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nisaccom.bsky.social
Chris Stokes
@nisaccom.bsky.social
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nisaccom.bsky.social
Loving this 1984 recording of Monteverdi's Vespro della beata Vergine (1610) rescued from a charity shop. Performance by the Taverner Consort, Taverner Choir and Taverner Players, conducted by Andrew Parrott.
Photo of the front of the cardboard sleeve of the double CD of Monteverdi's Vespro della beata Vergine (1610) performed by the Taverner Consort, Taverner Choir and Taverner Players, conducted by Andrew Parrott and issued by EMI in 1984. Aside from the details above and a stylized 'REFLEXE', all on a grey background, is an image of a detail from Peter Paul Rubens's painting The Gonzaga Family Worshipping the Holy Trinity. The image is faded and has a marked red tint to it. It also appears to be reversed left to right.
November 27, 2025 at 5:37 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
The earliest instances of use in English according to the OED were in 1799 and 1800. Can't find a copy of the 1799 one in the right edition. Here's the 1800 one, from The Annual Register...For the Year 1798. Not that it tells us much about how we got the word from French.
Screengrab of online edition (HathiTrust) of page 22 of the Chronicle section in 'The Annual Register or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature for the Year 1798' published by Otridge and son etc. The screengrab reads: 'The celebrated Didot, the French printer, with a German, named Herman, have announced a new discovery in printing, which they term *stereotype*.—The process seems more nearly allied to engraving, as they speak of its being done on solid plates *(des planches solides)*. The inventors dwell on its elegance, and it certainly hass the merit of cheapness. The workds of Virgil, making four hundred pages, and illustrated with a map and vignettes, is to be sold in sheets for fifteen sous, or seven-pence halfpenny.' See: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x002613605?urlappend=%3Bseq=284%3Bownerid=27021597768330228-298
November 21, 2025 at 2:29 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
Besides, as he quotes the last stanza, you'd have thought Pinsky or the fact-checker would have read the next bit, the first note at the end of the poem:
Image of the first note at the end of Heaney's 'An Open Letter' from the top of page fourteen. It reads, 'NOTES 'Stanza 1 This open letter is prompted by the writer's inclusion in *The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry*, edited by Blake Morrison and Andrew Motion, Harmondsworth, 1982. I have to apologize for changing the *Poetry* of the title to *verse*—a result of the constrictions of rhyme.'
November 17, 2025 at 1:33 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
This might be my favourite brick.
Photo of a brick in a display case. The brick is head-on. Stamped across the middle is the word NORMANTON. It's colour is a very pale brown. The case is wooden, darker brown. Reflections of what's become the camera are visible in the clear acrylic front of the case—windows, fluorescent lights.
November 17, 2025 at 6:48 AM
nisaccom.bsky.social
BCU is on the case.
Part of a screenshot from Birmingham City University's web page at bcu.ac.uk/beyonder. Top quarter is the lower half of the first frame of a video. A tattooed arm is wrapped around the torso of a person wearing a blue top. Underneath is the following text in a large sans serif font, of which the bottom line is in green, the rest in white: 'A Beyonder is a builder. a problem solver. a door opener.'
November 15, 2025 at 5:28 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
Same road in May last year
Still photo from google maps of the road formerly known as James Watson Road in Norwich taken in May 2024. At bottom right is a sign showing the name of the road. The sign reads 'Rosalind Franklin Road'.
November 7, 2025 at 8:57 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
They don't seem to have been too nervous about the connexion between military and police use early on. This is from the Richmond Palladium, 10 July 1917:
Clipping from Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 42, Number 205, 10 July 1917. It reads: 'Tear Gas Used to Capture Deserter 'PARIS, July 10.—Tear-producing gas such as is used on the battle front was utilized by the Paris police to cap- ture a deserter named Thouin, who resisted them in his apartment in the Rue Audre Desart. 'Protected by a steel shield a police- man braved the armed recalcitrant, and bored a hole in the doorway, wherein he inserted a tube full of gas. 'As soon as he realized the situation, Thouin shot himself and his wife, half- suffocated, opened the door. Thouin diead soon after.'
November 6, 2025 at 7:17 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
Look on his Sphere of Influence, ye Mighty, and despair!
cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fdb2fcbe8cb...
Graphic from a web page with the title 'Who is Phil Baty?' (https://www.favikon.com/blog/who-is-phil-baty) illustrating, apparently, 'Phil Baty's sphere of influence'. It has a small circular mugshot of Phil Baty at its centre and then three occupied ciruclar orbits where the institutions in this sphere of influence rotate about their centre. Each is represented by a tiny image. Easy-to-recognize ones include the THE, The Guardian, LinkedIn, Google. Identifying the rest is left as a challenge to the viewer!
