Twitter-witter!

[tree_and_leaf]

• 21:54 @Bookwormsarah A good point. And I do have a very nice evening dress which needs to be worn... #
• 22:10 Speaking to dad, back from rehearsal for Burns Night play. He gets increasingly Scots... Quite disconcerting. #
• 22:20 APs went to Caerlaverock, but failed to see the Cackling Goose. I think this sounds like something out of Harry Potter, but may be American. #
• 23:47 I don't like Dubya, but this strikes me as v bad form: tinyurl.com/8fzt5t #
• 00:16 @ParrotKnight My sentiments exactly! Something of a betrayal of hospitality, too. #
• 08:30 Listening to the Today programme, and thinking of my American friends. And praying for Obama - I suspect he'll need prayer! A big job ahead. #
• 08:38 Stefan Georg wasn't _that_ sinister, was he? (Was he?) #
• 08:42 & while Stauffenberg wasn't planning a democratic regime in Germany, _neither were the Allies_. We can't know what would have been. #
• 08:50 I must admit I was disappointed the first time I heard 'Hail to the Chief'; it seemed a bit - jaunty. #
• 09:01 Inaguration starts at 5 pm. Should I skip Mediaeval Church and Culture seminar? I probably need the time for proofreading, anyway (excuse!) #
• 09:07 @justinbrett You probably won't thank me, but: www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/herrick/vine.htm 'Creeper' rather than 'tentacle', tbh. #
• 09:56 @ParrotKnight Ah, right, thank you for the clarification (mistake to listen to Today when half asleep?) #
• 11:50 @justinbrett I have the horrible feeling that the only Great Poet of the era who wasn't dodgy was Herbert, but I'm now scared to look... #
• 11:55 Ooops. Have slightly missed a deadline for sending in an abstract. Bugger (but honestly, burying said deadline in a pdf is not helpful). #
• 15:12 @pellegrina I've always felt there's something vaguely sinister about Krispy Kreme donuts, but it's the spelling of 'cream' that worries me. #
• 15:32 Also forgot that I needed to find some bibliography on the Treasury of Grace. Clearly my day to be forgetful. #
• 15:34 M Coverdale rendering Jer 8.22: "There is no more treacle in Gilead" (a good thing; that sounds sticky!) #
• 16:03 Found it worryingly hard to get the telly to work! #
• 16:05 Chaotic publisher sends me another text for translation... Am starting to wonder if they really do have anyone else working on this project. #
• 16:14 *Searches franticly for photocopies among folders that turn out to contain information from DDO and D and D handbooks* Need filing cabinet. #
• 16:15 Gosh, Bush sen. looks _awful_. #
• 16:25 The band at the inauguration is playing the RVW English Folk Song Suite. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but disconcerting all the same. #
• 16:44 *is unexpectedly moved* #
• 16:55 Crumbs, that's an amazing hat Aretha Franklin is wearing. Also, I note that 'God Save the Queen' is a dreary tune whatever the words used! #
• 17:01 Oh, shut up and let us hear the music, Matt. We all know about Harrison and his pneumonia. #
• 17:06 Obama evidently very nervous! Which is really rather reassuring. Well, God bless America. #
• 17:14 ... any minute know he's going to mention the white heat of technology.
  
  Well, maybe not. #
• 17:29 Who commissioned the Vogon poetry? ... Though I don't think the way it's being read is helping it. #
• 18:08 *tries not to be too much of a supercilious arse in the faith of stupid misinformation about Anglicans on Little Details! #
• 18:29 That's not the Rising! #
• 18:54 @ParrotKnight Oh, they announced Springsteen's "Rising" to play the news out, but they actually played that awful 'My Country tis of thee'. #

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Comments

[sacred-sarcasm.livejournal.com]

'Treacle in Gilead' sounds like the treacle mines of Ankh-Morpok.

[tree_and_leaf]

It does, rather. Of course, it's because treacle was considered a medicine, and thus got mixed up with 'balm', but still...

There is a treacle well near Oxford, of course.

Stefan George

[(Anonymous)]

Stefan George was as sinister as they come. He was the leader - in the Fascist sense - of a Fascist circle of intellectuals that represented the cream of that kind of revolutionary reaction that later condensed into Nazism. He despised Hitler for a vulgarian, and he was himself no Jew-basher - one of his boyfriends and circle members, Blueher, was of Jewish birth - but other than that, he was a truly nasty product of a corrupt culture.

Re: Stefan George

[tree_and_leaf]

All I know about Georg is that he wrote reasonably decent poetry (which proves nothing in either direction) and collected godawful sculpture. And fancied Stauffenberg, but then a lot of people did...

Re: Stefan George

[(Anonymous)]

Take it from me, it is a positive fact. Every contemporary writer about Germany in the twenties and thirties describes George as the unofficial centre of the whole German Fascist world. As late as 1938, when he had been dead three years and Hitler's triumph was beyond reversing, a considerable amount of Aurel Kolnai's magnificent The War against the West, which is to this day the best analysis of the voelkisch/nationalist and Nazi phenomenon, was taken up with George and the George-Kreis. He was also the first to use the word Fuehrer in the sense that Hitler was to make famous. And of course he was a good poet; so were many Fascist and Nazi artists - Pirandello, Scipione, Nervi, Richard Strauss, Carl Orff, Knut Hamsun, Furtwaengler, Ernst Junger, L-F Celine, Ezra Pound... need I go on? Incidentally, Thomas Mann satirized him very effectively as Daniel zur Hoehe in his short story At the Prophet's and later included the satire in his portrait of pre-Nazi society in Bavaria in Doktor Faustus.

[juno-magic.livejournal.com]

Yes on the Vogon poetry. *sigh* And here I was looking forward to an important lyrical moment...

