Of totty, Marianne, turkey, cash in the attic, mummy's boy, eruptions, word games and the wrong trousers

"I think to be the devil you have to be angel. Only an angel can play the devil because the devil was a fallen angel."
RIP Udo Kier, pioneering gay actor. And gorgeous as a youth.[click any pic to embiggen]

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• Much-missed icon news: A collection of Marianne Faithfull's personal items, including her diaries, personal photos, various fashion pieces, items of furniture and works of art - and a trunk owned by Carrie Fisher and given by her to Marianne as a gift - are on display at Bonhams Knightsbridge, prior to coming to auction next week. The evening of the day: The Estate of Marianne Faithfull is part of Bonhams' Sound & Cinema auction, running from 25th November to 3rd December.
• Colonial news: Apparently some people "over there" are giving thanks for something-or-other today. Happy Thanksgiving to our chums in the colonies!
• Geek news: The most expensive comic book ever sold - Superman #1 from 1939 - found in their mother's attic by three of her sons went for over $9 million (£6.8 million)!
• Ghoul news: An Italian man is under investigation for benefit fraud and hiding a body after allegedly dressing up as his dead mother – including mimicking her hairstyle with a wig and wearing makeup and jewellery – in order to claim her pension. He bore an uncanny resemblance to Rita Webb, to my eyes.
• The earth hiccuped news: A long-dormant volcano in Ethiopia has erupted for the first time in around 12,000 years.
• We interrupt this broadcast to give you a new word game: I recently stumbled across a piece on the radio about contranyms, which are words that are their own opposites. Here are a few examples, but you can quite easily go down a rabbit-hole trying to think of more:
  • Bolt: To secure, or to flee
  • Cleave: To adhere, or to separate
  • Custom: A common practice, or a special treatment
  • Dust: To add fine particles, or to remove them
  • Fast: Quick, or stuck
  • Left: Remained, or departed
  • Oversight: A careless error, or supervision
  • Sanction: To approve, or to boycott
  • Screen: To present (as in a film), or to conceal
  • Splice: To join, or to separate
  • Weather: To withstand, or to wear away

• And, finally: A new exhibition will explore the world of Aardman animations – from Wallace & Gromit to Morph, Chicken Run, and Shaun The Sheep - is coming to the Young V&A (formerly The Museum of Childhood) next year! With more than 150 objects on display – including never-before-seen models, sets and storyboards from Aardman’s archives – it will open in February to coincide with the studio’s 50th anniversary year. Cracking news, Gromit!

Wallace and Gromit - The Wrong Trousers - Cracking Toast

Wallace and Gromit - The Wrong Trousers - Train Chase

And the weather? Murk.

Thought for the Day

Stealers Wheel - Stuck in the Middle With You

RIP, Joe Egan

I do love a good rant...

...and this one is just wonderful! - as Richard Metzger of the fabulously bizarre Dangerous Minds [informing its regular readers - of which I am one - of a forthcoming new direction for the site] tells it like it is:

The glory days of the internet are long over. It had a good run, but it’s done.

I’d compare this sorry state of affairs to the history of widespread cocaine use in America, it’s almost the exact same story. (Okay, okay, it’s not even a remotely similar narrative, but don’t harsh my analogy!) At first, it was all fun and games. Pure and undiluted nose candy for the masses. The 1970s must’ve been incredible! But then the Devil’s dandruff starts getting stepped on. Unscrupulous dealers began cutting their Peruvian marching powder with baby laxatives and veterinary dewormers. Ultimately it becomes more of a situation where the dealers were cutting their baby laxative with cocaine and not the other way around. Now it’s all just garbage.

And that what’s happened with Internet content, too. When everyone got online in the mid-90s, it was fun and wild and fascinating. New and novel experiences awaited. Fast forward to today and the World Wide Web is sadly akin to a selfie and meme-filled version of WALL-E’s junkyard planet or an ocean full of plastic bottles and other human-created detritus. A friend of mine once described what we did at Dangerous Minds as “panning for Internet gold” but I told him I thought it was more like spelunking in a dank cave, standing in a river of shit wearing hip-high waders and a gas mask.

Today’s internet is by and large a highly toxic HAZMAT site. Assholes are everywhere you turn. You can’t escape them. But on top of that, all the creativity has vanished. What started as a massive outpouring of cross-cultural communication, international information exchange and just plain HIGH WEIRDNESS has turned into a filtered, Facetuned selfie-infested septic tank of “LOOK AT ME” frivolity, knucklehead narcissism and abject idiocy. The rise of the TikTok “expert” dolling out their supposed wisdom in 45-second increments seems to me an especially pernicious development. These people are seldom experts on anything other than hashtags and yet they all apparently have an audience 10X that of CNN’s.

With the AI apocalypse rapidly encroaching upon us it’s about to get even worse. I knew it when I first saw that Star Wars if it had been directed by Wes Anderson video. “Hmmm, that’s kinda clever” immediately gave way to “Okay I get this and I can’t be bothered to even watch it to the end.” It was a watershed moment for me and when I realised THIS SHIT IS THE FUTURE...

...So we’re going to do something different. Something that’s not been filtered or Facetuned or to be found anywhere in this cultural wasteland full of regurgitated garbage. Something with actual experts who know what they’re talking about and can speak intelligently for longer than a minute. Something that will make you smarter.

Wow!

Read the whole thing at the Dangerous Minds site.

Yeah but no but yeah but no but

The English language is rich, varied and blessed with 4,000 passive-aggressive synonyms for the word ‘no’. These are just a few:

‘Maybe’
Both noun and an adverb and means ‘no’ either way. Commonly employed by parents, for example: ‘maybe we could get you a drum kit in a couple of years, if you’re good, maybe.’ Also used by partners while considering the latest sexual innovation you’d like to try.

‘Hmmmm’
Less a word, more a murmer of indifference which directly translates as ‘not fucking likely’. Often said by someone scrunching up their face in revulsion during situations where a flat ‘no’ is socially unacceptable. You’ll recognise it from first dates.

‘I’ll think about it’
They’ve already thought about it and the answer is no, but they’re too polite, cowardly or professional to say so. Bosses use this when you ask for a pay rise so you’ll forget it and move on. It’s been four years and you haven’t forgotten, not that you deserve one.

‘Could do’
The ‘no’ of choice for indecisive girlfriends. That nice Chinese place round the corner? Could do. Or the Indian joint by Waitrose? Could do. Domino’s? Could do. When you find yourself trapped in this cycle, ask them if they’d like to continue the relationship. You’ll get the same response.

‘Yeah no’
A brutal, whiplash-inducing piece of linguistic chicanery. The positive only there to affirm the negative, to offer hope before crushing it, to leave you in no doubt as to the speaker’s blanket dismissal.

‘I’d love to’
The most remorseless, humiliating ‘no’ of them all, detected only in retrospect by eager men whose texts go unanswered. Will secretly hope it means ‘yes’ until their dying days.

The Daily Mash

Of course.

Thought for the Day

Thought for the day

Indeed.

[from Kevin at The Lisp]