As I've been informed I shouldn't post general content in the Tumbleweed thread and apparently that thread ISN'T for rolling along with the tumbling tumbleweed, I'm starting this as a miscellaneous or general purpose or where to post about something but one isn't sure if the matter merits its own thread.

Lady,

thank you very much for this opportunity, where we can speek about everything (perhaps as long as it is not against the "public morals" or "too political" as for instance the word "dup")...
But yes the "informers" are perhaps right that in a pub ("café" overhere and in France, where one can drink, mostly beer, but also coffee), one don't speak about serious general subjects, although I did that many times with interlocutors on that moment! also serious.
PS: as I wanted to translate "openbare zeden" they translated with "public morals", but when I checked the English word in the mighty Google it didn't give only an American series and all that.
https://context.reverso.net/vertaling/nederlands-engels/openbare+zeden
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/public_morals/s01
Can some native Englishman explain what is wrong with "public morals"?

Kind regards, Paul.

I'd suggest that it would be more idiomatic to refer to "public morality" (openbare moraal?) rather than "public morals".

I've very recently acquired a secondhand Samsung "smart" phone but I'm not sure which model it is.  I transferred my old simcard over to this phone but can't seem to find any of my text messages (ones I hadn't deemed I ought to delete) since I took up the new phone - unless the old messages were remembered on the battery of the old phone and not the SIM card.  Have any of the computer buffs who visit this site an idea how that is dealt with?

Deleted as I realised belatedly I had posted twice.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

I've very recently acquired a secondhand Samsung "smart" phone but I'm not sure which model it is.  I transferred my old simcard over to this phone but can't seem to find any of my text messages (ones I hadn't deemed I ought to delete) since I took up the new phone - unless the old messages were remembered on the battery of the old phone and not the SIM card.  Have any of the computer buffs who visit this site an idea how that is dealt with?

Lady, I have only a small GSM of about 45£. And there, as one transfers the sim card to another, everything is transferred. But now I read about Samsung smart phones that there are many models and that their design (and that is not a sorrow), but also memory and processors differ.
Can that be the case? Here we have such "phone" shops everywhere and if that is the case in Britain too, you can perhaps ask them what to do...perhaps they will say as for my old GSM...buy a new one...

Kind regards, Paul.

I have a 'pay as you go' phone, Paul, and last time I went to a shop to renew the amount of credit on the phone I was told the magnetic band on the renewal card had lost its magnetism so wouldn't work so I may have to get a new card anyway.

Changing subject, I'm listening to (not finished yet) a podcast where the guest is Dermot Turing, nephew of the late Alan Turing of Enigma machine (solving) fame.  It sounds as if it might be interesting - the gentleman is talking about a book he has written about his famous uncle and mentioning a Polish connection to the solving of the Enigma code.  I confess I have not been all over the history of this site to see if there is already a thread about the solving of the Enigma code but I wouldn't be surprised if it has been mentioned earlier.

My other laptop is playing up (this is the less powerful one I am typing on now).  Recently I had a notification on the MacBook that there were updates available for Bullguard (the antivirus system I use on that computer).  The updates loaded okay but when I went to log in to Bullguard I can't log into it now.  Yesterday afternoon (Saturday) I was going into town anyway so I took the MacBook intending to ask the experts at the local computer repair shop (who have repaired things for me on earlier occasions) to have a look at it and there was a notice of apology saying the shop had closed early that day!!!!  Still the shop will still be there on Monday.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

I have a 'pay as you go' phone, Paul, and last time I went to a shop to renew the amount of credit on the phone I was told the magnetic band on the renewal card had lost its magnetism so wouldn't work so I may have to get a new card anyway.

Changing subject, I'm listening to (not finished yet) a podcast where the guest is Dermot Turing, nephew of the late Alan Turing of Enigma machine (solving) fame.  It sounds as if it might be interesting - the gentleman is talking about a book he has written about his famous uncle and mentioning a Polish connection to the solving of the Enigma code.  I confess I have not been all over the history of this site to see if there is already a thread about the solving of the Enigma code but I wouldn't be surprised if it has been mentioned earlier.

