A Digression Thread: or old furniture in a new house.

Dickens, Doyle, and Diana, but not necessarily in that order.

William Golding, the first truly English writer since Shakespeare to actually deserbe the Nobel Prize. (All the other good writers in the English language have been Irish or Scots. Or Americans.) OK, Dickens was English but, if I'm not mistaken, Arthur Conan Doyle was actually Scots.

MA - I just typed your location into the word association game!
Guess I was thinking of you. William GOlding wrote Lord of the Flies, right? That was gross.

I read Lord of the Flies while a junior in college. Immediately fell in love with Golding. Have re-read that book a half a dozen times along with such notable works as The Inheritors,Pincher Martin, The Spire etc. etc.

If we're going to select specific people, and I like Diana as one of them... then what about Shakespeare, Chaucer, Keats? Wordworth? Don't you think they're a teensy bit better than Golding? Even Dickens, though I don't much care for him, either.

I'd be tempted to just say Shakespeare. I'm pretty sure we could agree that if we were on a deserted island, it would be his collected works that we would want, right?

There is nothing England has given us besides Literature? I still like the pennant thingie.

What about cars? Airplane engines? Architecture? Planned Parks?

Oh - this question about what Britain has given to us reminds me of the "what have the Romans ever done for us?" question in "The Life of Brian"!

I expect the Python crew to join us - speaking of spam, Bovril, marmite, the Westminster System, British Common Law and the Golden Thread, macadam roads, the steam engine, the circulating library and the postage stamp, afternoon tea.... and on into infinity.

Oh - and the dead parrot joke and the debate about which swallows can carry coconuts....

Neeeeep!

to digress -- what time is it where you are deb? Seems like you're here all hours of the day and night but I'm not sure when day and night are where you are.

Deb -- all those things are English? Now remember, not British... no taking credit for Scottish stuff!

Max, it's so confusing to see your li'l baby! Since he/she was me for a while, if ya follow...

Speaking of confusing -- I dare you to skip to the end of a digression and read BACKWARDS. I lost track for a while (a long while) there, and just thought I'd check in on the last post to see what was goin' on, didn't get it, went up, didn't get it, went up, and as I'm sure you could predict, have gathered quite a headache but nary a clue of what you folks are speaking of. Which means its quite a successful digression, I guess.

Bandy - 'tis 3.35 pm as we speak.

English not British? Oh Smeg! like, er, who knew?

Sozobe - you get used to it! Just barge right in.

Oh - that is Sunday - of course.

This time of year we are fifteen and a half hours ahead of forum time. That goes back to thirteen and a half in your summer and our winter - once your daylight saving time kicks in and ours goes away.

Easy as anything!

Thanks, deb -- it explains your unusual hours (by our time). Of course I won't remember but at least I may remember that it's perfectly understandable that you can be online at any time you're online.

sozobe -- I had the same reaction tonight. Started with maxsdadeo and had no idea what's been going on. So.....I digressed.

Here ya go, Bandylu2 -- know the date and time anywhere in the world at the click of a mouse.

http://worldbuddy.com/top.html

I loved the book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, then the one about how it was all Scotland and Scottish Guys who did it (can't remember the name). Haven't heard from Wales and doubt we will, but I keep thinking that England will get in there and claim... something!

Oh and I thought that gin was an English invention.
Jaguar motor cars.They´re definitely English.

Bandylu

You're not necessarily wrong for thinking that Deb is online at weird hours. I live in roughly the same time zone as she does, and let me tell you - she's online at weird hours.

I've had the experience of turning up in the morning, to find that Deb has been here all night.

Of course, if you ask us, why on earth are you people playing here when sensible people should be in bed

5.38am Monday in Sydney now!

My hours aren't weird! They are normal for me - if I were able to choose I would revert to uni hours - bed sometime between 3.00 am and 6.00 am - up at 11.00 - of course, then I could also go without sleep for days........

With great difficulty i have converted myself to a "normal" routine - but the least opportunity and my natural rhythm asserts itself - and I WAS on holidays for a couple of weeks there....

I take it d,that you weren´t actually STUDYING until 6.00am at University.

Piffka,

It's entirely conceivable you were referring to How the Scots Invented the Modern World : the true story of how western Europe's poorest nation created our world & everything in it by Arthur Herman. A good read.



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0609606352/ref=lib_rd_ss_TFCV/103-9735424-6503023?v=glance&s=books&vi=reader&img=1#reader-link

Oh, saved again... Let's see that must be mean you're Irish? Yes, that book, I was too lazy to go searching underneath the bed to find the exact title. I did enjoy it and was shocked to read, if it were true, how much we owed them.