As if I didn't have enough blogs...

At the moment I have 13 active blogs. That's ridiculous. Rambles from my Chair is my main blog where you can follow what I am up to and all the random thoughts and interests I have. One can then discount two blogs set up for Jo's business and one that I contribute to on a joint basis. That leaves nine. Nine green bottles, standing on the wall...

Project 355 is a photo a day blog which I also try to do on a regular (if not quite daily) basis.

My book review blog is kept up-to-date even if I am sometimes a bit late in blogging about a book I have read or a bit brief in reviewing it. At least it records – principally for my benefit – all the books I've read since November 2007.

Words, word, words (and phrases) started out as a daily blog with the origins or interesting notes about a different word each day. Like many of my enthusiasms it tends to come in fits and starts. One of the books I'm currently reading on the Kindle (Mrs Braddon's 'Birds of Prey') has lots of interesting words and phrases in it so I shall hopefully resurrect the blog shortly.

The next 'active' one is Salamagundi, a recipe one, which, again, is as much for my own benefit as for readers though hopefully some folk will find it of use.

I have a Hebridean Blog and an Exeter Blog for when I take holidays there, availing myself of family hospitality.

Considering natural history and photography are my principal interests outdoors it is surprising that I have not made better use of my wildlife blog. I think I am overwhelmed by the amount of photos I could put on if I were so inclined. So far it has mainly been used to show the occasional new species of creature or plant that I have recorded. “Must try harder!” is the teacher's comment on my report.

The blog for our Wirral garden tends to depend on the weather and the plants that are flowering. Spring and Summer time are the times when this is most active.

Memories are made of this is a family history blog and, like my wildlife one, it needs more effort putting into it.

Now, as if that were not enough, I've decided to have a blog on WordPress called Once a Librarian. It will be about librarianship but not in any academic sense, purely as a fun look at all things related to libraries from the chained books in Hereford Cathedral library to the wickedness of our local councillors in trying to turn our local libraries into 'One Stop Shops' and dispense with library assistants in favour of receptionists.

There will be cartoons, a bit of art and the occasional biography of folk who you may not have realised were librarians. Because it is on WordPress it doesn't have a 'followers' list in the Google sense but it does have a button you can click on to be notified by e-mail when I publish a post.

I hope I'll see you there occasionally.

Saturday Stumbles

Bummer. I had two posts written and the half-dead old laptop I'm using has eaten them. Perhaps if I called it a half-alive laptop it would behave better. One of them was my usual ramble about odds and ends all I can recall of it was the title I intended to use – Saturday Stumbles....

On the subject of laptops I'm still trying to sort out the fan in my laptop and now Son-who-watches-films' laptop has swallowed some drink of some sort – Coke or Lucozade I assume from the stickiness. It's a good job Partner-who-drinks-tea has two laptops for us to borrow. Fortunately he tipped his laptop upside-down straight away so only the keyboard seems to be affected. It's sticking which means one cannot even get the password in to see which letter or letters are sticking. The next stage is to take the thing apart. I tried twice, removing every screw in the thing, without success. But now Mark has sent me the service manual and I have discovered that all it takes is two screws and a little manoeuvring. Easy when you know how. I did it in minutes and now just have to wait for the delivery of a replacement keyboard.

Today's little question – Why does a fountain pen run out of ink as soon as one reaches the second sentence of a letter?

Did you ever listen to Children's Favourites on the radio when you were young? (The answer to that is obviously affected by your age and whether you lived in the UK.) GB and I did and I've just been on a website which listed a lot of the popular songs they played. These were my favourites:-

The Little Shoemaker : Petula Clark
Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea : Max Bygraves
The Happy Wanderer : The Stargazers
The Teddy Bear's Picnic : Henry Hall
I'm a Pink Toothbrush, you're a Blue Toothbrush : Max Bygraves
Puff, The Magic Dragon : Peter, Paul and Mary
Nellie the Elephant : Mandy Miller
I tawt I saw a puddy tat : Mel Blanc
The Bee Song : Arthur Askey
Run, Rabbit, Run : Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen
The Runaway Train : Vernon Dalhart
How much is that doggy in the window : Patti Page
The Hippopotamus Song : Flanders and Swann
Old Macdonald had a Farm
There's a Hole in my Bucket!, Dear Liza : Harry Belafonte
She'll be Coming Round the Mountain, When she Comes
The Children's Marching Song (Nick Nack Paddy Whack) : Mitch Miller and His Orchestra
Three Wheels on My Wagon : The New Christy Minstrels
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly : Burl Ives
They're Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace : Ann Stephens
The Ugly Bug Ball : Burl Ives
Flash, Bang Wallop! : Tommy Steele

