Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

I had to look up that word “Incumbent” Spitty as it is a new one to my uneducated little grey cell, but I’m always interested in learning new words.

“The holder of an office or post”.

Seeing that you are now the proud owner of an office, does that make you a new incumbent or just bent on a new income?
I once held a post up in a hole in the garden while the brother in law poured cement into it, so in reality one
could say that I held a very important post, it was important because it held up the wife’s washing.



Watching the film “the Comedy Man” the other night, I noticed that actor Edmund Purdom had a good part in it, I knew I knew his face from some film or other, but couldn’t place it, then it came back to me.
Purdom was the actor who replaced Mario Lanza in the film “The Student Prince” when Lanza was sacked over a row with the director about a song he preformed. He mimed Lanza’s pre-recorded songs.
That got me to look up Mario Lanza, and talk about bad luck! He died aged 38!
I see luck as a double edged sword, good luck and bad luck, twins of fate, a daily reminder of how fragile life is with all it’s ups and downs, it can bring great joy or great sorrow, you never know which twin is next to visit you, and it’s not selective, it effects us all, although I’ve seen some families cursed with what seemed like endless bad luck.

Just read the bit below from Wikipedia and you’ll understand what family bad luck really is.

“In April 1959, Lanza reportedly fell ill, mainly with heart problems as well as pneumonia. On September 25, 1959, he entered Rome's Valle Giulia clinic for the purpose of losing weight for an upcoming film. While in the clinic, he underwent a controversial weight loss program colloquially known as "the twilight sleep treatment", which required its patients to be kept immobile and sedated for prolonged periods. On October 7, Lanza died of an apparent pulmonary embolism at the age of 38. No autopsy was performed. He was survived by his wife and four children. Betty Lanza returned to Hollywood completely devastated. She died five months later of a drug overdose. Maria Caniglia, Franco Fabrizi and Enzo Fiermonte attended the funeral. Frank Sinatra sent his condolences by telegram.[29]
From the film Toast of New Orleans, as Lt. Pinkerton USN, in recreation of the opera Madama Butterfly
In 1991, his son Marc Lanza died of a heart attack. He was 37, a year younger than Mario was when he died. In 1998, daughter Colleen Lanza was killed by a car as she crossed a street. She spent two weeks in the hospital in a coma from which she never recovered. Son Damon Anthony Lanza died on August 16, 2008 in California at the age of 55”

So sad his funeral.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Jem, I built my own empire (literally), surely that sets me apart.

Fair hands won fair maiden, well, for now anyway.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

And a fine job you made of it too Spitty, you deserve your fair maiden.
I hope you have it all well documented for posterity.

That brings to mind the Irish MP Sir Boyle Roche from way back in the 1700’s, he didn’t give a damn about posterity simple because posterity didn’t give a damn about him, and fair play to him he wasn’t long about letting the other members of the Irish house of commons in on his views.
To give the opposition it’s due, they did not want future generations to be burdened with debt, how many politicians give that any consideration these days?

“In a debate in the late eighteenth century in the Irish House of Commons on the vote of a grant, which was recommended by the chancellor of the exchequer as one not likely to be felt burdensome for many years to come, opponents argued that the House had no right to load posterity with a debt from which it could not benefit, to which government supporter Sir Boyle Roche MP famously responded: ‘Why should we put ourselves out of the way to do anything for posterity, for what has posterity ever done for us?"

“Sir Boyle Roche, 1st Baronet was an Irish politician. After a distinguished career in North America with the British Army, Roche became a member of the Irish House of Commons in 1775, generally acting in support of the viceregal government. Wikipedia
Born: October 1736, Galway
Died: June 5, 1807, Dublin”

Sir Boyle Roche was what you might call a distinguished gobshite, there are quite a few of them still around today, here are some of his better known quotes, they make him sound like an 18th century Donald Trump.

“We should silence anyone who opposes the right to freedom of speech”

“I answer in the affirmative with an emphatic 'No.'

