2007 — 7 Mar: square eyes is back
I have a choice: breakfast in bed or describe the new DVD player. I'm hungry!
My (square) eye is caught by a deliciously spiteful anecdote in the Guardian concerning one of my least favorite newspapers: the Daily Mail (a hateful1 rag, long described as "the paper read by the wives of the people who think they should run the country"). Well-respected Mail Sports journalist Ian Wooldridge, who died at the weekend, had (among many tributes) a reminiscence printed about him in the Mail (which he joined in 1961). Problem is, the anecdote concerned an interview with the "bodyline" England cricket captain Douglas Jardine, who supposedly recognised Wooldridge as a Mail journalist, yet himself managed to die in 1958. Now, if only I ever read any sports reports in any paper I might have an opinion here...
The Bank rang me!
They're worried about my account; isn't that sweet? Seems they noticed (and obviously lie awake at night worrying about the fact that) I have a large positive balance counter-balanced, as it were, by a large looming credit card bill (so, nothing new there, of course). "Was it a convenient time," they wondered "for me to have an account review?" This is the same Bank, of course, who managed to take a month (or several years, depending how uncharitably you wish to count) to admit to having lost my Title Deeds somewhere between two of their evidently not so strong rooms.
"If you put two and two together," I assured them, "you'll find that the large balance will shortly be used to offset the large bill" (buying a 24" Apple iMac has a nasty effect on one's cash flow, I find) "so, no, I do not want, need, or have any interest in an account review" by people who, if my recent physical visits to my Bank are any guide are a) quite likely to be temporary staff on loan from another branch and/or b) not (as my amiable neighbour put it as we fed him up at lunchtime) yet capable of growing a full beard (even the women).
My scansion is perfect
On a happier note, I finally deciphered the Epson scanner's instructions regarding film and slide holders, and have successfully scanned a couple of my old 35mm colour slides at a satisfyingly high resolution, and in a not-too-shabby elapsed time. I'm not saying it was as easy as using Big Bro's Nikon Coolscan, but it was at nearly 20% of the outlay. (These things matter to us poor pensioners, you know.) I append some beautiful evidence from 1974 or so...