[tree_and_leaf]

Occasional poetry is much harder than people tend to think.

[tree_and_leaf]

Though the actual text, while not brilliant, is a lot better than I thought it was when not being read by the author. Poets often are lousy at reading their own work, of course...

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

Daddy Bush really didn't look good, no.

[tree_and_leaf]

No - not long for this world, one suspects. Which is a shame, as he's by far the most likable ex-President Bush.

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

I am reasonably sure he's still surprised that it's W. and not Jeb who made it all the way.

[(Anonymous)]

According to Matt Towery, Jeb Bush is such an arrogant sod that he managed to antagonize every Republican in Florida. As soon as they could get rid of him, they elected Crist to be his exact opposite. George W, on the other hand, has only one gift, but it is an important one - he gets along with people.

Re: Stefan George

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

Jeb was term-limited, so it's hard to say what would have been.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

That would leave only three ex-presidents, one of whom would be the remarkably energetic octogenarian Jimmy Carter, and the others would be Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. I'm not sure what I learn from this, other than it seemed worth noting.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I've always felt there's something vaguely sinister about Krispy Kreme donuts, but it's the spelling of 'cream' that worries me.

They're actually good doughnuts, although appallingly sweet, and consistently have dark roast coffee which used to be nice when I still drank coffee, but I agree that the spelling is disturbing.

[maeve-rigan.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan myself, but those who are tell me that Krispy Kremes are at their best when consumed hot off the conveyor belt...or however they come out. I've certainly always felt that when purchased in boxes, they're kind of deflated and--yes--overly sweet.

A number of years ago, the first KK store opened in LA area, in an otherwise unremarkable suburb. The line of cars to pick up "fresh" doughnuts at the drive-through stretched down the block! A bag of KK's made a special guest appearance on Buffy (or was it Angel?) later that year. People who like them are fanatical about it.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan myself, but those who are tell me that Krispy Kremes are at their best when consumed hot off the conveyor belt...or however they come out.

Absolutely they are.

When I was only a bit laddie, Krispy Kremes weren't available outside of the South (and not even everywhere there--my aunt in TX couldn't get them there, IIRC), or at least I never saw them elsewhere. I never quite understood why my family saw them as _such_ a treat, but they were awfully good.

The line of cars to pick up "fresh" doughnuts at the drive-through stretched down the block!

I've several stories like that. I'd have gone on my way and checked back in a couple of days, me, and I actually do like them. But I suppose I'm simply not a fanatic. ;-)

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

I've never liked them myself; decidedly inferior to Chicago's West Side Huck Finn diner, which makes their own. Oh, the memories.

But when they're absolutely fresh, they are kinda good.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I never heard about the Huck Finn diner. Then again, I hardly ever got over to the West Side.

House-made doughuts from a small place are usually better, yes. There's a diner in Southbury--Phillips Diner is the name, I think--that makes very good ones--some say they're the best in Connecticut.

But they only make them quite early in the morning, and maybe not even on every day of the week, and they're sold out quickly. I think the only time we managed to get them was one time when my aunt was visiting and had an early flight out of Bradley, so we were driving through Southbury at seven or eight in the morning.

Of course, that said, there's no doughnut-type-thing better than fresh beignets at Café du Monde in New Orleans. ;-)

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

24 hour diner, donuts, and ice cream. What a blessed, blessed place it was.

Southbury, hmmm? That's not too far...I may try to recruit a trip some time.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

24 hour diner, donuts, and ice cream. What a blessed, blessed place it was.

Oh, cool.

I never managed to find a 24 hour diner in Chicago--only dinerish place I ever met there was the Salonika on 57th Street, which was good, but not 24 hour.

Southbury, hmmm? That's not too far...I may try to recruit a trip some time.
I'd try Googling it first, to be sure. I think they're still open, but the name might be changed.

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

I SPENT SO MUCH TIME IN SALONIKA

I miss their French toast like burning.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Now I'm wishing I'd thought to try their French toast. ;-)

I'd not thought of the place in ages, but a friend of mine was just got back from Chicago and told me that they were still there, as well as Powells' and Caffe Florian. I was very pleased.

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

Med>>>Florian

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

But Florian's pizza was awfully good. (Don't think I had anything else from them, to be honest.)

Admittedly, some of my fond memories of Florian are of times when food mattered less than the company. And I suppose I ended up not going to Med quite as often cos a couple of my friends had vendettas with some of the waitstaff there, so I was less likely to go there with them, and they were people I often ended up going places with.

It's funny how these things work, isn't it?

Oh Zut!

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I was slightly off.

It's Woodbury, not Southbury--I get them backwards, sometimes. And "Phillips Diner" is apparently called "Dottie's Diner" now.

Word on the net seems to be that the doughnuts are still good, at least.

[tree_and_leaf]

They're far too sweet for me.

I do remember, when they first were sold in the UK, a slew of articles in the Guardian and similar broadsheets, shaking their head over the number of calories, which I think was viewed as a Symbol of American Mass-Produced Decadence (though I bet they're not much worse than any other doughnut).

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

They're far too sweet for me.

I'm sure I'd grow tired of them very quickly.

(though I bet they're not much worse than any other doughnut).

This could well be true.

They're very sweet, obviously, but the texture of them (meaning their flagship glazed doughnut) is lighter than the cake-type doughnuts that seem to make up the bulk of doughnut-kind. And they might be slightly smaller than many other varieties. On the other hand, that sweetness is pretty intense...

For some reason this makes me think of a story:
There was one place in the Western Road in Cork City that had Dunkin doughnuts. I tried one, once, feeling vaguely homesick. It was stale enough that I suspected it might've been imported from the US by ship. ;-)