This, That And The Other

[poliphilo]

1. When I was a kid- back in the late 1950s- I collected the little model dinosaurs that were given away in packets of Shreddies. They were pretty  things, moulded in low relief from ivory-white plastic. I wish I'd kept them. A full set now sells on eBay for $455. Ouch!

2.  I watched an interview with Conrad Black, the Canadian tycoon who's just been sentenced to 6 years for fraud.  Even on a crap video link the charisma comes across.  He's charming and arrogant- and innocent (of course). No wonder he flourished for so long. When you're as self assured as he is ordinary people just buckle in front of you. He's recently published a book about Richard Nixon and apparently it's really good. 

3. I finished Murakami's short story collection, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.  I don't think he's a great short story writer. Entertaining, amusing- but not great. Great short story writers pack a whole world into their miniatures.  Murikami achieves that once or twice but what you mainly get is anecdote. The novel and the short story are very different disciplines and few writers are equally good at both. 

4. Doris Lessing gave an interview in which she slagged off blogging. Silly woman. She's a great writer and I admire her enormously but when she wanders off onto the subject of "these young people today" she's just somebody's grumpy, old granny.

5. I had a dream about a new born baby who could talk. She looked round, took in her new surroundings and said, "Big mistake."

Comments

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I'm not at all sure it's really the self assurance - it's the bloody money. Almost everyone kowtows to money and/or fame.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's true. But I suspect the self-assurance had quite a bit to do with him making all that money in the first place.

Some people are just born with an "I'm the cock of the walk" attitude. Napoleon, for instance.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Still, Conrad is getting his come-uppance. I am a great believer in "your sins will find you out". And also in "the mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceeding small". It's worked with some of the more evil / incompetent people I have met at work.

Doris made me MAD which you can see from my blog.
Tea, anyone?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The mills of God haven't caught up with Tony Blair yet....

Yes, please- milk and no sugar....