DOMINUS VOBISCUM

 ET CUM SPIRITU TUO.

I'm enjoying my Sunday communion and the sacred spirit is entering my body like something great that enters your body.

My 'communion' today is a vodka and tonic - Broken Shed vodka and East India 'Old World' tonic. Marvellous.

OK, I have mentioned this before - see ...

... but I thought you'd like to know.

Hey! I deserve it. I've spent many a few a couple of hours under the house today on my excavation project. I'm doing this in small bites but even so today, dug out and moved about 3 cubic metres of dirt and compacted mud with rocks and stones thrown in. Sheesh! It's not easy in such a cramped space.

I've had a long soak in the bath (with Epsom salts) and pre-prepared dinner (chow mein to go with leftover scalloped potatoes) so now I'm relaxing ...ooh! I can feel that sacred spirit roaming through my bloodstream.

Mihi placet id mihi placet

LISTEN UP SNOWFLAKES

It looks like I'll have to take over the quiz setting again after a dismal showing from the other bloggers.

I'm busy you know but feel that I have to step in to salvage the blogging community's reputation.

To follow is a sensible 10 question quiz that even old retired jokers should be able to manage.



1. What word is spelled incorrectly in every single dictionary?

2. What is it that lives if it is fed, and dies if you give it a drink?

3. What word would you use to describe a man who does not have all his fingers on one hand?

4. How can someone go 25 days without sleep?

5. How do you make the number one disappear?

6. What’s greater than God and more evil than the devil. Rich people want it, poor people have it. And if you eat it, you’ll die?

7. If you spell “sit in the tub” s-o-a-k, and you spell “a funny story” j-o-k-e, how do you spell “the white of an egg”?

8. A cowboy rode into town on Friday. He stayed in town for three days and rode out on Friday. How is that possible?

9. Is it legal for a man to marry his widow’s sister? 

10. How can you keep a cannibal fed for life?

Remember that The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ, unlike other blogger's quizzes provides interesting and valuable certificates for not only success but also for participation. We welcome 'snowflakes' here since we expect the 'baby boomers' to die out soon.

THE DAY AFTER THE MATARIKI HOLIDAY

 It's been a bit quiet on the blogs today other than Robert running some sort of dodgy quiz where he adds in questions later. I think that he was trying to dilute my impressive score where I got 1 out of 8 correct in the quiz's first manifestation. That's 12.5% in real money. I asked for a prize and then he added in 3 more questions! He was trying to reduce my % to 9%. Well, more fool him because I answered the 3 extra questions and by my calculations I should have 4 out of 11 correct - a whopping 36%! That's more than I got in my Statistics & Computing final at university.

Richard has been quiet but he may still be under the weather (I didn't know he was a shepherd). He also did a presentation today and I know how that takes it out of you.

I did some more excavating under the house today so felt a bit shattered after a few hours. Getting old sucks - ask Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Later I did a bit of 'gym exercise' to loosen up the muscles after being cramped in the crawl space under the house - rowing, biking and stepping and then prepared dinner for The Old Girl and me (scalloped potatoes, sautéed chicken tenderloins and steamed broccoli) while sipping a glass of wine (Palmer Champagne). I feel better now.

The Old Girl has a sore back so has taken to bed to read. Me? I'll watch some more of the 'Rake' series, trawl through the YouTube documentary offerings and toddle off later.

You?

NEWS FROM THE UNDERWORLD

Activities programme

We have a change to the activities list and are pleased to announce a special addition.

A talk about how to construct an instrumental original composition on a violin - no backing tracks obviously.

Presenter: New inductee Richard (of Richard's Bass Bag)

Time: Immediately

Duration: Eternity

TENNIS - BECAUSE SOMETIMES YOU JUST FEEL LIKE HITTING SOMETHING

We've had a lovely warm day today. People have been swimming in the bay - not me as I'm too wussy but I played tennis in the morning, went shopping in the afternoon and I've just finished mowing the lawn. It' s still bright warm and sunny out.

 Tennis was good - I play Tuesday and Thursday when the weather is nice - and look forward to it.

What I don't look forward to is the score-keeping, or lack of it with some of the silly old buggers.

For some reason, with a good few of them, remembering whether it is 15-love or 40-15 is beyond them. Sheesh! When asked, if I'm on the serving team I always say 40-love. If I'm on the receiving side I say love-40. I used to get away with it but they've rumbled to it now. 

