Friday 8 October 2010

Duffer!

I'm still enjoying and hating Duff Cooper's diaries. He has an unfortunate habit of abandoning it for the most important years - such as 1939-1944, when he's a minister in the wartime cabinet. To his credit, he resigned from government in 38-38 in protest against Chamberlain's appeasement.

To his debit, he's a cold and snobbish individual. I particularly appreciated this laconic entry:

There are continual distractions. We went to Breccles for the weekend. Just before luncheon the butler blew his brains out which was rather depressing. We came back to London in the afternoon. 

2 comments:

Joe said...

Voley;

What do you make of John Lennon's 'Imagine' being incorporated into the Google logo for his seventieth birthday? Noble sentiment? Crass betrayal of the song's values?

Note how the 'no relgions too' verse doesn't appear in the video/audio clip.

I'd provide a link to the Google homepage, but that would be plain silly.

- Joe, reader of Bloggs.

The Plashing Vole said...

Well, my first instinct is to revile Google for such a cynical move - and a dishonest one, given the censorship.

Then I remember that Lennon himself was a cynic in the worst possible way - singing about love and joy while voting Tory because he didn't like paying tax. Nobody's consistent with their own principles, but Lennon was more hypocritical than most.

The sentiments in the song are largely admirable, but they're being sung by a hard and dishonest multimillionaire.

So Lennon and Google are ideally suited.