Don’t come the raw prawn Bruce. I’ve been busier that a one-armed carpenter during boat race week. I’m out there are the cutting edge, pushing the envelope, creating great art.
But funnily enough I’m not sure people want great art. One of the interesting things about writing a blog is that you get lots of data about how many people read various posts and the search terms people use to find your blog.
So twenty eight people have found my blog whilst looking for Marks and Spencer’s knickers, [updated, now 134] leaving me wondering it they were completely satisfied with what they found.
A further seven have found the blog when searching for lesbians in cars, [now 121] whilst others have found it searching for Jehovah’s Witnesses, cute sex, and ‘what happens to coins thrown in fountains.’ (In the case of the last one I assume the local authority sweeps up the coins and banks them, leaving a few as seed corn to encourage people to keep throwing them in.)
I can only assume that these people have looked at an awful lot of websites before their search engine has finally brought them to mine. But whilst I can imagine my site came as something of a disappointment to them, I hope the people who found me by searching for ‘dustbin wagons’ and ‘Mirkwood Yorkshire’ went away happy.
At this point I was reminded of the phrase “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” Out of completeness I thought I’d track down who said it, just in case some wandering savant on a quest for M&S Hosiery happens by. It was said by Henry Louis Mencken, a man who died a couple of months before I was born.
I read some more of his quotes.
In 1918 he wrote
“Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
That strikes me as remarkably close to the bone at the moment with our liberties being leeched away to protect us against more and more unquantifiable threats.
In 1919 he wrote
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.”
And a final quote from the great man
“The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it’s good-bye to the Bill of Rights.”
You know, I’m sorry I missed him. Oh yes, and as for the title, this was another search term someone used to find this blog.
In case they’re still looking for the naked slave girl, she’s tucked behind the pillar on the left.
Oh and also from Belshazzar’s Feast, the writing on the wall.
Henry Louis Mencken could read the writing on the wall, can we?
♥♥♥♥
But then what do I know?
As a reviewer commented, “This is the third collection of farmer Jim Webster’s anecdotes about his sheep, cattle and dogs. This one had added information on the Lake District’s World Heritage status. This largely depends upon the work of around 200 small family farms. Small may not always be beautiful but it can be jolly important. If you want to know the different skills needed by a sheep dog and a cow dog, or to hear tales of some of the old time travelling sales persons – read on! This is real life, Jim, but not as I know it.”
Jim Webster 