The night before battle, Shakespeare give Henry IV one of his finest speeches spoken in the quiet of his tent: How many thousand of my poorest subjects Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep, Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down…
Month: May 2011
Goodbye Typewriters?
I remember my first typewriter, mainly because we still have it, and also because it belongs to my mother. An Olivetti Lettera 22, now a design classic, a small, portable typewriter that came with its own cleaning brush, heavy felt base and zip up case. I was four years old when I started to tap…
Lists
We adore lists. We think we know something about things or events if we can put them into an order. Not just as an aide memoire as you would expect using alphabetical, numerical or calendarian systems but a genuine belief that if we can put things into an order we have grasped something about them;…
Inject The Fun
Many years ago, in the days when popularist fiction was beginning to take off, a writer wrote letters to all sorts of people across the world and published the replies. Henry Root wrote silly and semi-serious letters receiving standard replies that made no sense, to people who participated in the joke. To a captain of…
The New Human
Part of me is gratified with the few discussions people are beginning to have about living without leaders even if the discussion are not yet mainstream. However the views I have read stem from disenchantment with the politics we face – lying western leaders, despotic tyrants, self serving tribal leaders and what have you. None…
Biodiverse
I read recently that if you studied botany, zoology or any such sciences twenty years ago, biodiversity would not have been a word used on the syllabus. The fact that this is now a by-word in society does not reflect badly upon scientists twenty years ago, after all, all science is a learning curve, it…
I Have Watched
the revolutions in the Middle East, the bombs falling in Libya, protesters shot and rounded up in Syria, the Bahrain dictators taking succour from the Saudi Arabian dictators and I am reminded of the dictators in Europe. The decimation of marching, unarmed people; the fight for votes, for even the right to be taught to…
The Empty Page
I have met several people over the years who when faced with an empty white page, feel utterly defeated before they have even tried to write a word. Given a theme for an essay at school or a mathematical problem to work out they fill up the paper with little trouble, but they do not…
What’s In A Name
I recently saw a map of the world with the derivations given of every country’s name. It was interesting to see what one knew, that every name meant something, came from some simple depiction or understanding of the people. All around the world people carry names with them that we think are important, or noteworthy,…
Everyone Has A Past
Though there is so much we cannot share. We read history and within a few hundred pages are fifty, sixty, seventy or more years. How long is the read? A week? How can our minds live so many years in so few days and understand each and every hour others spent living. The thoughts, the…