Biscuit of the week - the Coco-nut Ring

I'm repeating myself again. I knew I shouldn't have eaten that second slice of black pudding this morning.

No. I have featured the Co-operative Coco-nut Ring as biscuit of the week before.

I'm sorry to be doing it again, really I am, but I have a very limited biscuit range. I only really eat Toffee Dodgers, jam sandwich creams (Fox's, preferably) and these. And that's probably quite enough. I'm not really interested in further biscuit exploration. I don't care for a chocolate biscuit as a rule, but if I do I would probably opt for a KitKat. Although I quite like those really chunky chocolate chip cookies. I dislike the word "cookie".

Anyway - the coconut ring is a plain biscuit, light and shortbready in texture with a very good coconut flavour - so good that it might well be artificial but I can't be bothered checking the list of ingredients to find out. There are loads in the packet and they're only 87p so a pretty good buy I reckon.

Highly recommended.

Biscuit of the week. The Co-operative Coco-nut Ring.

Scots wurd(s) o' th' day - fuckin' radge

We're abandoning Chambers's Scots Dictionary for the moment and coming bang up to date (well...1970s/80s) with our Scots wurds o' th' day.

Fuckin' radge. Or, fuckin' radgepot. Common parlance in the Edinburgh I remember so well from my youth.

Fuckin' adj. (NOT Scots, of course. It's merely a frequently employed prefix)

Radge(pot) n.

As in, "Ye're a fuckin' radgepot, ya bam."

I've just consulted Chambers's Scots dictionary (1959 edition) and I find the word "radgie". Interesting. I wonder if this is the same word? The dictionary has it as an adjective.

Radgie, adj. horse, &c.: becoming excited and plunging wildly.

It sounds plausible anyway.

Rousseau's Third Walk

I sometimes dip into Rousseau's Reveries of the Solitary Walker. It's an embittered rant - much of it - written at a time when he felt rejected, angry, resentful, and pretty much at the end of his rope.

That's why I like it. You can find some pithy truths in amongst the ranting. When you're in a desperate state of mind it's hard to lie to yourself any more.

What leaps out at me more than anything is his whacking great ego - but I'm prepared to set that aside. Ego's not as straightforward as some like to make out., anyway, and not much would be achieved without it.

I'm going to quote a bit that really appeals to me and you can make of it what you will.

'I have met many men who were more learned in their philosophising, but their philosophy remained as it were external to them. Wishing to know more than other people, they studied the workings of the universe, as they might have studied some machine they had come across, out of sheer curiosity. They studied human nature in order to speak knowledgeably about it, not in order to know themselves; their efforts were directed to the instruction of others and not to their own inner enlightenment. Several of them merely wanted to write a book, any book so long as it was successful. Once it was written and published, its contents no longer interested them in the least..........I have always thought that before instructing others one should begin by knowing enough for one's own needs..........'

Only problem is, how do you know when you know enough? can you ever know enough?


And...

'We enter the race when we are born and we leave it when we die. Why learn to drive your chariot better when you are close to the finishing post?'

'No doubt adversity is a great teacher, but its lessons are dearly bought, and often the profit we gain from them is not worth the price it cost us. What is more, these lessons come so late in the day, that by the time we master them they are of no use to us.'

Reveries of the Solitary Walker - a cheery read to take on your hols.

Well if you're going to Carnoustie....

My Five on a Friday

Here's the link to Starry Blue Sky blog where I'm this week's Five on a Friday person.

Thanks Rhiannon. Lovely blog.

Gaelic psalms at Back Free Church, Isle Of Lewis- 20/21/oct/2003

Dick Gaughan - Tom Paine's Bones

Dick Gaughan - Tom Paine's Bones

The Rolling Stones - Jig-Saw Puzzle

Exile on Main Street/thoughts on the Rolling Stones

I've been listening to Exile on Main Street this afternoon. I used to love late sixties/early seventies Rolling Stones, but I went off them a bit once I got into Gram Parsons a couple of years back. It's well-known that Gram was very much involved with them, especially Keith, and there were some dark tales of drug use and so forth which were pretty depressing and distasteful. But I can't deny that they put out some terrific music at the time. Exile on Main Street, in my opinion, was the last great Stones album.

Biscuit of the week - the Toffee Dodger

I can't recommend this biscuit highly enough.

I bought it as it was on special in the Co-op - sorry, I can't remember exactly how much they were, but they won't have been dear as I don't care for the Jammie Dodger, and only cheapness would have lured me into buying anything similar.

