Divided Loyalties
Jan. 4th, 2009 08:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksGeoff was probably knee-deep in accounts yesterday (hands up the person who gets his numbers to Geoff by August and has the whole thing settled by October? Oh, just me?) so I am not sure whether he made it to the Manchester City v Nottm Forest game (the club he supports vs the club of his current home town), where the expensive glory, once of That's 'Im With The Mantra, managed to sink to a Three To O defeat at the hands of the faded glory that is Nottm Forest. Sometimes I wish I were a sports writer, simply because the opportunity for fun headlines is that much the greater than it is in the insurance industry (a long time since I could use the Katrina And The Waves headline, sigh). This morning I would definitely have got in a reference to "Not A Good Feeling At The Hughes Corporation".
There's a good technical reason for Nottingham Forest being Nottm Forest, while it's Notts County. Something to do with one being the city and the other being the county, I guess. One of those fun peculiarities of the English language, me duck.
Jan's granddaughter Gracie, now 18 months, has a few words in her spoken vocabulary. One of those is fascinating for those of us interested in the concept of language in a Chomskyish kind of way. There is a dog next door to her parents' house called (I think) RoRo. Gracie has now taken to calling ALL dogs "RoRo". Nothing surprising about that, you might think. She hears the animal next door described as RoRo, not as "dog". Indeed, I didn't think about it myself until sometime later.
Then it struck me as a very surprising thing indeed, because Gracie is automatically categorizing in a Platoist kind of way. Why is she calling all dogs RoRo, but not cats, or other four-legged beasts? Dogs, you must admit, are a variable bunch, and yet here you have an 18-month-old putting the concept of 'dog' into one pigeon-hole in her brain (not the one set aside for pigeons, but the one for dogs) and, somehow, putting one set of animals into that box and yet not another set of, superficially not that different, animals. I think that's quite interesting, supporting the Chomskyish line of a kind of "hard-wiring" in the human brain. No-one has pointed at other dogs and said "RoRo" to Gracie; this is an induction she has taken off her own bat. Fascinating.
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I've managed a walk into Blackheath every evening this year. It's about a 2.5 mile circular walk and its good for clearing my head and making me less introspective (always a dangerous path for Birks). Walking is not just good exercise; it's good mind food that is a bit spoilt if you stuff earphones in and listen to music while doing it.
That said, it's been bloody cold the last couple of nights, particularly on Jan 2 when an easterly whipped across the heath. Tomorrow morning it's back to the office and there's a vague warning of snow. Luckily I'm now prepared for the feeling of cold, but I don't think I will enjoy the snow, if it comes.
While I used to enjoy the walk from Charing Cross to the office, the walk from Cannon Street is boring and the walk across London Bridge is Boring times 2. It's unfair to blame Essex for everything that we don't blame on the Americans, but why is it that the City seems to have more workers from Essex and is a much more depressing place to walk through? Curiously, I wouldn't apply this to walks through Docklands, so it's not just a matter of the lack of "West-Endness". No, the City of London is just bad Feng Shui, bad karma, bad soul, man. I felt this 25 years ago whenever I had to work in betting shops there, and I feel it now. I think we should pull it all down and start from scratch, leaving just Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St Katherine's Dock, St Paul's and the St Paul's footbridge. The Bank of England, Royal Exchange, Lloyd's Building, Tower 42, all around Fenchurch Street (has anyone everwalked up The Minories? Jeez, what a shithole) should go.
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There's a good technical reason for Nottingham Forest being Nottm Forest, while it's Notts County. Something to do with one being the city and the other being the county, I guess. One of those fun peculiarities of the English language, me duck.
Jan's granddaughter Gracie, now 18 months, has a few words in her spoken vocabulary. One of those is fascinating for those of us interested in the concept of language in a Chomskyish kind of way. There is a dog next door to her parents' house called (I think) RoRo. Gracie has now taken to calling ALL dogs "RoRo". Nothing surprising about that, you might think. She hears the animal next door described as RoRo, not as "dog". Indeed, I didn't think about it myself until sometime later.
