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RBW Online
ISSUE 252 Date: 31st August 2012
Words
Exercises
Assign-
ments
Fiction
Projects
Events
Work-
shops
Thoughts
Your
Pages
Poetry
News
Items
Writers Write, its what they do ... 16,900 e-readers are waiting RBW Contribu-tors are always welcome to send in pieces for the weekly Bulletin.
Issue 252
Page 2
Cover
images
stock-
freeimages
Sir Brooke Boothby, 6th Baronet (1744 - 1824), was a lin-
guist, translator, poet and landowner, based in Derby-
shire. He was a member of the intellectual and literary
circle of Lichfield, which included Anna Seward and Eras-
mus Darwin. In 1766 the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rous-
seau came to Ashbourne Hall the family seat which
Boothby was renting from his father, who was forced into
reduced circumstances by his personal excesses so it is
said. Ten years later, in 1776, Boothby visited Rousseau
in Paris, and was given a manuscript part of Rousseau's
three-part autobiography, Confessions, which Boothby
translated and published in 1780 after Rousseau‟s
death, and donated to the British Library in 1781. (The portrait is a Print by John Raphael Smith
after Sir Joshua Reynolds )
Arguably more importantly in 1801, Brooke Boothby
was responsible for saving five panels of artistically
and historically important 16th century stained glass
windows, which are now usually prominently featured
in Lichfield Cathedral. He purchased the painted glass
panels from the Abbey of Herkenrode which had been
dissolved during the Napoleonic Wars and had them
shipped to Lichfield Cathedral (at a cost of £200 for
which he was reimbursed). The windows have been
removed from display and are presently being con-
served (a five year project) and will be restored and
protected by encasing in clear glass for future genera-
LIFE OBSERVATIONS There are lots of ways to help think creatively ... Write to-do lists and do them, carry a notebook around, realise that you can write with a pencil as well as with a keyboard, take screen breaks and writing breaks, realise you are not a machine so creatively isn’t permanently on tap in your brain, find your own self, know where you come from and who you are, be open, don’t close your mind to different ideas from those you were brought up with, listen to music, if you ask for feedback realise that feedback is only as valuable as the intelli-gence and experience of the person offering it, not all feedback is going to be a positive experience, be up for new experiences and going to new places and meeting new people, be up for taking time out to be happy and to enjoy new things, try to create a framework or schedule for your writing, if you write every-day it is likely you will get better at it, read as much as you can and read a wide variety of authors, learn new vocab, always try to finish what you start, try to work in an uncluttered environment in your workspace, be very careful not to get lost in that world in your head and always remember your characters are just that, characters, they are not part of your real life, don’t get lost in your own personal virtual reality, you have to live a life as well as write about an imagi-nary one.
Issue 252
Page 3
anglicism n
A word or other feature originating in the English language that has been borrowed by another
language.
progeny n
(uncountable) Offspring or descendants.
(countable) Result of a creative effort.
coppice n
A grove of small growth; a thicket of brushwood; a wood cut at certain times for fuel or other
purposes, typically managed to promote growth and ensure a reliable supply of timber.
chiropterologist n Someone who studies bats (the flying mammal).
portend v
(transitive) To serve as a warning or omen. (transitive) To signify; to denote.
levity n
Lightness of manner or speech, frivolity.
The state or quality of being light, buoyancy. A light hearted or frivolous act.
roundelay n
(music) A poem or song having a line or phrase repeated at regular intervals.
Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream,
Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, life is but a dream.
(Correct me if I‟m wrong but wasn‟t this sung by Capt J T Kirk and Bones to Mr Spock while
“Extra, Extra, read all about it!!” The shouts of the newspaper vendors came through the window.
“Driver Fox blamed for the train crash in the Emperor‟s play ground. Horrible casualty list. Extra,
extra!”
“Mountains out of molehills in that paper. Nothing of the sort,” said Mr, Plodd to Reg, his assistant.
“Cheese-napping again I suppose,” was the reply. “It‟s been proven that with 500 grammes of Ma-
ture Cheddar in your hand you can get anything printed.”