They've also rumbled to the fact that when I hit a ball that I know is going to go out I yell out loudly "Yes!" in the hope that one of them will hit it thinking that it's going in. It used to work.

They call me 'Mister Spin' because I like to slice the ball so that when it lands near a player the ball dramatically bounces sharply left or right making them miss it. They hate it and I love it.

Another thing that bugs me is that a lot of them can't evaluate whether a ball that lands very close to the line is in or out. So many times when I hit a really good serve some silly old duffer calls out "fault" when it is clearly in. Sheesh again!

A while ago I looked on Facebook Neighbourly and advertised for an old wooden tennis umpires's chair of a type that we used to have at Marist tennis club in the 1960s. My idea was to restore it and use it at our oldies tennis club where we would take turns to umpire the games.

Mind you - it probably wouldn't make any difference.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN ... SORRY, ABOUT ROBERT

 

It's been a long time coming - not unlike Robert's pal Jesus's promised return to Earth - but the longer we leave this the worse he's going to get.

When I say 'worse' I might be misleading as it only I guess, seems that he's getting worse. In reality he might have just been bad all the time. By 'bad' I mean nutty, misguided, delusional, 'away with the fairies' and his self admitted 'seeing things in the sky'.

When I say 'he seems to be getting worse' this is because the Catholic Church and Christianity are declining in New Zealand. 

Figures from the last three censuses show the number of people identifying as Christian in New Zealand declined from 64.2 per cent in 1996 to 54.4 per cent in 2006, while those identifying as non-religious increased from 25.4 per cent to 33.9 per cent.

Stuff - June 26, 2024.

 

Robert, assuming that he's as nutty as he ever was with his belief in the Catechism, Catholic dogma, Mariology, the Bible etc is becoming comparatively more nutty on a per capita basis as a significant number of his fellow New Zealanders are giving up on the insanity.

"Jesus and Mary, I'm coming up to join you."

Here's an excerpt from the transcript of the imaginary intervention that we held recently:

Successful intervention begins with identifying users and appropriate interventions based upon the patient's willingness to quit. The five major steps to intervention are the "5 A's": Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange.

To assist in the intervention I asked for a representative from The Curmudgeons Incⓒ and The Religious Curmudgeon volunteered; a representative from The Bass Bag Confederation - and Richard volunteered Angry Jesus; a random stranger from the street - and a guy named Lou Ciphor volunteered; A woman - and I selected Mrs O'Sullivan for obvious reasons and finally a retired (actually defrocked) priest who used to conduct exorcisms Father (ex) Pulsion.

THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON: Welcome fellow interventionists and thanks for coming. We have a big job on today - we ned to convince Robert aka Rob to face reality and give up his religion nonsense. That's Rob tied up  ... er, sitting over there in the corner. Some of you know him already.

General hubbub of "thanks TRC", "Hi Rob", "Cool", "Well, I'm not wearing much" and "What's for afternoon tea?"

 

THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON: OK, let's start. I'll kick off with the first of the five 'A's - ASK. 

Identify and document religion use status for every attendee. I'll start with me. As I say on my blog site I take an honest look at religion based on a lifetime of life experiences.  I ascribe to Sam Harris's statement that "pretending to know things one doesn't know is a betrayal of science – and yet it is the lifeblood of religion."

Angry Jesus how about you?

ANGRY JESUS: I expect all Christians to visit my blog and take bloody note of what I've got to say.

What I say over rides all other instructions they might be getting from weirdo priests or anyone else claiming to be passing on my thoughts.

THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON: Ooooo ... Okay, we'll park that for the moment. Lou, what can you tell us about your religion use?

LOU CIPHOR: My religion use? I'll tell you - I have no bloody use for religion. I seek knowledge from both within and without. I'm free to act but accept no consequences. I believe that taboos and social expectations should not hamper anyone from achieving his or her goals. I maintain that wealth is not something to be ashamed of. You should be encouraged to strive for success and enjoy the fruits of your labours. You are allowed and even encouraged to take pride in your accomplishments and to highlight them. You should ...

THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON: ... Whew! I need to stop you there Lou. Hopefully we'll get back to you later on this over a toasted scone or something eh? Mrs O' Sullivan, what's your connection with religion and do you use it a lot?