Sparky's Magic Piano by Henry Blair was as much a story as a piece of music but I seem to recall it being one of GB's favourites. Little White Bull by Tommy Steele became one of my favoured tunes after I saw him in the pantomime in Liverpool and he sang that with great gusto. The Laughing Policeman by Charles Penrose was one of those which was frequently sought by listeners but it never did anything for me. You can hear a lot of these songs by going here.

Occasionally Dad would borrow Uncle Mac's car and we would drive into the countryside with GB and I on the back seat singing Puff the Magic Dragon, The Happy Wanderer, The Little Shoemaker or Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea to our hearts' content.

And, on the subject of records, what was the first pop record you ever bought? Mine was Alone (Why Must I Be Alone) by the Shepherd Sisters. It was released in 1957 but what year I bought it I don't know. It was a 78 rpm so it must presumably have been before 1960 by which time 33 rpm LPs and 45 rpm singles and EPs had become the norm in the UK.

Buddy Holly - 1936-1959

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED
3rd February 1959

I remember few events of national or international significance from my prep school days. The invasion of Hungary by the Soviet tanks in 1956 is probably the one I remember most clearly. Even without the aid of television, my form mistress managed to convey the horror and significance of what was happening. The only other occasion that really stands out was the day the music died in February 1959.

I wasn't 'into' rock music at the time - few nine year olds were in those days. But we had all heard of Buddy Holly - the man who was revolutionising the musical world and producing such marvellous new sounds. It seemed so wrong that he should die in a plane crash at the age of 22.

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and "The Big Bopper" died on February 3rd 1959, just after performing in a concert at the now famous Surf Ballroom. They took off from the Mason City airport in the middle of a snowstorm, bound for another concert. The four-seater plane crashed in a cornfield about five miles north of Clear Lake in Iowa killing the pilot and the three musicians. Although three performers died in the plane crash, I don't recall appreciating at the time that Ritchie Valens (aged 21) and J.P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson (aged 24) were as musically important as I now realise they were. The latter's best known song is probably "Chantilly Lace" whilst Valens had a record in the charts at the time. Also killed was the pilot of the plane, Roger Peterson, aged 21 from Clear Lake.

Buddy Holly - the Legend

Buddy, from Lubbock, Texas, was born Charles Hardin Holley and was just 22 when he died, but he had already recorded dozens of songs (including "That'll Be the Day", "Oh Boy", "Peggy Sue", and "Rave On"); had had hits since 1957 during which year he and the Crickets first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show; ahd pioneered double tracking; and had created the standard rock grouping of drums, bass, rhythm, and lead guitar. Buddy Holly revolutionised the nature of rock'n'roll and introduced a style for which the Beatles were later to become famous - that of performing live in the same way as their recordings came across - without the aid of loads of studio musicians. His style of playing the guitar was unconventional (indeed downright 'wrong' since he only played on the downstrokes instead of both down and up) but brilliant.

Buddy Holly had proved that it was OK to wear spectacles on stage. As a nine-year with glasses (otherwise known as 'Four-eyes') that was of the deepest significance to me. It was Buddy and Chuck Berry who showed the world that you could be a songwriter and perform the music. His lyrics had popular appeal and his style an injection of uniqueness that made him amongst the most memorable and easily recognized of performers.

His legend has grown with time. In 1972 Don McLean described his death as "the day the music died" in his hit "American Pie" and artists from Bob Dylan to Paul McCartney have said their music was influenced by his style.

He is ranked no 13 (an appropriate number) in Rolling Stone Magazine’s 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

(All photos from the Web and appear to lack copyright information)

Once a librarian, always a librarian!

