MaW’s Blog

A joke. Almost entirely as told by Joan Baez at a concert in Edinburgh (as shown in BBC Four tonight).

Three microsurgeons were at a microsurgeons’ conference, boasting.

The first one said ah, well they brought me a guy who’d been playing with fireworks. Terrible injuries, he’d blown all his fingers off. Naturally, they came to me, I’m the best, and I put all his fingers back on. He’s as good as new - better than new. In fact, he’s about to start playing piano for the orchestra in Philadelphia.

So the second one says pfft, that’s nothing. They bought me a guy who’d had a terrible car accident, lost both arms and both legs. It took a forty-seven hour operation and God knows how much coffee, but I put him back together better than new. In fact, he’s about to start running for the Olympic team.

And the third one says, well, they bought me one guy who’d gotten lost and been hit by a freight train. All I had to work with was a cowboy hat and a horse’s ass, and now he’s the President.

Just thought I’d mention it. I like watching snow fall, but it’s a little distracting whilst at work.

Bush calls for gay marriage ban

Just who the hell does he think he is?

I shall tell him. He’s the President of what is supposed to be the greatest country in the world, the pinnacle of freedom and democracy, a state which is independent of religion yet allows its members to practise what religions they see fit, within such secular laws as are generally applicable to a functioning society.

So now they want to embed values which, it has to be said, are clearly coming from Mr. Bush’s own Christian beliefs, into this non-religious constitution. Incidentally, the proposed amendment also outlaws polygamy, which might irritate some Christian groups just a little.

But then Mr. Bush is no stranger to irritating people, is he? He’s quite irritating all by himself. Please American citizens, vote for someone else next time. They can hardly be any worse.

Ignore the title, it’s from a song by Abbie Lathe which I rather like, being from her first solo album. The album’s entitled ‘Avebury’, the song in question is titled ‘Judy’ but it’s not the only good song on the album. Far from it, in fact - virtually every track is a simple yet emotionally powerful song about something or other.

I sound vague there because the songs aren’t all about the same thing, and I’m not about to go through them all figuring out a list of subjects for you. If you want to know that badly, buy the album. That’s Abbie Lathe - Avebury, produced by Park Records. It ranges from ‘Nothing Rhymed’ which is bordering on (good) pop, to ‘Curlew’ which really puts me in mind of a foggy morning a curlew calling out to the hills, to ‘Two Island Swans’ which is pretty much a tear-jerker.

In the same delightful package from Amazon as ‘Avebury’ came ‘An Echo of Hooves’ by June Tabor. Unlike Lathe, Tabor has a long history of solo albums behind her, although they’ve both collaborated with Maddy Prior in the past. Tabor’s style is more reminiscent of Prior’s, but with less wailing. ‘An Echo of Hooves’ is primarily concerned with songs from the Scottish border, and is definitely to be recommended.

Also in the same delightful package were some Sony earphones which stick right in your ear and seal like earplugs, delivering better sound that I had thought possible with such teeny tiny drivers, but best of all they shut out a lot of outside noise, which makes working in an open plan office much more pleasant when you don’t have to hear the intimate details of the conversations people are having on the other side of the office. Unfortunately it means people have taken to waving and poking and shaking my chair to get my attention, but since they’re used to doing that to Andrew (who recommended the earphones to me), this shouldn’t really be too much of a problem.

Went back to Tai Chi tonight after a week’s hiatus enforced upon us by half term. It was good, but very tiring.

On call three times this week, should pay for a few things although I don’t know how much of it’s going out as tax yet, should find out soon when the payslips come.

Need to get a good book on the STL.

Also need to find if I can obtain some kind of comprehensible guide to category theory, the real details behind the lambda calculus and some kind of real explanation of Haskell’s type system. Most especially what the ‘newtype’ keyword does and why I need it as well as ‘type’ and ‘data’.

So maybe I shouldn’t be bothering to comment on this, but I’m going to anyway. I have to say from the outset I simply don’t understand it. It might have been an accident, fine, okay. It might have been deliberate, in which case those involved shouldn’t be lying about it. But ultimately that doesn’t matter. What, I ask, is wrong with a bit of bare breast on TV? Even if it’s in the middle of the day?

Nudity is a natural condition. I think there should be more of it.

Except when it’s cold out, of course. The current weather here is not suited for wearing anything less than lots of clothes.

This is of course a rather Pagan view of things, but that’s okay, because I’m a Pagan and can thus view things that way without worrying even slightly about it.