2012 — 15 October: Monday
Dry, cool, cloudy.1 Last night's final little thrill (shortly after midnight) was relocating a giant, black, 'Boris' who'd decided to sleep (or, possibly, simply breathe his last) in my bed. Now it may be a double bed, but it's definitely not big enough to share with Boris. Since I'm now 61 I figured I was old enough to deal with this crisis on my own :-)
Time for tea. [Pause] I never knew, until a couple of minutes ago, the name of a piano duet that I remember my Dad used to play. It's a tricky little piece called "Marigold" and I've just heard a 1934 recording of it played by Billy and Jill Mayerl. And, in another even more delightful blast from the past, today's Google doodle (of which this is just the top frame by the way)...
... might just as well have been designed purely to tickle my fancy.2 Magic. Of course, back in those early days of my retirement I'd not yet got into the habit of scanning the covers of the books I bought. Here's the cover of that particular 420-page beauty, much reduced in size (of course):
Indeed, I had to trim and merge a couple of scans to make this composite image. [Pause] Time (09:01) for some breakfast, methinks.
Really?
I was browsing around the NY Review of Books and stumbled across the letters page, with one from the UK refuting a statement in an article they had run on gun control that "the UK solved the problem by banning the things". (Simply not true, of course.) That led (naturally) to the US National Vital Statistics Report for 2009 wherein I learned that homicide is the 15th most common cause of death, but that "Within external causes of injury death, poisoning is the leading mechanism of injury mortality, followed by motor-vehicle traffic-related injuries."
What on earth do they eat?
Reasons for the EU?
It's a stretch, but...
The UK's ICO, he suggested, would have taken a softer line with Google. "The point is that Google is an international company which is leveraging its power in the browser and its other services in a way that affects national businesses all over the EU. There's great political importance in the data protection commissioners doing something, because if they think there's a breach and they don't do anything about it, what's the point of having them?"
"Do no evil." Couldn't possibly comment. [Pause] Some supplies obtained. Walk tentatively set for tomorrow. Car insurance renewed. Dental insurance ditto. Annual spending on the credit card I reserve for 'big ticket' toys — defined hereabouts as PC stuff and A/V stuff — marvelled at (they've just sent me an annual statement). Time for late lemonses. Time, too, for number #1 kitchen freezer to get its second defrosting of our time together with me as its sole custodian. (I spoil my domestic implements, I know. You don't have to tell me.)
If I'd known scraping...
... off all the icebergs would make it run more quietly I would have done it a year ago. And now it's raining. I shall be heading over to Mr So in Winklechestershire for my immediate post-birthday treat this evening. One of mine hosts has been negotiating (hard) for the crispy duck. I told him he'd better be able to guarantee Hoisin sauce...