EclectEcon

PLO Ecstasy

One big plus about riding on the train, as we did last week to Quebec City, is that they serve wine in convenient juice-box sized tetra packs. It is French table wine, and it tastes just fine to me.

For my second box, I asked the server for a small coffee stirrer, which is really a small, thin straw. I wanted to sip my wine using a straw so it wouldn't spill. Shear ecstasy!

Regular readers of EclectEcon know that I also like to drink coffee with a straw.
And long-time readers will recognize the PLO as being the "Philistine Liberation Organization".

The Philistine Liberation Organization Objects

A cemetary in the UK has banned the use of plastic flowers:

The use of artificial flowers has been banned from a crematorium on grounds of health and safety.

A council has prohibited the laying of artificial wreaths or flowers and also barred pottery, glass items and wire mesh fences.

The rules have outraged mourners who claim people should be allowed to grieve in their own way and point out many cannot afford to place fresh flowers on a plot every week.

Relatives of deceased loved ones are furious at North East Lincolnshire Council which last November threatened to remove keepsakes from children's graves.

The council says any items or mementos left at the crematorium in Grimsby, except fresh plants and flowers, will be confiscated as they clutter up the grounds and leave the place untidy.

...

Glenn Greetham, head of neighbourhood services at North East Lincolnshire Council said: 'I hope residents and visitors with loved ones buried or cremated within the site see the difficulty in providing a dignified and sensitive service while maintaining an acceptable standard.

'Unfortunately some items that have been placed at the crematorium including CD holders, cards pinned in trees, wine glasses, empty cans of beer, candles, cuddly toys, wind chimes and balloons are not appropriate.

'The majority of people want the crematorium and memorial gardens to be a quiet and appropriate place to remember their loved ones. Fresh plants and flowers are acceptable on the crematorium grounds.

'All other items will be removed as they can often pose a health and safety risk and conflict with the majority of the crematorium users.'

And just how are artificial flowers like empty beer cans or wine glasses? The analogy escapes me.

For more on the PLO, see this. And for recent postings and other links to the PLO, see this.

Screw Kappa Napa

When I first started writing this blog nearly four years ago, I made two things very clear:

1. I am an unabashed supporter of philistinism. That support (as self-proclaimed chair of the Philistine Liberation Organization) follows directly from my tendencies to libertarianism.
2. Despite not being what many would regard as a philistine myself in all my tastes, I really do not care much about nuances and fine wines. Plonk will do nicely for me, thank you. And I especially like wine that comes in a bottle with a screw-top cap, something which is rapidly gaining increased acceptance, even among wine snobs.

Last month when Ms. Eclectic and I were dining out, we passed the restaurant's display of wines available, and this one caught my eye:

 

I love the name of the wine, Screw Kappa Napa, which seems to be sort of an in-your-face reaction to wine snobbery. Since I took the photo on the fly, it isn't particularly crisp. Here's the winery's website.

The other day, I went to one of the outlets for the Ontario wine retailing monopoly to see about buying some of this wine.

The first person I spoke with said they didn't have any in stock, but she thought it was produced in Australia as something of a put-down of Napa valley wines. That would have been pretty funny, but as you can see from the photo and the website, it is produced in California.

Maybe I'll see if I can find some the next time I'm visiting the US.

Welcome to the PLO

We proudly welcome Giles Coren into the PLO* [h/t to Tim Worstall]

When I saw on the front page of The Times on Thursday that we only had “four months to save £300m masterpieces” I was put briefly in mind of Dale Arden's desperate cry in Flash Gordon: “Flash, I love you, but we only have 14 hours to save the Earth!”

I assumed, you see, that something terrible was about to happen. I thought maybe there had been a fire in some gallery somewhere and that if the damaged pictures were not restored immediately then they might in some way cease to be restorable in 16 weeks (I do not know much about art restoration).

Or maybe it was to do with Venice. The big picture on the front page looked vaguely foreign (I do not know much about art either), and I thought perhaps we had only four months to move the church on whose wall it was painted before it was engulfed by the flood waters. Or something.

But it turned out to be nothing more than the old moneybags who inherited them being a bit short of the green and folding just now (join the club, old bean), and deciding to give us, the nation, four months to come up with £100 million to buy them off him.

Or what? He's going to burn them? Now that would be a tragedy. Something would have to be done. I can just see the Duke of Sutherland standing there, ringed by police, holding a flame-thrower to the painting's ear: “Throw the money down over there. Nice and slow. One false move and the Titian gets it!”

But that's not it. What is going to happen if the Government does not come up with the hundred mill for Diana & Actaeon and Diana & Callisto is that his grace is going to sell them for £300 million to some other mug, and they'll go abroad.

Who the hell cares? Art is not about ownership or geography. It is about values greater than time and space. I don't give a damn where a work of art is. I just care that it is. The Taj Mahal is in India (presumably) and the Mona Lisa in Paris, but I don't have to go and see them to enjoy the benefit of their cultural impact.

These two paintings are in no sense more artistically valid by being located in the National Gallery of Scotland than if they were sold to furnish the lobby walls of some hotel in Abu Dhabi. Indeed, I am personally more likely to bump into them there than where they are now.

It's not about the money: the Government could easily raise the cash by selling a big London hospital. It's about getting over the outdated habit of imperial rapine - the “Elginian fallacy”, if I may - that imparts meaning to the mere ownership of art.

If you want to see Diana & Actaeon, there was a perfectly good copy of it on the front page a couple of days ago. Just dig it out of the recycling bin and glue it to the fridge.

But I wouldn't bother - it's no more than a wan snapshot, caught leadenly on canvas as if by some teenage happy slapper with an iPhone, of what appears to be a poacher in very bad sandals coming upon an outdoor brothel for tubby-fanciers, and expressing his horror at the sight of a load of hefty girls with massive bums but no boobs at all - the nightmare combo.

I say we hold on to our hard-earned cash and let the Duke flog it to some crooked Russki so he can wallpaper his sauna.

*PLO = the Philistine Liberation Organization. For more, see this.