Monday, December 17 2018

10:30 Unfortunately, Lois and I have both lower back pain today, so we go for a walk around the local football field. The sun is shining  for once, which is nice.

We take a walk round the local football field to ease our back pain - yikes!

We come home. I call Specsavers Opticians to cancel our time with them on Wednesday:  we had asked for a routine eye examination, but Lois' eye infection has not yet disappeared. I arrange another appointment early  in January.

I sit down with the computer. I take a little look online and I see an interesting article about Scots English. I have often wondered why we English people find it harder to understand Scots from southern Scotland (especially people from Glasgow) than we do people from Northern Scotland, for example.

a typical Scottish-English political poster - yikes, scary!

[NB "garrin" is a good old Norse/Danish word for "making"]

The reason for our problem with Lowland Scots is that Southern Scotland's language is a form of English that is now over 1000 years old, and has had its own separate history. 

Southern Scotland was populated early on by Anglo-Saxons, and their dialect of English has evolved over a period of time mostly a little separately from the rest of the Anglo-Saxon regions (ie England), so that “Lowland Scots” is now radically different from today's standard English language.

By contrast, the Northern Scots were Irish in origin and spoke a Celtic language for most of the last millennium, that is, until the 19th century -  which was when they learned to speak English for the first time. And their teachers were at that time either Englishmen or educated Scots, and as a result, the Northern Scots started talking the modern English standard language from the get-go. Ah, now I understand!

Language map of Scotland early in the 15th century:

the yellow area = Anglo-Saxon-speaking, the blue area = Gaelic / Celtic-speaking

the brown area = Norn-speaking (an extinct Scandinavian language)

Aren't languages totally fascinating? Who would want to study anything else ?? !!!!

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap. I wake up for a few minutes between 2:30 pm and 3 pm, and listen a little to the radio, an interesting radio drama all  about Oscar Wilde's “tour” of the United States in 1882. Meanwhile Lois hears the same programme downstairs in the living room.

Lois and I were amazed in 1983 when we happened to be visiting Leadville, a small silver mining town in the Rockies, and were told in the town’s tourist office that Oscar Wilde, the world-renowned author and humorist, had performed at the local theatre almost exactly 100 years earlier.

Flashback to 1983: We visit the small silver mining town of Leadville

high up in the Rocky Mountains: here we see our daughters Alison (8) and Sarah (6)

Me with Sarah

That’s why both Lois and I are looking forward to hearing this afternoon's radio play, which is all about Wilde's “USA tour”, and which, finally after 35 years, explains to Lois and me the whole context to this surprising event in Leadville, Colorado.

Leadville, Colorado

The town of Leadville was then described as "America's most dangerous town". However, despite that, it appears that Wilde really did give a lecture there about "interior design" in the small local theatre to an audience consisting entirely of silver miners - my god! He told them they were the spiritual heirs of Benvenuto Cellini, the famous Italian silversmith, which I think they found flattering.

The miners asked Wilde why he hadn’t brought  Cellini with him to the theatre. Wilde replied that Cellini unfortunately died a long time ago. The miners then asked, "Who shot him?". Good grief, what madness !!!!

The miners finally fell asleep, but when they woke up, they invited Wilde to visit their mine, asking him to officially open a new mine shaft with a silver drill. Afterwards they all sat down for “supper” at the bottom of the mine: the first course was whisky, the 2nd course also whisky, the 3rd course more whisky, and so on.

It turned out, however, that Wilde could drink them all under the table. I suspect he had previously got a lot of practice in back in London with his drinking buddies, but I'm not entirely sure about that - the jury is still out on that one.

After visiting Leadville, Wilde told his agent  that it was now high time to travel back to England. People were beginning to take him seriously, he said. My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

18:00 Lois and I have  dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television. Monday evening is TV quiz evening with us. "Only Connect" and "University Challenge are on.

Tonight in "Only Connect", Victoria Coren Mitchell, the quiz's charming host, asks the participants to find the connection between these 4 seemingly unconnected things:

(1) Ian Botham (a famous English cricket player)

(2) 874 miles

(3) TR19 7AA -> KW1 4YR

(4) Le jog

The connection turns out to be "Lands End to John o 'Groats", a journey that has become a traditional challenge for both endurance-heavy pedestrians and cyclists. Ian Botham made it on foot in the 1980s for charity, the length is 874 miles, TR19 7AA is the zip code for Lands End and KW1 4YR is the zip code for John o'Groats. And finally, "Le jog" is a slang expression for the cyclists' version, which Lois and I did not know.

And it is nostalgic to recall the case of the famous "Naked Rambler", Steve Gough, who completed the challenge on foot twice between 2003 and 2006.

