King of Comedy - Pupkin Chats with Liza & Jerry

I'm very tempted to say this is my favourite movie clip. Just, you know, says a lot about the ...oh I can't be bothered.
The final line from the scene is clipped - it's a shame as it's the best "Good luck in Rio".

Kind of a metaphor for life. Good luck in Rio. As if.

Scots wurd o' the nicht - "buck"

Does anyone ever use this word? The only place I've encountered it is in Midlothian. It was used as a substitute for the eff word.

Buck off. Not buckin' likely. I'm buckin' freezin'. And so forth.

Buckin' broncos never came into it. Unfortunately.

The Jesus & Mary Chain - Blues From A Gun live Oslo 2007

Processed meat of the week

Chopped pork, from the local butcher's, via Spar.

I know, I know.

It's packed full of salt, chemicals, preservatives, and saturated fat. That's why it tastes brilliant.

On a sandwich with a bit of tomato as sop to the bowels. Sprinkling of pepper. Eh??

Oooh I think I've a wee touch of indigestion...pain under the ribcage, centre of chest, radiating up into the jaw and down the left A-A-A-A-R-R-R-MMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

Sound horn

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm......no, I won't.

Ben Y Vrackie from the old A9 recently. Just south of Bruar.

Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris - A Song for You

Second all-time favourite song.

Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris - A Song for You

Second all-time favourite song.

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