Posts by Rob Hosking
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I think the difference lies in what the humour is trying to do.
The jokes by victims and survivors of the events of 1933-45 in Europe (and elsewhere) are as much a coping mechanism as anything else. It is laughter a s a relief, and laughter as a gleeful cry of "I'm still here."
Those students? They're just trying to shock. The whole aim of these activities is to make people, mostly older people, disapprove. It's a cheap and immature way of feeling "daring".
And at that age, for most people, things like Hitler and the Nazis are pretty abstract things. They're almost metaphors.
As they get older most people learn there's terror, blood and death on those metaphors and with a bit of maturity they learn to employ them more tastefully.
For now, the best tactic is to ignore them.
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Thanks for the great post Emma. It really took me back, the smells, the endless rehearsals, the excitement.
Me too. And that's just the commando/grunds part of the discussion.
Not if you say "she is an actor", surely?
And is gender the most relevant characteristic?Depends on the she who is an actor. Some of 'em are all gender and sod-all acting.
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Indeed. Any guesses on who the local session singers are?
Probably the Yandall Sisters. They were on just about everything, back then.
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One of the things that contributed to my reluctance was that over the years I've noticed that when I go back 'home', I revert to how I used to be when I lived there.
That is something that gets worse in groups, I've found. They often revert to old mode. And sometimes some individuals within them will actively push the group that way. It pays to call them on it, I've found.
On school itself...I can remember one guest speaker at Assembly - it may have been the local Anglican vicar - telling us school days are the best of your life. And I remember thinking, 'oh, no f***ing way.' Because if you do believe that, it strikes me as one of the most depressing ideas I've ever heard.
Not that school was terrible - when I hear other people's experiences I realise how lucky I was, because most of my teachers were thoroughly decent human beings - but the whole thing seemed to be a huge exercise in marking time.
My own high school has a reunion next year and I'm thinking. maybe....I figure I'll probably go to one, once, and at the age of 46 is probably not a bad one to go to.
And there's a few teachers I owe an apology to.
Is anyone else mentally adding '... and it feels so good' to the title of this post?
Well, I am now. Thanks a bundle.
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LET us go then, you and I,
When the economy is splattered against the sky
Like a patient cauterised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted malls,
The muttering calls
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust dealing rooms with warning bells:
Streets that follow like a tedious Budget
Of insidious fudge-it
To lead you to an overwhelming question …
Oh, do not ask, “What the fuck?”
Let us go and make our buck.
In the room the women come and goTalking of asset ratios.
Someone else can finish it.I have to go and talk to economists now.
Yes. Really.
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Fathers of any age with babies need to consider the semiotics of the nappy
Yeah, that's what I always felt like, after wiping away the brown smelly stuff at 2am.
Thinking about semiotics.
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I recently became a Dad in my thirties - thank goodness. Procreating in your early forties feels a bit old.
I procreated when I was 38.
And became about 44 within 18 months.
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I note, however, that you've inadvertently spelt it correctly -- thus missing the opportunity to demonstrate your deliberately ironic juxtaposition with "sleepers", and your solidarity with the common man.
Not to mention "sleepers'" evocation of the railways, and their role in infrastructure investment.
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I believe being able to distinguish between the numbers four and six may be a prerequisite for an economics career. Still given the last few years, who knows?
Oh, anything above four is a stimulus package.
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But if the title of this post is a reference to the mid-70s series of BBC television plays, I'm not really getting the allusion =)
Well I suppose it is either that or the Simple Minds song.
Or the British Lord Chancellor 1918-22 , who I believe coined the phrase.