Oh dear - I don't do a walk today because it's snowing lightly (I'm such a wuss - oh dear!) and it's also icy underfoot, so I make today an exercise day instead. I mustn't let Connor, my NHS physiotherapist find out about this, or there'll be hell to pay, that's for sure!
And the whole day is dominated by the monthly zoom meeting of Lynda's U3A Middle English group - the morning spent in preparation, and the afternoon spent in attending the meeting itself. The meeting goes on for nearly 2 hours, which is far too long: I feel brain-dead and stiff as a board by the end of it, from sitting on just an ordinary dining-room chair for all that time. Damn!!!!
I must try and research how to cope with all this sitting - it's one of the hazards of lockdown that isn't much talked about, no doubt about that! I must try those special stiffness exercises before it's too late!
We're reading the Towneley Play of Noah - Towneley is actually the town of Wakefield in Yorkshire, an east coast county, so there are lots of Danish words in the dialogue: thousands of Danes settled in Yorkshire around the time of the 10th century AD.
In this bit of the play that we're doing today, Noah is finishing off doing his carpentry work on the Ark, which is almost finished. It reads as if all the pieces of wood are ready-cut to be made into the different parts of the ship, and Noah just has to put them together. I suggest that it may in fact be a "Flat-Pack" Ark, possibly from Ikea, but people seem to think Ikea wasn't in existence at that time.
Noah (left) tries to get his reluctant wife (right) to get into
the Ark he is building: from an open-air performance of the play
in the car-park of Canada's Laurentian University in 2018
I tell the group again that "I don't want to come across as a bit of a Norse bore", but as I'm the group's resident "Norse" expert, I feel I have to treat the other members to lots of information about the Norse/Danish words in the play's dialogue.
For instance the plural of "child" is given as "childer" in the play: "-er" is a standard form of the plural in Old Norse and the Scandinavian languages generally. Our modern plural, "children" is actually a double plural, adding the plural ending "-en" (as in oxen) to the already plural "childer" in its Scandinavian form - simples!!!!
just a few of the English language's irregular plurals
I give them lots of other info, such as all about the word "gin": not the drink, but "gin" in the sense of a machine or device - as seen in "gin-trap" or "cotton-gin". I tell them that originally it was just a short form of the word "engine", which nobody seems to know.
I'm such a "smart alec", as we say in England, or "smart ass", as they say in the US and Canada, that's for sure. I hope the tide doesn't eventually turn against me, and that, when lockdown ends, the group won't be waiting for me up some dark alley, eager to "beat me up". I think I'd better tone my lecturing down at next month's meeting, just to be on the safe side!!! It's possibly that some of the group will have had their coronavirus vaccine by then and they'll be fully pumped and spoiling for a fight. I'd better just watch out - yikes !!!!
a typical "dark alley", where U3A Middle English group members are known to "hang out"
20:00 Lois and I settle down on the couch to watch a bit of TV, the second half of an interesting documentary about the Scottish song "Auld Lang Syne", with words by Robert Burns, the Scottish poet.
We learn tonight how the song has appeared at emotional, bonding moments in many Hollywood films, including "The Gold Rush", "Oceans 11", "Sex and the City", and "When Harry Met Sally". It was even sung, a bit haltingly, by little Shirley Temple in the 1937 film, "Wee Willie Winkie".
But the prize in this category must surely go to that old 1946 Christmas weepie, "It's a Wonderful Life" starring Jimmy Stewart.
We hear some fascinating facts about the song, or the tune, as it's been adopted worldwide. In Korea, for instance, from 1919 to 1948, it was the tune to which their national anthem was sung. It's also used for the Maldives national anthem. In Mexico it's traditionally played at all farewell-parties. In the Netherlands it's the tune of the country's national football song, "We Love Orange".
In Japan it's played at all school and college graduations, so it gives graduates warm, nostalgic feelings whenever they hear it, for the rest of their lives. Shops and restaurants, and even Disneyland Tokyo, have latched onto this affection and they play the song over the tannoy to alert customers to the fact that they are just about to close for the day. They estimate that customers will always be happy to hear the song, and won't feel annoyed that they're suddenly having to leave. What madness!!!
When he was UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair broke traditional protocols by linking hands with the Queen for the singing of Auld Lang Syne: you're not supposed to touch the Queen, Tony, didn't you know that?! However, she doesn't seem to mind, and Philip is obviously having the time of his life, so maybe it was okay after all - but we're not 100% sure, the jury's still out on that one - oh dear!
But who knew about band-leader Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadian Big Band's role in the 1930's in cementing the song as THE song to sing in the USA on New Year's Eve?
Lombardo had heard Auld Lang Syne being sung by Scottish immigrants in Canada in his youth. From 1929 to his death in 1977, Guy's show was beamed directly from the Roosevelt Hotel, New York, to US homes across the country, first on radio, then later on TV, reaching an audience of millions.
In the early radio transmissions, the band played music on CBS before midnight on New Year's Eve, and they played on NBC after midnight. So right around midnight they needed a piece of music to bridge the gap between the two broadcasts. They decided that Auld Lang Syne would be the perfect song to play: the show was being sponsored by Robert Burns Cigars, after all. Makes sense to me !!!
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!!!
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