belgianwaffle

Reading etc.

Sarcophagic sonnet


Posted in: Reading etc.

“I gaze upon thy paled face
Soon to be entombed in somnolence divine,
O that the knobbed fingers of Death did ever embrace thy soule
And caress thy beauteous form to nature!
I cannot strew thy grave with fragrant petals,
O my love.
For thou encoffin’d and embalmed
In satin shrouds are not to me beloved”

If you’re good, I’ll give you another verse next week. Or would you prefer a couple of lines from “I breathe Byron”?

Comments
Friar Tuck

on 05 February 2005 at 17:46

That’s very, ummm, sonnetty.

belgianwaffle

on 06 February 2005 at 20:26

ChaOtic, too much effort…
FT, um, yes.

poggle

on 07 February 2005 at 16:21

I especially like the ‘knobbed fingers of death’.
And ‘thy paled face’- oooh – new word!
The sentiment is wonderful – ‘I don’t love you now you’re dead’.
More, please.

belgianwaffle

on 12 February 2005 at 15:42

Well, we’ll see…

Belgian colour supplements


Posted in: Belgium, Reading etc.

Le Soir had a sex supplement on Saturday. I ask you. In colour.

I was perusing an article and asked my loving spouse “What does “partouze” mean?

An orgy. I actually had to look it up.

You mean you didn’t know?

No.

And you are talking to our daughter in French, how will she ever learn proper French, if you don’t know the word for orgy?

(Pause) I’ll leave that for you to decide.

And then there was an interview with Claire, parisienne, who throws orgies. She is described as being, and I quote “adepte du ‘night fucking at home'”.

Me: Isn’t it odd given the variety of French vocabulary in relation to sex that they use an English expression?

Mr. Waffle: I am sure that even as we speak the Académie française is working on an appropriate translation.

Comments
Bobble

on 01 February 2005 at 23:47

I am sure they are Mr & Mrs Waffle. After all the dreaded e-word had to be got rid of (email).

dmts

on 02 February 2005 at 08:44

I love that.

poggle

on 02 February 2005 at 11:25

Well, farque me!

Friar Tuck

on 02 February 2005 at 17:47

Gaaa! My eyes, my eyes!
But seriously, in Italy I saw a whole section of jeans labeled “F**king Jeans”. I wondered why you need special jeans for that activity?

lauren35

on 02 February 2005 at 21:31

as opposed to ‘day f***ing’ then?

Bobble

on 02 February 2005 at 23:25

Italians unlike the dear French are lazy buggers (speaking as one myself). We just add an Italian article and you have a suitable word. Lo Shopping, Il Weekend, Lo Sport, Il Cinema, Il Bar. Easy.

belgianwaffle

on 05 February 2005 at 14:53

Beth, you are so right, there’s a reason why you Americans rule the world.
Bobble, you have to admire the Italians delightful indifference to this kind of thing.
HJB, we aim to please.
Pog, I doubt that’s what the academie will go for.
Lauren, you have this in Paris also?
FT, sorry…

Sick again, eh?


Posted in: Princess, Reading etc.

Herself has a cough. We were all up all night. She is very sorry for herself and keeps saying “poor me, poor mite, cough, cough”. She has also observed “Mummy sick, Daddy sick”. Yes, we’re all coughing. This morning while I had my shower, Mr. Waffle minded her. I came out to find him curled up in a ball on the floor beside the playpen wherein the Princess sat poking him and saying imperiously “plasticene”. We’re all tired too.Nothing daunted, the Princess and I went off to mass (“church ‘n Jesus ‘n Mary ‘n Joseph”). On our way there, we passed the synagogue. There is always a policeman with a machine gun across the road from the synagogue but today, the place was crawling with police and plain clothes types with things stuck in their ears. I asked a policewoman who was fiddling with the strap on her submachine gun what was going on. Apparently there was a special service for the 60th anniversary of the holocaust. Is it not a bit depressing that 60 years after the holocaust the Jewish community in Belgium needs half the Brussels police force out to protect them when going to the synagogue?

