OK, she’s more the English culture secretary, with responsibility for things that cover more than one nation, eg, broadcasting. And her department covers more that “culture”, being properly named the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Her background is, she started to train as a nurse, but became a medical representative and then started her own company providing day care for kids.
As far as I can see, apart form the embarrassment of appearing on “I’m a celebrity” is that she employed her two daughters as her assistants, despite one of them being at university and the other living nearly 100 miles away.
In 2013, Dorries’ daughter was reportedly among the highest-earning family members employed by MPs with a salary of £40,000–45,000 as an office manager, even though her daughter lived 96 miles away from the office. Subsequently, Dorries’ sister was taken on as “senior secretary” with a salary of £30,000–35,000.[134] In reply to an enquiry by Ben Glaze, Deputy Political Editor of the Daily Mirror, about the employment of her daughter, Dorries tweeted: “Be seen within a mile of my daughters and I will nail your balls to the floor… using your own front teeth. Do you get that?”[135] (Wikipedia)
So, very cultured, eh?
**********
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And, nobody told me that the gathering, some might call it a party, in the garden was against the rules that I oversaw.
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MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
A 19th century French educator by the name of Edouard Desmoulins established a school, L’Ecole des Roches, on the English public school model. He accompanied this foundation by writing a book titled “Why Are The Anglo-Saxons Superior ?”* The answer lay in the English Public School and its rituals. (I suspect Desmoulins was the originator of the tale about Wellington, Waterloo and the playing fields of Eton) Predictably, the French were not impressed but Boris and co obviously believe it !
* “A Quoi Tient La Superiorité Des Anglo – Saxons ?”.
NB Working on 55+ year recollections and unable to check details on names/ book title but main gist of post accurate.
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Based on fair play… sporting prowess and breeding?
I’m not sure I’d associate any of the current Tories with any of that.
And the ones with breeding… Charles, Andrew, etc… well, what can you say.
It seems to be on sale for £25, so I’ll pass on buying it.
We already know how superior sont les anglo-saxons.
Eddy of the Mills, eh…? Windmills, methinks!
🙂
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tris, while we’re on the subject of culture, that puts me in mind of a song written for the 1968 film “The Thomas Crown Affair”.
Windmills of my Mind, melody written by Michel Legrand.
French version under the title Les moulins de mon cœur, by Eddy Marnay.
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I saw a mouse!
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With clogs on?
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I’m ever so humble, sir. Spare a knighthood, guv.
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Not even the Tories would do that, surely?
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Oui, yep… bilingual live version here… Michel et Pétula on French tv..
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I think Dusty Springfield did a version of “Windmills” as well.
And as for songs about mice, who can forget Lord Rockingham’s XI, “There’s a Moose, Loose, aboot this Hoose”?
AOY goes on all week.
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Possibly the best version.
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Thanks marcia, thanks tris. Much apreciatged.
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I missed an acute there – the spirit of my old French teacher will be rattling Earth off its axis with rage !
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Btw I was taught that capital letters did not take accents etc.
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Yeah, it’s a loose rule. They don’t.
Sometimes you see an E with an accent aigu… maybe because it changes the pronunciation so much. For example … Église.
I don’t know. Ed is our expert.
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O la la la la la…
I’ve never been quite sure that there shouldn’t be a grave on that a.
🙂
Ton ancien professeur de français t’en excusera, j’en suis sûr
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He’s taking the piss, sorry for that.
Just calculated my energy rises for a Month, all rates are up 5%, that’s gas and electricity including the Daily Rates which are Network Charges.
My supplier put up my rates last month by the same amount, a 10% rise in TWO months.
They tell me my energy is sourced from renewables for electricity but are charging the market rates.
Looking like we are subsidising englandland in many ways.
Be very aware folks, a 5% rise month on month will see the April hike, eyewatering.
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How are seriously poor people going to manage to keep warm.
How are old people who spend a lot of time in the house going to keep warm?
Never mind that, says Boris. How am I going to keep my job. THAT’S the important question!
