Coronation Chicken

[french frank]

Whether people are more realistic and hard headed as a result ……time to put in a call to Solomon on that one, I think.

I feel people have turned a little mad. Never more true was Pascal's saying about all the troubles of mankind deriving from his inability to sit quietly in a room.

[vinteuil]

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... I thought Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian expressed it well :

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/02/king-charles-apathy-coronation

whereas this demonstrates how out of touch the whole farrago is -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65448709

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[french frank]

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... I thought Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian expressed it well :

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/02/king-charles-apathy-coronation

.

I preferred Zoe Williams piece about the pledge of allegiance being "nonsense" (or as I said "meaningless"). It's Theatre of the Absurd. But there seems to be quite a bit of False Consensus Effect here - people assuring others of what "people think" meaning what I think (and probably my circle of friends also thinks).

[vinteuil]

I preferred Zoe Williams piece about the pledge of allegiance being "nonsense" (or as I said "meaningless")

... yes, it was good -

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/01/the-pledge-of-allegiance-to-the-king-is-nonsense-and-seems-designed-to-incense-everyone

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[eighthobstruction]

....well seeing as the pledge has gone down like a lead albatros....perhaps they might try public rtitual sacrifice of internet influencers at the several gates of London...I can see a lot of takers for that....

[Serial_Apologist]

I feel people have turned a little mad. Never more true was Pascal's saying about all the troubles of mankind deriving from his inability to sit quietly in a room.

Or just blotting up the prevailing idea expressed in most TV ads that we all have mental ages of around 7 years.

(I really do mean this - compared with TV commercials 15 or 20 years ago, which, whatever trash they were promoting, at least had some resemblance to a desirable unreality and appeal to self-promotion. I have numerous examples on VHS tapes.)

[Pulcinella]

I feel people have turned a little mad. Never more true was Pascal's saying about all the troubles of mankind deriving from his inability to sit quietly in a room.

Three (silent?) cheers for The Society of Friends (aka Quakers), then.

[vinteuil]

Three (silent?) cheers for The Society of Friends (aka Quakers), then.

... tho' Pascal is understood to have meant that the man would be alone -

« Tout le malheur des hommes vient de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre »

usually translated as - "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone"

( ... and I'm not sure that Pascal, an intense if particular Catholic, would necessarily approve of the Society of Friends... )

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[Pulcinella]

... tho' Pascal is understood to have meant that the man would be alone -

« Tout le malheur des hommes vient de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre »

usually translated as - "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone"

( ... and I'm not sure that Pascal, an intense if particular Catholic, would necessarily approve of the Society of Friends... )

.

Thanks for that extra background!

[smittims]

I was puzzled by Zoe Williams' calling the Royal Family 'illegible'. If she'd written 'ineligible' it would have made sense , though it might have been held to be libel.

Good point, though. We live in an age of extremes, but most of us are in the middle just wanting to get on with our lives. If we're not royalist we're labelled as anti-royalist.

At least I'm relieved to see no bunting or preparation for street-parties where I live.

[Serial_Apologist]

I was puzzled by Zoe Williams' calling the Royal Family 'illegible'. If she'd written 'ineligible' it would have made sense , though it might have been held to be libel.

Good point, though. We live in an age of extremes, but most of us are in the middle just wanting to get on with our lives. If we're not royalist we're labelled as anti-royalist.

At least I'm relieved to see no bunting or preparation for street-parties where I live.

No one among us ordinary folks could ever be said to have "read" the late Queen, though. And I'm not sure we can the present monarch. All part of maintaining the mystique.

[Bryn]

I was puzzled by Zoe Williams' calling the Royal Family 'illegible'. If she'd written 'ineligible' it would have made sense , though it might have been held to be libel. . . .

Well, it was in The Grauniad, so a fair range of words might have been intended but misprinted.

[french frank]

... tho' Pascal is understood to have meant that the man would be alone -

« Tout le malheur des hommes vient de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre »

I deliberately omitted the word 'alone' because I didn't understand him to have said 'alone' - since he didn't say it. Two people in the same room sitting 'en repos' would have been quite acceptable, I think

[Pulcinella]

I deliberately omitted the word 'alone' because I didn't understand him to have said 'alone' - since he didn't say it. Two people in the same room sitting 'en repos' would have been quite acceptable, I think

Maybe I should have sat both alone and 'en repos' a bit longer before responding to vint.

[french frank]

Maybe I should have sat both alone and 'en repos' a bit longer before responding to vint.

In fairness, all the online translations I read included the world 'alone', but it isn't in the original and I don't understand why it is included (though being the internet perhaps it only occurred once and all the others followed it). Pascal didn't say it and I took the principal idea to be the sitting quietly, perhaps the contemplation, the calm or tranquillity.