iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

For an October Friday: Robert Garioch, "Owre Weill" (October 1961)

Owre Weill

I'm early up, this Friday morn. and feelin maist byordnar gay: ma heid's as caller as a herrin,

I'm faur owre weill to wark the day.

Something's gane wrang: my heid's no sair. I'll see the doctor, and he'll say, He's no been taen this wey afore:

the man's owre weill to wark the day.

Sen Monday, I've duin fowre days hard; I shuid be donnert, but I'm nae.

I tell masel, Be on your guaird. ye're faur owre weill to wark the day.

Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Exciting developments on the Shearer story: have tracked down a 1980 book which is the earliest claim so far of "sentenced to death", also featuring a copy of one of Shearer's "delineations"! Lots of potential leads to follow up here.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Bell had some theories on that - seems a combination of "tampering with the original" and "wishful thinking by the end user"

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Greater Anglia doubling down on the inexplicable adverts. Are they randomly generating the numbers? Polling driving directions at different times?

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Sometimes, the big camera isn't quite the right tool for the job

A large green bird perched on a table, a few inches in front of a camera lens

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

On the one hand, still a terrible advert. On the other, apparently they're... A/B testing it?

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

They even tweak the numbers for some reason, I spotted this version a week ago.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Congratulations to Greater Anglia, who are running the least compelling advert for public transport ever devised

Travel from Broxbourne to Cambridge in 60 mins by train vs 1h 3mins by car

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Some former colleagues of mine did this, and then discovered they had forgotten to enquire about the seal's holiday plans.

When the elephant seal was tagged on Signy Island, it was hoped that this animal would range deeply into the ice-covered Weddell Sea in winter, thereby providing data from a region inaccessible to ships and from which very few hydrographic measurements have been collected. Unfortunately, the specific elephant seal that was tagged (Fig. 2) was not quite the enthusiastic adventurer that we had hoped for, choosing instead to spend the following months very close to the South Orkneys, and venturing only briefly beyond the shelf slope adjacent to these islands. This behaviour seems to

A very fat and happy seal with a transmitter on its head, "not the intrepid adventurer that we had hoped for"

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I turned up one of these (early 90s) at work a few years back which went on for several pages of technical detail and then provided troubleshooting advice in case it all got too hard.

General antidote to electronic-mail problems

Ingredients for sangría for 6: 6 bottles of red wine; 2 peaches; 2 pears; 2 oranges; 1 lemon; 1 sliced banana; 1 sliced apple or pear; sugar. Slice and core the 2 peaches and 2 pears, peel the 2 oranges and the lemon. Liquidise and pour into a glass bowl. Add the sliced banana, sliced apple or pear, the peel from an orange and the wine. Add sugar to taste and stir. Serve cold.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

You do wonder what his debriefing was like afterwards. "Escaped, OK, good chap; evaded capture; went underground; encountered occupying forces, all good; fell in love - ah, I think we don't have an entry for that one on the forms, old boy..."

I AM ABSOLUTELY convinced that at this moment in my life nothing better could have happened to me than my meeting with Max Halder. We were very much alike in so many ways. Both of us hated war and everything to do with it, and we were both very lonely.

Perhaps for the first time since my Greek experience found myself deeply emotionally involved. Few have met have been as kind as Max. In everything he did he was gentle and gracious and grateful. At times his gratitude even embarrassed me a little. When put my thoughts into words now and again, he would say, 'You have nothing to thank me for, mon cher. It is I who am so deeply in your debt.'

Often, when I had no engagement and I was lucky in getting work in several nightclubs and restaurants, particularly the Grand Ecart and the Chez Ma Tante in the Place Pigalle - we were quite content to sit at home, and I would cook a meal from the supplies which Max brought home from his canteen. It was fun, really, trying to make dishes out of quite extraordinary ingredients, and added to our domesticity. Max loved these quiet evenings as much as I did, for when we were together like this, we could forget about the war and the horror which it represented to both of us.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

So here's a little mystery. The name "Elara" is marked as one that AI tools gravitate to in a wide range of contexts (arxiv.org/abs/2606.02184). It seems possible that people are, as a result, having it suggested it as a baby name: it's almost twice as popular in 2025 as it was in 2017-23. But...

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Earlier in the same book: the dangers of the archives rabbit-hole

'What was Leo's track?'