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I hate to point out, Tris, that Dorries has actually had several ‘novels’ published, although the reviews were dire. If anything , I’d say her writing is an even stronger reason why she should not be Culture Secretary. Frankly, any of the Tory cabinet being cultured is laughable.
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I’d forgotten about her writing career.
If I remember rightly her novels didn’t get much in the way of acclaim.
Out of interest, I once bought for 10p, a novel written by the Head Nose Picker, Iain Duncan Smith.
It was a great thick thing.
I got to about page 15 where I read that someone had “descended down the path”… and I thought, EEEEK… Oh well, it was only 10p. Let’s use it to light the barbeque!
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tris: ” . . . Head Nose Picker, Iain Duncan Smith.”
You have just frazzled my brain there, tris.
I remember what SNP stood for in the 1970s.
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LOL… did it ?
I didn’t know that.
LOL
https://www.indy100.com/news/iain-duncan-smith-picking-nose-eating-commons-brexit-debate-watch-video-9091131
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Never, ever burn a book. You might run out of toilet paper one day.
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Ah… I knew I could trust you for some good solid advice.
I shall remember that!
But, to be honest, that book was soooo bad… it would have been a bit of an insult to one’s bum!
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“Out of interest, I once bought for 10p, a novel written by the Head Nose Picker, Iain Duncan Smith.
It was a great thick thing.”
But what was the book like?
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LOL LOL LOL
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I’d add, that it went on and on and on and said nothing of any interest.
Look at the reviews on Amazon. It’s called the Devil’s Tune …possibly he listened to Patel singing…
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Didn’t John Major lady Friend, Edwina Currie, also pen a couple of epics?
And let’s not forget the Central Belt’s own Rosa Luxemburg, Baroness Helen Lidl.
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Liddell didn’t get good reviews either…
I wonder if Old Edwina based her novels on her steamy scenes with Uncle John!
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I’m ever so humble, sir.
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Much like the brigand mp’s account of winning the war by his father who was on a boat on d-day
Oh quick, lets have the national dirge on the ebc, thatfully I don’t listen to R4 who do it when they change over to the ‘World Servce’ around 2 am.
The ebc has a system of repeating the output over the day between propaganda news output, R4 has a 4 hour break until 6 am.
You can tell the difference between the first news at 6 am and the 7am version.
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Munguin says he only knows rude words to GSTQ.
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Excellent comments so far! Allow me to take a swipe at “culture” too, from an American perspective.
I had to do some Googling about Nadine Dorries. From the land of political “culture wars,” I would suggest that the problem is less about Nadine Dorries, than with the concept of a national government that expends public resources to maintain a minister of state for “Culture.” What could possibly be sillier? Well, how about her portfolio being “Secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport.”
“SPORT!?” Geeeeze!
And since this seems to be a case of a modern socialist welfare state gone mad, I’m guessing that the Europeans must just LOVE the idea. Yep! In fact, Wiki says: “A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments.”
So the way forward is clear. Simply abolish the bizarre notion of an English Culture Secretary entirely, and by so doing, automatically eliminate those embarrassing comparisons with the Culture Ministers of Germany and France who are deemed to be more…..wait for it……”CULTURED.”
As for SPORT in the lady’s portfolio, Americans have found that SPORT can take care of itself quite nicely in the private sector thank you. I’d bet that Sport can manage OK in England too, without help from No. 10.
From the States, and for the record, Trump and the right wing GOP were right about at least four things:
1) Michelle Obama (who nobody voted for about anything) and her fat-free and taste-free school lunch program. (The left wing health police are everywhere, but they’re headquartered in…..where else…..California.)
2) Low flow bathroom plumbing fixtures. (Which save water by not working.)
3) Federally mandated high efficiency light bulbs. (Which don’t save much energy, and also don’t work as well and cost lots more money.)
4) Elimination of federal tax dollars for “the arts.” (The Democratic lefties just love to decide what’s “good for” “the people”, and then tax poor people to pay for federal grants to middle class playthings like “the arts.” )
I notice BTW, that one of the things Nadine has government responsibility for is “museums and galleries.” Did I say…….GEEEEZE?
