No one can be lovely entirely and always-we all have off moments-but some
people can appear that way and be it for periods of time. One of Js friends N.
has that capacity. It's there in general conversation but it's mostly
noticeable when she sings. My father, for who knows what reason, likes a song
about the Blayden Races, which supporters of Newcastle F.C. sing. So much for
the set up. Now here's the bit where I'm in awe of technology. In a bed in
west London, my father talked via my tablet with our daughter in San Francisco;
they stumbled through a rendition of the Blayden races. J. then said she would
get N., in the Chemistry department in Newcastle, to sing for him again. It
was only hours before I got the clip, which I played for him. Big smile.
Ain't the world a marvel?
We walked into a pub, intent upon a pint after hours with my father, who is
declining, but still with us. The pub was on the Thames at Walton and had some
connection to Jerome K. Jerome. A corporation had done a charm- ectomy on the
structure, remodeling for maximum profit, but the connection still sent my mind
back to a book from my father's study, "Idle Thoughts For an Idle Fellow." In
my memory of childhood that volume was close on the shelf to L. Susan Stebbing,
"Thinking to Some Purpose." I recall very little of either work but I'm sure
that were someone to cut me in half for examination, they'd find traces in my
system somewhere.
Under present circumstances idle thoughts are more common than purposeful ones.
Why, for example, is the female equivalent of a Stag Party, named for
chickens? No doubt it's the boldness of a Mimo or the conversational richness
of any of them that gave rise to the appellation. And what, I wondered, as I
sat in traffic beside a great big lorry ( truck) is Pronk, with or without
without daggers? I had mis-read one of those corporate catch phrases; the line
was "Pronk met Daguers," which the web tells me means Pronk "with daily
freshness," the very best kind of Pronk. And what is Pronk, apart from a rather
fun word? One clue can be found in a recent publication, " The Currency of
Naturalness in Dutch 'Pronk' Still Life." But that would a red herring; Pronk
is actually the fellow who founded the transportation company. They bring in
fruit and flowers...possibly so that the British can paint their own still life
works?
Back for a performance of my latest play next Saturday. Do stop in if you find
yourself in Tillamook.
David Ritchie,
London
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