2014 — 18 January: Saturday
Why is it1 that every time I let Adobe loose on my system to patch or update its Flash Player I feel just that little bit more insecure?
Meanwhile...
... it seems our previous Pope was a fairly large-scale priest-defrocker, our nearest star is calming down (inexplicably rapidly), we face further flood warnings hereabouts, the political boss of the US is sort of suggesting that his guvmint's NSA snooping is a Good Thing but mustn't over-reach itself, and elderly codgers like me shouldn't "make the mistake of soldiering on, and losing the opportunity to nip things in the bud".
And Brian Matthew has only just started his weekly cheer-me-up programme of jolly tunes from popular beat combos of more than 44 years ago... dagnabbit. Is it any surprise I need another cuppa already?
Although...
... the Chronicle's essay on media interstitials is quite fascinating in its own right, I find myself wholly in sympathy with this comment that was appended to it:
What marketeers fail to realize is that there is in fact a way out for their supposedly captive audience. I hesitate to mention this here, but ... the mofo can be turned off. I got sick
to death of those goddam popups and banners and the rest of the flagrantly, blatantly cynical exploitation of the viewer awhile back, and I tried it. It works.
True, I've missed every last episode of Downton Abbey, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men, so my life has obviously been blighted, if not entirely wasted...
Personally, I'm even less interested in the scholarly analysis of the ludi than I am in that of the panem with which our masters keep us docile, amused, and harmless to
the existing social order. IMO, those who are drawn to the games are as complicit in maintaining the status quo as those who go for the bread.
Panem et circenses all the way.
OMG!
Apparently, people are allowed to publish this material. Statistical baraminology? What more could you possibly wish for?
Yep. You know what? It's clearly "turtles all the way down" into the abyss :-)
What little I retain...
... of the nuances of English grammar derives very much from my Latin lessons of over 50 years ago. Here's what Philip Howard — who was at one time Literary editor of The Times — had to say, in his fascinating book "A Word in Time":
The grammar was easier a generation ago, when it was taught on the railway-line principle, as though English were an inferior kind of Latin. Might was described in the old grammars as the unsatisfactory English equivalent of the Latin pluperfect subjunctive, representing a past contingency, which is not realised and so is contrary to fact. May was described as a wet English substitute for the Latin present subjunctive, indicating a possibility that may or may not be contrary to fact. If you muddled your mays and your mights, Old Chalky roared with rage and hurled the blackboard cleaner at you.
Mr Postie's dollop...
... of morning Tarantino Blu-ray goodies, erm, this morning...
... helps offset the annoyance of the next annual building and contents insurance renewal. Ms Insurer's "computer" wasn't working, so she arranged to call me back on Monday or Tuesday. However, a broken computer proved no impediment to their automated customer satisfaction survey phone call ten minutes later. Probably not quite the smartest time to request feedback.
Despite tonight's rain...
... Mike and I are intending to go for one of our largely road-based walks tomorrow. Fresh air's good, right?