It cannot have escaped your attention that that ‘It is the most wonderful time of the year’ is a message that you will have heard many times in recent, and perhaps not so recent, days. If Coco have understood that message it involves families and more specifically the love that there is within families despite the hurt that we can and do inflict upon each other from time to time: as it is said – love bears all things.
Continue readingEuthanised
Coco has no wish to pass judgement, and he hopes that there is no sense of that in the following, but the circumstances of the disappearance and subsequent demise of the squirrel afford an opportunity for a couple of comments.
Continue readingLipedema
Sometimes it is hard to obtain a list of the things that can go wrong after or during surgery, though best practice dictates that patients should be provided with full information in order that they may give informed consent to the intervention – it occurs to Coco that perhaps the insurance standard of the utmost good faith should be applied to the contract – but at the ITALF 2024 conference held in the auditorium at the Atheneum Pontificium Regina Apostolorum in Rome we were presented with such a list,
Continue readingLockdown (too)
The following post may provoke a response from the censers(sic!), and a lockdown which is far from useless, though perhaps needless, may be imposed here, after which you shall be glad never to hear from me again.
What do you think of what was orated by the Lord Hannan of Kingsclere?
The story about the people of Ohio is quite entertaining..
Continue readingLuther’s wisdom
It was an interesting discussion about the place of Luther in European and in particular German history, and his continuing influence that prompted me to write, for whilst the conversation was informative, offering perhaps a different perspective than you would be given by an O-level syllabus, there appeared to be a contradiction in it. You may want to listen, or watch for yourself, to judge the matter more carefully
Martin Luther: The Man Who Changed The World from The Rest is History where Tom and Dominic (who?) talk about the man whom we cannot forget.
Continue readingILF 2025
The International Lymphoedema Framework have announced their 12th conference to be held at Niagara Falls in 2025. The conference which is co-hosted by the Canadian Lymphedema Framework and supported by the International Lipodema Association should prove to be as interesting, informative, intense and instructive as the ever.
Famine in Africa
Digging riverbeds to find water
The article posted by the BBC Digging riverbeds in Zimbabwe in desperate search for water reminds us of the dire famine in much of south central Africa. The Zimbabwe Partnership Trust has for several years supported communities in Zimbabwe including by financing the drilling of bore-holes to provide water for agricultural projects and schools in remote regions. ZPT is focussed this year very much on the relief of famine in those communities where it has been working through trusted local partners.
Would not go away
As the heat of summer parched the land
The river flowed on towards the sea
Which drank with gladness from its hand
The cool water of austerity
The waters moved, the waves did break
The tide ebbed to and fro
But naught availed the rock stood firm
He would not go away.
As the leaves of autumn slowly fell
The river flowed full flush with glee.
The flowers on the ground knew very well
Winter’s cold would follow in the lee.
The waters moved, the waves did break
The tide ebbed to and fro
But naught availed ‘gainst winter’s might
He would not go away.
Then spring again o’er the earth shall fling.
As rivers flow the earth to heal,
A verdure green, so birds on the wing
Shall delight in all of spring time’s weal.
The waters moved, the waves did break
The tide ebbed to and fro
But naught availed, though earth did melt
He would not go away.
Then summer’s sun at the last shall come.
The fields in refulgent pulchritude
Shall flourish towards the harvest home
When dawns the day to which we allude.
The waters moved, the waves did crash
The tide ebbed in the bay
So all availed, we wear a sash
For you, it is your day

The 5/7 alternative minuet
- Late Rococo minuet to the music of Luigi Boccherini
- Minuet from Quintet E Major
- Choreography of Helena Kazárová based on the
- Minuet de la Cour of M. Gardel.
- Dancers: Barbora Dastychová and Miroslav Stehlík
- Hartig Ensemble, Prague, Czech Republic.
- Sedláček´s Quartett. Recorded at the Martinů Hall in Prague, October 2012.
Credits:
Source video: https://www.youtube.com/@HelenaKazarova
Music: Luigi Boccherini
Bowdlerisation etc: Coco
Audio: Scored by Noteworthy and encoded by TiMidity++
Video encoding: by Powerpoint
Copyright Stuart Moffatt © 2023
☺ With apologies for errors of syntax, orthography, grammar, harmony and counterpoint which may be found embedded in this document whether arising from oversight, incorrect application of language packs or generally any other misadventure; and in general for any offence given inadvertently or inappropriately or both taken or not taken by those whose sensibilities, whether grammatical, orthographical, moral, musical or simply personable, have been offended whether, not or if you have not incorrectly misunderstood the content, intent, meaning and purpose of this article, and to those whose copyrights may have been inadvertently or wantonly infringed, but never as to cause damage the copy holder’s rights, and, if you have managed to read this far, for any errors or omissions whether wilful, unintended, innocent or deliberate in the content of this polemic, and with thanks to you who have made it thus far for your patience.
Other versions of the dance are included here for string::
for flute and mandolin – not Coco’s:
Rosalind Franklin
Congratulations to those who were recognised today by the Rosalind Franklin Society (LinkedIn and FB) among whom you will find the Professor Christine Moffatt
RFS Awards in Science Recognize Outstanding Contributions from Women and Minorities
https://www.rosalindfranklinsociety.org/rfs-awards-in-science-2023
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