The problem with Jammie Dodgers is that the jam is just too hard. They're far too chewy. The Toffee Dodger on the other hand is like a round Twix without the chocolate, except the biscuit has a nicer texture. Some might see no chocolate as being a drawback - I don't. Sometimes you just don't want a chocolate biscuit - it's too much for you. You just want a bit of sweetness that isn't too cloying.

There's also a heart-shaped hole in the centre, where you can see the toffee. What more could you want from a biscuit?

Kind review in Northwords Now

"Kate Smart's blog could never be described as 'run of the mill'." Nobody could have given me a nicer compliment. "Kate clearly demonstrates how blogging can be used to great effect." Bask!

Many thanks to Tony Ross for this really kind review in the current edition of Northwords Now.
I'm absolutely delighted to have been given a mention, never mind anything else.

Tony's clearly read the blog, and "gets it" - which is brilliant. Yes, most of it could be described as "flash fiction", but I haven't thought of it that way myself. I'm just pleased that posts such as "Desperate Dan's Testicles" , the "Heartache Removal Service" - which is an on-going concern by the way - and the "Mind Muck Removal Device" have been read and appreciated.

To find out more - just click on the links below this post - or, find 'em on the list of links down the right hand side of the page.

This is encouraging me to put more of my work out there - somewhere...I'm rubbish at sending stuff away. Anyone thinks I can write anything specific for them and wants me to do it - give me a shout. (lazy...)

I'm well aware that this blog isn't everyone's cup of tea - or bottle of gin, even. So, I'll say, once again, how much I appreciate the readers who have kept me going with this over the past three years. Without your generous support, I would not have continued.

Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein

I must admit I've not watched this all the way through (heard one minute of this, you've heard it all basically - and be warned - there IS a drum solo), but I couldn't resist posting it as it is a classic of its kind.
The blurb underneath sez it all - feel Rock's majesty.
Good grief.
This is the kind of thing that gave me a terrible pre-hangover headache in the 1970s - can feel one coming on now actually...and check out the clothes! blimey...

Malcolm Tucker - A Tribute to Brilliant Swearing

This one's got "fuckitty bye" and "leaky fucking mingebox" on it....oh! don't watch if you're offended by foul language...
The thing that makes Malcolm Tucker so funny, rather than boringly offensive, is the build up and the context - you don't get build up or much context here - but anyone who's watched In the Loop or The Thick of It will know anyway.
Peter Capaldi - I love him but where does he find all that rage? and how the FUCK does he manage to keep a straight fuckin' face by the way?

Scots wurd o' th' day

Back to Alexander Warrack's Chambers's Scots Dictionary again.

Amazing book - or "tome". Today, it's fallen open at page 252, where there are any number of words worth a ponder, and most of which I've never heard before in my life. Think I'll choose -

Haukum-plaukum (adj.) - every way equal. Not quite sure how you'd use that one. Would it be as in, he's haukum plaukum to the task, or maybe the twins' mince 'n' tatties were haukum plaukum? If anyone knows, please tell me.

Another one. Hauselock, Hausslock, n., The wool on a sheep's neck. That's easy. Thon sheep should be ashamed o' itsel' - its hauselock's desperate oan a trim.

I'm now getting curious about the roots of words. The dictionary has a pretty good introduction - which I'm only now glancing through. First thing which catches the eye is "Up until the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Scots called their language 'Inglis', which is the northern form of the primitive 'Angelisc'." And "Gawin Douglas (c. 1475 - 1522) is the first writer of any importance to use 'Scottis' as a term for his 'tongue materne'." (tongue materne! get him!)

H'anyway......one must get on.

More later.............

Spike Milligan lines

Read the first ever Goon Show script last night. Now I know I said that I don't like the Goons, at all, but there ARE some funny lines in it.

For example.

"...worry turned me grey...which gave me a peculiar appearance as I was bald at the time..."

"I paid the fine with trembling fingers but...they wanted money!" (my favourite I think)

"...now tell me the first race you ever won? / The Old Crocks Race in 1892. /But that was before you were born! /Do you imagine it was easy for me?"

(to a car mechanic) "Have you put the bonnet on? / Yorst, and I don't arf look stupid in it."

"My name is Porridge, Sir Harold Porridge. For months my team had been digging for the lost tomb of the greatest of the Pharoahs, King Tutankhamen......For two years we dug every inch of ground - then finally we received a cable from the Egyptian government. It said simply - "Stop digging Hackney Marshes - try Egypt!"

All written by Spike Milligan.