Donald Trump Yet Again

Of course you knew I wouldn't be able to leave this one alone and of course I've pulled some cards for what's going on for the orange turd.

There are three major arcana cards here which suggests big forces that he's not in control of, dominate this situation. I love it when a tarot reading reflects the obvious reality from the start.

First up we have the 7 of Cups, the Lord of Illusionary Success. As stated on the tin this card deals with illusions and similar things so I would interpret this as meaning the old fool has genuinely persuaded himself none of the cases facing him is real. This is what it's like to be a total psychopath folks.

But...

Then out popped the Moon. This might seem a bit obvious coming after the 7 of Cups, given that it reflects things which aren't seen and delusions. But being the moon it also reflects the light, and its Hebrew letter means the back of the head, which is taken to refer to the subconscious. I think this means that even Trump has an inkling that he isn't as innocent as he's persuaded himself and all these legal woes aren't just nothing burgers.

Next we have the Queen of Swords. This could certainly refer in Trump's mind to my new hero Stormy Daniels. However being a mature character card in the suit of swords which deal with thought, I am going to go with a different meaning. I think this means the thought is really dawning on him that this is going to happen. If this was a cartoon it is the bit where he's run off the cliff and has realised he's running in the air. In the Golden Dawn tarot the queen holds a cut off head, indicating she's all about thought.

Temperance has a more initiatory meaning in the Qabalistic tarot than may be apparent from its lower meaning of mixing and balancing - in fact the mixing of materials to cause transformation. This initiation is often associated with a sense of distaste which is certainly applicable here. In fact I think he's horrified by this initiation into reality and feeling...

...contained and controlled, which is the main meaning of the Chariot. This is not to say he wouldn't love to run away and isn't it lucky he has Secret Service agents with him?

To summarize: it's even sinking in for him that he's fucked.

I mentioned above that I have a new hero. And so in an unusual step I will take this opportunity to declare Stormy Daniels, Tish James, Alvin Bragg, and Jack Smith as Honorary Witches. Give them a round of applause 👏

What, do I hear you say? They haven't secured convictions yet? The annoyance they cause him alone is an indication of true witchhood.

Update: I've just discovered Stormy does oracle card readings. We all recognize each other. 😂

Spirit of Place: Kerbstone Carvings

I had a jolt the other day when walking along a street I've walked along many times before. I spotted something I've never noticed before (on the corner of Bromsgrove Street and Lower Essex Street B5):

They may appear more clearly when turned into a negative:

But what on earth was I seeing? Those markings couldn't be graffiti: those are old stone kerbstones and I couldn't see even the most deranged stonemason getting down on all fours to carve them down there. In fact the markings, especially the arrows, looked like nothing other than mediaeval masons' marks, used to identify a particular mason's work for payment. But what on earth would they be doing on a Victorian kerbstone in Birmingham? And that was how I discovered (here, here and here) that every major city in Britain has these markings on kerbstones, with most in Glasgow and London. They are thought to have the same purpose as the mediaeval markings, or else to indicate the location of services, but apart from that theory nobody has ever identified what they mean. I'd never heard of them in Birmingham before.

The other thing I've discovered is that while walking along the street with a mask 😷 on will keep the idiots away, walking along looking at the kerb will keep everyone else away. Bliss. And sure enough I've seen more. 

On the Bristol Road outside Optimax Eye Clinic (B5 7XJ):

And on the corner of Pershore Road and Raglan Road, on the opposite corner from St Mary and St Ambrose's church (B5 7RA):

I particularly love that until you look at it in detail this one appears to say Alf.

Of course my interest has been grabbed now, particularly as they're obviously not intended to be noticeable and you have to see them out of the corner of your eye, so I'll be keeping an eye out for them.

Agony Hound: Parents sell son's house after he uninvites them from wedding for not 'being good enough'

This is a problem which started as an Am I the Asshole question on Reddit (here) and seems to have caught the interest of the red-top press as well as me.

Two parents sold their son's house after he uninvited them from his wedding for not 'being good enough'. The groom disinvited his parents from his nuptials over fears they might 'embarrass' his partner's family, reports the Mirror.

The father of the husband-to-be took to social media to explain that he and his wife purchased a second home to be used by their son when he moved to college. He said they pay tax on the property, plus any maintenance fees, while their son, who pays no rent, sorts the utilities.

