June 26, 2008
After mouldering on my computer for several years, I’ve finally found a publisher for my book on depression. Now, if I can just get my manuscript on epistemology, which has been gathering dust for a few years longer …
June 20, 2008
We’ve had books about where famous sayings, like “raining cats and dogs” and “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”, have come from. One explanation of the expletive “fuck” – the only one I know of – is that the word was an acronym standing for “Fornication Under Consent of the King”. It’s said that when a couple wanted to have sex they would seek royal permission for the act. Having obtained it, they would put a sign on the door notifying people of the fact. (The invention of the necktie simplified the situation, if not dignified it.)
This explanation seems unlikely for several reasons, based on language and logic. (more…)
June 20, 2008
Three cheers and a kangaroo fillet for Sophie of SwingZing, who organized the Hand-me-down Blues workshop, held over the weekend of the 14th and 15th of June. It was thoroughly enjoyable, with Damon and Heidi, who traveled from California, taking us through the foundation and essence of blues dancing and explaining the nuances of each move, giving us time to practise – and to recuperate, as they told us something of the history of the blues.
Like swing, blues is a category that includes several dances. (more…)
June 9, 2008
… and Auguste says, “Oh please - animals smoking cigars! What next?”
June 9, 2008
Last night – today is a public holiday in WA; Foundation Day – I was at a café with a couple of friends and one was telling me about a chap who had written an article analysing the internet in a manner similar to that which Kierkegaard apparently reviewed the newspapers of his time. I don’t know much about Kierkegaard but it seems he was an existentialist who thought that your actions defined your being. He didn’t like newspapers or cafés because he thought that they just pandered to the dilettante curiosity of the middle classes by allowing them to fill their heads with useless information. Perhaps the information was only relatively useless because it didn’t affect their lives: what it told them was of an event far away, or maybe they just chose to not act. And action, in Kierkegaard’s mind, was what mattered; or so I understand.
(more…)
May 27, 2008
Like Amelie Poulain, I like to notice things. Being a writer and editor, I noticed the title of a new movie about a bride-made man-maid of honour, Made of Honour. The title is a simple play on words but the aspect that got my attention was that the movie is American: that is, made in the US, with US actors, a US situational comedy script and, one presumes, US spelling.
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May 26, 2008
As a friend of mine commented, the phrase “blogworthy” is an oxymoron. Compared to the number of existing blogs, the material that is worthwhile reading is scant. (It depends on how you define “worthwhile” of course.)
This is something of an apology – an explanation, that is, not a … well, an apology – that I’ve not put anything on here for over a week. (more…)
