Walking Commentary
Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023
Books are so durable that I’ve been enjoying dipping into tomes that we’ve owned for decades. Some of them were owned by others for decades before us. And there are some in this house that were printed decades before we were even born. Perhaps you too enjoy signs of the use of the thoughts among margin notes that often match the hand writing of names of former owners inscribed inside the often sun-faded covers. And wonder who they were?
It was great to see a book leave the house but shortly afterwards, the doorbell didn’t ring. It’s been disconnected for several weeks pending replacement that is suffering from Brexit. Our priorities are maintained, the bell may be delayed but our book supply is not.
Many voice concerns about the loss of words in English. While other languages struggle to control the immigration of a very rich English vocabulary into their lexicons, the English speakers are suffering from profligate changes. If you consider language important, you might read on.
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.
Every town and city has traffic problems. Most of them arise from evolution. That is to say, the function of the towns has changed with time. Dalkey in South County Dublin is no different.
The infrastructure that is the nexus of any town has a tendency to be outgrown. That’s not to say redundant. Imagine, for example, the horse puckey problems you’d have to live with if the internal combustion engines (ICE) hadn’t rescued us from foul odours, flies and the squelch underfoot. And if you can’t imagine it, consider that history records there were four or five horses for every human when the ICE began to replace equine power. That’s a lot of manure.
