Sunday, December 27, 2020

Boxing Day


Is anyone else still wrestling with the peculiarities of New Blogger? My lingering problem is that when I upload photos, Blogger inserts empty spaces above them. I have to go into the html code and remove the spaces (indicated by a letter P in brackets). Weirdly, it only happens with the first two pictures in a post. Also, I have to upload pictures one at a time, because if I do them all at once, Blogger reorders them. Rather than appearing in the order I select, they get shuffled.

I suppose it's no big deal, especially for a completely free blogging service, but just for the record, I still have to make those minor tweaks in my workflow.

Yesterday was Boxing Day, which in the UK is a significant holiday -- so named, as I understand it, because this is when household staff and servers would receive their Christmas boxes and tips. (Along with the poor.) We took the opportunity to watch the Queen's Christmas message, which was broadcast the afternoon of Christmas day:


She basically reiterated key parts of the Christmas story from a religious perspective -- while being inclusive of other faiths, too -- and encouraged us all to be kind to each other during these trying times.

Dave pointed out that it's beneficial to have a figure like the Queen who represents a centering morality in the national culture. In America there is no national figure who can remind us all to be kind. There's the president, but depending on who that is, they may or may not be an authoritative moral voice (!). The Queen is very much that, and while political players come and go she remains, an unshakeable figure of stability. I wonder how well that sense of foundation will carry into the next generation -- I think people like Charles now more than they once did, but only time will tell.

I'm not necessarily a royalist -- it's an expensive system, although at least now they pay taxes. It does provide benefits, though. It definitely brings in tourist dollars.

The big news for me, yesterday, was that I finally reached page 803 of "The Pickwick Papers," and thus the magical words, THE END. I enjoyed the book once I finally got focused enough to read it, which didn't happen until about a week ago! It was funny in places and a bit peculiar, almost a collection of short stories, which makes sense when you consider that it was written to provide a narrative for a collection of drawings. As I wrote before, my biggest challenge was keeping all the characters straight.

I also Skyped in the afternoon with my friend Kevin, who I've known since middle school. It was good to catch up with him and compare notes on, among other things, our latest acquisitions of Joni Mitchell swag. (For me, a t-shirt; for Kevin, a CD anthology of all her earliest recordings. Which I intend to buy too.)


Here's what the glittery drag-queen hyacinths are looking like these days. They smell very sweet. I'm really enjoying them. They're smaller than a normal hyacinth blossom and plant -- I suppose growing from a dry bulb, as they were, doesn't provide the resources for them to get very large. I intend to keep them planted, so maybe next year (assuming they survive) they'll be more normal-sized.

(Top photo: Late afternoon sun on St. Andrew's United Reformed Church, on Finchley Road near our flat.)

45 comments:

  1. The hyacinth are lovely and what a great pink and blue balance.
    It may be just my bad memory but the Queen's speech has over the last few years become increasingly Christian religious and I don't like it as a person of the Commonwealth with its many religions. Yes, she is the head of the Church of England, but that is irrelevant to so many people, even including those of her own country.
    Line spacing and photo order are nothing new in the old Blogger or the new Blogger. I cut a photo and put it in the correct place and use the enter key or backspace to sort out line spacing. I have a couple of lines of html code to copy and paste when necessary, but it is ages since I have used them.

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    1. The speech did refer by name to several other religions and their festivals, all of which have been affected this year by Covid. She was trying to go beyond simple Christian messaging. Then again, Christmas is fundamentally a Christian holiday, so I guess she has to stick to the script in that sense!

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    2. Well, not to be persnickety, but Christmas is a pagan holiday with a Christian veneer.

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    3. That's true -- it does have its pagan roots! (Just like Easter.)

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  2. I am not having any blogging problems...for a little while it did put a block of pictures in reverse order, as it did when I started blogging..but now it is back to putting them on in my order! I got round it when it did that by adding photos one at a time. As Andrew said, any problems are not new..and as you say it is free!!
    When I lived in Wales it was not Boxing Day but for Welsh speakers, Gwyl San Steffen..St Stephen's Festival...as in the Good King Wenceslas...was he in Bohemia or Czech ? Still the same idea of helping those less fortunate I suppose.
    Were not Dickens's books written and published in a magazine, not in a whole book form? That could explain how they read.
    Well done on getting plants to grow well indoors!

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    1. I loaded multiple pictures just the other day and it reversed them all. Annoying! I think many of Dickens' books were serialized at first. This one apparently really began with the illustrations, and Dickens was commissioned to connect them all with a novel. (If I understand that correctly -- I'm no expert!)