The dad continued to detail that the arrangement worked for years, even after the son's fiancee, who the family previously liked, moved into the home. However, he states that following a family BBQ, things all changed when they were informed by their son that they were no longer welcome at his wedding.

Posting on Reddit, the miffed father claims that he is going to put the son's house up for sale. He said: "Since he doesn't want us in his new life, he has to get out.

"According to what I was told 'We're not their kind of people'. I was livid, I called my son and asked him WTH this was about.

"He tells me that her family feel that we are not good enough and will embarrass them at a family wedding and that we are all uninvited from the wedding. I let a week go by to calm myself down and drive back to the house, the new future in-laws are in the house along with the fiancee.

"It appears that they all moved into the house. They ask me why I'm there, I tell them that since we aren't invited to the wedding, I was coming over to talk to my son.

"They tell me to leave their house. I lost it, and told them that they had 30 days to get out. Tell my son I'm selling the house and he could find somewhere else to live with all of you. I go to a realtor in town and list the house for sale."

The property problem sparked a lot of conversation on social media, with people keen to share their thoughts on the situation. Many people sided with the groom's parents over the matter.

One person wrote: "Rock on man. He was wrong and there is no amount of excuses or words to convince otherwise.

"It overall seems toxic and there is no reason why he should allow anyone to exclude his family. I could understand if maybe you haven't been supportive or there were issues but based off what I read it baffles me why he would even do this.

Another said the son was "experiencing the natural consequences of his actions." (Slightly adapted from here)

I have a slightly different perspective on this from most people who replied to the dad's question on Reddit, although I agree with them that he is not the asshole for kicking the son out of the house he owns for the circumstances of his wedding disinvite.

I do, however think that unfortunately the dad is still a little asshole, although he certainly doesn't mean to be, and the problem is his generosity to the son has backfired and probably screwed up their relationship.

It's especially unfortunate that the dad has given himself the short financial stick in the arrangement with his son over the house. It's in the States and I know that there tend to be massive taxes there that UK citizens don't expect but in the UK the dad would anyway be paying much more than the son with the way the bills are arranged, especially if the house is mortgaged.

This is generous of the dad isn't it? And shows how concerned he is that his son be spared the rent trap or have his quality of life reduced with a massive mortgage.

Isn't it?

No.

It's unfortunate, because by enabling his son to live rent- and mortgage-free it sounds very much like he's unwittingly attracted a gold-digger to the son. Not someone who is after the house, which after all belongs to the dad, but someone with social aspirations who is likely after the son's disposable income, which would of course be higher than it would be if he was paying a mortgage.

There is also a question of boundaries here for me, and I just think that as an adult it is never going to be ideal to live in a house which belongs to your family. I'm not even thinking of the sort of row that has happened here, which would risk making you homeless, but about the way it still makes you dependent on your parents since they are your landlord. So I'm British and share the national obsession with home ownership. Shoot me.

It's very unfortunate because the dad apparently had good intentions here. The best outcome would be if the fiancee dumps the son when he loses the house so that he can see she was after the lifestyle, not him. As it is, until the son comes round to thinking he's being unreasonable he will have a festering resentment towards his father for kicking him out of the house. 

I think it would have been better to give the son a cash gift towards a house outright, to stop the dependence on each other, proof the arrangement from family rows, and the son would have the satisfaction of owning his own home.

Do I even need to mention the various members of the royal family as another example of why individual autonomy is important?

And one last thing, you were thinking of turning up to the wedding anyway and making a scene, weren't you?

My Lent Book

Lent began for the Christians on the 22nd and in the practice I have stolen from them I have once again selected a Lent book. This is the practice as it appears in the Rule of St Benedict:

During the days of Lent, they should be free in the morning to read until the third hour, after which they will work at their assigned tasks until the end of the tenth hour. During this time of Lent each one is to receive a book from the library, and is to read the whole of it straight through. These books are to be distributed at the beginning of Lent. Above all, one or two seniors must surely be deputed to make the rounds of the monastery while the brothers are reading. Their duty is to see that no brother is so apathetic as to waste time or engage in idle talk to the neglect of his reading, and so not only harm himself but also distract others. Source

Every year I choose a book purely because I want to read it and it's unsuitable as a Lent book. This year it's a children's book of solve it yourself mysteries with fascinating pictures to get lost in. Because I can.

