2012 — 19 December: Wednesday

Having just1 remembered, and nipped out, to put my 'black bin' outside my side gate ready for emptying I was quite surprised to find that its lid was frozen shut. Turns out it's currently -1C. Brrr. G'nite.

Overnight...

... my chum Ian in NZ kindly sent me a 'musical' link he thought I'd enjoy. You could call it Bach without the bark, perhaps? I'm a mere 20 months behind its initial batch of viewers.

Great! Something else to worry about besides occasional bits of fluff:

Not just fluff

Unglad mo(u)rning?

At the end of this well-written piece on joy by Zadie Smith (that has helped confirm me in the strong belief that I'd best continue to steer clear of mind-altering stuff [other than tea, of course]) comes a line on mourning from a friend of Julian Barnes that — if he popped it into his excellent memoir "Nothing to be frightened of" — seems to have eluded me at the time:

It hurts just as much as it is worth.

Zadie Smith in NY Review of Books


I can vouch for the truth of the observation, although selfishly I suppose I sometimes wish I couldn't. Be that as it may, it's still time for breakfast on this grey, wet, morning.

That belly button fluff piece found me seeking out two books...

Books

... I mentioned a while back. Shudder. [Pause] It's still wet and somewhat wild out there. Is it time for lemonses, do you think?

Kermode and Mayo's interview with Peter Jackson and subsequent in-depth examination of "The Hobbit: an unexpected journey" is fascinating, if (like me) you're the sort of chap who finds that sort of stuff fascinating. And still it rains. Time for some more food, methinks.

Always a reliable...

... giggle or two among the wreckage of journalistic careers. Example:

Oops

From the San Francisco Chronicle, I gather.

Before I make...

... my next cuppa, I present here the consequence (OK, a consequence) of browsing just one of the links from just one of Steve "Pinpoint Music" Gibbs' web site pages:

Memory problem

I'm a little surprised, given how much rain we've 'enjoyed' today, that the guvmint has yet to appoint a Minister for Drought. It's 20:05 and still nasty out there. [Pause] Just as bad at 23:38 too. What a smashing time of year.

  

Footnote

1  Shortly after midnight.