friday 13th october (paraskevidekatriaphobics unite)

it was last friday 13th october in 2017 - horsemouth was out at max's mirkwood closing party to celebrate his book launch at st.leonard's church (the oranges and lemons church). horsemouth played a gig. he still regrets not getting a call-and-response round oranges and lemons going. 

'oranges and lemons (say the bells of st.clements),

oranges and lemons (say the bells of st.clements),

etc.'

it is the anniversary of the arrest of celebrated prison writer silvio pellico in milan in 1820 and the anniversary of the birth of pharaoh sanders (as 13ths of october). 

horsemouth has vowed to celebrate any friday the 13th as dominic cummings day - the day on which dominic cummings fell (thus effectively fucking brexit, turning the country into singapore-on-thames, and in particular levelling up and thus tory electoral hopes). this way horsemouth gets to celebrate it at least twice a year (and some years three times). he can also celebrate the 13th of november (the actual date 13/11/2020).

now friday the 13ths that fall on the same day of the week (as 2017 and 2023) are comparatively rare - typically  there are two cycles, one at 6 years apart and one at 11 years apart. this is because of the strange interaction of properties of days of the year which repeat at 365 day intervals (366 at every four years) and days of the week  (52*7) repeating every 364 days.

just like the beating of closely tuned musical notes it takes them a while to get into sync. broadly the days of the week are moved through at the rate of 1 day a year for normal years and 2 days a week for leap years - for the most optimal (shortest) the 6 years has 1 leap year in it (wheras the 11 year cycle typically has 2 leap years in it). the 11 year cycle is more common. 

2024 is a rare year in that it has a monday 1st january. 

given a list of china mieville, mervyn peake, robert rankin and terry pratchett as a friend's  favourite authors, horsemouth was asked who he would recommend.

horsemouth has never liked terry pratchett (or douglas adams for that matter - ok here horsemouth lies he was a big fan of the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy radio show, the books and the tv series/ film less so). robert rankin he doesn't really know. and so horsemouth must work within the china mieville / mervyn peake SF - fantasy corridor. 

m.john harrison's viriconium series horsemouth recommends (the more space-y kind of stuff by MJH leaves horsemouth cold). 

also as a continuation from the mervyn peake, he recommends langdon jones (who edited titus alone). also worth a look keith roberts, james sallis and many of the writers championed by new worlds science fiction magazine under the editorship of micheal moorcock. moorcock's two collections of victorian and edwardian science fiction (england invaded and before armageddon) are great. 

SF wise horsemouth always recommend pamela zoline's short story the heat death of the universe. 

horsemouth's interest in this stuff was revitalised by outlaw bookseller and bookpilled.

horsemouth generally read books that are translated from another language by preference (he's not sure why - he just finds them deeper and more meaningful). 

RIP alkaline. at the top of the page gunshot in action with MC alkaline demonstrating his upside-down style.