Monday 15 January 2007

THE ARENA IS OPEN!

I have felt for a while that the burrow needs refurbishing [as pompous American ambassadors would say] - 'tarting up' to you lot. It's become a bit of a rag-bag, and some the writing on the wall is rather tatty now and then. By all means let's have a bit of fun and frolic; I enjoy it as much as anyone sometimes. But not always. Discussion on more serious threads frequently gets hijacked into banter and ribaldry which - whatever the reason [and I have my own theories] - deflects sustained consideration of what Tony Benn calls "the ishoos".

So I've decided to move the more serious stuff over to my new site - anticant's arena - which is now open [link on left-hand of title page]. I am moderating this to keep things on-track. Sorry if some of you think that is censorship - it isn't; no relevant opinions will be removed.

As for the burrow, for which I have a strong affection - like Mole in The Wind in the Willows I feel it's dulce domum - I've asked ben trovato and the Beadle to freshen up the furnishings, replenish the Snug bar, and keep up the open-door tradition of hospitality for anyone who cares to drop by for reminsicence, anecdote, nostalgia, or just plain [but not dirty] fun.

If you tell me I'm schizophrenic, it can't be helped.

29 comments:

zola a social thing said...

Ok Anticant : After failing to mention Prime Minister Foot in your biased version of labour party history you now mention Herra Benn.
Wow!!!!
Is that guilt or ......
I call it bullshit.
Sorry that your version of history is very different from mine and a few others.
But I remain with .....

anticant said...

BTW, ben and the Beadle are doing the renovations at cost-price. I rejected an impossibly high estimate from a couple of blokes who came by in a white van - Messrs. Bodgitt & Creepaway.

anticant said...

What's 'bias', Zola? My preference is your bias and vice-versa. I keep pointing out to you that I am cross-party - VERY cross with all parties - not a Leftie. All Lefties are biased.

Having just had a set-to with Richard about the champagne socialist, Nye Bevan, here are you chiding me for mentioning Tony Benn. Why not? He's much more principled and consistent than Bevan ever was. I don't agree wtih him about a lot of things, but that's another matter.

Anonymous said...

Of course, The GrumpyOne is a cross party.
PS Like the new decor.

zola a social thing said...

Anticant : You dislike postmodern relativism I hear --- and you want bloggers to stay true to ......

Which side of bed will you get out of tomorrow?

I get out on my left side and then i have a stiff cup of coffee to wake up and get real.

zola a social thing said...

Just to keep serious and to the FACTS Anticant --- I chided you for mentioning NOW Herra Benn after failing to mention Mr Foot in your Labour leadership diatribes.
Please keep serious and factual.
This is a serious site and always has been and YOUR SUBJECTS do know a thing or two.
Age doth not equal knowledge yer knoiws.

anticant said...

Zola, it is you who are Grumpy today, not I. I am under no obligation to mention or not mention anybody I like in what I write.

I do not make a habit of calling you silly names one minute and chiding you for writing nonsense - which you quite frequently do - the next.

zola a social thing said...

But it is YOU that demands such decent standards not I !!!
Problem? If I follow your demands it does not go down too well.
better i make more Benny Hill jokes methinks.

anticant said...

Dunno what you mean by "if I follow your demands it does not go down too well". It would go down well with me.

When you are in jokey mood, I would prefer Tommy Handley to Benny Hill. The former was at least witty - not just smutty.

zola a social thing said...

I like being smutty.
I was born and raised to be just that way.
Like it still i do.

anticant said...

OK, so you like being smutty? I don't. This is my burrow. anticant rules OK. Get it?

zola a social thing said...

Well Anticant : We have amused people in our little amusements. What more could be asked of two court jesters?
I only had in my hand three Kings anyway.
But I played for matchsticks.

anticant said...

You're worth more than matchsticks, Zola. Chopsticks at least - you can be very sweet and sour!

Please don't go away. You would be sorely missed, even by the Beadle.

Peace and love,

anticant

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness for that.
I have been sorely distressed......
two wonderful, totally different people, vital and sometimes crazy and a daily lift for us all.
Thanks to you two I have now eaten 3 full boxes of chocolates and 2 funny champagne egg thingies sent to me by a friend - and I shall prbably be sick.
Who's the Tommy Handley by the way ?

anticant said...

Oh my God! Are you too young to remember ITMA? Get some BBC Classic Tapes immediately!

Anonymous said...

Anticant - -what is 'ITMA'..............??
I would love to know.

Anonymous said...

Just googled it....
It's That Man Again.
Sounds like it used to be fun......

anticant said...

It was more than fun - it was hilarious, eagerly awaited every week by half the nation:

www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/radio/itma.htm

And BTW, kindly don't blame us for your chocaddiction.

zola a social thing said...

Load of old crap : half the nation indeed?
Would you like to know how most people lived?
Half the Nation indeed!!! Crap.
Never give you a job in .....

Anonymous said...

I think the earliest memories are of the Goon Show and Round the Horn.
I went into Virgin to get my Father a CD of Round the Horn one Christmas and was amazed when the way-trendy assistant said -" WOW - Brilliant.!"

anticant said...

And where were you at the time, grandpapa? Not even a twinkle in the paternal eye I guess.

