Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled “This could change your life”.
Helen Exley
Tag Archives: zenmischief
Something to Think About this month
As well as everything else, each month I offer you something to think about and get the brain working. This month …
A telephone makes sound travel faster than the speed of sound.
February Quiz Questions
Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.
Medicine
- What is dermatophobia the fear of?
- How many teeth do adult humans have?
- In 2015, which country started thanking people via text message when their donated blood was used?
- An absence of the SRY gene means what for a human being?
- In which part of the body would you find the atlas and axis bones?
- First developed by John Salk, the vaccine for which illness was first tested in 1952?
Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.
February 1925
Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.
1. Ahmed Zog ascended to power in Albania, becoming its President, Prime Minister and Marshal of the Royal Albanian Army.
2. Born. Elaine Stritch, actress and singer, in Detroit (d.2014)
8. Born. Jack Lemmon, actor, in Newton, Massachusetts (d.2001)
11. In the English House of Commons, Reginald Applin of the Conservatives asked the Speaker of the House if Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson was in order while addressing the House without wearing a hat. The Speaker ruled that she was and a precedent for women was set.
26. Born. Everton Weekes, cricketer, in St Michael, Barbados (d.2020)
Unblogged January
Diary-type thoughts on what occurred around here which weren’t otherwise written about.
Wednesday 1
I find it mysterious that I awoke this morning to find an empty champagne bottle in the bedroom wastepaper bin. Such decadence! Happy New Year!
Thursday 2
So the weather people have issued a weather warning for snow and ice (maybe someone needs to explain to them that snow is ice!) over the weekend – and for some much colder days and nights. What are the odds of us getting snow here in suburban west London? In my estimation approximately zero ± a gnat’s testicle. We’ll see; I could be wrong.
Friday 3
It was a nice sunny day, but they weren’t wrong about the cold. Bright sunshine and good light even at 15:30; pitch dark by 16:30.
Sunday 5
The squirrels are cheeky little monkeys; you can quite see why they’re so successful. Over the months they’ve created large holes in the mesh at the bottom of the peanut feeder outside the dining room window; I’m surprised the bottom hasn’t fallen out! Lunchtime today the feeder was almost empty and there was our chubby squirrel raiding it. There’s so little wire that said squirrel was getting a paw in the feeder to retrieve whole nuts – a bit like a cat feeling under the bed for their lost mouse.
Oh and we got a bit of snow last evening: rain turned to ice and then came snow; just enough to make things white. It had gone by morning to be replaced by rain and fog; the former continued persistently all day so by dark-fall we had half the garden under casual water.
Monday 6
I gave in and had my annual pre-birthday haircut and shower.
Friday 10
This week from the supermarket we have tangerines from Tangier … possibly. They’re certainly from Morocco. They’re rays of sunshine at the end of a cold, dull week. Today has only just crept above freezing having been around -6°C last night – and early this evening it is already around -4°C so we’re going to get another cold night. Indeed apart from roughly midday Sunday to sunrise Monday when it was relatively warm and wet, no day in the last week has got up to 5°C. And this is in the relative warmth of suburban west London!
Saturday 11
So that was a birthday, was it? N was at the hospital. I spent the day in the study doing paperwork & admin for various projects, and getting cold because I was resisting putting the heating back on. I work on the basis that it’s known that if you’re too hot you burn extra calories to keep cool, so it stands to reason that if you’re cold you’ll burn extra calories to keep warm – and after all I have plenty of calories to burn!
Sunday 12
Birthday part 2. Again, apart from 15 minutes doing bits outside, I spent the day mostly working on various projects, although I did have a good lay-in. Finished off with cold smoked chicken, new potatoes & fennel slaw, followed by strawberries & cream; all washed down with a bottle of champagne and a liqueur. End result = fairly incapable! Hic!
Wednesday 15
So I look out of the study window this morning and the trees in the garden are full of green parakeets. Count 16. 2 minutes later, count 18. Another 2 minutes, count 21. The final count got to 23! I think that’s a record for us. It’s no wonder N is having to refill the feeders every other day – what with the parakeets, tits, and at least 3 squirrels.
Thursday 16
Somewhere in the house the cats have lost a dead mouse. I can smell it, but not trace it. Gah!
Friday 17
They’re Moroccan and they’re whoppers! Most girls would be proud of them. [Spoiler: see a week ago.]
Saturday 18
Does anyone else have weird, byzantine, waking dreams? This morning my dream was a mixture of travel by taxi or given a lift by a colleague from two adjacent work locations, through a mixture of (London) suburbs, some rebuilt some not; to a big hospital where I was having regular bits of minor (but internal, abdominal) surgery. I think the consultant was one I’ve seen before who has done a couple of colonoscopies for me. And … I was also having dental treatment with my actual dentist in some rather dilapidated Edwardian rooms which were part of the same hospital. I was having to scuttle from one to the other, and trying to arrange appointments. The culmination was this complex dental work on a Saturday (my real dentist is Jewish so doesn’t work on a Saturday!), which involved not just my dentist, but also another dental consultant and an anaesthetist, all together. GOK what it was all about – other than anxiety!
