Tobacco Packaging

It is about time that the government introduced a new, mandatory warning on the packaging of good tobacco (I have in mind especially the Fribourg & Treyer snuffs which recently arrived from Blighty):

''THIS TOBACCO PRODUCT CAN BRING YOU SERIOUS AND RELIABLE PLEASURE TIME AFTER TIME AND IT WILL EVEN WOO THE NOSTRILS OF THE GODS''

ASH should seriously consider rebranding its prohibitionist outfit ''A ASS', which is what it is trying to make of the law with its demands for 'plain packaging' of tobacco products. Why don't they try to stamp out pornography, the drug trade, gratuitous violence, child abuse, street robbery and burglary instead - as all these things seem to be rampant in 'modern Britain'. Don't get me wrong I still love my homeland and some of its people but, in a very real sense, the England that I was born into has vanished and absurd campaigns to control people by restricting even the packaging of tobacco is just going too far: Those concerned in it should be put in the village pillory for a full twenty four hours and pelted with rotten fruit, vegetables and stinking fish. Then they might start to appreciate Liberty.

Jardim Botanico, Rio de Janeiro

A friend from UCL days, Ron Collins, came to stay and we all went to meet Rio friends Marcelo and Eva at the Jardim Botanico in Rio de Janeiro. These gardens are like Kew with the roofs off. Unfortunately, it rained cats and dogs and we did not stay long. However, Ron took some pictures and here is a selection. 1-3 are in the orchid house; 4 is of a lake and water lilies; 5 is the pergola where Emperor Dom Pedro II often used to lunch; 6 is back at the lagoon in the Sleepy Hollow; 7 is me enjoying a pinch of Fribourg & Treyer's Macouba snuff. Ron also brought a small consignment otherwise comprising F&T Bureau (recently brought back into manufacture); Prince's Special, and Old Paris (together with Macouba, a Brummell favourite), plus a couple of tins of Rose of Sharrow, which is a nice mild post-breakfast snuff. Number 8 is a parting shot.

Gone Fishin'

I am off to build a garden. End of this nonsense! I began this blog and have blogged like hell, elsewhere, in order to promote my books; according to the diktats of my sometime agent. It has all failed; as have the books. I am off to do something worthwhile. If I can totally disable the blog, I shall do so. I have come around to the view, expressed by George IV's only direct heir that: ''The more that I see of the world, the less I want to have to do with it.''

However, I thank my half a dozen or so real followers, and wish you well. I also suggest that you all go off and do something worthwhile with the earth between your fingers.

As they say:

''Cheers''.

NJS.

Hobson-Jobson Dictionary

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/hobsonjobson/

A tremendous find of Anglo-Indian words, deriving from British rule in India and still very much at large and alive in the world.

The Scarlet Pimpernel

The scarlet pimpernel is a wayside flower (Anagallis arvensis)

 
 but The Scarlet Pimpernel (whom I have mentioned before), is the template for the modern, fictional hero and the invention of Baroness Emmuska Orczy. I recently found that the definitive film version (1934) (starring Leslie Howard as Sir Percy Blakeney; Merle Oberon as Marguerite St Just, Lady Blakeney, and Raymond Massey as Chauvelin; directed by Alexander Korda), is on Youtube and definitely worth a viewing, I remember that I saw it for the first time with my father when I was about eight years old, and the impression that it made on me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y5fybV7vW4

The story was first produced as a play in October 1903, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, starring Fred Terry as Blakeney:

Here is a still of Howard and Oberon:

Splash

A favourite cat, Splash, died on me in the night. He suddenly became ill at midday on Saturday and I couldn't get any vet' to turn out. He got much worse over Sunday and even 'emergency' numbers were unanswered. Even just forty eight hours ago he seemed fine but, apparently, cats are adept at hiding illness. He survived a toxic shock and an operation consequential on that three months ago and I just hoped that he would pull through this but, as ever:

'Lo! some we loved the lov'liest and best'

are taken from us soonest. I buried him early this morning under an acerola tree with a red rose which, eventually, I had managed to grow in the windswept garden. I haven't felt so sad for a long time because, even fully grown, not only would he seek me out but he used actually to climb up me for attention and I shall miss him very much.

R.I.P. Splash: ''A very fine cat''.

Olympics 2012

So the Olympics are in big overspend, to the tune of several billion pounds. All construction projects started by local and national Labour and Liberal politicians seem to result in massive overspends. Often the companies involved go bust and the projects are then sold off at a mere fraction of the cost to the public purse. Presumably, the money that goes missing is stolen.

This brings me to my tu'ppence-worth on the 2012 Olympics. First, the athletes should be all amateurs and arrive at their own expense; secondly, they should be made to compete in the nude (no sponsors allowed). The events are that they run around Silverstone a couple of times; throw javelins and do the long and high jump in the middle, and the winner of each event gets a crown of laurel and they all get a fig leaf for modesty at the end. Then they can all bugger off home at their own expense. Anyone interested in watching should be allowed to do so free of charge; no cameras allowed.

Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell on one side and Garden Broom and Ken Livingstone on the other should provide the grand finale - a tug o' war across the Thames, by Vauxhall Bridge, with a rope borrowed from the River Police. The losers get drowned by the currents and the winners are drowned by the crowd.