Staying at the Sicilian resort town of Taormina, I have just observed the waterspout shown below:
Read all about waterspouts at Wikipedia.
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Bruton Town – A very old story
Bruton Town is an English Folk song featured on The Pentangle’s first album (the first LP I ever bought). It tells the story of a young woman whose lover is murdered by her two brothers, because they do not think him worthy of her.
According to this link the song:
is a version of the story Isabella and the Pot of Basil, made famous by Boccaccio in The Decameron, but the ballad obviously draws on popular tradition since then. It is also known as The Bramble Briar, The Jealous Brothers, The Merchant’s Daughter, and The Murdered Servantman, and can be found in 100 English Songs, edited by Cecil Sharp who collected it in 1904.
… and the Boccaccio story, together with its link to a poem by John Keats may be found at:
Giovanni Boccaccio. The Decameron (ca. 1353)
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Tagged Boccaccio, Bruton Town, Decameron, English Folk song, Giovanni Boccaccio, The Pentangle
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Binary functions, combining text, and finding unique columns
I recently had an e-mail request asking for a method of finding unique columns in an Excel table consisting of either blank cells or an entry of 1. An easy way to do this would be to convert the columns to a binary value, then use the Countif function to count how many copies there were of each column. Excel does not provide a convenient way to combine the contents of many cells into a single value, but a simple User Defined Function (UDF) to perform this task can be downloaded from Binary Functions.xls.
The Binary Functions spreadsheet uses code from: Visual Basic Code Examples , which provides code to convert binary to and from decimal, octal and hex values. I have added code to create a binary value or text string from an Excel column (or row) of values. Output from this spreadsheet is shown in the screen shot below:
Note that:
- Excel has functions to convert between binary and decimal, but these are limited to a very small maximum value.
- The BinRangeToString function assigns each cell a value of 0 for cells containing 0 or empty cells, or 1 for anything else.
- The BinRangeToDec function returns a floating point decimal value, and will not be reliable for columns with more that 48 rows.
- The TextString function returns a concatenated string of the contents of each cell.
The TextString function was previously presented at: Stringing more than two words together. The TextString function has now been modified to display values formatted as “general” correctly, and to optionally allow blank cells to either be ignored, or included in the returned string. The revised file may be downloaded from TextString.xls
Pictures of Sicily
Trapani and Erice
Segesta, and Mozia
Another WW1 story
From the Youtube link:
I don’t mean to infringe on copyrights of artists, especially not respected ones like the Incredible String band, but I felt I should publish this track because of the strange tale attached to its origins. A tale that can be traced back to Rotterdam, my hometown. ‘Darling Belle’ is the final track of the Incredible String Band’s album ‘Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air’ (1971). It was written by Robin Williamson, who said about this song: “I wrote ‘Darling Belle’ very quickly; or rather, wrote it down very quickly. I was lying in a hotel room in Rotterdam just before I fell asleep, and I began to hear these voices outside my head, and they were telling the story of Belle and James. Two voices, a man and a woman, and of what they said I jotted down fragments and the following morning I wrote parts of the song; about four months later I wrote the rest. It only lasted a few moments.
Papa would take me to the park to see the swans
By hansom cab trotting so high
Holding his hand to see the swans
Hissing louder than rustling dresses of gracious ladies bustling bySee swan ships come sailing in
White as the clouds on a windy dayJames I suppose would be in school
James I suppose would be in schoolI was I was learning to spell laughing at loud smells
Avoiding the rod of the cod faced master
Was it your absence made me quiet at noon?
Playing British Bulldogs on the gravel
Was it your presence colored my dream?I burrowed in cupboards like a mole all Saturday
Under old chairs and old ladies knees
I framed your half remembered face
With frail white embroideriesCalling for you down the mousy garden
Calling for you down the mousy gardenO did you meet him at the ball? Eighteen years on
Tall soldier now and you full grown
Belle did you meet him at the ball?
Belle did you meet him at the ball?O do you remember me? Thin girl with cold hands
You in your scarlet and you knew my name
Step to the veranda under the wisteria in the mysterious NovemberDancing as if with death or fate to the moon black ballroom
Of the silk skinned lake
Kissing me you lifted my skirt under the willow treesKeep the home fires burning though your heart is yearning
Though the boys are far away they dream of home
There’s a silver lining in the dark clouds shining
Turn that lining inside out till the boys come homeDid I see you march to the train? Did I cry was my nose red?
My two day bride can you feel me in your memory?
I will be the redness in your iron fire
How could I write? My words would seem sad or gayWe regret to inform you
We regret to inform you
We regret to inform youMeet me by gaslight in the dark dawn
On waterloo bridge we will walk arm in arm
Hearing the leaves fall with whisper into the foggy dew
When we are dead, when we are deadNow she sits in her brother’s widow’s house
Her skin like a lizard her aura like a daffodil
Sits like a sign in the children’s chair
Migrant guest from relative to in-law
She stares into the embers
Details of my daughter’s short film “Long Lost”, and to support crowd funding see:
Long Lost, a WW1 short film – crowd funding site
Newton Excel Bach, not (just) an Excel Blog 