My Musical Tastes
The other day, in answer to Dawn Treader’s question as to what were my musical tastes, I commented “My music tastes tend to be classical (Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Grieg, Beethoven level, avoiding Shostakovich and what I would call discordant ones), choral (especially motets and Gregorian chant), some opera (especially Mozart again), operetta (Gilbert and Sullivan), Welsh Valleys choral music, and pop and rock and roll from the 1960s and 1970s. Which I tend to play is dependent upon my mood at the time.” At the moment it is 1950s pop that is playing (a minute ago it Was Queen) – just to show I can’t even list all my tastes they are so eclectic.
Collective nouns
I commented on Yaya’s blog posting about her grandson, Anthony, and his birthday party. “What a wonderful set of grandchildren. ('Set' of grandchildren? What is the collective noun for grandchildren?)” Does anyone know – or how about some suggestions?
First course soup, second course - horse…
If I could download photos from my phone (I haven’t yet learned how to do that) I would show you notice on our local bakery doorway. It made the point that the meat in their pies was locally sourced and they knew where (and what) it all came from.
The Co-op sent me an e-mail simply because I hold a customer's card. That is service.
It said "I wanted to update you following the completion of independent testing on our own-brand minced beef products.
In total, 101 of our products were tested for contamination as part of a mass testing exercise called for by the Food Standards Agency. None of these products, which cover the totality of our current minced beef food range, have been found to contain any trace of horse DNA. "
It went on to apologise once again over the beefburgers that were found in every supermarket chain as part of the original scandal. It then reinforced that the Co-op "are far from complacent about a matter which has so clearly shaken customer confidence in the food you eat. Our independent testing will continue on a rolling basis to ensure on-going scrutiny. In the meantime, we are reviewing all of our meat supply chain and putting in place an enhanced process with greater transparency to ensure that we know the full provenance of all of our meat products. In fact, our testing across all of our food products is to be stepped up.”
Meanwhile, Tesco (and I hold one of their cards as well) are saying nothing to anyone. This despite the fact that a couple discovered a dead bird in their bag of “washed” salad when they came to eat it for lunch. See – even vegetarians can’t just ignore the Tesco scandal! Actually it’s not true to say Tesco didn’t comment. They admitted the dead bird was a Blackcap and told its audience its scientific name and all about the Southern European distribution of that species.
And today’s limerick
comes from I G Fenner of New Milton, Hampshire…
Something outrageous occurred –
In my salad I found a dead bird.
But I’m thankful, of course,
That it wasn’t a horse,
Which would have been far more absurd.
It's funny but the second I posted this post it came to me - a pride of grandchildren, of course.
ReplyDeleteOooh I like that!
DeleteI'd really struggle to describe my musical tastes and they seem to be changing all the time. If you asked me late last year I'd have said I was going through a jazz phase, but have been listening to rock for the last few weeks. I guess it's the same with books - you find one you really like and end up reading lots more like it.
DeleteStrange I hold both a CO-OP and a Tesco card, and I haven't heard a peep from the CO-OP but I've had at least two e-mails from Tesco about what they have/are doing re the horsemeat problem.
ReplyDeleteAs for the grandchildren; I guess a "pride" only works for your own grandchildren, other peoples are probably just a bunch of noisy and annoying children; there is probably a word for that as well.
In thinking of a collective noun for grand children realised it was dependent on their age! Possibly just now a 'blast'!
ReplyDeleteSomebody said in the letters in newspaper today 'that they should have washed their salad and they would have found the bird!!!!!!!
You got it in first! Soooo obvious! Mind you it has to have been obvious for me to have thought of it.
ReplyDeleteI would have never thought you to be a "Queen" man.
ReplyDelete"Bohemian Rhapsody" is one of my favourite songs.... I can sing it in my sleep if I had to....
"So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye.
So you think you can love me and leave me to die.
Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby,
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here." sings she loudly while playing an air guitar and tossing her head back and forth....
Love your plural of grandchildren. I would've been much more prosaic and said, one grandchild, a group is grandchildren. But I like the idea of a "pride" much better.
ReplyDeleteAll this stuff about horsemeat is enough to turn us all into vegans. But as you say, even that may not solve the problem. Last fall several people became ill eating cantaloupe melons which had been contaminated by runoff water. So it's hard to know what to eat these days.
I just refer to my grands as my grandchildren; there are 30 and 6 greats. We call twins a "set" but why? Scriptor, you do pose the most delightful things for one to ponder on, don't you? Your head ache must be better. That's good.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, back to your question; I decided to google set of grandchildren and came up with an explanation of those with the same parentage. So I believe that would mean that if I were watching just one of my children's children for them, I would say I watched Ruby and Aaron's set?? Does that sound right?
BTW, I am "proud" of my grandchildren too! :-)But literally a pride is a group of lions.
ReplyDeleteI listen to various kinds of music myself. As for the classics I tend to lean towards the baroque like Bach, Handel, Vivaldi. I also like early music like the Gregorian chants. But also Mozart etc. that you mention. Opera and operetta not so much. As for the music of my own lifetime the favourites are Celtic music, like Clannad and Enya and Moya (Maire) Brennan; and American singer-songwriters from the 60s and 70s with roots in folk music like Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Carole King...
ReplyDeleteI like Enya - don't know much Clannad and have never heard of Moya Brenna. Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Carole King - absolutely love them.
DeleteLove the limerick! But what a grisly experience to open your bag of salad and find a dead bird in it :-(
ReplyDeleteMoya/Máire (she changed the spelling of her name to Moya in later years) is sister to Enya and was the lead singer in Clannad. It is/was a family band, originally Moya + two brothers + two uncles; and Enya was also in it for a while.
ReplyDelete