Sunday 19
David the Pond Man came to do a much delayed late autumn overhaul. Blimey he drained the whole pond (the fish were put in a holding tank) and said he removed 2 inches of muck from the bottom. The saved water from two holding tanks went back in; and by dark-fall the hose had refilled the pond about ⅓ – quite enough for the fish and putting the pumps back on (we’ll refill the rest tomorrow, but God help the water bill!). But lo-and-behold, we still have 21 goldfish, which means we’ve not lost any in 2½ years; and they’re now big chunky goldfish which started out as tiny fingerlings.
Monday 20
Make that 22 goldfish.
Wednesday 22
It’s been one of those days where everything either conspires to be difficult, or actually goes tits up. In fact it was one of those days before I even got out of bed this morning. But I take consolation in that I’m not the only one suffering this today.
Friday 24
I still haven’t finished refilling the pond. It’s ⅔ full and filter running so should be OK. But I’ve declined to brave the rain, the lake on the path, and the mud to venture forth. This weather is driving us all up the wall. Can we actually manage to go a week without a major storm? So we consoled ourselves this evening with sausage and chips.
Saturday 25
There must be something wrong! I actually spent most of the afternoon reading.
Sunday 26
Cometh the gardener. He thinks he’s going to finish refilling the pond for me. Why bother? It is pissing with rain. And within an hour the garden is awash with casual water, again. Oh and the gardener thinks we have 23 goldfish – so one of us can’t count!
Monday 27
This afternoon, the usual twice yearly dental check-up etc. And as I was warned last time I need a raft of work done: at least 4 fillings, mostly because the existing fillings are beginning to fail. Well one of those fillings is old amalgam, so it must be 25+ years old. That’s going to hurt the wallet! I might have to have a replacement crown too, but at least for the moment that can has been kicked down the road, so even more cost postponed. It’s all surprisingly draining, even though I don’t actually mind going to the dentist.
Tuesday 28
Well if I pissed him off, it’s just too bad. Tell me on Monday evening that I have a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, and that I’m supposed to know about it, when this is the first I’ve heard? Don’t be surprised if I say “no”, followed by “and not this week”. A lack of planning (or attention to detail) on your part does not constitute a crisis on mine.
Wednesday 29
I had to chuckle this afternoon when we at the doctors doing outreach work. One of the young lady clinicians (not one of the doctors or nurses) was wearing black patent, very pointed, slightly upturned shoes, which reminded me of medieval poulaines – although not as exaggerated; more akin to 1960s winkle-pickers. I said to her that I liked her medieval shoes; she said she called them her Pied Piper shoes!
Friday 31
I’ve just tried some seaweed crisps. My advice: don’t!
Monthly Links
Welcome to the first “Monthly Links” of 2025, where we give you links to things you may have missed the first time around. And do we have a bumper crop this month!
Science, Technology, Natural World
Let’s start with a celebration … This month the Universe is 100! [LONG READ]
We do live in a special part of the Universe, don’t we? [££££]
It took Galileo’s new-fangled telescope to find these four objects which you can now see easily with binoculars.
And scientists continue to push the boundaries of the telescope … Hubble Space Telescope wasn’t supposed to ever look at the sun, but they did it anyway. [££££]
Twenty years ago there was a cosmic explosion which rocked Earth. [££££]
Slightly less dramatically, Pluto and Charon may have formed as the as the result of a kiss.
Meanwhile astronomers are hoping for a brief, but spectacular, star which appears only every 80 years. [LONG READ]
Also celebrating its centenary is the Pauli Exclusion Principle which underpins our understanding of subatomic particles.
Let’s get our feet back firmly where we can understand what’s going on … or not so firmly, as here’s a look at the strange fish which has historically struck fear into the hearts of mariners.
Still on oddities, a pair of birders in Michigan have been visited by an extremely rare yellow cardinal bird.
Why in 1926 in the USA was there a plague of mice? [LONG READ]
Going down another level in size, some caterpillars make deadly venoms which can even kill a human.
Even further down is size to our DNA, why are we all riddled with genetic errors? [LONG READ]
Health, Medicine
The series looking at modelling a pandemic has reached Part 4: Asymptomatic Transmission. [LONG READ]
OB/GYN Dr Jen Gunter takes a look at fibroids, one of the scourges if the female reproductive system. [LONG READ]
At the other end of the body, it seems the pupil of the eye can open a surprising window on the mind.
