08:00 For the first time this week, we do not have to get
up early so we stay lying in bed, which makes a refreshing change.
We exchange this year's first Valentine's Day presents - 2
days late (and there will be a second "ceremony" next week when we
exchange some "extra" gifts we have not bought yet lol).
I give Lois a red bathrobe, which is super soft, even
though I say so myself.
Lois gives me a box of chocolates and some bottles of
Boadicea beer, which she chose partly because of the name and my love of
ancient history. The beer is made by the Meantime Brewery in Greenwich, a small
suburb of London.
Lois Valentine's Day gift
to me.
The name Boadicea beer sounds a bit fake, but in fact,
the Ancient Britons had already been brewing beer for hundreds of years when
Boadicea became queen of the Iceni tribe. On a construction site in London, a 2,000-year-old wooden writing-tablet has been discovered which mentions a
"maltster" or "brewer" named Tertius. The find has been
described as the first written record of brewing in London.
The first written record about brewing in
London:
the name Tertius, a brewer, on a
first-century wooden writing tablet
During the Iron Age, life was a lot of fun and drinking a
few beers and getting busy was "no problem". It is also possible that
there was jazz you could listen to while drinking etc. Today's headlines
include the news that not only the Iron Age, but also the Jazz Age started
thousands of years earlier than traditionally believed.
A team of archaeologists from Louisiana State University
announced on Tuesday that they had discovered a completely intact trumpet made
of mastodon ivory (report of February 16, source: Onion News in Brief).
"This horn is our first insight into the possible
existence of hepcats that could really blow those horns 12,000 years before
Buddy Bold and Louis Armstrong," said LSU's Dr. Liana Brower. She added
that the wear patterns on the horn showed that cool cats in the Pleistocene were
indeed cutting loose with those hot sweet swing licks long before the invention
of the wheel.
"Although it's too early to be sure, it's quite
possible that these jazzdaddies from way back first lay down the sweet sounds
that evolved into today's own bip-boz-dee-boze dee-bop-biddly-bop and push-ka-she-pie."
Brower cautioned however that the archaeological excavation was in its
early stages - dig? - but the discovery of further horns or even a saxophone
would testify to one hip, hot happenin' scene for early man, man.
09:30 I chat a little with Lois about the latest
discoveries in Louisiana. My gut feeling is that
Brower's theories will be confirmed - I've always believed that the life of
prehistoric man was not nasty, brutish, and short (copyright Thomas Hobbs), but "cool, boozy and short", which sounds much better, I have to admit!
It was reported a few years ago that archaeologists had
discovered a prehistoric village, Durrington Walls, located 2 miles northeast
of Stonehenge, which was in existence during the main building period for the
monument - approx. 2700-2300 BC, and was the village where the people who built
the monument probably lived.
Moving 50 tons of rock is hungry work. The people who
built Stonehenge lived off grilled pork and beef, according to a large survey
of ceramics and animal remains dug up in the village.
Stonehenge was a bit of a sombre monument, whereas
Durrington Walls on the other hand was the place where all the really cool
activity took place, a party-center where people came together to eat food, get
drunk and start active relationships with each other, according to the
archaeologists who discovered it. It may be that there was also jazz music to
listen to - we cannot rule out the possibility after today's exciting news from
the US.
10:00 Lois and I read about 12 pages of our respective
bedtime books and get up.
11:00 We go for a short walk in the neighborhood. Our route:
Borgergade, Søgade and back again. The local pubs are preparing for upcoming
parties and festivals: firstly, Mother's Day, which will be celebrated on March
11th. Once again, Britain is the exception - the rest of the world celebrates
the day in May: even the Australians. My god, what madness !!!
After that the pubs will be getting ready for the year's
biggest racing festival, the 4-day Cheltenham Gold Cup festival when they
expect to make a killing as always.
The local Royal Oak pub gets ready
to make a killing again next month
It's lucky that Lois and I will not be here when the Gold
Cup festival starts with all its annoying traffic jams etc - we're planning on
being on vacation, thank god.
13:00 We have our Valentine's day lunch: beef wellington,
french fries, broccoli and green beans, with a glass of wine with the food and
traditional English Christmas pudding for dessert - yummy!
We have our Valentine's Day lunch
14:30 I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I
get up at 4pm and we relax with a cup of tea and a chocolate on the couch.
18:00 We have dinner and listen a little to the radio, an
interesting program dealing with the statistics in the headlines, and how much
we can trust them, how many statistics are fabricated in newspaper offices etc.
Today we hear an interesting discussion about the
statistics revolving around fiction and literature, annd in particular the
differences between male and female authors. Ben Blatt, the data journalist who
wrote "Nabokov's favorite word is mauve", has been analyzing the
differences that depend on the author's gender.
