Nice to see this happy little family

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I’m  so  exceedingly  over  incorrect

politically;what do you expect?

My kitchen’s not fitted

I don’t want it gutted

I am not going to be one of the Elect

I am not au fait with decor

I have never re- decorated before.

We had a new flat

And a  Tottenham tom cat

What woman could ask   her husband for  more?

It’s Christmas and I am alone

But my husband is visiting this room

I heard his slight cough

And that was enough

I asked him was he worried  by my moans?

I am feeling a little unwell

He looked down from heaven and could tell.

So he’s come for a permission

To abide by the decision

God made when my man was so ill.

I told him I have  got some new friends

Who read my poems  right to the end.

I hope that I amuse

And also bemuse.

As it stops me from going round the bend.

I said he can stay here and watch

As I sew up my skirt with a patch.

The moths were  so vicious

They made holes in my knickers.

Yet somehow they still seem to match.

I know he is there by the door;

Because he has been here before.

I don’t turn my head

Because he is dead.

Yet he  often-times crosses the floor.

I miss him,I miss him, I do.

How to live on, I don’t have a clue.

I am here writing  stories

And studying mores.

So I wish he could polish my shoe.

Strange reciprocity:

The circumstances we cause

In time give rise to us.

Philip Larkin

http://www.howtogeek.com/208276/how-to-hide-the-cortana-search-box-on-the-windows-10-taskbar/

There’s a limit to words’ possibilities.

For even those with great capabilities

Beyond  the edge of our language

More worlds are sandwiched.

At least that’s what the probablility is

I’m agnostic about others’ existence.

My therapist says it’s my resistance.

If  she is separate

I might feel desperate

So I cling onto her with persistance

To tell you the truth I’m an atheist

Possibly one of the craziest

Church services bore me

But incense consoles me

As I doze in my pew,I’m the laziest

agnostic (n.) 1870, “one who professes that the existence of a First Cause and the essential nature of things are not and cannot be known” [Klein]; coined by T.H. Huxley (1825-1895), supposedly in September 1869, from Greek agnostos “unknown, unknowable,” from a- “not” + gnostos “(to be) known” (see gnostic). Sometimes said to be a reference to Paul’s mention of the altar to “the Unknown God,” but according to Huxley it was coined with reference to the early Church movement known as Gnosticism (see Gnostic).

I … invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of ‘agnostic,’ … antithetic to the ‘Gnostic’ of Church history who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant. [T.H. Huxley, “Science and Christian Tradition,” 1889]

The adjective is first recorded 1878

FROM  ONLINE ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY

books.jpg

agnostic (n.) 1870, “one who professes that the existence of a First Cause and the essential nature of things are not and cannot be known” [Klein]; coined by T.H. Huxley (1825-1895), supposedly in September 1869, from Greek agnostos “unknown, unknowable,” from a- “not” + gnostos “(to be) known” (see gnostic). Sometimes said to be a reference to Paul’s mention of the altar to “the Unknown God,” but according to Huxley it was coined with reference to the early Church movement known as Gnosticism (see Gnostic).

I … invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of ‘agnostic,’ … antithetic to the ‘Gnostic’ of Church history who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant. [T.H. Huxley, “Science and Christian Tradition,” 1889]

The adjective is first recorded 1878

People in other countries may not know how important cricket is here,literally and symbolically.If a man did something dubious or against the rules  another man might say,That’s not cricket

In one way we were very advanced because even before Wittgenstein  wrote about language games and so on,we ,here ,already knew life was a game and we should

“play the game”

That means,do the right thing in some particular context.If only someone had patented the notion,we’d all be famous now.For one minute.

Other important things are old churches abd caathedrals and singing.Our favourite hymn is Jerusalem which is a poem by Blake.And some people think Jerusalemwas here once but this is an error.

Two of the butterflies Mike  saw when he was in the Far East.There are so many  kinds it’s really hard to identify them when you’ve not seen any of them before.For me,just seeing them here  is a good experience–seeing them in their natural habitat must be very delightful to the eye

A bird taps on this window every day,
Frail as flying leaves are in a gale.
But now he perches on the potted bay.
He feels the weather like the blind do braille.

This bird is faithful and I hold him dear.
He’s fearless as he pecks upon the glass.
We hope he has a modicum of fear,
For who knows when a sparrow hawk will pass?

I see him like a human soul forlorn
Struggling to discern his fateful way.
For soon he may be taken by a storm
But blithely he will eat, and after play.

