Wednesday, June 24, 2020


We had our scorcher today.

There are to be no more daily Downing Street briefings, so I reverted to Pointless. It was clearly filmed some time ago, in that world we can scarcely remember. There was a studio audience, to begin with. Three, at least, of the contestants were students. One was a vicar. The others did office-y things and might have been able to work from home. It was all very different.

I cast on the second EPS sleeve. The first ten rounds of ribbing seemed to take about five minutes. Then I hit that phase where one goes round and round and round and nothing happens. I should, however, be ready for st st and gradient stripes tomorrow sometime.

The BBC has revived Alan Bennett’s brilliant “Talking Heads” – new cast, and even a couple of new scripts. Very well reviewed this morning. Each is a monologue –- perfect for coronavirus television. I enjoyed the original series enormously, and remember quite a few of them. They should move knitting nicely forward. I recorded the first two last night.

Reading

Thanks for the Sybille Bedford tips. I think I’d better read some more. And, Mary Lou, thanks very much for that article in the Guardian which was interesting indeed.

Shandy, it’s difficult to answer your question about “Mr Scarborough’s Family” without giving away the brilliant McGuffin.  I think you'd better read it. The elder of the Scarborough sons frets about his mother’s honour, but otherwise the main concern – even more than most Trollope – is about money: inheritance, entails, debt, a marriage settlement, enough-to-live-on, responsibility for the family of one’s sister who married a n’er-do-well.

The only thoroughly pleasant household is that of the Scarborough family lawyer, who seems to act for most of the other characters as well. He lives with his 32-year-old spinster daughter, another attractive character. One might hope for love, for her, but it’s hard to see where it could come from.

Current affairs

Isn’t it odd how the coronavirus seems to love meat packing plants the world around? I’ve read explanations (cold, people meeting over the coffee machine) but they don’t seem adequate.

5 comments:

  1. =Tamar7:47 PM

    We won't know where clusters really are, if such exist, until this is over. Right now we are metaphorically counting trains in the morning of one day and ignoring the fact that the schedule covers a fortnight. Many repetitions of the same fact, or of one small element of the whole, makes it seem more important than it is; that's a standard audience manipulation technique.

    Your descriptions are beginning to make me wish I had read some Trollope.

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  2. Re meatprocessing plants eg in Germany, the workers are working, travelling and living in close proximity without protection and poor hygiene. Ultimately meat is too cheap and poor people are exploited. Excuse my rant.

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    1. I agree, but apparently the air conditioning has been found guilty. might be similar in other plants? it's no different over here (ireland!)....

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  3. In the US as, well. Workers stand very close to one another, on a line, all day long. They only move for breaks. They are not six feet apart at all. Only at breaks, I suppose. Plus, they are really cold, which the virus likes. Working conditions at some of the plants sound like Upton Sinclair would recognize them.

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  4. The new Alan Bennett is evidence of what those of advanced age can achieve. It's tragic, in the true sense of the word ie excites pity and terror. Sarah Lancaster is brilliant.

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