Fahrenheit 451

Have just re-read Ray Bradbury’s great science fiction book Fahrenheit 451 and it is without doubt the greatest book of its kind. Although now more than 60 years old it hasn’t dated one day and feels as fresh now as it did when first published. In fact I wouldn’t describe it as science fiction any more but science fact. Many of its predictions are now fact.

451
Ah Montag,Montag, where are you now?
Steeped in your kerosine world
You burnt the books
The houses and even the people.
Then fire seared your brain
And cleansed your senses
Books were made to be read not torched.
So you ran to the river
The Mechanical Hound snapping at your heels.

The sun burns every day
It burns time
The firemen burn the books
They burn them every day
Ah Montag, Montag, time burns everything away.

Corolla Bay update

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Ence al
Spent the last week in Corolla Bay, on the tip of N Carolina. It is full of lighthouses,Water Towers,Alligators and the roaring Atlantic. No pics yet but will upload some when we get back home. Even went beach fishing yesterday morning and caught something stripey – I believe it was called a Drum. Anyway, I put it back after unhooking it. tHe whole area is called the Outer Banks, a narrow strip of land stretching out into the ATlantic for many,many miles,and less than 50 yards wide in places. A death trap for sailors in olden days apparently,hence all the lighthouses.
Very swampy in places,hence the alligators. Didn’t See any – fortunately!

NEVER THROW STONES AT YOUR MOTHER

Never throw stones at your mother
You’ll be sorry when she’s dead
Never throw stones at your mother
Throw bricks at your father instead

Written by Brendan Behan.

Corolla Bay

On holidays in Corolla Bay N Carolina until early Oct. Postings back to normal then!

ALL MY BOOKS

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MY BOOKS PAGE ON FACEBOOK;

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/My-books/822507557782345

ALL MY BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE ON AMAZON;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-OBrien/e/B0034OIGOQ/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1388083522&sr=1-2-ent

SCOTLAND FREE

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SCOTLAND FREE
Bonnie Prince Charlie tried and failed
At Culloden his protest stalled
And Cumberland his forces mauled
For him there was no other chance
He ran the gantlet back to France.
Now Scotland has its chance again
You had it once, a nation then.
Independent, free, no tyrant’s yoke
For Scotland freedom’s not a joke
Fight like a fishfag, Union be damned!
Your hills, Your lochs, your lives, your land.

CIVIL SERVANTS SHOULD NOT LEAK

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CIVIL SERVANTS SHOULD NOT LEAK

He said it, my God he said it!
Brazen-faced, to the watching nation
‘They should not leak’, he said
‘After all, they are servants of the Crown’.

Leaking in public? How revolting!
And where would it begin?
A seepage from the ears perhaps?
Or a welling-up from beneath

All those virginal starched collars?
Or would it occur in the nether regions?
Visible only as a steady trickle
Down around the ankles.

A telephoned enquiry brought no joy;
‘I can assure you, Sir, we have
No leaking Civil Servants here
Why don’t you try MI 5’

SEPTEMBER IS THE LOVELIEST MONTH

SEPTEMBER IS THE LOVELIEST MONTH
September is the loveliest month.
The sky is on permanent fire
The trees painted many colours
Burnished, it seems, with pure desire
In the park, ducks glide silently by
And the always busy seagulls
Resemble sea-planes
Coming in to land from on high
Whilst near the dozing oak tree
The squirrels nutmeg each other
Each acorn hoarded
For the soon-to-come cold weather
Your arm in mine
We stroll through the park
Heading towards the sunset
Home before dark.

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ENTRANCE B

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ENTRANCE B

Why are they so nice to us
Those denizens of the DHSS?
Oops! – wrong image,
It’s now the Employment Service…more or less

Raymond sported a badge which identified him
As ‘a member of the clerical support team’
I wanted to ask him what position,
But he was already away
With his ‘back-to-work’ scheme

I had to have a plan you see
That got me ‘gainful’ again;
What occupations could I list?
How much, where, when?

Well, let me see now;
I was a brain surgeon till times got tough
Then I tried circus strongman
Till my back cried enough;
Later, it was alligator-taming
Till I lost my bottle
Now I fancy Formula One driving
At full throttle

Raymond scribbled; the audience had ended
‘No inclination – benefit suspended’

What has happened to the barricades;
The litter-strewn floors,
The ‘them-and-us’ confrontations,
The glass partitions, the bolted-down chairs?

Open-plan dole-queues and carpeted floors?
I think I will get myself a job
There’s no soul in this place anymore.

SCOTTISH HISTORY LESSONS & SCOTLAND FREE

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SCOTTISH HISTORY LESSONS
The Romans came
And Brittania stretched
As far as the Antonine Wall
But the Picti in Caledonia
With their faces and bodies painted
Forced them back to Hadrian’s Wall.
Then the Gaelic Kingdom of Dal Riata
Welcomed Columba to Iona,
Who turned the pagan Scotti Christian.
Soon the Anglo Saxons of Bernecia
Came calling
And the Viking hordes came too
And so the first Kingdom of Scotland was born.
Down the years it was
House of Alpin
House of Dunkeld
House of Baliol
And House of Stuart
In a rule of three uncontested centuries.
James V1 also inherited the Throne of England
And Stuart Kings and Queens
Ruled both independent Kingdoms
Until that fateful Act of Union in 1707
Finished Scotland as a country
In its own right.

SCOTLAND FREE
Bonnie Prince Charlie tried and failed
At Culloden his protest stalled
And Cumberland his forces mauled
For him there was no other chance
He ran the gantlet back to France.
Now Scotland has its chance again
You had it once, a nation then.
Independent, free, no tyrant’s yoke
For Scotland freedom’s not a joke
Fight like a fishfag, Union be damned!
Your hills, Your lochs, your lives, your land.