MRS O'SULLIVAN: Thanks TRC - you can call me Peggy if you like. As you well know I knew Rob when he was little Robert and he was an annoying little Catholic boy back then. Now he's an annoying big Catholic boy just like that old wowser Mr Linford who I suspect encouraged little Rob to peep in my windows. Well, if you ask me that's not nice and if that's what religion does for you then count me out. Is it cold in here or is it just me?

THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON: Wow! And what you said was striking as well Peggy. Um, Fr Pulsion, what's your take on this?

FATHER (ex) PULSION: Religion hoo! What's it good for? Absolutely nothing. I gave it a go when I was a priest and worked my effing guts out getting the ya yas out of silly nuns and conflicted brothers and what'd they do? They defrocked me. I miss that cassock though. I wonder if ...

THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON: OK, thanks ex. I think that demonstrates that we're the right crew to get this job done. I've covered the ASK part and have decided to apportion the other 'A's to each of you to cover.

Angry Jesus will take ADVISE. Lou can have ASSESS. Peggy, can you do ASSIST and ex, how about you rounding things off with ARRANGE. OK, let's go. AG?

ANGRY JESUS: Right. I see that the manual say's and I quote: "In a clear, strong, and personalised manner, urge every religious user to quit."

Just fucking well give up this nonsense Rob! This god of yours is my bloody dad and who better than me to know that he's a con artist? You're on a hiding to nothing son.

THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON: Thanks AG, clear and to the point as usual. Lou - you're up.

LOU CIPHOR: Right. The book says to assess whether the religion user willing to make a quit attempt at this time? Looking at him sitting over there playing with his rosary beads makes me doubt that he'll (see what I did there?) listen to us. I recommend a round of hot pokers up his bum followed by ...

THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON: Thanks Lou (wondering if he'd picked the right random stranger). Um, Peggy, what can you add?

MRS O'SULLIVAN: Thanks TRC darling. So, ASSIST - If little Robert - sorry, big Rob is willing to make a quit attempt I propose to use counselling and pharmacotherapy to help him quit. I'm a caring person and think that with a few cuddles and some interesting pills Rob and I could ...

THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON: .... thanks Peggy. I note that Rob is now taking an interest in these proceedings and has stopped playing with his rosary beads he's now pla .... Father ex, can you wrap up for us?

FATHER (ex) PULSION: Yes, OK, ask the old defrocked guy to do all the wrapping up for you ... so, ARRANGE is the last 'A'. I'm supposed to schedule follow-up contact, in person or by telephone, preferably within the first week after Rob's quit date. Good luck with that I say unless he's willing to meet me at that new bar in Jackson Street, the one where anyone can wear a dress. We can ...

ROB: I'm in ... or out or whatever.

THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON: What? Alleluia! Has the intervention worked so quickly? I'm impressed. How do you feel about that Rob?

ROB: Whatever ... say, Peggy, what you said before, you know, can we ...

THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON: Well folks we'd better wrap this up now. It's Rob's shout so I got him to put $200 on the bar (AG you can make your own) Let's hit it folks.

General high spirits and excitement, "Cheers", hubbub etc.

**COMING SOON - DIVINE INTERVENTION**

 Richard's latest post has exposed many of God's bad decisions. An intervention is overdue but first we have to talk about Robert.

INTERVIEW #30

 

"Check out the chick at the bottom of this post"

You won't have noticed but recently Robert wrote a post under his 'Rob' blob blog that consisted of an interview between him, Richard and me.

Here's a link to the post which I suppose you will never read. SUNDAY

Anyway, so as to try and put a positive spin on this I decided, at the conclusion of Robert's interview, to follow up by interviewing him and Richard. We were all in the same place after all.

Here is a transcript of that interview conducted by me The Curmudgeon who we'll call TC and with Robert who we will call Rob and Richard who we'll call ... well, we'll call him Richard:

TC: Welcome to The Curmudgeon's blog where we expose the darker side of life.  Today, I’m joined by Richard, who writes about double basses, serenading with his violin and his once popular existing Richard's Bass Bag Tours and with Robert known who is in the blogging world as 'Rob'. Guys, it’s a pleasure to have you.

Rob: Thanks for that. It's one of the best introductions I've had. I'll mention it in my prayers tonight to Mary.

Richard: Yeah, ta but I have to get going soon. I said I'd be home by 5PM and it's already 2PM. It's a long drive from Moera to Wainuiomata you know.

