Book Review: I Just Didn’t Know That
I Just Didn’t Know That by Neville Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
While it needs some editing and is a little amateurishly presented, the content of these lectures is very interesting if you are a mason who has wondered why we do things the way we do.
This book is worth the asking price if only because it provides the best explanatory summary of the masonic journey from Initiation to Royal Arch that I think I have found. Useful for explaining to a mason what they have experienced and why in about seven paragraphs.
The All-Seeing Eye
The eye within a pyramid: a symbol of an evil masonic conspiracy?
Actually, no. This symbol was used in European religious art as a representation of God. The eye represents God surveying his creation, reminding Christians that they are accountable to their creator.
That’s not a pyramid either. It’s a triangle representing the Holy Trinity.
Helsinki Cathedral
Pyramids, by the way, don’t really have much place, if any, in masonic art as the mythology of the masonic degrees isn’t located in ancient Egypt.
I found this particular example of the “All-Seeing Eye” not in a masonic building, but in a frieze at the front of the 19th century Helsinki Cathedral when I was visiting that city earlier this week.
I’ve seen the same design in a 17th century German church.
Ample evidence, I hope, that this symbol is not “masonic” in origin. It was obviously borrowed by freemasonry as a symbol for God because it was already familiar to people through religious art.
Further reading: http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/anti-masonry02.html#eye_pyramid
Books for freemasons: Wilmshurst’s “The Meaning of Masonry”
Written in the 1920′s, the writer interprets Masonic ritual and mythology in a deeply mystical light, positing the Craft as a spiritual system. Its style can appear dated and overly tinged with the theosophical influences of its era, but it rewards in the end. For those masons who prefer not to see the Craft in such a way, this book can be startling, but for those who are truly “speculative” it provides a sane and informed perspective. If you view Masonry simply as an ethical dining club, this is not for you! Otherwise, an important classic of its type.
Incidentally, if you are curious about Wilmshurst’s legacy, he founded a lodge in Leeds, still going strong today, called the Lodge of Living Stones.
Restaurant/hotel review: “The Drawing Room”, Powys
We stayed here recently and I though it might be worth sharing our experiences.
More a restaurant with rooms or a boutique hotel, the owners of The Drawing Room set very high standards of presentation, decor, comfort and cooking, without being stuffy or overly formal. If you are staying in the area and can afford it, I’d recommend this over one of the larger hotels in Builth or Llandrindod Wells, particularly if you like elegance and peace and quiet.
The rooms are decorated in pastel shades with hand-made wallpapers and furniture in keeping with the archtiectural era of the house. Sumptuously thick materials suggest no expense was spared in getting the curtains and bedcovers right. There were more pillows and cushions than I could imagine using. Bad luck meant we weren’t able to get one of the larger rooms, but ours did not feel cramped.
As for the food, starters of a sort of crab timballe and a seafood meunière were competent and tasty while not dramatically good. The main courses delivered on their promise though. I had a Tournedos of Welsh Beef with caramelized Shallot “Tarte Tatin”, Potato and Root Vegetable Pavé, Horseradish and Parsley Cream and Beef Jus with Oxtail while Mrs Monnowman had a haunch of venison with sweet potato and asparagus. Both were very good, though of the two I was glad I had gone for the beef: the shallot tarte tatin was a revelation.
Cappuccino Mousse was a very grown up (read: “not too sweet”) dessert for Mrs M. while I went for the Toasted Pine Nut & Honey Tart with poached Figs and “Glaslyn” Estate Wild Flower Honey Ice-cream: a delightful combination of flavours and textures.
The passion of the proprietor chef for good, local ingredients, sympathetically cooked, is obvious in the richness of flavours delivered without the food becoming over-contrived in that fashionably- Michelin-starred way.
Only quibbles were the request in the literature not to drink your own alcohol in the rooms (you are asked to buy their -very expensive- stuff); we could easily hear our neighbours in the adjacent room; and the hostess, when serving food, said “thank you” too often!
But these are minor niggles. We really enjoyed our stay and the food was very good: recommended.
Jay-Z’s “On To The Next One” video is “masonic”. Oh give me a break.
I’m seeing tweets tagged #freemasonry that allege the video for Jay-Z’s “On To The Next One” contains masonic symbols. So I’ve watched the video looking for squares, compasses, paired columns, plumb rules, twelve inch guages, Jacob’s Ladder, acacia sprigs, symbols of mortality… that kind of stuff, familar to masons worldwide and easily researched. A four minute (yes, this was thorough) analysis of the visual motifs by this freemason of fifteen years, revealed none of these old favourites, but plenty of this stuff:
Cars, ink, jewelled skull, “Joker” character in face paint, guy in hood, horse, symmetry, flapping bird, running paint, woman, flaming basketball, milk bottles, dice, middle fingers, antelope skull, yacht, shoe, animal skull, teeth, face paint, black and white symmetrical liquids, three parallel lines, bullets, rosary and crucifix, champagne bottles.
No masonic symbols.
Just plenty of pseudo-occult posturing.
This just makes the point, obvious from the bonkers comments linking freemasonry with non-existent “Illuminati” and satanism, that much of Twitterdom is happy with very flawed information. So flawed, in fact that these ill-informed tweets are turning me into a gibbering maniac in the mould of Chief Inspector Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films.
Phenomenon or phenomena? A guide for Coast to Coast guests
I listen to quite a lot of the UFO/paranormal internet media, including Coast to Coast, The Paracast and Dreamland and have noticed that there is a real confusion sometimes among guests and presenters about when to say phenomenon, rather than phenomena.
