A German Genius in Britain

I have to admit that I didn't know much about W. G. (Winfried Georg) "Max" Sebald until I read the interesting Wikipedia entry and listened to a BBC Radio 4 programme entitled "A German Genius in Britain" today. I didn't really manage to take it in properly (in parallel with translation work), so ought to listen again some time. The programme is 'catch-upable' (for 12 months from today) via BBC iPlayer.

British sense of humour

Yesterday I spoke to a gentleman (fellow heritage campaigner) who had been very poorly not long ago. Thankfully, his various conditions are currently under control, based on a complex and finely balanced mix of medication. When I asked him how he was, he said when he woke up in the morning he looked out of the window to check whether the hearse was there. He couldn't see it, so he decided to get up!

How to insert emoticons in blog posts?

The process of inserting emoticons in blog posts seems surprisingly cumbersome. This web page (thanks to Jonathan Calder for pointing it out) kind of works, but the icons are too large and therefore mess up the line spacing  as you can see.

In any case, I don't necessarily want/need animated emoticons. Simple/basic graphical emoticons would do nicely.

Another option would be automatic conversion of simple text-based emoticons such as :-) into graphics (this functionality has been available in Mozilla Thunderbird, for example, for years). Alas, blogger.com obviously doesn't convert such text-based emoticons, as you can see.

The blogger.com help system doesn't appear to offer any help in this regard, nor is an emoticon option available in the blog post toolbar – see below.

Any suggestions, anyone?

Mother's Day

I have to admit I had no idea about the history of Mother's Day (and why the date is different in Germany and the UK) until an article on the apostrophe in Mother's Day prompted me to do 'some research'.

It turns out that, according to Wikipedia, "the celebration of Mother's Day began in the United States in the early 20th century; it is not related to the many celebrations of mothers and motherhood that have occurred throughout the world over thousands of years, such as the Greek cult to Cybele, the Roman festival of Hilaria, or the Christian Mothering Sunday celebration".

The Wikipedia entry for Mothering Sunday sheds further light (or, dare I say it, perhaps confusion?) on the situation. Note the clear 'instruction' on the 2014 version of that page: "Not to be confused with Mother's Day". which was subsequently removed. Go figure, as they say 😕

Or how about the CBBC page here?

Not to mention a good explanation of the difference between Mothering Sunday in the UK and Mother's Day in the US on an online flower shop propaganda page here. 

Kirby Muxloe, by Olwen Hughes

Kirby Muxloe features in last week's Sketchbook 'episode' by Olwen Hughes MBE, patron of Leicester Civic Society. The article doesn't appear to be available (yet) on the Leicester Mercury website, so I'm taking the liberty of reproducing it here. Some blog readers will, of course, be aware that Sue and I got married at the Castle Hotel and will remember the splendid occasion.

When I visit Kirby Muxloe, I usually have visitors with me who cannot wait to see its magnificent castle remains. Generally, I take visitors to the village church first, much of which is medieval in origin. Internally, it was much re- stored in Victorian times. The castle’s popularity is justified, for the remarkable set- ting of this magnificent brick building in rich pasture land and its fascinating irregular skyline make it most scenic. It was begun in 1480 by Lord Hastings, who was lord of the manor of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. I was pleased to find many of the workmen were Welsh, though, unfortunately, they never had the opportunity to finish their work for the castle was not completed. This was because Lord Hastings was beheaded on June 13, 1483 in the courtyard of the Tower of London, a short while before Richard convinced Parliament the princes in the tower were illegitimate and he should become king. Lord Hastings had been part of what Richard judged to be a conspiracy against him. No visit to the village is complete without a call at the Castle Hotel, where a warm welcome awaits.

How copyright laws keep e-books locked up

Interesting article under the heading The Digital Paradox: How Copyright Laws Keep E-Books Locked Up available here.

Quote: Many publishing houses don't allow their products to be lent out by digital libraries for fear of piracy. Articles and books by researchers are also affected. Readers are the ones who have to pay the price.

Reading the article had the added benefit that I learned a new word: heretofore

It's a Hard Life

Methinks this photo, taken in our back room a few days ago, speaks for itself.

Not sure whether they were thinking of Queen – who knows.