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MAY 30
In-house critic |
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MAY 28
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art |
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MAY 27
The Victorian
literature challenge |
Here is a list of
authors I have set aside to read until the end
of December.
Jane Austen
Walter Scott
Charles Dickens
Lewis Carroll
Rudyard Kipling
Robert Louis Stevenson
Bram Stoker
William Thackeray
Victor Hugo
Oscar Wilde
Brontë Sisters
George Elliot (Mary Ann Evans)
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MAY 26
The wild man of
Oxford |
Wild men
are often found in myths, legends and
folklore. Some live in snowy or mountain
areas, such as the Yeti in the
Himalayas, Bigfoot in North America and
the Sasquatch in Canada. Other wild men
live in the forests, such as the Russian
Leshiy, Silenus of Greek mythology and
Grendel in the Anglo-Saxon epic,
Beowulf.
In many old myths, wild men are violent
and frightening. They steal away
children and attack humans. However, in
other tales, from the late 15th century
onwards, the wild men are often gentle
beings who look after nature. The wild
man of Orford was not violent, just
strange and different to the people that
captured him. The wild man of Orford is
like many other characters of folklore.
He stayed away from people, was big and
heavy and very hairy. He had a human
face but could only make grunts or
cries. Where the wild man of Orford is
different, is that he came from the sea
and was caught in a fisherman's net.
This is why he is sometimes called a
Merman.
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A Merman
is usually a character who is human from
the waist up but has a fish's tale, such
as Triton in the Greek legends. The
Triton had a green beard and hair and
played music using a seashell. Another
merman, of Norwegian legend, was a
monster of huge size that would rise up
out of the water. These mermen lived in
the sea and were able to sink ships by
calling up great storms.
The Wild Man of Orford is sometimes
shown in pictures with a fishes tail.
Although there is nothing about him
having any thing fish like, in the first
writings about the event, later ones
sometimes talk about webbed hands or
feet.
Ralph of Coggeshall wrote down the tale
of the Wild Man of Orford, in the
Chronicon Anglicanum in 1200, some years
after the events. The Cistercian monks
at Coggeshall Abbey in Essex kept the
document. At this time, Bartholomew de
Granville, as in the story, was in
charge of Orford castle. It is
likely that a strange man was captured
and taken to the castle dungeon and
tortured, and he later escaped. However,
who or what he really was, is still a
mystery.
About the time of the story, people
could not decide if this Wild Man was a
merman, man, or even an evil spirit that
lived in the body of a dead sailor.
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Some people think that, because there
are many wild men in folklore, it means
that they must once have lived and were
the last few of an ancient human
species. Others believe that wild men
may still live in remote areas of the
earth today.
People still claim to see Wild Men.
There was a report of someone seeing a
wild man in Winstead, Connecticut, in
the 1970s. He was described as naked,
about six feet tall and covered with
dark hair.
Over the years, investigators have
studied areas where wild men have been
seen. They have made 'casts' (moulds) of
footprints, and thought up ways to
capture the creatures. However, no final
evidence that there are really wild men
has been found. Others believe that
people who think they saw a wild man
were wrong; that, because they came from
towns and cities, they did not
understand what they were seeing when
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MAY 24
Moustache
Royale |
Recently I developed an interest
in moustaches. Nothing could be
so ugly and so gallant at the
same time.
A ancient sign of virility, the
well-groomed moustache is
something that I envy to
some extent.
Everything started a few days
ago, reading about George V of
Britain who, as a matter of
fact, had a fine moustache and
beard combination. The
interest has escalated into a
search for the most perfect
moustache in history. Through
my task it became clear that
moustaches are ugly or
unsuitable for some people, and
I am yet to figure out if it's
related to facial symmetry,
colour or style.
Most royalty had a nice
moustache (generally called
Imperial or Royale) and
expensive care was required to
maintain it. It normally had
whiskers growing from both the
upper lip and cheeks, curled
upward, as sign of
sophistication. Even if Salvador
Dali left his mark with
his narrow, long points bent or
curved steeply upward, of
which areas past the corner of
the mouth needed to be shaved to
allow artificial styling
aids, most painters preferred a
beard instead, probably due to a
lack of time or patience.
