MUSTN'T GRUMBLE

Kippled

2011-06-20T18:48:00.008+01:00

After another long interval, here is another random post. It's not really a case of nothing to write about - rather the reverse, but by the time I think of something to say, the moment is past, or my grasshopper (well, Toad) sized brain has skipped onto something else.

However, yesterday was Father's Day, and although I realise it's a totally manufactured date (originally a bit of positive discrimination for blokes), it does provide an excuse for Cake, and I have to say that Mrs JBJ does make exceedingly good cakes. She's good at lots of things, but put her behind some flour, eggs, butter and sugar, and the result will always be divine.

I should point out that I was never that much taken with a plain Victoria sponge, which I'd always regarded as a bit insubstantial, but layered with half an inch of proper buttercream and strawberry jam, and topped with meringue icing, it is anything but. We also now have our own eggs, thanks to Gertie, Genevieve, Geraldine and Ginger, but that's another blog post, which I will get round to any year now...

"Do you like Kipling?" said the hopeful young suitor.
"I don't know" said his intended, "I've never kippled."

(Too) much Wenlock

2010-05-21T18:23:00.012+01:00

I hadn't meant to be away for quite so long (too much time reading other people's blogs), but it seems appropriate to rejoin the fray now that the new Olympic mascots have been unveiled.

I can do no better than report the finding of a survey of marketers, usually an optimistic bunch, saying that "30% did admit that they preferred the characters to the Olympic logo", which rather implies that 70% of them thought that they were even worse.

Or as a commenter on The Register put it: "the lovechild of the Crazy frog and the Aliens from the Simpsons".

Sounds about right to me.

Olympic logo...

2007-06-04T19:41:00.000+01:00

The new logo (sorry, 'brand') for the London Olympics was unveiled today and it's so bloody awful, I feel compelled to write. Happily, there is a petition to change it already, but God knows if that will do any good.

What is it about designers and branding? As with management 'consultants' (most of whom have never even managed a coffee morning) if you ask the question: "Does this need changing?", you will get an affirmative answer, but that doesn't mean you should do it. Businesses like the Post Office and the NHS do not need 'branding' at all (people are going to use them anyway) and big companies like BA change things at their peril - making their appearance different does not generate customers, but it can drive existing ones away - tail fins, anyone?.

WRT the Olympics, we had a logo already, so changing it only serves to confuse. Changing it for a logo that looks like a couple have Clinton-style sex is just barking!

Spam, spam, spam

2006-10-13T18:52:00.000+01:00

I'm happy to say that I generally receive a manageable amount of spam, and have an email client (Opera) that is pretty good at identifying it and shoving it straight in the bin.
I'm not saying this to appear smug, as I realise that plenty of people are inundated with the stuff, and I spend some of my working life trying to rescue them, a job that will only become satisfying when a few of the perpetrators are put up against a wall and shot.
I'm not generally in favour of capital punishment, but for them I would make an exception, as it must be about the most anti-social activity on the planet (I know it's not actual bodily harm, but I wouldn't rule that out if I met one of them).
Of course, the irony is that spam only works because a small percentage of recipients respond. If people would just stop answering ads for sex aids, the problem would go away, but I guess that's not going to happen anytime soon. Maybe the answer is to pay for them (emails, not sex aids), but although I'd be happy enough to pay a few pence a time, I'd probably feel differently if I ran a charity or a mail-order business.
Also, it would have to be administered without too much government nosiness, which seems pretty unfeasible in the present climate...

A starting point, if you are an Outlook Express user, is to switch to another email program that can identify spam, such as Thunderbird, Opera, or David Harris's excellent Pegasus. You have to help it initially by identifying unwanted messages, but thereafter it will do a reasonable job. Any of these programs will also improve your security, as just about all email exploits are written with Microsoft in mind. Just check the spam occasionally for genuine emails from unexpected sources, especially if you have an Aunt Viagra...

Rabbit, rabbit

2006-10-08T20:12:00.001+01:00

We've been making and eating Welsh Rabbit, also known as
Welsh Rarebit*, but either way, it's glorified cheese on toast.
Still, it is distinctive enough to qualify as a dish in its own right,
and as it is difficult to make truly inedible, it responds well to
experimentation.
Anyway, it must have gone down well, as I didn't have time to
take a photograph, so you'll just have to imagine something that
looks like grilled cheese, but with a slightly smoother texture
and beginning to brown.
I don't really have a recipe, but the general idea is to grate some
cheese (any of the British 'county' cheeses, possibly excepting
Lanarkshire) and mix in a little mustard flour/powder and some
beer or white wine. Stir it all together (with salt, pepper and
Worcester sauce to taste) and apply a thick layer to some lightly
toasted bread and butter, then grill until the cheese mixture
starts to acquire brown patches. Remove and serve.

*The term 'rarebit' seems to have been an attempt to divert
attention from the real origin of the name, dating from a time
when the Welsh were not so highly regarded. This from Wikipedia:
"In a society where most people could snare a rabbit for the
cooking pot, a Welshman was considered by some people so
hopelessly feckless that cheese melted with beer would have to
substitute." Ah well...

PS. Rabbit also means incessant chatter, hence the link at the top (which no longer works - sorry)

Crumbling on...

2006-09-27T18:34:00.000+01:00

The surplus of fruit continues, so in an heroic attempt to deal with
the problem, Mrs JBJ assembled one with apples, blackberries,
plums and pears. As you can see, half of it had already gone by the
time I got to the camera (same with the bacon and onion quiche),
and bloody good it was too. I promise to change the subject soon,
but it's not too late to make your own...

