On Monday we went downtown and, oh, the irony: that snappy foreign word "downtown" applied to hopelessly out-of-date, inefficient, broken-down Hereford - unknown to the rest of the UK, confused anyway with more fashionable Hertfordshire which is, of course, much closer to London.
We bought a salmon trout which weighed over a kilo. It cost £26. Does that sound a lot? In real money that's $42.57; would Americans (US or Canada) regard that as expensive? We did.
VR said it would do two meals for each of us, and it did. Salmon trout is rare. It's a sea-water fish and is greatly superior to both salmon and river trout. I'll brook no argument on this. Young people should regard the salmon trout as an aspirational dish (ie, to be eaten in their old age).
VR served it with asparagus and Jersey Royal new potatoes. She added chives to the mayonnaise. Look, we're old! We've arrived in the land of Aspiration. When in Rome...
JOE'S NUDGE
Am I allowed to cheat? To pick poems (From The Poet's Tongue) when I recognise their source? Only if there's a special point to be made.
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Reasons why. Blasphemy would be to ask what these symbolic phrases mean. If you know, fine. But pursuing them misses the point. The first sentence is one whole cadence, dwell on that. Dwell on this “family” of nouns. Dwell on the artful repetition. Textbook poetry.
Ecclesiastes
In the end, all returns to the Maker - nothing earthly lasts forever.
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe taxes.
Questioning the meaning would not qualify as blasphemy in my book. Ignorance, inexperience, incuriosity or a profound disability to translate from the literal would be the problem.
ReplyDeleteCrow: How about reputations? Especially bad ones.
ReplyDeleteMikeM: Oh, wow. I take it you're telling me to go and sit on the Naughty Stool.
You have two choices: (a) Acknowledge that I was at the time in my HD mode: “When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
or (b) Insert "of the principle of poetry appreciation" after "blasphemous".
HD it is.
ReplyDelete