Then it struck me as a very surprising thing indeed, because Gracie is automatically categorizing in a Platoist kind of way. Why is she calling all dogs RoRo, but not cats, or other four-legged beasts? Dogs, you must admit, are a variable bunch, and yet here you have an 18-month-old putting the concept of 'dog' into one pigeon-hole in her brain (not the one set aside for pigeons, but the one for dogs) and, somehow, putting one set of animals into that box and yet not another set of, superficially not that different, animals. I think that's quite interesting, supporting the Chomskyish line of a kind of "hard-wiring" in the human brain. No-one has pointed at other dogs and said "RoRo" to Gracie; this is an induction she has taken off her own bat. Fascinating.
+++++++++++
I've managed a walk into Blackheath every evening this year. It's about a 2.5 mile circular walk and its good for clearing my head and making me less introspective (always a dangerous path for Birks). Walking is not just good exercise; it's good mind food that is a bit spoilt if you stuff earphones in and listen to music while doing it.
That said, it's been bloody cold the last couple of nights, particularly on Jan 2 when an easterly whipped across the heath. Tomorrow morning it's back to the office and there's a vague warning of snow. Luckily I'm now prepared for the feeling of cold, but I don't think I will enjoy the snow, if it comes.
While I used to enjoy the walk from Charing Cross to the office, the walk from Cannon Street is boring and the walk across London Bridge is Boring times 2. It's unfair to blame Essex for everything that we don't blame on the Americans, but why is it that the City seems to have more workers from Essex and is a much more depressing place to walk through? Curiously, I wouldn't apply this to walks through Docklands, so it's not just a matter of the lack of "West-Endness". No, the City of London is just bad Feng Shui, bad karma, bad soul, man. I felt this 25 years ago whenever I had to work in betting shops there, and I feel it now. I think we should pull it all down and start from scratch, leaving just Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St Katherine's Dock, St Paul's and the St Paul's footbridge. The Bank of England, Royal Exchange, Lloyd's Building, Tower 42, all around Fenchurch Street (has anyone everwalked up The Minories? Jeez, what a shithole) should go.
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Yes that's me in my corner
Date: 2009-01-04 10:29 am (UTC)However I think this year will probably be the end of the business model with which I'm working. There will have to be Some Changes. Will think about that in Feb.
So no - I was not at the cup match, although Steph was, with her Forest-supporting boyfriend. Poor girl - she used to be ever-positive about City to my amusement but at least she's got the point now. It's not about the destination, it's about the journey and City's job is to make the journey that little bit more interesting.
I hink you'd be fired as a headline writer anywhere but the Indy or the FT. Producing headlines that 1 in 100 people get is pleasing to the writer of the headlines, but I think Hughes Sorry Now is possibly going to strike more chords with the public. In general though, sports writers have a lot more fun, although nothing can ever cap Super Cally Go Ballistic.
Re: Yes that's me in my corner
Date: 2009-01-04 11:03 am (UTC)My personal all-time favourite came from either the late sixties or early seventies when Gerry Queen equalized late for Crystal Palace, thus saving a point".
"Queen Strikes To Save Palace" was the headline.
Marvellous.
PJ
Re: Yes that's me in my corner
Date: 2009-01-05 12:19 pm (UTC)Also, I have a friend who writes occasionally for the Sunday Times. He has been pitching them to run an in-depth article on Tarkovsky for some while, which would allow him the glorious "Tarka the Auteur".
Re: Yes that's me in my corner
Date: 2009-01-04 02:47 pm (UTC)Even after all these years of living in both worlds I am surprised by how little common ground exists between farmers and somebody based in London.
When I'm over in Shropshire I have to keep reminding myself that there is no public transport and that the nearest shop is several miles away. When I'm in London I have to keep reminding myself that people often don't know their neighbours and that the support mechanisms (aka extended family) that thrive in Shropshire are far less well established in commuter land.
introspective walking
Date: 2009-01-06 11:46 am (UTC)Re: introspective walking
Date: 2009-01-06 02:46 pm (UTC)PJ
Re: introspective walking
Date: 2009-01-06 04:57 pm (UTC)