Once upon a time there was an old farmer named Zechariah Flint. He grew all kinds of things, but his specialty was cabbages. He won prizes at all the fairs for his beautiful cabbages, and they were his pride and joy. Well, one year, just a few days before he was due to harvest the … Continue reading A Quick Short
Thought of the Day
My reaction when public schools claim to teach kids to think for themselves:"Admirable. I recommend you start by asking their views on the phrase 'Nemo dat quod non habet'."
A Disappointing Ending
I finished Cowboy Bebop this weekend, and, I have to say, I was really disappointed by the ending. I won't say what happens, except that's it's ambiguous and the writer has explicitly said that he wants people to make their own minds about it. Well, I can do that. In fact, I might end up … Continue reading A Disappointing Ending
Quote of the Day: Dorothy Sayers
"For we let our young men and women go out unarmed, in a day when armour was never so necessary."-Dorothy Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning
TCM Remembers 2021
Friday Flotsam: Thoughts on ‘No Way Home’
1. It being New Year's Eve, I suppose standard practice would be to give some kind of a retrospective of the year gone by or speculations of the one to come. But we have more important things to talk about today; namely Spider-Man! I'd thought I was done with the MCU, but the word-of-mouth on … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Thoughts on ‘No Way Home’
Christmas
No flotsam this week. Instead here's the poem 'Christmas' by Sir John Betjeman: The bells of waiting Advent ring,The Tortoise stove is lit againAnd lamp-oil light across the nightHas caught the streaks of winter rainIn many a stained-glass window sheenFrom Crimson Lake to Hookers Green. The holly in the windy hedgeAnd round the Manor House … Continue reading Christmas
Thought of the Day
The fact that we cannot trust our current rulers - whether government, media, corporate, or Church - is itself one of the things that must be taken into account by any solution to the current situation.
Talking Bitcoin at ‘The Everyman’
My latest Everyman article went up last week (I was on vacation visiting relatives so missed sharing it 'out of the box'). This one delves into the topic of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general. The short version is that I think paying actual money for meaningless bits of data that only have value because people … Continue reading Talking Bitcoin at ‘The Everyman’
‘Twas the Dark Knight Before Christmas
The YouTuber It's Just Some Random Guy was, for me at least, a staple of the early and high days of the superhero renaissance. Entirely using action figures, he'd put out comedic sketches where a DC and a Marvel character compare notes on their latest films (e.g. the first round was Superman Returns and Spider-Man … Continue reading ‘Twas the Dark Knight Before Christmas
Serpent's Den 