November 4, 2025 at 5:46 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
Are there dictionaries or even wild how-to-write-proper guides that disagree with:
Screengrab of part of the Oxford English Dictionary entry for the word alumnus. It reafs: '2. Originally U.S. '1800- '2.a. A former pupil or student (typically male) of a particular school, university, etc.; a graduate of a particular seat of learning. 'The singular alumnus almost always refers to a male, but the plural alumni is often used to refer to graduates of either sex.'
November 2, 2025 at 8:28 AM
nisaccom.bsky.social
Still photo showing a road sign in the yellowing grass on a roadside verge in front of the lower branches of a tree. The sign says 'FLESH HOVEL LANE' and has an arrow pointing to the right.
October 28, 2025 at 11:56 AM
nisaccom.bsky.social
Here he is in uniform in 1943.
Copy of a monochrome portrait photo of Otto Steinfatt showing him from the waist up in a dark uniform against a plain background.
October 22, 2025 at 4:48 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
Picked these up from a boxful at the front gate of a house with a sign inviting passers-by to help themselves. Of course, you never can find your runcible spoon when you need it, can you?
Photo of two quinces side by side on a table top taken from above. They're yellow, not that dissimilar to pears. At the top of each is a couple of inches of the branch it grew on and some of its leaves.
October 19, 2025 at 4:30 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
In case you were wondering
Part of a screenshot from https://www.ukvocation.org/consecrated-virgins. It reads: 'To become a Consecrated Virgin, Widow / Widower, or Hermit, you need to contact your diocesan Bishop.' Statistics
October 5, 2025 at 8:46 AM
nisaccom.bsky.social
Women in Love:
Snippet from D. H Lawrence, Women in Love. It reads: 'strange, crooning noise of unaccountable excitement. 'Now he's still!' she cried, seeing the rabbit settled down in a far corner of the hutch. 'Shall we take him now?' she whispered excitedly, myster-iously, looking up at Gudrun and edging very close. 'Shall we get him now?' she chuckled wickedly to herself.'
October 1, 2025 at 5:41 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
One Kate Leonard was the subject of the earliest, on 7 March 1924, after making her 77th appearance in court. Drank meths she did.
Screengrab from pdf archive copy of page 10 of the Hull Daily Mail of Friday 7 March 1924. It shows one needs item. The text reads: 'DRANK "METHS." 'Appearing to-day for the 77th time, Kate Leonard was charged with being drunk and disorderly on February 24th. When asked where she got money from with which to get drink, she replied that she took methylated spirits.—She was sentenced to 30 days' imprisonment.'
September 28, 2025 at 7:30 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
But you're helping the UK to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. This is from the gov's press release announcing its 'historic trade deal with India' in July:
Excerpt from UK government press release titled 'Prime Minister secures thousands of British jobs and £6 billion in investment and export wins as historic trade deal with India signed' (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-secures-thousands-of-british-jobs-and-6-billion-in-investment-and-export-wins-as-historic-trade-deal-with-india-signed). It reads: 'SmartViz Limited is bringing its award winning IoT and AI-powered Realtime Building Analytics and Digital Twin platform to make India’s large infrastructure projects more efficient and sustainable. Working on multiple projects within the Smart Buildings and Smart Cities areas, the company has projected wins worth £5.6 million in the next 3 years.'
September 18, 2025 at 9:11 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
Who was this Oxonian poet and anthologist who mistook Roy Fuller's filthy aunt for a painting?
Photo of a passage on page 89 of Roy Fuller's 'Owls & Artificers: Oxford Lectures on Poetry' (1971). Fuller gave the lectures collected in the book in 1969 and 1970. The passage reads: 'A poem I wish I had never written concerns the finding by the poet of a spider in the bath. Though far from successful it has been a good deal anthologized, no doubt because constituting one of the few occasions when I have reflected archetypal experience. I quote the second of its five stanzas: 'Next day with some surprise one finds it there. It seems to have moved an inch or two, perhaps. It starts to take on that familiar air Of prisoners for whom time is erratic: The filthy aunt forgotten in the attic. 'In an anthology edited by a Doctor of Philosophy of this university, himself a considerable poet, the last line I have quoted - 'The filthy aunt forgotten in the attic'-has the following note: 'a painting, of course'. He intended to be helpful, bless his heart, but he was wrong. I meant a literal aunt, literally filthy, and, quite apart from any force and humour the poem might be thought to have, this reading is surely required because of the reference to prisoners in the previous line.'
September 2, 2025 at 11:00 AM
nisaccom.bsky.social
'Wellcome recommends the Government move beyond the language of science superpower or innovation powerhouse'.

