Roger, Roger (?)

Two nights ago in dream I clearly saw the face of someone who was a manager in the company I worked for twenty years ago. I never worked with him, he was in another department, and I cannot think of any reason for him appearing in my dream. His name was Roger - - - (?). Now that’s the problem, while I clearly see his face and am confident his first name was Roger, for the life of me I cannot remember his surname. For the last two days I’ve been trying to think of the name, annoyingly it’s a blank. It’s the same when watching TV you recognise an actor, but just can’t remember the programme you saw him / her in.

Guess that’s a sign of old age. The price you pay for being a Grumpy Old Fart! For two days I’ve been trying to trick my brain to dig deep into its memory bank and disclose the answer. Having imaginary conversations “Roger - - - (?) told me, have you seen Roger - - - (?), “ all in vain. I guess sometime in the past I must have emptied my brain’s recycle bin.

Just had a bright idea. I could try one of those photo sharing web sites, there might be a photo of Roger on there. No Roger didn’t have a beard.

In the world of Google, there is no such thing as the unknown. Surely if I enter “Roger + Name of the Company we worked for” out would pop the answer. Lets try.

Well do you know that Kenny Rogers sang “You gotta know when to hold ’em know when to fold ‘em . . .”. Isn’t that interesting? No I never worked with Kenny Rogers.

I have a feeling he had a Scottish name. Back to Google.

Do you know the most common Scottish surname is Smith and the 100th most popular Hay. Bad news Roger’s surname isn’t in the top 100. I suppose I could ask Jeeves. First I better test how bright Jeeves is before asking him.

Asked Jeeves if he knew about this blog, Would you believe it he didn’t. Asked him if he knew me “YesBut” and got the reply “Yes But Is It Good For The Jews? Now that was very relevant - I don’t think. If Jeeves hasn’t heard of YesBut there’s no chance of knowing Roger‘s surname.

I think there is a need for a Web Page where obscure questions can be asked and everybody comes together to answer it. Now what can it be called?

London Icons

Yesterday I added a photo to the blog page title header. I guess most people would recognise the skyline. And I suspect most would incorrectly name the clock tower. No it is not Big Ben, though people refer to it by that name. Now I could set the Quiz of the Day question and ask - what is the name of the tower? But with Google ready at hand, it would be pointless!!

It’s in fact St Stephen’s Tower. So Big Ben is the clock not the tower - wrong. Big Ben is the 13.5 ton, 9ft-5” diameter bell which strikes the hour chimes. There are four other bells that chime the quarters.

So the building on the left is the Houses of Parliament, again strictly speaking no - it’s the Palace of Westminster in which the two houses of parliament are housed.

The clock tower is one of the iconic images of London. The latest visual icon is located on the other bank of the River Thames - The London Eye, pictured in the 24th February blog. The oldest part of the Palace dates from 1097, while the London Eye was opened in February 2000.

The two icons characterise the contradiction that is London. London is perceived as an old capital, it was settled by the Romans in 43AD, yet it is a modern continually changing city.


The above view from Hungerford Bridge (click on it for a larger image) is looking in the opposite direction to the Palace of Westminster, towards the City of London. Another contradiction, London is made up of a number of cities, The City of Westminster, Southwark and of course The City of London.

“The City“, also known as the “Square Mile“, is the district first settled by the Romans. The three towers on the far left form part of the Barbican complex. Built between 1965 & 76 consisting of among other things: apartments, concert halls, theatre, a Business School and the Museum of London. The musium located in a modern building is adjacent to parts of the original London Wall built by the Romans. If you visit London with children the musium is a must see place - and its free!

To the right is one of the many Church spires seen on the London skyline - the wedding cake tiered spire of St Brides. The present church built in 1672 is the eighth located on the site, which has been a place of worship for two thousand years.

Just to the left of St Brides you can just about make out the dome of The Old Bailey - the Central Criminal Court. On top of the dome stands the figure of justice, holding a sword in her right hand and the scales of justice in the other.

Moving to the right we see two examples that typifies changing London - tower cranes.

In the centre stands the jewel of the City, St Paul‘s Cathedral. Built to replace the cathedral destroyed in the Fire of London in 1666; Christopher Wren commenced designing it in 1668 and the construction was completed in 1708. The great dome has witnessed so many state occasions: The wedding of Prince Charles to Diana, the funerals: of Sir Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington.

The City is the worlds leading international financial and business centre. And the home of Fat Cats. This year £19bn, US$ 37.4bn was paid out as annual bonuses, one individual getting £52 million - obscene?

No I’m not going to rant, today I’m a well behaved Grumpy Old Fart, YesBut!

