Let us eat, they'll pay

They are Ravis, aren’t they

Ravi Shankar. Slang (rhyming). As in:

“He’s bowling well at the moment, but he’s batting like a right Ravi.”

Meaning: while he’s performing well with the ball, his batting has rather gone to pot.

Let them eat…er…veg

“You there! Proles, peasants, drones. You need to change your eating habits.”

The latest proclamation from the bankers’ buddies on the right, and the, well, the bankers’ buddies in the middle and on the left, is that we all need to eat less meat and more veg, to be, like, healthier, and to save the planet and that.

Taken a while for that penny to drop, hasn’t it? A nanny state with very slow on the uptake nannies, that’s us. So I had a look at the menu in the members dining hall in the house of talk where nothing changes. After all the crocodile tears they shed about the expenses scandal, after all the hollow promises, taxpayers have subsidised their restaurants and bars to the tune of £5,800,000.00 in 2012. That’s set to rise this year. For every tenner they fork out (oops, sorry) on food, wine and beer, we chip in (really, sorry, it just keeps happening) seventy-odd pence. The Strangers dining room is for visitors. The Members (shouldn’t that be The Stranger Stills?) dining room has breakfast, banquet, cocktail and tailored menus. Straight from the cornflakes onto the banquet?

There are seafood and meat main options on the banquet menu. These are: herb crusted escalope of pork, basil roasted milk-fed lamb, fillet steak, veal tenderloin, duck confit, and roast chicken. Nope. No vegetarian choices. There’s none hidden within the seafood options either.

All the usual then. Weasel words from the bankers’ buddies, who live in lavish luxury at our expense.

Ralph Towner and John Abercrombie

Five years later. Another great ECM records release. Two guitars. Not much else. Seems that’s all you need.

Breaking Bad

BLISS and le DLL have, inevitably, caved in and gone for it. Great series, but I hope they don’t get any ideas. Is BLISS’ cosmetics manufacturing a front, or training in the lead up to expanding into the crystal meth production market? One day it’s nettle shampoo (excellent, I can vouch for that) and lavender hand cream, the next, if you’re not careful, you’re knee deep in bags of blue crystals and Mexican gangsters.