The holocaust of the owls

For many years I collected owls. At one point in Stevenage we had an "owl tree". In Coton, they sat upon shelves and the mantlepiece and the display cabinet. Eventually I stopped adding to them, and they remained, slowly aging and getting dusty. I rarely looked at them because I knew them all.

 

But when we moved - and somewhat earlier, in truth - it became clear that there were too many of them, and a cull was needed. I failed to cull in advance, so they all moved, and I've now culled quite a few. Here are the ones that didn't make the cut.

The one I'll note for future memories is the "three owls on a branch" that I bought on my long walk through France; and which I then copied with the scroll saw when Daniel was small. I parted with those reluctantly.

Dr Fry

Many many years ago in Junior School I studied history against my will, and I think this particular episode was pre O-level years too.

We had a teach called Winterbottom, inevitably known as Numb-Bum, but not unkindly, he was a decent bloke. As a Master he was of course ancient, though I now discover that he was only twenty years older than me.

Anyway, he wrote a book, about Thomas Charles Fry, who was head of the school oh-so-long-ago, or so I thought, but in fact around the 1900's (the cover image deceived me, and at the time I didn't look closer: but it turns out he was not as he somewhat appears mediaeval). Naturally, as a schoolboy I was totally uninterested in Fry or the book; and when copies were given out at the end of the year I put mine away unread.

Recently we moved house, and my copy emerged, and I thought I would try reading it; it is only 56 pages. And so I did. It is interesting and brings back happy memories of the school, and reminds me of how unthinking I was then... though I don't quite mean that; I mean how uninterested in, say, the history of the school I was.

Fry turns out to be responsible for quite a lot of the school buildings still there in my time: the old science block, which had been converted into Bees and Swifts; Dean's Hall; the Chapel; the Lychgate; the swimming pool. I think the library must post-date him though.

I won't detail the book; it is now out of print so you'll struggle to find it; abebooks has one (Clunbury Cottrell Press, Berkhamsted, 1977); if you're in Cambridge you're welcome to borrow mine.

Pre-bumps assessment 2022

Most years I forget to write what I think before bumps, but this time I've remembered.

Overall: good.

This year, we're definitely faster than our average over previous years: we hit sub-1:30 on every start and even hit 1:19 once, with a tailwind. We are: Harry, Jonathon, SteveO, Conor, Alistaire, Jon, me and Ralph; and cox Theo (photo-shopped in is Adam, see later). Ali is ex-Kings and has only been with us a month but is young and strong; in general our power this year is better than before, with the exception of me; my 2k this year was 7:31.6. Conor's was 6:35 and Ali is rumoured sub-6:30. Theo is a good cox, active and enthusiastic; his only bad point is that he starts spinning from bowside, and can be a little cautious.

Training has gone well; we're balanced and we're prepared to put effort in. We've only had 2-3 outings per week, but perhaps that helps keep us fresh.

Of our opponents we know little, so I won't speculate here... or will I? Maybe I will. St Neots have been dropped down due to Slow and Robs 2 dropped entirely due to Not Existing. So we start at 9, chasing Tabs 3, and being chased by Nines 3. Tabs appear to have settled on Hills Rd, though they have been Aquaphobes at one point. I think I'd feel more confident against Aquaphobes, but it will be fun to row against the Evil Hills Road crew. And Nines are not strong this year but they have Henk at 5. That's day one, subsequent days can look after themselves.

Note: due to the heatwave, Monday and and Tuesday were cancelled, boo hiss. I wouldn't have, but I do admit it was extremely hot and a defensible decision.

Post-bumps assessment

And now it is all over; this written Sunday night. The official write-up is here; it is rather short because there wasn't a lot to celebrate alas. However, M1 did win the Captain's Prize for the best crew that didn't win blades, with the glorious score of two row-overs and one down; alas, all the ladies went down each night, and M2 twice. That of course is a bare account and not a fair assessment.

In more detail: Wednesday, the first night, was in retrospect a missed opportunity; we had our crack at Tabs 3 unhindered by Nines behind, because City took them out on First Post. We knew this meant that City were fast but we hadn't gone off hard enough and of course Nines being taken out removed any push; so we rowed over. Thursday was much better; we went off harder and were within a whisker of bumping Tabs, but alas we got taken down by City. Boo hiss. Friday was expected to be dull as we knew we were faster than Nines, and so we were, to First Post; but they pushed us hard down the Reach and got within 3/4, so that turned out in the usual odd way of these things to be a more satisfying ending that expected (also Henk was dropped down to 2, so Nines may have had some ringers in). Ali had got Covid to was out Weds and Thurs, ably replaced by Adam but perhaps this unsettled us, but who knows. Given another day I think we'd have got Hills.