“The cup of Ireland's misery has been overflowing for centuries and is not yet half full”

Ah yes, politicians are always good for a laugh, yakety yak yak…

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Freeloaders with no restrictions have been about as long as the human race has been present. If they had had a couple of mental tariffs, maybe the outcome would have been better, anyway, less than 6000 years seems reasonable.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Thinking about thousands of years back Spitty.
I was always fascinated by how they made and built such perfectly accurate stuff thousands of years ago. this was on my mind as I dozed of to sleep last night.

So not surprisingly I had a dream about the Egyptian Pyramids, I was a young man and had just started a job as a pyramid builder, a top position them days, and I thought I was the bee’s knees as I headed off to my first day’s work.
I was chiselling away merrily on a figure of the goddess Iris when I dropped me water bottle and it fell behind a supporting beam inside the burial chamber I was working on with two huge gay blokes, when I went to pick it up one of the fellas jumped on top of me (must have been the heat that got to him in there) and we both crashed off the beam, the whole thing collapsed and I was entombed in a small outer chamber with these two lads forever.
What a horrible nightmare, I needn’t tell yeh I was relieved when I woke up.

The Pyramids are the last survivors of the seven wonders of the old world, it’s amazing they are still there with all the shit that has gone into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution, and remember that “Acid Rain” back in the 70’s that was supposed to destroy all buildings?, wrong call there I think.

Even to this day, and with all the technology at our disposal we still don’t know how they were built thousands of years ago, and there is not one construction company or brain in the World today who could build another one.

Kara Cooney, a professor of Egyptian art and architecture at the University of California says:

“We actually don’t know [their] mechanism of cutting hard stones like red granite, and we still don’t know how the ancient Egyptians lifted blocks weighing hundreds of tons up the sides of the pyramids.”

How refreshing to hear an honest professor admit that, others will try to bamboozle you with scientific bullshit.

It’s just another unsolved mystery to add to hundreds of others.

Yet there are folks who instantly dismiss Eric Van Daniken’s theory that the earth was visited many times by alien beings who thought selected earthlings skills they never dreamed possible, and when they mastered these skills they kept them so secret that they eventually died with the knowledge and they were lost to us forever, although there are some who say the Masons got hold of them somehow, I’m open to all theories.

These Pyramid workers, craftsmen, and their families all lived in a compound next to the site of building and no outsiders were permitted to visit them or the site, all part of the terms and conditions of employment I believe.
When they were finally completed, who’s to say the Pharaohs didn’t entomb the lot of them inside a Pyramid and keep any wages due, killing two birds with the one stone, the know how secrets and holding onto the lolly.

Anyway it would be tough looking for a job as an experienced Pyramid builder, they could have all been put on furlough in the meantime, but as far as I know nobody ordered any more Pyramids in that part of the world, Mexico was yer only chance of getting work, the Maya, Inca, and Aztec built a lot of them, but getting from Egypt to Mexico back then was like trying to send a man to Mars today.

There’s loads of very interesting theories out there, decide for yourself.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

I have never been to Egypt, maybe it’s because my youngest brother went there back in the 1970’s and had a bad experience.
He wasn’t long out of secondary school and had just started a good job, he saved very hard for a two week holiday in Egypt, a place he always wanted to see, so when he had enough money he set off that first week in September with his best mate.
The pair of them were mugged by a gang of six, two of them had knives, when on their way home to their hotel after having a few drinks in some club or other.
Money, travellers cheques, their two watches, an onyx and gold signet ring, shoes and jackets were stolen from them on their first night. Luckily they handed over everything they were asked to and were not physically hurt.
I remember the rest of the family pooling in to help them out, but the shock was too great for the two of them to continue the holiday and they were home within the same week, my Dad arranged for the week they had left to be spent in Killarney to help them forget what happened, and they enjoyed it.
The youngest brother is a very sensitive person and he has never forgotten that night.


And now for some word scribbling, a bit of codology or Jemology if you like.


The Redundant Pyramid Builder.

