(299) Gazing out through a pair of Dragonfly eyes

On Sunday April 7th 2024 I was upgrading/improving The Narrative Entry here Living the Dream: A Coincidence Diary: The Narrative, plus Epilogues and Appendices (james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com) and lingered on Points (45-51) re William Hartston either achieving, or missing by the skin of his teeth, grandmaster norms in the 1970s. I actually e mailed him re some details.

He replied and our interchange continued until, on the morning of Monday April 8th 2024, I e mailed to ask a few more questions.  And since my 'revamping' had also demanded work on Appendices Four and Five, I e mailed again to add something very similar to Point (63) of the Narrative -

" Btw

the crater ́s also to be seen here in the ESA Press Release -
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMEYGN0LYE_index_0.html
It is the same photo as appears on my book ́s cover.

Only this time in colour:
March 1st 2007 was also the date on which Professor Roderick Main's book Revelations of Chance was released.

"Earthrise over Plaskett Crater".
The European Space Agency release is dated March 1st 2007.

The area Luna Incognita was not reconnoitred until the first probes sent back data. The earliest map of Luna Incognita was published on March 18th 1960. 

One unappreciated feature then was that Plaskett ́s Crater, of ́the dark side of the moon, is actually the very opposite.
Because of its proximity to the lunar North Pole it is 

permanently bathed in sunlight.

And here ́s the crater (See two minutes in) and the earth captured in 2007 -

KAGUYA taking "Earth-rise" by HDTV (Nov. 7, 2007) (youtube.com)

KAGUYA taking "Earth-rise" by HDTV (Nov. 7, 2007)

"...   ...   ...

On the afternoon of Monday April 8th 2024 I travelled back by train after lunching in Alumbres. For this short trip, Señor Juan Jesús Sánchez, the same gentleman of the journey made on February 1st 2024 and mentioned in Entry 40 Living the Dream: A Coincidence Diary: (40) Stephen Fry, the former editor of The Times, Sir William (now Lord) Rees-Mogg and I all judge what is fit to be viewed as rational (james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com) was once again the conductor. Only now he had a small sticker in the form of a five pointed red star stuck on his forehead! I pointed to it and told him there was a star bearing my surname and thought to be the largest in the universe.

I had already done what I had told him I would be doing, i.e. e mailed him the Youtube versions of Strangers in the Night and Love is in the Air. And then, on April 11th 2024, I sent him this -

Plaskett's Star - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When I boarded the same train on Monday April 15th he greeted me with a nod and, "Plaskett". And since I had also mentioned to him that there was a crater on the moon bearing my name, I went on to affirm that in another e mail of that same evening -

KAGUYA taking "Earth-rise" by HDTV (Nov. 7, 2007) (youtube.com)

On Tuesday, April 9th, 2024 at 13:51, as part of our continuing interchange, I sent an e mail to William Hartston and concluded with -

´ Here by the Med, I am trying to improve at guitar, piano and Spanish.

NONE of these am I finding at all easy (although my son is bilingual and teaches English as a foreign language.)'  

And then, ever so slightly prompted by things such as Sñr Sanchez ́s  star sticker, I added something which felt like more than a feeling -

́Neverthess, I sense, other things are moving into position...´

In the process of amending and updating The Narrative Entry, I was moved to look still further into the star of largest known mass - Plaskett's Star. Some Google hits came back with The Plaskett Medal, something of which (I think!) I had already for some time been aware. (It was named after "Jack" Plaskett who, along with his son, "Harry" had discovered the star in 1922. My father was known as Jack and my first name is Harold.) Plaskett Medal | RASC

The Medal is made of gold and awarded annually. I now saw that the last recipient, in 2023, was a Dr Deborah Lokhorst.

I searched her out on Social media. Here ́s her Twitter account -

Deborah Lokhorst

@DeborahLokhorst

Following

Instrument Science Research Associate at National Research Council Canada. Member of the Dragonfly Telephoto Array team, pianist, hiker, avid reader.