The smallest bird has trust in the Unknown
By his example, our own way is shown

I have read research works that show that many of us who say we are not racist or not anti-feminist are actually but we don’t recognise it.But measurements of various kinds and questions showed people reacting differently to women or black people in interviews and at social events.The last verse is meant to slightly humorously say we don’t leave Jews out of the team because of anti-semitism,we just know they don’t like playing cricket.If you think it comes over to mean something other than that would you kindly put a comment below.Thank you.

We all  like to believe we are saintly.

We’re not racists nor are we unkind

Well I  have discovered

Prejudice’s uncovered

When we tap  into our unconscious mind.

It’s not enough to want to be moral

It takes a big effort at times.

The first step ironical,

Is to find the demonical,

In the black side of our own dear sweet minds.

Once we get there we  will suffer

But it’s the only way we can change what we do.

For if we  know our own evil;

Stop automatic retrieval;

Then  we shall have  fewer actions  to rue.

It’s not wilful blindness I speak of

But when we do it unknowing,

“I’m not anti Semitic…

It’s just  that Jews can’t play cricket!”

Pardon me ,your slip’ s showing.

A SLIP IS A LADY’S UNDERSKIRT ot petticoat  and if it showed by accident it was shameful.

SLIPS ALSO OCCUR WHEN WE WALK ON ICE AND FALL OVER

FREUDIAN SLIP.. WE ACCIDENTALLY  SAY SOMETHING WE WERE TRYING TO CONCEAL

He wanted to behave  very  politely

But there wasn’t a toilet in sight

So he used a car bumper

Offside,that’ll  stumper.

Alas he was in Hackney that night.

Why did they shut our conveniences?

It’s alright in a departmental store.

But when that is closed

We have to suppose

The options are the wall or the floor.

Living in a city isn’t easy

In the Pennines you can wee on the moors.

A drystone wall’s dandy

For women, it’s handy.

As long as you’re not Pussy Galore.

When driving on a long journey,

It’s trying when companions nag.

I’ve had UTI’s

Which take me by surprise.

I  need a bucket and not a handbag.

We all must live with  anxiety

But shutting down toilets is  bad.

When we feel shy

We want to stay dry.

Sometimes it makes  folk go mad.

Some forms  of angst must be dealt with

But some are created by fools.

We ought to have a Pee In

As log as we agree on

How we can hide our bare tools.

We’ll meet at the gates across THAT street

And pass water when I ring a bell.

We’d make the TV news

And  viewers send reviews

If we never try how can we tell?

All’s well, but death’s hell

Bereaved,deceased but not dead right.

Richard the Bird.

The Merchant of Penance.

A Midsummer Night’s  Scream.

I’m a Racist,  buy me on E bay

King Sneer

MacDeath.

Baconlet.

Auntie Semitic.

The War of the Poses.

Sociopaths rule here.

Little Hell.

Oliver’s Pissed.

The immorality of Economics  part 1

Stan was teaching social statistics to a group of elderly neighbors.Since he was 109 it gave them all hope to see him demonstrating his prowess with various techniques.He was planning to do some logic and philosophy too.Annie was sitting by the door ,  dressed in violet, so she could answer the bell if any paramedics turned up for tea.
I’m not going to calculate ” the standard deviations” Stan murmured.”I just want you to grasp the general purpose.”
“Deviations,they’re not normal are they?” enquired his neighbor “Henry,an ex-English teacher.”So how can they be standard.It’s confusing..”
“Are you thinking of deviants?” Stan enquired calmly yet firmly.

”Certainly not,at my age I’m a bit past that!”

“Still it adds a bit of excitement to the class.” he thought.
How do words in ordinary language relate to those in Statistics?”asked Henry kindly.
“They are just more precisely defined in statistics.To say someone is a deviant is a rather vague term.”
“No,it’s not!My neighbor is a deviant.He always dresses entirely in yellow.”
“Well,that must be hard to do.Certainly unusual.” Stan agreed boldly.
“But in another country that might be the norm.So it’s a matter of context.In statistics it’s more boring.There’s a formula.It’s totally independent of context.Have you ever wondered why so many mathematicians have more than a touch of Asperger’s syndrome?”

“No,it’s not something that wanders through my mind much”replied Henry
A shudder passed through the room at hearing the word “formula“,which perhaps they considered something of a deviant!

Anything with letters and numbers mixed together is certainly not welcome in many people’s minds, along with their more unusual sexual tastes,desires and inclinations which were kept secret even from themselves in many cases.

“Time for tea.” called Annie,hoping to divert their attention.She carried in a platter of mouse sandwiches kindly donated by the local ambulance service and some iced Victoria sponge she and Stan had madethe day before.
“Just a quick word about next week.We’ll take a look at ratios and proportions and maybe see how that relates to the concept of rationality.”
“That sounds fun!” Annie called encouragingly.Henry decided to act on a deviant desire and fell onto her lap.