And here’s a real oddity … an 84 year old man in Hong Kong has turned grey due to silver poisoning.
Sexuality
Kate Lister says she spent a year telling men where they were going wrong in bed. [££££]
A sex expert suggests eight questions everyone should ask for better sex. [££££]
Environment
The expansion of London’s Heathrow Airport, indeed all airport expansion and air travel in general, will negate the UK’s attempts to reach net zero.
Social Sciences, Business, Law, Politics
Breaking with my normal position on politics … In what may be my only comment on the state of the USA, Ian Dunt at The I Paper looks at that Elon Musk Nazi salute and what it means for the future of the US. [££££] [These people have to be stopped, but how?]
How can we fix democracy? Ancient Greek philosopher Plato could suggest the answer.
Zoom calls and how to survive them in 2025.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
A quarry in Oxfordshire has yielded the UK’s (and maybe Europe’s) biggest set of dinosaur tracks. (Aerial view above.)
Archaeologists have discovered that they can extract ancient DNA from dirt, so areas like cave floors are revealing yet more information about, for instance, Stone Age humans. [££££]
Meanwhile investigations are ongoing into how built Europe’s first cities.
In Egypt archaeologists have found the 4,000-year-old tomb of an overachieving magician.
An Iron Age site in Dorset is demonstrating that women were at the centre of some tribal communities, and exploding the earlier misogynistic narratives.
Excavations at Pompeii continue to reveal astonishing details of life there, including unexpected luxury.
Here’s a look at what five gold rings from Norfolk can tell us about the past.
Porch House in Stow-on-the-Wold claims to be Britain’s oldest pub dating from around 947. But is it really?
Leonardo Da Vinci always maintained that there were secret tunnels in Italy’s Sforza Castle. It now turns out he was right.
Excessively pointed shoes were the height of fashion in medieval London
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
Meet a sea captain who’s obsessed with icebreaking.
We’re losing the ability to write in cursive, and therefore also read it – and it’s all the fault of computers.
And finally … What do you need to start meditating? Nothing except your own mind.
What Happened in 525BC, 425BC, 325BC, 225BC
Over the next few months we’ll have a look at some things – things which seem to me to be interesting or curious – which happened during other years ending ..25. Some years are busy; in others little seemed to have happened. Each month we’ll progress a bit further through centuries, starting this month with 525 BC and reaching 1825 in November. Most years are fairly sparce, so until things really get going in 1525 each entry will contain multiple years. So off we go at 525 BC.
Some Notable Events in 525 BC
17 September. Venus occults Antares. The next such occurrence will not take place until 17 November 2400 AD.
Unknown Date. Battle of Pelusium. Cambyses II of Persia conquers Egypt by painting cats and other animals sacred to the Egyptians on his soldiers’ shields. The Egyptians run in fear of “harming” these animals. After conquering Egypt, the Persian king Cambyses II sent ambassadors to Macrobia, bringing luxury gifts for the Macrobian king to entice his submission. The Macrobian king replied instead with a challenge for his Persian counterpart in the form of an unstrung bow: if the Persians could manage to string it, they would have the right to invade his country; but until then, they should thank the gods that the Macrobians never decided to invade their empire.
Unknown Date. Born. Aeschylus, author of Greek tragedies.
Unknown Date. Died. Anaximenes of Miletus, Greek scientist and philosopher (b.585 BC).
Some Notable Events in 425 BC
Unknown Date. Demosthenes captures and fortifies the port of Pylos in the Peloponnesus, giving Athens a strong base close to Sparta. The Battle of Pylos results in an Athenian victory leading to the surrender of many of the Spartan troops. Pylos remains in Athenian hands.
Unknown Date. Euripides’ play Hecuba is performed.
Unknown Date. Aristophanes’ play The Acharnians is performed. Produced by Callistratus, it wins Aristophanes a first prize at the Lenaea.
Unknown Date. Died. Herodotus of Halicarnassos, Dorian Greek historian (b.484 BC).
Some Notable Events in 325 BC
Unknown Date. Alexander the Great leaves India and nominates his officer Peithon as the satrap of the region around the Indus.
Unknown Date. The first known reference to sugar cane appears in writings by Alexander the Great’s admiral Nearchus, who writes of Indian reeds “that produce honey, although there are no bees”.
Unknown Date. Born. Euclid, Greek mathematician who will come to live in Alexandria (d.c.275 BC).
Some Notable Events in 225 BC
Unknown Date. After the Battle of Faesulae (near Montepulciano) between the Gauls and a Roman army, the combined Roman forces succeed in outmanoeuvring the Gauls and force the invaders towards the coast of Tuscany. The Consul Regulus crossed from Sardinia, landed at Pisa, and was marching towards Rome. His scouts met the Celts’ advance guard head on near Telamon.