I began to follow her there, and thought it might be interesting for one of the perhaps no more than 5,000 Plasketts to mention the route that brought me to her. Dragonfly Telephoto Array - Wikipedia

The following day, April 10th 2024, I logged in to Twitter to find a  message awaiting me from a Josh Green - 

Dear Mr Plaskett, Hope all is well with you. I'm a development executive at Dragonfly (part of Banijay UK). Dragonfly is one of the world's leading specialists in multi-award winning documentaries and factual programmes for all major UK and international broadcasters from BBC to Netflix. I'm fascinated by your book Bad Show: the Quiz, the Cough, the Millionaire Major and loved the drama series Quiz. I'm currently developing a potential three-part docu-series examining the taping of the show, the ensuing trial, and the 20-year aftermath for the US streaming platforms. We'd really like to work with you on the project and wondered if it would be possible to speak to you over the phone or video call? ... ... ... For more information, please see our website: http:// dragonfly.tv. Kind regards, Josh

Seems the ́messaging ́ aspect of Twitter had, very soon prior to this message being sent, altered. It had now become possible for those who were not being followed by an individual to request to send them a message accompanied by the option of having it read.

(And this now the fourth UK company within sixteen months to contact me to discuss making a documentary about the case of Major Charles Ingram.)

The request from Josh Green had rested unopened overnight... so each Dragonfly had happened on Tuesday April 9th 2024.

Contact with two different Dragonflies on the same day was such a coincidence that I was led to regard this FOURTH approach re a documentary about Major Charles Ingram to be, in contrast with the previous three, very likely to lead to something. So I responded warmly to Josh Green and also tried to contact the current holder of the Plaskett Medal. I sent this e mail to Project ́Dragonfly ́. -

projectdragonfly@icloud.com

Wed, 10 Apr at 23:49

Hello projectdragonfly!

I am wondering if it might be possible to send an e mail to Dr Lokhorst.

Could anyone, perhaps, help?

 Many thanks,

James Plaskett

(298) The Relic. Annas, Annes and Anns. The origin of The Seven Deadly Sins. The Resurrection!?

 On the evening of March 13th 2024, Raymond Keene sent to me (and also independently, to my wife) this (quite unsolicited) poem in an e mail 

The Relic

BY JOHN DONNE

When my grave is broke up again
       Some second guest to entertain,
       (For graves have learn'd that woman head,
       To be to more than one a bed)
                And he that digs it, spies
A bracelet of bright hair about the bone,
                Will he not let'us alone,
And think that there a loving couple lies,
Who thought that this device might be some way
To make their souls, at the last busy day,
Meet at this grave, and make a little stay?

         If this fall in a time, or land,
         Where mis-devotion doth command,
         Then he, that digs us up, will bring
         Us to the bishop, and the king,
                To make us relics; then
Thou shalt be a Mary Magdalen, and I
                A something else thereby;
All women shall adore us, and some men;
And since at such time miracles are sought,
I would have that age by this paper taught
What miracles we harmless lovers wrought.

         First, we lov'd well and faithfully,
         Yet knew not what we lov'd, nor why;
         Difference of sex no more we knew
         Than our guardian angels do;
                Coming and going, we
Perchance might kiss, but not between those meals;
                Our hands ne'er touch'd the seals
Which nature, injur'd by late law, sets free;
These miracles we did, but now alas,
All measure, and all language, I should pass,

Should I tell what a miracle she was. 

Which he immediately followed up with other e mails to explain how it was "Coincidence of the day" -

"Last night ( Tuesday) I watched a movie called Bright Hair, a title taken from a John Donne poem , The Relic. The plot features Emilia Fox as a teenage girl with a split personality. Anne and Ann. One is a murderous psychopath , the other a normal schoolgirl.

Psychological thriller about a 15-year-old girl in a quiet village who becomes unhinged after seeing a brutally-murdered woman's body. She starts behaving erratically, going places she knows she shouldn't and exhibiting extreme behavioural traits. Meanwhile, other people are being murdered, and she has total blackouts during those times. Is her philandering father involved in the murders, her overpowering boyfriend... or could she be responsible herself ?

Then tonight I saw the Brecht/Weill cantata The Seven Deadly Sins. I booked it blind with no idea of the plot , which I shall now send you."

