I haven’t seen all that many dawns, and many of those I have seen can be blamed on my father. One of those people who believe suggested check-in times leave far too much to chance, most childhood holidays started when the sky was the same colour as my sleep-deprived humour. One year he even contrived […]
The Signals we Don’t Send Read More »
Exhibit A: The government declines to send a Minister to appear on a politics show. “They’re frightened of us because we hold them to account,” the host informs the audience. Exhibit B: A female observes a certain froideur from a man in her social circle. Can’t handle strong women, she concludes. Two different events, one macro, one micro, but
How We Use Our Enemies Read More »
Hollywood sexism is more nuanced than we sometimes allow. It is not that there are no roles for older women – the movies need just as many grandmas as grizzled veterans – but that there is a gap beneath that age. Once the children leave home, and before they return with children of their own,
The Value of Negative Success Read More »
“What a week, huh?” “ Captain, it’s only Wednesday.” If you’re as terminally online as I am, you’ll recognise the Tintin and Captain Haddock meme, deployed whenever the world seems particularly unsettled. Which means it gets deployed a lot these days. In the Anglophone world, we tend to think of comic strips as childish literature, those
How We Miscount Time Read More »
Sometimes Fate/Karma/Destiny – call it what you will – seems to juxtapose things just to make a point. Or perhaps the human mind, always desperate for coherence, imposes its own structure on the messy reality of random chance. Thus, a couple of days after Artemis II returned to Earth, the BBC decided to screen a
The Paradox of Pride Read More »
I bought a book the other week. Nothing unusual there. One of my regular treats early in my working life was to leave the office, head to a bookshop, buy a stack and then pop to the sushi place round the corner for an early supper and a quiet read. I have been a sufficiently
The Littlest Thing Read More »
Death has been on my mind recently. Not my own – that will be the last thing I do. No, it is the demise of a lady in my extended circle which I have been pondering. It was not a surprise, particularly – age and a range of conditions made it likely that it would
One way of understanding the Prime Minister, I think, is to assume he is a child playing at being Prime Minister. Like a little person solemnly sitting down at a desk and shuffling papers, much of the time, he seems to do things not because he needs to or wants to, but because he has seen others do them
A Question of Interests Read More »
“And relax. Put your feet up. Well, that was a day, wasn’t it? Anyway, you made it through and that’s not nothing. In fact, you deserve a reward. Glass of wine? Good idea. Just a cheeky one, mind. You’ve earned it.” With minor variations, this dialogue gets performed in countless heads across countless lands every
“Nothing matters very much, and few things matter at all.” Arthur Balfour (attrib.) It took, it is said, seven days for news of Abraham Lincoln’s death to reach London. This was comparatively speedy – Australia had to wait the best part of a month. By contrast, everyone with a phone or TV learned of the
Sublime Indifference Read More »
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