Povey Prattle

Happiness is having a BLT with fries at Alma's Kouzine on North Beneva in Sarasota. Joy is eating that lunch with my blessed and godly friends Cindy and Wes Wasdyke.

Slave Cabin Americans of the political/chattering class ( I am one) love to talk about the Constitutional Convention, or the Federalist Papers, or the Civil War, or "Reconstruction"  as if  these events happened yesterday. But when it comes to the issues of slavery, and Lincoln's "Emancipation Declaration" they are apt to say " but that was a long time ago, we need to get over it". In so saying they/we willfully choose to overlook the evil of slavery,and its' pernicious effects (reaching even to 2016),  They/we are also apt to say something like this "African Americans  should stop whining about slavery", ---  even as we Caucasian Americans whine about and discuss those parts of our history which made slavery possible (and even desirable). I call it "selective amnesia".    It could also be called "toxic amnesia", for unless and until the ruling classes in the USA acknowledge the intrinsic evil of slave...

There are three rivers named "Avon" in England.  (1) The Warwickshire Avon (which runs through Stratford Upon Avon), (2)  The Hampshire Avon. and (3)  The Bristol Avon. The name "Avon" is a  cognate  of the  Welsh  word  afon   [ˈavɔn]  "river", both being derived from the  Common Brittonic abona , "river". " River Avon ", therefore, literally means "River River ". The Bristol Avon takes its course through my beloved home City of Bristol. where it empties into the Severn Estuary/Bristol Channel at the appropriately named "Avonmouth". As the River Avon passes through Bristol it becomes a tidal river.  This means that at low tide the Avon is a smallish river, surrounded by mud flats.  At high tide it is filled to capacity as the incoming tide enters the Avon Oh that incoming tide!  It arrives from the Severn Estuary/Bristol Channel,  which has the second or third highest difference  between low and hig...

George Frederick Handel wrote his Oratorio "Solomon"   in 1748.   Much of that work has been forgotten, save  a short and lively instrumental passage for two  oboes  and strings in Act Three, known as "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba". Was I six years old, or was I eight when I first heard this music and wept? Did this happen only once, or more than once? I have no way of knowing or remembering. All I remember is that as a wee slip of a lad I cried when I heard "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba" Memory is tricky.  What I seem to remember us that having gone to bed, I heard this tune as it was being played downstairs on our "Wireless".  I remember walking half way down the stairs, and shedding buckets of tears at the sheer beauty of this music, only to be discovered  by my Mum and Dad in my weepy state. I wonder if my two older sisters remember my tears, ---------------------------------------------------------------------...