It turns out that male writers use the pronoun
"he" much more frequently than the pronoun "she" while the
female writers use them equally - oh dear!
In "The Hobbit",
"he" occurs about 1900 times, and "she" only once, to refer
to Bilbo Baggins' mother, not a big character in the book, to put it mildly.
Sonia Forbes-Adams, who plays Bilbo's mother in the films
Authors tend to use certain verbs depending on whether
they are writing about men or women. It turns out that the verbs
"muttered", "grinned", "shouted ", "chuckled"
and" killed" are much more commonly used after the pronoun
"he" than after the pronoun" she ".
The corresponding list for women is topped by the verbs
"shivered", "wept", "murmured",
"screamed" and "got married".
It is interesting that female writers use the verb
"interrupted" equally after both "he" and "she",
but male writers used it overwhelmingly more when writing about their female
characters.
According to Blatt, the bottom line is that male writers
tend to create men-centered worlds where the most important thing women do is
to interrupt the men. I cannot possibly comment on that!
Some authors have favorite words that they use
significantly more than others. For Jane Austen it's the words "civility",
"fancying" and "imprudence". For Agatha Christie we have
the words "inquest", "alibi" and "frightful".
For
EL James, who wrote "Fifty Shades of Gray, we have "murmurs"," hmm" and "subconscious ".
EL James, who wrote Fifty Shades of Gray -
one of her favorite words is "hmm"
22:00 We go to bed – zzzzzzzzzz - hmmmmmmm!
Danish translation
08:00 For
første gang i denne uge er vi ikke nødt til at stå tidligt op, så vi bliver
liggende i sengen, hvilket er en forfriskende forandring. Vi bytter årets
første valentinsdagsgaver 2 dage sent (og der vil være en 2. ”ceremoni” næste
uge, når vi bytter de ”ekstra” gaver,
som vi ikke endnu har købt lol).
Jeg giver Lois
en rød badekåbe, der er superblød, selvom jeg mig selv siger det.
Lois giver mig
en æske chokolader og nogle flasker Boadicea-øl, som hun valgte delvis på grund
af navnet og min kærlighed til antik historie. Ølen er fremstillet af Meantime-bryggeriet
i Greenwich, en lille forstad til London.
Lois’ valentinsdaggave til mig.
Navnet
Boadicea-øl lyder lidt falsk, men faktisk havde britannerne været i gang med at
brygge øl i hundredvis af år, da Boadicea blev dronning af Iceni-stammen. På et
byggeplads i London er der opdaget en 2.000-årig trætavle, hvor de nævner en
"maltgører" eller "brygger" ved navn Tertius. Fundet er
blevet beskrevet som den første skriftlige rekord for brygning i London.
den
første skriftlige rekord for brygning i London:
navnet
Tertius, en brygger, på en trætavle fra det 1. århundrede
I jernalderen
var livet meget sjovt, og at drikke et par øl og gå på druk var ”ikke noget
problem”. Det kan også være, at der var jazz, man kunne lytte til, mens man
drak. Dagens overskrifter inkluderer nyheden, at ikke kun jernalderen, men også
jazzalderen startede tusindvis af år tidligere, end man traditionelt troede.
Et hold
arkæologer fra Louisiana State University annoncerede i tirsdag, at de havde
opdaget en helt intakt trumpet lavet af mastodontelfenben (rapport den 16.
februar, kilde: Onion News in Brief).
"Dette
horn er vores første indsigt i den mulige eksistens af hepcats, der virkelig
kunne blæse de der horn 12.000 år før Buddy Bolden og Louis Armstrong,"
sagde LSUs Dr. Liana Brower. Hun tilføjede at slidmønstre på hornet viste, at cool
katte i Pleistocæn i virkeligheden var i gang med at give los med de varme søde
swing licks længe før hjulets opfindelse.
"Selvom
det er for tidligt at være sikker, er det helt muligt, at disse jazzdaddies
først fra langt tilbage skabte de søde lyde, der udviklede sig til nutidens
egne bip-boz-dee-boze dee-bop-biddly-bop og push-ka-she-pie." Brower
advarede om, at den arkæologiske udgravning var i sine tidlige stadier - dig? -
men opdagelsen af flere horn eller endda en saxofon ville vidne om en hip, hot
happenin’ scene for forhistorisk menneskehed, man.”
09:30 Jeg
snakker lidt med Lois om de seneste opdagelser i Louisiana. Min personlige
følelse er, at jeg er helt sikker på, at Browers teorier bliver bekræftet - jeg har altid troet på, at forhistoriske
menneskeheds liv ikke var uhumsk, dyrisk,
fattigt og kortvarigt (copyright Thomas Hobbs), men snarere sejt, fordrukkent
og kortvarigt, hvilket lyder meget bedre, det må jeg indrømme!