Recipe:
The quantities will depend on the size of your dishes, but the one
above had about 2 pounds of fruit and the crumble mixture was
8 oz of plain flour, 4 oz of sugar and 4 oz of butter (don't worry
about units - it's the ratios that matter).
The last three are put in a bowl and 'rubbed' by hand to make a crumbly texture. The fruit is put in the dish, with sugar to taste,
and then warmed in the oven for 20 minutes. Then spread the crumble mixture evenly over the top and bake for
30-40 mins at 200 degC, or until the top begins to brown.
Serve with lashings of Jersey cream, ice-cream or custard.
If you're worried about saturated fat and sugar, you shouldn't
even be reading this.

Mustn't crumble

2006-09-25T23:09:00.000+01:00

But I will... For those who are unfamiliar with the dish,
a crumble is a baked dessert with your choice of fruit inside.
We've had a bumper crop of plums, greengages and apples
in our own garden, as has just about everyone else in the UK
this year. Crumble is deeply delicious, especially if made with
butter and served hot with cream or ice-cream. We don't
do margarine in this house, and I'm pleased to see that
hydrogenated fats are now being held up as more of a health
hazard than the simple saturated variety. It's processing that
spoils food, not the original content, which is one reason the
above (which has a total of 4 ingredients) tastes better than
anything you can buy from a supermarket.
Finish off with your favourite liqueur/single malt and a cigar
(not you, Monica) for a memorable evening, and leave off
trying to set the world to rights...

9/11 was an inside job

2006-09-21T08:43:00.001+01:00

Or, the dog that didn't bark...

Shortly after the destruction of the World Trade Centre, I read an
interesting article by Gore Vidal (no less) about the surprising tardiness by the US Air Force (actually NORAD)
interceptions that would normally have occurred as soon
as the airliners went off course, but I didn't really give the matter
much thought until recently. In any case, the scale (and
viciousness) of the implications that followed if they really had
been stood down remains hard to deal with.
An explanation did emerge that may be true, although they did have three years to think of it!

Since the 5th anniversary of the event, however,
I have read enough to convince me that the offical line
was always a complete fabrication, and the only thing that really
bothers me now is why I let myself be taken in for so long.
Bush and Cheney lying is hardly news, after all (Blair's been
doing it for years), but I suppose it's the scale of the deceit that's
hard to assimilate, which is why so many people prefer not to
think about it.

I really try very hard not to become a conspiracy theorist
(I generally prefer the cock-up explanation of history), but
in this case, the official explanation IS the conspiracy, and
there are one or two questions that won't go away, like why
the interceptors didn't intercept, and why did the Twin
Towers collapse in a way that is normally only
achievable with controlled (explosive) demolition? What
about the third building (WTC7) that collapsed in seconds,
despite not having been hit by anything? (Once you start
considering the implications, it becomes plausible that the
third aircraft, Flight 93, was intended to hit it, and something
had to be done quickly when it didn't.) Somewhere, there is
an interesting video clip of a female BBC reporter with her back
to Building 7 and describing its collapse (as she is told through
her earpiece) while the building remains stubbornly upright
behind her! It then collapses...

You can Google your way to any number of sites about this,
if you are interested, but I provide this link as a useful starting
point. The link with the Oklahoma bombing is also scary
and/or interesting, depending on your point of view!

This all reminds me of the famous Sherlock Holmes 'curious
incident of the dog in the night-time' (whose inaction was the
curious incident) as lots of things that should have happened
didn't, and evidence that should be widespread isn't.

To be fair, it is possible to find inconsistencies in either
argument, and of course the topic has attracted a host of
'conspiraloons' who do not make comfortable bedfellows.
However, the point that strikes me is that the official
line has to hold up completely, whereas if any of the doubters'
claims turns out to be true, then you know someone in
authority is lying. And once you start...

As WTC7.net says: "The unexplained collapse of Building 7
is the tip of the iceberg of unexplored issues of the
September 11th attack."

H L Mencken was certainly right (and prescient) when he
wrote: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the
populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety)
by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of
them imaginary.”

This guy seems to have a better grip on it than most - it seems telling that he lost his job as a result.

Grrr!

2006-09-13T18:56:00.000+01:00

Two things got past my (normally quite high) threshold of
indignance today.

The first was the news from the mother of a soldier serving in Iraq,
whose rations were so poor that she was supplementing them with
food parcels. As if that wasn't bad enough, she was being charged
postage because the MOD maintain that Iraq isn't a combat zone (!)
and the army are simply on 'peacekeeping duties'. Makes one
wonder what counts as 'combat'...

The second item involves our so-called government again, but this
time in the role of nanny state. My son's piano tutor, a charming
lady who teaches children at home in her spare time, has had to fit
(expensive) toughened glass in the windows of her music room.
I hadn't realised that it was an occupational hazard of music
teachers to have bricks lobbed at them while they were working!

Better not let Health & Safety know that the piano has a lid...

Oops!

2006-09-11T23:21:00.000+01:00

Depending on your point of view, I seem either to have stolen or
anticipated the title of Terry Wogan's forthcoming autobiography.
Should I sue, or brace myself for a writ from the old bog-trotter
himself? I may, of course, have subconciously borrowed the
phrase "mustn't grumble" from him in the first place, but it
wasn't intentional - I just think it encapsulates an amiable British
way of not revealing too much about one's well-being, while
leaving the door open for any sympathy that might be on offer.
Presumably, that was the impression that our Tel was aiming for too,
but if the lawyers call, I'll remind them that he's not even a native...

Early grumbling

2006-07-08T00:14:00.000+01:00

This is by way of a test piece, as I'm new to this.
More will follow, eventually...