Spirit of Place: Another altered sign & 'Rentboys' Corner

I'm not in the habit of reblogging my posts, but this is a post I first published in August 2015. I'm reblogging it to make it more prominent because some twat flagged it to Blogger for having adult content. 

I was ashamed, after my last post on altered street names, to find on Flickr that another street name, which is both near two of the previous ones & near my broom parking, is fairly routinely altered. I'm also ashamed to say I've never seen it altered to Bent St, & in fact made a point of wandering up & down it today, only to find all the signs say Kent St. I particularly like the older-style one, with another little sign added underneath for the addition of a new-fangled postcode.

Kent St is probably best known for being the site of the original municipal baths - I mean of the sort where you would actually go for a bath & would take your washing there too. In more recent days it forms part of the gay 'village', although I would venture to comment that the alteration doesn't compare to (C)anal St in Manchester.

It has also been host to the famous (at least in gay circles) Rentboys' Corner, which the internet has sadly left abandoned. That said, imagine my joy, when looking online for reminiscences of the corner, to find the escort whose picture adorns this post. It was taken in the courtyard of the building I live in!

Time Travel: Swallow Street

I'm not in the habit of reblogging my posts, but this is a post I first published in October 2016. I'm reblogging it to make it more prominent because some twat flagged it to Blogger for having adult content. 

 There was me thinking that this would be a relatively simple time travel post, and you wouldn't believe the difficulty I have had getting to the bottom of this historical mystery. I have even had to resort to a hand job in the library to get to the bottom of Swallow Street - but enough with the innuendo, on with the mystery. My interest was first aroused by Brunel Street, which runs at an angle between Navigation Street and Suffolk Street Queensway; you won't discover a time travel post about that one because I've discovered that it is actually a relatively new street which appeared while Manzoni's boys were joyously going round the city centre with a bulldozer. And what started my interest in Brunel Street was that I remember it from trips to the city centre with my parents. I remember going to Allegro Music and also I remember Gino's, which I thought terribly sophisticated at the time. Anyway, I hadn't noticed then that Brunel Street intersects with a street called Swallow Street which runs between Suffolk Street Queensway and Hill Street. It is not an unsubstantial street by any means; in fact I think I had always assumed that it was one of those empty patches of land left over in the post-war rebuilding of the city, but it is only recently that I noticed it has a proper street name.

Swallow Street on the surface seemed to have gone back a long time without leaving any trace of itself, for some reason. It appears on the 1913 Ordnance Survey map of the city centre, where the characteristic pictures of buildings show that there were some at each end, but it didn't look like one of those tiny passages of higgledy-piggledy slums which formerly marked the city centre, so it must have left some trace of itself. First I looked on the internet. There was no history whatsoever. Nothing. Not even someone whose family emigrated to Nova Scotia (or wherever) in 1904 and whose great great grandmother was born above above a nailmaker's in Swallow Street. Literally the only historical reference was the picture from the 1960s which illustrates this post, and which made me think that really there should have been some history for the street, since it looked as if businesses were operated from the houses.

I turned to my 1967-68 Kelly's Directory and found only two entries for Swallow Street:

Here is entrance to Queen's College ch[a]mbers

Stanford & Mann Ltd. st[a]t[io]n[e]rs

I didn't see this almost complete lack of information as discouraging. I joined up the pieces by assuming that everything in the road except the stationers and Queen's College Chambers had been demolished in between the photo being taken and my Kelly's being published. Of course Queen's College Chambers is still there although its address is given as Paradise Street and it is prestigious apartments; it started off as a medical school in 1828 and was one of the colleges which made up the University of Birmingham. The present theological college called the Queen's Foundation was near there too.

I naively thought that it would be simple to find out the historical residents of Swallow Street. I naively thought that some trace of them would have been left in previous Kelly's Directories. I was naturally surprised on arbitrarily choosing the 1930 one in the library to find there was no record of Swallow Street at all. Nothing. It was bizarre that the street was there on the map of 1913, had houses standing in the early 1960s, apparently inhabited by at least one business in 1968 and yet had left no trace in Kelly's at all. I really began to think that I had imagined the street's existence as I went through successive Kelly's and still found absolutely nothing.

The earliest reference in a Kelly's Directory I could find was in 1962, where there were at least a couple of businesses:

12 O'Higgins and Secondini, tailors.

12 Docker F. dance studio

28 Cutler Bob Ltd. turf comm[i]ss[io]n[ing] ag[en]ts

All three of these businesses had vanished in the succeeding six years. There was no indication what was happening at numbers 13 - 27. Swallow Street looked as if it was determined to retain its mystery.

Then I started going through books of the city centre's history by hand (the Hound is not easily deflected when he wants to get to the bottom of a mystery), and finally found the reason for Swallow Street's elusiveness. The simple fact was that nobody noticed it or was bothered about it:

'Some of Birmingham's byways were built as access roads and had nothing more important in them than the back doors of buildings whose frontages were on more prestigious avenues. SWALLOW STREET first appears on Hanson's map of Birmingham in 1778, having been cut around 1750. It linked Hill Street with Suffolk Street and runs parallel to and to the north of Navigation Street, which it slightly pre-dates. The building of the cuttings into New Street Station divided Swallow Street in half, and steam and smoke can be seen rising [referencing the black and white picture of the street] above the bridge parapet on this bitterly cold Friday, 1 February 1963, as a train passes through the last, short, 20-yard cutting before the railway line disappears into the tunnel built by the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) and out beyond Monument Lane locomotive shed into the Black Country. Opposite the bridge, beyond the covered timber yard on the left and the elderly gentleman struggling along the snow-covered footpath, is Summer Street, which was on the same line as the present-day Brunel Street. On the right, behind the Morris LD 1-ton van, are buildings that had originally been the offices of the Inland Revenue, while Scruton's the tailor's, founded in 1931, occupies part of the rear of Queen's College Chambers. A 10hp Ford Prefect E493A of about 1952, one of Ford's last 'sit-up-and-beg' motors, which was phased out during the following year, is parked on the left. The winter of 1962-63 was particularly bad, and the snow lay from the end of December until early March. Behind the car is the West End Ballroom on the corner of Suffolk Street and Holliday Street, while coming out of Holliday Street is a Corporation Daimler CVD6 double-decker fitted with a locally-manufactured Metro-Cammell body, leaving its city terminus on the 95 service to Ladywood.' (David Harvey: Birmingham Past and Present, the City Centre Volume 1, 2002, p.16, which is also the source for the black and white picture of Swallow Street, taken facing the other way from the colour picture.)

So, mystery solved. The simple reason Swallow Street didn't appear in the directories was that nothing happened there which would have made an appearance. If it had it would have been a collection of rear entrances. Of course the situation may well have been different before the advent of the railway, but Swallow Street by the twentieth century was already a relic of a vanished past.

There remained one mystery. The colour picture shows the back of the Golden Eagle public house (in fact the 1913 map shows a P.H. on that site). The address of the Golden Eagle was actually in Hill Street, and it turns out that in the twentieth century it was an art deco 1930s rebuilding of whatever was there before. It was one of the buildings over which the conservationists tussled with the demolitionists and the demolitionists won (I believe in the 1980s) because there were apparently unrepairable structural faults with it. It turns out that the Golden Eagle was a pub known for its music and many famous bands of the time played there, but that isn't really a part of Swallow Street. Certainly, looking at the remaining pictures it looks as if it would have been a sexy art deco building, which it is a great pity is lost.

Idiots' Day

I can't believe it's taken me this long to think of a way to make dealing with idiots manageable and keep them in check so they don't dominate my life. I've started saving up idiots to deal with and when I'm forced to deal with one (for example if they ring me) I make a point of dealing with the ones I've been saving up at the same time.

So for example John Lewis (because what idiot sends a massive lorry to what is obviously a city centre flat during rush hour then is surprised when they can't park in the street?) just rang up and ended up very apologetic. When I put the phone down I went straight on and rang Sciensus and sent an email to the council* and got them all out of the way within about half an hour.

This contains the idiots and makes them more manageable. In fact my blood pressure is almost back to normal.

*Despite putting them on the idiots' list for cocking up my council tax I cannot remain permanently cross at Birmingham City Council because of the sheer annoyance they caused the gammons by using the pictured street names. I should say these names were chosen by the public to represent Birmingham values.