Annoying Old People Are Really Annoying

 Ailz rings her mother to say, "I'm feeling too ropey to visit today".

"Yes, but can you go pick up the dog's insulin"

"Not at the moment. What is it about  'feeling too ropey' you don't understand?"

"Yes, but can you go pick up the dog's insulin"

This annoys me so much I tell Ailz to tell her mother to fuck off. Only I don't say it out loud; I mouth it.

And then I write this post. 

The New Machiavelli: H.G. Wells

This is the book that turned me on to Wells- only for some reason I didn't follow up for 40 years. It's as good as I remember- an impassioned novel about politics and love- and the relative values thereof. Wells is one of those rare novelists (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Rand, Murdoch) who write not only about ideas but about people for whom ideas matter.