Coldspur

I have recovered enough to spend time adding Commonplace entries, and further examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. (March 6, 2010)

I have had to suspend any updates to the site for a while, owing to acute tendinitis in my neck and shoulder. (February 10, 2010)

Final Commonplace entries for 2009 have been posted. Happy New Year! (January 10, 2010)

I had another ‘Listener’ puzzle published in the (London) Times of December 5th – entitled ‘Resident’. I have also updated the sorted lists of the Top 400 (actually 396) tracks. You will find selections there for every year from 1957 to 2009, apart from 1992 and 1998. What was wrong with those years? Any suggestions? (December 16, 2009)

In this month’s (partial) Commonplace entries, readers will notice some passages taken from the two volumes of autobiography by Kenneth Clark (Lord Clark of ‘Civilization’), which I read at the beginning of this month. These volumes were predictably urbane and agreeable, but also notable by virtue of the vast number of ‘dearest and closest friends’ that Clark admitted to having. Indeed, one might say that his convivial existence makes that of Lord Weidenfeld look like a hermit’s. Maybe also predictably, many of these friends turn out to be prize bores, from whom other guests at Saltwood Castle have to be protected . Clark is also very discreet about the sickness from which his beloved wife ails, and which consumes him very tenderly in her dying days. By inspecting Clark’s biographical entry in the Oxford Dictionary of Biography, I was able to learn that she was an alcoholic – something he was clearly reluctant to admit in the 1970s. I also discovered that, at Clark’s memorial service, attendees were astonished to learn that Clark had become a Catholic shortly before he died. I know that I could never live with myself were I to undergo a deathbed conversion to Catholicism. So, on that note, I shall wish all my most loyal and closest readers the compliments of the season, as I am off to Maui for three weeks, and shall not be able to update the website until mid-January. (December 16, 2009)

I have added the monthly updates to my Commonplace book, and a couple more examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. I regret I have still not succeeded in re-designing the website. One avenue of opportunity turned out to be unproductive, and I have an obstinate reluctance to go back to ‘FrontPage for Dummies’. I have added several new items to the Playlists of Top Tracks (which brings the total close to the very tidy number of 400), but have not updated the full sorted indices yet. (November 30, 2009)

An update to my query about the bawdy piece attributed to Byron appears in the ‘From My Library’ section, and can be accessed directly by this link: AmblerWaughByron. The customary Commonplace updates have been added, as well as a few more Hyperbolic Contrast examples. (October 31, 2009)

This month includes a new entry ‘From My Library’. It concerns a mystery piece of verse encountered in the works of Alec Waugh and Eric Ambler, and can be found here. (Warning: this should not to be viewed by the especially sensitive or puritanical surfer.) I also add a month’s new Commonplace entries, and a few more examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. (October 1, 2009)

The Kaufmann piece is almost finished. Another month of Commonplace entries, as well as a few more examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. I also present a special anniversary crossword  (Sexagesimal) designed for my brother, who will be sixty years old later this month. It is, however appropriate for anybody celebrating that particular birthday. (September 1, 2009)

Yet another month. No progress on the website. (Action promised when my Kaufmann biographical piece is finished). Another set of Commonplace entries.  (August 1, 2009)

And another month – spent largely abroad. Another set of Commonplace entries. (July 1, 2009)

Another month passes; another month of Commonplace entries and a few more examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. (May 31, 2009)

The Wilmington Star-News published today my Op-Ed piece on the notorious Beach Plan. Unfortunately it is not available at the newspaper’s website. (May 27, 2009)

A repeat of the previous month: just new Commonplace Entries, and a few more examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. More news on the Top 360 tracks (for that is what they have become) soon. (May 1, 2009)

 I have added Commonplace Entries for March 2009, as well as some new examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. Not much action otherwise, as March has been a busy month. (April 1, 2009)

I have added Commonplace Entries for February 2009, as well as some new examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. (March 1, 2009)

After a gap of over twenty years, I have resumed my efforts at professional crossword compilation, and a Listener crossword of mine will be published in tomorrow’s Times of London (February 21st). The title – At Arm’s Length. (February 20, 2009)

The Beach Plan! For those of you interested in analysis of the latest goings-on concerning the notorious Beach Plan, please click here IntroToInsuranceWindstorm  to read more about the report from the John Locke Foundation, and my response to its author. (January 24, 2009)

I see Tottenham Hotspur has a goalkeeper named Ben Alnwick playing for the side. Is that his real name? But whom else could he play for? (January 21, 2009)

The John Locke Foundation has published a report on the notorious North Carolina Beach Plan (see notes below, and under Articles, Reports), which can be found athttp://www.johnlocke.org/policy_reports/display_story.html?id=191.  While this report sheds some bright light on some of the financial structures of the insurance industry, my opinion is that it raises more questions than it answers (e.g. what has Wayne Goodwin’s role been in all this? what exactly are ‘coastal counties’, why have rates increased while the Beach plan has monopolized Wind and Hail business, but liabilities apparently increased even more?) and I am a little disappointed in it. I intend to contact the report’s author (with whom I was in contact before the report came out), as soon as I have time to get round to it. (January 16, 2009)

After a month’s abeyance, I have returned to update the site with Commonplace entries for December, and a few more examples of Hyperbolic Contrast. I wish a happy 2009 to all visitors! (December 31, 2008)

I am pleased to report that my web hoster has restored access for that set of IP addresses in the UK that were suspected of launching attacks on the site. I have also added the remaining Book Reviews to that section. And this site now appears as the seventh in importance in a Google search for ‘coldspur’. What a Thanksgiving! (November 26, 2008)

