Essential Classics - The Continuing Debate

[french frank]

Who wrote '......she had the neat handwriting of the illiterate'? Sounds Shavian. Whereas my Doctor ( a 'grownup' with impeccable musical taste) of many years wrote in hieroglyphics which somehow our local chemist had always deciphered correctly....I hope!

Doesn't have to be neat, just not like a primary school child's. Doctors are a race apart: they adopt illegibility as a qualification for prescribing.

[Roger Webb]

........Doctors are a race apart: they adopt illegibility as a qualification for prescribing.

Not any more - you phone the surgery and are told to go straight to the Pharmacy for their opinion, thereby cutting out the middle-man. The art of medical calligraphy is dying out along with it.

[LMcD]

Who wrote '......she had the neat handwriting of the illiterate'? Sounds Shavian. Whereas my Doctor ( a 'grownup' with impeccable musical taste) of many years wrote in hieroglyphics which somehow our local chemist had always deciphered correctly....I hope!

I found this phrase referring to a chap called Parsons in Orwell's 1984.

[Roger Webb]

I found this phrase referring to a chap called Parsons in Orwell's 1984.

Ah, thanks, I knew I'd read it somewhere....and by one of the titans! But referring to a 'chap' called Parsons? I wonder if he said it, or had it said about his handwriting? In which case 'she' was wrong in the quote.

[Roger Webb]

Edit. Just found it, it was Parsons who was judged illiterate despite his neat handwriting...why therefore did I remember it as 'she', best not ask, I apologise!

[Serial_Apologist]

Edit. Just found it, it was Parsons who was judged illiterate despite his neat handwriting...why therefore did I remember it as 'she', best not ask, I apologise!

Parsons knows.

[oddoneout]

Brewing industry I believe. Back to Adnams!

It is. My first job after school was in a public library that had a Whitbread brewery at the back of it, and every now and then a truck would arrive to collect the drums of spent yeast. The library offices and work spaces were on the first floor at the back and got the full benefit of the smell when brewing was getting underway, which mostly didn't get through to the library space itself fortunately. Depending on timing and wind direction there would be an added olfactory assault from the curry house also in the vicinity, getting ready for the evening's offerings.

[oddoneout]

Well I just ruined my reputation on this site with this morning's Playlist! I thought Fiona Talkington was in the chair next week - might give her a go too!

Edit No, you're right it's Georgia...what a disappointment!

Fiona's doing the afternoon shift. The programme will apparently feature

live performances conducted by Neville Marriner to mark the centenary of his birth

I know the R3 definition of live differs from what many understand in general use, but the idea of NM conducting performances to mark his centenary takes that to the next level, as they say.

[Roger Webb]

Fiona's doing the afternoon shift. The programme will apparently feature I know the R3 definition of live differs from what many understand in general use, but the idea of NM conducting performances to mark his centenary takes that to the next level, as they say.

Right, afternoons it is then, I like FTs calm, unflustered delivery...oh, and quite unusually her mastery of most foreign titles and composer's names - she even got Ginastera spot-on!

The afternoon spot is adept at pretending what are commercially available recordings eg BBC Phil. recorded in Manchester and usually on Chandos, are their own specially recorded Perfs - a small step to passing them off as 'live'.

[LMcD]

Parsons knows.

[teamsaint]

It is. My first job after school was in a public library that had a Whitbread brewery at the back of it, and every now and then a truck would arrive to collect the drums of spent yeast. The library offices and work spaces were on the first floor at the back and got the full benefit of the smell when brewing was getting underway, which mostly didn't get through to the library space itself fortunately. Depending on timing and wind direction there would be an added olfactory assault from the curry house also in the vicinity, getting ready for the evening's offerings.

“ The Drums of Spent Yeast “ is a title in search of an album.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Fiona's doing the afternoon shift. The programme will apparently feature I know the R3 definition of live differs from what many understand in general use, but the idea of NM conducting performances to mark his centenary takes that to the next level, as they say.

Unless ,like me , you believe that Sir Neville , one of the most recorded artists in history, is in many ways immortal and therefore eternally live .

[oddoneout]

Unless ,like me , you believe that Sir Neville , one of the most recorded artists in history, is in many ways immortal and therefore eternally live .

In memory perhaps, but the thought of a sort of classical Phantom of the Opera conducting concerts doesn't quite do it for me - and does it work even if not all the performers "believe"? The other "face value" interpretation - that he specially recorded a set of performances to be archived for his centenary - is just repugnant and even more unlikely?
I suppose I should just accept that the online content is rubbish, and curb my brain's tendency to go down the rabbit holes of literal interpretation - even if they are sometimes entertaining.

[AuntDaisy]

In memory perhaps, but the thought of a sort of classical Phantom of the Opera conducting concerts doesn't quite do it for me - and does it work even if not all the performers "believe"? The other "face value" interpretation - that he specially recorded a set of performances to be archived for his centenary - is just repugnant and even more unlikely?
I suppose I should just accept that the online content is rubbish, and curb my brain's tendency to go down the rabbit holes of literal interpretation - even if they are sometimes entertaining.

Perhaps it's an interpretation of "recorded before a live audience" (e.g. this The Verb), as opposed to one consisting of the recently deceased?

[Ein Heldenleben]

In memory perhaps, but the thought of a sort of classical Phantom of the Opera conducting concerts doesn't quite do it for me - and does it work even if not all the performers "believe"? The other "face value" interpretation - that he specially recorded a set of performances to be archived for his centenary - is just repugnant and even more unlikely?
I suppose I should just accept that the online content is rubbish, and curb my brain's tendency to go down the rabbit holes of literal interpretation - even if they are sometimes entertaining.

There’s a New Yorker Cartoon where a parrot is pictured listening to the radio.
The radio says “That was the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields ..”
The parrot interrupts and completes with “conducted by by Sir Neville Mariner.”
That’s immortality …