My other laptop is playing up (this is the less powerful one I am typing on now).  Recently I had a notification on the MacBook that there were updates available for Bullguard (the antivirus system I use on that computer).  The updates loaded okay but when I went to log in to Bullguard I can't log into it now.  Yesterday afternoon (Saturday) I was going into town anyway so I took the MacBook intending to ask the experts at the local computer repair shop (who have repaired things for me on earlier occasions) to have a look at it and there was a notice of apology saying the shop had closed early that day!!!!  Still the shop will still be there on Monday.

 
LiR, thank you for the enlightenment about your phone.

as about the Enigma story I hope that the nephew of Turing says it all as it is. I mentioned it already on several fora. The Poles had already broken the early code before the war and Turing had only to work further on what the Poles had started.
There is some friction nowadays between the Poles and the UK about the minimizing of the Polish role...And they are right from what I discovered in the time...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/15/polish-codebreakers-cracked-enigma-before-alan-turing/

It is not the first time that I have some headwinds on fora about some subjects, which are silenced in a country's national "roman" (story), as for instance in Belgian history, the Belgian government with PM Pierlot and minister Spaak wanted to go back to Belgium instead of to London. Convenient that the Belgian King and the German Hitler did forbid them to come back. Also for France as I discussed here with Abelard on this board: the push through the Ardennes known beforehand thanks to the French secret service, who had their man in the highest echelons of the Nazis. Also about the Massilia story, not mentioned in French historybooks. Look once up the Massilia story.

Kind regards, Paul.

Dermot Turing does indeed give the Polish codebreakers credit where it is due - and indeed the French who also played a part in the matter.  The book (quite new I think) is called X, Y and Z The Real Story of How Enigma was Broken. I'm not sure which country was which but Poland, France and Britain were the X, Y and Z of the title - though I can't remember which country was represented by which letter.  It looks like another book I shall have to put on my 'to read' list.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

Dermot Turing does indeed give the Polish codebreakers credit where it is due - and indeed the French who also played a part in the matter.  The book (quite new I think) is called X, Y and Z The Real Story of How Enigma was Broken. I'm not sure which country was which but Poland, France and Britain were the X, Y and Z of the title - though I can't remember which country was represented by which letter.  It looks like another book I shall have to put on my 'to read' list.

LiR, indeed:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Real-Story-How-Enigma-Broken/dp/0750987820
And France, Britain, Poland X,Y,Z...
And you can read a lot of the book on the Amazon site..
I will also put it in my list to buy (with the granddaughter's help)
Kind regards, Paul.

In case anyone is interested, a link to an article by Dermot Turing about a memorial to Henryk Zigalski, one of the Polish codebreakers, who remained in the UK after World War II.  https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/bletchley-park-alan-turing-dermot-henryk-zygalski-chichester-polish-codebreaker-508177

Isn't there still a mystery over the identity of "Asche"? Was it really Hans-Thilo Schmidt or was he just the "fall guy" for someone high in the Abwehr?

Green George wrote:

Isn't there still a mystery over the identity of "Asche"? Was it really Hans-Thilo Schmidt or was he just the "fall guy" for someone high in the Abwehr?

 
Gil, there we had a whole thread or part of thread going on about it. I will seek if I find it before midnight.

Found:
https://reshistorica.forumotion.com/t1139p50-case-yellow-case-red-and-sealion

As you read Paillole's book there seems not be doubt about Hans-Thillo Schmidt, the French spion REX met him in Switzerland for instance in person (they translate also: in flesh) and Asché or H.E. were just his codenames. There seems to have been no doubts about the real Schmidt among the French.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320656408_The_Spy_in_Hitler's_Inner_Circle_Hans-Thilo_Schmidt_and_the_Intelligence_Network_that_Decoded_Enigma_By_Paul_Paillole_Oxford_UK_a

Kind regards, Paul.

