Walking The Dog

Recent hypothetical text message from parent to adult son - Been in the garden all day. Time for a bath first then I'll leave, with you by 8. Chilly here - have you had snow? See you soon. Lots of  love xx PS. Bought too many aubergines yesterday - would you like some? All very mundane; boring even? Hmmm. In an effort to save time or appear somehow with-it or hip or whatever term is used now to mean 'not ancient', the parent could instead have sent this - Been in the garden all day. Time for 🛁. Chilly here - do you have ❄️.  PS. Would you like some 🍆? Lots of X Yes, I punctuate my texts. Punctuation, however, isn't the point here. Or rather it's not the only thing unmasking me as someone who is not hip/cool/sic or lit (which list, of course, proves without a doubt that I am none of these things). No. The point is that with the insertion of a few emojis, I changed an innocent message about gardening, the weather and vegetables, into something x-rat...

The dust of exploded beliefs may make a fine sunset. It is funny how we sometimes stumble upon something that inspires us to turn detective; to ask questions and then stay up too late researching the answers.  For example, consider the quote above - I had a photograph in need of a quote and I found this one about 'sunsets' (the word I looked up) and exploded beliefs (not what I was expecting). The words are  by Geoffrey Madan, 1895 - 1947, whose father had the marvellous name Falconer (disappointingly he wasn't one) and was master of Brasenose College, Oxford and librarian of the Bodleian. I'm guessing that with such an academic pedigree the young Geoffrey would have been introduced to books at a young age. And that this lead at some point to the compiling of lists of quotes and  aphorisms for which he is or was famous.  *Short interlude here while I remind myself (and you, perhaps... ) exactly what an aphorism is. Think of a phrase or ...

Procrastination is the thief of time ... I know this and yet I continue to allow procrastination to steal away my time every day. Charles Dickens also knew this which is perhaps why his completed quote reads Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him. I wonder if he found it as frustrating as I do? Dickens was born on February 7th 1812 which makes this the 207th anniversary of his birth -  not his '207th birthday.' I'm being pedantic perhaps, but there is no wheeling the double-centenarian out in a chair, brushing the dust off his lips and watching him blow out a forest of candles. I wonder what he would make of his fame, if he could see his books still in print today. And marvel at the many films and television series. And hear us quoting him in everyday speech - words like butterfingers and flummox were brought into everyday use by him. He used devil-me-care in Pickwick Papers and this continues to be used as an apt description of reckless behavio...