TC: (Sheesh!)  That's OK. I'm sure this won't take very long um ... Robert, in your interview before, you said that I was a man who knows his way around both a billiard table and a wine bottle. I'd like to correct you on that. While I did play billiards when I was a member of The Auckland Club years ago, I haven't played it much since. I refer to the table we have as the snooker table - in the snooker room and The Old Girl and I play pool on that.

Rob: Oh, sorry about that I don't know where I got that from.

TC: Richard plays billiards I think ...

Rob: Yeah, pocket billiards.

Rob and TC laugh. Richard sulks but takes his hands out of his pockets.

TC: Richard, stop sulking and join in. I see that you've still got that violin case with you. We're lucky that it’s not hiding a Tommy gun.

Richard: Ah get stuffed. I think that Robert's interview was better.

Richard and TC laugh. Rob sulks.

TC: Well, let’s keep things non-apocalyptic for now. Rob, you said that life is like a church service. Care to elaborate?

Rob: Sure TC. Life’s about hiding in plain sight, knowing when to keep your head down  and when to take a shot.  Steady Richard - move your hand away from that 'violin' case. And just like in church services, particularly Mass, sometimes you need to disguise yourself in the company of nutters knowing that no right-minded person, including the authorities - police IRD, creditors, the mongrel mob and that guy I stiffed on the Trade Me sale would ever come near the place.

TC: Very clever Rob. I think I'm seeing the real you now. How long have you been an anarchist?

Rob: I'm not an antichrist. I love Jesus, I ...

TC: ... Cryptic crosswords and anagrams aren't your thing are they Rob. Richard, you're very quiet, Have you got an opinion on life?

Richard: I’d say life is more like a violin jazz chart on the eve of Judgement Day—you play your heart out, hoping you don’t hit a sour note.

TC: I feel like I've heard that before. Is it AI generated?

Rob: (Spluttering) That's mine. That was from my interview. I've got a good mind ...

TC:  ... now Rob, don't exaggerate. Speaking of exaggeration,  Richard, your blog, 'Richard’s Bass Bag' has quite the following been around for a while. You could say that, like Christianity it's long past its use-by date don't you think?

Rob: I’ll drink to that! Richard, Richard ... what's up? Why have you gone silent?

Richard:

Rob: Come on older and wiser brother, he was only joking.

Richard:

TC: I know how to get him talking Rob ... Richard - how about playing us a double bass solo?

Richard looks up suspiciously to see if this was a ruse.

Robert: Come on big brother - give us a tune.

Richard gets out the double bass, sets it up and bows a few notes. He looks pleased

TC: There we go. It's all good now Rob. Everyone talks during a double bass solo.

Rob and TC chuckle.

TC: I think we'd better wrap things up now guys. As old T.S. Eliot said:

"Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night."

Rob: Amen to that! Although, I'm not sure that I like you calling me a lady.

TC chuckles.

Richard: Harrumph! 

VAS IST DAS?

We need to talk about Robert*  but that can be the title and topic of a future post. Before we do that we need to establish what sort of animal we're dealing with.

After a respite from a lot of Catholic 'nuttiness' it seems that the beast is back.

Here's an example: ON THE COMPANY IN HELL

"There will be no sympathy. Everyone will rejoice in each other's misery. The stench will be unbearable, the howling of once loved relatives, heart breaking. St Ansel said " As nothing in this world can be compared to the stench of the damned so to their (sic) hideous appearance."

That's an excerpt from the loony quote he published from some 17th century priest.

"Who turned the lights out?"

Really! 

Robert's a hard one to categorise given that he jumps about a bit in his (stated) beliefs and gets a bit confused about different disciplines.

With a look at the various 'ism' referred to in the title of this post  there are some that can be easily discounted like atheist, realist, socialist and communist when we refer to him, his beliefs and his writings but others I'm not so sure of. Propagandist springs to mind but as he is merely passing on the Catholic Church's weekly propaganda he picks up at Mass on the weekend he is probably more of a relistist.

If we concentrate on political and social beliefs we can narrow the focus down a bit and that's where the obvious things like deist, racist, sexist and  homophobist come in to play which are easily proven by reading his past posts if they haven't already been deleted (convenient that and proof that he's a denialist). 