I have added two years’ worth of Book Reviews from the State Port Pilot. The remainder will be added over the next few weeks. And Google has started to reflect this site in its search engine – not comprehensively, yet, but it is a start! (November 25, 2008)

I have added tables that present the Top Tracks in various sequences, for ease of inspection. I have added a document that displays my running record of instances of Hyperbolic Contrast (see under Articles, Reports), improved the Mencken Chart (thanks, Bill!), and added some comments to that page.   (November 23, 2008)

I have added a brief historical essay under Articles, Reports, and cleaned up the Playlists, which contained several errors, duplications, etc. I have also added a Playlist P, which brings the total to a temporary ugly number of 320 tracks. These may be weeded back, but more probably augmented in time to a round 360. I shall have an update on site unavailability early next week; meanwhile, any UK-based visitor who has been able to get here is encouraged to contact me! (November 22, 2008)

I apologize to my mass of UK-based visitors. The site has been unavailable for about ten days now, with inexplicable time-outs occurring. My web hoster has been unable to fix the problem. As I emailed him today: “I didn’t realize that, in the borderless world of 2008, accessibility to a site from all corners of the world had to be monitored by the site creator, relying on his or her intimate acquaintance and contact with individuals in all countries, and on the goodwill of those personnel, who may not be technically savvy, in agreeing to determine their IP addresses (which may not be readily available, especially if those individuals are accessing the Internet from inside security-conscious institutions), and taking the time to document their attempts at access in order for the provider even to investigate the reported problem.” Please email me as soon as you see this message! (November 19, 2008)

I have also been frustrated in my attempts to get Google to add the contents of my site to its indices.  Google has not been able to report any problems with my site, but appears to favo(u)r sites that are directly linked to from other sites. To quote: “Your site is new and has few links to it. (Googlebot crawls the web by following links from one page to another, so if your site isn’t well linked, it may be hard for us to discover it.)”   But if other webmasters can find my site only through search engines such as Google, this sounds like a self-fulfilling prophesy.  And I know that my site contains unique content not found anywhere else on the Web (such as the Mencken Chart.). Maybe if I submit something called a Site-Map, it will help. (November 19, 2008)

I have modified the table spaces used as areas for displaying documents. These should be much more easily read by all browsers, now, I believe. As always, I shall appreciate feedback.    (November 19, 2008)

One of my objectives in putting up this site was for information to be made available via search engines. It has now been up a week, but Google (and the other major engines) still seem unaware of it. I have informed Google of my dissatisfaction, giving it the url to add to its spider list, but I am still waiting. Google has got this Yahoo business, and the lawsuit, out of its hair, so why doesn’t it get back to basics? A week? This is 2008, brothers! (Or do I have to pay them?!)    (November 12, 2008)

I have started some improvement work, as astute visitors will have realized. Better colo(u)rs, and I have started to make the documents appear in narrower frames. Unfortunately, the site has been unavailable – in the UK, only, it seems – during the past twenty-fours. I continue to monitor the situation. (November 12, 2008)

Apologies! Along with some early visitors to the site, I have realized that some browsers do not display documents in the same way as they appeared in the development environment, and that the process by which some documents were imported from other sources (and automatically transformed) has affected pagination, and thus made viewing difficult. I shall look into these problems. (November 5, 2008)

This is not going to be a blog, but did McCain’s chances disappear when the Pentecostalist Poppet opened her mouth to the American people? (November 5, 2008)

I draw the attention of residents/homeowners in the coastal areas of North Carolina to my report on the infamous Beach Plan, the insurance plan offered by the NCIUA, a monopolistic body of insurance companies administered by the North Carolina Department of Insurance to provide conventional homeowners’ insurance bundled with Wind and Hail coverage. Please find my report under ‘Articles, Reports’, or via this link ‘Windstorm’.  In yesterday’s election, the position of Insurance Commissioner was won by the Democrat Wayne Goodwin, who was the deputy to the previous incumbent, Jim Long, and who will very probably continue the policies of his predecessor.  Bonner Stiller, my local (Brunswick County) State Representative, did indicate to me that he would take up the issue of ‘bundled’ insurance services in the new legislature. Interested readers should apply pressure to both these gentlemen (or their own Representatives) to restore a competitive market for homeowners’ insurance, and thus reduce prices for those whose risks are lower.  (November 5, 2008)

I have been commissioned to write, for a renowned biographical dictionary, an entry for Gordon Kaufmann, the famous Anglo-American architect, designer of the Hoover Dam and the Los Angeles Times building, among many famous edifices. Kaufmann, who was born in Forest Hill, London in 1888, and died in Los Angeles in 1949, was a somewhat enigmatic figure, and I am very keen to hear from any of his descendants, and from anybody who knows more about Kaufmann’s life. He was married twice: to Eva McFarland in Canada, and to Elsie Bryant. He and Eva had a son (Kenneth McFarland) and a daughter (Cecil). Kenneth died in Ventura, CA in 1977, while Eva died in 1974 in Los Angeles, as Mrs. Thomas E. Dawson. I should very much like to hear from anyone who knows whether they had any offspring, or even from their descendants themselves. Gordon Kaufmann had a younger brother, Harold, who changed his name to ‘Kay’ during the First World War, and may have lived in Sussex (England) thereafter. Likewise, I should be very interested in information about his life, as well as their father’s. The father, Gustav, was given as living in Littlestone, Kent, on Gordon’s immigration records to the USA. Please contact me at antonypercy@aol.com with any information. (October 20, 2008)