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Ah… how different Europe is from the USA.
Question though: when you guys hold Olympic Games, who funds and organises it?
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Tris……Unlike most other nations (says Wiki), “the United States government does not have a Ministry of Sports and does not fund its Olympic Committee.This is in part due to the taboo of mixing sports and politics in the US.” “The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee for the United States. It is a federally chartered nonprofit corporation and does not receive federal financial support.” Local committees who organize and manage the games in host cities in the US are locally and privately funded as far as I know.
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Danny, comparing the US and Europe, in my view the US loses in every item you mention. Eg sport – in US a handful of sports take 99% of the money/TV etc and the rest get bugger-all (not perfect in Europe but an order of magnitude better and fairer (plus most US sports claim “World Series” when they are only played in a handful of places – how is that? Light bulbs – low energy bulbs last years longer and have fewer toxic elements in them. I’m also not sure the US is in any position to lecture any other nation (even the UK) about food and fatness.
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I was surprised to hear that low energy lightbulbs in the States are expensive. They are cheap here and the ones I have in my hallway have lasted 12 years so far. The old ones used to last maybe 6 months max.
Also they use a fraction of the electricity.
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Tris……I agree that LED bulbs are pretty good now, as the initial failure of the CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) recedes into history. I think that LEDs here in the states still cost two or three times the price of old-style incandescents, but I haven’t really paid much attention lately. I’d say that the service life claims have become more realistic these days too.
In Googling the issue of national culture and the establishment of government ministries to spend public money on such things, I happened onto some articles about the nature of institutional culture, and the 2018 scandal involving the Swedish Royal Academy. The public culture biz is evidently fraught with danger.
There is the matter of Kipling receiving the Nobel prize, whereas Mark Twain never did. More recently, there was a time when the Swedish Academy occasionally awarded the Nobel Prize to Americans like Steinbeck, Faulkner, and Hemingway…….people who wrote books that people actually read, compared with today, “when it’s perennially bestowed on obscure authors whom no one reads except their mother.”
https://www.americanheritage.com/comedy-errors-nobel-prize#1
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/17/the-ugly-scandal-that-cancelled-the-nobel-prize-in-literature
Culture wars:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/13/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-culture-wars-but-were-afraid-to-ask
In 1907, Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) and Rudyard Kipling went to Oxford to receive honorary degrees. Kipling won a Nobel Prize that year, but Clemens never did. Reflections on receiving university degrees that you didn’t earn:
“Twain had received honorary degrees from Yale and Johns Hopkins, but resented the fact that Harvard had not followed suit. In accepting an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins he told his hosts he appreciated the honor but wondered if the public would “have full confidence in a college that didn’t know how to spell John.””
https://www.csmonitor.com/1992/0518/18192.html
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In fairness, bigjon, Americans pay for their health care, so unlike in Europe, it is the individual who tends to pick up most of the tab for any ill heath that comes from being overweight.
Their schools and universities do have very good sports programmes though.
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bigjon…….It’s certainly true that only the sports that generate really big financial returns get very much attention in America. And yes, the series of games that decide the championship of American major league baseball has always been oddly named the “World” Series. American football on the other hand only calls its championship game the “Super Bowl.” So it’s not “World” anything, but it IS…….”SUPER.” 😉
Modern light bulbs were pretty bad at first. For example, the compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), cost more than incandescent bulbs, contained toxic mercury, didn’t actually achieve their originally claimed service life, and had operational problems……like slow starting, and needing several minutes to warm up to full brightness. The problem was that in America, the federal government mandated the phase out of incandescent bulbs, before acceptable high-quality, low-cost alternatives became available. LED bulbs are pretty good now, but the first ones I saw in the stores cost as much as $20, at a time incandescents still cost less than a dollar. This is what happens when governments make laws about such things…..instead of allowing the free market to work its wonders. 😉
I could live with Michelle Obama offering advice about healthy eating. But trying to mandate her opinions through the federal school lunch program was a bridge too far IMHO. And then there was her carefully crafted pronouncements about how much more the kids LIKED unflavored skim milk and vegetables than soda pop and pizza. Yes, I’m in spirit a politically moderate FDR New Deal Democrat, and I DO therefore have to put up with a certain amount of today’s far left liberal bull c**p, but Michelle Obama was positively Orwellian in peddling her healthy eating propaganda!