'Wait. It's important what I'm telling. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it in the last twenty-four hours, and you're going to hear it right, whether you like it or not. The files get hold of you; you can't help it. They'd rule your life if you ever let them. They're wife and child to some men, I've seen it happen. And times they just take you, and then you're on a track and you can't get off it; and that's what they did to Leo. I don't know how it happens. A paper catches your eye, some- thing silly: a threatened strike of sugar-workers in Surabaya, that's our favourite joke at the moment. "Hullo," you say to yourself, "Why hasn't Mr So-and-So signed that off?" You check back: Mr So-and-So never saw it. He never read the telegram at all. Well he must see it then, mustn't he? Only it all happened three years ago, and Mr So-and-So is Ambassador in Paris. So you start trying to find out what action was taken, or wasn't taken. Who was consulted? Why didn't they inform Washington? You chase the cross references, draw the original material. By then it's too late; you've lost your sense of propor- tion; you're away, and by the time you shake yourself out of it you're ten days older and none the wiser, but maybe you're safe again for a couple of years. Obsession, that's what it is. A private journey. It happens to all of us. It's the way we're made.'

'And it happened to Leo?

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Oddity from an early le Carré (1968) - a character uses the modern sense of "stalking", seemingly before the term was coined, and then apologises for using such a strange metaphor. (OED has it as "anticipating this use" and first normal citation in 1981.)

Her voice became even more pedagogic; the tones came very crisply, brooking no question whatever.

'He would never do such a thing. It was not in his nature, it had not crossed his mind. He assured me categorically that he was not.. stalking me. That was the expression I used; it was one I instantly regretted. I cannot imagine how I came on such a ridiculous metaphor. To the contrary, he said, he was merely following his usual social pattern; if it bothered me he would change it, or decline all further invitations until instructed him otherwise. Nothing was further from his mind than to be a burden to me.'

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Still testing the 4x5 but I think I'm getting the hang of it. Here's the bookshelf railway investigators* * long story

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Took a while to get hold of film but ... looks like we have a success. Technically a success. Aesthetically, well, that's going to take a while longer.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

1927: Herbert jokes about a court being called upon to decide what successor of a political party should get an inheritance 2026: news.bloomberglaw.com/employee-ben...

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

"when did you stop beating your wife" is a trick question to which there is famously no good answer. conversely, "do you beat your wife" is a straightforward question to which there ... kind of obviously is a good answer? shootingthemessenger.blog/2026/07/30/s...

WIRED ran the excerpt through several AI-detection services, including Pangram, GPTZero, and ZeroGPT. Each service suggested that it was either likely AI-generated, or AI-generated with high confidence. But AI-detection tools are fallible, and can return inaccurate readings. So WIRED’s head of research emailed Rosenbaum directly to ask if and how he had used AI to write the excerpt…

Rosenbaum would not weigh in on the accuracy of Pangram’s results. In fact, he didn’t want to talk about them at all. “I don’t participate in that conversation,” he said. “It’s like saying, do you beat your wife? It’s one of those accusations that there’s no response to.”

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Today's odd historical footnote: in 1931 someone bought the rights to salvage the Lusitania and proposed doing so by ... building a ladder down to it. You'd climb down a 200' tube at atmospheric pressure then enter a diving airlock. They got as far as building the tube.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

congratulations to the UX designers at the British Newspaper Archive, who have taken a site that basically worked, and done their best to fix that problem. Look at this sidebar: in the old design it would be sorted by frequency and I could tell at a glance what the shape of the hits were. Now, no.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Well, this was unexpectedly prompt.

A large field camera with wood frame and striking blue bellows

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

maybe not *quite* the best phrase to use in that context

Yesterday, over 18 painstaking hours, teams of French and British conservators and British Museum staff unfurled the 70-metre long artwork from the folding stand where it had been concertinaed, surrounded by protective mattress-type padding.

I'm told there were tears.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I think something may have gone just very slightly wrong with the measurements for this table

Specifications for a small folding table, with dimensions of 81x9x88 mm and a corresponding weight of 8660 kg

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Slightly faded tube map OR inevitable triumph of the Circle Line, who can say

A London tube map on which the lines are gradually turning yellow

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Important discovery on the library shelves today. Truly we have everything.

A shelf of books including three volumes labelled RANDOM DATA

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

the BBC has put Children of Men on iplayer (because we need cheering up?) and I have ... concerns... about the discovery that it is set one year and five months from now.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

An 1843 court reporter not standing for any of this nonsense

Martin Horne was indicted for wilful and corrupt perjury, at Ballycastle, in a certain case tried before Richard Davison, Esq., the Seneschal of Ballycastle Manor Court. Acquitted on account of some legal technicality. Court adjourned at six o’clock.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Also good to know that Philip Marlowe is fully aware of the genre he lives in.