What's more challenging is to tie him down to posts, comments and statements that he's written that  point to him being a fascist, a conservatist, a nationalist and an authoritarianist.

A lot of what Robert writes in posts and comments is disturbing but then, to give hime some credit, he surprises all the readers - well us two, by reversing that opinion and saying something cuddly and nice particularly when it relates to his own version of the nuclear family. More power to him I say although James Joyce probably said it first.

Recently Robert has been becoming an apologist. His 'heroes' are Christian and Catholic apologists and for the last several years we've been regaled with wittering from these egocentrics. Robert doesn't stop at being a Catholic or even a Christian apologist though - he wanders off into apologising for the at least dubious and at most nefarious actions and antics of Nazis, USA Republicans, Donald Trump, Catholic clergy paedophiles (covered already under Catholicism), John Key and his National party legacy that we are still suffering under and of course anti-abortionists.

I could go on - really, I could as after all according to Proofreading Services there are more than 1,100 words ending with 'ist' in the English language but it's (almost got another one) after 5PM and I promised The Old Girl that I'd cook tea tonight - tacos.

I'll end though - by cutting to the chase - that I think that Robert is an anarchist.

He's confused, conflicted and deluded and chucks 'bombs' into various arenas that he doesn't like or understand - kind of like what anarchists do.

Anarchism is a political and social philosophy and movement that is against all forms of philosophies and movements that are hard to understand and that don't mention the followers by name. It seeks to abolish the beliefs and institutions that it doesn't agree with - like Atheism, commonsense and realism and while it claims to maintain opposition to unnecessary coercion and hierarchy it typically supports right-wing governments, states and capitalism and their reactionary Christian codes for attacking women's rights, the LGBQT agendas, the abortion rights issues and a host of other  freedom movements. 

         The Curmudgeons encyclopedia

I wonder if 'Rob' who once saw things in the sky will add 'Anarchist' to his title?

* With apologies and thanks to the producers of that excellent 2011 film We Need To Talk About Kevin.

SATURDAY EVENING

 The Old Girl and I shared a bottle of Champagne and played a couple of games of pool while dinner was cooking last night. Marvellous.

After the pool I stayed in the snooker room to finish my wine and to listen to some selected music tracks.

'Your old shit" said The Old Girl as she went to the kitchen.

Well, my old shit consisted of:

• 'This Foolish Hear't by Tom Verlaine
• 'Ain't It Strange' by Patti Smith
• 'Helpless' as sung by Patti Smith (Neil Young's song)
• 'Eggs in a Briar Patch' by David Byrne

The last one, the Byrne song and a couple of lead up tracks to it made me think of Robert and his conflicted Catholicism where he tries to reconcile it with his generally right wing reactionary views.

Lord, I been such a bad boy
I been disobedient
I made mistakes
I made blunders

That's true of thousands and thousands of people
Little children don't mean anything!
It's dope; and liquor
I tell ya... unsaved people don't have any means of deliverance
None!

TELL ME WHY ...

...we can't live together

 

 

I've just finished watching the TV series - The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

It's worth a watch and while it deals with the harrowing story of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland in WW2 ...

It is estimated that the SS and police deported at least 1.3 million people to the Auschwitz camp complex between 1940 and 1945. Of these deportees, approximately 1.1 million people were murdered.

The best estimates of the number of victims at the Auschwitz camp complex, including the killing center at Auschwitz-Birkenau, between 1940 and 1945 are: Jews (1,095,000 deported to Auschwitz, 960,000 died)
Non-Jewish Poles (140,000- 150,000 deported, 74,000 died)
Roma (Gypsies) (23,000 deported, 21,000 died)
Soviet prisoners of war (15,000 deported and died)
Other nationalities (25,000 deported, 10,000- 15,000 died)

During the Holocaust, concentration camp prisoners received tattoos only at one location, Auschwitz. Incoming prisoners were assigned a camp serial number which was sewn to their prison uniforms. Only those prisoners selected for work were issued serial numbers; those prisoners sent directly to the gas chambers were not registered and received no tattoos.

         - The Holocaust Encyclopaedia 

... it is also a story of relationships being a drama largely based on the true-life history of Lali and Gita Sokolov who were imprisoned in one of the Auschwitz camps. There of course has been some controversy over the book and now the Netflix series but it is said to be mostly true with only the conversations and the insertion of the characters into other events being fictionalised. No realistic person would deny the general truths behind this and pretend that it never happened. It was only a generation earlier than mine and I feel bewildered how people could have been so cruel.