“250 grammes of Cream Juvenile Wensleydale is better though, Reg. Easier to get it past the snif-
fer snails, Or so they say down in the village. Don‟t know myself of course. I‟m no cheesehead;
strictly a quota person myself.”
Reg nodded. He knew where that pack of Extra Strong Aberdeen that they‟d had to confiscate at
the toll-booth had gone. It had been very nice in a Welsh rarebit; but much better on toast.
David started his journey using the transport mode laid down by tradition, the donkey didn‟t like
the idea either and protested, loudly.
„Still,‟ he thought, „It could be worse, I don‟t know how but it could be.‟
Then the sight of another member of the party changed his mind; „No; it‟s just got worse because
that idiot Isaac is along. He may be somebody I knew in my schooldays, but, he‟s got a very vari-
able outlook on life. One second everything‟s okay; then for some reason it‟s all rubbish.‟
“Oh, hi Isaac. You along on the pilgrimage then.”
“My Dad made me. Said it‟d be good for my soul or something. Load of rubbish if you ask me.”
“Well they do say that confession is good for the soul. At least I think they do.”
“Yeah but what‟s tramping along towing a donkey got to do with that, Mr Clever Cloggs David. You
tell me that? I could be at home doing some greasing and oiling in the garage. Real work and earn-
ing some money.”
“The money you keep secret from your Dad I suppose, Isaac? The money you think he doesn‟t
know about.”
“No danger of him finding out about that, Dave. Not unless somebody blabs anyway.”
“You‟ve got to be joking, Isaac. He knows all about it! He was bragging to my Dad last week about
it. Said you were earning enough in your spare time to keep him in fags and booze if he let on.”
“How did he find out? I never said anything.”
“The trouble with you, Isaac, is that you don‟t think things through properly. Half the folks in the
area get their cars serviced by you, there‟s no way that he couldn‟t know.”
“That‟s why he said I needed the exercise I suppose, Dave. Well at least this section‟s only ten
kilometres so we should be able to do it easily.”
“But it‟s twenty tomorrow, Isaac. That should take the shine off your trainers. Good luck.”
“It‟s always the same on a Sunday,” grumbled Shandy.
“What‟s always the same?” asked Pipe. “It can‟t be the cricket match „cos they haven‟t started
yet.”
“I know that! That‟s one of the things that‟s always the same. A little bit of a shower and it‟s rain
stopped play. No initiative that‟s the problem.”
“A bit of a shower! The pitch is under water, Shandy,” replied G&T as he came back with a new
pot of tea.”And, from my recent observation, the flood‟s stopped traffic clear back to the round-
abouts.”
“Aqualung cricket, that‟s what we need. I mean it‟s not too far-fetched is it? It‟d stop them rowdy
arguments at the wicket anyway.”
“Not a bad idea, Shandy.” Pipe said after a short interval for refreshment. “„Course you could
have problems with LBW and boundaries; but if you get the bowlers in the mood I‟m sure that
that‟s not going to be too much of a Problem”.
G&T thought about it before replying, “Save on the match day tea‟s as well. We used four jars of
pickle last week and that was only a practice match against the Ladies 11.”
Pipe gave a contemplative suck on the stem of his Briar before replying. “The gents lost as well.
An innings and twenty runs. It‟s a good job the Ladies only had nine on their side.”
CMH Issue 251
Page 5
Issue 242
Page 6
Celebrating creative literature, the Birmingham Book Festival 4-13 October 2012 A mix of literature events, talks and workshops. Now in its 14 year. http://visitbirmingham.com/what-to-do/festivals-events/-birmingham-book-festival/
Where would we be without numbers? I mean I can easily count up to 24 using one
finger on my body or from 0000000000 to 1111111111 (2048) just on my fingers,
throw in my toes, much more difficult now-a-days, and the number goes up a lot but
it‟s still very limited.
This was a problem to most of the early civilisations. They could count small num-
bers and, using cuneiform or similar symbols, write them down. However, doing any
calculations with them was a different problem.
