Another morning, another pier walk under a clear sky, the shadow lengths already halved while the sun continued to rise towards the upper meridian transit of the solar noon.
[Read more…] about Today’s ExerciseVerne, Wells and Marconi
Imagine that it’s 11872 HE and a novel has just been published. This is a novel that future generations may consider as defining the expectations of the age.
HE is the Holocene era, a calendar formed by adding 10,000 to the widely used Common Era calendar CE. The Holocene Calendar is intended to mark the time elapsed since the Neolithic Revolution. This revolution is arguably a reasonable turning point in mankind’s transition from hunting and gathering to the sessile, settlement based lifestyles that forced us to cooperate for food production. The competitive and risky gathering practices had become outmoded. I presume that hunters and gatherers never imagined the value of their imaginings to the world but is that presumptuous of me?
On Chess and Cakes
The doorbell rang. Standing there, masked, was a highly ranked chess player. He was delivering a plated lemon drizzle cake. Almost surreal except that his very good wife had made it for us as a diversion from worrying about our daughter going through surgery at the time the cake arrived.
Dublin: Storm Coming 2010
18/20 Species
We walked for an hour or so in Marlay Park today. ‘Here’s where the Wicklow Way starts’ I said, as I’ve said before. ‘Perhaps I’ll walk it this coming weekend?’
‘No, you need to build up to long walks first’ was the sensible reply. This is fair because I’ve been off the trail for over six months and with six decades under my belt, everything needs to be measured.
In The Mail Today
A book hit the mat this morning, dropping from the letter box. The Dublin Review announced itself with a satisfying thump. The 80th edition has an essay by Lia Mills which I read again. I write ‘again’ because Last Word originates from this household and as biased as I might be, I still think it’s a great read this second time, my first reading having been just before it was submitted.
Stylish Violence
The period after the Great War was, for Europe at least, a time of great insecurity. Governments and gangsters both struggled to maintain order.