2009 — 4 June: Thursday

Even cooler; just as late. For my late evening entertainment I watched a film called "Flawless" and it jolly nearly was. So I now have two excellent films called "Flawless" in my little collection.¹ Tonight's variant with Michael Caine and Demi Moore showed up in one of the packets I had to collect from the postal depot; it's directed by Michael Radford, who has a pretty impressive track record.²

Meanwhile, now that I've finished listening to Roger McGough (and simply can't face Charles Chilton's Journey into Space — "With the asteroids in pursuit, Jet and the crew try desperately to contact Earth") it's time for tonight's photo of Christa. It shows her reacting typically to something said by one of our very favouritest pair of cousins on 4th August 2007 when they'd popped down from the Midlands to see us once it was sadly clear that Christa's health now ruled out our attendance at their CP ceremony later that month.

Ann, Christa, and Leigh in August 2007

At least one of my far-flung readers now knows what a cembalon looks like (I assume he'd at least correctly deduced it was a musical instrument). G'night.

This morning...

... which, just after 09:01 is bright, sunny, but not too hot, I think I can feel the lure of a trip to town. I'm getting the "itch" that says my next issue of "The Word" is about due, and a chap has to scratch such an itch.

Nudge, nudge, wink, wink

How's this for masterly understatement? "Economics has traditionally ignored psychology." Really? You don't say! Snippet and source:

The beauty of "rational choice" is that it can "explain" virtually anything, without close inquiry into people's actual attitudes or other grubby details. Provided only that data is available, expected outcomes can be posited and confirmed entirely from behind one's computer. One can turn out articles at high speed, which serves academic incentives to publish and not perish. The appeal of these methods is considerable. Rational choice has expanded beyond economics to take over much of sociology and political science, provoking intense resistance from scholars wedded to more eclectic or less mathematical methods.

Lawrence M Mead, reviewing "Nudge" in Claremont Institute

It could be that "Nudge" is just a way of disguising the fact that people are generally pretty thick. But the review strikes me as a deliciously delicate hatchet job on "the facile pretensions of economics to be a universal science".

While I was off swanning around Bournemouth last August, by the way, I only discovered today that I missed this little chap:

Dammit, that's no way to treat a frog. (Recall, if you will, the classic National Lampoon cartoon of the freshly de-legged frog wheeling himself out of a restaurant. Caption: "That's not funny, it's sick!")

Thanks, Mr (Parcel) Postie

Details to follow, but it's time (10:48) to get out there and vote, vote, vote (etc) while the laundry does its swirly whirly thing. If anyone knows, by the way, why picking and eating the first fresh and delicious strawberry from what I still regard as Christa's garden should promptly provoke a brief flood of tears, do let me know.

R.I.P. David Carradine

Not, I admit, the world's greatest actor but — since reading his "Kill Bill" diaries — I felt I knew him and I liked the man.

I'm listening to Jack Straw simultaneously taking responsibility for, and dodging questions about, the horrific double murder. I don't understand the logic of holding back from a life sentence because of the relative youth of the two killers, one of whom should still have been in custody in any case. Odd though: if a dog had savaged people like this, it would have been killed without a qualm. At my current ripe old age my only qualm, I've decided, about capital punishment is the awful possibility of error, deliberate or "honest", within the judicial processes. I trust judges no more than I trust politicians. Though at least politicians are elected, I guess.

Speaking of which, I have decided not to cast a vote today. This is the first time ever I have not voted when entitled to. My reasoning is the lack of a choice labelled "None of the above" and the continued absence of proportional representation.

The singer Maria Friedman will probably make "Pick of the Week" for her accidental mention of large lunch-boxes, which cracked up first her and then, after she'd squeaked a hasty clarification, her companions, in the BBC Radio 3 "In Tune" studio a few minutes ago. Beats the news any day. Oh well, time (18:40) for a bite to eat, I guess.

I must say, laundry dries jolly well when hung up outside in this weather. We've never actually ever owned a tumble drier, or a dish washer, and I hardly expect to treat myself to either of these items now that I'm here on my own. Us poor pensioners, you know!

Today's malware email

What do you reckon to this, then?

Dear customer!
We were not able to deliver the postal package sent on the 1st of May in time
because the recipient?s address is erroneous.
Please print out the invoice copy attached and collect the package at our department.

Your United Parcel Service

Received with Subject: Delivery problem

They've even thoughtfully attached a zip file for me to click on. How very kind.

Footnotes

¹ Technically, the first of these was called Personne n'est parfait(e) when I bought it, in the "Carrefour" at Cité Europe in Calais but, since it included an "Anglais 5.1" soundtrack, no worries. It was the 1999 film with Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
² For example, he wrote and directed 1984's "1984" with its music by the Eurythmics, followed by "White Mischief" (still criminally not readily available on DVD, though Amazon had one used copy on offer at nearly £40 when I checked earlier). Then there's his rather lovely "Il postino" (though we should skip over "B. Monkey" even though it was based on an Andrew Davies novel), taking us up to "Dancing at the Blue Iguana" (a fabulous soundtrack plus Daryl Hannah looking exquisite as usual) and "The Merchant of Venice" with Al Pacino.