2010 — 9 February: Tuesday
Brrr. I'm getting fed up of winter. I know if Christa were still here she'd be contemplating hot water bottles round about now. I never did work out how she managed to have such icy-cold feet for most of her life. She certainly had a warm heart!
Once again, it's the witching hour. And even with more music from Pat Metheny's new "Orchestrion" album. G'night.
Gone already?
The sun, that is. I've just sunk cuppa #1, which I made in bright sunshine a few minutes ago. It's 08:46 and now there are somewhat snowy-looking clouds out there. It had better hold off until I've got back from Dr Fang.
Having just read an article on "The new dating game" I somehow feel I need hosing down. It's written by someone working on her doctoral dissertation on medieval and Byzantine studies. Mind you, I freely admit I had little or no personal experience of the "dating" game back in the day. However, if this is what it now entails, I've concluded I'd rather curl up with a good book, some beautiful music, and a nice glass of single malt. (Maybe I'm getting old, Christa!) Source and snippet:
Long-term monogamy — one spouse for one person at one time — may be the most desirable condition for ensuring personal happiness, accumulating property, and raising children, but it is an artifact of civilization, Western civilization in particular. In the view of many evolutionary psychologists, long-term monogamy is natural for neither men nor women.
Artifact, shmartifact. It felt very natural for me. And I only found out after her death that Christa had said, after 30 years, that she wanted another 30, so I suspect she felt exactly the same. It's an increasingly odd world out there.
Time for some breakfast. [Pause] Today's wonderful discovery: Haskell Wexler (recall Medium Cool, The Thomas Crown affair, etc) is the step-uncle of Daryl Hannah. (Source.)
Right, time to hit the dental trail.
Lunched
And now idly pondering the next item on a virtual "to do" list. What'cha got there, Mr Postie? A leaflet from Her Majesty? Crikey. Oh. It seems Brenda's guvmint has not yet run completely out of money:
Clicking on this shows what they mean. Where can one buy1 a mini-motorbike, I wonder? They sound like tremendous fun.
Back after nabbing a few supplies, seconds ahead of a burst of hail from a cloud that looks for all the world like an understudy for Ragnarok. Did I mention I don't much care for this sort of nasty weather?
Strikes me as a damn' poor show when I have to read on an NPR page a statement about the BBC responding to concerns about the possible closure of the excellent 6Music station.
Later
Just (20:40) heard a track from the new Hendrix album — "Valleys of Neptune". Amazing.
I've just ordered a DVD set that includes a film based on a favourite SF short story of mine — the 1943 "Mimsy were the Borogoves". Written by "Lewis Padgett" (the pseudonym used by husband and wife team Henry Kuttner and Catherine Moore), in film form it has become "Mimzy". (Has nobody in Hollywood any knowledge of Jabberwocky?) I still have a 1976 vinyl album of this story being read by Captain Kirk...
... maybe I really should invest in a phono pre-amplifier after all. The sleeve notes reveal that this was actually a pure Kuttner story despite what John Clute and Peter Nicholls say in their magisterial "Encylopedia of Science Fiction" (1993 second edition). Click the pic above to see the relevant extract.