There's something about being a librarian – for however short a part of one's ultimate career – that sticks. Despite the fact that I was a librarian for less than a quarter of my career I still naturally think of myself as one. It is the part of me that matters. Does any other career affect one that way, I wonder? For those who have spent their life in one career it may be hard to judge. But if there are those out there who have swapped their career and yet think of themselves as still being of the shorter period one I should be interested to hear.

One of the things I love about blogland is suddenly finding out new things about one's fellow bloglings. I have, for example, often wondered about what Librarian's real name is. If it is not obvious on their blog one is loathe to ask  because some people, quite rightly, might want to hide behind a different identity. Not that I'd so a thing like that, said Scriptor! (for those who want to know mine it's plain old John or CJ if you follow GB's blog). I found out Librarians name here on Cathy's blog. Then there's the discovery that SP is the phantom knitter and managed to break her leg playing with the cat (Duh!) – your secret is well out now, SP.

Blogging and reading blogs is all such fun but I'm trying to restrict myself to a mere hour and a half a day. Otherwise I'd get nothing done except this enjoying myself and that would not be right. Would it?

Partner-who-drinks-tea and I were discussing the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel.
“I wonder what exactly the difference is?” I said.
“About £8,” was her prompt and witty reply.

I got a most surprising letter through the post the other day. My life insurance has suddenly jumped up £40,000 as a result of my latest review. Remind me not to hang around at the top of the stairs while Partner-who-drinks-tea is up there! (Especially as she has read that post about 'Does that sound stupid' and has therefore been reminded of my reply.)

Something I have never seen before happened in a football match on Tuesday night – Everton's contest against Manchester City – some idiot managed to hold up the game by handcuffing himself to the goalpost. The man wore a T-shirt criticising Ryanair. The airline had apparently denied his daughter a job. I wonder if it is fair to reject an applicant on the basis that your father is a nutter?? (OK I know that isn't politically correct, especially from a counsellor's husband, but how else can one describe a man who does something like that over a personal matter. A matter of great humanitarian interest might merit a major protest but hardly something like that.)

I haven't really been following the Olympic build-up but I took a look at the Olympic site today and found a little thing to amuse children. The mascots – Wenlock and Mandeville – can be dressed in a variety of ways by the visitor. Here are a couple of mine. (Yes, I know, some of us never grow up.)

On a more serious note, the main body of the London Olympics take place from 27th July to 12th August and I'm really looking forward to the Opening Ceremony. I find the parade of nations with their flags and their happy, waving athletes a wonderful mix of jingoism and international friendliness. Long may sport (and blogs) bring our nations together.

Monday's musings

The toilet seat in the downstairs cloakroom has just broken. (I'll spare you a picture!) We have had to buy a new one. Why? Because a washer – hardly bigger than this letter O – has broken and the screw which holds it on has corroded too much to be removable. So an otherwise perfect wooden toilet seat is consigned to the scrapheap. This is the third item in recent weeks that has had to be scrapped because of the failure of some tiny part or other. I do wish manufacturers would put as much effort into making the little bits as they do into the prettiness and complexity of their products.

Here's another creation with a design fault. It's a wonderful thing – a striker that creates a spark and can start a fire in any circumstances. But the handle is too small and holding it is made even more awkward by the positioning of the chain through the middle. Such a little thing and so easy to have got it right.

(Photo from the web - no copyright details known)

Having commented on books versus films the other day I did something most unusual and watched the start of a TV series of the book 'Birdsong' (ranked 10/10 in my book blog). I was curious to see if they could make it half as excellent as the book and to my surprise it was very good, not least because of the presence of Clémence Poésy as Isabelle. I appreciate beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder but in my view she is extremely attractive.

I am not sure how lucky we are to have fruit and vegetables all year round nowadays. It makes recipe planning a lot easier but I miss the anticipation of things coming into season. As children we used to look forward to the days of early July when the first West Country strawberries would arrive here on Merseyside. Mum's birthday in mid-July would often be celebrated with Scottish strawberries or those from the local Lydiate fields. Nowadays we can have strawberries all year round and they have lost a lot of their excitement and exotic feel.

And finally, a question. Why do we blokes get asked questions to which there is no sensible answer? After making a very weird statement the other day Partner-who-drinks-tea asked “Does that sound stupid?” Can anyone tell me what the appropriate acceptable answer might be?