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‘…American football on the other hand only calls its championship game the “Super Bowl.” So it’s not “World” anything, but it IS…….”SUPER.”…’
I’ve watched plenty of Superbowl games; studio analysis is local, but the commentary is from the US. I can recall occasions when the Superbowl or Vince Lombardi trophy winners have been described as ‘world champions’.
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Does that mean that the Andorra team didn’t win?
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May I refer you to POTUS = ‘leader of the free world’; how did you vote?
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Drew…….The media BS about POTUS being the “leader of the free world” drives me crazy. That’s stupid media hype straight out of the Cold War. Utterly meaningless today, but the news media seem to love it.
One that annoys me just as much is that the media……and BOTH political parties…..will call POTUS “Commander in Chief.” As if he were a totalitarian dictator! He’s the elected leader of a constitutional republic, yet the political parties and the media can’t imagine a more impressive description than his technical constitutional designation as the commander in chief of the United States’ military services. It’s absolutely insulting to the elected leader of a democratic republic. But it’s the kind of BS that political parties probably think gets them a few votes on election day.
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Yeah, I think it’s only the Brits that wait for and hang on his every word. The rest of Europe certainly doesn’t.
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LOL Drew……I stand corrected! 🙂 In my defense, I can only say that I sledom watch the Super Bowlall the hype
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Drew…….Sorry……I accidentally clicked the wrong button and screwed up my reply to your comment. So now I’ll try again……
Drew…….I stand corrected about the Super Bowl! 🙂
While strictly speaking, the Super Bowl is the championship of the [United States] National Football League, the term World Champion is commonly used. Whether that’s an official NFL designation or not, I wasn’t able to determine. However……according to Wiki:
The winning trophy was initially inscribed with the words “World Professional Football Championship” and was referred to generically as the world championship trophy. It has been awarded since 1967 when the Super Bowl’s official designation was the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. The trophy was renamed in 1970 in memory of legendary Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi, and is now inscribed “VINCE LOMBARDI TROPHY”.
I think that the Super Bowl rings may still say “World Champion,” but wasn’t able to confirm that.
BTW, the Green Bay Packers are still in the elimination tournament for this year’s Super Bowl. So are our hometown Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs played in the very first Super Bowl in 1967, (before Roman numeral numbering) and in Super Bowl IV. They lost the first one to Vince Lombardi and the Packers, but won Super Bowl IV. Then after a LONG drought of fifty years, Kansas City won Super Bowl LIV. Then they lost Super Bowl LV. Super Bowl LVI is coming up, and the Chiefs are still in the single-elimination tournament. Fingers crossed…….
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‘Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs on a great game, and a fantastic comeback, under immense pressure. You represented the Great State of Kansas and, in fact, the entire USA, so very well. Our Country is PROUD OF YOU!’ – Donald John Trump
Hastily deleted and Missouri given due credit!
The Chiefs will be in good shape if they get past the Bills this weekend. Tough match, New York’s only team destroyed the Patriots last week.
Back on the arts, I once did an Edinburgh Festival job for the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. I’m almost certain it was Springfield, Missouri; population 160k (there’s a small chance it was Springfield, Ohio; pop. 60k, and also has an SO). Either way, it surprised me that such a small municipality could fund a touring orchestra.
