Thinking positive

A gloomy English radio DJ (possibly as result of personal tragedy) tended to introduce songs with a comment along the lines of, “And if he hadn’t died so tragically young, he would have been x years old today.” Until he stood in for a colleague on Radio 3 and found himself saying, “And if he hadn’t died so tragically young, he would have been 250 years old today.” So says my father, anyway.

I was looking for an example to illustrate this and had no success. But I had to laugh at a quote from author Ursula Le Guin (it’s a coincidence that there’s a brief mention of her elsewhere on this blog): “To light a candle is to cast a shadow.” It doesn’t say where it’s from.

Regency Bath - duels, conservation and turnspit dogs

“You are a fool, sir. You have squandered your money, your most valued possessions and tomorrow at dawn in a duel … most likely your life.” The man at the front of the little group looked uncomfortable. He had paid like everyone else to visit No.1 Royal Crescent but the guide’s spirited recreation of the follies of gamblers in Regency Bath seemed to be directed at him personally. She concluded her talk by saying it was time for a sherry and disappeared.

We moved across the passage from the drawing room to a second guide. In her less eccentric presentation she made a throw away comment that, but for the grace of God, a motorway would have run straight through that part of the town today. There’s lots to see but the town planners of the 1960’s and 1970’s did great damage as I found on a stroll the day before. Large areas aren’t covered in the guide books for good reason and UNESCO initially condemned the enormous Western Riverside project which is due for completion next year.

Any trip leaves a vivid (and probably highly personal) impression in our minds. For a number of us it was the tale of the unfortunate turnspit dog in the kitchen. Dogs like these were in use until the middle of the 19th century as a tool to save cooks in large households the effort of turning meat on a spit by hand.

Further information on conservation at http://www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk/