Oof!

A Point of View: Why Orwell was a literary mediocrity

I would happily concede that Orwell wrote second-rate literature, but Will Self seems to be attacking him because Orwell advocated plain, direct writing. Hmm...

Observing an interesting kind of diglossia: English kids putting on American accents when they play. This is not a new thing. I remember my own brother doing the same thing.

Firefox Responsive Design View is fantastic.

Die Entscheidungsproblem

I'm going to this party in September, don't ask me how or why, and it turns out that it has a 1940s theme. So I've decided I'll go as either George Orwell or Alan Turing; probably Turing, because I'm not sure I can be bothered to grow the moustache.

So I need the clothes of a scruffy boffin. Currently scouring the second-hand clothes shops of south Manchester for a tweed jacket (leather elbow patches a bonus) and / or a sleeveless woollen pullover.

I think I can manage the Brylcreem, Oxford bags and brogues. Accessorise with a slide rule and a printed copy of Turing's paper on the Entscheidungsproblem to complete the look.

Gwerful Mechain

Wow. Fantastic rude medieval Welsh poet.

Gwerful Mechain

I wonder if Gerard Manley Hopkins ever read her. He learned classical Welsh poetic meter when studying theology at St. Beuno's. I've always thought he was trying to incorporate cynghanedd into his own poetry — sheer plod makes plough down sillion shine. And his poems are all about religion and (in his case, intensely suppressed) sexuality.

Today's xkcd.

xkcd: California

The new wheels are good.

Great drying weather!

Damn! Popped a rim. I knew it was getting worn but I didn't realise it was that bad.

St Cwyfan's

Those Celtic saints just loved building churches in hard-to-reach locations.

Aberffraw

Capital of the kings of Gwynedd for 400 years. There's not much there now.

Also the site of Branwen and Matholwch's wedding. She is still remembered.

Barclodiad y Gawres

Finished reading Put Me Back on My Bike: In Search of Tom Simpson by William Fotheringham 📚.

I had no idea that Harry Hall (of Harry Hall Cycles, Manchester) was Tommy Simpson's engineer on the Tour when he died. The more you learn the more you realise you don't know.