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Paolo Nutini - Pop Music from Scotland

Just when I thought I'd irredeemably lost contact with what people under 20 are listening to, I focussed on Paolo Nutini, a 19 year old Scottish pop singer.

And was caught by his introspective, contemplative and self-absorbed music - somewhat folk in style and seductive in his Marlon Brando mumbling delivery that (curiously) seems to amplify the meanings of the words.

He's charting platinum at the moment ... and I particularly like 'Last Request'. Which is beautiful for the text as much as the music.

Hope you like it guys.

Florian Nemec - Yet Another Blond Hungarian Export

Florina's (dark) blond and has (for me) the perfect face and body. Not sure there's much else to say!

Cept, I just love the way he not-so-casually lolls back, and his dick and balls roll over his thigh towards the camera ...


And then when he sits up and it 'sits up' ...


... and his big balls nestle down into his crotch, and his dick falls slightly to one side ...


I'm speechless (or something!) ...


... and again ...



... and yet again (in fact, most speechless this time) ...


Now how could the back be (almost) as incredible as the front - well, there it is!


Love this last shot - as though Florian's saying 'Okay, I've done my business for you guys ...


... so I'll just be putting my jeans back on ... and going off'!

Socially Constructed Medicines

Lloyd's Cocaine Toothache Drops (c1885)

Part of the folk-law you pick up as a teenager, and often at university if you go, is that Coca Cola originally and up to 1906 contained small (I guess) amounts of cocaine - no surprises it gave a nice little lift to your day!

And, like probably most of us, I knew that cocaine and opium had been systematically included as ingredients in the large-scale manufacture of medicines since the C18 (and of course probably long before the industrial revolution). One medicine that jumped out at me in late C18 and early C19 novels is as the opium-based laudanum, used as a painkiller.

But I was not aware of the spectrum of uses to which these remedies were put - till today when I was browsing the website of the Addiction Research Unit at the Department of Psychology, University of Buffalo.

Cocaine was used in three distinct ways.

Firstly, as a topical anesthetic such in toothache powders (above) and sore throat lozenges ...

A Belguim Pharmacy's Throat Lozenge (c1900)

... as a catarrh medicine for relieving head and chest congestion - and in this context even for sea sickness, as claimed by Bullard and Shedd for their coca wine ...

Bullard and Shedd, Coca Wine

... and as a medicinal 'tonic' with numerous and wide-ranging benefits ....


With such products attracting rather august endorsement, like this one by Pope Leo XIII ...


Opium and heroin were even more widely used than cocaine in medicines.

As well as being useful in the treatment of dysentery and the relief of pain, these were given for sleeplessness and restlessness, even in children ...

Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup (1887)

... for asthma ...

... and even for coughs ...

While not wanting to get bogged down in a tedious debate about why certain substances are constructed at particular times as 'medicines' and at others as 'drugs', it's just interesting to observe that these categories are not as absolute and fixed as we would like have to have them.

Soon they'll be telling us the smoking and alcohol are not beneficial for our health!

Anyone One Feeling in a Sherlock Holmes-ish Mood?

I think it's the hot hot hot (did I say it enough times?!) diffuse trail ...


... as much as the almost Hugh Grant-ish shy cuteness (but in a good way!) that's got me seriously focussed on this guy.

So, everyone/anyone, I need any help you could give to track down a name which would lead to googling more images which would lead to a hot hot hot post!

Any ideas?

Bailey Does His Special Thing on 'Letterman'

Now this is very sweet and (for me at least) very funny - so we'll have no 'Comments' about the 'low' nature of my sense of humour!

It involves the canine Bailey and his unnamed (Chris Evans-ish) side-kick ...


Here we go then ...

Okay, nice 'Comments' are now required!

Carl Field - Blond, Seriously Blokey and Kinda Cute

Carl Field is one of those guys who manages that delicate balance - looking real blokey and at the same time kinda cutesy. Not at all an easy thing to carry off.


Could all be in the grungy less-than-designer stubble ...


... and the freckles ...


... who would really know!


Carl does 'bath' better than most ...


... and this is where cutesy seems in the ascendancy ...