Ray

The programme LPO programme sheet: 13 Mar 2024 - The Seven Deadly Sins (Battersea Arts Centre) by London Philharmonic Orchestra - Issuu describes it thus -

´ Described as a "sung ballet", The Seven Deadly Sins was written by German-Jewish composer Kurt Weill, with a libretto by Bertolt Brecht...

The Seven Deadly Sins tells the story of Anna, who is sent by her exploitative family on a seven-year journey through seven different American cities to earn enough money for them to build a house. Anna is torn betwen the need to make money and her morals and as such has a split personality: ´Anna I´ represents her practical, cynical side and ´Anna II´ her passionate, idealistic side. Meanwhile, the family fills the role of a ´Greek chorus´, singing as one and providing a mocking commentary on the action.

Anna II tries to follow her heart, but everytime she is scolded by practical Anna I for committing one of the deadly sins (Sloth,  Pride, Anger, Gluttony, Lust, Greed and Envy) , because each ´sin´ in some way gets in the way of the money making. In Memphis, Anna II must give up her ´Pride´ to satisfy her clients as a cabaret dancer and her ´Lust´ in Boston when she wants to share her earnings with the man she loves. It´s all timelessly satirical, ironising society´s willingness to sacrifice values for financial gain.´

And so I replied by explaining how his coincidence contributed to one of mine. 

For, about five days previously, I had (at long last!) gotten around to amending Blog entry (108). Firstly by altering the title from The Parousia Novel (the title I had given it in my 2000 book, Coincidences) to its new heading, Living the Dream: A Coincidence Diary: (108) The novel about The Second Coming (james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com) and then adding the codicil of seven separate strands apropos Anna Durrant and Anne Cooper, because I thought they entwined themselves into a valid coincidence. A coincidence not wholly distinct from the context/headings of Entry (108). 

However, I wasn´t sure whether my friend Martin Cooper´s sister was an Ann or an Anne. And even toyed with the notion of appending a bracketed (e) to her name to indicate that.

Then came Keene´s surprise e mail to each of us of a poem of which I had never even heard (although my wife had read it) with it´s reference to Mary Magdalen and an exhumation. And, some would say, to The Resurrection itself... The Truth About the Holy Grail | The Da Vinci Code (Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen) (youtube.com)

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail - Wikipedia

'The Lost Gospel': The ancient manuscript that claims Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children | The Independent | The Independent

Then the follow on of the split personality of Emilia Fox when portraying a girl in the film Bright Relic (a title stemming from Donne´s poem, The Relic) as she flits between Ann and Anne.

This coincidence nexus moved me to consult the Wiki Entry on Mary Magdalene - Wikipedia I was to learn that she herself was cited by Pope Gregory 1st as the very source of The Seven Deadly Sins - 

´In Pope Gregory's interpretation, the seven demons expelled from Mary Magdalene by Jesus are transformed into the seven deadly sins of medieval Catholicism, leading Mary "to be condemned not only for lust, but for pride and covetousness as well." The aspect of the repentant sinner became almost equally significant as the disciple in her persona as depicted in Western art and religious literature, fitting well with the great importance of penitence in medieval theology. ´

...   ...   ...

Lastly, and after I had blogged all of the above, I received an e mail from The Free Press on March 31st 2024: Easter Sunday. (Earlier in March I had begun to follow The Free Press on Twitter where I had already for some time followed Douglas Murray. I had also been listening to Youtube pieces featuring him.) It was indeed such a clip on Twitter which had led me to follow The Free Press. I was aware that he styled himself as an Atheist. 

I noted the theme of Murray´s piece... and also the name of John Donne´s wife.

Things Worth Remembering: The Resurrection of the Body and the Immortality of the Soul

Preacher-poet John Donne gave voice to his faith with a sermon on how God will raise the dead.

DOUGLAS MURRAY MAR 31 ∙ PREVIEW

READ IN APP

The John Donne Memorial at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. (Photo by Stephen Burrows via Alamy)

Welcome to Douglas Murray’s column, Things Worth Remembering, in which he presents great speeches from famous orators we should commit to heart. To listen to Douglas read and reflect on John Donne’s Sermon LXXXI, scroll to the end of this piece. 

I wonder if there has ever been a bigger change in our collective way of thinking than in our transition from the age of faith to the age of doubt. Inevitably, it is on my mind this Easter.

