International Swan Observance Day March 03 2025

 

" Every year at 3.00pm  on the third day of the third month, the 'nbbd' team  like to encourage all our devoted readers to enjoy one minute of silent contemplation, in which we collectively remember all the many things associated with 'Swans', be they Mute , Hooper or otherwise. The third of March is also the birthday of  the late Joe Roberts, and silence is probably what, along with 'a light ale' and 'five £1 cross-win-doubles with tax', he would have wanted on this day.

This year we have posted an 'AI created image' of what the inside of a Wickes DIY store (aka - Wixies) might look like if Swans took up residence within the body of the shop between a multiplicity of  aisles full of 'building craft' related paraphernalia and merchandise. 'Nice Birds Indeed!

Now, this may seem to you as an unlikely scenario, but bearing in mind Joe's sagacious and often quoted words " You can get anything from Wixies", not as improbable as a troop of monkeys equipped with typewriters locked in a room, replicating the 'Works of Shakespeare' in a timely fashion.

It is of some sadness that Joe did not live long enough to experience the wonders of 'artificial intelligence', particularly as everyone, who knew him emotionally, believes he would have derived benefit from it. 

Joe, the man and 'Sidcup-based printer', remains the subject of respect and legend in the overlapping worlds of 'Type-setting', 'Swan Observation' and 'Facilities for disabled persons at Race Courses located within the boundaries of the United Kingdom but excluding Northern Ireland'. - Happy Birthday Joe, and wherever you are, keep a watchful eye open for swans!

 - Editor of Nice Birds but Dangerous.

NICE in every possible way!

Victorian Swans and the great divide.

 

" Say what you like about 'The Victorians' but they certainly knew how to stuff Cygnus olor!

 This family group were happily surveying the tranquil lake scene before them, when they were rudely introduced to the pseudo art and science of 'taxidermy'. They clearly don't like it 'up-'em' Mr Mantell!

"There is considerable current academic debate as to whether the Victorian Era and the coincident development of 'Taxidermy' marks the paleozoological divide between swans being one hundred percent 'Nice birds' and being at least 50 percent 'Dangerous'". - Discuss!

"Is 'evolution' a gradual or a 'cataclysmic process'"? - Discuss!

"Did God make those little green apples" ? - Discuss!

Hard to say, but from the limited perspective of these swans - "Two pounds of kapok rammed up the 'cloaca' certainly created a tsunami of ripples on their shared and previously benign swan lake" - Richard Owen 1804-1892

The Year of the Swan - East of Bromley

 

"In Chinese culture, swans are considered to be a symbol of grace, purity, enlightenment, and blessing. They are also associated with the goddess Guanyin. The Chinese Zodiac has twelve animals, that are associated with years in the calendar, none of them being a swan. 2025 is 'The Year of the Snake' -  worldwide quite appropriate as it turns out! 

In Joe Roberts' home town Maidstone, 2025 is being arbitrarily celebrated by both 'Men of Kent' and 'Kentish Men' as 'The Year of the Swan'. Consequently, big parties are anticipated for this spring's 'International Swan Day', which is held every year on the 3rd of March. In 2025, the streets of Maidstone may indeed run with 'Light Ale'!

The  above image is a reproduction of a traditional local pictorial rendition in watercolour on a discarded Joe Coral betting slip of 'The River Medway in flood', which at one time hung in a Chinese Takeaway in Week Street. The building shown on the island, is a 'stylistic and graphical' representation of the Maidstone Branch of Wickes about which Joe was often heard to say "You can get anything from Wixies"! - Editor

Editorial note: None of the editorial team knows why Joe insisted upon pronouncing 'Wickes' as 'Wixies'. The man was and is, both an enigma and Kentish legend!