THE BRITISH THREAD II

By heck Mac--Corrie tonight needed some pretty fast thinking. They didn't pull many punches.

I've had a theory for years that people who say negative things about Corrie are actually scared of it and are inventing reasons to hide from it. They are mostly men. And they must be the highest paid scriptwriters in TV. The acting is way beyond Hollywood movies. Apart from Laurel and Hardy & Co. of course.

Ask your mate what he thinks of my theory. He must be a chap who has never done anything he's ashamed of.

There must be more in Corrie than I can see. It looks like tedious turgid LCD twaddle to me. The dramatic equivalent of a red-top newspaper or a McMeal.

I'm sounding off on the Yabber-Liner thread about the riot in London yesterday. Probably should have done that here.

http://able2know.org/topic/111721-1079#post-4440433

As I have often remarked, McTag. "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown". Shakespeare.

Henry IV, Part 1 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. It is the second play in Shakespeare's tetralogy dealing with the successive reigns of Richard II, Henry IV (2 plays), and Henry V. Henry IV, Part 1 depicts a span of history that begins with Hotspur's battle at Homildon against the Douglas late in 1402 and ends with the defeat of the rebels at Shrewsbury in the middle of 1403. From the start it has been an extremely popular play both with the public and the critics.

The fighting Letty is merely the vehicle on which to carry a study of human nature and, to a certain extent, to teach morality.

Other plays use other vehicles for the same reason.

It's a waste of time reading Shakespeare. Deep study is required. Because someone did Shakespeare in college is no reason to suppose they know anything worthwhile about it. Except to get a pass maybe.

For example--at one point in Tom Jones Tom is told that the mature lady he spent the night with at the inn was his mother. He was a foundling you will remember. Fielding then uses this to analyse Tom's thoughts about incest. And our's. Tom is then told, mainly to save Fielding's face, that it was a mistake and it wasn't his mother at all. Which enables him to get back to thinking about the predicament Fielding has got him into which the false information had blotted out so much more important was it. Ya dig? Perspective.

Look what Thomas Jefferson said about Tristram Shandy. The best lesson in morality that ever was written. And TJ knew the Gospels. And had heard many sermons.

Laurence Sterne.

Mediate on that!!! It's a sort of explosion within the consciousness.

So it's a waste of time buying the lady diamonds? It's time this information got out, especially in view of the lateness of the season.

Letty, you are right, and Shakespeare was right if it was him what wrote that quote.
I feel a bit sorry for Prince Charles. It's not as if he asked for the job. He's never done anything wrong, except for trying to mimic Spike Milligan and joining It's a Royal Knockout. Oh yes, and trying to circumvent the democratic planning process. And building silly villages.

He once said that Nicholas Witchell is a ******* **** of a double ****. Or some such.

So he can't be that bad. Have you heard the story about the boiled eggs?

If you tangle with a lady you can expect to have to buy a few diamonds Mac.

No. Do tell.

I read once he got his valet to hold the bottle while he gave a urine sample.

Well I don't know all the details but it seems he likes his boiled eggs, organic/free-range for real, done "just so". And he's a bit impatient at breakfast as one might easily understand. Waking up must be a bit of a shock.

So eggs are set to boil so that whenever he arrives at the table two boiled eggs done "just so" are ready to be placed before him. As his arrival at the table is subject to all sorts of delays and diversions, his pre-breakfast walk in the park to sharpen him up being one example, the phone ringing another, eggs have to be set to boil so that they are boiled "just so" for whenever it is he sits down. A battery of cooks and assorted wenches are needed for this manifestation of Royalty to be brought off and they have all discovered that his impatience is a nuisance. A range of equipment is required and a lot of eggs. Spys are sent out to keep a track of how long he will be before he sits down and eggs going past their "boiled just so" time are rejected.

It's a ritual designed to make a man, just like you and me from a Darwinian point of view, feel very important and it is necessary for him to feel very important in order to do being very important properly.

Something similar will be happening in the White House I presume. Not as wittily I don't suppose. I once saw Robert Maxwell having his well-paid minions jumping around over a cup of coffee.

I've heard of something similar in working class households with the toast.

Diamonds represent a fair amount of jumping about. That they are so pointless is the point.

I sympathise with the staff. Boiled eggs are the very devil to judge. For instance, if you keep the eggs in the fridge, you have to add 53 seconds to the boiling time over those which are kept at room temperature for the 12 hours prior to breakfast.

You needn't sympathise with the staff Mac. They all have quite good jobs. The Prince is only present in any one establishment for fairly short periods. I imagine they eat like kings.

It's interesting that such rituals have a practical function and are not necessarily caused by a rampant ego.

It all makes life's tapestry a thing of wonder. Showing impatience with the barmaids in the pub has the opposite effect. One is made to feel like a worm.

I may have remembered that wrongly. I think I read that the valet had to hold the sample bottle AND his willy.

I bet they didn't teach that sort of thing at Gordonstoun.

46 years ago there was a gym teacher at my school (in Dulwich) who liked holding boy's willies. Who had a torrid affair with the Head Boy. So I heard. No names no pack drill.

You have a long memory contrex and considering all that you must have experienced in 46 years a very selective one.

You mean a poorly organised trilogy...

And be raised by strangers for strangers. And make stupid statements I would fire a council PR person for....

Okay, it's a slow night, open season on Prince Charles.

He told his lady love (the then Mrs Camilla Parker-Bowles) that he wanted to be a tampon she could use.
Not the most romantic way of putting it, for a St Andrews arts graduate.