Seth was Egyptian, a slip of a lad aged nine
When he first came to Giza, to serve his time
To be a Pyramid builder was his only wish
It beats making egg timers and skinning Fish.

Soon he was out there amongst all the sand
Sitting on a block with a square ruler in his hand
Along came the gaffer, and one of the top brass
“Get off that boulder and load up your idle Ass”

That was the start of a long and happy career
And he moved up the ladder to become an overseer
There were two thousand men under him every day
Trampling their feet in the mortar and hay.

But now they are all built and that work is in the past
He knew the job was too good to last
Seth didn’t mind his chipped hands, plus his back was sore
It’s just that nobody wanted Pyramids anymore.

The poor chap should have joined the union.
As the fella said “When you stand alone you beg, when you stand together you bargain”

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Jem, you just have to stop, Posthaste.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

I find it hard to believe anything from any ‘official’ outlet these days, there are so many conflicting recommendations, death reports, testing figures, etc., about coronavirus that I’m sure nobody in authority has a clue or are telling lies just to make it look like they know what they are talking about.

Lying by government officials and by the media seems to be OK now, they are all at it, whatever happened to the truth?, we can take it.

“Sometimes we have to tell lies to protect the truth”
Those words were spoken to me a few years ago by a retired politician when he called into our local canvassing for his nephew in a general election, they love to keep these plum jobs in the family over here.

I had asked him a question, and to make a fat story thin, I had caught him out in a government lie.
I have to say that I was a bit stunned by that strange reply, was it a good thing or a bad thing, lying to protect the truth? I suppose it would all depend on what the truth was, and lets face it truth is very scarce in all political circles, one might say it’s overprotected.

It sort of reminded of an old saying that comes in handy for the super rich when they are asked to part with a bit of spare dosh to help the needy of this World “You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong”, it also gives them a moral boost just by saying that.

I have to admit that I have lied to protect the truth, like when my wife’s Father had terminal cancer, I was told about it but asked to keep it from the wife and her Mother, there was no point in making them suffer the anxiety and mental pain of the waiting and false hoping.

Amazing what they can do with words, there are words and sayings for every situation and they have been used over and over again, same meanings, different formats, but all designed to make the few stay in control, but the few in charge even have words to answer that, it’s another expression I hate
“Well somebody has to do it, haven’t they?”
No they don’t have to do it, they like doing it, otherwise they’d get out of the kitchen as that other political saying goes.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

No One can be in charge, on one is clever enough to be aware of all the permutations, you should know that Jem, as a betting Man.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Yes indeed Spitty, nobody has the brains to run the whole sheebang, that’s probably why so many of us believe in a supreme being pulling the strings.
When you look at the big picture, we think we are the cat’s whiskers, but we are not even a microbe’s microbe, we just don’t count.
There goes another one, “The Big Picture”, the thing about the big picture is it will never be finished, the artist keeps changing it and adding on more and more stuff as he goes along, the universe is eternal.


There was a lovely girl from the village of Moy in Co. Tyrone, her name was Ellen and she was my pen friend back in the late 50’s when pen friending was popular.
As we grew older we kept up the correspondence and on her 17th birthday we arranged to meet for lunch in a cafe in Dublin’s city centre.
It was the first time I saw her in the flesh and she had a beautiful face and a fine hefty figure.
Well I soon found out why she was so heavy, she had a huge appetite for French fries, she had SIX helpings at that one sitting!
After a while we stopped writing to each other and the relationship faded out altogether, I still have an enlarged photo of that beautiful face hanging on my bedroom wall, and underneath are scrolled the words
“Ellen of Moy, the face that lunched a thousand chips”

Crap I know, but original crap none the less. It’s my entry for this years “Corny Fakes” competition sponsored by a well know cornflakes company. I just thought you might share the agony with me.
You select a figure from history or a well known film, song, saying, and alter the words to rhyme with the original.
The corniest entry wins the first prize of a years supply of cornflakes…365 boxes.
I hope I don’t win it, as I never eat cornflakes, I’m a porridge man myself, I’d probably sell them to a local shop anyway, shame on me.