{"id":8373,"date":"2015-09-13T07:05:38","date_gmt":"2015-09-13T06:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/?p=8373"},"modified":"2015-09-12T11:33:17","modified_gmt":"2015-09-12T10:33:17","slug":"13-september-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/2015\/09\/13\/13-september-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"13 September 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning to you all and welcome to the inaugural edition of the Moreton Pinkney Picayune! We received hundreds\/dozens\/loads\/a few\/one or two suggestions for what we should call this weekly pox on your inbox now that we have moved from Byfield to Moreton Pinkney. Most of the suggestions we received were too rude for a family publication but my father suggested we call it the Moreton Pinkney Picayune and the name fits exceedingly well.<\/p>\n

A picayune<\/em> was a Spanish coin, worth half a real<\/em>. Its name derives from the French picaillon<\/em>, which is itself from the Proven\u00e7al picaioun<\/em>, meaning “small coin”. By extension, picayune means “trivial” or “of little value”, \u201can insignificant person or thing,\u201d all of which encapsulate the publication formerly known as the Befouled Weakly News \u2013 trivial and worthless. Many of you will know that there is already at least one newspaper carrying the same name \u2013 the New Orleans Times-Picayune<\/a> although why any reputable newspaper would want to describe itself as having little value is a mystery to me.<\/p>\n

Profound apologies for the lack of communication over the past couple of weeks. As we mentioned before the hiatus, we\u2019ve been off in the States helping my mother celebrate the beginning of her tenth decade \u2013 she turned 90 on 1 September. We enjoyed a wonderful outing to Hanover for the celebrations as well as a splendid opportunity to spend time in the glorious environs of Lake George in upstate New York with all the Stragnell siblings and their decidedly better halves.<\/p>\n

I have to say, the whole trip, while being profoundly enjoyable, was also quite surreal. We\u2019ve been packing, unpacking, sorting, organising and struggling to remember where we last saw the particular item we need at this precise moment for the past few weeks following our house move. Packing for the trip to the States was an adventure and, for me at least, at times serendipitously amusing. Most of our clothes are, by now, where one would expect them to be \u2013 in a chest of drawers in our bedroom. Some, however, are still somewhere else \u2013 in a box or thrown in a cupboard or perhaps even in another chest of drawers somewhere else in the house. As I was searching for some additional pairs of underwear in the chest of drawers in the \u201cGuest Room\u201d I miraculously stumbled across my swimming trunks. Hmm, that\u2019s a bonus \u2013 I better pack them too. Still, it all felt as if we were utterly unprepared for such an excursion due to a multitude of other distractions.<\/p>\n

Lake George was, as always, gloriously beautiful and, because many schools had already started back in session there were considerably fewer people about than when we often visit. The weather was great \u2013 it was hot and sunny for the most part if occasionally somewhat humid \u2013 and the water as well as being extraordinarily limpid, was refreshing and pleasantly comfortable. In what was a new experience for Penny and me, we got to witness the social habits of a resident porcupine which took up residence in a couple of trees near the Ritz for a few days. Who knew that porcupines spent most of their time up a tree? I certainly didn\u2019t. Fortunately, my brother Sandy held off shooting it until we had vacated the premises. The more adventurous of us climbed Anthony’s Knob<\/a> and, as usual, we ate like kings.<\/p>\n

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My mother\u2019s birthday was a great success and she and my father were in fine form. My father had arranged for dinner to be catered in one of the function rooms at Kendal and it was splendid. The highlight of the evening was the entertainment, provided by a one-time only reunion of the Stragnell Boys and Girls providing special renditions of some old favourites including that well-known classic \u201cLibby on the MTA.\u201d We certainly enjoyed ourselves and, more importantly, I think my folks did too. My mother looked radiantly wonderful at her birthday celebrations and everyone enjoyed some good laughs and a good time.<\/p>\n

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We took a time-lapse of the evening’s extravagant entertainment. It’s not the most exciting I’ve ever seen (or done) but, as you can tell, we sure had a wonderful time.<\/p>\n