And while we’re on the subject, I note that the Irish President said something spectacularly stupid when speaking of the holocaust (which is not all like her). I quote from that organ of record, the Irish Examiner “Speaking on RTɒs Morning Ireland programme on Thursday, ahead of attending the Auschwitz remembrance ceremony in Poland, Mrs McAleese said “They [the Nazis] gave to their children an irrational hatred of Jews in the same way that people in Northern Ireland transmitted to their children an irrational and outrageous hatred, for example, of Catholics.” ”

Oh good grief. She has at least had the good sense to abjectly apologise.

Comments
poggleon 31 January 2005 at 11:46

I must add that, in my view extremely rarely for a politician, she did sound genuinely contrite.

Three cheers for the Dutch


Posted in: Reading etc.

I got this email from the Dutch mama which I found most comforting.

“Read james’ article. What a plonker! I wonder where these guys get off.
Can anyone tell me when (in history) and where (geographically I mean) children are continuously cared for at home with their parents.

In some countries and at some time periods children have worked alongside their parents, but otherwise I don’t know of any situation where children are at home with their parents all day – maybe kids on welfare. Is that what he’s seriously recommending?

Chances are Princess doesn’t mind the creche. Chances are that she’d rather be with you, but hey. Chances are the handsome Prince would rather if he didn’t have to be toilet-trained. Chances are the handsome Prince would rather not to have to eat his dinner. Chances are I’d rather stay in bed in the mornings and eat ice cream.

You know that if she spends every moment of every day with you, even if she thinks she’d like it, it would be bad for her. And no doubt staying in bed and eating ice cream would be bad for me. (though I’d be willing to give it a good try).

Your man hasn’t a notion what he’s on about.”

Am very tempted to email the text in its entirety to the Observer.

Comments
Bobble

on 29 January 2005 at 13:14

Just love her.belgianwaffle

on 30 January 2005 at 14:28

Yes, Norah, Bobble, she is the bee’s knees. She spends her spare time doing her PhD, no really. And eating ice cream, it appears.jackdalton

on 30 January 2005 at 19:19

I’m all in favour of ice cream. Phd’s on the other hand can be a waste of time.

Poetry please


Posted in: Mr. Waffle, Reading etc.

In the home of Mr. Waffle’s ancestors at the weekend, I came across his school annual. They put out one every year and aside from the entertainment provided by the photos of people you know as grown-ups looking gawky and adolescent, there are also the articles written by bright boys with notions. How about this?

The Progress of the Literary Society 1984-88

The Literary Society, then just the more loosely bound “Second Year Poetry Club” was officially founded on the Ides of March 1984 by A and B. From then on, the writing of virtually anything was encouraged by the club’s presidents, the best of which – ranging from poems about rugby victories to the ominous spread of “shadowy mists” – were pinned extravagantly on the class notice board. […] our ideas were swiftly adopted, with subscriptions and pseudonyms pouring in, and subgroups such as the Anti Literary club and the Anti Anti Literary Club breeding exponentially. […] trends followed included brief flirtations with premeditative surrealism, quasi inertia, l’ecrit noir, pseudo-carnalism, Romantic perceptions of morality… [S]upport [for the club]…was too harnessed on the fickle winds of fancy to achieve any degree of constancy…

You think I’m making this up, don’t you? If you’re good, next week, I’ll give you a quote from “A Sarcophagic Sonnet” which is also reproduced in the text.

Comments
belgianwaffle

on 30 January 2005 at 14:28

I’ll need more enthusiasm from everyone before transcribing 14 verses.

Nic

on 31 January 2005 at 15:55

Oh, Sarcophagic Sonnet is a good one! Not quite a sonnet though now that I come to think of it (but I’m not one to come between a man and a good alliterative title) Please do reproduce it.
on 01 February 2005 at 15:54

Just a quote will do …. with a title like that, you have to waffley ….

belgianwaffle

on 05 February 2005 at 14:57

Oh all right then

Booker, what Booker?


Posted in: Reading etc.

What with one thing and another, I got a lot of reading done.

“The Five People you meet in Heaven” by Mitch Albom is a dreadful book. Avoid.

“Case Histories” by Kate Atkinson is very good but has far too many characters for the feeble minded. Hard to follow (is Shirley related to Michelle and who the hell is Caroline and what is Olivia to Sylvia etc.).

“Making Babies” by Anne Enright is not half as good as “Le Bébé” by Marie Darrieussecq. As you might guess, both books cover largely the same territory.

That is all.