Well science-superpower talk is vanishing from parliament. Here's the last five years and a bit (from 4 July 2020, four years before the general election):
A screengrab of the graphical representation created by the Find in Hansard search tool at https://hansard.parliament.uk/ of the result of searching for "science superpower" covering the period from 4 July 2020 to 2 September 2025. Each occurrence of the term in a debate is represented by a narrow vertical line whose height it presumably proportional to the number of occurrences on a single day or in a single sitting. In 2021 and 2023, there are more than 30 of these vertical lines. Since the general election in July 2024, there are a total of five lines. The following used the term in the following debates: George Freeman—Budget Resolutions—30 October 2024 Viscount Stansgate—Science and Technology:Economy—31 October 2024 Greg Smith—Space Industry—11 June 2025 Liam Byrne—Industrial Strategy—12 June 2025 Liam Byrne—Industrial Strategy—12 June 2025
September 2, 2025 at 7:37 AM
nisaccom.bsky.social
Forget AI. The real money's in nails.
books.google.com/ngrams/graph...
screen grab of a google ngram for the phrase 'nailed it'. The x axis runs from 1950 to 2022. Smoothing is set to zero. Corpus is set to English. Until 1990, the rate is close to about 0.000001. Since then it has climbed to 0.000018.
August 26, 2025 at 2:58 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
Mark your calendars. Welcome Week at the University of No Regrets kicks off on 22 of September.
pxl-lincolnacuk.terminalfour.net/filters:form...
Photo of three young people in the centre of the frame who appear to be walking (from right to left) along the edge of a marina, river or canal judging by the water behind them and the half-dozen or so boats in the background. All three are wearing white T-shirts and each carries a shoulder bag over their left shoulder. One, a stride ahead of the other two, has turned their face to camera and is smiling. This person is wearing a peaked cap in reverse and carrying a brown shoulder bag. Another has also turned to camera and appears to be smiling, but likely at the third person rather than to camera. The shoulder bags carried by the two behind the leader look to be made of cloth and bear the words 'UNIVERSITY OF NO REGRETS'.
August 26, 2025 at 11:16 AM
nisaccom.bsky.social
One European delicacy I haven't yet found in Lidl—pickled canned cormorant thigh.
Photo of three lines of text on p.66 of 'Shark Drunk, by Morten Strøksnes. They read: 'On our way home, Hugo and Mette tell me that the people living on Skrova have developed special ways to get extra protein. They eat the pickled, canned thigh of the great cormorant. And...'
August 22, 2025 at 6:07 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
Wendy Cope and the Worldwide Fund for Nature—house on fire.

Have had a Cope-signed copy of Two Cures for Love for years (but inscribed to Barry—thanks Baz). And only now do I read this, the last poem in the selection!
Photo of the poem that appears on p. 86 of Two Cures for Love: Selected Poems 1979–2006 by Wendy Cope. The page reads: 'Kindness to Animals [In small print] 'This poem was commissioned by the editor of The Orange Dove of Fiji, an anthology for the benefit of the World Wide Fund for Nature. It was rejected as unsuitable. [In regular print] 'If I went vegetarian And didn't eat lambs for dinner, I think I'd be a better person And also thinner. 'But the lamb is not endangered And at least I can truthfully say I have never, ever eaten a barn owl, So perhaps I am OK.'
July 27, 2025 at 9:23 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
1 January 2016:
Partial screengrab of a Waybackmachine copy of the University of Sheffield's homepage on 1 January 2016. In the top left is a blue, white, gold and red university crest next to the univerity's name rendered as The University Of Sheffield.
July 23, 2025 at 2:01 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
With
Screengrab from the credits to the documentary film 'Act of God' (1980) by Peter Greenaway. It's a monochrome still showing a long-lens view of a crowd of men facing the camera, some holding umbrellas. Superposed on the middle of the frame are the words 'Music MICHAEL NYMAN'.
July 21, 2025 at 8:39 PM
nisaccom.bsky.social
I've not read it so much as read chunks at intervals and I won't say it's put me at much risk of getting that barefoot feeling, but plenty of reviewers have praised Alison Bashford's book on TH & Julian Huxley. Beware; it's thematic & not chronological.
Photo of the front cover of Alison Bashford's 'An Intimate History of Evolution—The Story of the Huxley Family' published 2022 by Penguin. Aside from the author's name in black print and the title, there's a contrasty black and white picture of Julian H say next to a chimpanzee and apparently offering to it a cup. He's in a suit. The chimpanzee is stretching it's arm in Huxley's direction. There's also a quote from John Grey praising the book.
July 20, 2025 at 7:48 PM