"I don't think so." She threw the words out,

almost with a lilt. “You wondered why I gave you the empty gun. Why not? I had another one in my bag. Like this.” Her right hand came up from her coat pocket and she pointed it at me.

I grinned. It may not have been the heartiest grin in the world, but it was a grin.

“I've never liked this scene," I said. "Detective confronts murderer. Murderer produces gun, pints same at detective. Murderer tells detective the whole sad story, with the idea of shooting him at the end of it. Thus wasting a lot of valuable time, even if in the end murderer did shoot detective. Only murderer never does. Something always happens to prevent it. The gods don't like this scene either. They always manage to spoil it.”

"But this time," she said softly and got up and moved towards me softly across the carpet, “suppose we make it a little different. Suppose I don't tell you anything and nothing happens and I do shoot you?"

“I still wouldn't like the scene,” I said.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

The Normandy anniversary today reminds me of an oddity I stumbled on in the newspaper archives: "D-Day" was the accepted name for it well *before* it happened. In October 1943 the Evening News needed to gloss the term, but by spring 1944 it was quite widely used, even down to ads.

Evening News, 21 October 1943: “D” DAY US. TROOPS GET READY | FOR 1T Wassincron, Thursday. THE U.S. War Department announced to-day that complete training facilities, where American troops are polished in combat tnm-wg;: right up to “D" day (invasi ~day), have been in operation for months at overseas bases from which the US. is carrying the war 10 the enemy. . This_overseas training in England. North Africa, Australia and in other bases, ldw:emum the months on indivi ! and unit training which the troops receive in Continental US.

"The People", 9 April 1944: ‘D’ DAY WILL COST £25,000 MILLIONS From ROBERT VIVIAN, Reuter’s Special Correspondent New York, Saturday. THE coming invasion of Europe—“ day—will be 100,000,000,000 dollars (£25,000.000,000) attack. That is the final assessment of Wall Street experts, who declare that the operations pending in Europe and the Pacific will dwarf all past combinations of sea, land, and air action in the amount of material involved.

Fleetwood Chronicle, 19 May 1944 - "D" DAY! I • The day we are all impatiently awaiting. It might be any °Not day now, and when it does come let us hope the attack will be irresistible. It will, of course, bring in its train restrictions on transport which will make delivery of goods difficult, if not impossible. So if you have any need in the clothing line, buy them while you have the chance. I need not tell you where to go to get the best value for your money and coupons, along with the best choice and civil service. But twelve letters will spell it. Jas.R.SLarples 190, 192 & 194, LORD ST., FLEETWOOD.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Very interesting piece here on how Wikipedia developed its AI guidelines and how internal decision-making struggled to decide on something. link.springer.com/article/10.1... I like this conceptualisation of the problem -

To interpret this trajectory, this article develops three analytical concepts. The first, the comprehensiveness trap, describes the tendency for consensus-based communities to attempt comprehensive regulation of new phenomena, only to discover that the complexity required to cover all cases prevents the broad agreement needed for adoption. The second, volunteer countermobilization, refers to the informal governance that emerges when communities recognize a problem but cannot formalize rules to address it—in this case, WikiProject AI Cleanup’s detection and enforcement work during the regulatory vacuum. The third, minimalist constitutionalism, describes the strategy of adopting the narrowest possible rule that can command consensus, with the explicit intention of expanding scope through subsequent instruments.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Enjoying this ad from the London papers in 1913. Plenty of them are still around a century later!

FAMOUS INNS are kept in memory by the motor bus services. Landmarks at the time when the first-stage-coaches ran, though they may now be among the number of undistinguished public, houses, they remain as stage points on the routes.

SOME like the Angel at Islington or the Elephant and Castle or the Nag's Head at Holloway or the Welsh Harp Hendon way have got a permanent place on the map—a freehold interest. Others like the Crooked Billet at Walthamstow, the Baker's Arms at Leyton, the George Canning at Brixton, the Castle, Child's Hill, have a less enduring tenancy of fame.

OTHERS again like the Mother Shipton or the Mother Redcap or the Adam and Eve live on sufferance only in the memory of the older few and are not known to this generation. Others again continue in use because of their showy and distinctive exterior.

