Dear reader, may I ask permission to bother you with rather a personal question? [Ask somebody else please, Colin. I'm too busy to bother with that sort of trivia just at the moment! Thanks, I'll catch up with you later! - Ed]
And here's the thing: are YOU, dear Reader, prepared for the End of the World, the Apocalypse, Armageddon and all that stuff? Most of us aren't, are we, if we're honest, despite all the stories!!!!
And yet those headlines keep coming and coming remorselessly- there are a grand total of 8 of them just in today's Onion News West Worcestershire print edition alone, so multiply that up nationally and internationally, I think you'll see it's almost a "barrage", when you think about it - or a mini-barrage at the very least (!).
Most of us saw this "doozy" this morning, I would think, even though it may be a bit "hidden", having been placed on page 94 by some careless apprentice of a sub-editor maybe (!). Fire that guy, somebody!!!!
Quite a story, isn't it, to put it mildly!
And I'm moderately relieved to see on TV tonight that the "imminent" apocalypse was being talked about (and painted about) as early as the 17th century at the very least, would you believe? (!). It was all explained by our favourite art critic, Waldemar Janoszcsak on the Sky Arts channel last night, which I watch tonight on "catch-up" TV.
Rembrandt's picture "The Polish Rider" has puzzled art critics for 4 centuries - more maybe [That's hardly likely is it, given Rembrandt's "dates"! - Ed]
But what's the point?
Luckily Waldemar has the answer. The 17th century was a terrible time for wars over in Europe, apparently, mainly between Christian Europe and the Islamic Ottoman Empire. With all this going on, all this death, says Waldemar, plenty of people in Rembrandt's time believed that God was punishing them for their sins, that the Apocalypse was coming, and the End of the World was nigh or nigh-to-nigh-ish.
They believed also that it had all been predicted in the last book of the Bible, the Revelation of St John. According to St John, when the end of the world comes, Jesus will open seven seals, one after the other. and when he opens them, he releases the Four Horses of the Apocalypse. The fourth and last horseman is Death, and he rides a pale horse. The third one is Famine, and he rides a black horse. The second horseman is War, and he's on a red horse.
The one that interests Waldemar the most is Horseman Number One, who rides a white horse.
"I looked and there was a white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering," as it says in the Bible.
This has been interpreted in different ways. Some, like Durer, saw him as a terrible harbinger of doom. but in Protestant circles in Holland, where Rembrandt lived, amongst all the quarrelsome theologians, the view prevailed that the first horseman, the one who rides a white horse and conquers, represents Christ himself, ensuring his final victory. The other horsemen may bring doom and destruction, but the first horseman, the Christian warrior, brings hope and salvation.
So "The Polish Rider" is Polish all right, but he's the Polish rider to whom Rembrandt has given a mighty symbolic task. The end of the world is nigh (or nigh-ish), the Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been unleashed upon us, and the first horseman is riding through the parched and barren landscape that awaits us all. Rembrandt has combined elements of real Polish history with some of the Bible's most momentous "foretellings" to create this sneaky, mysterious, and gripping, masterpiece. Through a barren landscape burning with conflict rides a mysterious figure, who brings hope rather than doom, salvation rather than despair. He's here to save us.
So there you have it. Simples !!!! And by the time Waldemar gives his familiar sign-off, all is clear and strangely enlightening, to put it mildly!
a typical property appraisal visit by an estate-agent's valuation expert:
Lois and I have booked 3 such visits for next week - yikes !!!!!
Poor Democrats!!!!
[That's enough Onion News stories! - Ed]
One of the perhaps less important, but nevertheless annoying things about Trump's victory, is surely the fact that once more, he can escape all the court cases against him. And it makes Lois and me wonder whether public figures in the UK can escape prosecution just because of their position. We don't think they can, but maybe we should be told. Your answers on a postcard please - usual max characters of 10, if you don't mind (!).
Nobody in the government, from the Prime Minister down, seems to be exempt. But what about the Royal Family? This AI information from Google may help (!), or maybe hinder or both (!). [That's enough exclamation marks in brackets (!) - Ed]
And earlier today, when Lois and I take a morning walk round our new-build estate here in Malvern, stopping to view the nearby premises of the Ministry of Defence's mysterious, hush-hush contractor Qinetiq, we remark on how unexpected it is that, out of the many press "foretellings" of the eventual US Electoral College result, our own dear Daily Mail would end up joint winners, as we've been informed by Steve, our American brother-in-law this morning:
What a truly crazy world we live in !!!!!!
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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