2010 — 16 November: Tuesday

Well, there's plenty of mist out there this morning,1 but, having tweaked the thermostatic valves last night, this is still a temperate zone.

I've demolished an entire grapefruit, and shall shortly nip out for a quick flurry of supplies shopping before we race cautiously over to Loomies for brunch — the "healthy breakfast", of course. Not while Emma Kirkby is trilling away, however. That woman sings like an angel despite the fact that I don't believe in them. Speaking of which, or rather their polar opposites:

American bishops are holding a conference on Friday and Saturday to prepare more priests and bishops to respond to the demand. The purpose is not necessarily to revive the practice, the organizers say, but to help Catholic clergy members learn how to distinguish who really needs an exorcism from who really needs a psychiatrist, or perhaps some pastoral care.

"Not everyone who thinks they need an exorcism actually does need one," said Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., who organized the conference. "It's only used in those cases where the Devil is involved in an extraordinary sort of way in terms of actually being in possession of the person. But it's rare, it's extraordinary, so the use of exorcism is also rare and extraordinary ... we have to be prepared."

Laurie Goodstein in NYT


Springfield? Isn't that where Homer Simpson lives? And now what can one make of the news that the Daily Mail website is the second largest English news site on the planet? Gosh! (Source.)

(un)Blinded by the light

I can only assume, from the number of people driving around in the mist/fog without lights, that the Daily Mail has been running a "save electricity" campaign... Or perhaps suggesting that car headlights cause skin cancer.

Rather later

Having enjoyed the brunch, I wandered down into Soton and spent nearly an hour browsing "Windows 7 annoyances" to remind myself of some of the pitfalls heading towards a PC near me. Then I wolfed down a slightly stale (just how I like it) croissant while listening to an insightful analysis on NPR of the limited options facing Ireland. Nobody mentioned diverting the up to £7,000,000,000 of banking bonuses in their direction, though I'm sure it would help.

And I see the public is to be mildly diverted by yet another wedding somewhere within the monarch's family. Let joy be confined. It's 16:09 and the clear sky suggests a cool evening ahead.

This chap is revisiting one of his witty assertions from "A Bozo of a Baboon" here:

Sapolsky

Stupidly clever species. Just too depressing for words. And I haven't even loaded Windows 7 on the black beast yet! :-)

I'm enjoying...

... the reading, by Emilia Fox, of "Pride and Prejudice". It's a perfect accompaniment to some CD artwork scanning. Mind you, the 11 CDs play for just over 13 hours. It's 21:46 and cold outside. [Pause] Followed up by another enjoyable burst of the extras from the "Avatar" Blu-ray set — until sleep becomes necessary...

  

Footnote

1  Or I've got a problem with all the windows, perhaps?