Author Archive: Lesley Jakobsen
St. Valentine
Valentine (by Bassano, c. 1575)
February 14 (2016) 18 centuries after this fellow was martyred, on the day when (in England) tradition has it that birds pair-up, The Varnished Culture chose a quieter programme for Valentine’s Day. Whereas last year we saw the ASO’s curious ‘romantic’ programme, this time we had Die Walküre the evening before, so instead there was a lazy morning, a lazy lunch (returning to the ABC recording of the ASO’s night before) and then we washed down another viewing of Picnic with champagne and Turkish delight. Once again, feel the love!
Continue Reading →Accidents Will Happen
Songs in Our Heart # 1 (We have sounded off about songs we dislike intensely, and had lots of lovely negative feedback! But in the interests of restoring harmony, we are starting a series of random tunes we love (or perhaps only one of us does) and we will continue as we think of more. Thanks also to those sporting sharers at YouTube – TVC doesn’t endorse any ads that may pop up!): Accidents Will Happen (Elvis Costello & the Attractions) (Written by Elvis Costello; released May 1979) [The perfect pop song, full of sound and fury, signifying everything.]
Continue Reading →Mendeleev, Vodka, Peas and Quizzes
Dmitri Mendeleev (born on this day in 1834) was real good at chemistry. Mendeleev neatened up the nascent Periodic Table and so facilitated the discovery and proper classification of further elements. He saw it all in a dream which may, or may not, have owed something to 40% vodka. I was not real good at chemistry. I had Mendeleev with his Hydrogen and Helium confused with Gregor Mendel with his flies and peas. But I did learn this one thing which has held me in surprisingly good stead in quizzes. It is a mnemonic for the first twenty elements – two scientists who worked together late…
Continue Reading →My History: A Memoir of Growing Up
Dragon School, Oxford. Not my alma mater.
(by Lady Antonia Fraser) It would be unfair for me to compare Lady Antonia Fraser’s first volume of memoirs with that of her cousin, Ferdinand Mount because in many aspects Fraser had the (early) life and has had the career that I wanted, whereas I felt only the vaguest envy for Mount’s connections and have never aspired to working for Margaret Thatcher. While growing up in the hideous new lower-middle-class outer suburb of Dust in South Australia, attending Dust Primary and High Schools, I knew that I really belonged in a large nook-filled house in Oxford, attending a private school, learning Latin and Greek in preparation for Oxford, in its turn a preparation…
Continue Reading →10 Things We Hate About Gadgets
As follows: Buffering. Appliances with no ‘on/off’ switch. Planned obsolescence. They don’t do what they say. They don’t do what we say. Blenders…that are so much more. Buttons with (impressionist) pictures. Artificial lack of intelligence. The zoning of DVDs. They’re no good!
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