Millions of people around the world believe in the literal resurrection, when God lifts His believers into heaven. I suppose untold numbers are unsure or doubtful about this, while keeping within the borders of faith. For myself, I can’t help looking back at the age of faith—or even certainty—with envy.

Last year, I wrote in this space about the great English poet John Donne. He was perhaps the greatest of the “metaphysical” poets, a man whose work was laced with a raciness and a realness that, for some, lay in contradiction with his position as a clergyman and dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Personally, I don’t see any contradiction. He was a person able to appreciate and understand all of humankind—nodding to it even when he didn’t embrace it. As well as the joys of the body, he was intensely interested in its dissolution and destruction. 

But then he lived in a time when death stalked life more brutally and obviously than it does today. He and his wife Anne lost three of their children before they had all reached their tenth birthdays. Another two of their children were stillborn. Donne, meanwhile, was often ill, and in one of his illnesses he wrote to a friend that:...

(297) Lightning strikes connect husband and wife. Piano mastery to begin the next day. Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

• On October 19th 2023 at 19:38 I was proof-reading and, to some extent, expanding my book Bread and the Circus. Bread and the Circus eBook : Plaskett, James: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store  

  • It is about my own involvements with the TV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? 

  I also had this playing in the background on Youtube - Surgeon Struck by Lightning : Discovers the God Energy (Near-Death Experience) - YouTube

  
  

  Surgeon Struck by Lightning : Discovers the God Energy (Near-Death Exper...

  
  

  
  

    

  • Although I had a Yamaha keyboard, I rarely used it. But I had been experiencing the most compelling desire to make music, and found myself thinking very seriously about mastering piano to a high level. And, even perhaps the very next day, buying and installing a proper piano. Pedals and all!
  • My wife had, thirty years before, taught me how to trace out a few Beatles tunes. But only with the right hand.
  • Well, I had the thing on Youtube playing because it was about a near death experience. I had no idea at all that such an experience would lead to Tony Cicoria - Wikipedia developing any interest in the piano.
  • But, listen to Tony say at 18:50 how, after he was struck by lightning, he was ineluctably drawn to learn and play piano, but did not even possess one. And then the next day his baby sitter asked if she could store a classical piano at his house for a year.
  • As I was going through the proofs I reached the point in the first chapter where I quote from the email Av Rosen sent me about the TV News commenting that one was more likely to be struck by lightning than to have two people from the same family appear on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? -

  
  

  ´The American news mentioned that one is more likely to be struck by lightning than have two people from the same family make it to the finalist stage of the show. But, as Av commented to me, there had been more than one instance of the same person making it on to the show twice, and that could hardly be more improbable.´
  

  
  

  I am not entirely certain how far into the Youtube clip I was when the coincidence struck me. Certainly not before the surgeon got hit by lightning. But then I saw the parallels with his story. 

  It was his own mother he had been phoning. 

  His wife ran out to cope with him after the lightning struck.

  From the Hot Seat I had rung my wife as Phone a Friend. 

  
  

  And Av Rosen too related a happier ending, as a few months later he e mailed to say he and his daughter, had, whilst competing in an online Quiz, won $500,000!

  ...   ...   ...                                              Fast forward to February 13th 2024 when my piece arguing for a miscarriage of justice in the 2003 trial of Major Charles Ingram, Reasonable Doubt, was published in The Article. https://www.thearticle.com/reasonable-doubt-was-the-coughing-major-innocent?utm_source=most_rated

   Four days later, Raymond Keene had this piece appear there too           Shakespeare, Borges and ‘Plaskett’s Immortal’

  
  

  Shakespeare, Borges and ‘Plaskett’s Immortal’ | TheArticle Just before the 1986 world championship in London I was sitting in the living room of our Kensington flat, writi...

  
  

  "While seeking a game of epic Shakespearean dimension, to mirror the  seeming  quarkiness of Quantum Theory,I came across this death-defying feat by Grandmaster James Plaskett — “Plaskett’s Immortal”, no less. 
  

  
  

  "... Plaskett´s immortal, no less."

  Hmmm!?

  Could the surgeon´s story point to each and every one of us being "immortal           
• And no less!?"