Hit the like button above and leave a comment if the mood strikes you to do so.
We are now back to regularly scheduled posting on this Substack. I'll try to get the next entry of the Early Days of HIV/AIDS series up tomorrow. Saturday will see the Saturday column come out on time.
Just got down to London from York. Definitely see York...open and frank, good-humored people with a small city infinitely more charming than London or anywhere else I’ve yet been. 94% English also. Edinburgh is worth checking out, too. The Scots are a hilarious and liberty-loving people, many of whom, unfortunately, have absorbed Labor politics and a n*get mentality...but I’m not sure how recent a phenomenon that is.
'“Of course you’re gonna call it cliché, Grant. You guys are baddies in this story” reminds me of Flannery O'Connor saying:
"I have found that anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.'
I was thoroughly enjoying this piece - but - it wasn't until I got to this perfect line ---> "I tried to pay attention to her lengthy diatribe, smiling and nodding the entire time I was sexually objectifying her." where I did my own version of a spit-take and choke-laughed out loud. Great read, Nic!! Thanks for the desperately needed levity in a world gone utterly mad!
I'm a northerner who invaded the Garden of England about eight years ago. I have "in-laws" in Margate just up the coast. I think Margate enjoyed higher highs during it's heyday of the 50s and 60s but suffered badly when it was neglected in the 90s. It is slowly becoming the den of craft-beer quaffing hipsters, who I believe refer to Margate as "Shoreditch on Sea", though the "artisan" cafes and restaurants do serve nice food (or they did before covid ruined most them).
Really enjoyed this, thanks. Same trends in the US. The remedy seems to be living more than two hours from an airport and really liking your neighbors; the first is easier here, given the size of the place.
Folkestone is similar. Multicoloured Londoners and resentful local scrotes. Hellish.
The dignified war memorial (Folkestone was a major WW1/2 port) has been 'enhanced' with an ugly metal light-up arch. There are new (cheap, metal) plaques to tell us about the Chinese labourers and various other trivial groups as though lifting something heavy was the equal of Britons dying for Britain.
There is, even more inevitably, a large plaque dedicated solely to Walter Tull who was a half-caste soldier who won the MC. He is more important than the others because he can be used to tell the immigrant children that they are real Brits too as someone the same colour as them (sort of) fought in a war over a century ago. It's so un-British and ugly.
I've found the text from the new arch: "Millions of men and women from many of the allied nations passed through Folkestone reflecting the global nature of Word War I. Most proceeded to the Western Front but many remain in the town including thousands of Chinese and African labourers". No mention of Britain or God, just an attempt to cram in as many irrelevant groups as they can. I'm surprised they didn't stuff in something about homosexuals as well.
As always with your writing getting there is half the fun, as they used to say about flying before it became hellish.
No doubt I enjoy reading your anthropology since it reminds me of my own habits and practices in that area. I can go on at greater length than you do, even, but FWIW here is an account of a trip to Benelux in which I had the opportunity to decode vox populi, including in taverns. This was before Trump and I think I was prescient in not finding the prospect of his winning laughable, and think also that the Europeans I met got more thoughtful and honest the drunker they got.
Hit the like button above and leave a comment if the mood strikes you to do so.
We are now back to regularly scheduled posting on this Substack. I'll try to get the next entry of the Early Days of HIV/AIDS series up tomorrow. Saturday will see the Saturday column come out on time.
Shout if you're in Manchester
Kind of a dick move to go on and on about how hot this lady was and then not take and post a surreptitious pic.
your apparent fortitude with rounds of lager is admirable as i remember from my deployment to uk years ago as quite good lagers and bitters....
i served in a usaf aerial refueling unit, war is hell.
our main comfort was we were an alert facility and would have been blasted early if biden were president during the cold war.
bring iodine pills if you are in uk a few months from now.
Just got down to London from York. Definitely see York...open and frank, good-humored people with a small city infinitely more charming than London or anywhere else I’ve yet been. 94% English also. Edinburgh is worth checking out, too. The Scots are a hilarious and liberty-loving people, many of whom, unfortunately, have absorbed Labor politics and a n*get mentality...but I’m not sure how recent a phenomenon that is.
Enjoyed this.
'“Of course you’re gonna call it cliché, Grant. You guys are baddies in this story” reminds me of Flannery O'Connor saying:
"I have found that anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.'
I was thoroughly enjoying this piece - but - it wasn't until I got to this perfect line ---> "I tried to pay attention to her lengthy diatribe, smiling and nodding the entire time I was sexually objectifying her." where I did my own version of a spit-take and choke-laughed out loud. Great read, Nic!! Thanks for the desperately needed levity in a world gone utterly mad!
I'm a northerner who invaded the Garden of England about eight years ago. I have "in-laws" in Margate just up the coast. I think Margate enjoyed higher highs during it's heyday of the 50s and 60s but suffered badly when it was neglected in the 90s. It is slowly becoming the den of craft-beer quaffing hipsters, who I believe refer to Margate as "Shoreditch on Sea", though the "artisan" cafes and restaurants do serve nice food (or they did before covid ruined most them).
Really enjoyed this, thanks. Same trends in the US. The remedy seems to be living more than two hours from an airport and really liking your neighbors; the first is easier here, given the size of the place.
It’s a good sign that you’re hanging out with people terrified to be associated with you in any way. Means you’re moving up in the world.
Er...war is hell for...*RAF refuelers*? 150km from front lines? That was supposed to be funny, right?
“They’re beginning to price us out of our homes.”
Yes, in FL and TX too I hear.
Fortunately the real estate boom here seems to be Amish.
Really, yes.
Neither the price nor crime goes up. Nor the pretentiousness.
They ruin the cities and migrate to the countryside which is then ruined. Nomad barbarism.
'Yet this instance provided another case of too many witty types trying to top one another, leaving me completely exhausted.'
I know that feeling.
Good luck in Norf FC land.
Folkestone is similar. Multicoloured Londoners and resentful local scrotes. Hellish.
The dignified war memorial (Folkestone was a major WW1/2 port) has been 'enhanced' with an ugly metal light-up arch. There are new (cheap, metal) plaques to tell us about the Chinese labourers and various other trivial groups as though lifting something heavy was the equal of Britons dying for Britain.
There is, even more inevitably, a large plaque dedicated solely to Walter Tull who was a half-caste soldier who won the MC. He is more important than the others because he can be used to tell the immigrant children that they are real Brits too as someone the same colour as them (sort of) fought in a war over a century ago. It's so un-British and ugly.
I've found the text from the new arch: "Millions of men and women from many of the allied nations passed through Folkestone reflecting the global nature of Word War I. Most proceeded to the Western Front but many remain in the town including thousands of Chinese and African labourers". No mention of Britain or God, just an attempt to cram in as many irrelevant groups as they can. I'm surprised they didn't stuff in something about homosexuals as well.
http://www.leshaigh.co.uk/folkestone/photos/arch6w.jpg
As always with your writing getting there is half the fun, as they used to say about flying before it became hellish.
No doubt I enjoy reading your anthropology since it reminds me of my own habits and practices in that area. I can go on at greater length than you do, even, but FWIW here is an account of a trip to Benelux in which I had the opportunity to decode vox populi, including in taverns. This was before Trump and I think I was prescient in not finding the prospect of his winning laughable, and think also that the Europeans I met got more thoughtful and honest the drunker they got.
https://uncouthreflections.com/2016/03/20/letter-from-benelux/