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Drew…….LOL……great to be reminded of the Kansas City Chief’s triumph in Super Bowl LIV in 2020….and of the idiot Trump getting the states mixed up. 🙂
In fairness, it IS a bit complicated. The metropolitan Kansas City area (with a population of about 2.2 million people) straddles the Missouri/Kansas state line. About half a million people live in Kansas City, Missouri, (508,000 people,) and that’s where the football (Chiefs) and baseball (Royals) major league sports teams are located….along with most of the other social and cultural amenities in the area. There is however, a much smaller Kansas City on the Kansas side of the state line. Kansas City, Kansas (156,000 people,) is in fact the third largest city in Kansas. But it’s not the one with a football team, as Trumpy soon found out. 🙂
The Kansas City, Missouri, skyline seen below, shows the huge crowd of people in Kansas City Chiefs red, in front of old Union Station festooned in Chiefs banners, after the Super Bowl LIV victory in 2020. For comparison, I tried to find an aerial view of low-rise Kansas City, Kansas, but couldn’t find one. If you do a Google image search on “Kansas City Kansas”, pictures of Kansas City Missouri mostly pop up. So the two “Kansas City” names of cities in two states even confuse Google.
Your knowledge of the Chief’s current Super Bowl tournament status is impressive!
In 2020, it had been a LONG half century for the Kansas City Chiefs, wandering in the American football wilderness after their last previous Super Bowl appearance in the 1970 game which they won. This year they won their division in the regular season which put them in the Super Bowl tournament. The Green Bay Packers also had a good season and are also in the running. So if both teams were to survive the single-elimination tournament, then this year’s Super Bowl…..for the Vince Lombardi Trophy…..would be a repeat of the VERY FIRST Super Bowl ever played (in 1967). Super Bowl I was between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers……with Vince Lombardi himself coaching the Packers. Green Bay won it 35 – 10. A Chiefs-Packers rematch of Super Bowl I this year……after 55 years…….would be a dream come true!
But both teams have some hard games to win in the tournament. As you pointed out, the Buffalo Bills come into Kansas City this Sunday…….fresh from DEMOLISHING the New England Patriots last Sunday, 47-17. The Chiefs and the Bills both have hot young quarterbacks…….Patrick Mahomes for the Chiefs and Josh Allen for the Bills…..and the Bills have beaten the Chiefs three times in the last four regular season games they’ve played. So it’s probably at best a 50-50 proposition for the Chiefs to survive the Bills this Sunday. At least the Chiefs will have home field advantage in Arrowhead Stadium.
I did some Googling about all the towns and cities named “Springfield.” (See the comment below.)
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Drew…….I did some Googling.
Wiki says that “Springfield is a famously common place-name in the English-speaking world, especially in the United States. According to the U.S. Geological Survey there are currently 34 populated places named Springfield in 25 U.S. states, including five in Wisconsin; additionally, there are at least 36 Springfield Townships, including 11 in Ohio.” (BTW…..Wiki says there are 14 Springfield place names in the UK, including 3 in Scotland……Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, and Springfield, Highland, “a place in Highland.”)
The Springfield Symphony Orchestra you had at the Edinburgh Festival could well have been from Springfield, Missouri…..which does have a symphony orchestra, and is the largest city named Springfield in the USA, with a population of 169, 176. It’s in the southwest of the state, and is the third largest city in Missouri after St. Louis and Kansas City. I don’t see any national or international touring info on their website though.
The next largest Springfield in the USA is Springfield, Massachusetts, which has a population of 155,929. Wiki: “Springfield was founded in 1636 by English Puritan William Pynchon as “Agawam Plantation” under the administration of the Connecticut Colony. In 1641 it was renamed after Pynchon’s hometown of Springfield, Essex, England, following incidents, including trade disputes as well as Captain John Mason’s hostilities toward native tribes, which precipitated the settlement’s joining the Massachusetts Bay Colony.”
Springfield is the third largest city in Massachusetts after Boston and Worcester. And it has a symphony orchestra. No immediate info posted about its touring status though.
Then in the number three spot, there’s Springfield, Illinois; the Capital of Illinois with a population of about 114,000 people (but about 200,000 in the metro area.) Springfield is Abraham Lincoln country, where his house is located, where he practiced law, and where his tomb is located. Springfield is also the home of the Illinois Philharmonic.
Then there’s Springfield, Ohio with a population of about 60,000 and a symphony orchestra with a website.
So those are the top four Springfields. They all have what would seem to be modestly sized regional orchestras that might be mostly inclined to tour locally or regionally, if at all. So it would be interesting to know which one was at Edinburgh. 🙂
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It was 20 years ago Danny. I have fond, if partly foggy, memories of that particular day.
