction are firm friends. The Mary Celeste, discovered adrift in the Atlantic on 4 December 1872, has the peculiar distinction that its fictional counterpart, the Marie Celeste of a young Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story “J Habakuk Jephson’s Statement” has become the “correct” spelling. Virtually unknown in the west is the… Continue reading #OTD 4 December – Lies and cherry pies
#OTD 3 December – Ties and ties
We get “tie” from the Anglo Saxon “teag”, a bond or chain or tape.The bond can be physical or spiritual or both, with “old school tie” a delicious example of the last. While “tie” in the sense of a competitive outcome has been around since the 17th century, I can find no contemporary news report… Continue reading #OTD 3 December – Ties and ties
#OTD 2 December – Destiny day
Handel’s anthem “Zadok the Priest” has been sung at every coronation since that of King George II in 1727: Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon king.And all the people rejoiced and said:God save the King! Long live the King! God save the King!May the King live for ever. Amen. Hallelujah. While the… Continue reading #OTD 2 December – Destiny day
#OTD 1 December – Portugal
When one talks of Australasia or North America or Britain, it can be easy to forget that this includes respectively New Zealand or Canada and Mexico or Wales and Scotland as well as the larger neighbour. And then there is Portgual. On the east side of the Atlantic, the land comprising modern-day Spain and Portugal… Continue reading #OTD 1 December – Portugal
#OTD 30 November – The good oil
In 1993, 103 years after the passing of the Sherman Act, the US Supreme Court stated that the Act’s purpose: … is not to protect businesses from the working of the market; it is to protect the public from the failure of the market. The law directs itself not against conduct which is competitive, even… Continue reading #OTD 30 November – The good oil
#OTD 29 November – Stop the presses
In November 1999 the New York Times ran a piece by a well-known London journalist and historian headed “Walking Wapping’s Streets”: … Wapping, one of the oldest stretches of Thames-side harbor, is a secret place still only hazily located in Londoners’ minds. It is often confused with the Isle of Dogs dockland redevelopment (Canary Wharf… Continue reading #OTD 29 November – Stop the presses
#OTD 28 November – Irish politics
One hesitates to make generalisations about any nation’s political parties and Ireland provides more cause for hesitation than most. Like most countries, there are parties with identifiable although often fluid leftishnesses and rightishnesses. But this all comes with a complex backdrop. There is of course the initial difficulty of “what is Ireland?” Then – or… Continue reading #OTD 28 November – Irish politics
#OTD 27 November – The count is on
A census, or official enumeration of people, is as old as officialdom for the good reason that it is a precursor for officials raising taxes on people or their property. According to Luke, a taking of a census was the reason Joseph and Mary found themselves in Bethlehem. Although they lived in Nazareth, Joseph belonged… Continue reading #OTD 27 November – The count is on