AMERICAN GOTHIC!

 

NEW LOCKDOWN: Day 8, Friday.

 

 

As we continue to fret our way through the no-man’s-land of the space between the counting of the votes and some sort of definitive result from the interminable American election, I have mused over the future not only for America but also for the rest of us.

     What seems likely to happen is that Joe Biden wins the election and becomes President of the United States.  The Blue Wave of support for the Democratic Party has not happened and so the new president will be faced with a reduced majority in the House of Representatives and a Senate controlled by the Republicans.

     Already Republican slime in the human form of Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell have stated that they will make it as obstructively difficult as possible for the new president and for the Democrats.  The Slime will have been emboldened by the fact that the election did not sweep away Trump and his sick ethos, rather it will now allow itself to be entrenched in Republican ‘thinking’ for the foreseeable future.  This means that Biden (if elected) will be faced with a frustrating period of government where every truly Democrat idea is frustrated by the Senate.

     At the end of four years (if he lasts that long) Biden will have little in the way of positive achievement to look back on.  He will also be four years older.  So, he will be fighting the 2024 election as an 81-year-old.

     This is where the choice of Kamala Harris as a running mate and vice president comes into play.  If there had been a Blue Wave, then she could have played her part in overturning the discredited actions of Trump and enacting a whole slew of legislation to bring the country back from the brink.  She could have been well-placed to become the candidate for the 2024 election if Biden was unable or unwilling to take on the next four years.

     But after four years of frustration and limited achievement she would be handed a poisoned chalice.  And remember, Trump was NOT trounced, a terrifyingly large percentage of the population saw four years of a grotesquely dysfunctional presidency and voted for four more years of it and Kamala Harris, a coloured, left-leaning, woman is going to tick all the bigot boxes to limit her election.  The incredible numbers of non-white voters who supported Trump, with a special call-out to those Latinos who respond to the word ‘socialist’ with instinctive horror, all combine to suggest that Kamala Harris would be a disaster at the polls in 2024!  And can you imagine either Biden continuing at 81 or the in-fighting in the Democrats in looking for someone else in the lead up to 2024?

     So, this is my horror scenario. 

     The period 2020-2024 is a disaster for Biden and the Democrats. 

     The Covid horror continues as anything that Biden says is immediately construed as an attack on basic liberty by Republican and far right (is there now a difference?) elements.  Covid therefore continues as an ongoing disaster with Democratic attempt to cope with the pandemic seen as anti-democratic (!) and as ineffectual -. Biden will be blamed for the mounting deaths in a way that Trump never was.

     Obama Care is struck down by the Supreme Court, this is seen as a triumph for the wrongly and unjustly forced from office Republicans.  Biden is blamed for the increased deaths and misery caused by the increased numbers of Americans who will no longer have any form of health insurance.

     Tax rises are implemented to pay for the financial disaster of Covid.  Biden is blamed for making ‘ordinary Americans poorer’.

     And so, it will go on, unfairly, with Biden being blamed for things that just seemed to slip off Trump.  Biden, emphatically, could not walk down 5^th Avenue and shoot someone and get away with it.  No way!

     And then, the final horror of 2024, when Trump returns as the ‘wronged’ President and stands as the Republican Party’s nominee to become the 47^th President of the United States of America.  And wins!

 

I fairly obviously hope to god that none of this (apart from Biden winning) comes to pass.  But 69 million bitter ‘disenfranchised’ (!) Tump voters is an awfully large proportion of the population to take with you if Biden (as he surely must) puts himself forward as the healing president trying to bring warring sides together after a more than bruising campaign.

     Trump will have lost the popular vote by millions.  Again.  But who seems to care about that?  The vagaries (or idiocy) of the American Electoral College is what decides, and the Trumpian Hordes are going to be a complicating factor in American politics for the foreseeable future – a future in which a hamstrung Democratic president, unable to count of both houses of Congress is going to fight a losing battle with the Trumpian Hordes baying for his blood.  I do not envy him his task.

 

What can help Biden now is that all the court cases which have been held in abeyance because the President could not be prosecuted are now all activated.  As should be court cases against the nepotistic scum with which the President surrounded himself.  Conflicts of interest should be examined and those suspected (!) of wrongdoing should be prosecuted.   

