(no subject)

So the National Records Office or National Archive - I don't know, whichever one has the funny-shaped glassy buildings by the Thames at Kew, has just spent four months putting the Domesday Book online, which is great, because of course for reasons too lengthy for me to really be bothered with going into them here, it's a fantastically worthy and very interesting historical document, and if I live to be 104 I will be around for it's 1,000th birthday in 2086, and even though we have history coming out of our ears in a way that makes many Americans of my accquaintance froth rabidly at the mouth-parts, something actually being 1,000 years old is pretty cool. So that I don't get asked, it's essentially a medieval census and says, in all honesty, things like: 'Ye village offe Birmingam has twoe huttes. Ye serfes owne a cow and tyme shares in summe piggewigges, alle offe whyche isse worthye three groates,' and it was taken by William the Conqueror so that he could find out all about whatever it was he'd just conquered, which if the movies are to be believed consists mainly of a series of low, mist-shrouded hills with lots of people called Ethelbert and a vaguely Celtic soundtrack: 'Ye theme to ye village isse provyded by Clannad, wythe vocalles by Enya.'

Anyhow, as this is so very important - since now we can look at it on a screen and not have to worry about turning the pages with tweezers and getting essential oils on the vellum - the National Thingummy is very keen to 'raise awareness' - which led to a very earnest young man taking to the air for this morning's 8 o'clock news bulletin on Radio 2.

'Not a lot of people know what the Domesday Book is,' he said. 'Some people thought it was by Dan Brown.'

And I'm thinking ... genocide against the stupid ... is that so wrong?