The SS (Schutzstaffel) were mostly responsible for the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps controlling labour, health, security, accommodation, and administration sections and of course were responsible for the murders.

Seventy-five percent of the Auschwitz garrison performed guard duty. The SS guard battalion was made up of 8 to 10 guard companies, two staff companies, and a company of guard-dog handlers (Hundesstaffel). The SS men assigned to guard duty belonged to the SS-Totenkopfverbände. At a later date, Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe soldiers who were too old for frontline service were also assigned to guard duty at Auschwitz.

          - Wikipedia

 The Wehrmacht soldiers wore this insignia on their belt buckles:

"Gott Mit Uns" - God is with us.

The SS soldiers wore this belt buckle:

“Meine Ehre heiBt Treue” ('My honor is loyalty’)

I don't know which is more offensive. These people were psychopaths - conscienceless murderers, thugs, bullies and thieves and I hope that Richard, in his new 'Judgement Day' series reserves a special place in hell for them.

We've been told before that the SS murderers were put on trial after the war and punished but it seems that this was only the very senior people with many, many more going free for political reasons, economic considerations or sheer inefficiency. I noted in the postscript to the series that of the 9,800 SS guards at Auschwitz only 10% of them were prosecuted and punished. That leaves a whopping 90% or (9,000 psychopathic, racist, misogynistic, Jew hating killers who re-entered post war society. It makes me want to spit.

"What will I do now? I know, I'll become a priest."

ALL IS GOOD IN THE WORLD ...

 

... well, apart from USA and its bizarre election run up, Putin and Kim cosying up, Israel proving that they are a bunch of bastards who've forgotten their own history and all the other geopolitical, racial inequality, social injustice, gender hatred, poverty gap and religious intolerance shit -  you know, all the stuff.

I mean (well it is all about me), today at about midday we had a power cut. OK, we've had those before and they usually last  minutes or, at most, an hour. After a couple of hours I remarked to The Old Girl that this was the biggest outage we've had for a while. "Since Cyclone Gabrielle last year" she said - always having facts to hand. "OK" I replied.

We went through the afternoon, pre-preparing dinner (fortunately we have a gas cooker on the top of our oven), reading (she couldn't work because internet was down as well as power) and planning for the evening. Our phones didn't work even using 'data' which was surprising and I can only assume that this was because the 'repeater' stations or whatever the telecommunication companies use were all down.

At 4PM I turned the radio on (battery powered) for the news and we learned that the whole of Northland was out of power due to some major transformer disruption. and 180,000 people were affected. Hell's bells (sorry Robert) and that this was going to be a problem until at least midday tomorrow. WTF! We redoubled our preparations - checking for torches, candles (where the alcohol is) and resigned ourselves for a longer than usual night.

Fortunately I'd lit the fire in the lounge in the morning so we had a cosy blaze going and warming the house. I brought in some extra wood, just in case and settled down to reading - not on my non-working iPad - but a book from the bookcase. This was the chronological history of the Second World War (a big book) triggered by the fact that I'm in the middle of reading 'Operation Mincemeat' which is a documentary novel of the misinformation plan by the Brits in 1943 to mislead the Germans about the Allies planned invasion of Sicily. Good stuff but, in 2024 needing power and internet to read on an IPad.

We joked about how teenagers would be faring without internet and television and I noticed a lot of people walking along the road - something we hadn't seen since 2020 (Covid lockdown days). It was obvious that they were families (parents and children) going for walks after school-time and before dinner because with the power off there was no social media catch-up and TV to watch.

We also noticed many cars leaving the bay (before 5PM) which is unusual and surmised that they were all off to town in hunt of takeaways for dinner. We imagined harassed mothers planning an evening and night for the family with cold meals or something on the BBQ followed by candlelit entertainment of board games, charades and other non electronic activity - camping fun for all and then .... the power came on.

Wow! It was both a relief and a disappointment. Relief at being able to charge up our phones and iPads and to check mail and get internet but ... that cosy, snuggly camping experience had gone.

Oh well.

SHEESH!

 

YouTube got all snarky when I tried to show ALL of my readers (so far two proven ones) a clever video outtake from the 4th series of RAKE. I couldn't find it anywhere on Google and YouTube so filmed it from the TV screen on my phone. It was only 5 minutes long and, if anything was a good advertisement for the Australian Broadcasting Corp but they got their panties in a bunch.