The Traditional English
moustache immortalised the
stereotype of a nation (narrow,
beginning at
the middle
of the upper
lip the
whiskers are
very long
and pulled
to the side,
slightly
curled; the
ends are
pointed
slightly
upward;
areas past
the corner
of the mouth
must be
shaved.
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Artificial
styling aids
permitted)
while the Walrus
style (bushy, hanging down over
the lips, often entirely
covering the mouth) made sure
that women stayed far away from
it's owner.
A
good moustache requires a dosage
of vanity that I don't have and
patience that I would prefer to
spend elsewhere. While admiring
the very few men who possess a
proper moustache these days, I
still prefer my attempt to
maintain my beard.
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MAY 23
C. R. Cockerell |
Although he built
comparatively little, and only one of his
buildings - the Ashmolean Museum and Taylorian
Institute in Oxford - remains in the public eye,
Cockerell is described in Howard Colvin's A
Biographical Dictionary of British Architects
(3rd ed., 1995) as 'at once the most fastidious
and the least pedantic of English neo-classical
architects', and by a leading architectural
historian of the period as quite simply 'the
greatest English neo-classical architect of the
19th century' (Frank Salmon, Building on
Ruins, Aldershot 2000).
Before he was 25 or had designed a single
building, Cockerell was famous throughout Europe
for his part in discovering in quick succession
two of the most important and complete groups of
ancient Greek sculpture ever found - the famous
Ægina Marbles from the east pediment of the
Temple of Aphaia on the Island of Ægina (these
are now in the Glyptotek, Munich) and the
so-called Phigaleian Marbles from the interior
of the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassae (or
Bassai) in Arcadia, which were purchased for the
British Museum in 1814.
Feted in Florence and
lionised in Rome for his intuitive knowledge and
insight into the architecture and sculpture of
the classical world, Cockerell almost abandoned
the idea of becoming a practising architect to
follow instead his true gifts as a 'professor of
the beautiful in architecture'. Although his
father, the architect S.P. Cockerell
(1753-1827), persuaded him of the romantic folly
of such a idea, he never lost the desire to
communicate the wonder and excitement with which
he had studied the surviving monuments of Greek
and Roman antiquity during his early years
abroad.
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The Professor's
Dream - C.R. Cockerell - Watercolour, 1848
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MAY 22
Essay on overwhelming apologies
- myself |
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I. It is the Human condition to withdraw from
their surroundings sometimes, as I should do on
a daily basis to recharge and equilibrate my thoughts. It is essential.
II. It is due to past experience that I no longer
confront foolish statements. Foolish people say
foolish things and defend their ignorance behind the shield of blind desire. I
don't confront the empty anymore.
III. It is natural that lost paths are filled with
opinions by all minds. I will always guide
myself through my own observations and learn from others the location of
cliffs and rocks. I will not perform against my
will.
IV. It is a must to admire people's best
qualities and wish to learn the same skills. I
will value others' intentions to show me the pure and I shall learn from them.
V. Apologies will be made when a mistake is
made. No shame, no sadness... Responsibility,
always.
VI. If my weakness is what I require to become
stronger, then I shall be weak when it is
morning and strong when it is night... Never looking behind.
VII. Through selfish actions I am to move apart
from the righteous idea that men have never
achieved. I add a
contribution in the right direction and will not
shame my ancestors.
VIII. My choices are the extension of my goals and
my feelings, an expansion of my Being. I am to
choose the right people to be part of the right me.
IX. If I am to dream, I will do so to reinforce
my reality and to deal with my problems. Reality
is best when we are part of it.
X. I will worship peace... Of mind, soul and
body. I will strike quickly and furiously
whatever disturbs my balance. Force is balance.
