The farmers wife is out walking the dogs. She stops to tell us that she's worried about the two boys going to America to watch the World Cup. " I just don't think it's safe ". Angus reassures her that the chances of a kilt wearing Scottish farm boy being shot in the towns they plan to visit is statistically minimal. Her response, " I guess you're right ", tells me she's not convinced. For the next five months family dinner table conversations between two football mad teenagers and a worried mother are likely to be a domestic version of attritional warfare. We shall carefully avoid providing ammunition to either side.
It's a grey day. The snow has gone and thankfully the sleet passed us by. This morning there are thousands of crows feeding in the neighbouring fields. They've been massing around us for the last month in numbers we've never seen before. There is something ever so slightly Hitchcockian about their behaviour. Every so often they inexplicably take to the air as one vast squawking mass.
The surfers have sensibly opted to stay at home.
There's more life in town where the council workmen are scattering salt on the pavements. Todays weather forecast calls for heavy rain so perhaps the workmen have got wind of a sudden freeze moving down from the North.
Life here in the off-season is quiet. Even the daily bus tours from Edinburgh seem to have headed off to disgorge their unsuspecting passengers elsewhere.
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Australian humour:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2uvy_5VMlY
Ancient colour schemes :https://worksinprogress.co/issue/were-classical-statues-painted-horribly/
This song has been on the blog a lot lately but at the 1:37 mark a strange claim. If the song was written in 1788 would it really have been sung as the Union flag was lowered at the end of the war in 1783?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI9xFpBZqaY
99% diagnostic tests :https://beyondtheabstract.substack.com/p/a-99-accurate-diagnostic-test-heres
4 comments:
Hari Om
St Andrews still manages to look brighter than Dunoon right now... the cloud layer is really struggling to get above hill height. Ah, winter... Excellent article on the relevance of prevalence... and as Burns was a Scottish nationalist before the SNP was even a dream, I doubt very much he'd have approved it being played for the dropping of (the version at that time) 'union flag'. The current tune used was also written well after Burns died, as indeed was the creation of the current version of the UK flag, so he wouldn't recognise it now... YAM xx
400,000,000 people wander the streets of the United States everyday, without being shot at. Avoid buying illegal drugs, being drunk in public, arguing with angry men, and you are pretty safe.
The dog article was interesting. In Charlie's case, he only learns the names of toys that he especially likes, he wouldn't waste time on any of the others that still linger around the house. I would say that both of your first two photos today are rather Hitchcock-esque. (Or maybe Stephen King for the second one?)
Sorry, people with accents or brown skin are not safe. No young people should be visiting the states from abroad at this point. There is always a chance of violence on game days, the strong police presence will be there along with the other federal police types. Sweet farm kids from St Andrews may not be ready to be hauled away by ICE to who knows where or shot to death. Will they be staying with an American relative? No? I'm in agreement with the farmer's wife. Things have changed, this is not your college years.
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