     Trump has done so much wrong that it is essential that all of his wrongdoing is prosecuted: for the sake of the Republic, he must not be allowed to get away with his trashing of legal norms.  Justice must show that no one is above the law, up to and very much including Trump.  It is essential that any member of his family who is suspected of corrupt wrongdoing should also be prosecuted so that their feelings of indemnity that have characterised the last four years are brought back into some sort of legalistic focus.

     By the way, I am not sure of the legal position of Trump in the period from whenever the final result is called until Biden takes over, but could Trump give presidential pardons to all those who have aided and abetted him in his occupation of the White House?  He has, after all, mooted the idea of giving himself a pardon!  

     Is it still possible for him to resign, have the odious Pence take over and then as president Pence (I refuse to accord even the hypothetical suggestion of office for that man a capital letter) give Trump an open presidential pardon for any and all crimes committed during his ‘presidency’?   

     Given how many of the norms of decency Trump has already broken with impunity, such a devious Get Out of Jail Free process would not be beyond his depths, so to speak!

 

As I type, we still do not know if Biden has been able to gain the 6 votes he needs (assuming Arizona is safe) to gain the presidency.  Presumably, if he is able to, Trump will demand a recount in all the knife-edge states, not to gain power, but rather to give him more time to spread further unfounded rumours and conspiracy theories.   

     Even if Trump eventually goes, his leaving behind a tarnished presidency and a ‘suspect’ accession will be enough for him and the shaeless Republican Party to work with for the next chapter in the sobering tale of Modern Political American Gothic.

 

 

Ways to stay sane

NEW LOCKDOWN: Day 7, Thursday

 

Covid, the American election, lack of direct sunlight: when reality becomes too much I retreat to the discrete and the manageable.

     For my last birthday I was sent a stylish Scriveiner rollerball pen, which works just fine.  But that is not the point about the pen, nor its understated elegance.  No, it’s the totally satisfying thunk-click the top makes when it is pressed home, down over the nib.  It has a depth and a solidity and a crisp finality demands that you do it again.  And again.  I do realise that it is the sort of pen that can only be used in isolation: what is satisfaction for one is incitement to murder for another!

 

My new watch has arrived!  I wonder just how many times I have said, or could have said, that.  Having found mechanical watches that fit virtually all of my prerequisites, I have long gone on to smart watches – which of course give a whole new meaning to the search and to the cost.

     To be fair to me, I have never bought a really expensive watch, something like a Tag Heuer or Rolex Oyster Perpetual or whatever, I have been drawn instead to ‘good value’ inexpensive watches.  And sometimes to downright holiday rip-offs.  In the long run, of course, I have possibly (!) spent more than I would have if I had purchased a single heirloom-type conventional timepiece. 

     But I would not have had anything like the fun.  From where I am sitting, I can see two briefcase sized containers that hold (most) of my watch collection.  Each of them brings back memories, sometimes specific places, while others are the triggers to regret, missed opportunities or miss-steps.  It is sad that most if not all of my Cassio Period (early digital) acquisitions are lost, destroyed or discarded.  Though, come to think about it, if all my watch purchases were brought together in one place, I fear that even I would be a little shocked at just how much I had squandered!

      However, to get back to the immediate present, the timepiece that I have on my wrist I bought prompted by a pop-up ad on my mobile phone.  My (extensive) researches into acceptable smart watches have led me to Amazfit.  In my view the battery life, swimability, bikability, and function meet my basic needs.  So, I have bought one or possibly two-ish of them, and generally been fairly pleased – but there is always a niggling doubt about one or another aspect of the device that brings me back to the marketplace to waste (Toni’s word) more of my money.

     The latest version of the Amazfit watch on my wrist is the GTR2 and so I have reverted to the traditional round shape for the watch face instead of the curved strip of the X.  The advantage of the GTR2 is that it does allow you to have a basic always-on face, though this does drain the battery, by just how much time will tell.  And who knows when I will have the opportunity to test it in the pool?  Rather disturbingly, our pool/leisure centre has sent us details of commercially available on-line fitness classes that we can take as part of our subscription – which doesn’t bode well for when they think we will finally be allowed back for our swims in actual water!

     But until then, there is a period where I can luxuriate in the purchase before the novelty wears off and I subject it to a more rigorous utility analysis to see how well it truly performs given my demands.  So far; so good!

