Cold, overcast, not windy.
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Orwell Diaries 1938-1942 
(In London)
Hence, no egg count.
George~~
Who’s watching the store?
And who is watching George?
And who is George watching, if not the chickens?
It is at times such as these, when even anecdotal hearsay would be welcome.
Thursday Update:
In Geneva… The League of Nations, meeting in emergency debate, expels the Soviet Union after naming the USSR an aggressor in violation of treaties with Finland, the League Covenant and the Pact of Paris. The League also calls on its members to give all possible help to the Finns and agrees to coordinate international aid programs for the Finns..
In Berlin… Hitler order his Armed Forces High Command (OKW) to prepare plans for the invasion of Norway, code named Weserubung (Exercise Weber).
In the Winter War… The Finns continue a series of attacks on the Soviet 8th Army. Soviet forces launch a new drive near Petsamo.
In China… Chinese Nationalist forces occupy the town of Ningxian after a bitter clash with Chinese Communist forces.
In Mexico… The German liner Columbus (33,000 t) leaves Vera Cruz in an attempt to run home. The American cruiser Tuscaloosa shadows the ship, while on neutrality patrol, and broadcast its location on open radio.
Clarification: Yesterday, Thursday, the 14th.
Gone With the Wind premiered in Atlanta
Come home George and count the eggs.
1939 saw a flood of cinematic achievement.
Ninotchka being my favorite.
My father, in Toledo OH, was 18—I wonder what he thought of Greta Garbo. Or do I…..
I wonder what my grandfather thought about these goings-on in Argentina:
Since December 13th, the British Admiralty has been sending ships speeding to Montevideo. Only the heavy cruiser, Cumberland, has arrived so far to support the HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles, already on station at the mouth of the river. Local British diplomats try to have the Graf Spee held for a few more days until stronger forces arrive and at the same time continue to give the impression that heavy units, including the battle cruiser, Renown, are already in position. Langsdorff decides to scuttle his ship outside the port with an audience of thousands lining the waterfront.
I miss him. Already.
him and the eggs.
I’m pretty sure — nay, I hope — JL1st would have been more aware of Greta Garbo than the fate of the Graf Spee. Still, the story of the Graf Spee is pretty interesting.
Come back George. I’m worried about the chickens.
I don’t know why it took me so long to realize it: JL1st is looking after George’s chickens!
This being Tuesday, I know, deep in my bones, that during these desperately arid interludes Blair is most likely on a covert mission for King George VI — a mission which, one might surmise, may be a logical outgrowth of certain redacted mysterious Marrakesh moments involving a certain jackal skull.
Is it possible that Blair is recording an extended, schizophrenic hallucination? Yes. You thought it was real there for a minute, didn’t you — his prose is that convincing.
Tension is excruciating. I hate to think of those overflowing egg nests!
Unless the accursed interfering busybody Titley is looking after things.
Excellent point! Are the hens being well-filled with Full-O-Pep?
I choose to presume that Mr. Blair weighed the poultry before he left, so that he could make a comparison upon his return.
Thursday, December 21, 1939:
From Berlin… Hitler sends greetings to Stalin on his 60th birthday. The telegram reads: "To Joseph Stalin: Best wishes for your personal well-being as well as for the prosperous future of the peoples of the friendly Soviet Union. Adolf Hitler."
From Moscow… Stalin responds to the message sent by Hitler: "To the Chancellor of the German Reich, A Hitler. The friendship of the peoples of Germany and the Soviet Union, cemented by blood, has every reason to be lasting and firm."
Yes, and weighed the Ful-o-Pep. Titley’s hens will be looking very full of pep no doubt.
Prolegomenon of time of the commuters –
stage directions
Weather :
Cold & ovecast days.
Icy nights.
Morning frog & frost risk
Location : Not at home
Inner-city in a railway station
or countryside, airport terminal
Lot of people wait.
They are concerned toughly about their own immediate future.
A technocrat say :
Warning !
The flows are out of control !
A other technocrat repeat louder :
The flows are out of control !
Dear George…where are you?
There is evidence that the tension is mounting at a feverish pace. Rumor has it that heads have begun exploding. The wormhole is poised, threatening to retreat upon itself in an instinctive desire to preserve humanity.
Plants may remain immobile
the dirt remain undisturbed
but the jackal is unperturbed
by the camera in his eye
Just been to the supermarket in the UK here and bought 18 eggs for £3.99 which makes each egg cost 22 pence each.
In George’s money that is 4 shillings and 5d each, 79 shillings and 10d in total.
Wait. If he sells a score for 4/2 on 6/12/39, is that 4 shillings 2d? For 20? And they sell for 4/5 per egg today? That’s astonishing. Do you have this information in more understandable units for foreigners, such as degrees fahrenheit or miles?
@JamesonLewis3rd
What you wrote is great !
I couldn’t resist to translate :
Tension excessivement haute.
On dit que l’élite a implosé.
Le vers est dans le fruit.
Le pire serait qu’il se rétracte
Afin de préserver par réflexe
L’humanité défaillante.
Les usines peuvent s’arrêter
La poussière recouvrira tout
Le chacal demeure imperturbable
La caméra vissée à l’oeil.
Thanks !
Gilles Mioni~~
I am honored, flattered and humbled. Thank you.
~~~~~
A Finnish counterattack on the Karelian Isthmus is sharply rebuffed. The Finns suffer about 1500 casualties and call off the attack at nightfall. A stalemate ensues.
Meanwhile, I am nearly overcome with a debilitating form of melancholia as I cling with desperate affection to the immortal sentence, “Cold, overcast, not windy.”
Every war is cruel to children. That day, very sad, was created in Finland
organization to remove children from Finland to other Nordic countries.
80000 of them will be transferred mainly in Sweden and Norway.
Their lives will be made terribly difficult.
Blair as every sensible people could suffer a form of melancholia.
Cold, overcast, not windy.
Characteristic of a winter day particularly despairing.
More on this page :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_war_children
Yes, but “not windy” is a good thing; though with an admittedly negative spin as opposed to, for instance, “calm.”
I can almost hear the parenthetical “at the moment” as an aside.
Meanwhile, in London, December began with mild and changeable weather. On the 1st, the temperature rose close to 13°C, and on the 8th, nearly 9mm of rain fell. During the second week it became more settled and the days before Christmas were often grey and cold. It was foggy at times during the holiday period, but after Christmas it became very cold with occasional snow. On the 28th, the temperature failed to rise above 0.3°C, and there were some sharp overnight frosts.
While, today, Sunday, In the Argentina… After blazing for a week, the hulk of the German pocket battleship, Graf Spee, burns out.
Merry Christmas!
King George VI broadcasts a Christmas message to the Empire: “A New Year is at hand. We cannot tell what it will bring. If it brings peace, how thankful we shall all be. If it brings us continued struggle, we shall remain undaunted.”
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