Unknown Date. Battle of Telamon: The Romans, led by the consuls Gaius Atilius Regulus and Lucius Aemilius Papus, defeated the Celts led by the Gaesatae kings Concolitanus and Aneroëstes.
This Month’s Two Tiny Changes
Each month during 2025 we’re offering two tiny changes which may help improve your life. This month …
- Incorporate “mobility snacks” into your day. Do some simple exercises while the kettle boils etc.
- Be honest in every area of your life. So you don’t feel fine? Then don’t say you are. Be truthful, but don’t be dismal with it.
Monthly Quotes
Welcome to the first of our 2025 collections of quotes, recently encountered.
Men in a state of nature, uncivilized nations, and children have a great fondness for colours in their utmost brightness.
[Goethe]
I want to live in a world where being naked in public is normal.
[unknown]
Whatever the reasons, I enjoyed being nude; it felt natural to me. I got the same kind of pleasure from being free of clothing that many people get from being well dressed.
[unknown]
Not everyone can stand the strain of gazing down too long into the personal crater, with its scene of Hieronymus Bosch activities taking place in the depths.
[Anthony Powell; To Keep the Ball Rolling]
In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away”. To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it”.
This paradox rests on the most elementary common sense. The gate or fence did not grow there. It was not set up by somnambulists who built it in their sleep. It is highly improbable that it was put there by escaped lunatics who were for some reason loose in the street. Some person had some reason for thinking it would be a good thing for somebody. And until we know what the reason was, we really cannot judge whether the reason was reasonable. It is extremely probable that we have overlooked some whole aspect of the question, if something set up by human beings like ourselves seems to be entirely meaningless and mysterious. There are reformers who get over this difficulty by assuming that all their fathers were fools; but if that be so, we can only say that folly appears to be a hereditary disease. But the truth is that nobody has any business to destroy a social institution until he has really seen it as an historical institution. If he knows how it arose, and what purposes it was supposed to serve, he may really be able to say that they were bad purposes, that they have since become bad purposes, or that they are purposes which are no longer served. But if he simply stares at the thing as a senseless monstrosity that has somehow sprung up in his path, it is he and not the traditionalist who is suffering from an illusion.
[GK Chesterton]
That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.
[Aldous Huxley]
Always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor never the tormented.
[Elíe Wiesel, Roumainian-born American Jewish writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor]
I simply can’t understand
Why swimsuits are in such demand.
They’re soggy and damp,
Bind like a clamp,
And hold about three pounds of sand.
[DR Benson]
One idiot is one idiot. Two idiots are two idiots. Ten thousand idiots are a political party.
[Franz Kafka]
Have you ever thought about how surreal reading a book actually is? You stare at marked slices of tree for hours, hallucinating vividly. Isn’t it amazing how words can transport us to different worlds and experiences, all while staying in one place?
[unknown]
The best motto to think about is not waste things. Don’t waste electricity. Don’t waste paper. Don’t waste food. Live the way you want to live but just don’t waste. Look after the natural world, and the animals in it, and the plants in it too. This is their planet as well as ours. Don’t waste them.
[Sir David Attenborough]
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
[Bertrand Russell, British Philosopher]
We can blame HG Wells for popularising the notion that the future will be incomprehensibly alien, totally unlike our world now. Though his novel The Time Machine was fantastical, it reflected a broader cultural view during the industrial revolution that history hadn’t prepared us for what was coming next. Eventually, we might evolve into competing post-human species of underground Morlocks and surface-dwelling Eloi. Echoing Wells, futurists today declare that humans are either on the brink of becoming hyper-evolved cyborgs or paper clips on the desk of a godlike AI.
[Annalee Newitz; New Scientist; 11/01/2025; https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26435250-100-ancient-humans-understood-the-future-and-the-past-pretty-much-as-we-do/]
A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn’t enough merely to make money. He feels obliged to hold views, to espouse causes and elect Presidents, to explain to a trembling world how and why the world went wrong … The spectacle is nearly always comic.
[Lewis H Lapham, editor and writer (1935-2024) in 1989]
[h/t John Monaghan]
Your time on earth is limited. Don’t try to “age with grace”. Age with mischief, audacity and a great story to tell.
[unknown]
January Quiz Answers
Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.
General Knowledge (1)
- What type of clothing is a Glengarry? Hat or bonnet
- Which country features a shipwreck on its national flag? Bermuda
- Which two months of the year are named for mortal men? July and August
- Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire is famous for which two foods? Stilton Cheese, Melton Mowbray Pork Pie
- Name the type of rigid airship, first flown commercially in 1910, and carrying many thousands of fare-paying passengers before WWI? Zeppelin
- Benjamin Disraeli once described William Ewart Gladstone as “A sophistical rhetorician, _____ with the exuberance of his own verbosity”. What is the missing word? Inebriated
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.