SPEAKING IN TONGUES “Vox. pop.” – mainly a TV practice - is lazy, useless journalism. Send cameras on to the streets and get the public to bulk out the news broadcasts. Its futility became apparent during Brexit; clearly these random victims – from both sides – had no idea about the increasingly complex issues and could only burble banalities.
The Plague has changed all that. Touched to the core, people speak clearly, factually and often with great originality. I should have jotted some quotes but I was transfixed by the new articulacy. Except for the one: a nurse in tears, having finished a 48-hour shift, arrived late at the supermarket and found nothing to eat. Those shelf strippers might end up needing my services, she said, crying softly.
HEY, BIG SPENDER On Friday we had a celebration; dinner in a Michelin-starred restaurant famed for its front-of-house welcome. That at least was the plan. Instead I called in at Majestic and bought a 2006 vintage bottle of Moet plus an extreme shiraz from Australia. Not looking at the prices. The check-out guy said, “Unfortunately that will be…”I trawled history. More than twice what I paid for my first motorbike. A single seat at the ludicrously over-priced Royal Opera House. Four times the cost of the suit I got married in. Much more than the engagement ring. Couldn’t have invited the tearful interviewee; we were self-isolating. Lacerated by guilt.
WE NEED SOMETHING FUNNY A wicked back-blast of wind as he mounted the stairway to Air Force One proved Trump was absolutely right to adopt the weird hairstyle he flaunts. Covering a multitude of sins.
Where was he going? To buy some golf-balls, said someone. Even presidents need time off from the burdens of state.
Re: Trump - "Where was he going? To buy some golf-balls, said someone."
ReplyDeleteThose are the only balls he will ever have.
Keep your chin and your hopes up, Robbie. I've been deeply concerned for all my European blogging friends; for the entire planet, really.
Not so much for the pandemic profiteers and grocery locusts.
I'm infuriated every time I go to the grocery store and find empty shelves. I know all the goods are sitting in the pantry and unused guest bedrooms of the McMansions in snooty gated communities around Orlando. Who else could store ridiculous amounts of things they don't need when houses down here don't have basements? Grrrr Sorry, my prejudices are showing.
ReplyDeleteCrow: Great to hear from you. I seem to remember reading a piece about Japanese businessmen; their places of work were said to include a room set aside so that employees could punch seven bells out of various inflatable figures, even beat them with a baseball bat. Since Trump performs no other useful function, I've devoted quite a bit of mindspace to him for this express (albeit metaphorical) purpose. The results emerge regularly in Tone Deaf.
ReplyDeleteI like "grocery locusts" - that's the phrase not the practice.
Colette: "McMansions" is new to me, though I can guess at the meaning. Good to know that Orlando is a town one may comfortably disapprove of. "Things they don't need" - prominent among which would be books, I suppose.
Seen on the back of a van:
ReplyDeleteThis van has no toilet rolls stored overnight."
Come on, how much was the fancy booze?
ReplyDeleteSir Hugh: I think it must be a printed joke. I've seen it on a vehicle here and Hereford is rarely ahead when it comes to sophistication.
ReplyDeleteNatalie: And have you call me profligate? As a matter of fact my younger daughter has an app on her smartphone whereby she photographs a wine bottle label and is immediately informed as to the bottle's price. And where to buy it. She saw the same pic you did and her reaction was: "Wowza!"
I was just being nosy but have no intention of looking up the price. Wouldn't dream of calling you profligate,why should I? The price of good art materials is outrageously high and they too will be rapidly consumed. We re all profligate in some direction or other.
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