Victoria wondered a little tonight about exactly what Gough's motives were when he decided to take on the challenge without a stitch on his body.

Steve Gough, photographed here with Melanie Roberts, his girlfriend, 

who accompanied Ken on his first attempt, in which they managed 

one way or another to avoid police attention

What a crazy world we live in !!!! [That’s enough craziness - Ed.]

21:00 Occasionally, I look at my smartphone and I see that Edward, our son-in-law in Haslemere, Surrey, has decided to take part in a similar charity event in March, the city of London's half-marathon, but I suppose that unlike Gough Edward will have his running gear on, as far as I know. Go, Edward !!!!!

21:05 Lois and I continue to watch a bit of television, a repeat of the beloved Father Ted Christmas Special.

It's very amusing and fun to see again Father Ted, Father Dougal, getting lost in the "World's Largest Underwear Department" and, to make it even more embarrassing, bumping into 6 other priests who also cannot find the exit.

Happy days !!!!

22:00 We go to bed. I read about 10 pages of my bedtime book, Henry James' "The Europeans", before I drift off to sleep - zzzzzzzzz !!!!!

Coincidentally, Henry James and Oscar Wilde met up a couple of times during Wilde’s American "tour" in 1882, in Washington DC.

James told Wilde that he was "nostalgic for London", but Wilde replied, "Really? You care about places? The world is my home." And later, Wilde wrote about James that he "writes fiction as if it were a painful duty”.

I think it was always probably very difficult to get one-up on Wilde – that’s for sure.

Poor James !!!!!!! What a crazy world we live in !!!     [You’re fired - Ed.]

Danish translation

10:30 Desværre har Lois og jeg begge to ondt i lænden i dag, så går vi en tur rundt omkring på den lokale fodboldbane. Solen skinner for en gangs skyld, hvilket er rart.

Vi kommer hjem. Jeg ringer til Specsavers-optik for at aflyse vores tid hos  dem på onsdag:  vi havde bedt om en rutinemæssig øjenundersøgelse, men Lois’ øjeninfektion har ikke fuldstændgit forsvundet endnu. Jeg arrangerer en anden aftale først i januar måned.

Jeg sætter mig med computeren. Jeg kigger lidt på nettet og jeg ser en interessant artikel om skotsk engelsk. Jeg har ofte undret mig, hvorfor englændere finder det sværere at forstå skotter fra det sydlige Skotland (især folk fra Glasgow), end mennesker fra det nordlige Skotland, for eksempel.

en typisk skotsk-engelsk politisk plakat – yikes, skræmmende!

Årsagen er, at det sydlige Skotlands sprog er en form for engelsk, der er over 1000 år gammel. Det sydlige Skotland blev befolket af angel-saksere, og deres dialekt af engelsk har over 1000 år udviklet sig for det meste lidt separat fra resten af de angel-saksiske lande (dvs England), så den er radikalt anderledes fra nutidens engelsk standardsprog .

Tværtimod var  den nordlige skotter af irsk oprindelse og talte et keltisk sprog indtil det 19. århundrede, da de for første gang lærte at tale engelsk – og deres lærere var på det tidspunkt enten englændere eller uddannede skotter, og som resultat begyndte de nordlige skotter fra starten at tale bare det moderne engelske standardsprog. Åååh, nu forstår jeg det!

Skotland først i det 15. århundrede:

det gule område = angelsaksisktalende, det blå område = gælisk/keltisktalende

det brune område = norntalende (et uddødt skandinavsk sprog)

Er sprog ikke totalt fascinerende? Hvem ville studie noget andet??!!!!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg vågner op i nogle minutter mellem 14:30 og 15:00 og lytter lidt til radio, et interessant radiodrama, der handler om Oscar Wildes turnéer i USA i 1882. Lois hører samme program nede i stuen.

Lois og jeg var forbløffet i 1983, da vi tilfældigvis besøgte Leadville, en lille sølvmineby højt oppe i Rockies-bjergene, og fik at vide i byens turistkontor, at Oscar Wilde, den verdensbekendte forfatter og humorist, havde optrådt i det lokale teater, næsten nøjagtig 100 år tidligere.

Tilbageblik til 1983: vi besøget den lille sølvmineby Leadville

højt oppe i Rockies-bjergene: vores døtre Alison (8) og Sarah (6)

Mig sammen med Sarah

Derfor er vi begge glade for at høre eftermiddagens radioprogram, der handler om Wilds turnéer og, endelig efter 35 år, forklarer til Lois og mig hele sammenhængen til denne overraskende begivenhed.