Obviously not much use offering you olive braches or chopsticks, so I'll try bamboo canes next. Go to sleep!

Richard W. Symonds said...

Sorry to butt-in so rudely, Anticant, but Zola has a point about Foot (Michael not Paul).

He took over Nye Bevan's constituency in Tredegar, didn't he ?

ITMA - the most popular wartime radio programme (no TV as you know) - and what was the second most popular : The Brains Trust - starring Cyril Joad.

As for Wedgie Benn - well, he was much like Nye Bevan..."an uneven performer"...but great with it.

I'll go now - like a little troll - and leave you to bicker...

anticant said...

What is 'the point' about Michael Foot? That I didn't mention him? I was writing my own personal take on the Labour Party - not an inclusive history or official record. Or a 'diatribe'.

It really does amaze me how people who are always banging on about their own slant of things - which I often don't agree with, but think they are perfectly entitled to - are so ready to jump on me and abuse me for stating mine. Which I have every intention of continuing to do.

zola a social thing said...

As many have said that which is left under the surface "reveals" the big iceberg right under. But that which is on the surface is but a mask or an entry point or ....

Anonymous said...

GOOD Morning, Anticant, from 'Emmett Smith', aka Bodwyn Wook), here at home in southern Minesota, on the North Coast of Ioway! I quite like the looks of your 'blogs', likewise, and am looking forward.... To-day is a grey & melting, forty-degrees, sort of day here & best spent hammering out controversy at the key-board, eh?

AS To smut & raillery, whenever /I/ am feeling esp obnoxious, why, I just hie myself to /The Guardian/ 'CiS' pp & let fly /there/ -- that sort of carrying-on seems to suit their kidney; and, anyhow, I don't suppose that I have any hypothetical & 'post-modern' (made-up, /eg/) 'right' to step into /your/ parlour and start in flinging about the tea-things, eh?

MAY I suggest to M Zola that I've an 'web-log' dedicated specifically to /bad language/? 'Tis Bodwyn Wook, at wordpress.com and features specimens of 1950s farmer-cursing hereabouts, some UK and American language-comparisons & notes, and /cet/.
(And, yes, you /did/ read it aright, above: 'an "web-log'' -- the double-/u/ /is/ a vowel, hmm?)

BEST Regards,

B Wook, Chief Constable [/retd/], Cadwal Conservancy & IPCC-affiliate

['hard' mail may be posted, /via/ Starlines Vega, to:]

Wook,
c/o
Smade's Tavern,
Smade's Planet,
BEYOND

anticant said...

A warm welcome, Chief Constable! The Burrow Beadle could do with some senior reinforcements - it gets a bit unruly in the Snug sometimes, what with Zola's spasmodic bouts of knicker-waving and lavenderblue's irrepressible yearnings for ever more improbable adventure.

Zola, BTW, lives in the North of Finland, so you should have some Scandinavian lore in common. Do look at his site - which, like all the other Awkward Squad blogs, can be found by clicking on "list" in the AW logo at the top of the burrow home page.

Bodwyn Wook said...

ANTICANT, Lavender Blue & all the rest of the Intelligent Bad Element, Gudday! Another grey & raw sort of late-March afternoon, 'ere, I must say. As to chappies misbehaving in the parlour, I've found that an offer of seven or a dozen, w/the ratwhisk, usually sharpens people up, eh?
Here's /my/ latest whinge, about selling 'on-line', which I do -- books, mainly:

http://bodwyn.wordpress.com/2007/03/19/the-correspondence-of-an-online-bookdealer/#more-183

I Shall sort out that /suomilainen/ M Zola shortly but, now, have to bugger off & tend to them icelandic ponies, Huldy & Ragna, plus the punch horse, Mr Gamgee -- they are just now wagging their heads at me over the paddock-fence and wanting the hay and oats what I promised earlier on, when we was skidding a fall of ash-trunks in my farm-grove.

ALL The best,

B Wook in the Mire

Bodwyn Wook said...

[Afterthought] It occurs I should explain I'm more-or-less a Stanley Baldwin old (!) Tory & I'd not blame you, therefore, if you was thusly to send me to the rightabouts!

Wook....

Bodwyn Wook said...

Antimacassar, er, Anticant!

"CHRIST, Hell, dirty sonofabitch -- the rotten bastard actually went right in there! I'll be God-damned!" as my 87-years-old farm-neighbour, Judson Andersen, said to me tonight, after we got that "whore's dream" of a takeout-augur (which he re-welded for me to-day) remounted in my silo. And, ditto-that -- I finally figured out /how/ to weasel my way back in /here/ with various irreplaceable sagacities & dire insights; and, for now, will piss off and leave you lot in peace anyway, as our host is sound asleep -- and I've got a few lambs coming yet. And, sure as Hell, them Cheviot ewes'll be at it at two in the ack-emma! (Actually, they're jolly sheep and damn good Ma's, plus they usually don't NEED any help -- but, I like to get up and ooze around the barn a few times in the night, just in case. Nice thing is the little shits are doing alright in this 40-degree weather. Ain't like the first round back in February....)

SORRY, Anticant, I perceive that in the foregoing I lapsed rather into American, eh? 'Oh, well, maybe next time', as the Mouse said after he failed to make love to the Elephant, 'after all, morality is mainly a matter of LUCK!'

B Wook