Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

The infant still insists that it's Kevin & Hobbes. Can't think of an Early Modern philosopher called Kevin - a terrible omission given the House of Stuart's religious sympathies

The Schleswig-Holstein Answer, obvs

Who can tell me more about Leslie Smith, biographer in 1964 of Harold Wilson? elorganillero.com/yorkshire_al...

A neighbour's cat sat on my lap the other day & I was ill for 12 hours. Thinking of posing with a rat. No shortage of rats at the allotments.

Pretty transversal theme

Partial explanation of why so few UK politicians are done for corruption - to the great surprise of their southern European colleagues

80 ghits for "kazoo" vs 21 for "trombone" in the Epstein files so far released, presumably because Trump is a trombone lover

At the rate SpaceX's ambitions are receding, by 2030 they'll be promising to put a supertram service in Leeds

Coming when time permits: the first edition since 1870 of the most remarkable 19th century novel I've read in a while, Settle-born geologist-novelist John Burrow sensational & multi-faceted Jabez Oliphant
elorganillero.com/product/jabe...

Merit of flat-pack: not having to go to see art which Turner would surely have despised

Google Books

Worst thing about rain 24/7 is that you can't take out the Argos flat-pack and burn it while the purchaser is off on a jolly

With Mandelson any normal person would wonder who paid for which bit of the kitchen, & whether the Mandelson clique in Labour existed in part because he was passing on some of his gains. Same for 30 years.

Tony's Alternative Journalism, Alternative Voices is the tremendous story, disguised for academia, of how, once upon a time, Leeds Other Paper did proper local journalism - glued together, printed in a garage, sold initially in pubs. The almanac can but look back in awe.

Sending him to Coventry wasn't tough enough

This stretch of the River Meon at Droxford features in my walk from Petersfield over the South Downs to Bishop's Waltham elorganillero.com/blog/2019/01...

No limit to the green-lanes rally-drivers' kentishness. I never really understood the guns vs guys debate re the NRA in the US: clearly you want to make it very hard to obtain lethal weapons, be they guns or SUVs, & a way needs to be found of removing sociopaths from the streets.

- I see P's baby goat and I get all broody.
- Have your own children all got horns? Who is the father?

The Cerne Giant: An Antiquity on Trial is great fun

A Beano for a girl's 5th. Nan: "My Dad was a great Beano supporter & bought it for us often though we also had Twinkle. He taught the children of Lincolnshire farmworkers to read with the Beano & basic maths with card games. A joyful educational era pre the National Curriculum."

A proper publisher 'absolutely loves' the almanac. I would however miss the doorstep encounters arising from the offer of free delivery on foot for LS1-LS7 and LS16.

"Toads" is now a forbidden explanation for the infant's lateness, so happy this morning to be able to blame "Farmer Hartley's lambs"

Petition to unite Halloween & the HMRC deadline

I can't walk through that particular bit of Leeds now without seeing Leeds Other Paper's Meanwood suspension bridge - had to go in the Yorkshire Almanac. They did so much other good stuff too - unimaginable now.

Bedtime. First the infant must recite Ning Nang Nong & other nonsense, then it's time for requests. "Stig of the Dump, please." Later one discovers that that is merely background noise while she reads Calvin & Hobbes under the covers. May be ready for Radio 4.

The Making of the Yorkshire Almanac 2026, Sheep Flavour This week on the Secret Library Leeds, Leeds’s Singing Organ-Grinder tells how moving to Yorkshire five years ago inspired him to compile a day-by-day historical anthology. One sunny day in spring …

The Making of the Yorkshire Almanac 2026, Sheep Flavour: read all about it over at the Leeds Libraries blog secretlibraryleeds.net/2026/01/29/t...

Good to hear "Wien bleibt Wien" in the medley Ukrainske Wesilla w Ameryci (Ukrainian Wedding in America) by Ukrainska Orchestra & Pawla Humeniuka. How much Eastern European folk is actually badly played German popular repertoire?

The infant is not in a hurry to get to school:
- Oi, get a move on, Nicolas.
- Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise they were trans.
- Oh no, it's just she doesn't like wearing knickers.

γένος/génos has a much wider semantic range than just ethnic or national group, and the Iranian government's attempt to exterminate a generation can and should be called genocide

- Me and X got an Outstanding Homework certificate for our maps!
- Excellent, so will we get it back to put on the wall?
- Yes, because I got the certificate. Otherwise they throw it away.