h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dear Diary, your pages were left a blank yesterday owing to general disgust with the way things are shaping all around.

And really the world is going to the dogs, with the French moronically believing they can go it alone and if they can't be number one then they'll do a de Gaulle and survive in splendid isolation, sustained by a certain idea of la gloire de la France, fuelled by the demagogues and ideologues from both the left and the extreme-left . As for the extreme far right, it is rubbing its podgy little hands and saving on its campaign budget as it is done for them, with the same arguments, by the likes of Fabius, Besancenot, Arlette the Downtrodden worker - the list is endless.

Things are not made more comfortable by the distinct change in the tone of ML, emphasized by the very offputting "welcome" those of us who tried to make a stab at h2g2 have received, the nostalgia for DtA as it used to be before it was commandeered by sock-puppets and their followers, on the back of shaky storylines.

I miss the quick-fire exchanges with intellectual equals. I have discovered to my deep chagrin and a trifle belatedly that I am truly a misfit and that few posters share my interests (my problem of course) and too many do not bother to post any more.

And the superior jargon being spouted at me by what sounds like 16-year-olds on what constitutes a 'Community' doesn' t help.

So I really must grumble.

And it's cold and showery into the bargain.

Martine, you sound post-viral. Have a tisane.

Not 16, neither convinced nor unconvinced by DNA, and currently winded by a pointless exchange of what passes for wit Chez Jam with an obsessive on the Womans Hour Board.

Really I ought to know better, but I'm currently chief taxi-driver to a bunch of 15-yr old boys who may or may not know what they are talking about at any given moment. Not long ago as I negociated a Junction of the M25, I caught the end of a conversation in which one was trying to trump his pals in an argument by citing Occam's Razor. Except that he had both the name and the proposition slightly askew. Really had to intervene there.

Unfortunately my French, though more than adequate in its time, has degenerated to agreement of the past participle and what I learned from toddler as an au-pair: potties, scribbling and cradle songs. French politics is impenetrable to most British people: are voters genuinely thinking in isolationist terms, or are all the different interests saying "shan't" all at once? The only comfort of first-past-the-post is that concensus may be reached simply by cancelling each other out. (Have been tracking tactical voting sites)

I enjoy your annales, But have little to say myself: son has been asked if he would like to be leader of his youth orchestra this term (probably too much hassle); we are still waiting to catch sight of this year's fawns in the garden.

Agree that there appears to be a collective holding of breaths in mustardland, and an uneasy sense, for me, that some are monitoring the situation carefully and saying nothing. Personally I'd rather have an explosive debate - much more fun.

Best Wishes

petal jam.

Re. Mustardland:

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under the sun.
A time to be born and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill and a time to heal ...
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance ...
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to lose and a time to seek;
A time to rend and a time to sew;
A time to keep silent and a time to speak;
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.

(That's a song by The Byrds.)

The trollery that has been infesting Mustardland is just part of a deeper malaise. Maybe the shift over to DNA will put some new life back into the old dog. Then again, maybe not. No-one HAS to post in Mustardland, and people will only do so for as long as they get something back out. I think that the place has been in a (slow) state of decline since the TBU turf war lead to the setting-up of the Village Hall and the subsequent (and deeply ironic) take-over of TBU by football fans. Then again, an internet community is capable of great evolutionary volatility and this can produce equally great creative tensions, and the fat lady hasn't sung yet. I'm doing most of my posting here at the minute, but that's due in no small part to the novelty of the new, and I'm keeping a foot in both camps to be on the safe side.

Martine, Martine - It has just clouded over and started raining here. Your bad weather is spreading.

Douglas

Martine, you did sound fed up when I read this earlier today - hope you're feeling more cheerful now.

I'm finding it hard to keep up with some of the long threads in Mustardland, and must say I sometimes get halfway through and wonder why I'm bothering.

Can't stop now, but would like to talk more about the referendum and Europe at some point.

Je t'embrasse, if that's not too familiar. (Sounds more sophisticated than {{{hugggzz}}}, n'est-ce pas?)

Good morning, martine.

My computer has recently been destroyed, requiring a new hard drive and operating system, so I haven't had access to Mustardland.

I can't begin to tell you what an incredible sense of liberation that gave me.I'm now looking forward to this summer's change-over, when it looks like I'll be able to say a fond but permanent farewell.

With ML the way it is at present, going cold turkey won't be nearly as hard as I thought.Don't be too downhearted.

SeaN x

Thanks pj, most refreshing post. I am not a tisane person but I am grateful for your compassion. Of course having an irritant like teenagers constantly on call does push back minor worries. The son is no longer a teenager and never gave any trouble, and confided in his mother. The granddaughter, 2 and a half, is only beginning to argue ("Non!") and I can see interesting times ahead...

The French worry about their precious entitlements and thanks in part to Chirac's blundering about the Iraq war, they do not feel particularly European at the moment, as even the Germans have mended their fences with the US.

The current turmoil is a mixture of traditional social strife in springtime and the lack of any credible leaders for a Yes vote. What makes me mad (calm down Martine) is that he needn't have called a referendum. He only had to get a vote passed in the two chambers and Bob was our uncle. He thought mistakenly he was popular enough to carrry the voters with him. He has always been stupid but "sympa". Not enough now.

Feeling better now. Thanks.

Douglas, your words are so soothing. Tell Sue she's lucky to have you. I don't need to tell either of you that you're lucky to have her...

Merci Annie, I feel better now and this is partly due to the responses here so thank you again and on s'embrasse alors?
I fell a thrill of the illicit, don't you?