PASSENGERS, as they scan the fares lists in the 'buses may be surprised at their number and variety and when they reflect on their age and survival may attach to them a romantic interest.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Not a big football guy but I did enjoy going for a walk through the aftermath of the Arsenal parade today - everyone chill and friendly and having the absolute time of their lives.

Crowd wearing Arsenal shirts and waving red flares, with tower blocks behind them and a man in the foreground taking a photo

Shirtless man in a red and white balaclava with a red and white scarf, standing on a roadsign and looking over a crowd with drifting red smoke

Crowd on a podium waving red flares and Arsenal flags, backlit by the sun

Boys running through a tunnel with red smoke flares, and black and white murals behind them

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

BBC asking the question we're all wondering about today

What happens to the motorhome?

David Henderson
Scotland news correspondent

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Four puffins (and one not-puffin) at Sumburgh Head

A puffin, a small black-and-white bird with a brightly coloured beak

A puffin, a small black-and-white bird with a brightly coloured beak, behind grass

Two puffins, small black-and-white birds with a brightly coloured beak, on a cliff edge

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

And as expected - here's the Guardian, the Telegraph, and the BBC on the "hostage". The BBC is a bit circumspect (it is "another tradition", and I guess if it's sixty years old then it counts as one in its own right by now) but the others do inevitably bring it back to the Civil War.

One of the state opening traditions involves a government MP being sent to the Palace when the king attends parliament to serve as a hostage. It’s a tradition that dates from the time when relations between parliament and the monarchy were more hostile (indeed, at times murderous), and it is intended to give the king a guarantee that he will be allowed to return home safely.

Nic Dakin, a whip, is on hostage duty today.

Whip to be held ‘hostage’ ahead of King’s Speech

A Government Whip and ally of Wes Streeting will be held “hostage” in one of the many traditions that form part of Wednesday’s King’s Speech.

In a tradition that dates back to the 1600s, an MP is ceremonially held hostage in Buckingham Palace when the King attends the Palace of Westminster, in order to ensure the safe return of the King form the Commons.

This is a tradition that dates back to the reign of Charles I, who was beheaded in 1649 at the end of a civil war between the monarchy and Parliament.

The tradition dates back to 1605, when plotters including Guy Fawkes attempted to assassinate James I as part of the Gunpowder Plot.

We're in for a fair bit of pomp and pageantry today. Another tradition is that parliamentarians have to hand over a "hostage" to the Royal Household.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Jumping back to the "hostage", there were a couple of mentions of the concept in 1964, again both about Whitlock and it is quite possible both came from him though they're not attributed as such. In his predecessors time (1960) the tradition was claimed to be "guarding the Queen's silver"...

Must stay at the palace LONDON Friday night Although the Queen’s special correspondent Westminster Vice - Chamberlain of the Household Mr William Whitlock MP North Nottingham is the who cannot hear Her Majesty deliver the speech throne on Tuesday While the Queen House of Lords Mr Whitlock will at the Palace By tradition he cannot leave his post there until the Queen returns But whether this is because the Vice-Chamberlain was regarded a Parliamentary hostage for the LONDON LETTER return of the Sovereign whether his role to protect Queen from usurper seizing Palace is clear those who have studied custom Perhaps it just thought unnecessary for the man is go-between for Palace and Parliament at the House when the Queen is there herself to is on

WILLIAM WHITLOCK the Nottingham North i-VJL MP whose home is at 335 Catherine Street Leicester has been the Queen’s special Correspondent at Westminster for the last two This role ensures that he will be unable to hear the speech from the throne tomorrow Tradition quite explicit While Her Majesty is addressing Parliamfi& assembled in the House Ebrds her Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household Whitlock must remain at the palace This quaint 43ttStom probably stems from gflinefhing quite sinister It might well be that in the days of the rivalry between Parliament Crown the Chamberlain regarded as a Parliamentary hostage for the return of the Sovereign It also possible that it was his duty to protect the monarch from a usurper taking control of the Royal Household - But if the latter is the real reason for the Chamberlain’s absence from the Lords Mr Whitlock will have no need to sharpen his sword No-one is likely to storm the palace tomorrow

At the opening of Parliament on Tuesday. Mr. Finlay waltad On the Queen with the Treasurer and Comptroller of the Mira Household and, in accordance with tradition, remained with the Lord Chamberlain at the Palace, "guarding the Queen's silver" while she eau at Waitm Mater.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Michael Portillo also reported having been offered venison (the price had risen a little). The Royal Parks now say it is all sold to defray expenses, though - perhaps a post-97 reform? www.thetimes.com/travel/desti...

