lifting platinum folderol

[pensnest]

Excellent interview on this morning's Today programme (Radio 4) with the Danish art dealer who exposed the 'stuff from British Museum being sold on eBay' scandal. I am not surprised that a Dane is so perfectly fluent in English (I know several Scandinavians+Finns who are), but he managed to throw delightful shade, in the most innocent-sounding way, at the Director and Deputy Director of the BM. "If I had trusted the leadership of the British Museum nothing would have been done" or something like it. Heh! Does the DD have 'abnormal duties or paranormal duties' from which he has not stepped back? Applause for that man. It's so nice to hear an interview with a not-politician, someone who can say what he thinks, and does.

*

Nice quiet weekend, much progress on the knitting, but we also spent a good deal of time shredding branches. It is amazing what a small pile of shreddings a large pile of branches can make. There are beginning to be fallen leaves on the grass now....

*

I now have a whole freezer drawer full of blackberries, either frozen whole or frozen slightly stewed. We picked *double* the usual quantity at our last picking, but I assume that will be the peak of the ripening season. Am contemplating swimming today, in the hope of getting some of the purple out of my fingernails.

*

turps sent me a delightful and unexpected little parcel a couple of days ago—her husband is a wood-turner and we talked, during Camp, about the possibility of making knitting bowls. Well, he has sent me his very first one, and it is most satisfactory! My existing bowl has a 'hockey stick' shape in it rather than a spiral, but James' spiral is definitely an improvement, and holds the yarn really well. Definitely a win!

* The children came round for lunch today, and afterward we played a couple of rounds of a neat little route-maker game whose name I cannot remember. Very pleasant.

Comments

[dine]

this update is just pleasant - I'm jealous of your blackberry wealth!

and how neat you got a cool knitting bowl. James does nice work, doesn't he?

[pensnest]

We let Bun and her Chap do some blackberry picking, in the expectation that they would like a crumble of their own, and there'd be plenty of berries available. They didn't crop all that many, intimidated I suspect by the holly and the bees!

This is the second James bowl I have, as he gave me one at Camp too. \o/ It is a very good knitting bowl.

[yarnofariadne]

I'm always so delighted to see the British Museum rightfully dragged in the press. I keep hoping the time will come for them to face some consequences for their appalling practices and inexcusably amateur caretaking.

Sounds like a lovely weekend!

[pensnest]

The British Museum has for so long been claiming that the Stuff We Stole is better cared for in the BM than anywhere else, and this just goes to show that they're good at pontificating about stuff but not doing it. High time they returned a Whole Bunch of things to their original homes—I mean, they can't display it all and apparently cannot even keep track of it. Dreadful.

Personally, I'd expect something called The British Museum to contain The History Of Britain, In Fascinating Detail. We have the V&A for Stuff We Stole, after all.

[yarnofariadne]

When I was doing my masters in museum studies I wrote a paper on all the unethical and unprofessional things the BM does and boy did my lecturer not like it, lol. They've even left off the loud claims of caring for things better than other institutions lately as it's become clear even to the untrained eye that objects on display (including, prominently, the Parthenon Marbles) are not being preserved adequately and are in fact sustaining permanent damage from their substandard and neglectful conservation practices. Not to even mention this latest embarrassment! Destroying AND losing things in their possession, refusing to respond to repatriation requests even when museums in France and the Netherlands and Germany and even other British museums are happy to comply because it's simply the right thing to do, sucking in millions in government funding and doing jack shit with it. It's inexcusable and unprofessional and I loathe them and I want to see them crumble. I doubt I'll get my wish but even just a crumb of justice would make me happy, lol.

Also meant to add I also would expect the British Museum to contain British history! It baffles me that the 'if we gave everything back we wouldn't have anything to display' argument persists. Surely they don't mean to imply there's nothing interesting about anything indigenous to the British Isles?

[pensnest]

We are definitely getting to (or well past) the point where we sometime colonials absolutely must give Stuff We Stole back. It's ridiculous. Frankly, I think I'd be more likely to go and look at those marbles in situ in Greece while on holiday than gawk at them in the British Museum.

Was your lecturer affiliated with the BM?

[yarnofariadne]

Not to my knowledge, but it's possible. At any rate, an old white English man seems invested in the BM's ethical viewpoint.

[frausorge]

Oh you will have a rich winter with all those berries!

Also, how cool to have a piece of James's work! The bowl sounds very useful.

[pensnest]

We shall be able to have blackberry crumble as an occasional treat for *months* (at the moment we have it about five days a week, which is awesome for now....

It is a jolly good knitting bowl, and works much better than the one I had. I think it's because James put a spiral into it for the wool, and the other pot has a hockey stick, which doesn't really hold the yarn.

[kat_lair]

Scandinavians+Finns - I would like to just express my appreciation for this correct distinction between the two groups, which I rarely see :D 'Nordics' covers all.

[pensnest]

There are various Danes and Finns who regularly attend Camp Sparkle, and a Swede and a Norwegian besides. So I know better! :-)

[turps]

It's so nice to hear an interview with a not-politician, someone who can say what he thinks, and does.

Sadly that seems to be a rare thing. Interviews with politicians tend to make me annoyed and frustrated as they never seem to answer questions.

I have blackberries picked from hedgerows in the fridge and I really need to do something with them asap.

I remain glad you liked the bowl. James is going to start a new one today keeping your comments in mind. They really were helpful.

[pensnest]

Blackberries need nothing more than being briefly cooked with a little sugar and served with ice-cream. Though I suspect they would be just as good uncooked, with the ice cream!

The more I use the bowl the more I am appreciating it. The spiral is just what is required, definitely better than the short hockey stick on my previous bowl. But the previous bowl is shinier, and knitters like shiny objects, so he might like to investigate methods of buffing it up. Or, maybe, decorate it with pyrographing a few knitting motifs! Sheep are always popular.

[adelate]

That reminded me of another British Museum thing where a translator hadn't been credited for her work in a Chinese exhibition, and it took an online campaign to get anything done about that.

Hooray James and the knitting bowl!

[pensnest]

I suspect there hasn't been a breath of fresh air in the British Museum for a very long time, and so the idea of *women*, horrors, and *foreigners*, eek, being treated decently is repugnant to them all. Pathetic.

[turlough]

I hadn't heard about the British Museum scandal before so I just read up about it and I have to confess to being quite shocked. A large, wellknown museum like the BM not having a proper catalogue of all the items in their care is just absurd! There must be A LOT wrong with their internal culture!

I'm so envious of your enormous blackberry harvest!

Your yarn bowl sounds delightful. James does great work!

[pensnest]

The whole situation is ridiculous. The BM seems to have an incredible amount of stuff which is just stashed away somewhere nobody cares about, and it's high time they learned to do better.

Blackberries ftw!

I'm really pleased with the yarn bowl. He does indeed!