2008 — 2 July: Wednesday

Is it raining yet? Could certainly use some to wash away the blasted pollen. Another set of scanned slides to choose from, one of which is now visible on my "Books" front page. Anyway, tonight's picture? Another shot of Christa, somewhere on a boat, and in (or shortly before) August 1977. But where the devil were we? Memory fails me at the moment. Still, she looks pretty happy — looking back, that's really the only thing that mattered.

Christa in August 1977... but where were we?

As I have a lunch date later today with young Len, and before then will need to make the supplies run I decided against yesterday, I need my Beauty sleep. G'night, at 00:01 or thereabouts.

Cooling down

Bearing in mind what Warren Buffett had to say about the process of gold mining, news from Clontibret made me smile. Time (09:43) for brekkie before the gold rush starts.

And now (11:50) back from the supplies trail, goodies put away, three jpegs "improved" for Mike to examine, Yaris left out on the drive in case it's our lunchtime getaway vehicle and/or in case it gets a cleansing little shower. Almost time to catch my breath.

(Not) having it both ways... dept.

Ye gods!

...the family as an institution still sucks. The drudgery of domestic work, the privatised character of its existence, the mundanity of everyday life played out through interaction with the same small group of people in time- and money-pressured circumstances: this is far from ideal as a way of organising social life.

But the family is also a relationship — an intense, intimate, deeply precious relationship in a world where people are increasingly drawing back from contact with each other. It is one area of life where relationships continue to be spontaneous, non-contractual, and long-lasting. If these relationships are stripped away, the family will only be an economic institution: and a profoundly limiting and joyless one at that.

Jennie Bristow in Spiked


She's not met dear Mama... though I grant the accuracy of "long-lasting"! I note Christa's just won yet another ERNIE — every little helps, as dear ol' Dad used to say. I just wish she was here to pay it in for herself, of course. <Sigh>

Telling it like it is?... dept.

Back from a leisurely lunch at The Bridge (thanks for your company, Len) and time (15:25) to admire the class act that is PJ O'Rourke. I have to keep reminding myself that he's put the days of National Lampoon magazine a long, long way behind him:

Foreign policy has been divided, conceptually, between the "realists" and the "idealists." The idealists who have no idea what reality is. And the realists who just plain have no idea... Idealists produce bad foreign policy. On the other hand, realists produce bad foreign policy. But the worst foreign policy is produced by realists and idealists working together. This is called bipartisan consensus. Those are the two most frightening words in Washington. Bipartisan consensus is like when my doctor and my lawyer agree with my wife that I need help.

PJ O'Rourke in World Affairs


The adjacent much longer article by Richard H Kohn is more interesting, but not nearly as much fun!

A relaxed evening...

... doing some decorating and housekeeping around my little website. It takes all sorts... And now it's already 22:52. I've also been reading quite a large chunk of Photoshop Elements 5: the missing manual and though I may be no wiser, at least I am now considerably better-informed.

Salad Days... dept.

While I'm listening to a John Peel session featuring Gerry Rafferty (from 1973) it seems appropriate somehow to read that the chap who founded Vitacress the year I was born is selling it for "about £50m" and retiring (at age 79) to enjoy his 80% share. He'll doubtless be riding along on the "cress" of a wave!