I regret that I am going to bring the thread back to something more mundane.  Still, now that I know there was a thread about Enigma I can perhaps look for it if I want to return to the subject (which is an interesting one).

However I was watching the news yesterday and saw the mulling over of Mr Rees-Mogg's faux-pas where he implied that people who had not exited the building in the Grenfell Tower fire had not exercised common sense (apparently at one time they were told to remain by the Fire Brigade).  To be fair he has (sort of) apologised but it did come across as incredibly insensitive.  I thought of the old adage about upper class and the nobility not understanding "how the other half live".  I've never been a supporter of the idea of bringing back compulsory military service (there are some people who think doing so would rid modern society of many of its ills) but a thought did run through my head I'll admit about whether it might be an idea for people from entitled backgrounds to do something like a 6-months to a year community service (such as working with the homeless) so that they could gain some insight into the life of persons outside their rarefied stratum of society. I'm not saying that anyone from the upper echelons of society is automatically clueless about the problems of the less well-off and many young people do a "gap year" between leaving secondary school and university. 

I'm not saying (as some have) that Mr R-M should be sacked - maybe Bo-Jo should organise some awareness training for Mr R-M but then I'm not sure if Bo-Jo is all that enlightened about the daily life of the man or woman in the street either.

Not sure where to put this - I think there was something about "fake news" on this site somewhere but can't find it at present.  I still watch the mainstream news but like to find alternatives to try and find news from a broader spectrum (no shortage of alternative news media - it's finding reliable alternatives that can be the problem).  I think The Morning Star is still battling on - I haven't read it for a very long time but I'm glad that there is one newspaper that isn't singing from the same hymn sheet as all the rest.  (Though The Guardian and The Mirror are left-leaning to be fair).

Anyway I came across an American alternative magazine (which has an online version) Mother Jones.  I haven't read many of its articles as yet but I was interested to learn that it takes its name from a real "Mother Jones" who was an Irish born American woman who was active in the Union movement in the nineteenth century.  I really need to do some research on this lady.  I read the Wikipedia article - she lost her husband and her four children in very rapid succession to illness, very sad.  Despite being an ardent supporter of the Unions she didn't support the cause of women having the vote though.

Lady in Retirement,

Is it "fake news"  or "reliable news" ?

   Now a days :

 believe Nothing you hear, believe half you read BUT .....believe all you see.



Dirk

But which half of what I read should I trust, Dirk?

Dirk Marinus wrote:

....believe all you see.

Absolutely stupid advice, given what the Tories did to the Keith Starmer interview as only a recent example among countless such deceptions. In these days when semi-literacy is combined with ease of near undetectable image manipulation broadcast globally and with no editorial brakes on transmission then in fact basic eyesight is the one sense that should least be trusted, even by people intelligent enough to understand the deception.

I think Dirk probably means what I see in person, nordmann.  I'm not a Tommy Robinson fan but I saw something where he had had a friend or family member surreptitiously take a recording on a smartphone of an interview he gave and then proved that the mainstream version of the interview had been edited.  Then again (and I can't even remember the name of the series) back in the 1970s I saw an American TV fictional show where a second or third generation immigrant family were hustling to get a member of their family elected as President.  Somebody either heckled (as I say it's 40 and more years since I saw this programme) or threw something at the candidate and the candidate managed to turn the situation to his advantage.  Then the scene changed and the miscreant who had been hauled off was handed some money by one of the people running the candidate's campaign so it had evidently all been staged. I know that was a fictional work and a rather cheesy American one at that but I wouldn't be surprised if such manufactured events had happened.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

I think Dirk probably means what I see in person, nordmann.  

