One thing I like about my real-life friends of old scattered about the globe like so many seeds carried by the wind is that they post interesting news articles on a shared social media network. I never have to search for stimulating reading material myself. It simply pops up on the screen before me. Admittedly,... Continue Reading →
Going dental
I was going to call this post "a day in the life" or some such, but that simply would not be true. A more apt description would be an irregular day in the life during my least productive summer on record. Whenever I have something to do which is going to disrupt my preferred pattern,... Continue Reading →
Personalised smoking
This post is about smoking. For the benefit of those who are fiercely anti-tobacco, reformed smokers, or under the legal age to smoke, I should be patently clear: I am not advocating the smoking of cigarettes. I shall not discuss the health issues. I will get other comments out of the way quickly. It is... Continue Reading →
Rehash for the press
In my previous post, I did something I never thought I would do: I reblogged. I will justify it by saying that I found something that really appealed to me: a nifty newspaper clipping generator! It creates a facsimile of a newspaper article using your very own story. This is a great fresh idea for language... Continue Reading →
I had to share this because it really is fun! I should also confess, I suppose, to tweaking a paragraph or two of my own from previous blogs, in an attempt to get a coherent story to fit in the two small columns of the newspaper .jpg. file. A good exercise! Allison
Yale Literature Lecture in technicolour
Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood | Yale Literature Lecture. I have chosen this as the subject of today's blog because of my ignorance. My ignorance is two-fold. Not only had I not heard the name Flannery O'Connor until a couple of days ago, I was also ignorant of the fact that for no financial outlay whatsoever,... Continue Reading →
Fresh-cut flowers
Here is what I know about flowers: To dry a bunch of flowers, you must tie them and hang them upside down in a dry draughty place for quite a long time. In the fresh-cut flower industry there are two positions in which flowers are handled; lying flat and upright. In the field they grow... Continue Reading →
Things to be thankful for
This post deals with my response to: Letters of Note: Things to worry about. I have pressed this letter from F. Scott Fitzgerald to his eleven-year-old daughter, because it struck me as so odd, so very different from my experience. I am sure that if I had received such an intense letter from anybody when I... Continue Reading →
You look familiar
I am sure most people have been told that they look familiar at least once in their lives upon meeting a stranger. The trouble is that this used to happen to me a lot in my early twenties. This used to upset me because my childhood indoctrination, religious and otherwise, had taught me that I... Continue Reading →
Honey, much sweeter than wine
I really ought to thank my mother in front of the whole world for never once missing the opportunity to take my sister and I for our six-monthly dental check-up for near on two decades. I have a healthy mouth full of silver of which I can be proud. I say this with a toothache... Continue Reading →
That elusive pair of jeans 