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MAY 21
Thoughts in a straitjacket |
Seeing economist Creg Clydesdale from Massey
University crucified for the results of his
study results, which highlight the contribution
of Pacific communities to New Zealand society,
is disturbing.
The study is not based on his personal opinion,
rather on pure data and statistics of which
there is no trace of racism (and why should
there be?) as claimed by some ignorant members
of community and religious groups. It is
research based on simple data gathered from
official sources and not a total account and
generalisation of the whole Pacific community.
Insulting this scholar and his research will not
change the results and rational approach is
required. The economic liabilities of some parts
of the Pacific community are a well-known
'unspoken' truth in our social dilemma, and so
is our attitude on ignoring issues of this
nature and talking about rugby instead. Most of
New Zealanders will avoid talking about anything
that could offend anyone, with the exception of
the Ministerial cabinet of the present
government, since blaming the government is
pointing fingers at no one specific.
Since the release of the studies a few days ago,
there has been a great deal of Polynesians
manifesting a similar view to Clydesdale and
blaming the lack of Polynesian integration with
the host culture. Some Polynesian citizens went
further by
pointing out as
cause for this data, family upbringing in
New Zealand and the
traditional Polynesian Churches.
Regardless of the results or guilty parties,
this study can be used as a central point for
social development and governmental programmes
in order to bring closer relations between
cultures.
Personally speaking, the contributions of our
Polynesian citizens to New Zealand as a whole
are undeniable. I have many Polynesian friends
and acquaintances
who work and study
as hard as the next person
but this study
don't disputes my
opinion and instead, points out that
Polynesians as isolated group within New Zealand
tend to be in larger numbers on the negative
side of the statistics than
any other ethical group
and the reality of this statement is concerning.
With
this discussion at present, we
need to know why and what can be done to bring
equilibrium to our socio-economic platform.
These questions cannot be avoided any longer.
Nor can the Maori attempts to revive the past by
avoiding the responsibilities of the present,
The 'single-mum' benefit culture, binge
drinking, gang culture, teenager driving
licenses and other serious issues that should be
taken more seriously than advertisements on
television.
My
concern about this study is not the research
itself, the
data presented or the way the media has
portrayed the news surrounding it,
but the reaction and resistance of the public
and certain Polynesian leaders and Members of
Parliament to deal with these
facts. The resistance to truth is concerning
and maybe the source of many unsolved problems
in a society that struggles with the capacity to
face social dilemmas in-pure-fact but to choose on
being blinded for
the sake of
a peaceful week.
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MAY 20
Selected articles |
Pijamas for Presidents - Paul Johnson
The silk rope and the golden cage - Curious
Expeditions
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MAY 19
Lexicon
pearls |
Honorificabilitudinitatibus The
word consists of 27 letters. This word appeared
in the script of Shakespeare titled “Love's
Labour's Lost”, which means “invincible
glorious.”
Antidisestablishmentarianism
The word consists of 28 letters. This word
means “opposition to the withdrawal of state
support or recognition from an established
church, esp. the Anglican Church in 19th-century
England” as explained in Dictionary.com. It has
been quoted once by the British Prime Minister,
William Ewart Gladstone, 1809- 1898.
Floccinaucihihilipilification The
word comprises of 29 letters. It means “act or
habit to deny the value of some particular
things.”
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
The word comprises of 34 letters.
This word appeared in a movie called “Mary
Poppins”, which means “good.”
Hepaticocholecystostcholecystntenterostomy
The word consists of 42 letters. It
appears in the “Medical Dictionary” edited by
Gao De as a surgical terminology, which refers
to indirect artificial tube surgery between the
intestine and gallbladder or in the gallbladder
and bile duct.
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MAY 18
Newman
on Victorian Gentleman |
John Henry
Cardinal Newman, the most famous
English convert to Roman Catholicism
of the nineteenth century, included the
following description of the gentleman
in his treatise on university education
for Roman Catholics, who had only
recently received civil rights. As you
read Newman's portrait of the gentleman,
compare it to those found in discussions
of the concept of gentleman in
Elizabeth Gaskell and other authors
as well as specific characters in
Robert Browning,
Charles Dickens, and
Anthony Trollope.
