The Small Pleasures Of Things Done Well

I can't honestly say that I watch very much on Channel 5 but a happy exception to this fact has materialised. All Creatures Great and Small in its original televisual form was that unusual thing - a very good adaptation of the source novels. Now Channel 5 have dared to have a new go at the texts. They have nailed it. Samuel West is particularly good as the irascible but noble Siegried Farnon, good enough to make us forget the estimable Robert Hardy whom one would otherwise have thought had made the role wholly his own. I recommend watching it after tea on a Sunday evening accompanied by a smooth Italian red. A thing done well.

Another thing done well is Renee Zellweger's portrayal of the tragic Judy Garland in Judy. Well enough done to have won her an Oscar - no argument here. The text (expanded from a stage play) concentrates largely on Garland's last year of life and in particular her residency at London's Talk of the Town. She died in London in 1969, relatively impoversished and at the age of only forty-seven. The film takes a commendably low-key approach to this sad tale of a great talent brought to its knees. 71/100.   

Golf But Not As We Know It

Golf as the Pig knows it is a barmy distraction, played out with old mates in pleasing locations. Yesterday it was AK, BH and CL at Aston Wood Golf Club. Golf as Bryson Dechambeau knows it, is a rather charmless sequence of smash and gouge bolted onto stellar putting.

 The Pig (paired with CL) lost yesterday. DeChambeau won the US Open on Sunday at something approaching a canter and the voices of concern are loudly pronouncing the death of this daft game. Time for the Pig to have his say. The Pig finds it hard to warm to Bryson notwithstanding  his manifest gifts. It's not the ugly power game that I mind so terribly, it's the painful slow play and I still haven't forgiven him for the dishonourable business with the burrowing ant. Pathetic. But here's the thing, the object of the exercise is to propel a tiny ball into a distant hole with as few blows of ill-suited implements as possible. DeChambeau was markedly the best at this and we must live with it. Those who set up golf courses for tournament play must adapt. It can be done.

Last week saw another pleasing golfing discovery. Courtesy of GC, and in the company of BH and NJ, Droitwich Golf Club was a thing of beauty. And not a hint of smash and gouge in sight.  

Now I've Had Enough (Part II)

 Let me quote to you section 38(1) of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020:

The Parliament of the United Kingdom is sovereign.

No equivocation, no ifs, no buts. It does exactly what it says on the tin. Now, the difficult bit. Will someone please tell Gina Miller. Will someone please tell the Supreme Court. Will someone please tell Nancy Pelosi, no, come to think of it, someone tell Nancy Pelosi that it's none of her damned business.

It makes you wish that we could revive Tony Benn. Or Enoch Powell. Or Michael Foot. At least the debate/argument would be edifying and informative.

I'm Sorry But Now I've Had Enough

I was watching CNN this afternoon and they showed some voxpop from a Trump rally. The line of questioning was 'Why aren't you wearing a mask?' Some predictably parroted the lines about their constitutional freedoms but the prize for most entertaining (in a quite horribly morbid manner) has to go to the shaven-headed biker type who answered in all seriousness, 'Because it's a fake virus, it doesn't exist.' You have to marvel at the potency of a deep state that such idiots believe could pull off a stunt on that scale.

I'll tell you what constitutes the best argument against the existence of these bizarre plots. The performance of our own dear government in the face of the virus, that's what. To fake a response to the pandemic every bit as inept as the one we are seeing, would take administrative genius on an unprecedented scale. No the sad facts are these: the virus exists and our leaders have completlely lost both plot and control.

So yes, I am (after an implausibly long period of biting my tongue) now officially pissed off with the whole shebang. By the time (if ever) we come out of this, our economy will be shot to pieces. Actually, that's unfair - it's already shot. I know it's difficult lads but please, please, can we have some hint that there is a strategy underlying the constant changes in policy. I will at least concede that the virus looks pretty.

The Siren Idiocy Of 'Make America Great Again' ... And Some Cheerier Stuff

The message is delivered knowingly by a dangerous man who cares for nothing other than his own crude ambition. If his blandishments have their desired effect then America (which we of course concede has on occasion been a great force for good) risks slipping idiotically into a politics of eternalism in which unpalatable truths are treated as invention and decency is sacrificially slaughtered.

The politics of eternity consumes the substance of the past, leaving only a boundless innocence that justifies everything. (Timothy Snyder)

Enough I hear you say. Ok - for now let us have some faith in the American electorate coming to its senses. 

What is the cheery stuff? Nothing startling or new but sometimes old nostrums bear repetition. After the second recent occurence of my calf injury I am back on the roads again, now wearing my very silly-looking calf warmers. Touch wood, so far so good and I am definitely feeling the benefit of the relatively large amount of running and cycling I did in the Summer. The nicest aspect of running the same route most days is that I see familiar faces - this morning was particularly gratifying as a succession of senior citizens (yes even more senior than the Pig himself) waved or spoke to me. As Blur nearly said, it gives me a sense of enormous well-being. Actually, come to think of it, that may even be precisely what Blur said. Answers on a post card etc.

Yesterday was the forty-ninth anniversary of my starting at School. I've said it often enough before but King Edward VI Aston School has been an overwhelming source of good in my life. As if to illustrate how some gifts just keep on giving I played fun and sociable golf yesterday evening with NJ, BH, JRS, CDL and RM, all of them part of the Aston community. Life's been good to me so far.