Still stupid advice. This is exactly what "flat earthers" and the like also claim as the only visual form of input by which valid extrapolation can be made (even though they receive 99.9999% of such input from watching YouTube videos and similar). They say they can't see a "curve" on a "flat" horizon out to sea and therefore presume that this is "proof" enough they have extrapolated all the truth that they need to about the entire observable universe, all from that one badly understood "observation". Their eyes don't lie to them - but their brains certainly do.

Whether you see something happening in front of your eyes or you see a recording of it, it is not enough to then presume you have gathered enough data via visual stimuli to understand what you have just seen, or even to recount it accurately. There is a critical requirement to apply intelligence to the exercise - a whole other bunch of brain cells that Dirk's advice tells you not to employ at all.

Oh, I don't know what to make of flat earthers, nordmann.  Some of them might be hoaxers.

There used to be a story that sometimes the steam emanating from piping hot food on TV advertisements (this might have been back in the days of black and white TV) came at least sometimes from a craftily concealed lit cigarette.  But then, is that story an urban legend?

The way I cook food that wouldn't be a visual trick ...

Hoaxing people into hoaxing themselves is a game for which "t'internet" seems to have been specially invented, LiR. Dirk, I think from some of his posts here, is somewhere within that spectrum.

nordman,

Of course you are right in your replies.


Don't believe what you hear about me,



Believe half of what I post

                                                     but

believe all when I stand in front of you and tell you that my name is Dirk Marinus and that I am not hoaxing you and it is not a visual trick.

I suppose I should bear in mind that even before special effects and CGI reached their present stage "magic"* tricks were performed by sleight of hand and there was the "Pepper's Ghost" effect - though I believe there was something similar which predated Dr Pepper (not the drink).

* I'm not saying I believe in magic.

I spent some time recently on a site called Quatloos! (which deals with various scams but not in a "scam busters" kind of way.  I had a phone call yesterday saying someone had transferred £600 from my bank.  I discontinued the call and contacted my bank and my gut feeling that it was a scam was correct.

Anyway, when I was looking at something on Quatloos! I noticed that someone had said that we don't have public notaries in England - I thought yes we do - though they are called notaries public (I suppose that comes from Norman French?).  I recall people coming asking if they could get documents notarised when I worked in a solicitors office (is it okay to use the noun 'solicitors' as an adjective without denoting possession?) - fortunately there was a solicitor who was also a notary public in the same general area of the city (bit of a walk but do-able).  Anyway, until yesterday I had the idea that all notaries were solicitors (in England and Wales) but not all solicitors were notaries.  I had a look at the website of the Notaries Society and read that "The majority of Notaries Public also practise as solicitors but the Scrivener Notaries do not, nor do some 150 of the general notaries".  I can see myself reading up on notaries now (as well as Charlemagne and decoding the Enigma machine etc).

In the French conversation group today somebody brought in an article about something that took place in Italy (Tuscany).  Some drug dealers had stashed some cocaine in a forest and the cache had been uprooted (and possibly eaten) by wild boars.  I hadn't heard of that before.  I know MM sometimes mentions wild boars in his part of France - though hopefully not spaced out.

If Paul R reads this, it seems that there is a candidate in Middlesbrough who comes from - or at least is descended from - Flemish aristocracy.  This was mentioned in Guido Fawks which is a right-wing website so maybe the accounts given should be taken with a grain of salt:- https://order-order.com/2019/11/21/labours-poshest-candidate-reported-police/   and https://order-order.com/2019/11/15/labours-poshest-candidate-standing-middlesbrough

I think the candidate may have done herself no favours using a false name though I presume she is UK born.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

If Paul R reads this, it seems that there is a candidate in Middlesbrough who comes from - or at least is descended from - Flemish aristocracy.

