Category Archives: Blather

Sometimes, all that fiddling with computers at home pays off extravagantly. My copy for this week’s wormseye got lost over the weekend. I am in New York; the house is deserted; I didn’t have a version on the laptop (because … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Can anyone think of an explanation for the fact, (via) that, when they are asked to identify the top two recipients of federal government spending, 49% of Americans list “Foreign Aid” as one of them? And, no, it’s not a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Where does the grease on spectacle lenses come from? When spectacles get dirty and smeared, they have an oily sheen if you look at the lenses side on. Breathing on them, then buffing with a cloth, as I used to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I see that 12 people voted for this site in the Satin Pyjamas awards for best European weblog — not that I was nominated for that eminence, but as one of the blogs people should read more. Well, that was … Continue reading → Continue reading →

It’s disillusionment about human nature that makes me progressive. HEB, the original grumpy old liberal, puts this very well. Currently the received wisdom seems to be that Liberals believe that people are inherently good so that Trust is warranted while … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I was thinking yesterday about the difference between shame and guilt: guilt, it seems, is where you have wronged someone. They feel you have behaved badly towards them and you agree. Restitution is possible, at least in theory. It can … Continue reading → Continue reading →

but already I know what I want Continue reading →

The lot of you. No one seems to have read the latest Swedish story at all. Still, I have finished it; and if there are any priests reading this, they had best mark and learn from this tragic tale of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The left-hand margin of the topmost piece of paper on the desk is not a persistent storage medium. In two days’ time you will have lost the vital phone number / password you scribbled there. Nor will you remember whose … Continue reading → Continue reading →

My mother in law gave me for Christmas an extraordinary illustration of the evils of heroin. It wasn’t meant like that. But the Grateful Dead movie was the last sustained piece of work Garcia did before he started smoking “Persian … Continue reading → Continue reading →