The weirdest of weird coincidences, maybe.

And and even better one

Notebook 16 Pg 125

notes

• Dipping sauce, he needs instruction
• Joe Di Magio didn't know wallets existed. Had special pants made with no pockets
• The reason people were shocked players buying drugs, not the drugs but the thought of players actually paying for something
• No right fielder in Abbot and Costello's who's on first, no idea what one world of that sentence means.
• Didn't loose, they didn't finish

commentary


Dipping sauce, he needs instruction
Just a good line for indication a certain cast of mind that displays levels of non-intellectual curiosity

Joe Di Magio didn't know wallets existed. Had special pants made with no pockets
I think there is a common thread in the US that baseball players have a reputation of being somewhat parsimonious 

The reason people were shocked at the revelation of players buying drugs, was not the drugs but the thought of players actually paying for something
As above.


No right fielder in Abbot and Costello's who's on first, no idea what one world of that sentence means.
I think this must alludes to this routine which is a national institution in the US.

 

Guess they knew they were on to a good thing



Yep, sure did.




Oh Boy!



...moving on

Didn't loose they didn't finish
Not sure why I wrote this, guess it is another baseball reference. What makes you think I was living in America when I wrote this page?

Notebook 46 Pg 15

notes

• Debussy Jardin sous le puie
• Norfolk Coast and Danny Baker are fast becoming what Spanish Wheatfields were to Maximus Decimus
• 2 min grass
• Quite a big secret:'Knowing that non-magicians will overlook the things that don't seem so thrilling, and thus magicians can fool them with those things'.   Nathaniel Schiffman
• 'The non Magician will never learn how the tricks are really done because when they see the real secrets that are used they aren't impressed by them. They think they're not finding out anything of importance, and so they believ the secrets are too well guarded to be discovered. Not true.'  Nathaniel Schiffman

commentary

Debussy Jardin sous le pluie
Oh my. Do you remember how I played this to you on that warm afternoon in the Spring of 1907? You recall how we found that dusty old Steinway hidden behind the portraits of Grand mama and her water spaniels, how we laughed and laughed. You do remember don't you? Surely you do? We spent weeks exploring the attics in Uncle Tom's house. Oh happy days.

Norfolk Coast and Danny Baker are fast becoming what Spanish Wheat fields were to Maximus Decimus
I wrote this when I was wifeless, jobless and very nearly homeless in NYC and the thought of listening to Danny's show and visiting the North Norfolk coast were things that kept me going in the dark hours. Maximus Decimus is the part Russell Crowe plays in the eponymous Gladiator

2 min grass
I can't believe that having invented this godsend to the horticultural world I have now forgotten how I did it.

Quite a big secret: Knowing that non-magicians will overlook the things that don't seem so thrilling, and thus magicians can fool them with those things. Nathaniel Schffman

The non Magician will never learn how the tricks are really done because when they see the real secrets that are used they aren't impressed by them. They think they're not finding out anything of importance, and so they believ the secrets are too well guarded to be discovered. Not true.
Nathaniel Schiffman
Both these quotes are from an excellent book called Abracadabra which is a really cracking read.

Notebook 50 Pg 109

notes

• I've never quite understood the attraction of a funeral pyre; honouring someones greatness by putting them on a never to be eaten barbecue
• 'That's going to ruffle some feathers' he said as if he'd just spotted Chicken Licken deep in conversation with Colonel Saunders.
• As good ideas went it was on par with Geordie Le Forge fetching the Worzels to come and fix the tractor beam.
• He looked panicky, like a Cretan being introduced to a polygraph.
• He looked as happy as a Minotaur receiving a sat-nav for Xmas.
• Un-sportsmanlike and unfair, like suggesting going first in a game of Rock, Paper, Scissor, Tank.
• Formula 1 = Chariots of Dire

  commentary

I've never quite understood the attraction of a funeral pyre; honouring someones greatness by putting them on a never to be eaten barbecue
Not my most subtle of observations I'm afraid.

That's going to ruffle some feathers he said, as if he had just spotted Chicken Licken deep in conversation with Colonel Saunders.
I'm not sure how patronising I am being by giving you these links: Chicken Licken and
Colonel Saunders  Gosh, that's certainly a more upbeat, sprightly version of him they choose to use on the sides of their buckets)

As good ideas went it was on par with Geordi Le Forge fetching the Worzels to come and fix the tractor beam
As good ideas went it was on par with Geordi Le Forge fetching the Worzels to come and fix the tractor beam . I'm thinking a metaphor is probably no good when you have to employ three hyperlinks in one sentence to make it understandable to anyone other than yourself.

 He looked panicky, like a Cretan being introduced to a Polygraph 
 He looked panicky like a Cretan being introduced to a Polygraph. Make that two hyperlinks.

He looked as happy as a Minotaur receiving a sat-nav for Xmas
I am going to let this one stand unexplained as I'm sure there is only so much patronising your pretty little head can endure in one go.

Un-sportsmanlike and unfair, like suggesting going first in a game of Rock, Paper, Scissor, Tank.
No comment

Formula 1 = Chariots of Dire
Harsh but fair.

