Saturday 31 December 2011

And a Happy New Year...

                                                           

8 comments:

lilith said...

Happy New Year HG. Hope you've plenty of lira under the mattress :-)

hatfield girl said...

Happy New Year, Lilith!

No Lire under the mattress but power supplies, fields, olive groves, vineyards (not mine, close neighbours - very labour-intensive are vineyards, and lots of know-how needed), wells (water, not oil but we have sunshine for electricity), deer and hare bouncing through the woods, kitchen garden now stretching as far as the eye can see (well, not quite, but jolly big). best of all, we are not alone in all this provision - most Italians have fallback countryside and generationally stable community links.

Just writing a post on what is truly frightening in 2012 - but then it's in the picture on this post. Still, might as well spell it out.

Chief of men said...

would I be right in thinking that the german bourgeoisie have S*i* for brains ?

hatfield girl said...

Chief, I'm so cross with Germany the picture seemed politer than the words.

Chief of men said...

There said it for you (however the german in me is now nervous).

Nick Drew said...

from the Dummett pieces on Leiter (Anita Avramides)

Oxford in the late 1970’s and early 80’s was a very special place for philosophy. Philosophers were not just writing the books we were all reading, but they were to be found as heads of Oxford Colleges and even as vice chancellor of the university.

Philosophy was exciting and one wanted to be a part of it. There were visiting philosophers like Donald Davidson and Saul Kripke spending time in Oxford, seminars by young talents such as John McDowell and Gareth Evans, and lectures by the likes of Peter Strawson and J.L. Mackie,. Pre-eminent among these was Michael Dummett, newly elected Wykeham Professor of Logic ...


*sighs*

how right she is

hatfield girl said...

Were you there in the late '70s ND? Might you take another life route if you were to choose again?

Nick Drew said...

oh yes, I was

met all the chaps she lists except DD, and knew 4 of the 5 Oxford residents well

attended Strawson's last lecture, just before he died

the very last question he took at the end was "how do you define Oxford Philosophy?"

"it is analytic philosophy - *pause / whisper* - very well done "

he was tired at the drinks afterwards and so sat cross-legged on the floor, which not so many 86-year olds can do

another life-route ?

it's a parlour-game, isn't it ? (and don't use the word 'journey', please)

could never have guessed the one I took - so I could probably never have come up with a different one

(real question is - what happens next ?)