We’d already loaded in a small rock gig elsewhere, I got a call towards the end of the orchestra load in telling me ‘grab 3 guys and get to Dance Base ASAP’, which was about 5 minutes away. That turned out to be a 10 minute load out for BBC radio (audio only, transit van).
We got paid a minimum of 5 hours per job and we were only 3 hours into the working day. So we were, in effect, due to earn 12 hours of candy, at just over double minimum wage over the next 4¾ hours for doing absolutely nothing.
It was lunchtime and we were off the hook ’til 10, so we went to the pub! We were still there when one of the guys chimed in with ‘aw bummer we’re doon tae (down to) double time’ to much hilarity; because as bad news goes, it wasn’t exactly tragic!
After some sleep, I had to take the first two jobs out in reverse. So we were in hurry up mode for both the in and the out on the orchestra job. There wasn’t as much chat as usual, so less details were picked up.
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Drew…….Great story! I like “doon tae double time”. 🙂
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Are you familiar with xkcd? I’m particularly fond of this one.
https://xkcd.com/2480/
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Derek……I’d not seen that website.
There’s clearly not enough names to go around. 😉
Tourists from the UK should be cautioned when they take a trip to Las Vegas. They might be disappointed if they ended up at the one in New Mexico.
There’s a joke about the rural American rube who takes a package tour of Europe. When he returns, he tells his friends that he saw London, ENGLAND, and Paris, FRANCE (presumably so they could identify the locations….LOL.) Google says there are 16 places named Paris in the USA.
It reminds me that when I was a student at the University of Missouri, I made a day trip to visit Mark Twain country at Hannibal. Along the way, I drove through Mexico, Paris, and Florida…..in that order. Florida, Missouri, is now uninhabited, but there is a Missouri state park there which maintains the house he was born in. The Clemens family moved to Hannibal (40 miles away) when he was four.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain_Birthplace_State_Historic_Site
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There’s a French joke about a Belgian family going for a holiday in England; they’re driving through Belgium and into France to catch a ferry to Dover. All of a sudden, they see a road sign; “Pas de Calais”. Disappointed, they turn around and go home…
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LOL…
Very good.
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It does kind of explain why folks talk about town/state and town/country because of the confusion available.
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“Pas de Calais”……..LOL!!!
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Derek……In American writing, it’s a standard construction to follow a place name with the name of the state set off by commas. Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas, for example. It’s a little awkward, and it slows things down, but with 50 possibilities and some confusing duplications, it makes sense. So it seems very normal for an American to write…..or say…….London, England, and Paris, France.
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Oh. I hadn’t really thought that that is why American’s say London. England.
I mean there are other Londons, I suppose… and I guess other Parises.
I wonder: Would you say Vaduz, Liechtenstein… or Copenhagen, Denmark. or Moscow, Russia?
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Tris…..Good point about cities in Liechtenstein, Denmark, and Russia. For some reason it would sound awkward to state the country in those cases.
Google says there are 23 Parises in the states in various jurisdictions. As for London, this article (below) says: “America was colonised by scores of unimaginative Londoners a very long time ago and more than a few of them thought they’d name their new city London. There are three veritable cities named London in America: one in Ohio, another in Arkansas and another in Kentucky. However, there are another 14 “unincorporated communities” named London dotted around the country. Add to that London, California — a census designated place — and it brings the USA’s count up to a grand total 18 notable Londons.”
https://londonist.com/london/features/places-named-london-that-aren-t-the-london
There’s also a “New London” in Connecticut……..”at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London,_Connecticut
London, California, has a population of 1,869.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London,_California
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LOL LOL LOL. Will I guess people might wonder if you just said Paris, or London, which American one you meant.
I suspect you haven’t too many Copenhagens or Vaduzes… not to mention Moscows.
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Tris……LOL……That explains it! There are just SO many Parises and Londons, that it’s hard to keep them straight.
I drove through Paris to get from Columbia to Hannibal (in Missouri.)