”Oh,dear!” she gasped loudly as the chair collapsed under her.

”Why can’t you be deviant at home?”
“My wife won’t let me!” He kindly answered.
“And look,” Stan continued,”we’ll have to ring 999.This chair is in fragments.I thought for one day we’d be able to avoid calling them out!”
“Well,life is not controllable.” said a quiet but fierce looking lady with sharp green eyes.”That’s what makes it tolerable“
She then greedily consumed a large piece of iced cake .
“I can stand the thinking if the cake is good” she whispered to her shy friend Amy.

”That’s rather a feeble argument,”Amy retorted.

”You can’t really compare cake and statistics.”
“I’ll compare anything I like!” the green eyed woman snarled loudly.
“You do what you like but you must keep a sense of proportion!”
“Now then,have you rung 999?” Stan queried of Annie.

”Yes,here they are,and they’ve got a stretcher for the chair!”
“Well,that’s certainly unusual,even deviant“,Stan thought anxiously to himself.”Where do they get their funding? Is there a fund for distributing money to help chairs which are not well balanced?

Alfred wished his wife would make a cake.

He himself could never boil or bake.s

When Marie bought   cakes in Marks

His eyes gave out fierce orange sparks.

I thought their marriage was at risk

And I undertook my task.

I bought a needle circular

Now I knit round cakes for her

The soul with grief and love is weighted down

And does not know directions nor the time.

Winter sky of  darkness   wears a frown.

The soul alone is waiting as I rhyme.

To escape our grieving would be wrong.

To  drown ourselves in liquor is a waste

But now I hear a subterranean song.

The offerings of the Lord I surely taste.

The music wells up slowly and rings out

I sing as sweetly as my chords allow.

The riches of the mall are of no clout.

The angels  gather round me gently now.

Grieving is not evil nor corrupt

Grieving can our hollow lives disrupt

In England deference is required

As social strata need to be maintained.

And yet with rage my soul is fired.

For in poverty the sick are to be detained.

Who will be the woman of the year?

What crystal night glass will she need  to smash?

What ceiling may fall down and our hearts tear?

Shall we hurl ourselves into the trash?

And which prime minister will we applaud

For making us feel safe and sane next year?

As we haunt the January Sales ,Oh Lord,

Forgive us if our brother’s coat we tear.

Was God incarnate here upon the earth?

We heard a single mother gave him birth.

Deferential, I

Eternity await

Submit to your  grace

In my patient state.

None but God can judge;

None have his pure gaze.

Write me not your wish.

Tempt me not with praise.

Timeless as the  heavens

Eternity is now

Mindful of this lesson

Grace will show me how

https://youtu.be/P-Q9D4dcYng

I once tried to climb up the ladder

Crying,echelons,I don’t give  b*gger.

oBut  the top rung was smokin’

And the next down was  broken.

There’s somethin’ there we canna figure

Is it mi  Northern  deportment,

Which I didna think were important?

We  women  ‘et  Pennines

‘u seen employment declining

And owa men   forced to smoke fags f ‘et ‘et excitement

instead of the we used to say het or ‘et which is connected to lanaguages like Dutch.

 This word has a  large number of usages.From military to mathematical.It means  [in the French/Latin,]taken literally,

“rung of the ladder”

From dictionary.com
echelon
[esh-uh-lon]

noun
1.
a level of command, authority, or rank:
After years of service, she is now in the upper echelon of city officials.
Synonyms: place, rank, hierarchy, authority, grade, office; row, tier, rung; social standing, position, class, standing.
2.
a level of worthiness, achievement, or reputation:
studying hard to get into one of the top echelon colleges.
Synonyms: degree, position, tier.
3.
Military. a formation of troops, ships, airplanes, etc., in which groups of soldiers or individual vehicles or craft are arranged in parallel lines, either with each line extending to the right of the one in front (right echelon) or with each line extending to the left of the one in front (left echelon) so that the whole presents the appearance of steps.
4.
Military. one of the groups of a formation so arranged.
5.
Archaic. any structure or group of structures arranged in a steplike form.
6.
Also called echelon grating. Spectroscopy. a diffraction grating that is used in the resolution of fine structure lines and consists of a series of plates of equal thickness stacked in staircase fashion.
verb (used with or without object)
7.
to form in an echelon.
Origin of echelon Expand
FrenchOld French
1790-18001790-1800; < French échelon, orig. rung of a ladder, Old French eschelon, equivalent to esch (i) ele ladder (< Latin scāla; see scale3) + -on noun suffix
Related forms
echelonment, noun
Word story Expand
Echelon comes from the French échelon, a word whose literal meaning is “rung of a ladder.” Initially it was confined to military use, to refer to a step-like formation of troops.
Ironically, while echelon entered English in a military context, it was the first and second World Wars that extended the meaning to other, nonmilitary, sectors. During World War I, the term took on a more generalized sense of a “level” or “subdivision”; World War II broadened echelon’s usage to describe grades and ranks in professions outside the military.
At the same time, English speakers started using echelon to classify institutions or persons they held in high esteem by referring to them as part of the “upper” or “top” echelon. With this in mind, the phrase “social climber” conjures up the image of people who wish to ascend through the various ladder rungs of society until they reach the top.

