2012 — 20 July: Friday

What shape is the world in today?1 Well, let's see. The sky is blue. The sun is shining. And good ol' Rimsky-Korsakov is hammering away on BBC Radio 3. Rather slowly.

I must have been mulling over last night's film and its largely successful attempts to get the period detail right as it seems to have dredged up quite a few memories from that (now thankfully distant) era. The Past is, indeed, a foreign country where — as LP Hartley observed — they do things differently. Though I expect there was still honey for tea.

I suppose if...

... lie detector kits actually detected lies, this might work better.

Of 15 offenders tested, eight failed and six passed. One was caught trying to cheat by breathing erratically and talking slowly.

Nicholas Watt in Grauniad


I suppose PC Plod is just so fed up of being regularly hauled over the coals by the Independent Police Complaints Commission? Hell's teeth. I've been known to breathe erratically and talk slowly. Besides, it's not a lie if you believe it! (Link.)

It's 11:16 and Big Bro has just set off for his next relative stopping place, in High Wycombe. [Pause] Then, suddenly, it's 15:20 and I'm back from a second visit in two days to the Three Tuns and wondering why golf is allowed to displace my radio film programme. The sun is out, but rainclouds are gathering. [Pause] And, before you know it, it's 20:35 and I'm now in that weird zone of cognitive dissonance induced by watching Episode #1 of Aaron Sorkin's new TV drama: "The Newsroom".

Which — it turns out — is as nothing compared to the level of dissonance after Episode #2. It's now 22:58 and, dishes done, small tot of Jameson triple-distilled Irish whiskey enjoyed (thanks, Big Bro), one data drive fully defragged, and the itch of the insect attack barely noticeable... I may just manage to squeeze in one more episode.

  

Footnote

1  Still an oblate spheroid with irregularities, I expect.