Kimchi...Yuk!

Can I really have lived 69 years without hearing of kimchi? If you haven’t heard of it too, it is said to be a Korean superfood. I bought some the other week and ended up throwing away the entire jar. Yuk!

Having said that, I am sure I’ve actually eaten it before because certain noodles I’ve bought from a Vietnamese shop in Croydon and a shop I used at Peckham (when I visited Goodman) have that taste, only nowhere near as foul. It isn’t just the taste, it’s the red stuff.

I tried kimchi because I saw it featured in a few YouTube videos including one by a doctor whose channel has millions of subscribers. He also recommended sauerkraut, which he said is also a superfood. I’ve eaten sauerkraut before of course, but only in very small quantities. I bought a big jar of it and ended up throwing that away too. Utterly disgusting. I’ve been told it is an acquired taste. Many people say the same thing about beer; I never acquired a taste for that either.

The same people who tell us kimchi and sauerkraut are superfoods also tell us that highly processed foods like ice cream are bad for us. I really like vanilla ice cream, rather than being bad, it’s good for my palate, and frankly, at my age that is all I care about.

Fame, Fortune, And Failure

If you haven’t heard of the band featured on the screengrab below, they hail from Chicago and since 2017 have toured with Al Stewart. At some point, they became his backing band, performing a short set of their own then returning after the interval to play with Al. I saw them at London’s Cadogan Hall in October 2019 and October 2022. They may not be the best band in the world but they are a long way from the worst. Their lead guitarist Josh Solomon has written at least one classic song — Privatize The Profits; they have also had a Billboard Number 1.

On September 5, 2025, Al Stewart turned 80, and as part of The Farewell Tour, performed at the London Palladium on October 15. When I phoned the box office a week in advance, I was told there were only eight tickets left, and indeed, the concert was sold out, so how on Earth could the above video have been viewed only twice in eleven months? — asks the most shadow banned individual on the Internet! Sadly, it’s an old, old story — some are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them, while some are born mediocre, achieve only mediocrity, yet are adored by millions.

There are many talented people out there in music, the arts, and other disciplines who should achieve greatness but have to settle for much less. I know, I’ve met some of them. They include Dani Clay — world famous in Brentwood, and an unknown Chinese computer technician whose cycling innovation went all but unnoticed. Best not to mention the mediocrities who fared far better than all the above.

Cousin Marriage, And...?

So we have had Pakistani grooming gangs, Pakistani jihadis, and now we have Pakistani first cousin marriages. These latter are a social problem because?

We are told they lead to genetic deformities and abnormalities, but do they? Let’s leave the statistics aside for the moment.

First though, if you find the subject of cousins confusing, here is a simple chart that explains it c/o FamilySearch dot org.

Queen Victoria married her first cousin; Albert gave her four sons and five daughters. Although she outlived four of her offspring, the only one who might have been considered physically disabled was Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany who died in 1884 at the age of 30; he suffered from haemophilia.

Studies in the UK and elsewhere show the prognosis for the offspring of first cousin marriages is only slightly worse than for non-cousin marriages. Leaving that aside, haven’t its opponents heard of amniocentesis? Iceland has virtually eliminated Down’s syndrome, so why can’t the world eliminate birth defects from cousin marriages? After all, we are constantly being told abortion is a right.

Leaving that aside, isn’t it better that Pakistanis in Britain and throughout the West marry among themselves, or do we really want their menfolk riding around with underage white girls in taxis à la Rotherham and elsewhere?