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    • Beachcombed 12 June 1, 2011

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Beachcombed , trackback

    Dear Readers, 1 June

    Here is Beachcombing’s round up of exceptional emails and comments from the month of May. After a year at this game – Beach’s blogging anniversary passed a couple of days ago – he now wonders whether the comments are not of more value than the posts. After all, ten thousand words follow, a very short book, and some of those words are sublime.

    The most controversial post this month – judged by the emails he got – was Google Burning the Library of Alexandria and True Lies, Beach’s trip into the world of conspiracy theories. The most popular – judged by traffic and purring – was Black Cats and the follow up on Viking Black Cats. Beachcombing’s favourite was probably Against All Odds: in any case, he learnt a lot from the emails he got over that one. Beachcombing’s biggest mistake of the month were a couple (ahem!) of errors in his transcription of the frightening Roman cat, luckily put right by Camape (see below).

    Beachcombing’s online discovery of the month, meanwhile, was a blog that looks at historical maps (each to his own). The most enjoyment he got on the web came through a fabulous video on youtube that actually make economics sexy AND gets some sly jibes in at John Maynard ‘the pretence of knowledge’ Keynes. Rapping and the Austrian master: enjoy at your own risk. Honourable mention as well to an insane British site that tries to improve the general public’s knowledge of their representative by making them into our bedroom toys: can no one do this for the US or the EU? Perhaps they already have. Beachcombing is always interested in good stuff on the www even if not bizarre per se, though the three above qualify on those grounds too.

    Finally, it should be noted that the Beachcombing’s beloved aupair Jessica from San Diego is about to go home after seven months with the family: Jessica has soldiered her way through a birth, head lice, Little Miss B’s temper tantrums, the frightening villagers that surround the Beachcombing residence – think the end of vampire films minus the pitch forks – and, now, mice. The Beachcombings are  desperately seeking a new aupair, preferably English mother tongue, who would spend most of the next six months in Italy where the family is presently stranded: if anyone knows anyone we would love to know more – drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com. Recompense stands at a minimum, the children are difficult and the hours are several. Mrs B also wants it to be known that anyone who reads this site on a regular or semi-regular basis is disqualified. It seems bizarrists are not made of the ‘right stuff’! Beach was horrified but not too surprised. One of Jessica’s most important qualifications was that she did not know whether the Middle Ages came after or before the Romans. That sealed the deal for Mrs B in a very competitive field.

    Now to the links to new readers’ comments
     

    Marco Polo and the Dragon:

    Converting Martians:

    The Saint that Turns into a Cat:

    Google and the Library at Alexandria:

    Three Blind Mice:

    Diodorus’ Island:

    Leper King:

    Bat Bombs:

    True Lies:

    Language Confusion in Vinland:

    Against All Odds:

    A Frightening Roman Cat:

    Saving and Murdering in the Holocaust:

    Last Words of the Executed:

    Post-Mortem Coronation:

    Air Mines:

    Ox Carts:

    Scottish Pompeii:

    Bad Ass Lines from the Epic Tradition:

    Mermaids and Migraines:

    Manned Kite Flight:

    Origin of the Two-finger Insult:

    Occam’s Razor:

    Black Cats:

    Sweet Will:

    Dog Faces:

    And so goodbye: a great June to all!

    Beach