Book review: War and Peace

Another classic. Indeed it even says it is one up there at the top; see my picture. Wiki sez It is regarded as one of Tolstoy's finest literary achievements and remains an internationally praised classic of world literature. I think that is overblown; my touchstone is Heart of Darkness. We've owned it forever; I finally read it because it was about time and the Ukraine war provides context.

As history, the book of course chronicles from the aristocratic Russian side Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Somewhat along the lines of Proust, part of the interest is the view we get of the aristocracy. And that view is of a bunch of idle useless pointless shallow folk. We occaisionally get to see the underside, of the serfs, but I think this is airbrushed, with the horrors removed out of sight. If you're interested in how the military campaign went, then read something else, because part of Tolstoy's art is to describe battles from a very detailed close-up viewpoint that  emphasises how confusing they were.

And here we run inevitably into his theory of history. Oh yes, he has a theory. And he isn't subtle about it. I can't tell if he just lacks confidence, and so won't let the ideas speak for themselves as the book unfolds; or if he is perfectly well aware that what he describes doesn't demonstrate his ideas; but either way, there are chapters of theory, and even an entire epilogue of it. His brilliant theory, if you don't know it, is that the "Big Man" theory of history is wrong, and instead, that... well, his alternative is rather less clear. Either that history is made up of lots of little things, or that great movements of peoples from East to West <something>. I wasn't desperately interested, so find it somewhere else from someone who cares. For what it is worth. I think his theory fits the Russian side rather well: the Russians had no-one competent and their response - to keep losing until the French were exhausted - was what happened. But it doesn't fit the French side at all well.

As to the story apart from the campaign, well, it is the lives of various Russian aristocrats, and as a story it is all reasonably well told and moderately interesting. But I think he needed an editor.

I get the feeling that the book does represent something of how Russians view themselves and their people. Perhaps they think more now of the Great Patriotic War but either way it is living on past glories of times that weren't really glorious anyway.

Addendum: 2024/06: finishing Popper's The Poverty of Historicism, he briefly mentions Tolstoy, and agrees with his theory. I find that odd, since I don't think it fits the French side at all well; it is hard to see the Frogs bothering to invade Russia without Napoleon to drive them. But you may read his words here.

Book review: Poseidon's Wake

TL;DR: indeed. It was, and I didn't get to the end. I starting skipping some stuff, then more, after about half way; and when I gave up about fifty pages from the end I was just flicking through. And am pleased that I was able to tell myself just not to bother finishing it. I knew there would be nothing interesting at the end. 

Just like On the Steel Breeze I really knew I shouldn't have started this. It is a continuation: the same uninteresting characters go off and do implausible things for unconvincing reasons. As is traditional for books about space, the orbital mechanics is hopelessly wrong (Oh noes, we're heading towards a planet! We must deccelerate really hard! But <x> cannot cope with the decelleration and will die! In that case, why not thrust less hard, but sideways? Shhhh, you'll spoil the plot). And don't get me started on the we-can-prove-the-universe-will-end drivel. Our Author is clearly fascinated by elephant cognition or the possibilities thereof, but is unable to imagine such beasts doing anything interesting, so that bit is dull too.

Book review: Ender's game

By Orson Scott Card. I regret re-reading this. Goodreads will tell you some of the bad points,as well as having lots of people enthuse over it.

The implausibly young children achieving implausible things is not especially plausible; one could perhaps try making them older, to little effect. Despite the violence, the book is somewhat bland and unsatisfying, though still quite page-turney.

Do we believe (warning: spoilers) that the adults would have failed to realise that the buggers were not fighting back once the queen died? I think not. Indeed, given the storyline, is an alien "fleet" even believeable?

The finale is based on video games, and makes a nice plot twist. But, why would within-a-solar-system orbital mechanics lead to a game taking about an hour? Days would seem more likely... although the drive systems are never mentioned. And if your aim is to get to the planet, why deccelerate at all?

Re-reading my review, I find I'm too negative. I can still - faintly - recall how well this read the first time I read the book, perhaps in my 20's. The problems are that it doesn't re-read well; and perhaps because I've since read far too many young-kids-being-implausibly-adult books.

Another visit to Olde Englande

A piece of Olde Englande refers. This time, closer to old home, on the way back from Oxford. GPS trace.

At a turn in the road is a Lychgate that I haven't been through before. It turns out to be for Wilstone cemetery, but it is some way from Wilstone. Indeed it is some way from anywhere.

Inside, we look back out:

All is calm and peaceful. And I feel a surge of feeling for England, the land.

There's even a Proctor. There's nothing particularly old, though. Presumably this is the overflow cemetery.

And then on to Ivinghoe Beacon. How tall it used to be, when I was young.

Ah, time.