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It is almost
a definition
of a
gentleman to
say he is
one who
never
inflicts
pain. This
description
is both
refined and,
as far as it
goes,
accurate. He
is mainly
occupied in
merely
removing the
obstacles
which hinder
the free and
unembarrassed
action of
those about
him; and he
concurs with
their
movements
rather than
takes the
initiative
himself. His
benefits may
be
considered
as parallel
to what are
called
comforts or
conveniences
in
arrangements
of a
personal
nature:
like an easy
chair or a
good fire,
which do
their part
in
dispelling
cold and
fatigue,
though
nature
provides
both means
of rest and
animal heat
without
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The true
gentleman in like manner carefully
avoids whatever may cause a jar or a
jolt in the minds of those with whom he
is cast; — all clashing of opinion, or
collision of feeling, all restraint, or
suspicion, or gloom, or resentment; his
great concern being to make every one at
their ease and at home. He has his eyes
on all his company; he is tender towards
the bashful, gentle towards the distant,
and merciful towards the absurd; he can
recollect to whom he is speaking; he
guards against unseasonable allusions,
or topics which may irritate; he is
seldom prominent in conversation, and
never wearisome. He makes light of
favours while he does them, and seems to
be receiving when he is conferring. He
never speaks of himself except when
compelled, never defends himself by a
mere retort, he has no ears for slander
or gossip, is scrupulous in imputing
motives to those who interfere with him,
and interprets every thing for the best.
He is never mean or little in his
disputes, never takes unfair advantage,
never mistakes personalities or sharp
sayings for arguments, or insinuates
evil which he dare not say out. From a
long-sighted prudence, he observes the
maxim of the ancient sage, that we
should ever conduct ourselves towards
our enemy as if he were one day to be
our friend. He has too much good sense
to be affronted at insults, he is too
well employed to remember injuries, and
too indolent to bear malice. He is
patient, forbearing, and resigned, on
philosophical principles; he submits to
pain, because it is inevitable, to
bereavement, because it is irreparable,
and to death, because it is his destiny.
If he engages in controversy of any
kind, his disciplined intellect
preserves him from the blunder. [From
The Idea of a University, 1852]
Taken
in isolation, Newman's descriptive
definition, which appears an exemplary
idealization of the British gentleman,
appears a standard, unsurprising
presentation of a sociopolitical ideal
clearly related to specific class
interest. In context, however, his
statement immediately appears more
complex, since he does not address those
with political or even economic power.
In fact, his intended audience of
Irish Catholics were doubly
disenfranchised as members of a
colonized people and a despised, only
recently permitted religion. In
addition, as David J. DeLaura
points out, for Newman, "the
insuperable defect of humanistic
culture," appears in the limitations of
the gentleman, who has 'no means for
transcending the limits of the natural
man (p. 238).'"
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MAY 14
The
Hague
by
Roberto Correa |
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So I wonder,
what would it be like to have tea with Queen Beatrix at The Hague's famous Hofvijver
House. Preferably on third floor of
the left side, facing towards the waves
of the North Sea, crashing far
from the window.
The 18th century French Rococo clock gives
me 17:46 and the last rays of the autumn sun
reflects on a restored painting of
William of Orange holding a book like
the Holy Bible. Nerveless, Her Majesty
wears an uncompromising green dress,
expensive! The silverware is in place and
she serves me personally.
The Parliament is empty, except for the tall cheese head security guard reading
a third edition of Chekov's Ivanov that he
found. Back to Beatrix, she tells me of the
cold weather and small talks about Dutch
football, none too interesting to be sincere.
The tea compensates for the morbid sensation in
the air, and I imagine how much it
would cost the taxpayer to maintain
the building.
