Do you ever read popular singer Taylor Swift's online diary on influential website, theonion.com ? Let me tell you, I've started reading it routinely, and I've realised that her life is very similar to mine and Lois's life, even though we're a couple of 77-year-olds, real old codgers in the original sense of the world, living in Malvern, England, and we don't do world tours any more, nor have we ever really done them in the strict meaning of the term!
Yes, Taylor's life and our own life are surprisingly similar, I've discovered. Similar, that is, apart from the singing, touring and incredible riches. Just take a look at these recent entries from her diary:
I wonder if Taylor Swift has ever done a "gig" here, I'm wondering as I shiver inside the building? It may be that Ashchurch Village Hall is pretty "small potatoes" compared to the Pistons Stadium, Detroit, but it's every bit as cold there this Sunday morning, as Lois and I find out !!!!
Flashback.....
Today's preacher, Olly from Forest Hills, London, is an engaging speaker, but when he sits down at the end of his address, I find I can't remember at all what his remarks were all about. I blame the cold temperature in the hall for short-circuiting my brain functions.
flashback to August 2021: Ashchurch Village Hall,
seen here in warmer times
But let me explain first how we two "old codgers" come to be here this morning.
[Is that really necessary? - Ed]
....11:15 Mid-morning today, I drive Lois to her church's Sunday Morning Meeting in Tewkesbury, leaving behind in our house our daughter Sarah and her 10-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, who have been staying the weekend. Lois and I kiss them all goodbye before we leave, because they'll probably have gone home to Alcester by the time we get back, between 2 pm and 2:30 pm.
We arrive at the village hall where the meetings are held, and it's freezing cold inside. What's the problem with the heating here? I think we should be told. And I remember that, once again, I forgot to bring my heavy winter scarf.
Damn!!!
We make a split-second decision to keep our heavy coats on. And as usual when we arrive it's the lunch break between the Bible Hour and the Breaking-of-Bread service, so we grab a table near the front and eat our packed lunches, and have a hot coffee to warm us up.
Brrrrrr!!!!!
we arrive at the local village hall near Tewkesbury
where Lois's church holds its meetings: in the freezing cold
we grab a table near the front and eat our packed lunches,
while this week's visiting preacher, Olly, prepares to give us his thoughts
Luckily, Chief Elder Andy then gives a prayer which neatly summarises the preacher's remarks, and I remember that it was all about the Apostle Peter, who was jailed by King Herod, but freed by an angel who caused Peter's chains to fall off him and the city gates also sprang open for him at his approach.
Finally the "Only Connect":
See? That's how it's done. Try it for yourselves next week - and try it without our help, which is the best test.
Lois and I learn a lot about the US tonight that we didn't know, "despite" having lived over there for 3 years in the early 1980's.
And Lois and I didn't know that happiness is actually correlated with a country's number of historic national origins. Canadians come from 63 different source countries, Americans 83. And if you have to cross over language and social boundaries, you have a greater reliance on facial expressions and gestures, and that builds trust and cooperation.
Luckily, David's colleague on the Brits team, Alan Davies, has a cheerier answer to give, to the same question from Sandi:
Oh dear (again) !!!!
Washington allowed his troops to play cricket during the Revolutionary War, and it's known that he himself played a rough-and-ready version of the game, called "Wickets" at Valley Forge in the summer of 1778. And it was Benjamin Franklin who introduced the rules of the game to North America.
In this way Peter avoided the fate of another apostle, James, who, in a similar case, had recently got imprisoned, but who was then beheaded by Herod. No angel came for James.
I think there's been some debate about why James "drew the short straw" here, compared to Peter, but I'm not sure what Olly's position was on this point - sorry, but you'll just have to research that one for yourselves. Or ask him!
The Liberation of St. Peter, by Murillo c. 1666:
an angel makes Peter's prison chains fall off and he escapes
Apologies!
Later I browse the web and I find the poster I thought I'd seen. So not "suffering from dementia" yet, then!
Result !!!!!
We get a better result than this, however, on the intellectually more prestigious "Egghead" questions, a creditable 8 out of 10. See how many of these "doozies" YOU know!
14:30 Lois and I arrive home and find Sarah and the twins have indeed gone back to Alcester, and all the chat and laughter they brought us when they got here on Friday evening had vanished with them.
Yes the house is all quiet again, and we're just an ageing couple knocking around in it like two peas in a giant drum - oh dear! We console ourselves with a nap in a warm bed followed by a look at the puzzle page in this week's Radio Times.
the cover of this week's Radio Times
And there are some real "doozies" in this week's puzzles - see how many answers YOU can get !!!!
Lois and I score a disappointing 4/10 on Popmaster this week. And perhaps more disappointing than the actual result is the worrying impression that we often seem to score much better on the earlier decades than we do on the more recent ones. [You don't say! - Ed]
Does anybody out there have a possible theory about why that should be so? If you do, I'd like you to let me know - by tomorrow (Monday) if possible haha!
21:00 We wind down on the couch with last Friday's edition of the BBC's comedy quiz QI XL.
First question that Danish presenter Sandi Toksvig gives to the two teams: why are North Americans so damn cheerful?
Happiness can still cause trouble, however, if attempts are then made to export it. When in the early 2000s the American hypermarket giant Walmart decided to open stores in Germany, they trained all their new German staff to smile very broadly, as Walmart staff do in America.
Oh dear !!!!!
I think it's well-known that Americans visiting Britain are warned not to give the cheery greeting "How are you?", "How are you doing?" etc, because if they do this, the Brits won't just say "Fine!", "Good!", "Pretty good!", etc with an encouraging smile on their faces. They will actually tell you exactly how they're doing, and put in a bit of detail.
Coincidentally David Mitchell on the "Brits" team demonstrates this British habit when asked the cheery question "Are you having a nice day?" by quiz-mistress Sandi Toksvig at the beginning of tonight's show.
Different subject but Lois and I didn't know that the most popular sport in the US at the time of independence was cricket. The term "president" in those crazy, far-off days, was a cricketing term, the title used more or less exclusively for the managers of cricket clubs.
And while John Adams was in favour of styling the new head-of-state, "His Exalted High Mightiness", the powers-that-be eventually thought that that was too European and monarchical-sounding, and so they eventually settled on the title "President", even though Adams complained that it sounded like the guy was managing a cricket club.
What madness !!!!!
Way before independence, in 1755 in the French-and-Indians war, British General Braddock fought a battle against the French and Indians at Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh). He was so confident that he would beat the French that he brought a cricket roller with him so that they could roll out the land after the battle and have a nice cricket match. Unfortunately he was shot dead by the French.
flashback to 1755: General Braddock
at the battle of Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh)
And Braddock's last words were, a very British, "Who would have thought....?"
Poor Braddock!!!!
George Washington, who was there on Braddock's side at Fort Duquesne, was himself a big cricket fan, and he remained a cricket fan his entire life.
Fort Duquesne (1755): George Washington on his horse
as Braddock lay dying next to a tree
Abe Lincoln used to watch cricket matches. However, US team player Alex Edelman has an important warning to give here.
So, all things considered, is it a good thing to watch cricket matches? Well, obviously the jury is still out on that one.
I wonder......!!!!
Surprisingly the first international sports event in the history of the world was a USA vs. Canada cricket match in 1844.
Fascinating stuff isn't it!
But what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!
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