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October 28, 2022
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There's a Scot in London that I'm doing business with, and he suggested the same to me. I told him that I grew up around a fuckton of Scots and would need to do a proper trip (like Sicily) and not just hit one location. Need to see Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, but also the west coast (Mull of Kintyre), Lochs Lomond and Ness (to see where Crowley and Jimmy Page lived), and the highlands.

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Hit the like button to like this diary entry and consider subscribing if you haven't already done so.

Saturday column is next, and a new interview to follow.

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If you get the chance to visit the States again, and would be interested in doing so, I’d love to show you around some parts of the Appalachians—I’m not from there, but I used to spend a fair amount of time in the area so I have some familiarity. It would be interesting to see your perspective on how it compares with the Norf.

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Elon now owns Twitter so you don't need volunteers running that account for you. And I can't think of any other reason females aged 19 and 22 would be of use.

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I’m sure Rishi Sunak hears their pleas for help in his Brahmin bones.

OTOH; one of the inevitable consequences of war is Reindustrialization and a move towards self sufficient economies if not Autarky.

It will be difficult for Rishi to relate as none of his bloodline has done manual labor in over 2000 years, they don’t fight either BTW. The warrior caste is Rajput, far superior and they can actually run things competently.

Britain next time pick a Rajput, Enoch’s ghost will actually approve.

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Going to explain reindustrialization futher;

Great Lakes re-industrialized under NAFTA, quietly and a long way to go- and of course fracking set in Ohio and PA.

It can happen.

It’s difficult if your elites hate you, but possible.

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No one knows Sunak's caste, but his wife Akshata is a Brahman.

I remember reading a column by the late Auberon Waugh (Evelyn's son) in THE SPECTATOR in the very early 80s in which he welcomed South Asian immigration precisely because he expected that it would make England more inegalitarian and more comfortable with inequality.

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Brighton is always quite fun - you can get the train to Hastings from there (1066), that’s if you’re ever heading south of course

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My wife and I took a bike ride yesterday on a newly-finished bike path that ends near the ocean north of Boston at the still gritty city of Lynn.

Lynn, Lynn, city of sin

You never come out the way you came in

You ask for water, but they give you gin

The girls say no, yet they always give in

It is like those cities in the Norf still reeling from the loss of manufacturing and, while close to Boston, has been able to avoid the White Collar Plus updraft of hospitals, universities, and tech.

But. as you say of the Norf: the people!

We wandered into a bar for a beer and a bite to eat. The aging but cheerful barkeep said to go to the deli next door and order food, and it would be passed through a hole in the wall and brought to us at the bar. I got a lamb shank the size of Mike Tyson's upper arm with potatoes and cabbage for 15 bucks, and that was more than enough for the two of us. A pint of Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap was three bucks. All the while we were being chatted up by the regulars, already a few drinks in a little after noon. Where were we from? Did you know this is the oldest bar in Lynn? Come back later when you don't have to bike home and order a *real* drink here--Betty basically fills a tumbler with booze, thinks vaguely of a mixer, and that is that.

Indeed, at mid-day, Betty already had two handles out on the bar--scotch and vodka--so as to be easily accessible for the needs of the regular customers.

It was like Cheers., where everybody knows your name, except that Cheers was of course essentially fake and this was the real thing. Meaning, among other things, that along with the honest good cheer there was the unmistakable aroma of desperation, too. Look closely and you see that many of the friendly locals have seen their share of hard times.

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This perfectly describes my image now enriched by an actual on-the-ground exploration.

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One of Lynn's major employers is GE (acronym is legal name now, I think; it was General Electric). If I remember correct, GE in Lynn is still part of the aircraft engines group.

Former GE CEO Jack Welch should be a poster boy for all that went wrong in industrial America, starting from the '80s. He unloaded a lot of successful GE divisions which had both successful engineering design and architecture teams and successful factory floors.

I recently listened to the audiobook version of "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" by Robert Heinlein (highly recommended). Consider that the book was first published in 1958, so General Electric was mentioned as one of the best suppliers for engineering parts. Contrast to the present, and what does GE supply? The best quality financial derivatives?

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I was puzzling over your post last week - ‘Pabst beer? Why?’ - and almost made a complete mug of myself pointing out Lynn isn’t in the north in this context. Only after chancing on Hana’s post below about GE I realised there’s a city called Lynn in the United States, north of Boston in the United States. You’ll maybe get my confusion: there’s a town called Lynn in the United Kingdom, south of Boston in the United Kingdom, and after extensive research I found your one is named after their one if you see what I mean. Lynn in England is only called that by people who live there; otherwise it’s King’s Lynn.

You probably got a PhD, ‘Town Nomenclature in Medieval Massachusetts 1637-1638’ so I’ll shut up now.

I like the song.

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I was born in Worcester and grew up in Shrewsbury--the US versions as well. Sorry for confusion. I must recall that the proprietor here runs a global outfit.

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Foucault would have added cash to the local economy by cruising the Noft's rent boys. He'd have gone back to Paris and written coy essays about being fisted by dole-fueled Norfern hands lacking the hot callouses of their forefathers who worked for a living in tough conditions.

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DAMN

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Quite the visual, yes? The bespectacled Parisian sub begging for blue collar rough work. Oh, dear, the price we pay for philosophy.

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^ damn ^

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I don’t know about the Norf

But in my Norf Appalachian foothills

We could use a political party that steals elections for Us ! for a change.

We can’t take America back but maybe we can steal it back.

Pardon the Orthogonal Thread.

I’ll check how it ages Nov 9

Or Dec 9

Or January 2023, the 9th-

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London to Manchester was like New York to Boston. The secondary city is slower and not as cool but it's more the real people of that country. The big city people are smarter but more narcissistic and pretentious. So there's a choice there.....

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A Manc (from Manchester, obvs) and a Brummie (from Birmingham, also obvs?) were discussing the status of their respective cities. The Brummie was adamant, "I think you'll find Birmingham is England's second city." The Manc shook his head, replying "No, it's definitely London."

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Excellent post, Niccolo, and thanks for writing it. I look forward to your further observations/thoughts.

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💬 should be executed on live TV

...not before you add ‘Sic transit gloria mundi’ to take a shot at triple whammy 😝

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It's sad to see where England is now, at least from my own, American perspective and someone who married a Brit. When we first visited my husband's home there were *very few* overweight or obese people. You had a sense of those habits and values that rallied against indulgence. What is to become of 'Ol Blighty now with Sunak? Knowing Brits the way I do, this has got to feel a bit like the takeover is complete.

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Benedictine nuns built church in Kansas with BTC

Found next trip Sr. Soldo

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/catholic-nuns-building-church-with-bitcoin

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Wonderful TV series from 1990/2000s Our Friends in the North.

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There’s a radio adaptation (by the original author) of OFFTN running on BBC Radio 4 that has an additional episode set in 2021. Not listened to it, so....

The TV series is re-running on iPlayer for ten months.

I recommend Boys from the Blackstuff to our noble host. Right up his street (they have streets over there, do they? My geography’s a bit sparse and my history’s not what it was).

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