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  3. I read this a couple of times: "people like Charles now more than they once did" and at the risk of stirring your fiery wrath, I humbly suggest that you meant "know" and not "now". Of course "Shadows and Light" is renown throughout Blogland because of its grammatical accuracy but even the best of us can make occasional slip ups. Personally, I blame it on the heady aroma of hyacinth blooms drifting through your luxury garden apartment. God Save The Queen!

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    1. Further reflection upon this matter of earth-shattering significance suggests that you may not have been using "like" in the manner of "similar" but with regard to the people's affection towards Charles. Yes. That must be it.

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    2. Glad you sorted it out, YP! But the fact that it confused you suggests that I probably should have worded it better...

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  4. The hyacinths are beautiful. I'm enjoying them more from afar because the fragrance is a bit strong for me. I'm not a monarchist either. The British Royal Family does cost a lot of money to maintain, but as I understand things, they income they produce is exceptional. I hope that's true. A few of them are shameful and certainly don't deserve their incomes. I think Queen Elizabeth II has been exceptional over her long years and, although she lives a life of obscene privilege, she has also sacrificed a great deal for that privilege -- sacrifices I would never be willing to make.

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    1. She has definitely sacrificed. It staggers the mind to consider how long she's been a presence in all our lives. She was already on the throne for 14 years when I was BORN!

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  5. I am a big fan of Pickwick Papers, having read it several times I find I can pick it up and read a random section and enjoy it. As to the hyacinths they should come back every year. One year at work I collected all the hyacinths being thrown out after Easter and planted them in my garden. They came up for years.
    Happy Boxing Day!

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    1. I liked it once I got going, but I struggled a bit at first. I think now that I know more about it and understand the structure I'd read the beginning with more enjoyment.

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  6. I had no chance to comment on yesterday's post. Olga so regal. She is the supermodel to your Helmut Newton.

    Talking of regal. There was a time in my life when I had to calibrate the turkey's timing to the Queen's speech. What possessed me to marry into an English family and their trimmings?

    You mention "The End". There are books and films one wishes never to end. There are books and films one wishes to end sooner rather than testing one's patience. And then there is Marcel Proust. I am the only person I know who has ever read "In Search of Lost Time" to the end. I wouldn't say I lost time doing the author justice. What I find vaguely bemusing that he wrote it in bed. His mother attending to his every whim. Indulging one's offspring is what Proust's mother and I have in common. How I shall miss it in times to come.

    The one "problem" I have with Hyacinths that they not only smell, a lot, but that they are so prim, proper, pristine. Blousy yet buttoned up. Just as well. We don't always need a Storm Bella in our lives. Didn't the window panes rattle last night?!

    Cold ham greetings,
    U

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    1. Olga is my "muse"! I agree that some books and movies are SO good that the end comes as a sadness -- but to be honest it's been years since I encountered one of those. Maybe the movie "Call Me By Your Name." I loved that film and was very sad to see it end. As for hyacinths, there's a reason why the fussbudget in "Keeping Up Appearances" was named Hyacinth!

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  7. Oh, look at those lovely hyacinths! I can almost smell them.
    The Queen- you just sort of have to love her. And at this point she seems almost as eternal as Big Ben or the Thames. And yes, she is a sort of authoritative moral voice.
    Good for you for finishing the Pickwick Papers. That's one I've never read. I'm completely with you on characters, and authors just should NOT name multiple characters with names beginning with the same letter. I suppose our brains make a shorthand method of identifying the different ones and I think that those first letters of their names are an important part of that. For me, at least.
    Florida is quite beautiful today, Steve. Cold and lovely. A good day to be cozy. You guys stay cozy too!

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    1. To make things even more confusing, several of the characters with similar names (Weller, Winkle, Wardle) also had FATHERS with the same name. So then we were dealing with Mr. Winkle junior and Mr. Winkle senior! Aaaaargh!

      The Queen really DOES seem eternal. Not to mention Prince Philip.

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    2. About the naming of characters in novels: I've never read the Horatio Hornblower novels, but I LOVED the memoir by its author, C S Forster, "Long Before 40", in which he gives the best advise to would-be authors" Give your characters unforgettable names". Hence: Horatio Hornblower.

      I once belonged to a writer's group (for a very short time, I prefer to write in agonizing solitude), and one of the fiction authors bored me to tears with her struggle to name her main character "Johanna" or "Claire". FFS, name her "Mighty" and get on with it. Right?

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    3. Well, C.S. Forester definitely took the cake with "Horatio Hornblower." I would say unforgettable names are good, but maybe not ridiculous ones!

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  8. Just think what would happen if Trump was the king? It's largely ceremonial and has no power. However, I know there are such things as power grab. She still has it in her head that there is a "Common wealth of nations". We aren't so sure after they stole a lot of our resources.