Beatrix is still a beautiful woman for her age,
privileges of European royalty I guess. She
speaks with a perfect Danelaw English
accent, and I
am not sure how it came about. I asked the
queen if she thinks of poverty not as
physical stance but poverty of mind, which
she ponders for a minute or two. From her
response, it becomes clear that the
predestined don't suffer judgement and
therefore there is no need for philosophical
enquiries.
- More tea,
she asked.
- No thanks, I replied.
She excused herself for a moment, leaving
the room exactly when I dropped Danish
biscuit crumb on the floor over an expensive
blue Velour d'Utrecht Moquette
carpet... Before I can clean the
mess, my clock at work goes off, and I find
myself back to my office for morning break.
....The carpet was left unclean and the
queen never returned at all. As the day
goes by, I am
still upset about the Velour
d'Utrecht carpet... I think to
myself... Velour d'Utrecht.
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Nothing in art can
describe perfection as an etching from Giovani
Piranesi.
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MAY 13
Per
diem |
Notes
of today:
Never annoy your barista!
Some songs should only be only played
at sunset.
In search:
The Wealth of Nations (book) by Adam
Smith.
Questions:
Why Salome killed John the Baptist?
√
What's important to modern man?
What should a wife of a saint be called?
Where the Moorish went?
Thought:
"A man is measured by the number of
people in his funeral."
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MAY 12
Random
notes from my Moleskine II |
Vermouth
French salon system
Salonières
Récamier
Bloomsbury
Tesseracts
St. Augustine's Confessions
Das Kapital
Wittgenstein's Tractatus
Oxford Street
Speaking with authority
Apotegms
Thematically
Chain reaction
Memento mori
Strange matter
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MAY 11
I'm a
Mason now |
Far from
literature in excellence,
Jonathan Coulton's song made me laugh.
Worth to post.
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You used
to laugh at me when I drove a Shriner’s
car
You said it’d never fly that I’d never
get this far
I always knew that I would make it
someday
Now you’d be safer staying out of my way
Cause guess what I’m a Mason now
And you better take care if you want to
stay
On the good side of the guy who’s
Got the secret handshake down
You think you’re pretty bad with your
pretty trophy wife
You drive a pretty car through your polo
trophy life
I got a robe and a pretty nice ring
You bet that brotherhood’s a wonderful
thing
Guess what I’m a Mason now
And you better take care if you want to
stay
On the good side of the guy who’s
Got the secret handshake down
Should we talk about the governments
that I control?
Should we talk about the hands of fate,
the dice they roll?
The secret things you’ll never see?
The secret man you’ll never be?
The secret rooms that have no windows?
Too late to make amends cause the
wheel’s in motion now
So get up off your knees, try to carry
on somehow
You can’t escape it so you better not
try
Now there’s some friends of mine who’d
like to say hi
Guess what I’m a Mason now
And you better take care if you want to
stay
On the good side of the guy who’s
Got the secret handshake down
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MAY 10
Die
logik muss für sich selber sorgen |
To my opinion, a
teachers worth is measured by three main
criteria:
I. The teacher's impact on students /
undergraduates.
II. The teacher's influence on other
teachers.
III. The lasting value of the material
taught.
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MAY 9
Subterranean thoughts III |
Brian Despain
gallery
In defence of the unthinkable
Safe swimming in Auckland Beache's
Peter Gay's "Modernism"
Benjamin Franklin, Founder and
Francophile
Everything you know about absinthe is
wrong.
Get Lost Greenpeace!
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MAY 8
America's favourite books |
According to
Business Wire Magazine, When it comes to
reading, we know what genre Americans are
reading, but what is Americans’
favourite book?
Across all demographic groups the number one
book is The Bible. Behind The Bible,
the Civil War is still being fought as Margaret
Mitchell’s Gone
with the Wind comes in second. Fantasy and a
bit of fear round out the top five favourite
books of all time: in at number 3 is J.R.R.
Tolkien’s Lord of
the Rings series and number 4 is that other
fantasy series, J.K. Rowling’s
Harry Potter books. In fifth is one of
the masters of scary books –
Stephen King and The Stand.