Whatever, I'd be happy to yank him out of the water and drag him to the bedroom - and root him and root him. And root him again.

How bout you?


From the look of that big firm fleshy butt, I reckon it wouldn't at all be a bumpy ride!

Yet Another (Small) Dose of Levity

LOL!

Self-deprecation is the best form of antidote!

Check Your General Intelligence

To test your general I Q, answer the five questions below.

Try to answer each spontaneously - and then check the answers below.

So here we go ...

[1] You are participating in a race. You overtake the second person. What position are you then in?

[2] What's your position if you overtake the last position?

[3] Take 1000 and add 40to it. Now add another 1000. Now add 30.Add another 1000. Now add 20. Now add another 1000. Now add 10. What is the total?

[4] Mary's father has five daughters - Nana, Nene, Nini, Nono and (what's the name of the fifth daughter)?

[5] A mute person goes into a shop and wants to buy a toothbrush. By Imitating the action of brushing his teeth, he successfully indicates to the shopkeeper what he wants and the purchase is done. Next a blind person comes into the shop - he wants a pair of sunglasses. How does he indicate this to the shopkeeper?

Answers to questions ...

1. Not the first position - if you overtake the second person, you are the new second placer.
2. Not the second last person - there's no position from which to overtake the last position!
3. The answer is not 5000 - it's 4100. Check with a calculator.
4. Not Nunu. Mary!
5. He asks - he's not mute!

How's your self-esteem going?

E M Forster (1879-1970) - Triumph over The Self

There are few people who really influence your life and in major ways.

For me, E M Forster was one, and perhaps the most important.

And I acknowledge this to myself each time I re-read one his novels or the P N Furness biography 'E M Forster: A Life' or 'Selected Letters of E M Forster' edited with Mary Lago.

I think the real base of my deep deep admiration is that the author fought through, and overcame to a such great extent, extraordinary personal inadequacies. He was cripplingly shy, overly-sensitive to a degree that was pathological, and tyrannically dominated all his life by his mother Lily. The cloyingly prim and intellectually restricted middle-class Weybridge society of his childhood and youth, and being gay in the last part of the C19 didn't help matters.

What inspired/inspires me was Forster's ability to see outside his small self into a larger world and take the steps needed to make a bigger life than would ever have been expected.

A powerful intellect and Cambridge University helped.

Forster at the time of being a student at Cambridge University

But then and most importantly Forster enlarged himself and his outlook by traveling and working in Egypt and India.

Forster in Mahratta turban

Forster (5th from left) in the courtyard of the Palace of Dewas with the Maharaja (3rd from left) - Forster worked as the Maharaja's secretary

And by over-coming extreme reticence and apprehension when chance offers itself - as in his meeting with an Egyptian tram ticket collector in Alexandria - Mohammed el Adl. This (first real) sexual encounter developed into a relationship which bridged cultural and class barriers - without being patronising. And such was Forster's sense of personal loyalty that he kept in touch with and helped Mohammed till the Egyptian's early death.

Mohammed el Adl, Alexandria, Egypt

I sometimes wonder how my own life would have been if I hadn't encounter E M Forster. And determined to embrace opportunities thrown up by chance and make larger things happen.

I probably wouldn't have delayed going to university to travel through Europe, the Middle East and Asia for an extraordinary 4 years.

Or gone to live and work in China for a year at Beda (Beijing University). And broadcast on CCTV.

Or unexpectedly extended our month traveling in 2003 to nearly seven.

Or ... or ... or ... .

What an absolutely wonderful legacy - just for one person!

Have you guys had any 'guiding forces' in your lives?

Solution to Unwanted Phone Calls

You know sometimes when the matriarch calls and you're just not in the mood for a long yaketty-yak-yak-yak. No judgment - simply a not-in-the-mood situation.

Well, this French guy has found a pretty ideal compromise!













Well?

BTW, if that's not the most perfect lollypop pink dick you've ever clapped eyes (let lone mouth) on, I'll want to know what!

Postscript

This is a link for this video - I've uploaded it to share at Badonogo:

http://www.badongo.com/vid/1125032

Enjoy!