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    1. Oh, Lord, could you imagine -- someone like Trump who we COULDN'T get rid of? THAT would be a disaster. I imagine people felt that way about George III.

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  9. I can't imagine what it must be like to live in a country that has a royal family and an ancient history. We humans do create some interesting stories to tell over the centuries.
    The hyacinths are beautiful, a lovely flowery reminder of the colors of spring.

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    1. The royal family is interesting because we really DON'T see them much, even here. They're like rare birds -- they come out now and then and we all gawp and then they vanish. I suppose that helps preserve their mystique!

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  10. I've never cared much for hyacinths. they just don't look real to me and seem to barely make it out of the ground to bloom. and what is that plant behind the queen outside the window?

    things continue to go to hell in a handbasket over here.

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    1. The plant outside is a Chinese banana. It's more cold-hardy than other types of bananas, supposedly. I'm keeping an eye on the American news. Trump is testing us all, even now!

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  11. I agree, there are still some things in blogger that are frustrating. However, I've just been backspacing that extra gap and it seems to work. I also noticed that problem loading the photos. I too have been putting them in one at a time.
    It is nice to have one leader who passes along a positive message.

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    1. I can't get backspacing to remove that extra gap at the top, I have no idea why. (My browser? My computer?)

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  12. We do not currently have a president who would even think about encouraging us to be kind. He's far too busy trying to overturn an election.

    My paperwhites are especially gorgeous this year. I received two new african violets in two different colors. I do love having flowers in winter.

    It's the small things that make the difference, don't they? Small kindnesses, flowers in winter, a cheerful word...

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    1. Absolutely. My blog is all about the small things, probably to the frustration of many readers! LOL

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  13. I have been more impressed with the Queen after watching The Crown. She has been a steady presence for so long and it seems amazing how many prime ministers she has dealt with. I'd admire her fortitude.
    Love your glitter hyacinths!

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    1. It really is remarkable how long she's been on the throne. It's hard for most of us to conceive of a world without her.

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  14. Ah yes, the new blogger. When I put three or four pictures into the edit window, quite often I can not insert text between them. Sometimes I get the extra space. Other times when I hit carriage return after a paragraph at the top of the post, it scrolls up to the bottom of the post - every time. And then there is deleting comments. Each comment must be deleted individually, then the delete confirmed and then the list rolls up to the top. I had to delete a slug of spam comments yesterday and it just took forever. You used to be able to select a bunch and then hit delete once. These are not improvements. The one thing I have not struggled with is font size, which I do see signs of on other peoples' blogs. However, it is free!
    This country could really use a moral compass these days.

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    1. Yeah, I've run into that frustration about the comment deletion, too. Fortunately I rarely have more than a handful of spam comments at any given time. (I moderate comments on every post older than five days.)

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    2. I have had it set to 2 weeks, but I guess I'll have to shorten it up. At least blogger has learned that the comments wanting to have sex with me are spam. Now I'm getting comments in Arabic, so of course I do not know what they say.

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    3. Ha! You can probably pop the Arabic ones into Google translate and get a sense of their meaning. They're almost certainly spam, I'd guess.

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  15. We won't talk about our president since he is a lunatic who isn't even doing a minimal job of ANYTHING. I love the hyacinths, such beautiful colors. They do smell good too. I have white ones in my front flowerbed and they are one of the first flowers to herald spring. I forget what Boxing Day is every year and have to look it up. The internet says it's a big shopping day, but I'm sure that has changed in 2020.

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    1. Yeah, traditionally it's a day for everyone to indulge in post-Christmas sales. They're probably happening online -- not that I care!

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  16. As usual, wonderful photos. Those hyacinths are beautiful and showy. I wonder if you watched the "fake Queen" on Channel 4. They did a marvelous job of joking with her and the royals. And it can be found on the Internet.

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    1. Ha! No, I hadn't heard about that! I'll look it up!

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  17. Your Hyacinths are charming. The new blogger? not so much. I'm glad the Queen is encouraging people to be kind. We need more of both that encouragement and kindness itself.

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  18. I love the hyacinths! I especially like that you can still see the glitter. I think they were an excellent gift!

    I finally figured out that if I select "normal" instead of "paragraph" I won't have so much weird spacing - however, the photos are still spaced a little weirdly. And yes, I have to load them one at a time.

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    1. Yeah, I agree about the hyacinths, particularly if they live to bloom again in future years. (As I assume they will.) There are various little work-arounds to get the desired effect in New Blogger but it's still not optimal, is it?

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  19. One summer I read all of Dickens! It was a break from scholary university books!

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    1. You read ALL of Dickens in a single summer? That would take me years!

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