They may bear her face, but the Queen doesn’t like to pay for stamps, says Michael Portillo. Discussing freebies on This Week, he said: “The Queen, twice a year, used to give ministers venison, a quarter of buck from the royal parks.” A “pompous” letter would declare: “On behalf of Her Majesty, I am commanded to tell you you have been given a quarter of buck. If you wish to accept this, please send a cheque for £7.37 to the Department of the Environment to cover postage.”

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

meanwhile I hope that everyone writing stories about the "time-honoured tradition of keeping the Vice-Chamberlain hostage" also asks if he still gets his allowance of venison

happening at Court. Soon after his appointment, said Mr. Hayes he received some peculiar requests. For example, one came from the Office of Works inviting him to express his desire as to the killing of a buck, (it evidently being customary and highly desirable that the Vice-Chamberlain should have an ample supply of venison), and asking where it should be sent. The speaker said he replied that he did not wish a buck to be killed in his behalf, but the Office of Works said it was customary and must happen, so he accepted the present and had a pleasant evening with some of his friends. Another was a warrant from the Keeper of the Guildhall saying he had been instructed to send him two rolls of the very best cloth for his use, so he came to the conclusion that in the old days his predecessors in office were just as hard up as he was himself. Mr. Hayes said he was much intrigued with all this sort of thing.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Thinking about it I suspect that what Hayes was referring to here was that he delivered the King's reply (which indeed he did, a few days later), and I assume he still needed the full regalia for that. (Shocking error, of course, we expect precise ceremonial nuances from the Richmond Herald)

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Prior to that the Vice-Chamberlain may not have always attended at the Palace - in 1942 there was a story about James Edmondson being "in the procession", and in 1934 Jack Hayes talked about what sounds like the Black Rod role, though I wonder if this was the reporter getting muddled.

Guard Of Honour WHEN the King and Queen went to the State opening, a guard of honour from the Palace of Westminster Company, the Home Guard, was mounted. One member of the company found himself during the day in two capacities. Soon after breakfast he ceased being Private Edmondson, on duty with a picket, and, changing his uniform, became Major Sir James Edmondson, Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household, in which dignity, carrying his white wand of office, he marched in the procession between the lines of the guard of honour.

as he was himself. Mr. Hayes said he was much intrigued with all this sort of thing. All the same they could imagine the state of mind of a Socialist when he received from the Prime Minister the offer of such an appointment. One of his duties was at the House of Commons at the state opening of Parliament when he had to deliver the message from the King summoning his faithful and loyal Commons to the bar of the House. Naturally as he walked to the bar, dressed in the uniform of his office, he was subjected to a number of satirical remarks from his colleagues, but, of course all in good humour.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

A few years earlier it was reported in the much more mundane form of the Vice-Chamberlain being at the Palace in his, well, chamberlain role (this is 1952 and 1949), so I wonder if maybe Whitlock was the original source of the joke?

He “Sits In” for the King THE Man Who “Minds the House” when the King is absent from Buckingham Palace at the State opening of Parliament has entered the date of his next call in a new 1950 diary On January 24 next according to present plans Mr Ernest Popplewell MP for Newcastle West will present himself at the Royal Palace to sit in for an hour or so while the King goes to Westminster This Christmas fairy-tale transformation from head of a modest suburban household to temporary charge of the nation’s most famous home derives from Mr Popplewell’s post as Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household Three times since he was appointed a Household official in October 1947 Mr Popplewell has had the opportunity while seated in a Palace drawing - room of reflecting that it is not after all such a far cry from operating the controls in a railway signal box to controlling the operations at King’s residence The duties are not of course burdensome though in earlier days the responsibility might have been much heavier Mr Popplewell sees the King’s departure from the Palace on his drive to the Houses of Parliament Then as His Majesty’s direct representative he remains “in charge” of the Palace and Is on hand to welcome the King back home But although Mr Popplewell can count these visits on one hand he has been to Buckingham Palace so many more times on other duties of his office that he has lost track of the total number It is another part of job as official of the Household to prepare each night while Parliament is in session a written report to the King telling him what the Commons have been discussing and deciding Generally his reports contain Mr E Popplewell MP 800 to 1000 words providing a general picture of the day’s proceedings

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

speaking of State Openings, back in 2022 @pseaward.bsky.social and I tried to find the earliest instance of the "government whip held as a hostage" story, and couldn't trace it earlier than the 70s. A little advance - here it is in 1966.