Now I suppose it’s risking appearing snarky by pointing out the difference here as I only have third form Greek (I gave up after my teacher shouted at me for not learning the Greek capital letters) but my motivation is pure: some of the speakers on these shows are well-educated and are trying to make a case for the scientific investigation of UFO’s, bringing the subject out of the world of tabloid ridicule, because frankly, there is a genuine phenomenon of potentially paradigm-shaking importance that deserves serious investigation. And I’m right behind them.
If the serious researchers behind this movement want to be taken seriously, they’ll need a command of English up there with the best of those they are trying to convince. If they don’t know the difference between phenomenon and phenomena (both words they are going to be using a lot), they risk losing credibility in their first sentence.
It’s very simple: phenomena is the plural of phenomenon. Thus:
One phenomenon.
Twenty-seven phenomena.
It’s the same rule with criterion, by the way.
Restaurant review: Dragon’s Den Thai & Chinese, Monmouth.
The sort of situation that must present itself to millions on a Saturday night befell our household last night: too tired to cook, too tired to go and buy some food to cook. The obvious answer was a takeaway delivered to our home.
Monmouth has many restaurants, most of them in Indian/Bangladeshi. Indeed, I’ve wondered, every time a new Indian restaurant opens in the town why the owner believes there’s room for just one more Indian restaurant serving the same mid-range Indian food. When I asked one once, he told me, with a big grin, “because we are the best!”.
Anyway, Indian was not on the agenda because there was a new place in town selling Thai and Chinese food from the premises in St. Mary’s Street vacated by the Malt House. I had heard on the grapevine that the food at The Dragon’s Den was “bland” and not recommended. This concern was put to the back of my mind as I picked up the phone to make my order from the leaflet that promised “upmarket” Thai and Chinese cooking.
Achieving payment over the phone in advance seemed overly complicated as I was asked to give my order, then wait for a call back, at which point I could give my card number. The call duly came and I was told the food would leave the restaurant forty minutes later. That was fine.
The food arrived on time and we arranged the lavish spread that was Set Menu A at £16.95 per person. This worked out at much better value than selecting dishes I actually wanted individually, but at about £8.00 for each smallish takeaway container this would been unaffordable.
The grapevine was right.
The starter was a “Thai Platter”- “A selection of Thai starters”. This was a collection of deep-fried items that lacked variety in taste and texture: a spring roll, a wonton, prawn toast and a pureed chicken dumpling that had the texture and taste of a Chicken McNugget.
The main courses were disappointing too. The stir-fried pork, chicken curry and chicken with vegetables all lacked those essentials of Thai cooking: a contrast of flavours and texture that surprise the palate. There was not much evidence of Thai Basil leaves or garnish to give any visual appeal. OK, fair enough, it is difficult to make a plastic container visually appealing, but here they hadn’t even tried. There was just no finesse.
Now to be fair, getting a take-away means we weren’t able to sample the ambience and service offered by eating in the restaurant itself; and the food was by no means inedible.
Certainly serious money seems to have been spent on refurbishing the premises. It may be disloyal to a new business in Monmouth not to be nice about it, but it must stand on the quality of its product. On that basis, I’m afraid I can’t, at the moment recommend the Dragon’s Den’s takeaway experience. Let’s hope the quality will improve as the business gets into its stride. Monmouth needs some good Thai cuisine to balance the surfeit of Indian and Chinese outlets. Monmouthshire is foodie territory and the punters expect better!
Recipe: My favourite comfort food: Chicken Liver Risotto
This is a meal I make when I need comfort food. It’s not an authentic Italian-style risotto as it uses Basmati rice and the aim is not to produce the creamy nursery food dish that is the mark of a real risotto. So if that bothers you, call it “Rice and Chicken Livers”. If you use frozen ready chopped garlic and blitz the onion in the blender, it can be produced within 40 minutes on a weeknight while listening to The Archers on BBC Radio 4. Adjust proportions of rice to chicken livers as you like; just keep the ratio of rice to stock 1 to 1.
Serves Two.
Ingredients
400g fresh chicken livers (preferably free range), cleaned of any green-looking bits and chopped in half
1 large mug full of basmati rice (definitely not ordinary long grain rice)
1 fat garlic clove, chopped finely
1 onion, chopped finely
200 dry cure smoked bacon lardons
2 large mugs of hot chicken or duck stock
1 Bay leaf
Small handful each of finely chopped fresh sage and oregano/marjoram or whatever herbs you fancy (tarragon works well too)
Small handful of roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
Half glass of white wine or dry sherry
Freshly ground black pepper
1 glug of olive oil or a dollop of goose fat
A shake or two of Barbados hot pepper sauce or Tabasco.
Method
In a suitably-sized heavy-based pan that that has a tight fitting lid: Gently fry the bacon, onion and garlic in the olive oil/goose fat until beginning to turn golden. Throw in the livers, give them a stir, then put in the rice. Stir again so the rice is coated with oil, then add the bay leaf, herbs, pepper sauce/Tabasco, wine/sherry and a generous grind of black pepper. Stir, then add the stock. Stir again and reduce to the lowest heat you can, cover tightly with the lid, then wait until the rice has softened and absorbed all the stock. If it threatens to dry out, add a little more stock or wine. It should take no more than 15 minutes. Check seasoning, adding salt if necessary and stir in the parsley. Serve in a bowl to your grateful spouse first then scoff the rest yourself.
A functional and elegant makeover for the UGLE website
The United Grand Lodge of England’s website has had a pretty professional-looking redesign. It’s much more accessible to the non-mason and spells out, in a more articulate, eye-catching and , above all, contemporary way, what we are about.
Monnowman's Flickr Photos
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