LiR,
it is all right about seemingly "her man":
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Thibault_de_Boesinghe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boezinge
And Boezinge the first gas attack of WWI on 22 April 1915.
https://www.flandersfields.be/en/inspiration/explore-ypres-salient

But now I read at the end:
https://www.tatler.com/article/flemish-aristocrat-lauren-dingsdale-labour-party-candidate
"She had been campaigning as Lauren Dingsdale for months, therefore obscuring her true identity, heritage and links to Flemish high society. The surname reportedly highlights links to the noble family from West Flanders and has links to the Queen of Belgium."

And now I see, if I understand it well: she is not obscuring her true identity because her "true" name is "Lauren Dingsdale"
It is again the old story still extended to the XXI century: the time of the "Herren"...nowadays in Belgium the women and men can choose the surname of the name of one of  partners (man/woman, or man/man or woman/woman) or even the double name of both... and in my experience in the clinics of my inner circle, the lady nurses (sorry nordmann) have their "own!" surname and not the name of the partner.

Even recently on the French forum Passion Histoire
http://passion-histoire.net/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=41559&start=15
Rebecca,
"Rien de SCG"
Et sa mère était un Saxe-Coburg Gotha (le nom était changé de Saalfeld). Donc les gènes héréditaires étaient des Cobourgs et des Eberdorfs . Et moi je dis toujours: Theresa Brasier et Angela Kasner
Sur un forum anglais j'avais une discussion sur Charles II et quand je disais comme une autre qui il avait peut-être les traits du pragmatisme comme son grand-père Henri IV (Paris vaut bien une messe) beaucoup des interlocuteurs étaient étonnés. Mais c'est bien Henri IV-Henrietta Maria of France-Charles II

Dans le temps pour le même forum anglais j'ai utilisé pour un fil sur "le Congo de Léoopold II" (il semble qu'ils vont faire maintenant un film sur Léopold II et son Congo) un petit "booklet" (receuil? livret?) de cent pages avec le titre: les "Coburgs".
Et ça commence avec
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A ... g-Saalfeld
mais selon l'auteur c'était bien
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta_R ... 7Ebersdorf
Augusta qui portait les culottes. François n'était bien que pour la musique et la litérature retraité dans sa serre. Et c'était Augusta qui cherchait dans toute l'Europe pour des maris et épouses, qui donnaient une "perspective"
Et voilà bien réussi pour quelqu'un(e)s de ses neuf enfants

Et si je l'ai bien compris cet artiste François était le grand-pére ét de la Reine Victoria ét d' Albert?

Kind regards, Paul.

Perhaps you are right, Paul, it could be the lady's married name.

Now I have a question for - well anyone who can answer it really.  I wasn't sure if this perhaps should go in the 'seats' thread but wasn't quite certain so am putting it here.  I saw an extract from a film Frenchman's Creek (based on a Daphne du Maurier book).  The story was set in the time of Charles II of England.  I thought at that time ladies still rode side-saddle but Tara Fitzgerald (playing the main female part) was shown riding astride a horse with a very long, loose skirt on.  There was a well-known fantasy series (finished earlier this year) which was (loosely) based on medieval history where women were shown riding astride horses also.  Does anybody know when women ceased to ride side-saddle?  I'm not thinking of women who may have disguised themselves as men (for safety when travelling or whatever reason).

Surely your question, LiR, should actually be: when and why, if indeed ever, did women cease to ride astride, in favour of riding side-saddle, no?

I'm not so sure about practices pre-medieval ... but Eleanor of Aquitane, Elizabeth I of England, Diane of Poitiers, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Marie-Antoinette of France, all happily rode astride their mounts - and sometimes even had official portraits painted in that pose - while admittedly, at other times, they considered it more 'appropriate' to be seen riding side-saddle. Even HM Liz Windsor, at least until fairly recently, usually rode astride - unless it was for formal ceremonial occasions such as Trooping the Colour, when it was traditional that she too ride side-saddle.

This could be a very interesting thread ... so why have you put it in the equivalent of the 'blue rubbish bag thread'? ie in the equivalent of, "I don't know what to do with it: its not utter rubbish but not immediately recyclable ... oh sod it, I'll just dump it on the street and let someone else sort it out!"

