• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me
Walking Commentary

Walking Commentary

Manchester to Rome 2022

  • ManRom22
  • Latest Comments
  • Archives

tim harford

Other People’s Words

September 2, 2020 by Simon Robinson 1 Comment

Other people’s thoughts often provide the focus for my own musings. And I’ll admit that there are many days when I think that other people’s words convey my thoughts better than I can express them for myself. Today has been one of those days.

This seal isn’t alone surfacing for oxygen today.
[Read more…] about Other People’s Words

Filed Under: Anchoritism, Fake Memoir Tagged With: belarus, birds, irish independent, irish PEN, lia mills, photos, thejournal.ie, tim harford

Resentments

August 13, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

I was educated amidst resentments. Equality was a threat to the more equal and in Ireland, the more equal folk had a code word for denigrating the less equal. The code word was and is ‘begrudgery’. I grew up scared that begrudgery would undo society while the more-equal missed the point entirely.

Begrudgery is all about identifying resentment. It is resentment but it is also a pejorative term for the alleged resentful. And I wonder if begrudgery could itself go pandemic to become the single biggest threat after Covid-19.

  • 2016 Bouncy Castle
  • 2013 three day old clasp
  • 2016 Third Birthday Cake
  • 2003 Harefield Swans
  • 2010 Inukchuk Tableau
  • 2010 Inukchuk Wave
A selection of this day memories.
[Read more…] about Resentments

Filed Under: Anchoritism Tagged With: alexander betts, brexit, financial times, inukchuk, pandemic, risk, smart, ted, tim harford, xenophobia

Micromort and big numbers.

April 19, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

I’ve decided to put my trust in the reader and dispense with long introductions and explanations. If you care what a micromort actually is, you’ll follow the links. If you don’t understand big numbers, you’ll be in good company. 

Today is the day we should have reached unorthodox Canterbury after walking out from Manchester on April Fools’ Day. Instead, like so many, I’m curfewed.

[Read more…] about Micromort and big numbers.

Filed Under: Anchoritism, Fake Memoir, ManRom2021 Tagged With: actuary, birds, booklink, computing, Covid-19, daniel kahneman, david eagleman, dinosaurs, geology, geophysics, governance, innumeracy, john berger, pandemic, seo, stephen pinker, the elders, tim harford, walking

20 Lines

April 3, 2020 by Simon Robinson 1 Comment

What thoughts and whose ideas have a value?

Lia bought 20 Lines a Day by Harry Mathews recently. Stendhal had commented that “20 lines a day, genius or not, was a good place to start”. I was deeply impressed by Scarlet and Black when I first read it perhaps 40 years ago. A conversation with Gerry Hanley in the bar of the Delgany Inn elucidated from him that Stendhal got him writing with those same words. I had only just finished reading Scarlet and Black and was quite surprised at the coincidence, his bringing Stendhal up over a pint, my knowing who he was talking about. But I didn’t write 20 lines a day. Maybe that was a good thing?

[Read more…] about 20 Lines

Filed Under: ManRom2021 Tagged With: an whitehead, booklink, Covid-19, gerry hanley, harry mathews, judith butler, photos, popular, stendahl, tim harford

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe


Recent Comments

  • Lia Mills on Gallery: 25 2020 moments
  • Simon Robinson on Yachts, Leaks and Bacteria
  • Felicity McCartan on Yachts, Leaks and Bacteria
  • Felicity Mc on Celebrate Minor Mundanity
  • Liz on Yachts, Leaks and Bacteria

Categories

  • Anchoritism
  • Fake Memoir
  • ManRom2021
  • Uncategorized

Tags

ahmet altan albert einstein astronomy bbc birds bird watching booklink brian greene burma cancer colum mccann computing Covid-19 dog dun laoghaire fabhappy fitbit flowers food gardening geology geophysics hans rosling inequality irish times lia mills london movies nobel prize pandemic PEN international photo photography photos poetry popular rugby sahara simonscarves the guardian travel tv ungrievable volcano walking

Recent Posts

  • Not Just Another Book
  • Full Circles
  • Strange Memory Links
  • Enduring Decisive Moments
  • Renaming These Islands

Archives

  • January 2021 (16)
  • December 2020 (31)
  • November 2020 (30)
  • October 2020 (31)
  • September 2020 (30)
  • August 2020 (31)
  • July 2020 (31)
  • June 2020 (30)
  • May 2020 (31)
  • April 2020 (30)
  • March 2020 (31)

Footer

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me
  • ManRom22
  • Latest Comments
  • Archives

Subscribe


Copyright © 2021 · Revolution Pro on Genesis Framework