 

How much time do you have to spend watching Netflix before it becomes an official medical complaint?  With me, I don’t think it is the amount of time spent in front of the screen that is a problem, rather it is the inability to finish watching what you have started looking at.  I don’t mean that I turn on Netflix and watch relentlessly until I fall into bed, it is rather the fact that I seem to have the temporal toleration of full-strength Coked-up (please note the capital letter) kid with ADT.  My critical systems do a full analysis within the first ten minutes of a film or half the first episode of a series and I’m back to the home screen and searching for something new, or reverting to my default viewing position of an episode of Family Guy or The Big Bang Theory, neither of which seems susceptible to my dismissive critique.  And before you know it a couple of hours have gone by without your noticing.  Or is this just a function of Covid and the consequent lockdown?

     To answer my own questions, I don’t really know, but I am not doing as much writing as I feel I should be doing.  And, I put that down to the fact that my use of my notebook has shrunk to almost nothing because I do not swim.

     As I have mentioned before, my habit is to write something (anything) in my notebook after I have completed by daily swim and while I am having my cup of tea.  Now that swimming is forbidden, at least in the indoor pool that I use, and I have zero intention of throwing myself into the sea, in spite of the fact that my watch will accommodate ‘free swimming’ as easily as pool lengths, do not write anything on the pristine notebook pages.  I do not seem to be able to shift my notebook writing to any other period and adapt to other circumstances.  Odd.

    

I have often wondered about the power of habit. 

     I have realised over time that I have particular ways of packing and setting out my clothes when I change for my swim.  I use a certain number of pegs and I divest myself of clothing in a particular order.  If I change the order then something goes wrong: I forget to take my swimming goggles or I leave something out.  I think it is because there are a whole range of activities for which you do not really think; you are on automatic pilot and as long as things are regular everything works well.  I always us the example of touch typing: the more you think about where the letters are the more mistakes you make, you just have to go with what your fingers know they know and everything will be fine.  This is why, if someone talks to you while you are getting changed, you forget to put your ear plugs in or something.

     When I used to play squash and you were warming up the ball with your opponent before the match, some players would ask, “Which side would you like to start on?” and I made a conscious effort not to care and to be equally at home with left or right just in case I got used to one side more than another to start off and then if that was denied it would have an effect on the game.  If you are used to starting on the right, then it can be unsettling to be made to start on the left.  Gamesmanship is not made up of cheating (though I have known a fair number of shameless cheats in squash) but of little niggles that have a disproportionate claim on your sporting ability.

     As with the warmup in squash so it is in so many trivial aspects of everyday life; from brushing one’s teeth to going around the supermarket for food, there are too many rituals that are so second nature that they don’t register until they are disrupted!

     And lockdown is the perfect opportunity for self-disruption!

Who are they?

 New Lockdown: Day 6, Wednesday

I admit it. I got up very early, in the darkness and, under the subterfuge of going to have a pee, I had a sneaky look at my mobile to find out the state of play in the American election.  What I read was not exactly comforting and my attempt to go back to bed and sleep until daybreak did not work.

     So, up before dawn and reading my Guardian app on the phone while listening to Radio 4, I had a consolatory cup of tea and pondered on the sheer unadulterated differentness of people.

     People like me are going to have to come to terms with the fact that Trump got more votes than he did in the election in 2016.  Whatever the outcome of the election, and, as I type nothing at all seems even remotely settled, over 50 million (probably nearer to 60 million by now) people watched Trump be ‘president’ for four years and still voted for him.  I will not recite Trump’s glaring faults – perhaps they trip too easily off liberal tongues, like mindless repetition of rosary prayers.  I am tempted to say that the repetition has the same empty efficacy, serving merely as sonic balm to hide the fact that they are merely words with no further function than mouthed sounds.

     I listened to a Trump supporter say that she had her doubts about the character of Trump but felt that she shared his ideas and values.  She obviously didn’t mean the repulsive ideas and values that I see in him, but presumably some hazy version of what being a Republican means.  She was affluent and had higher education, but she mentioned the disturbingly left-wing policies of Biden (!) and the fear that he would limit freedom in some undefined way as justifications for her instinctive rejection.

     Obviously, this woman was on camera, felt under an obligation to ‘justify’ her support of Trump and, as far as I could tell in the fairly unnatural position of a televised interview, she seemed sincere and content with her choices.  She seemed decent enough, but had obviously put aside, or perhaps rejected as False News, much of the negative (factual) coverage of this depressing presidency.