I could add things to my above comments about saddles and riding - such as that it wasn't historically only women that rode side-saddle, and what about 'celtic' stirrup-less saddles? - but why bother when the conversation is inevitably, as a function of the thread title, just going to get lost amongst people's witterings about other things?

LiR, why not open this as a new topic? It could be interesting, no?

I wasn't sure if the subject merited its own thread, MM.  I wondered at one time if it could be included in the thread about seating.  I could start another thread - not that difficult to do if you think it is worthy of that.

I've done a search on puzzles (as pastimes) on the site (well I searched on google "puzzles reshistorica" and came up only with a quiz on acronyms. I don't want to start a thread if one is already in existence.  Ones I can think of off the top of my head are crosswords, crosswords without clues, word searches, soduko, those disentangly (have I invented a word there?) things and various problem solving scenarios.  There are riddles of course.  I shouldn't forget jigsaw puzzles of course and there was the problem of the seven bridges of Koenigsberg (now Kalingrad in the Russian Oblast).  I'm putting some links to some sites I found while surfing the internet (I'm putting the links because I don't want to risk breaching copyright by taking someone else's work.
  
A couple of sites about the history of puzzles generally:- www.puzzlemuseum.com  [url=Chronological History of Puzzles: A Timeline - SiamMandalay]Chronological History of Puzzles: A Timeline - SiamMandalay[/url] and there is a page on the BBC site www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p057mmtl

A site about the history of crosswords (originally called a word cross)  [url=crosswordtracker.com/puzzle-history]crosswordtracker.com/puzzle-history[/url]

a webpage about the history of jigsaw puzzles www.puzzlewarehouse.com/history-of-puzzles

the history of word searches (if this site is correct they originated as late as 1968 [url=doryrichards.com/the-history-of-word-search-puzzles]doryrichards.com/the-history-of-word-search-puzzles[/url]

and soduko (it seems something akin to soduko was thought up by Leonhard Euler who also solved the Koenigsberg bridges problem)  www.sporcle.com/blog/2019/05/history-of-sudoku

Would this topic merit its own thread or has it been touched on before, maybe as part of another thread?  I want to avoid redundant posts if possible.  I'm sure jigsaws have been mentioned on another thread.

Yes why not start as another thread LiR, I don't think we've ever discussed these before.

Crosswords only go back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Before that one of the most popular forms of word play in English-speaking countries from about 1860 to as late as the 1920s, were acrostics. In 1915 eight London newspapers ran a daily acrostic: today they are virtually unknown.

An acrostic, at least in it's original form, is a short poem in which the first letters of each line, read collectively, form a name, word, or sentence. In a double acrostic both the first and last letters of each line spell out the solution. The usual plan is first to suggest the foundation words, and then describe the separate words, whose initials and finals furnish the answer to the question. Thus (from my battered Victorian copy of  'Enquire Within Upon Everything' 1889 edition);

A Party to charm the young and erratic,
But likely to frighten the old and rheumatic.
The carriage in which the fair visitants came:
A very old tribe with a very old name:
A brave Prince of Wales free from scandal or shame.

The answer is Picnic:
Pheaton
Iceni
Caradoc

Or for a more riddling one, again from 'Enquire Within Upon Everything';

The father of the Grecian Jove
A little boy who's blind;
The foremost land in all the world;
The mother of mankind:
A poet whose love-sonnets are
Still very much admired - 
The initial letters will declare
A blessing to the tired.

Answers are: Saturn; Love; England; Eve; Plutarch ... together the intials spell sleep.

Acrostics were also formerly very much in vogue for valentines and love verses.

Am starting another thread on this subject.

I've only just realised that the National Archives now have a list of videos and podcasts on their site.  I apologise if these have already been mentioned.  I may go over there for material to practise my shorthand.