Der blev
rapporteret for et par år siden, at arkæologer havde opdaget en forhistorisk
landsby, Durrington Walls, der ligger 2 miles nordøst for Stonehenge, der
eksisterede under monumentets vigtigste byggeperiode – ca. 2700-2300 f.Kr, hvor
de mennesker, der byggede monumentet, boede.
At flytte 50 tons sten er sulten arbejde. De
mennesker, der byggede Stonehenge, levede af grillet svinekød og oksekød, ifølge
en stor undersøgelse af keramik og dyreknokler, der blev udgravet i landsbyen.
Stonehenge var et lidt dyster monument, mens Durrington Walls var det
sted, hvor alle aktiviteter skete, et festcenter, hvor folk kom sammen til at
spise mad, gå på druk, og starte aktive forhold med hinanden, ifølge
arkæologerne, der opdagede det. Det kan være, at der også var jazzmusik at
lytte til – vi kan ikke udelukke muligheden, efter dagens spændende nyhed fra
USA.
10:00 Lois og
jeg læser ca 12 sider af vores henholdsvise sengetidbøger og står op.
11:00 Vi går
en kort tur i nabolaget. Vores rute: Borgergade, Søgade og tilbage igen. De
lokale pubber forbereder sig på de kommende fester og festivaler: for det
første mors dag, som i år fejres den 11. marts. Endnu en gang er Storbritannien
undtagelsen – resten af verden fejrer dagen i maj måned: endda australierne. Du
godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!
Derefter skal
pubberne forberede sig på årets største væddeløbsfestival, den 4-dages Cheltenham Gold Cup-festivalen, når de forventer
at score kassen, som altid.
den
lokale Royal Oak pub forbereder sig på
at
score kassen igen næste måned
Det er
heldigt, at Lois og jeg ikke vil være her, når Gold Cup-festivalen starter med
alle de irriterende trafikpropper osv – vi planlægger at være på ferie,
gudskelov.
13:00 Vi
spiser vores valentinsdagfrokost: bøf wellington, pommes frites, broccoli og
grønne bønner, med et glas vin til maden og traditionel engelsk julepudding til
dessert – nam nam!
Vi
spiser vores valentinsdagfrokost
14:30 Jeg går
i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 16 og vi
slapper af med en kop te og en chokolade i sofaen.
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program, der handler
om statistikkerne i overskrifterne, og hvor meget vi kan stole på dem, og hvor
mange statistikker bliver opdigtet i aviskontorer.
I dag
hører vi en interessant diskussion om
statistikken, der kredses om fiction og litteratur, i sær forskellerne mellem
mandlige og kvindelige forfattere. Ben Blatt, den datajournalist, der skrev
”Nabokovs yndlingsord er mauve”, har været i gang med at analysere de
forskeller, der er baseret på forfatterens køn.
Det viser sig,
at mandlige forfattere bruger pronomenet ”han” meget hyppigere, end pronomenet ”hun”,
mens de kvindelige bruger dem ligeligt – uha! I ”The Hobbit”, forkommer ”han”
ca 1900 gange, og ”hun” kun 1 gang, for
at henvise til Bilbo Baggins’ mor, ikke en hovedfigur i bogen, for at sige
mildt.
Sonia Forbes-Adams, der spiller Bilbos mor i filmene
Forfattere har
tendens til at bruge visse verber alt efter om de skriver om mænd eller
kvinder. Det viser sig, at verberne ”brummede”, ”grinnede”,
råbte”, ”klukkede” og ”dræbte” bliver meget betydeligt hyppigere brugt efter
pronomenet ”han”, end pronomenet ”hun”.
Det tilsvarende list for
kvinder er toppet af verberne "skuttede sig", "græd",
"mumlede", "skreg" og "giftede sig".
Det er interessant, at
kvindelige forfattere bruger verbet ”afbrød” ligeligt efter både ”han” og ”hun”,
men mandlige forfattere bruger det meget overvejende mere, når de skriver om
deres kvindelige figurer.
Bundelinjen er, ifølge
Blatt, at mandlige forfattere har tendens til at skabe mænd-centrerede verdner,
hvor det vigtigste, kvinder gør, er at de afbryder mænd. Det kan jeg ikke
muligvis kommentere!
Visse forfattere har
yndlingsord, som de bruger betydeligt mere, end andre. For Jane
Austen er ordene ”civility”, ”fancying” og ”imprudence”. For Agatha Christie har vi ordene ”inquest”, ”alibi” og ”frightful”. For EL
James, der skrev “Fifty Shades of Grey, har vi “murmurs”, “hmm” og “subconscious”.
EL James, der skrev
Fifty Shades of Grey –
ét af hendes
yndlingsord er ”hmm”
22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzzzzz
hmmmmmmm!
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