These are the results of a nationwide Harris
Poll of 2,513 U.S. adults surveyed online by
Harris Interactive between March 11 and 18,
2008.
The next five
start off with Dan Brown’s
The Da Vinci Code, followed by To Kill
a Mockingbird. Number 7 is another Dan Brown
novel, the Robert Langdon prequel Angels and
Demons, followed by Ayn Rand’s
Atlas Shrugged at number nine. Finishing
off the top ten favourite books is J.D. Salinger’s
Catcher in the Rye.
While The
Bible is number one among each of the
different demographic groups, there is a large
difference in the number two favourite book. For
men, that belongs to Lord of the Rings
while women cite Gone with the Wind as
their number two. There is also a generational
divide. For Echo Boomers (those aged 18-31)
their second favourite is the Harry Potter
series while Generation X (those aged 32-43) is
split between The Stand and Angels and
Demons. Baby Boomers (those aged 44-62) and
Matures (those aged 63 and older) think alike
and both cite Gone with the Wind.
While it’s
not surprising that Gone with the Wind is
the second favourite book in the South, it’s
also number two in the Midwest. Easterners are
more partial to the Lord of the Rings
series and Westerners cite The Stand as
their second favourite book. Whites and
Hispanics also say Gone with the Wind is
their second favourite while African Americans
say it is Angels and Demons. Educational
levels have the largest differences. Those with
high school or less education cite Gone with
the Wind as their second favourite book of
all time while Americans with some college
education say it is The Stand. College
graduates go to Lord of the Rings and
those with a post graduate education are tied as
both Lord of the Rings and To Kill a
Mockingbird come in number two for them.
Finally, they
may not agree on candidates, but one thing that
brings together partisans is their favourite
book. For Republicans, Democrats and
Independents, the top two books are the same
– The Bible
followed by Gone with the Wind.
United States 2008
favourite books
The
Bible
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
The Stand, by Stephen King
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Catcher in the Rye by
J.D. Salinger
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MAY 6
Random
notes from my Moleskine |
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"This
Realm is an empire"
Unimpressive collection of men
Environment
affecting individual
Laws of
attraction
Social
reinforcement
Filtering
of genes
tribalistic
connection
suitability
Line of
influence
Matting
Juggernaut
state - Destroying it's own legitimacy by
expanding beyond its ordained role.
Parliamentary despotism
Predestination
"The limitation of ideas normally exceed the
individual capacity of Beings"
"Quo Vadis?"
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MAY 4
The state of nation |
Fundamental words to describe New
Zealand at present. Let's agree to
disagree...
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Socialism's
fundamental principles are centred on a
critique of this concept, stating, among
other things, that the cost of defending
property is higher than the returns from
private property ownership, and that
even when property rights encourage the
property-holder to develop his property,
generate wealth, etc., he will only do
so for his own benefit, which may not
coincide with the benefit of other
people or society at large. |
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Public
property
is any property that is controlled by a
state or by a whole community.
Private property
is any property that is not public
property. Private property may be under
the control of a single individual or by
a group of individuals collectively.
Some philosophers like
Karl Marx
use it to describe a social relationship
between those who sell their labour
power and those who buy it. |
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e.g.
Auckland Airport vs. Canadian
pension funds |
e.g.
Cheung Kong Holdings buying
Vector lines. |
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MAY 1
The adventures of
Lord Timothy Dexter
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I
would venture to say that few
men have ever combined in their
life's narrative such wacky
individuality and incredible
good fortune as ‘Lord’ Timothy
Dexter. He was the author of
A Pickle for the Knowing Ones,
or Plain Truth in a Homespun
Dress, a small collection of
correspondence and chronicles,
first self-published as an
anthology in May, 1802. But who
was the the so-called 'Newburyport
Nut’?
espite his lack of education, Dexter had the
Midas touch in business. At the end of the
American War of Independence he bought large
amounts of European currencies that were
worthless at the time. When trade connections
resumed, he had amassed a fortune. He built two
ships and began an export business to West
Indies and to Europe. He shipped warming pans to
the former, which is, of course, a tropical
region, where they were discovered by his
captain to be useful ladles for the local
molasses industry. Dexter made a good profit.
