Stuff

Added on 17 March 2009

Have finished the first re-write of The Cutting Edge of Barney Thomson, in its transmogrification into The Barber Surgeon's Hairshirt. Stopped counting the mistakes that were in the original text. Well, to be honest, I never actually started counting the mistakes. There were a lot of mistakes. Now I'm onto the process of checking and proofing and re-reading, so hopefully the thing won't be error-ridden like the last version.

Here's a great line from The Unbearable Lightness of Being:

A charming acting student whose body had been tanned on Yugoslavia's nudist beaches with an evenness that called to mind slow rotation on a mechanized spit.

Regardless of what one thinks of a book, it's always good when a single line, regardless of context, really grabs you. This book is is full of them.

One of Two had exams last week and she did really well. She and Two of Two are both, according to their teachers at yesterday's parent/teacher briefing, wonderful kids. (This is not apparent at home, but I'm happy to go with someone else's opinion.) One of Two gave me a list of all the kids in her class whose parents buy them expensive gifts when they do well in exams, including one kid who gets "anything she wants". I asked One of Two what she'd like. She said an iPhone, then changed her mind and upped it to a laptop.

Instead I gave them something even greater. I made them a cake and let them watch Monty Python & The Holy Grail for the first time. Imagine, their first introduction to I'll fart in your general direction, Listen mate, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government, the Knights Who Say 'Ni', and the Killer Rabbit. The rewards for academic excellence can come no greater than this first glimpse of High Culture.