not really that surprising
May. 27th, 2012 01:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
incandescensI cannot say that I am particularly surprised. Our entry was melodic, but it was also dull, and we were the very first to perform, meaning that the listeners had 25 other songs to forget us in -- songs which, to be fair, were frequently more interesting than ours. So the UK was second from bottom in the final scoring. I will be grateful for Humperdinck's sake (if not for the UK's) that we were not the very bottom.
Perhaps next year we might actually have a decent song that is worth listening to and a little more memorable?
Weather continues stunningly good. My cold is improving, and I am now mostly able to breathe again, and coughing/sniffing less. This makes the world a much better place.
---
Alistair Blunt said: "I've killed three people. So presumably I ought to be hanged. But you've heard my defence."
"Which is - exactly?"
"That I believe, with all my heart and soul, that I am necessary to the continued peace and well-being of this country."
Hercule Poirot allowed: "That may be - yes."
"You agree, don't you?"
"I agree, yes. You stand for all the things that to my mind are important. For sanity and balance and stability and honest dealing."
[...]
He went on: "It's in your hands, Poirot. It's up to you. But I tell you this - and it's not just self-preservation - I'm needed in the world. And do you know why? Because I'm an honest man. And because I've got common sense - and no particular axe of my own to grind."
Poirot nodded. Strangely enough, he believed all that. He said: "Yes, that is one side. You are the right man in the right place. You have sanity, judgement, balance. But there is the other side. Three human beings who are dead."
"Yes, but think of them! Mabelle Sainsbury Seale - you said it yourself - a woman with the brains of a hen! Amberiotis - a crook and a blackmailer!"
"And Morley?"
"I've told you before. I'm sorry about Morley. But after all - he was a decent fellow and a good dentist - but there are other dentists."
"Yes," said Poirot, "there are other dentists. And Frank Carter? You would have let him die, too, without regret?"
Blunt said: "I don't waste any pity on him. He's no good. An utter rotter."
Poirot said: "But a human being . . ."
"Oh well, we're all human beings . . ."
"Yes, we are all human beings. That is what you have not remembered. You have said that Mabelle Sainsbury Seale was a foolish human being and Amberiotis an evil one, and Frank Carter a wastrel - and Morley - Morley was only a dentist and there are other dentists. That is where you and I, M. Blunt, do not see alike. For to me the lives of those four people are just as important as your life."
"You're wrong."
"No, I am not wrong. You are a man of great natural honesty and rectitude. You took one step aside - and outwardly it has not affected you. Publicly you have continued the same, upright, trustworthy, honest. But within you the love of power grew to overwhelming heights. So you sacrificed four human lives and thought them of no account."
"Don't you realise, Poirot, that the safety and happiness of the whole nation depends on me?"
"I am not concerned with nations, Monsieur. I am concerned with the lives of private individuals who have the right not to have their lives taken from them."
-- One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, Agatha Christie
Perhaps next year we might actually have a decent song that is worth listening to and a little more memorable?
Weather continues stunningly good. My cold is improving, and I am now mostly able to breathe again, and coughing/sniffing less. This makes the world a much better place.
---
Alistair Blunt said: "I've killed three people. So presumably I ought to be hanged. But you've heard my defence."
"Which is - exactly?"
"That I believe, with all my heart and soul, that I am necessary to the continued peace and well-being of this country."
Hercule Poirot allowed: "That may be - yes."
"You agree, don't you?"
"I agree, yes. You stand for all the things that to my mind are important. For sanity and balance and stability and honest dealing."
[...]
He went on: "It's in your hands, Poirot. It's up to you. But I tell you this - and it's not just self-preservation - I'm needed in the world. And do you know why? Because I'm an honest man. And because I've got common sense - and no particular axe of my own to grind."
Poirot nodded. Strangely enough, he believed all that. He said: "Yes, that is one side. You are the right man in the right place. You have sanity, judgement, balance. But there is the other side. Three human beings who are dead."
"Yes, but think of them! Mabelle Sainsbury Seale - you said it yourself - a woman with the brains of a hen! Amberiotis - a crook and a blackmailer!"
"And Morley?"
"I've told you before. I'm sorry about Morley. But after all - he was a decent fellow and a good dentist - but there are other dentists."
"Yes," said Poirot, "there are other dentists. And Frank Carter? You would have let him die, too, without regret?"
Blunt said: "I don't waste any pity on him. He's no good. An utter rotter."
Poirot said: "But a human being . . ."
"Oh well, we're all human beings . . ."
"Yes, we are all human beings. That is what you have not remembered. You have said that Mabelle Sainsbury Seale was a foolish human being and Amberiotis an evil one, and Frank Carter a wastrel - and Morley - Morley was only a dentist and there are other dentists. That is where you and I, M. Blunt, do not see alike. For to me the lives of those four people are just as important as your life."
"You're wrong."
"No, I am not wrong. You are a man of great natural honesty and rectitude. You took one step aside - and outwardly it has not affected you. Publicly you have continued the same, upright, trustworthy, honest. But within you the love of power grew to overwhelming heights. So you sacrificed four human lives and thought them of no account."
"Don't you realise, Poirot, that the safety and happiness of the whole nation depends on me?"
"I am not concerned with nations, Monsieur. I am concerned with the lives of private individuals who have the right not to have their lives taken from them."
-- One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, Agatha Christie
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no subject
Date: 2012-05-27 02:18 am (UTC)I really wish I could've had Graham Norton's commentary, but I'll have to settle for watching that when it gets uploaded to YouTube.
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Date: 2012-05-27 12:46 pm (UTC)Graham Norton did say several times that apparently the bookies were backing Sweden. Apparently the bookies got it right.
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Date: 2012-05-27 09:04 pm (UTC)Hope you feel better soon, and without the need for hallucinogens.
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Date: 2012-05-27 09:07 pm (UTC)I'm glad that you're enjoying your trip! (And probably flattered that absinthe brings me to mind. :))
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Date: 2012-05-28 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-28 09:48 pm (UTC)