The Romans had a crack at it but their notations of M, C, X, V & I meant that they
had to do it the HARD WAY! Usually that approach works very well, but, if you get it
wrong, it often means that somebody gets killed.
Multiplication was the repeated addition of the number and Division was, similarly,
repeated subtraction. The basic engineering tools of Squares and Square roots
needed a genius whilst Base 10 and Base E logs, and the various forms of Trigo-
nometry, upon which much of modern engineering and travel rests, couldn‟t even be
thought of.
Arabic numerals (similar to the ones we use today) were a great improvement, but
naturally they got widely ignored because of the „It Wasn‟t Invented Here‟ syndrome.
So most European folks soldiered on with M, C, X etc.
The big holes in all of the ancient notations, was that they didn‟t have a ZERO and
couldn‟t handle fractions very well, if at all. The Greeks even insisted that Pi was
THREE instead of 3.14159 etc.
The Arabic system used a dot instead of our beloved 0 but that could be confus-
ing. However, as an ancient scribe may have laughed, „That‟s stupid! Who on earth
makes no charge?‟
Help was at hand. In the 13th century some unknown genius devised a zero and all
became sweetness and light. Well not exactly! When all‟s said and done, humans are
still stupidly hidebound when it comes to changing how they think. The idea that, “It
was good enough for great granddad so it‟s good enough for me!” can still be ob-
served; generally on Motorways.
Extremely Large numbers and Extremely Small numbers now became possible, a
bit unwieldy because you had to stick all those noughts in, but possible.
“We‟re going to have to figure out a way to get rid of them,” Genius-1 may have
said.
“I know! We‟ll invent POWERS”, Genius-2 said. “We‟ll put another number, a lot
smaller, over the top that says how many zero‟s you need to add and in which direc-
tion they go!”
Now WE are saddled with it. Any number you like, as big or small as you like and all
sorts of fancy maths to go with them. You just can‟t keep a good mathematician
down, and shooting them doesn‟t work either!
Ahh well, back to the drawing board I suppose. Now! Where did I put those log ta-
Now playing 24/7 a completely new selection of stories, satires, poetry, spoken word, music and interview @ www.radiowildfire.com - another two hours of live literature and chat. In this edition ... The Loop brings you interviews - Nick Toczek talks about a court case over a disputed lyric; and Stuart Maconie interviews Tom Priestley about his father J B Priestley, a Birmingham Book Festival event. The Loop brings you poetry from Rob Hindle, Sally Clarke and Dave Reeves - and improvised poetry with soundscape from Mark Goodwin. The Loop brings you poetry performed with music from Frances Livings, Russel Blake, and story performed to music by Richard Bruce Clay. The Loop brings you song from Sally Crabtree, and Ian Marrey. The Loop brings you theatre from the Bunbury Banter Theatre Company with Conception by Tony C Pearson. The Loop brings you the latest part of Mal Dewhirst's series The Lost Poets. In this episode he looks at the poet Matsuo Basho. PLUS: Irons In The Fire: Jan Watts' Laureate's Diary - the monthly diary from Birmingham's Poet Laureate. So join us and listen by going to www.radiowildfire.com and clicking on The Loop (And don’t forget, you can upload soundfiles of your own work to the 'Submit' page of the Radio Wildfire website. Mp3s are our preferred for-mat. You can also ensure you always get reminders of upcoming shows on Ra-dio Wildfire by following us on Twitter.) The Loop is curated by Vaughn Reeves and will play online continuously for the next month, except during our live broadcast on Monday 3rd September starting at 8.00pm UK time with a full programme of pre-recorded tracks, live studio guests and conversation. WHAT IS RADIO WILDFIRE? Radio Wildfire is an independent online radio station which blends spoken word, poetry, performance literature, comedy, storytelling, short stories and more with a novel selection of word/music fusion and an eclectic mix of musical styles. www.radiowildfire.com currently broadcasts live 8.00-10.00pm (UK time) on the first Monday of every month.
Listen to Radio Wildfire at www.radiowildfire.com The Loop plays 24 hours a day.
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