Popular references Expand
—Row echelon form: In linear algebra, a simplified form of a matrix in which each non-zero row has more leading zeros than the previous row.
—ECHELON: Code name of a global surveillance system developed by the United States National Security Agency (NSA). It operates by intercepting and processing international communications transmitted via communications satellites.
—Third Echelon: A fictional sub-group of the NSA created by Tom Clancy in his Splinter Cell book series.
Related Quotations Expand
“Beyond [the city] were the suburban homes of laborers and low-echelon executives who had carved brass-knuckled niches for themselves in the medium-income bracket.“
—Irving E. Cox, Jr., The Cartels Jungle (1955)
“If a CEO wavers and shows signs of not being confident of which way he wants to go, it sends shudders from the top echelon all the way down the mountain.“
—D. A. Benton, How to think like a CEO (2000)
“[I]t is a monstrous leap from what [a master] can do to what the elite grandmasters (the Fischers and the Karpovs and the Kasparovs) can do, which is why even the top echelon of players often maintain a base of humility beneath their bluster.“
—Michael Weinreb, Game of Kings: A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Geniuses Who Make Up America’s Top High School Chess Team (2007)
“By echelon we mean a formation in which the subdivisions are placed one behind another, extending beyond and unmasking one another either wholly or in part.“
—James Alfred Moss, Manual of Military Training (1914)
“[T]hey echeloned to the right around the hill, and the 1st Platoon fired into their flank for ten to fifteen minutes; however, they never slacked or broke formation.“
—William T. Bowers, The Line: Combat In Korea, January–February 1951, Volume 1 (2008)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2015.
Cite This Source
Examples from the Web for echelon Expand
Contemporary Examples
The echelon below were 18-year-old Olders, overseeing Babies and Tinies as young as 10 in the final rung.

A Tinderbox Waiting for a Match
Gavin Knight
August 10, 2011
I think Tina is the first woman who has gotten into that echelon.

TV’s Funniest New Moms
Kara Cutruzzula
March 23, 2009
The view may look bright at the top GOP echelon, but that does not appear to be the attitude of the rank and file.

Why the GOP Should Panic
Matt Latimer
November 6, 2011
Historical Examples
You will start at nightfall with three hundred men, whom you will echelon along the road.

Original Short Stories of Maupassant, Volume 1
Guy de Maupassant
The formation was in echelon by the right, with unequal intervals.

King Robert the Bruce
A. F. Murison
Another battalion had also suffered considerably from shell fire, and was posted in echelon on the left rear.

With a Highland Regiment in Mesopotamia
One of its Officer
The advance was made by the two brigades in squares marching in echelon.

The Egyptian campaigns, 1882 to 1885
Charles Royle
General Hunter evidently conceived the rear of the echelon threatened from the direction of Kerreri.

The River War
Winston S. Churchill
We could negate the efforts of any echelon below the Eddorians themselves, it is true.

Triplanetary
Edward Elmer Smith
All egress is stopped by the Allies’ echelon formation, except by Aleppo.

World’s War Events, Vol. II
Various

British Dictionary definitions for echelon Expand
echelon
/ˈɛʃəˌlɒn/
noun
1.
a level of command, responsibility, etc (esp in the phrase the upper echelons)
2.
(military)
a formation in which units follow one another but are offset sufficiently to allow each unit a line of fire ahead
a group formed in this way
3.
(physics) a type of diffraction grating used in spectroscopy consisting of a series of plates of equal thickness arranged stepwise with a constant offset
verb
4.
to assemble in echelon
Word Origin
C18: from French échelon, literally: rung of a ladder, from Old French eschiele ladder, from Latin scāla; see scale ³
Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cite This Source
Word Origin and History for echelon Expand
n.
1796, “step-like arrangement of troops,” from French échelon “level, echelon,” literally “rung of a ladder,” from Old French eschelon, from eschiele “ladder,” from Late Latin scala “stair, slope,” from Latin scalae (plural) “ladder, steps,” from PIE *skand- “to spring, leap” (see scan ). Sense of “level, subdivision” is from World War I.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source