Tag Archives: alternative history

A Flying Start and a Crash to Earth

Last night I left it late to post, so late that it was actually the next day. Or today. As usual, I get my timings hopelessly mixed.  So today I am getting off to a flying start by writing early. The problem with that, of course, is that I don’t have anything to write about concerning the events of today.

Pause . . .

Do you remember when you used to get a message that said “Buffering” when you were on the internet? It’s been replaced by the endlessly moving circle. I’m feeling a bit that way as I sit and think.  If I were a classically educated man I would now mention Ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. But I’m not. I didn’t encounter the concept until I watched an episode of Red Dwarf. I used to get a lot of science knowledge from sci-fi books and films. The trick is knowing what is true and what is made up. Imagine the results if you believed it all.

I thought it might make a good sci-fi film The President’s Father Must Be Sterilised, (working title – the final one will be much snappier) where a government department, faced with closures, mass unemployment and immense personal tragedy (I will weave in tales of a Mexican wife scheduled for deportation (with her children suitably caged), and a man selling a kidney to afford eggs to feed his dying father) uses all its resources to go back in time and administer a vasectomy to the father of Donald Trump.

Aha!

A title with a double meaning, though lacking subtlety – Trump’s Nuts.

And there we are, a post written, an hour I won’t get back again and a possible Netflix series about a doctor who time travels with a scalpel and a sense of social justice, causing mayhem and unexpected consequences throughout history.

But for now, in a return to reality, I must write poems.

 

 

Men of few words are the best men

I do like Saturdays. They are generally interesting days, being a bit busier than weekdays, and with a slightly more social element about them. For the last few weeks they have been also been the start of my weekend, as I currently have Sundays and Mondays off.

Today we had several people selling things and a couple coming to buy, with someone in nearly all the time. I’m just getting into the swing of things with the Edward VIII medallions, and am remembering how to set up an eBay listing with a drop-down menu. It isn’t difficult but you need to concentrate and my first few attempts last week all ended with me wiping things off by accident.

We currently have one listing up and running. There are two more ready to go and a fourth is in preparation. They are getting steadily more interesting as time goes by. I started with Coronation medallions (two lots), moved on to the Empire Day medallions and am now on Royal Visits. I still have the better quality Coronation Medallions and the Investiture Medallions to do.

He’s an interesting man, and had some admirable qualities, but he is not a man I personally admire. I think that things worked out for the best as George VI made a great wartime King, whereas Edward VIII, with his admiration of Hitler and his defeatist talk, would not have been an asset.

However, like so many things from history, we will never know.

I am trying to extend my posts to 500 words in order to increase my writing stamina, having made do with 250 words for many of my posts. However, there are just some days when 250 seems the right number. I did try a few hundred on fascism (following on from Edwards VIII) and I also became enmeshed in some discussion of anti-semitism (ditto) but my heart wasn’t in either of them and they are not really subjects lending themselves to short discussions.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Rather than burble on for the sake of reaching a word count I racked my brains for a quote, then, as my brains were not up to the job, looked on the internet. My brains don’t hold enough Shakespeare. but fortunately the internet does. A line from Henry V on the subject of Corporal Nym supplies the title of the post, and the closing thought.

(I have re-used two photographs from recent posts – sorry to be so lazy.)