Lets finish today with another iconic building, the bullet shaped 30 St Mary Axe, affectionately known as the “Gherkin”. The 590ft Swiss Re Tower was designed by Sir Norman Foster, taking three years to construct it was completed in 2004.

I haven’t mentioned The Iconic London structure. I’ll leave that for tomorrow.

In the mean time, I would be interested in hearing what you consider are the top 5~10 iconic images (structure or geographical features) in the World.

Appropriate language.

I received an adverse comment on my blog “Listen, can you hear them? It’s the French laughing their bollocks-off” they objected to “Up-yours you froggy bastards” and “What a f#cking farce, no wonder the French are chuckling”. Out of context the words might appear offencive, but read the blog and I hope you agree the phrases were appropriate.

What is regarded acceptable or unacceptable language is continually changing, even more so over the last 60 years. Which incidentally is how long this Grumpy Old Fart has been experiencing the joys of life. In Great Britain, as in most countries: print, radio and films were strictly censured. Then along came television.

Regular TV broadcasting started in 1936, but before it could get into its stride along came World War 2. How things have changed, now war is daily brought into our living rooms in all its gory details. But in 1939 the BBC closed down its television service. Television broadcasting started again after the war, in 1946 in the USA. But in those early days it was still the media for the rich. It was not until the early 1950s’ with the start of mass production of TV sets that it became affordable for the masses.

There we sat in front of our 9inch black and white sets. You could buy a magnifying glass to place in front of the screen; it didn’t enlarge the picture but it did effectively distort the image. Oh what exciting days those were - with broadcasts starting at 7p.m.It was thought it would have been too disruptive to broadcast earlier. All broadcasts were live, coming from two studios, the scenery had to be changed between shows. To avoid a blank screen interludes were shown. The image of two films is scared onto my memory. A horse drawn plough endlessly ploughing a field, the other was a potter making a pot - the clay thrown onto the wheel his fingers forming the wet squelche clay. If complicated scenery had to be set-up, the potter’s film was repeated and repeated and repeated. And there we sat, in bored brain-dead expectation “surely the show will start soon”. They had the technology to show films, so why didn’t they schedule short films between shows? They didn’t have to. With only one TV channel we were a captive audience, until ITV burst on the scene in 1955.

Fifty years ago and censorship was strictly applied. Programs were introduced by black-tied dinner jacketed plumb mouthed upper middle class sounding continuity announcers. The women announcers looked as if they were clutching the cheeks of their arse together to prevent a fart escaping. The slightest hint of sex, blasphemy or the mildest of obscenities and the pages of next days newspapers would be screaming outrage. And then there was self-appointed God’s moral guardian on Earth, Mary Whitehouse with her “Clean Up TV” campaigns.

But there was one thing, that now we think totally unacceptable, was in those days common fare on TV - racism. In the 50s’ and 60s’ the Great was vanishing from Great Britain, with the progressive loss of its Empire. “How can those stupid blacks in Africa govern themselves? You must be joking”. Meanwhile back in the UK more and more immigrants were coming from, what was euphemistically called the New Commonwealth, i.e. they were black. The white populace felt threatened. They had to somehow retaliate and so it became perfectly acceptable to make racist jokes. Situation comedy series had to have a black or Indian character who was the butt for the jokes. Inevitably they were servile and not to bright. From the mid 60’s to the 70s’, “Till Death Us Do Part” was the most popular TV comedy. Each week the foul mouthed cockney racist misogynist Alf Garnett ranted his anti-black male chauvinist diatribes, while his lazy layabout scouse son-in-law (played by Anthony Booth). egged him on. Booth? Yes father of Cherie Booth wife of Tony Blair our great and saintly Prime Minister.

By the 1970s Mary Whitehouse had lost the battle for British morals. The end started in 1959 with the passing of the The Obscene Publications Act which allowed publishers to escape conviction if they could show that the work was of literary merit. A year later Penguin tested the law when it published D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, containing not only steamy descriptions of love acts, but shock horror the f#ck and c#nt words - am I a prude or not, using # instead of “u”. Penquin won the case and the floodgates were opened allowing the bookshelves to be filled with profanities.

By the start of the twenty-first century obscenity was as common an occurrence in print and television as it was on the street. Newspapers are the only media, which in the main, have remained a four letter word free zone, except when it is germane to the story being reported.

Finally we come to the newest form of communication, blogs - which with the exception of China and Korea is censorship free. The language used reflects the code of conduct of the blogger. This ranges from the libertarian to the prudish. I hear one of the most popular blogs is posted by a young lady providing detailed accounts of her sexual exploits.

As for me, my blogs do contain f#ck but never a c***- I’m not a prude, more a little boy giggling at seeing a dirty word in print.