Was there ever a time 1? or even a time 0, and, gasp time -1? That would be before the big bang ( = time 0, I presume), or what ever it is supposed to be now. Meanwhile down in the river a baby beaver gets the heads up from a parent. very comforting. Its time to cuddle!
The Trumped up Committee
Submissions and estimates are requested relevant to the construction of the forthcoming:
TRUMP LIE-BRARY
Design Specifications
preamble
It is expected that this magnificent structure will be designed to the highest standards, and be empathetic with the proclaimed ambitions and substantial achievements of the said President.
The Committee is committed to the view that the structure should generate a revived interest
in the sadly discarded style of
Brutalist Architecture
amble
Taking into account the President’s very substantial Lie-brary, the structure is anticipated to have dimensions of
approximately 12 feet by 8 feet, to be heated by CLEAN coal, and incorporate an LGBT sensitive bathroom. A small attic, or grope room, for the use of visiting dignitaries (in case there are some) should be included.
Exterior colours should be blue walls, and a yellow roof with slight frontal overhand.
At least ONE wall should be reserved for use as the Library, with storage and access suitable for a modest number 140 & 280 word tweets printed on 1-ply toilet paper re-cycled from the LGBT bathroom.
Parking spaces should be provided for least one vehicle, plus a turning circle to symbolize the President’s mercurial mind.
The CLIMATE of GREAT BRITAIN …. by John WILLIAMS, Esq. LONDON, 1806,
C. and R. Baldwin
You can find this book online (scanned from the Boolean Library, Oxford. It is not the sort of organized scientific study its title would lead a modern reader to expect. Its primarily an anecdotal discussion of weather in Britain through history, but very thorough and detailed in its way, and why it appeared to change from what was taken to be normal. To my surprise scanning through it, I found on page 5 the following: the first graphic is text from the main text, the second is from a footnote.
I know – you are wondering about this! well if I don’t put extra at the bottom it will black out some of the bit I DO want you to read. WELL it DID black out part of the graphic before!
Ditto – HONEST it did. Anyway you get a free view of my desktop for free!!
By 1806 England as well into the early years of what would become the Industrial Revolution. Steam engines had been in operation since the later eighteenth century – many in London Breweries – James Watt’s first major clients. He also supplied mines with steam pumps – and insisted on a resident engineer he had trained to maintain them. Steam would shortly be used for marine vessels, although Williams predates by about three decades the start of the railway era when immense amounts of coal were burnt in the engines. Nevertheless it is a prescient description of our current predicament. He states that “His only aim is Truth, his motive good, his only Wish the furtherance of Science; his Desire, to serve the Cause of Humanity.”
In my youth we studied English History, and that inevitably involved large chunks of Europe: the Thirty year War, the Hundred Year War, and so on .. What do we have now? much the same (Tom Mulcair just said it was thirty five years of war in his interview with Peter Mansbridge), just with different names.
I thought this was about the only thing to say.
