COCKNEY (n., a.) Native of London whose speech is devoid of adjectives, their apparel adorned with buttons for no apparient reason
Dr. Johnson’s London Dictionary for publick consumption in the twenty-first century avail yourself on Twitter @JohnsonsLondon
In the mid-60s I worked on the Monotype typesetting machine which was driven by a 28-hole ribbon, and by 1982 this was replaced by the Bedford Blue digital typesetting system. Since then I’ve trained on half-a-dozen code-driven typesetters and in 2008 I started blogging, first on Blog, moving to Google’s Blogger, finally settling on WordPress.
So I’m not a newbie to setting words on a monitor so why after a lifetime of writing words do I find the WordPress Block Editor so counter-intuitive?
WordPress describes ‘Gutenberg’ as:
. . . the codename for a whole new paradigm for creating, that aims to revolutionize the entire publishing experience as much as Gutenberg did the printed word.
Well, that’s what WordPress say, Johannes Gutenberg completely changed typesetting and printing making it infinitely easier than the old method of hand-written manuscripts. Not so WordPress’s Gutenberg.
First, this ‘improved’ Block Editor system is slower as the internet has to cope with all the pretty pictures.
The system works with blocks, which is great if you’re just hitting words and spaces. The problems arise when you want to format this text using HTML (next to impossible) or add any illustrations, each needing its own ‘block’. The post then needs a block to add the picture’s caption, and yet another block for subsequent text.
Another option is to type your post into your text editor/Word application of choice and then copy and paste it into the Block Editor piece by piece, block by block, placing images (in image blocks) as you go. And to think before, you had the inconvenience of ‘inserting’ media and voilà completed.
As for the widgets! First, a few minutes elapse as the blocks are generated. Then the CSS block doesn’t show the line numbers or first characters on each line of code on my laptop, and the whole sequence of blocks are doing a jig at the same time.
It’s not just an old man resisting change, over on WordPress.org, the Classic Editor has a rating of 4.5 stars or so, out of 5 stars. While the Gutenberg editor, which was still listed separately last week when I was over there has a rating of 2 stars out of 5. I’m surprised it managed a single star.
I had intended to upload to CabbieBlog until Sunday 29th February 2032 which by then I would have been writing about London for nearly 25 years and had become a mid-term octogenarian, probably writing from the security of my old peoples’ home. Sadly if WordPress discontinue offering the ‘classic editor’ option of their much-derided new method of working I’ll be signing off a lot earlier.
And yet London is a solid city, in spite of the broken images it evokes in the mind of a wanderer like myself. There is a grandeur there, an impersonal power of endurance that is somehow comforting beneath the rot.
James Wright (1927-1980), A Wild Perfection: The Selected Letters of James Wright
On 20 February 1702 William of Orange was riding Sorrel, in Hampton Court Park, the horse stumbled on a molehill and fell throwing the King who broke his collarbone, with fatal consequences. This incident was to give rise to a new Jacobite toast, ‘To the little gentleman in black velvet’. An equestrian statue of William III in St. James’s Square has His Majesty upon Sorrel with the little molehill near the horse’s hooves.
On 20 February 1547 the Coronation of Edward VI took place at Westminster Abbey, he was just nine years old
On 20 February 1965 the crimson backed hardwood ‘Ghost Chair’ at Brompton Oratory Roman Catholic Church was stolen, it would resurface years later in a ruined South American church
César Ritz founded the Carlton Hotel now replaced by New Zealand House in the Haymarket after being sacked from the Savoy
One advantage of motor vehicles replacing the horse was a decrease in typhoid as the great piles of dung disappeared from London’s streets
Winston Churchill, exiled leaders Charles de Gaulle and Jan Masaryk used the Savoy Hotel and Grill as their London home during World War II
Theatre Royal Drury Lane London’s oldest theatre originally a playhouse on the site in 1662 Charles II made them part of the Royal Household
The National Army Museum has the bloodied saw used to remove the Marquess of Anglesey’s leg after being shattered by cannon fire at Waterloo
Wimbledon is now the only Grand Slam tournament still played on natural grass, maintained by 16 ground staff plus 12 during Championships
London’s first mechanically driven taxi was battery powered but slower than their horse-drawn predecessors as a result went bust in 5 years
Willliam Blake’s ‘dark satanic mills’ mentioned in his poem Jerusalem were the Albion Mills near his Lambeth home
When RAC Club’s President, the Duke of Sutherland, had one of his four Rolls-Royces outside the Club its engine was kept running for immediate departure
Trivial Matter: London in 140 characters is taken from the daily Twitter feed @cabbieblog.
A guide to the symbols used here and source material can be found on the Trivial Matter page.
For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.
It’s hard to believe now but once, and I’m afraid you will have to take my word for this, once Leicester Square was a rather splendid public space. But in 1936 town planners decided to steal a march on Hitler and start destroying London first.
The old Alhambra Theatre was a prime site for ‘redevelopment’.
Max Miller who at the time was probably the most famous entertainer in England, heard it was being demolished he went along for the last look at the building he’d performed on many occasions.
When he arrived at lunchtime on hearing that the famous stage was about to be taken down he climbed on the boards and gave the workmen a hilarious one-hour performance. Ten minutes after he’d finished, the stage was gone for ever.
Near the end of his life he confessed that his proudest professional moment was as he put it “closing the old Alhambra”.
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