I only used YouTube as a vehicle because when I tried to directly publish it on the blog post it wouldn't upload because the file was too large, As I said in the heading - sheesh! I wasn't trying to monetise it and anyway you readers are so bloody parsimonious I'd be lucky to get a button from you. At least YouTube said that it's not a copyright strike and it doesn't affect my channel. Needless to say I won't be doing it again and you dear readers ... or, as T.S. Eliot put it:

"hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!”

... will miss out on some lovely and watchable vids.

 

NEW POST - THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON

 

A TRUCKLOAD OF SINS

MEA MAXIMA CULPA

 

Yes, I know I've used this Enigma clip before but it is very good and I like it so ...

I am very sorry that I let readers down yesterday - only managing to write one post - on a Sunday! I can do better.

As I said I was feeling under the weather but promise to make up for it though.

The other bloggers read my posts and only one commiserated - slightly. That was Robert who quickly managed to make it ALL ABOUT HIM! He banged on about the fact that he still gets hangovers even when he hasn't been drinking alcohol. See:

Of course this does raise the question: "How the hell does he write his silly and generally incomprehensible posts when there's no alcohol involved?"

Maybe that Holy Spirit he takes has a higher proof than I realised.

The other blogger, Richard, didn't commiserate but instead bizarrely told us that he was considering cutting his balls off with a knife. Although it would only require a very small knife for such minor surgery it was still of concern and reminded me of that sad story Robyn Langwell wrote about weightlifter Robin Tait beating his penis with a beer bottle. See:

METRO - ROBYN LANGWELL

I guess that Richard would use a clean-skin chardonnay for the job.

SHOULDN'T-A OUGHTN'T-A

 OK, we pushed the boat out last night and I'm feeling the effect of it today. It's the fist hangover I've had for a very long time. I blame this:

The Taylor's 20 year old port that I bought back in about 1980 or earlier. This makes the wine inside at least 64 years old - nearly as old as me. It was still lovely even though it had become very tawny coloured. The four of us drank it all after dinner.

I blame the port for my hangover ...

 ... and I guess the Hawkes Bay chardonnay, the Barossa Valley shiraz and the Central Otago pinot noir might have contributed.

CHRISTMAS MUST HAVE COME EARLY

 

STRAIGHT TO THE POOL ROOM

 Richard (of Richard's Base Brag) finally came through with the promised certificate for participation in his latest quiz.

"For nearly having a go" the certificate says and I like that. My whole life has been influenced by this sentiment and I make no apologies for being lazy. 'Mr Sleepy' was my nickname at work and I took pride in that.

This will go straight to the pool room.

It will be proudly featured here when I get it framed

YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO BE HANGING BY YOUR NECK WAITING ...

... for the certificate that Richard promised for entering his quiz.

 Well, I admit that it was a lukewarm promise but ... so far nothing.

It's about as lukewarm as Robert's promise that his pal Jesus Christ was going to return to earth to 'save us'. Well, it's been over 2000 years now and still no sign unless you count Donald Trump who is, with all those silly bible-belt Americans claiming that he is the Saviour.

No ... I can't wait so I've sourced my own certificate.

It's a bit rough I admit but then, so was my quiz entry.

Time to celebrate I think - Tipping Point Rose beckons.

QUIZZZZZZZZZES

That other blog - Richard's Brass Band or something ran a quiz the other day (note that The Curmudgeon was the first blog to run quizzes). This rather obscure quiz featured arcane musical references and was about as exciting as reading Robert's blog (another blog in this community).

It's not the tediousness of the quiz that I want to talk about though it's the attitude and behaviour of the quiz setter that beggars belief.

The old joker set a silly and incomprehensible quiz hoping that some readers would enter the competition (more on that later).

"A B C D Eb F F# G# A .. ah ah ahhhh .... dammit I have to go and change my underpants."

When kind and obliging readers entered the quiz they received derision and the results were published in a high handed way. This was dizzzzgusting (see what I did there?).

To cap it off there was no mention of a prize for a winner and there were no certificates presented to the participants. A poor show really.

Now while I'm not one to hanker after badges and certificates - you know me ...

... I do think that some sort of acknowledgement for the effort made would have been appropriate.