Notebook 48 Pg 91

Notes

• Ounce and inch come from uncia
• Kanaka
• Round city with four axis
• Golden Palace
• Paper
• Bait al-Hikma
• House of Wisdom
• Al-Khwarizmi
• Contracts dates of delivery
• Inventories + accounting records
• Dies mensis

commentary

Ounce and inch come from uncia
Well, what can I say? I like knowing stuff like this

Kanaka
Is of course a name for a native of Hawaii, quite why that is here I do not know. I think have phonetically misspelt something.

Round city with four axis 
No idea, there is a four axis car audio and entertainment company in Redditch but that's a bit random even for me as Crown Prince of Randomania

Golden Palace
This could be anything from a ancient citadel to a Chinese take-away.

Paper
What a useful bit of note taking.

Bait al-Hikma: House of Wisdom
Oh yeah! That's more like it. Useful note taking. I want to go here

Al-Khwarizmi
Main contender for smartest cookie in/on the box/planet at the time. Without him there would quite literally not be nothing.

Contracts dates of delivery, Inventories + accounting records
All these very very useful though not particularly glamorous things exist because of him

Dies mensis
Alas all I can find is some kind of Latin reference to death by menstrual cycle, which can't be right can it?

Notebook 48 Pg 56

notes

• First Stonecaster Corporation
• Jesus said you shall not marry after divorce, so Mandela is a sinner
• 'It doesn't say what it says it says
• 'Saying scripture is wrong means you don't understand what its says
• Church founded on the desires of a murderer and unelected monarch to have open sexual reltions
• I have yet to have one single oppressed person come to me and say 'Archbishop Tutu youa re getting too inolved in politics' this is said only by those with the comfort of middle class
• Jesus was a radical
• 'This earth is not heaen and was never meant to be - Ann Widdercombe
• 'That's just an excuse not to tackle things' - Archbishop Tutu in response to above

commentary

First Stonecaster Corporation
I think this may one day pop up in a potentially not very subtle, moralizing, metaphor heavy short story I will write

Jesus said you shall not marry after divorce So Mandella is a sinner
Self-explanatory and highlights the contradiction inherent in many of the worlds scriptures

'It doesn't say what it says it says'
I think this is a genuine reply from one of the theologians being interviewed on the BBC R4 documentary I was listening to. I keep re-reading it in the hope it will make some sense. It fails to do so.

'Saying scripture is wrong means you don't understand what its says'
As above, I struggle very hard to make sense of what this actually means as surely this and the above is just shorthand for 'scripture means whatever I decide it means' which is downright scary.

Church founded on the desire of a murderous unelected monarch to have open sexual relations
I'm guessing the Church of England would probably not see it like this.

"I have yet to have one single oppressed person come to me and say 'Archbishop Tutu you are getting too involved in politics!' this is said only by those with the comfort of middle class' - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Regardless of your thoughts and feelings towards his beliefs I think you have to put the man up there as a world class exemplary Human being.

Jesus was a radical
Desmond Tutu defending his stance

'This earth is not heaven and was never meant to be' Ann Widdercombe
Oh Ann Ann Ann what can I say..?

'That's just an excuse not to tackle things'  Archbishop Tutu in response to the above
No worries Ann I think Desmond has said it all for me.

Notebook 48 pg 191

notes

• Misericordia
• Sapentia
• Winsome More Free

commentary

Misericordia
I know this is can be two thing either a 'chill out' room for monks in a monastary or a small dagger that was used to 'mercy kill' a wounded foe.  I may have been thinking of using it as a character name in yet another piece of work that went unwritten.

Sapentia
This means characterised by wisdom so I guess as above. Though I may have been trying out potential babies names.

Winsome More Free
I could not figure this out until I did. It is me; I am Vincent Murphy so this was a pun. On myself. Clever, and so very very sad at the same time.

Notebook 48 Pg 190

Notes

• Tessellations - square four
• Omadhaun - Fool
• Eirenicon - peace
• Dodeka
• Verbicide - destroyer of words
• Ventripotent - large bellied
• Ferociously Veracious and veraciously ferocious 
• Advertising = vermiculation of language through incessant verbicide
• Vade Mecum = Go with me

commentary

Tessellations - square four
Isn't tessellation some kind of mosaic patchwork thingy?  I know I am all for a new hobby but I think this one was a nine minute wonder

 Omadhaun - Fool
An Irish alternative word for a big eejit

Eirenicon - peace
Eirenicon is a proposition that attempts to resolve two conflicting viewpoints. I like this a lot

Dodeka
As in having twelve - like a Dodecahedron, I am guessing this is all about Humanichs

Verbicide = destroyer of words
I like this word a lot

Ventripotent = large bellied
Alas this is to my infinite regret something I have found myself becoming since quitting smoking

Ferociously veracious and veraciously ferocious 
Veracious means to habitually tell the truth, so to be a bit veracious I am a little bit chuffed with my own phraseology here.

Advertising = vermiculation of language through incessant verbicide
Okay 'vermiculation means worm eaten and I would love to think but alas doubt that I invented this phrase.

Vade Mecum = Go with me
A useful bit of Latin  used to describe a handbook. I may have been referring to a book on Humanichs which most people will eventually carry around with them everywhere - in my world, obviously.

Looking at the above I think I may have been stuck in a room with a dictionary with all the letters torn out except for V