Asian merchants bought the mittens for export to
Siberia.
His next venture was the
proverbial ‘selling coals to
Newcastle’, which should have
signalled certain failure, but
Dexter’s ships arrived as the
city was crippled by a
coalminers’ strike and Dexter
gained an enormous profit. He
exported bibles to the East
Indies and stray cats to
Caribbean islands and again
somehow turned a profit. He also
hoarded whalebone by mistake,
but ended up selling it
profitably as a support material
for corsets.
He married in 1770 a rich widow
named Elizabeth (Lord)
Frothingham, and bought a big
house -Chester State in New
Hampshire- in which they
settled with her four children
(they later had a son and
daughter of their own) and set
up a glover’s shop. He once gave
Elizabeth $2000 to leave him and
hired her back for the same sum
two weeks later.
He acquired a peerage, which was
meant to help him gain access to
the society that snubbed him for
his eccentricities, but to no
avail. He also bought a new
house in Newburyport and
decorated it with minarets, a
golden eagle on the top of the
cupola, a mausoleum for himself
and a garden of 40 wooden
statues of Venus and famous men,
including George Washington,
William Pitt, Napoleon
Bonaparte, Thomas Jefferson,
John Hancock, John Adams, King
George III, and of course,
himself, towering over all.
The inscription on his own
effigy read: "I am the first
in the East, the first in the
West, and the greatest
philosopher in the Western
World." He stated, “I
will show the world one of the
Grete wonders of the world in 15
months … that is, if no man
murders me in Dors or out of
Dors.” People
flocked to gawk at this
collection. His 40-piece’”mouseum’
consisted of groupings with the
titles such as, ‘Motherly
Love’ and ‘Four Lions
Lying Down with a Lamb’. It
is said that his mansion was the
scene of bacchanalian orgies.
Dexter also had his own way with
household staff. He had a black
and protective housekeeper
called Lucy, whom he claimed to
be a daughter of an African
prince. Other servants included
a large idiot, a fortune teller
and his “poet laureate”,
Jonathan Plummer. At the
age of 50 Dexter decided to
write a book about himself – the
aforementioned 24-page pamphlet,
entirely devoid of all
punctuation: A Pickle for the
Knowing Ones or Plain Truth in a
Homespun Dress. He wrote about
himself and complained about
politicians, clergy and his
wife.
After the sell-out of the first
printing, Lord Dexter, in
deference to demanding readers,
amended the second edition by
adding periods, commas,
semicolons and other
punctuation. However: rather
than disperse punctuation
throughout the text, Dexter
added a page of ‘stops’
containing nothing but
punctuation marks, along with
this curt message:
“the nowing ones complane of
my book the fust edition had no
stops I put in a nuf here and
thay may peper and solt it as
they please”
At first he handed his book out
for free, but it rapidly became
popular and ran into eight
editions in total. It seems that
no matter what Dexter did, he
made money on it.
Timothy Dexter life He wasn’t
entirely daft, and his remarks
could sometimes show great
insight, as on one occasion,
when the newspapers were
reporting Lord Thurlow’s famous
remark, “When I forget my
king, may my God forget me.”
Dexter parodied it to “When I
forget myself, may God forget me”.
On July 28, 1803, Dexter
published a notice of sale of
his estate, mentioning fear of
his life. It seems he also began
to wonder what people would say
about him after he died. He
proceeded to announce his death
and to prepare for a burial.
About 3,000 people appeared for
the wake – they went through all
the rituals of an actual funeral
while he watched from inside the
house. However, Dexter’s wife
refused to cry for his passing
(legend says he beat her for
this indiscretion) and so he
decided not to appear to his
guests at all. He did, however,
actually pass on in 1806.
Towards the end of his wacky
career he appears to have
regretted his follies, and was
generous with his fortune. Or,
so it is said.
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