Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

StevieJ

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I've never read those. Always meant to, never got round to it.

I haven't either, I did read 'The name of the rose' by Eco which I think was the inspiration, it was hard work but enjoyable.

Generali

michaels wrote: »

I read 1066 and all that so I am far from ignorant...

Possibly the greatest history book in the English language:

Williamanmary: England Ruled by an Orange



WILLIAMANMARY for some reason was known as The Orange in their own country of Holland, and were popular as King of England because the people naturally believed it was descended from Nell Glyn. It was on the whole a good King and one of their first Acts was the Toleration Act, which said they would tolerate anything, though afterwards it went back on this and decided that they could not tolerate the Scots.

Well done to Mark Cavendish on his 19th stage win. Lance Armstrong won 22 in his career and Cav probably has another 3-4 tours in him as a top sprinter.

The record is Eddie Merckx with about 35 wins. I don't think that will ever be beaten.

Davesnave

I failed History O Level, so I read a couple of books, re-took it and passed around Christmas time. It was like that at my grammar school; you had a go, and if things didn't work out, you had another, and another. Some people even re-sat the whole 5th form, being known as the 'Dustbin Class.' Oh yes, things were much better in the old days!

As an ex-primary teacher, I know quite a lot about certain periods, like the Victorian era, Britain Since 1930, the Tudors, the Romans, and those nutters, the Egyptians. In between these, things are more hazy, but in the 1980s I developed quite a decent learning package on the Slave Trade, which was long before that subject became trendy.

Thinking back, I'm sure that history teaching was pretty poor in the 1950s, if only because it came as a total revelation to me in my teens when I discovered that Raquel Welch could never have met a dinosaur. :rotfl:

While I am around, which is not very often these days, I will just boast that the young lady in purple & looking wistful in the last picture in the sequence here, is one of mine :

http://www.crescent-theatre.co.uk/Y2011/ideal-husband-tour-hah.html

SingleSue

I made the biggest mistake of my life when I chucked history out at the end of my 3rd year at High School, in a not very mature decision, I stuck to my pledge of getting rid of history as soon as I could and have spent the last 20 years or so, trying to find somewhere to do a GCSE in 20th Century history without it costing an arm and a leg.

I was the top student in history in the 3rd year as well (98% in the end of year exam)....silly silly girl.

lostinrates

StevieJ wrote: »

I haven't either, I did read 'The name of the rose' by Eco which I think was the inspiration, it was hard work but enjoyable.

I love Umberto Eco.

PasturesNew

My first school was 2 years of reading through a dull book. All I remember is we had a picture of the Bayeux Tapestry on the wall. Then I changed schools and the next 2 years we didn't really do history as it was some bizarre syllabus where we had to discover that a peat bog man wasn't a recent murder victim; this was followed by working out what questions to ask when a body and a wallet are found in a ditch - and there are skid marks on the road - to establish if it were murder or not/how the person died.

So I just "didn't get it" at all - and ditched history.

michaels

I tried the pendulum and didn't understand a word of it.

lostinrates wrote: »

I love Umberto Eco.

I think the skid marks in the underwear would be a bigger clue...

PasturesNew wrote: »

My first school was 2 years of reading through a dull book. All I remember is we had a picture of the Bayeux Tapestry on the wall. Then I changed schools and the next 2 years we didn't really do history as it was some bizarre syllabus where we had to discover that a peat bog man wasn't a recent murder victim; this was followed by working out what questions to ask when a body and a wallet are found in a ditch - and there are skid marks on the road - to establish if it were murder or not/how the person died.

So I just "didn't get it" at all - and ditched history.

lostinrates

michaels wrote: »

I tried the pendulum and didn't understand a word of it.
.

there is no doubt he writes in a way that we rarely see written by English as first language speakers. Italian and spanish language writers (I also adore Gabriel Garcia Marquez) require a certain time frame to devote and ..with a memory like mine any way, preparedness to go back and find something you've forgotten or misremembered. And also an ability to be less...''goal driven''. Sometimes the narrative is there for its own sake not to further the whole of the story.

DH recently slogged through a very short Italian novel. He read it for literally months. A slow page at a time. I asked what it was about wondering if it was worth a labourious translating read (the bits I'd read over dh's shoulder were ok but not terribly grabbing)

he said ''a man who lives in the mountains''

''what happens?'' I asked.
''he lives, in the mountains''
''oh right, then what?''
''then it ends''
''how, what happens, does he die?''
''no, it stops talking about his life- in the mountains''


Eco has a plot, its a pretty good start.

PasturesNew

My 'parking ticket' from mid March has resurfaced.... letter received saying I'm a bad person as it's not been paid and as I'm the keepr of the vehicle, I should now pay .... the enhanced amount of £145. Still ignoring it

Wheezy_2

We visited Parliament on Saturday

It was actually pretty good and we had a very knowledgeable guide. The tour was a bit too short for my liking (about 75mins), I could easily spend several hours in there. House of Lords and surrounding rooms is stunning in sharp contrast with the House of Commons which is rather dreary. Much smaller than it looks on telly also.

In the Commons I kissed the carpet where Cameron usually stands at the despatch box (not really )