Mr WILLIAM WHITLOCK MP for North Nottingham lives in Leicester has a daily task while Parliament is sitting af writing a report of the day’s proceedings specially far the Queen This is one of the duties attaching to his post as Vice Chamberlain of the Royal Household and described during his talk to Leicester Forty Club (the Leicester Hosiery Executive Group) last night He explained that the Queen had to be kept informed of what went on in the Commons and that normally once a week the Prime Minister saw the Queen and had discussion “But every day about 630 pm 750 words go by special messenger to the Queen in my own hand Drinking Sherry “It is not merely a summary the procedure but a racy account what on in the Chamber and try to make as interesting as can for Queen” said Mr Whitlock Another of his special duties was go to Buckingham Palace during the State Opening of Parliament “1 sit drinking the Queen sherry while the opening Parliament goes on and act as a kind of hostage If anything happened to the Queen 1 should probably be put against the wall and shot” he joked Mr Whitlock who also a Government Whip said that during a particularly heavy period of duty in the last session of Parliament he did not leave the House for three days and two nights He merely snatched a couple of hours’ sleep on a bench in between late sessions and early committee duties ‘More Respectable’ He claimed that Parliament today was better served by MPS than ever and was more sober and respectable “MPs are more hard working and more Members to speak In the past fewer Members took part in the inner workings of Parliament and there were fewer but longer speeches delivered in a flamboyantly oratorical style which would not well received today “Parliament used to much more a talking shop and government was such a leisurely busi ness that Parliament was rightly once called the finest club in Europe

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

country in turmoil; power vacuum in parliament ; King Charles checking if he can drop by; hold on, this is starting to sound familiar...

May 12, 2026 5:44 pm CET
By Tim Ross
LONDON — Buckingham Palace privately asked whether King Charles III should proceed as planned with the ceremonial state opening of parliament on Wednesday, as Keir Starmer faces a mounting leadership crisis that threatens to force him out of office.

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

the breakdowns by age are interesting: this is %age who hazarded a guess, not how correct they were (it's not broken out) but most show an upwards trend by age, which probably correlates well to "reads the papers / watches TV news"

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Film stars had a much more pronounced effect than their characters: the system is struggling a bit with getting full data for some names, but here is "Ava" and about 80% of the records for "Myrna".

Graph of birth registrations for "Ava" 1837-1979; a big jump in the 1950s

Graph of birth registrations for "Myrna" 1837-1979; a big jump in the 1930s

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

every now and again you see a story about people calling their kids something strange because it was on the TV; turns out our grandparents generation were equally susceptible to the idea. Behold, the Gone with the Wind effect:

graph showing the number of babies registered as either "Scarlett" or "Rhett" in England and Wales from 1832 to 1979. There is a little trickle of baby Scarletts in the 1800s but then neither name appears until the 1930s/40s

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

It is a little unclear if anyone at the time realised he was not *intended* to get a knighthood - certainly some of the contemporary reports suggest no-one saw anything untoward.

The limits of our Paper wou ld not a ll ow us to give a list of all the Presentations at the Levee Wednesday ; but it gives us pleasure to see that our beloved SOVEREIGN is alive to confer honours where honours are due, and that teal merit will not go unrewarded. We observed that FRANCIS COLUMBINE DANIEL, M.D. of Mile-End, who invented the Life Preserver in case of Shipwreck, and who had been honoured with the gold medal from the society of Arts, and en elegant medal• lion from the Royal Humane Society; was presented by the Earl of Delawar, the then Lord in Waiting, and his Majesty was most graciously pleased to confer on the Learned Doctor the honour of Knighthood for the invention; on w bids occasion he bad the honour to kiss his Majesty's hand•

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Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Found some notes I wrote up a couple of years back on a very minor scandal of the 1820s: two men who got themselves knighted by George IV under false pretenses

Carlton-House, May 4, 1821.
THE following is a copy of an order from His Majesty to the Marquess of Winchester, Groom of the Stole, which, in obedience to His Majesty's commands, has been communicated by his Lordship to the Lords of His Majesty's Bedchamber :

THE honour of Knighthood having, in two recent instances, been surreptitiously obtained at the Levee, His Majesty, for the purpose of effectually guarding against all such disgraceful practices in future, has been pleased to direct, that henceforth no person shall be presented to His Majesty at the Levee by the Lord in Waiting, to receive the honour of Knighthood, unless His Majesty's pleasure shall have been previously signified, in writing, to the Lord in Waiting, by one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State.

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