Paris, Texas, has an Eiffel Tower: (The one in France doesn’t have a cowboy hat.)
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Oh lordy… These Texans are all about classy
🌚
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🙂
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Ha ha ha… were there any Simpsons in it?
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LOL Tris……..Presumably they never identified which of the countless Springfields it was where Homer and the family resided. It was later divulged that the one in Oregon, near Portland, was the inspiration.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-simpsons-creator-matt-groening-reveals-location-of-springfield/
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Wow. I didn’t know that (it seems like everyone else).
I thought they chose it because there were so many of them.
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Tris…..That probably played a part. The audience could relate to the one they know. I wonder if there’s a nuclear power plant in any of the actual Springfields. I always enjoyed the idea of Homer being a nuclear safety inspector. 🙂
Most anyone can relate to a Springfield. Lexicographers, linguists and authors for example can relate to the Springfield in Massachusetts. George and Charles Merriam founded G & C Merriam Co. in Springfield in 1831. They acquired the rights to Noah Webster’s dictionary in 1843, and the Merriam-Webster dictionaries have been published in Springfield, Massachusetts, ever since.
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Yes, I had that impression. Everyone knows a Springfield and so you can imagine it’s in your state, whichever one it is… well probably not Alaska!
Yep. Homer looking after a nuclear power station seems like a plan.
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Tris……I knew there were a lot of Springfields, but I was still surprised that Wiki says they are found in 25 states…..plus more than that in other jurisdictions such as “townships.” Probably counties too. I think I read that there are more Washingtons in various jurisdictions than Springfields though.
None in Alaska however. So Sarah can’t see one from her back door. 🙂
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Ha ha… Sarah could see the Kremlin from her back door… so maybe there is a Springfield somewhere in Russia she can see.
That woman has scary eyesight!…well and everything else.
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LOL!
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🙂
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Moscow, Ayrshire?
I bought a car from there.
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I should’ve guessed!
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Drew…..Update on that KC Chiefs-Buffalo Bills game, played today….Sunday, 23 January, 2022. It was a tight game…..a classic quarterback duel between Allen and Mahomes, which the Chiefs tied in the last 13 seconds of regulation play. Then the Chiefs went on to victory in overtime, beating the Bills 42-36. So the Chiefs meet the Cincinnati Bengals next Sunday (at home here in Arrowhead Stadium). If they beat the Bengals, then they’re the American Conference champions and will play the National Conference champions in the Super Bowl.
Fans met the Bills when they got back to cold, snowy Buffalo in the early morning hours.
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She’s not called Mad Nad for nothing…
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Nope. A well earned title.
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJZVTwFXsAEu1x9?format=jpg&name=large
Slap in the face AGAIN for Britain in general and Lagerkommandant Patel in particular.
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJaHDHIXIAAb0Dj?format=jpg&name=small
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I think we can safely call the liar’s interview yesterday, his Prince Andrew moment. What is it they say when you’re in a hole?
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Did he not sweat either?
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…make sure that it’s legal first…
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‘…we might not all of (sic) attended Eton…’
The author didn’t pay attention, wherever they went.
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Yes, it didn’t make much sense, even in its original form… “of all”, but we got the drift.
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I’m more inclined to it being ‘all have’, in the same way as ‘could’ve, should’ve, would’ve’ get the ‘could of, should of, would of’ treatment. Except there’s no contraction to ‘all’ve’, so no homophone to be confused by.
Better get used to bad homophones and dodgy phonetic spelling, if this is anything to go by:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/19/ministers-obsessed-teaching-children-phonics-nonsense-words
England only, but you’ll be hard pressed to avoid it in future. Basically, by introducing a test for phonetic comprehension (thereby providing a metric by which schools are judged), they’re focusing on abc’s far longer than necessary, at the expense of understanding words. I don’t see it ending well.
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Of course it won’t…like everything else they do.
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Regarding Springfields; the winner of the Springfield (Illinois) Mile (flat track motorcycle racing) was – until 1953 – the carrier of the #1 plate. The 1953 winner was riding an Indian – which was built in Springfield (Massachussets).
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Famous Springfields!!!
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