Thought For The Day No. 18 - With The Rabbi Anders Weiss

..religious leader, psychologist, spiritual guru and arbiter of good taste.. . 

"A person who loves himself has little competition".


George C. Lichtenberg

60 Years Of The PMC - The PMC Unilaterally Declares Independence

2010 marks the 60th anniversary of the launch of the PMC. Yes, it's impossible to believe, but that's because it is impossible.

To mark this auspicious occasion the PMC will be taking a retrospective of some of the outstanding posts of the past six decades. From Cold War to Coldplay and from Ban the Bomb to Ban the Burka, every decade will be represented, and includes highlights from some of the most talked about of contributors...Bertrand Russell, Hunter S. Thompson, Roman Polanski, Roald Dahl and Limahl from Kajagoogoo,  to name but a few - none of them contributed to the PMC's pages (oh, hold on a second, Limahl had a regular section in the early 80s) 

First published on 11 November 1965

"The Puumaja Crew would like to announce that it has unilaterally declared independence from the blogspot organisation, as they do things that we don't like. We are reverting to our original name, Wooden Houseshire,  and, since we feel beset by enemy blogs on all sides, expect blogspot to come in and save us when the going gets tough anyway.

We simply can't bear the idea of our civilized and productive blog being brought down by the primitive peoples in our midst until such time as they have learnt to blog properly. We are particularly disappointed that, despite all the aid to our kith and kin at blogspot, they don't seem to understand this and whilst we have some kind of rose-tinted view of what their organisation stands for and, in the final analysis are always likely ultimately to fall in line, this is not going to happen before we've enjoyed our fair share of mischief-making".


Ian 'The Leopard' Smith

Understated Farewells

At this time of year with ESL groups ending, people leaving the country and so on, it would be easy to not make any effort at all with the valedictory turns.

The only problem with that is you may end up doing something really understated and level-headed, like this offering from Doris, Leroy, Dr Zhirovsky and the gang. They might as well not have bothered!

Hopefully this salutary reminder will help all of us not to duck out of our responsibilities and end up with something so very desultory, lazy and insulting!

On This Day 341 Years Ago

..the last entry, 31 May 1669 ..

And thus ends all that I doubt I shall ever be able to do with my own eyes in the keeping of my Journall [sic], I being not able to do it any longer, having done now so long as to undo my eyes almost every time that I take a pen in my hand; and therefore, whatever comes of it, I must forbear...And so I betake myself to that course, which is almost as much as to see myself go into my grave: for which, and all the discomforts that will accompany my being blind, the good God prepares me!

Well, maybe our eyes are almost undone every time we take up the laptop, so who knows if there will ever be any more entries. There again Pepys lived for another 34 years, dying at Clapham (in the Seventeenth Century that was nothing like as ignominious as it would be in the Twenty-first) having served as President of the Royal Society, and imprisoned on suspicions (never proven) of Jacobitism, though he was good mates with the former James II. He never went blind.

60 Years Of The PMC - We Don't Like Satire

Originally posted on 24 August 1961...

Since this blog began over ten years ago, we've had a never-ending stream of questionable publications claiming to be 'satirical' cross our desks. Often these pernicious rags are little more than schoolboy comics or student rant sheets, but few so insiduous, so inadvisedly crass and offensive as the sorry offering we received the other day, which calls itself the 'Private Eye'

Founded by Oxbridge just-about-graduates with evidently nothing better to do, the magazine if you can call it such, claims to take an askance view at the week's news, to uncover wrong-doing and to poke fun at pomposity. So far so good, but just how do these people think that they are imbued with some kind of divine right to send up their elders and betters is anyone's guess. What do their parents think about it?

We at the PMC have every faith that our politicians and our élites behave honourably at all times, and have no need to have their every move pried into by these delinquent would-be journalists.

We fully expect that the pubication will bomb; magazine publishing is an expensive busines and we can't see it surviving in the cut and thrust of the modern marketplace. This is nearly 1962 for heaven's sake, the world is on the edge of nuclear annihilation, morals seem to have broken down everywhere, and pouring out more of this dirge just serves to provoke people. It simply can't stand up for more than a few issues, not in a field saturated with  publications such as 'The Penny Review', 'Beg your Pardon?',  'Stiffer's Weekly',  'Just For A Rag',  'The New Statemen', the list goes on...We certainly can't see it ever holding a candle to the inherently superior 'Punch', not ever.


No, our prediction, and we are seldom wrong (witness our 'colour TV by 1963' piece), is that it will fall foul of the burgeoning libel laws in this country, thus bankrupting itself and returning to the antediluvian ooze from whence it emanated.

The Leopard

Tule Trenni..

..if you're in the Tallinn area and at a loose end or looking for a new way of working out physically, plus learning a bit about self-discipline not to mention some self defense skills thrown in  - don't go to the pub, set aside some time on a Teisipäev, Nelipäev evening (plus Sunday afternoon if you like) to come to Bujinkan training.

Bujinkan is a Japanese martial art based on 9 traditional schools as brought together by Soke Masaaki Hatsumi, a martial arts veteran, advisor to the movies and recipient of Papal Blessing no less.

Training includes both open hand and weapon styles, and self-defence techniques are taught.

It's quite physical; the author had done Aikido a little before which is difficult but not so knackering, and failing to drink enough fluids during the two hour training session led to quite bad dehydration sickness the next day (kind of like a bad hangover without the guilt)

It costs 700 EEK which isn't so cheap, but compare that to a month's worth of sitting in the pub talking about nothing to people you don't even like, it's quite reasonable.

Here's the website...

60 Years Of The PMC - Red Purge

First posted 28 May 1959..

The Ninja has been removed forthwith from the roster of the Puumajacrew's staff for overtly pro-Soviet sentiments.

The PMC - It Solves To Be Improved...

You can have a lot of fun with this random mission statement generator:

So, the PMC is happy to announce that:

"Our efforts involve demonstrating the full range of our dynamic metamorphosis with quality solutions and improved returns at all levels".

Then run it through babelfish, English to Japanese, then back again, for that authentic Engrish look and it becomes:

"It solves to be improved, fact of quality that is included, which the full range of our effort our dynamic is shown the return, make become deformed and all levels."

...so there we have it.