     It is certainly tempting, from my point of view to dismiss Trump supporters as self-deluding idiots, and some of the choices that non-American commentators make in their choice of Trump supporting interviewees seem to fit that category, but 60 million Americans (and counting) voted for this person, and they cannot all be idiots, and to continue to think so will ensure that the divide in the country will never be healed.

     Some of the Trump supporters are in it for the money and for the power, or are the immediate nepotistic-sweetened family, but that only covers a fraction of the voting electorate.

     The four years of Trump have led some people who seem to live fairly coherent lives to say that, “He is the best president we have ever had!”  To say, “He really understands people like us!” or, “He cares!”  They see his public speaking, which I see as cringe-makingly embarrassing, as “natural” and “welcoming”, that he is, “really speaking to us!”  His free association of incoherent and contradictory meanderings allow Trump supporters to see the wealth-inherited billionaire (he claims) as one of their own, chatting to them in a way no other ‘politician’ can - or would dare to.

     Even as I try and be fair-minded, I can feel my bitterness and contempt seep through into my writing.  But astonishment at his continued ‘success’ will do nothing to stem the toxic populism that he represents and fosters.

     People on the left have a duty to understand how it is that so many people reject what seem like age-old standards of human decency for a strident self-defeating national selfishness.  And where do we start?

     Only one of my friends has admitted (that is an important qualification) to voting for Brexit.  None of them admits to voting for the Conservatives.  I read The Guardian and study the History of Art and live in Catalonia, not the obvious background to a right-wing populist, or a background likely to bring me into contact with other populists.  But my point is, that if the numbers of those voting for Trump or Johnson can be taken as a guide to how widespread their ‘ideology’ is then I must know a fair number of people who vote for what I regard as the disturbingly right-wing, and they are the people I need to understand and interact with in the expectation of bettering not only my own understanding of what is making people tick at the moment, but also of bettering our national dialogue.

     The problem, of course, is what to do next.

     I reject the idea of living in a Trumpian world: virtually everything he does and says is anathema to me.  But how do you change what seems to be a perniciously attractive way of looking at the world and one’s place inside it to many whom I have been able to regard (and I mean in an observational sense) as ‘other’?

     Perhaps, as part of our ‘Family Wisdom’ has it, “Anything is better than nothing!”  Speaking, conversation, writing, participating in political life, sharing thoughts, ideas - who knows what might eventually help, but an awareness of the divisions within society and a sensitivity towards them must surely be a step forward.

     And, when I get up tomorrow, perhaps Biden might have garnered the requisite number of Electoral College votes to start the process of the reinvention of the New Normal Politics, and then we can work on the New Normal during/after Covid without worrying what the so-called Leader of the Free World might tweet off the top of his head!

 

Demand what you pay for!

 New Lockdown, Day 4, Tuesday

• 

 

My bike ride was conducted in that flat two-dimensional bleakness that a brightly-dull overcast early morning day can impose when the weather is cool if not fully cold.  The light was compromised enough for me to feel that it was necessary for me to switch on my lights.

     My rear light is built into the back-carrier frame and the front light is one that I have had to add as the front light/horn combo that MATE bikes provided gave up the ghost within the week of its being installed.  Given the appalling after sales service of MATE I didn’t even bother to claim another light as a fully justified replacement because any attempt to get the organization to act with anything approaching concern with their customers is just wasted time.  Which is a pity, as the bike itself is more than satisfactory.

     It took MATE two years to provide me with the throttle that I ordered and when they eventually sent the thing, it was to the wrong address, and . . . well, that has now been seen to and I am using the throttle and it makes my bike experience safer and more enjoyable.

 

To be fair to MATE, the light/horn combo has been a different experience; I have had evidence that my order has been ‘completed’ and I have been sent various emails.  But I haven’t been sent the light/horn.  Admittedly, the projected delivery date was in October and it is only the 3^rd today, but given past experience, any delay can stretch into the far, far future, so I have written a ‘gee-up’ letter asking for delivery information.

     If you are already a MATE customer, then the moans above will have a ready resonance, if you are not then you might be asking why you should be reading this guff about an accessory for an electric bike.

     I think that the point of complaints is not just to get satisfaction for the individual but to express a general point about the sort of service that we deserve when we pay out our money for something.  MATE started life as a Kickstarter project and got funding based on a prototype and concept and has grown into a substantial company with a range of products, what hasn’t kept pace is their customer service.  Even allowing for the vagaries of everyday life complicated by a pandemic, their lack of attention has been chaotic and depressing – but it has been paid for.  MATE has used customer money to make bikes and make profit while not being over concerned about what happens after the bikes have been delivered.  And that is something up with which we should not put.      

