Dammit! Why did I have to come up with that phrase to describe the photo? Now I've got my old Audrey Horne ache again.
Sigh …
Well, nothing for it but to drag out the DVDs and indulge in a little Audrey Hornery.
Happy Sunday from a middle-aged, late November kind of place.
Hello, Dive, I've a couple questions - first what are those barbels on the spires called, and why are they on the spires in the first place? Is it to stimulate the rain as the spires pierce the sky? And why is there green cable running up the side of the spire in back? (Did you know, that if you're ever lost in the *Colonies,* that you can orient yourself by the TV satellite dishes, which are always pointed to the SW?)
Hee hee, Robyn. The one on the right is made of lead and sits stop Westminster Hall and dates from 1097; the left hand one is of stone and dates from the mid-nineteenth century.
I kinda liked the show. I thought it was fiction but what I've learned about small town America in the intervening years makes me lean more toward the theory that it was a documentary.
Hi, Speedway. First up: barbels are fish. Spires aspire to getting closer to God, but they usually fell down. A lot of people today are dumb enough to think mediæval architects were really clever to design such wonders but the truth is that what they designed was ninety percent crap and what remains today is all that was left standing after the crap fell over. The green copper cable is part of the lightning protection, for which we can thank that most Parisian of Americans, Monsieur Franklin.
Over here we orient ourselves by the discovery that if you face north the wind from the arctic tears your face off (at least it does at this time of the year).
Thanks, Dive. Over here, barbels are the feelers on catfish and are used for touch and smell. If you'd ever been poked by one you'd remember it because they hurt like hell and become irritated. I just couldn't think of the word I wanted to use.
Hee hee. Here, barbel is a fish a little like a tench, but it has whiskers much like a catfish so I imagine the word travelled the Atlantic with the early settlers and got applied to the first whiskery fish they caught over there.
With all of this educational and literary discussion, I thought that I would display my ignorance and just say, "great towers." I would not have guessed the age difference in the two.
Regarding your green-A on Saturday's post... nice viewpoint, dive!
Genie, the Victorians would be delighted that you would not have guessed the age difference. Victorian Gothick (purists add the 'k' as a derogatory letter in the same way that we have music and muzak)began as an admirable homage to the original gothic but - as the rest of the Palace of Westminster so excruciatingly shows - they then got a little silly and turned the whole thing into a gay cake decorator's nightmare. Victorian gothick was the SkyMall taste equivalent of its day.
And yes, who can resist a shiny green ass?
Ms.M. it does have a touch of Vader about it, does it not? I'll fess up that as I read your comment my Niles Crane gene prissily pointed out to me that the one on the left is sinister and the one on the right dexter, though in this post-Latin TV age Dexter has now become sinister, which is just so wrong.
10 comments:
A dirty peak and a cleaner one, then, or is one made of black rock? Nice picture, but I never cared for the show.
Hello, Dive, I've a couple questions - first what are those barbels on the spires called, and why are they on the spires in the first place? Is it to stimulate the rain as the spires pierce the sky? And why is there green cable running up the side of the spire in back? (Did you know, that if you're ever lost in the *Colonies,* that you can orient yourself by the TV satellite dishes, which are always pointed to the SW?)
Hee hee, Robyn. The one on the right is made of lead and sits stop Westminster Hall and dates from 1097; the left hand one is of stone and dates from the mid-nineteenth century.
I kinda liked the show. I thought it was fiction but what I've learned about small town America in the intervening years makes me lean more toward the theory that it was a documentary.
Hi, Speedway.
First up: barbels are fish.
Spires aspire to getting closer to God, but they usually fell down. A lot of people today are dumb enough to think mediæval architects were really clever to design such wonders but the truth is that what they designed was ninety percent crap and what remains today is all that was left standing after the crap fell over.
The green copper cable is part of the lightning protection, for which we can thank that most Parisian of Americans, Monsieur Franklin.
Over here we orient ourselves by the discovery that if you face north the wind from the arctic tears your face off (at least it does at this time of the year).
Thanks, Dive. Over here, barbels are the feelers on catfish and are used for touch and smell. If you'd ever been poked by one you'd remember it because they hurt like hell and become irritated. I just couldn't think of the word I wanted to use.
Hee hee. Here, barbel is a fish a little like a tench, but it has whiskers much like a catfish so I imagine the word travelled the Atlantic with the early settlers and got applied to the first whiskery fish they caught over there.
With all of this educational and literary discussion, I thought that I would display my ignorance and just say, "great towers." I would not have guessed the age difference in the two.
Regarding your green-A on Saturday's post... nice viewpoint, dive!
Bises,
Genie
Interesting contrast between the dark and the light. The dark tower almost looks sinister next to the lighter one.
Genie, the Victorians would be delighted that you would not have guessed the age difference. Victorian Gothick (purists add the 'k' as a derogatory letter in the same way that we have music and muzak)began as an admirable homage to the original gothic but - as the rest of the Palace of Westminster so excruciatingly shows - they then got a little silly and turned the whole thing into a gay cake decorator's nightmare. Victorian gothick was the SkyMall taste equivalent of its day.
And yes, who can resist a shiny green ass?
Ms.M. it does have a touch of Vader about it, does it not?
I'll fess up that as I read your comment my Niles Crane gene prissily pointed out to me that the one on the left is sinister and the one on the right dexter, though in this post-Latin TV age Dexter has now become sinister, which is just so wrong.
Haha! Of course you'd have a Niles Crane gene.
He's been my rôle model for many a long year, Ms.M.
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