Six Things, Volume 80

Nostalgia | Bus Stops | Eggs | George | Astronomy | Alphaguess

Thing 1 – Nostalgia

Discovering the new is all very well, but sometimes you just want to sit back and wallow in the old (never forgetting that the word ‘nostalgia’ stems from the Greek words for ‘homecoming’ and ‘pain’).

There are few things more nostalgia-inducing than music (smell/taste, perhaps – one whiff of linseed oil and I’m back in my bedroom infusing the blade of my cricket bat with far too much of the stuff, no doubt in the hope that its magic powers would have the same effect on my batting prowess as Billy’s Magic Boots had on young Billy Dane’s footballing skills). Whatever your age, The Nostalgia Machine will roll back the years and plunge you into paroxysms of either delight or agony, depending on the quality of the music of your childhood.

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Thing 2 – Bus stops

Talking of age, a sure marker of mine is that, when I see the words ‘bus stop’, I think of this song, not this one. If you think of neither, congratulations: you’re officially young.

But from now on, having read this feature on Flashbak, I will think of the Soviet Union, and Christopher Herwig’s remarkable quest to document its wealth of weird and fantastical bus stops. And I will also cast a disapproving eye at the pathetically unimaginative design of my own local offerings. Sure, they can predict to the minute the arrival of the next ten buses, but do they have as their centrepiece a massive white concrete pigeon? Are they flanked by a colourful fairground scene? Are they being subjected to the baleful gaze of an armed police officer clad in a fetching sky blue onesie? They are not. And in my view they’re all the worse for it.

“A discreet cry for freedom in a society where everything was controlled”

As Jonathan Meades says: “the bus stop or shelter … tends in Western Europe to be meanly utilitarian. There is a certain amount of that here. But it is atypical. The norm is wild going on savage.”

If the article piques your interest (it’s certainly piqued mine), there are two books, which you can buy here, as well as an equally intriguing book on Soviet Metro stations.

There’s also a documentary film, which doesn’t seem to be available to watch online (do let me know if you find it). But this trailer only adds to the interest-piquing.

There’s a longer clip with Herwig talking about it.

And a printed Interview here.

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Thing 3 – Eggs

“This Lord Worplesdon was Florence’s father. He was the old buster who, a few years later, came down to breakfast one morning, lifted the first cover he saw, said ‘Eggs! Eggs! Damn all eggs!’ in an overwrought sort of voice, and instantly legged it for France, never to return to the bosom of the family. This, mind you, being a bit of luck for the bosom of the family, for old Worplesdon had the worst temper in the county.” PG Wodehouse – Jeeves Takes Charge

CW: EGGS – LOTS OF THEM

Patrick Tomasso is a filmmaker and film analyst. He cut together the best egg scenes in movies. Let’s not ask why – let’s just enjoy it.

If you think your favourite egg scene isn’t there, perhaps check this list before complaining.

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Thing 4 – George

One of my favourite things is the British Trust for Ornithology’s Cuckoo Tracking Project.  Every so often they send an email with the latest update, the most recent of which told us that George 2 has now reached Mali. Go George!

The project uses Platform Transmitter Terminals (PTTs) weighing just 4 grams – light enough, unlike GPS transmitters, to be fitted to the bird with minimal inconvenience. They’re powered by a small solar-charged battery. The routine is: transmit for 10 hours, sleep/recharge for 48. So while the tracking isn’t as accurate as GPS would be, it nevertheless provides an invaluable resource in understanding the lives of these remarkable and fascinating birds, whose British population has dropped by 65% since the 1980s.

George was tagged earlier this year as an adult, so while this isn’t his first journey to Africa, it’s the first one we can follow. Let’s hope he compiles as impressive a record as the legendary PJ, who over six migrations clocked up over 60,000 miles, and who unwittingly contributed a huge amount to our knowledge of these extraordinary journeys.

No matter how much we learn, what I suspect we will never know is quite why George decided to return to France having made his way to central Spain. Perhaps he’d left the iron on.

You can sponsor a cuckoo – a fine thing to do.

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Thing 5 – Astronomy

Earlier in the week we visited the Astronomy Photographer of the Year exhibition. Many of the photographs were appropriately jaw-dropping – executed not just with great skill but imagination too. I found those that gave us a proper sense of perspective (not too much, though) the most affecting. And I was particularly struck by Serpentine, an image by Paul Howarth, which brought back memories of freezing mornings in the mud at Snettisham, waiting for geese to rise and knot to swirl.

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Thing 6 – Alphaguess

If your current tally of [positive integer greater than or equal to 1] daily games isn’t enough, you might want to add Alphaguess. It’s a simple enough game, featuring a word a day, which (the clue here is in the name) you have to guess. The game simply tells you whether the word comes before or after your guess in the alphabet. And so the long day wears on, until (usually between 10 and 20 guesses, or about 3 minutes later) you find the word.