The Crotchety Wanderer stepped into yet more uncharted territory recently. This time it was a website called The Progressive Aspect. An album review in the News section had caught my eye. The album was called Black Bead Eye, which was an interesting title, and it was by How Far to Hitchin, an outfit I'd not heard…Read more Easy Targets
2010s
The Sad Story of Lead and Astatine
Lead is the stable end-product of three major nuclear decay chains. In fact, it has the highest atomic number (82) of all the non-radioactive elements. Astatine, on the other hand, is so unstable that it is the rarest naturally-occurring element in the Earth's crust. Its nucleus is so fragile that only microscopic quantities of the…Read more The Sad Story of Lead and Astatine
Then Again
Crotchety Man has just returned from a one-week holiday in Cornwall, a county in the far south west corner of England. The map app on the household Mac says it's about a 5 hour drive from here but the journey home took twice as long. That was partly because we chose the slower, leafier A-roads…Read more Then Again
Wally
Crotchety Man has been hearing a lot of slowish soft-to-ambient music recently and was looking for something with a bit more bite to spice up his listening hours. But the airwave gods were not paying attention. Although the cuisine was excellent and the menu was varied, each dish they served up had clearly been prepared…Read more Wally
Magnificent Desolation
50 years ago yesterday man first landed on the moon. It was about 9:20 pm by the clock in the Crotchety Family's apartment when Mission Control confirmed that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had landed safely on the lunar surface. We had already been watching live TV pictures for two or three hours and it…Read more Magnificent Desolation
Billie Jean
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! The King ruled over a great empire. He had built magnificent temples as monuments to his wealth and power. The inscription on his statue proclaimed his dominion over all the known world. Pretenders to his throne could only marvel at what Ozymandias had built. Marvel and despair,…Read more Billie Jean
Zoom
Things to do, places to go, people to see.¹ Last weekend it was the Humanists UK Convention, this weekend it's the annual village Open Gardens weekend, next Sunday there's the Farmers' Market, all of which require my presence and not a little preparation. So, I shall be wearing my Crotchety Man hat only briefly again today.…Read more Zoom
