Rigby's Encyclopaedia of the Herring

Graeme Philip Rigby

Sooner or later the herring swims into most seas & subject matters. With over 100 entries & more to come Rigby's Encyclopaedia is a free online resource (www.herripedia.com) which revels in the joy of those connections. This is its podcast! Discover the herring's role in history & remarkable natural history, the fishing of herring & eating of herring, herrings in art, literature, custom & tradition. Expect the folly of mankind (always) but also expect the unexpected. Fresh & salted, pickled, kippered, bloatered, bucklinged & red, expect the King of Fishes. Cover art: Keith McIntyre

Episodes

  1. 08/12/2022

    The Art of Gutting Fish

    An interview with Cullercoats artist Penelope Payne exploring her herring lass works, reflections on Hill & Adamson's The Fishermen and Women of the Firth of Forth and Winslow Homer's Cullercoats paintings, lots of stuff about fishwives, fisher lasses, herring girls and herring lasses, guest appearances by Keith McIntyre and Catriona Macdonald,.. What more could anybody want? 00:20 An Introduction featuring Keith McIntyre as Professor John Wilson; 03:10 Penelope Payne on Fish Wives; 07:29 Hill, Adamson and Twa Bonnie Lasses; 15:50 Penelope Payne and Winslow Homer; 21:30 Curing herrings: the learning curve; 25:00 The herring lasses; 31:50 Penelope Payne's Weight of Salt; 37:40 Herring girls on strike featuring Catriona Macdonald as Christine Jackman; 42:00 Penelope Payne's Horizons; 56:05 Acknowledgements.

    57 min
  2. Lenten Stuffe

    03/04/2022

    Lenten Stuffe

    Everything you ever wanted to know about fasting and fish, in particular the herring! General fast days, Ember Days and, of course, Lent. How did Christian fasting develop? What is the whole fish thing all about? What manifestations of herring mockery have blessed Christendom over the centuries? Where does Shakespeare's Falstaff fit into all this? And what about the canons for Reims Cathedral. In a special guest appearance, Ian Duhig reads his poem Pascal Anthem. Alexandre Dumas gives us his great lost prequel to The Three Musketeers. 00:00 Introduction - including Ian Duhig's Paschal Anthem 07:50 Fasting: The Whens & Wherefores 15:50 Why Fish? 24:00 The Economics of Herring Fishing 26:40 Herring Mockery 37:40 Acknowledgements

    39 min
  3. What's in a Name?

    02/10/2022

    What's in a Name?

    From The Great Sardine Litigation to the taxonomy of the herring; evolution to the racial theory of the herring; from ice ages to global warming... Featuring Enoch Snow of Carousel, The Notorious B.I.G., The Junk Yard Band, the Oscars Hammerstein I, II & III, Edward Rigby, the Tyneside grocery entrepreneur Angus Watson, father of taxonomy Carl Linnaeus, Charles Darwin, Francis Galton, Marcus Eliezer Bloch, Friedrich Heincke, William Hodgson played by Kenneth More, Anatoly Svetovidov & The Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR:a A podcast in eight fitts, each with its own specially-crafted limerick. What more do you want? 00:00 Fitt the First: Sardines or Herrings - from Carousel to Biggie Smalls and The Junk Yard Band; 07:15 Fitt the Second: Angus Watson - My Life, Angus Watson and the The Great Sardine Litigation; 12:35 Fitt the Third: The Glory that was Rome - fish paste, binomial nomenclature and etymology; 17:11 Fitt the Fourth: Plain English - Evolution, The King James Bible and Scientific Racism; 20:14 Fitt the Fifth: A Taxonomic Descent of the Herring - from Empire to Species; 25:12 Fitt the Sixth: Oh, Friedrich Heincke - the Racial Theory of Herring, William Hodgson and Kenneth More; 35:52 Fitt the Seventh: Svetovidov & Ponomareva - the great systematist against the system; 41:04 Fitt the Eighth: Change is Gonna Come - breakfasts of fragile diversity; 43:33 End/Acknowledgements.

    45 min
  4. Sovereign of the Seas

    11/17/2021

    Sovereign of the Seas

    Our hero, the herring, and the sad story of C17th struggles for British maritime sovereignty and fishing limits, the chopping down of Chopwell Wood and the chopping off of Charles I's head, not to mention the fishy obsessions of the House of Stuart - together with The Herring Buss, a traditional jig played by Rob Harbron, the herripedia's Official English Concertina Player. O.00 Titles / In Chopwell Wood with Ceoppa and Charles I; 3.05 Back in my study with the herring mad House of Stuart; 10.30 The Herring Buss, played by Rob Harbron; 11.50 Herrings moves up the political agenda; 15.05 The Herring Buss reprise; 15.10 Sovereignty, fishing limits & Charles I's vision; 23:30 The Herring Buss reprise; 23:40 Sovereign of the Seas, Thomas Heywood & Chopwell Wood; 31:00 The Herring Buss reprise 31:15 Ship Money & ship spending, Thomases Cary & Carew, Charles I's last words; 41.30 The Herring Buss reprise; 42.05 Acknowledgements;

    44 min

  5. 09/13/2021

    Of Beginnings and Fundamental Ends

    From the Sea of Tethys to the Cold War waters of the Baltic, from C10th Norway to C20th harengophiles in the UK government, the curative powers of the herring to herring cravings in pregnancy, the origins of the herring to the origins of Rigby's Encyclopaedia of the Herring, aka The Herripedia. And, as a bonus, a performance of the scurrilous C16th tale of how Pope Vigilius canonised a red herring as the King of Fishes. Eyvind Skaldaspillir, Arthur Samuel, Paul Neucrantz, Thomas Nash and others weave their ways between shoals of farting herrings. What more could anybody want? 00:00 Titles & two smelly fish; 04:45 A thunderous seizure of the bowels; 09:23 Concerning the squeaking of herrings whilst they do not breathe; 12:13 Two herring poets; 15:47 An Ig Nobel prize; 16:56 Thomas Nashe & his Lenten Stuffe; 21:13 The red herring: an origin story; 37:24 Epilogue with submarines; 40:43 End.

    41 min
  • 5 Episodes

About

Sooner or later the herring swims into most seas & subject matters. With over 100 entries & more to come Rigby's Encyclopaedia is a free online resource (www.herripedia.com) which revels in the joy of those connections. This is its podcast! Discover the herring's role in history & remarkable natural history, the fishing of herring & eating of herring, herrings in art, literature, custom & tradition. Expect the folly of mankind (always) but also expect the unexpected. Fresh & salted, pickled, kippered, bloatered, bucklinged & red, expect the King of Fishes. Cover art: Keith McIntyre

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