09:00 I get stuck right into a piece of medieval poetry, a 15th century poem called "Sir Corneus", which is all about husbands whose wives are "playing away". I'm a member of Lynda's local U3A Middle English group, which is having its monthly meeting this afternoon on zoom. I've been assigned a section of the poem, and I have to be ready to read it out in a fake Middle English accent and then translate it into Modern English - what a madness it all is !!!!!
a typical U3A member (not me) reading out a medieval
poem in a fake Middle English accent
Lois, by contrast, is doing things which are much healthier and more productive - transferring some of the vegetable seeds she's been growing indoors into a couple of boxes she's been filling with compost, and then taking them, with my help, out to the greenhouse so they can get maximum sun.
I have queried with her why she's doing this when we're hoping to move house soon, but her passion for her garden is seemingly limitless - and she's really going to miss her garden when we leave here, if we do, that's for sure - my god!
Lois today at work on her vegetable plants
Why a shrine to pencils and distorting mirrors? I haven't a clue - but I definitely think we should be told. Speak up, councillors - now's your chance haha!
To be honest I've been itching to try out the distorting mirrors and gaze longingly at the huge pencils, so I say to Lois, "Let's give it a go today!". And we do! We're both in our mid-70's but we're just like a couple of big kids really - so call us crazy if you like!! [I've done that more times than I care to remember! - Ed]
we try out some of the distorting mirrors
at the Parish's "shrine to pencils and mirrors" - tremendous fun !!!!!
13:00 After lunch we have a quick zoom session with Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, and with Sarah's husband Francis - this is mainly to update them on our efforts to leave our current house and downsize to a smaller one.
14:30 Our monthly U3A Middle English zoom meeting begins, and we look at the 15th century poem, Sir Corneus.
some of the standard studies of the medieval poem "Sir Corneus"
from Toronto University and Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia
It's quite a fun poem, unlike many I could name - it's set at the court of King Arthur, and we get the chance to hear about what used to go on at one of the royal court's gala "Hunt the Cuckold" evenings. A cuckold is a man whose wife or mistress is being unfaithful to him behind his back.
In the time of King Arthur, scientists had apparently discovered that there was a special wine that only non-cuckolds could drink without spilling. How does that work, I wonder? I suppose it's some complicated scientific thing - and I was an arts graduate, unfortunately! Any explanations out there? If so, please let me know the science behind it, and on a postcard please!
flashback to the time of King Arthur: a medieval scientist
trying out ingredients for the perfect "cuckold test"
And in those times one of the favourite forms of courtly evening entertainment was to bring out this special wine and offer it in turn to every man in the hall. Any man that couldn't drink from it without spilling it was thus identified as a cuckold, to general merriment from the assembled company. The cuckolds then had to put up with the indignity of being dressed up in horns and silly hats with sprigs of willow tied to them.
flashback to historical times: a couple of cuckolds being
dressed up in horns and silly hats
This afternoon, our U3A group thoroughly enjoys the descriptions of these fun-filled "Hunt the Cuckold" evenings, but somebody queries why we don't any more try to identify cuckolds and make them dress up in horns and silly hats these days. Nobody's quite sure about the answer to this question, but I suggest it may be because we have television now, and also the internet.
I'm trying my hardest to become the group's most popular member, but I must say it's been tough going so far - ideas welcomed!
The high point of the "Hunt the Cuckold" evening in the poem, incidentally, occurs when King Arthur for the first time spills his own wine, presumably meaning he's just been cuckolded by his wife, Queen Guinevere, probably the previous evening - he's never spilt the wine before.
Poor King Arthur!
But it's nice that there's no rancour on display! Guinevere, of course, tries hastily to leave the room as soon as she sees the King take the bottle to his lips, but she can't get to the door in time, which is a pity!
Poor Queen Guinevere !!!!
King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, seen here
in happier times - at their wedding
So - the queen's infidelity is unmasked! There are no hard feelings, however, and nobody has the bad manners to ask Guinevere who the lucky man was, which I think was a nice touch. The general opinion in the King's court seems to have been that all women like a bit of fun, and so these cuckolds are actually doing the husbands a favour by providing the wives with amusement in their husbands' absence.
But what a crazy world they lived in, in those far-off times !!!!!
16:15 The meeting ends and Lois and I relax on the couch with a cup of tea, a scone, and the puzzles from next week's Radio Times magazine. We get a poor result on Popmaster this week, with only 4 out of 10 correct answers. But is this largely to our credit? Can somebody tell us please haha!
And there's another poor result on the general knowledge quiz Eggheads, only seven out of 10. However we both think the question-setters are deliberately trying to be more and more obscure with each week that passes, which is a pity.
A couple of these were lucky guesses however.
If you're doing the Eggheads quiz in the Radio Times, here's mine and Lois's "super-tip" for when you're having to guess. Take the answers you're more sure of and count how many 'a's, 'b's and 'c's you've got. Then for your guessed answers try to even up the number of each letter as much as possible - not exactly, necessarily.
See? Simples !!!!!!
But how childish we are haha !!!!!
20:00 We settle down on the couch and listen to the radio, this week's edition of "Last Word". We try and catch this programme every Friday if we can, so that we can see if anybody's died this week or not. Usually it's only about 4 or 5 people, so not too bad!
The French nightclub owner and singer, Régine Zylberberg (crazy name, crazy gal!) has died unfortunately. She is credited with inventing the discotheque, back in 1950's Paris.
When Régine was still small, her mother upped and left for Argentina - what madness! Régine remembers saying goodbye to her mother at the train station. So Régine was brought up in the South of France by her fast-living gambler-father, which was how, at an early age, she first got her taste for the high life and for hobnobbing with the rich and famous, a bent which stood her in good stead as an adult.
Régine's invention of the disco all happened in 1953 at a club called the Whiskey-a-Gogo, a small bar and dance-room near the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Until 1953 the music for the dancers in Régine's club in Paris came from juke-boxes, and this resulted in embarrassing silences between people choosing records. During the breaks from the music, she became aware of the sound of couples snogging on the club's sofas - this was also embarrassing for the snoggers, because they realised other couples could hear them, and so on.
Régine then came up with the idea of having two turntables set up, so that the end of one record could be followed immediately by the start of the next one.
See? Simples (again) !!!!! And then you couldn't hear the snogging, which was nice - much less distracting!
a typical twin turntable disco set-up
She opened a chain of her dance-clubs, and later moved to New York to run "Régines" over there, and, indeed, all over the world.
Her dance clubs came to be visited by the rich and famous, including, in the early 1960's, the cast of the musical West Side Story, who demonstrated to Régine a brand new dance from the US called "The Twist". Later Régine herself taught the dance to the Duke of Windsor, who had an apartment in Paris near Régine's club.
Régine, seen here (right) with John Warner and Liz Taylor
Régine was also a singer herself and practitioner of the French "chanson", rubbing shoulders with legendary French icons like Serge Gainsbourg, and she had a hit herself in the late 1970's with a version of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive".
Well, she certainly survived for a long time, even though she sadly ran out of steam just recently, hence this obituary haha - but not till she was 92: my god, what a woman!!!!
But why "discotheque" and why "a gogo"? Well, I think you should be told, and here it comes now.....
See? Simples !!!!! [Stop saying that and go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment