Bad and Superbad

Bad and Superbad

or

Irony Byrony What does it matter as long as you love your sister.


The inspiration for the first title was the idea of Nietzsche suffering a cold. The second came from Freud. Incidentally, Goethe believed that this style could not be rendered in German. After all Bismarck was never called the Irony Chancellor. It is in the form of letter to his friend Thomas Moore, the Irish Poet and Lyricist by Lord Byron. This letter was lost for almost 200 years, until his Lordship was kind enough to inspire the hand of Moore's descendent, John Moore. Following this inspiration, the latter assumed the title Don Juan el Moro. He awaits further calls from his muse in his grave at Hucknall for his services as amanuensis .

Bad and Superbad

Dear Thomas

I have taken to writing to you often, and with vigour, as you are most outstanding man of letters of the era bar one. Aside from the greatest poet hero of age, you alone have the edge to cut like the flashing blade of a Scythian chariot, and the burnished reputation to shield you from our hero’s reflection as when Perseus pursued Medusa.

Indeed there are those among the fair when alone,
who metamorphose, not to cold stone,
by the agence of the Gorgon’s snakes,
but to the quivering vibrating shakes
that look to all the world like rapture jelly
as she dreams of our hero’s serpent in her belly.

Last Shrove’s Bacchanal was of a particular fine vintage, although the custom of masque seems wouldst seem to dull a lady’s pleasure in my company. Although I might quaff a bushel I would certainly never hide my light under it.

I encountered within the midnight hour,
as doe eyed a houri as ere sat in a bower.
Although her don was of a great estate,
her desire for pleasure he n’er could slake.
I, her Apollo did seduce her with my lyre.
By half one I was lying by her.
Her skin was brown; her lips both full and soft.
By two was George’s proud English lance aloft
Oh how strange the ways of the east,
as I stoked her hair, she swallowed the beast.
But then delight! Her sister, a Sapphist by repute,
who strummed on languid and lascivious lute,
her inclinations shown only by her dungarees.
Soon removed in a voluptuous striptease.
Shapely as a nymph, she was no dyke this woman,
and did surpass her skill on lute, with tunes on Gordon’s organ
As one steed fades, so the rider takes another saddle.
By the break of dawn could our hero scarce waddle.

After pleasuring the pair with such rigour,
they took to water to revive proud George’s vigour.
Two hour’s natation at the Lido,
did the trick for his libido.
Returning the kindnesses of the dusky donnas,
did with his purple striped pole propel their gondolas.

As their boats did heave upon the lagoon,
our heroines at last did cry and swoon.

After a month a sadder George did realise,
that it is always folly and never wise,
to have one night of unbridled Venus,
and a year of Mercury in your ....

Please forgive me if my rhyming skills desert me there, Tommy, as I am feeling a painful tingling sensation. By the way who is the Minstrel Boy? Why did he go to war in the first place? Give my love to my daughter, but not in the same way as I gave to her auntie. Apparently she is showing unhealthy interest in horse racing and computational techniques. At two, this is to be severely discouraged. (She gets it from her mother, the Princess of Parallelograms, you know).

No good will ever come from computation. It can only erode the creative imagination. People who do that sort of thing will start believing that one dimensional fantasy characters:

Wizards, elves dwarves etc on some mythic quest constitute literature,
And if you state as much you show what a twit you are

Please see to it that my daughter’s reading material, is improving her wisdom and character. Personally I recommend your good self, Wycherley and Pope, (Alexander that is, not the infallible one from the Hitler youth). Under no account should she be allowed to read Wet Willy or his Dottie sister.

Incidentally if that descendant of yours again dares to parody me,
I shall box his ears in hell, with Old Nick as referee.


Incidentally, would you hurry to tap John Murray for an advance. He is making a mint out of me. And do make sure you get the right John Murray this time, the publisher. I am sure that the Middlesex wicket-keeper was most disconcerted when you asked if I might approach him. He kept looking over his shoulder all through the afternoon session. I was sure he was wearing his abdominal protector back to front. He ended up suffering an attack of Dropsy. Six toes Titmus was unimpressed. I was something of a cricketer in my time. My ability to swing both ways was legendary. I helped set up the Eton vs Harrow fixture at Lord's, mostly in the hope of meeting other young men of sound education and burgeoning physique. I was most flattered that the county side based there, took its name from my reputation.

Your humble and suffering servant

John Moore

alias

George Noel Gordon Byron

6th Baron of Rochdale

Tuesday, 19 February 2008

"Every girl crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man" - ZZ Top



I return home from Cuba, and what happens? Fidel decides to retire. I swear that I had no influence on him. I wish him a happy retirement. Perhaps Cuba will open up a bit for business now, but please no Starbucks, Wendy's or MacDonald's. They make travel pointless, and once you have Starbucks, you can't get a decent cup of coffee, anywhere.

And who the hell wants a blueberry muffin anyway?

Why don't anti globalisation protesters attack Starbucks in preference to MacDonald's, smashing the windows with day old muffins. At least when I have been in a MacDonald's I have enjoyed what I was eating, even if it did me no good. I can't say the same of my two visits to Starbucks.

Amersham Tesco's used to have a wonderful cheap and cheerful all day British Breakfast Greasy Spoon cafeteria, full of nice customers who weren't too rich or too bent on proving that they as a woman can be every bit as nasty, pushy and unpleasant as a man. Now it's got a Starbucks.

Cuba has a lot going for it:

1. Its people who are even nicer than the British back in the 40s and 50s when the latter had just fought off Nazism and were justifiably proud of it.

2. Its gorgeous weather in Winter.

3. Its Spanish Colonial Architecture.

4. Its defiance of the US desire to dominate and make everyone a buyer of its products and culture.

5. The literary heritage of exiles like Graham Greene and Ernest Hemingway.

6. The warm waters of its coast.

7. Its education.

8. Its healthcare

9. The government's encouragement of the arts, and their vitality.

10. Its people get a boringly healthy diet.

11. It is the world's greatest open-air automotive museum full of working models.

12. It has no Starbucks.

Viva la Cuba Libre

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