R.I.P. Dame Maggie Smith

Here are Maggie Smith and Kenneth Williams reading Death in Leamington to Sir John Betjeman. It's my favourite of his poems, the one that certainly deserves to live. 

They read it well but not nearly as well as I do, in my head.

Quotations

Talmud Enjoyer @jew_AndAhalfMen

If Nasrallah wanted to fight the Zionists, he should’ve just bombed his own headquarters himself

'"We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavour to shine. We labour unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence, and neglect the real. And if we possess calmness, or generosity, or truthfulness, we are eager to make it known, so as to attach these virtues to that imaginary existence." 

'Pascal’s description of this particular misery could be very easily applied to any of the social media platforms. There is a great disconnect from reality when we interact with the internet, and even when we use it as a tool. But it is rarely a tool. Rather, it is a form of manipulation and behaviour modification. The absurd and sorrowful part of it is that it seems inescapable.

Quotations

 'Under the liberal pre-war planning] system, Cambridge’s huge success in life sciences would have allowed it to grow, both up and out, ‘connected by new train lines, trams, tubes, and roads. It would likely have a population of at least a million today, just as Glasgow grew from a population of 70,000 in 1800 to over 700,000 in 1900 to facilitate its world-leading shipbuilding industry.’ Ed West

Talmud Enjoyer @jew_AndAhalfMen

If Nasrallah wanted to fight the Zionists, he should’ve just bombed his own headquarters himself

'"We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavour to shine. We labour unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence, and neglect the real. And if we possess calmness, or generosity, or truthfulness, we are eager to make it known, so as to attach these virtues to that imaginary existence." 

Quotations

'How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.' Marcus Aurelius 

'Love is what makes growing up bearable.' Eve Pollard

'The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this pain of mine is individual, this nerve that winces belongs to me and to no other. But happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity.' Graham Greene

'Punishment should be delivered in a swift and brutal manner, while rewards should be dispersed in small amounts over time.' Machiavelli

'You gotta have a body.' Jayne Mansfield

Quotations

"It is entirely conceivable that life's splendour forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from our view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come. This is the essence of magic, which does not create but summons."
Franz Kafka, Diary, 18 October 1921

"Only the educated are free." Epictetus

"What do you want liberation from? What is there to be proud of? I don't believe in rights for homosexuals." Quentin Crisp to Peter Tatchell in 1974

"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be." Voltaire

"Those who travel about England for their pleasure, or, for that matter, about any part of Western Europe, rightly associate with such travel the pleasure of history; for history adds to a man, giving him, as it were, a great memory of things—like a human memory, but stretched over a far longer space than that of one human life. It makes him, I do not say wise and great, but certainly in communion with wisdom and greatness."
Hilaire Belloc, First and Last (1911)

Quotations

"Walking is man's best medicine." Hippocrates

"Nothing can be more obvious than that all animals were created solely and exclusively for the use of man." The Reverend Dr Gaster in Thomas Love Peacock's Headlong Hall

"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries."  A.A. Milne

Interesting

From Ned Donovan's blog.

Since Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 a tradition developed, the origin of which is slightly unclear, that any slave who touched the British flag would immediately be free and granted protection from future slavery by the King or Queen of the time. As flags can sometimes be quite high up, this legend evolved to allow someone to instead touch a flagpole and receive the same magic effect.

Netanyahu is "seeking to run out the clock until the American election"

US officials told the New York Times that Prime Benjamin Netanyahu is "seeking to run out the clock until the American election", meaning he will postpone a deal over the captives held in Gaza until the election in order not to help Kamala Harris.

Swedes at Poltava

The Russians want us to believe that they killed many Swedes at Poltava three days ago and this is why the Swedish Foreign Minister has suddenly resigned, but there is no evidence for this.

Poltava means a lot to Russians, Ukrainians, Swedes and anyone who knows some history or knows Dr Johnson's The Vanity of Human Wishes.

On what Foundation stands the Warrior’s Pride?
How just his Hopes let Swedish Charles decide;