NEW POST - THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON 'FOR ROBERT'

 

FOR ROBERT

OORAH!

 

"Oorah!"

I had great success today - well, I had to visit four stores but eventually found what I wanted for digging out the crawl space in the basement.

Short-handled digging spade, levelling spade and pick-axe
with padded gloves.

I'll be able to do the job much better than with the normal long-handled tools which were inoperable due to the constraints on space.

The cashier at Bunnings looked at the tools and asked why I was buying such short ones. I told her that I get the little woman at home to do all the digging. She looked at me funny and wasn't quite sure if I was joking or not.

OORAH!

HOW'S MY DAY GOING?

 After a week of rain and dreary and cold weather today is sparkling bright and warm - well over 20 degrees.

It's like a summer day. I've just been for a long walk and am now contemplating a swim.

I did three loads of washing - well, I'm not trusted with washing and hanging the delicate stuff so The Old Girl did two loads of washing being clothes, towels and bedsheets and I did one. Mine was "your old overalls and shit" which was my very important 'under the house' gear consisting of two pairs of overalls, two caps, five pairs of gloves and knee pads - all covered in mud. I feel that I've accomplished something.

This afternoon I might head into town to Bunnings and the 'tradie' stores to look for those specialty digging tools I told you about.

Heigh ho!

BLURRED LINES

OK, I know that video was controversial and the odious Robin Thicke was pilloried but ... there's something about it ...

"If you can't hear, what I'm tryna say (hey girl, come here)
If you can't read, from the same page
Maybe I'm going deaf (hey, hey, hey)
Maybe I'm going blind (hey, hey, hey)
Maybe I'm out of my mind (hey, hey, hey)"

I watched a Liam Neeson film last night - Blacklight - and you can imagine how dire that was.

But, to be fair to Richard who equates Liam Neeson to Laurence Olivier and his films to something Akiwa Kurosawa would have liked to have made, it was entertaining.

Many years ago literature was recognised as literature and comic books as comic books , There was a clear separation from a bit of fun and something a bit more serious. Video games, when the media emerged were just that - games and films were something different. The best films were often based on literature and had themes, plots and narrative. Today the lines are blurred.

Major streaming companies like Netflix are churning out the films (movies) and ex video game producers are writing, directing and producing those films. Often there isn't a lot of difference between the two platforms.

Somewhere along the line(s) narrative seems to have slipped between the cracks. It is no longer deemed to be important. As long as there is enough crash-bang action, some recognisable actors and lashings of sex then, apart from a basic story-line nothing has to make sense. I've noticed this more and more with the 'modern' films other that those made by real and serious directors and last night's Blacklight was a case in point. The premise of the FBI being headed up by criminals and waging war on American dissidents was OK but the execution of it wasn't. It was fatuous and downright silly. What bugs me though is that it doesn't seem to matter. Many, many people can be shot dead, strangled, stabbed and blown up without any police investigation let alone any moral scruples coming into play. The outcomes, like in this one, always come out happy-chappy and lovey-dovey and everyone goes on about their business after major mayhem and destruction. Is this a devious plot, like in 1984, to keep the masses happy? Maybe, since the old standby of religion has fallen by the wayside or taken over by AI.

WE'LLL, THAT WAS SUNDAY

 Not a lot's been happening on the blogs today - in fact, so far, nothing.

Not that it's a bad thing - after all, we might have seen some more nutty posts from that inflamed Catholic from Moera (he should try using some cortisol cream) or some more grumblings from the old Covid-affected man who lives in the furthest and darkest room of his house - again, not a bad thing.

It's been a rainy and grey old day up north. Apart from a grocery run (by car) to the local grocery store for green vegetables for dinner I've been ensconced inside all day reading, dozing and generally doing nothing.

My sedentary state was no doubt influenced by the breakfast I had. Eschewing my normal Weetbix mush which I've told you about before: BABYFOOD  As it was a grey and dreary day I had a 'full English breakfast' but without bacon, sausages and black pudding.

Even without the carcinogenic meat, the egg, toast, tomatoes and potato hash cakes was very filling and I had to have a few zzzs afterwards.

I had planned a few posts for you from The Curmudgeons Inc.ⓒ but didn't turn the computer on. The Old Girl decided to do a full day's work today and will take next Friday off in lieu so I wasn't given access to my study her office. Maybe I'll write these for you tomorrow.

COMING SOON