Out of proportion

[shewhomust]

durham_rambler's election leaflets have arrived from the printer, and been distributed to his fan club supporters; nominations have closed, and the list of candidates has been published. It should all be go on the electioneering front, but it seems that electioneering has been put on hold (no-one seems to know for how long) as a mark of respect for the late Duke of Edinburgh. durham_rambler notes that despite the sunshine we had a brief shower of snow today, and is happy not to have been out shoving leaflets into letterboxes when it happened.

Even so, the level of reaction has taken me by surprise. When durham_rambler told me that the Duke of Edinburgh had died, I expected the BBC to devote the next few news bulletins to the story, and perhaps a restrospective slotted in to the evening's programming; I did not expect both BBC and ITV to clear the schedules and for dark suits to be found for all on-screen staff. Churches ringing their bells ninety-nine times seems hard on anyone livingg too close (nine tailors make a man...). Politics suspended, parliament - whose Easter holiday was not cut short by Belfast going up in flames - will return a day early to pay its respects... Seriously? Well, yes, apparently so.

As it happens, I recently bought a book from Amazon (if I can buy elsewhere I do, but this time I couldn't) and was unable to evade the free month of Amazon Prime they insisted on giving me: so we poked around what was available to stream, and found a memorial concert for Woody Guthrie filmed in 1970. That was our evening's entertainment sorted: Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Country Joe, Rambling Jack, Odetta and Richie Havens - and all so young!