Annotations and comments

Gerald Berg has posted 413 annotations/comments since 4 March 2013.

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Second Reading

About Wednesday 12 September 1660

Gerald Berg  •  Link

"Against" I read this as Tom comes for some books for young John. Sam gives Tom one book for John and some cash to help Dad buy the others for John as Sam wished to keep his own copies. As to how many books one angel will buy I cannot say. Nor whether this was a generous or miserly effort on Sam's part.

About Wednesday 5 September 1660

Gerald Berg  •  Link

So Liz is a little impatient eh? With whom and about what? I think she knows Sam better than he knows himself. Buys her pearls! If she can't read this for what it is -- a guilty conscience that he can't recognise in himself -- she is herself is a "nulla puella negat". I wonder how happy the household will be over the next while?

About Tuesday 7 August 1660

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Yesterday people were wondering what Sam might of meant by being a little impatient with Liz's condition. Today he pays a visit in hope to find Jane. Wonder no more!

About Thursday 19 July 1660

Gerald Berg  •  Link

On a more prosaic note. I wonder at how people arrange things for meeting up? Here is Liz going shopping with Pepy's old man. When was this planned? Pepys saw Ma yesterday but Dad wasn't there and up to that point he had been avoiding him at all pains. I recall an anthropology course I took where the idea of meeting some tribal associate sometime in the future was discussed. The window of time would most probably be measured in days. My wife tells me that text messaging's most important feature is to allow the excuse for being late the only prompt item on the agenda. Strangers in a strange land!

About Sunday 15 July 1660

Gerald Berg  •  Link

I think not soliciting for Pa is more like being worried about wearing out your welcome before being fully welcomed yourself. ie Thanks for the job but could give you give my Dad one and maybe little brother too? While we are at it could I have...?

That could sound very ungrateful and be really annoying.

About Wednesday 11 July 1660

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Well I'll be capped! What's with the vexation over where Barkley and Penn will spend the night? Why would Pepy's go home to only sleep elsewhere? To take a cap and get some sheets it seems...
I notice SP spends tomorrow on getting his bill "perfected". Where was his bill the day before and where did it spend the night?

About Wednesday 27 June 1660

Gerald Berg  •  Link

If I were Symons I would not be confiding my loss to someone whom I may suspect would be happy to know of my misfortune. That is not how people usually behave. So either Sam is a duplicitous fellow towards Symons or "not a little pleased" means the opposite of what we would now take it to mean. I prefer the latter interpretation.

About Friday 22 June 1660

Gerald Berg  •  Link

And power trumps all! LBJ was the clodhopper in Camelot till the rest happened. Then he became a political sage. Well, till the further rest happened.

About Tuesday 29 May 1660

Gerald Berg  •  Link

What I have trouble with is someone mistaking something that is just under 3X's the height of the other. 35 yards versus 90 yards. Mass of cliff confuses some but by that much? Excellent bet Sam!

Measuring stick length? Measure length by body (arm length or stride) then half it in the other through breakage.

About Wednesday 23 May 1660

Gerald Berg  •  Link

A decade late but Waldo ask for some tracts in defense of Monarchy. Not exactly what was requested but I would suggest Isaiah Berlin's collection of essays AGAINST THE CURRENT which outlines various writers ideas on what he came to call the Counter-Enlightenment. At any rate, the list of writers discussed there pretty well covers the field.

About Saturday 3 March 1659/60

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Sheep's head.

I remember arriving at dusk to Kairouan, Tunisia. After getting our room I hopped down to the Souk to pick up some fruit. What luck! I found a fellow selling half a roasted chicken. Getting back to the hotel we sat down to eat. First thing I noticed was it was missing its wing. Then we noticed the anus had a grimace. The outline of half a goat's head coalesced before our eyes. I had wondered why the fellow selling me the chicken looked so pleased.