Leadville, Colorado

Byen Leadville var dengang beskrevet som ”Amerikas farligste by”. Det viser sig imidlertid, at Wilde var i gang med at holde tale om interiør design i det lille lokale teater til et publikum bestående fuldstændigt af sølvminearbejdere. Han fortalte dem, de var de spirituelle arvinger af Benvenuto Cellini, den berømte italienske sølvsmed.

Minearbejderne spurgte Wilde, hvorfor han ikke medbragte Cellini til teatret. Han svarede, at Cellini desværre for længe siden døde.  Minearbejderne spurgte så, ”Hvem skød ham?”.  Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Arbejderne faldt til sidst i søvn, men da de vågnede op, inviterede de Wilde til at besøge deres mine, og han blev bedt om at åbne officielt en ny mineskakt ved hjælp af en sølvboremaskine. Bagefter satte de sig alle til bords i bunden af minen: den første ret var whisky, den 2. ret også whisky, den 3. ret whisky osv. Men det viste sig, at Wilde kunne drikke dem alle under bordet. Jeg mistænker, at han øvet sig en masse gange hjemme i London sammen med sine drikkekammerater, men det er jeg ikke helt sikker på – juryen er stadig ude om det.

Efter besøget til Leadville fortalte Wilde sin repræsentant, at det var på tide at rejse tilbage til England. Folk begyndte at tage ham alvorligt, sagde han. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

18:00 Lois og jeg spiser aftensmad, og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Mandag aften er tv-quiz-aften hos os. De viser ”Only Connect” og ”University Challenge.

Lois og jeg er altid glad for de spørgsmål, som vi kan besvare, men som alle de friske unge hjerne har problemer med, fordi vi tror det beviser, at vi ikke endnu lider af demens.

I aften i ”Only Connect” beder Victoria Coren Mitchell, quizzens charmerende vært,  deltagerne om at finde forbindelsen, blandt andet, mellem disse tilsyneladende uforbundne 4 ting:

(1)    Ian Botham (en berømt engelsk cricket-spiller)

(2)    874 miles

(3)    TR19 7AA -> KW1 4YR

(4)    Le jog

Forbindelsen viser sig at være ”Lands End til John o’ Groats”, en rejse, der er blevet en traditionel udfordring for både udholdende fodgængere og cyclister. Ian Botham gjorde det til fods i 1980’erne for velgørenhed, længden er 874 miles, TR19 7AA er postkoden til Lands End og KW1 4YR er postkoden til John o’Groats. Og til sidst er ”Le jog” et slangudtryk for cyclisternes version, lader det til, hvilket Lois og jeg ikke vidste.

Og det er nostalgisk, at mindes om tilfældet af den berømte ”Naked Rambler”, Steve Gough, der fuldførte udfordringen til fods to gange mellem 2003 og 2006.

Victoria spekulerer lidt i aften på, om præcis hvad var Goughs motiver, da han besluttede at påtage sig udfordringen uden en trevl på kroppen.

Steve Gough, fotograferet her med Melanie Roberts, sin kæreste, der ledsagte

Ken på hans føste forsøg, hvor de på en eller anden måde nåede

at undgå politiets opmærksomhed

Sikke et skør verden vi lever i !!!!   [det er nok skørhed – red.]

21:00 Tilfædigvis kigger jeg lidt på min smartphone, og jeg ser at Ed, vores svigersøn i Haslemere, Surrey, har besluttet selv at deltage til marts i en velgørenhedsbegivenhed, byen Londons halvmarathon, men jeg formoder, at han ulig Gough vil have sin løbetøj på, så vidt jeg ved. Kom så, Ed !!!!!

21:05 Lois og jeg fortsætter med at se lidt fjernsyn, en genudsendelse af den elskede Father Ted Christmas Special.

Det er meget morsomt og sjovt at se igen Father Ted, Father Dougal fare vildt i ”Verdens  største undertøjafdeling”, og, for at gøre det endnu mere pinligt, falder de over 6 andre præster, der også ikke kan finde udgangen.

Lykkelige dage!!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng. Jeg læser ca 10 sider af min sengetid bog, Henry James’ ”The Europeans”, før jeg glider over i søvnen – zzzzzzzzz!!!!!

Tilfældigvis mødtes Henry James og Oscar Wilde et par gange under Wildes amerikanske ”turné” i 1882, i Washington DC. James fortalte Wilde, at han var ”nostalgisk over for London”, men Wilde svarede, ”Virkelig? Du er interesseret i steder? Verden er mit hjem.” Og senere skrev Wilde om James, at han ”skriver fiktion, som om det var en smertefuld pligt.

Jeg synes, det altid var meget svært at nå at være one-up i forhold til Wilde - det ved jeg med sikkerhed!

Stakkels James!!!!!!!  Sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!  [Du er fyret – red.]