Queering Holmes

I was going to say 'double whammy' but in fact the general checkup and hygienist session both went off without any undue issues.

Going down the road to get to the Tube there was some kind of filming going on round about the parade of shops opposite the playing field - I did not linger as it was entirely chokka with mysterious vehicles and equipment.

Dentist, as stated, could not find anything wrong but has recommended some Extra Speshul Toothpaste, which normally you have to have a prescription for but they were able to sell me a couple of tubes.... not literally under the counter.

New hygienist, and as is the wont of hygienists, they have their own way of doing things - I was not expecting the whooshy water thing so early in the game - and also they find something that no other hygienist has noted that one should be doing, in this case involving a rare and unusual kind of toothbrush (which I have managed to source via eBay).

I was intending combining this jaunt with a couple of errands in Camden Town.

May I say I was deeply unimpressed with what Rymans has to offer in the way of seasonal cards, I thought they would have a far large selection. Managed to find something, but, grump.

Buying something from the pharmacy counter in Boots was stuck behind somebody apparently stocking up possibly for an expedition into the wilderness.

The threatened rain did indeed come on as I emerged from Boots, I had hoped that my weather app was looking on the gloomy side.

Too busy trying to extend their lifespans to, you know, actually Have A Life?

The troubling rise of longevity fixation syndrome: ‘I was crushed by the pressure I put on myself’

One is actually surprised that this guy does in fact go for an evening out in a restaurant with his husband, even if he does exhaustively research it first and pre-order (and then melt down when it comes to him RONG):

He painstakingly monitored what he ate (sometimes only organic, sometimes raw or unprocessed; calories painstakingly counted), his exercise regime (twice a day, seven days a week), and tracked every bodily function from his heart rate to his blood pressure, body fat and sleep “schedule”. He even monitored his glucose levels repeatedly throughout the day. “I was living by those numbers,” he says.

And, indeed, tempted to say, it just feels like living for ever....

With a side of, austere regimes have been followed by religious devotees for centuries but that was for life everlasting in the next, not this, right?

But, honestly, surely it is possible to lead a healthy life which is not actually purgatorial - see also this Why has food become another joyless way to self-optimise?. Thinking back to the delicious healthy nosh at Grayshott of beloved nostalgic memories - along with the lovely treatments etc.

Okay, there are some dietary things I do because I do not particularly have to think about them, but that is because I made certain decisions back when, and e.g. I have my nice tasty home-made muesli of a morning with its healthy oats and linseed and nuts and it is an established pattern but it is a pleasure to eat.

Last week's bread held out very well and there was even enough crust left to cut up and fry with onion and garlic to make frittata for Friday night supper.

Saturday breakfast rolls: basic buttermilk, 3:1 strong white/buckwheat flour (I was actually going to do rye, but it was rather long past its best before).

Today's lunch: this was actually a change of plan, because for last night's evening meal we had Waitrose Slow-Cooked Gammon Shank which turned out to be Rather A Lot, so quite a bit left over, which I therefore recycled into a sort-of cassoulet-type-thing with Belazu Judion Butter Beans, garlic, thyme, and panko crumbs; served with tenderstem broccoli tips, trimmed fine green beans and chopped Romano peppers white-braised, but with lazy chopped ginger rather than star anise for a change, and chestnut mushrooms sauteed somewhat after the recipe in Dharamjit Singh's Indian Cookery, with onion salt, ground black pepper, basil, a dash of cayenne, and lime juice.

Do I need to ask, guess the critic, given the headline on this review of the Gwen John exhibition: In a superb, mystical retrospective, the painter sheds social trappings – and her clothes – as she uses her enormous intelligence to paint purely. JJ, go and take a cold shower!

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I am not sure that exorcism is quite what is needed in the case, unless he starts doing manifestations in galleries of writhing and speaking in occult tongues and so on: Demand for exorcisms rises as faithful want ‘deliverance from evil’. And in fact it all sounds rather low-key:

Even when an Anglican priest does perform an exorcism, they are nothing like Hollywood horror scenes with “shouting and screaming” and demonic drama.
They are “quiet and calm” affairs where a priest prays with a troubled person, usually after consultation with a psychiatrist and safeguarding experts.

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Knepp: Wilding from the Weald to the waves:

After inheriting the estate from his grandparents in 1983, Charles Burrell soon realised that large-scale farming was impossible on low-lying clay land. So, in 2002 he and his wife, author, and journalist Isabella Tree, embarked on what has become a pioneering rewilding project converting pasture into a patchwork of grasslands, scrub, groves, and towering oaks. Now home to storks, beavers, and nightingales, to name a few, Knepp’s ever-evolving experiment is open for all to enjoy.

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This is a different kind of heritage: Heritage Unlocked: Birmingham’s Unique Municipal Bank:

Birmingham Municipal Bank (1919-1976) was unique as the first and only local authority savings bank in England. Unlike other savings banks (such as the Trustee Savings Banks), customers could borrow money through the House Purchase Department to buy their home. Unlocking the Vaults, has been uncovering the Bank’s history and how it helped shape Birmingham’s story. The Exchange (opposite the Library of Birmingham) was once the head office for the Municipal Bank, and it lies at the heart of this project with many projects and events taking place in the historic Vaults.
Historic black and white photo of the Birmingham Municipal Bank, showcasing its grand architecture with tall columns and detailed facade.
....
A key finding of the project has been the significance of the Municipal Bank, not only as a financial institution but also as a cornerstone of community life, with local branches established on high streets across the city between the 1920s and 1970s.

The rise of ‘low contact’ family relationships - in fact, point is made in there that perhaps what there has been is a rise of is families being all up in one another's business because of Modern Technology and tracking devices, family group chats, the ability to know where family members are and what they are up to at all hours of the night and day.

Because I would not at all describe my own family as 'low contact', we just did not live in one another's pockets and need to be constantly informed and have opinions about each other's lives. Weekly phone-calls - occasional visits- etc etc.

I'm not surprised people feel smothered and overwhelmed when I read some of the shenanigans that families do but then, am introvert to start with.

(This may get updated over the course of the day)

After struggling to get Zoom link downloaded and operating etc, managed to get into first session I wanted to attend, Foundling Hospital in early C20th, good grief, practices had not changed much in a century had they? Recipe for trauma in mothers, children, and the foster mothers who actually bonded with the children until they were taken away to be eddicated according to their station in life.

Then switched to a different panel and was IRKED by a lit person talking about the Women's Cooperative Guild Maternity: Letters from Working Women (1915) which they had only just encountered ahem ahem - was republished by I think Virago? Pandora? in 1970s - and women's history has done quite a bit on the WCG since then so JEEZ I was peeved at her assumption that the working women were not agents but the whole thing was being run by the upper/middle class activists who were most visibly involved. And wanted to query whether working women thought it was very useful to have posh laydeez able to put their cases re maternity, child welfare and so on in corridors of power, rather than deferentially curtseying??? (I should like to go back in time and ask my dear Stella Browne about that.)

Also on wymmynz voices not, or at least hard to trace, in the archives, I fancy this person does not know a) Marie Stopes' volume Mother England (1929), extracts of letters she had from women about motherhood and b) based on 1000s of letters surviving and available to researchers. I could, indeed, point to other resources, fume, mutter.

Update Well, there were some later papers I dropped in on and enjoyed (and was able to offer comment/questions on; but I was obliged to point out certain errors in a description of Joanna Russ's The Female Man (really I think if you are going to cite a work you should check details....) (and I suppose Mitchison's work was just outside the remit of what they were talking about, so I was very self-restrained and failed to go on about Naomi.)