     MATE is well beyond the stage where it can plead that it is ‘a young company’, that it is surviving in the rough and tumble of Kickstarter: it is substantial and it has responsibilities.

     Customers are usually far too backward at coming forwards to demand they get what they have paid for – not only in terms of the object of their purchase, but also in terms of the care they can demand for that object’s quality and guarantee.

     For example, I fell into the ‘let it go’ category over the light which only lasted days before it ceased to function.  I factored in the lack of response that I would get from MATE and decided to purchase a light that would attach to the handlebars for a few euros and which could be lost, stolen or fail with impunity because it was so cheap.  In fact, of course, I also bought a much more expensive light which survived until it didn’t.  Anything merely attached to handlebars has a limited life when the bike is locked to a post rather than being contained.  Things walk, which is why the tiny lights with a sort of rubber band connection to the handlebars are so useful – those are so cheap it is almost easier to replace the light rather than replace the battery! 

And, as I usually cycle in urban situations there is rarely a time when I need the light for anything more than indicating that I am there, rather than lighting my way,  But the MATE light was connected to the electric system of the bike and was firmly screwed into the frame – and it looked better, so I feel its lack.

     And that is why I am making a fuss about a delay (so far) of three days in the appointed delivery time.  I will also write on the Facebook page of MATE customers to let others (and more particularly the company itself) know that things are still not going right!  Which is what all of us should do more often.  I want what I have paid for: quality and promptness. 

     If the delay in delivery continues past this week, I shall ‘open a file’ – and we all know what that means!

 

The indifferent and sullen weather conditions mentioned at the start of this piece have now mellowed into a hazy though sunny afternoon, methinks a short lounge on the terrace is called for!

Tomorrow: the end or the beginning?

 New Lockdown Day 4, Monday

 

 

The interminable American election campaign is drawing to a not-end.  After all, who actually believes that the decision will be made on the night itself?   I still remember the infamous “hanging chads” fiasco in Florida in 2000 where the result of the election eventually depended on the decision of the Supreme Court.  To an outsider, the eventual judgement seemed (!) politically biased and was, surely, essentially undemocratic - but the Democratic candidate accepted the court’s decision and gave the presidency to a Republican.  It is just about possible to imagine that ‘acceptance’ of a contrary judgement by Bush if the tables had been reversed; it is totally impossible to imagine it happening with the Orange Outrage that presently occupies the White House.

     The most compelling forecast for the 3^rd of November as the in-person votes are being counted is for the O.O. to claim victory before the postal votes have been counted and then try and litigate his way back to power and he motivates the wilder factions in his base to take direct action.

     The fact that staid journalistic media are talking seriously about the fragility of democracy in the United States and the possibility of somehing approaching Civil War, should be astonishing, but is anything but.

     I sincerely hope that we will look back on this particular period of a Trump Presidency as a fascinating aberration in the functioning of the body politic, and the fears of democrats as wildly overstated, but today, the day before the election, I see no real cause for complacency.  Although Trump is almost certain to lose the popular vote (again), given the vagaries of the Electoral College there is always a way to power for him based on a small number of swing states and small numbers of voters.  The shockingly blatant attempts by various Republicans to supress voting may be enough to tip the balance towards the incumbent, and because the balance in the Supreme Court has already been tipped, he is in a good position to use Conservative Trump-appointed judges to retain his hold on power.

     In reality, I find it incredible that anyone could possibly vote for a person so lacking in basic humanity.  If you are only concerned about power, then that would explain the vile enablers in the Senate, but they will be forever tainted by their ‘association’ with Trump, unless, of course, you are a member of the ‘base’.  But even with that sludge of humanity, it is white and ageing and will eventually dissipate.  Unless the Republican Party re-invents itself then it will be subject to the oblivion of entropy.

     Enough speculation: sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, and that can wait another day or so, or so, or so!

    

Um, if I have entered myself into a self-denying ordinance not to mention the USA Presidential Election, what else is there to talk about?  He said during a time of Covid-19; financial breakdown; immanent Brexit; social unrest; closed culture; lockdown, and sunshine.

 

Perhaps one thing that I can mention (again) is a recent book purchase called, “What Great Paintings Say” – fairly fatuous title, but an excellent book, and at present cheap on Amazon, I paid 15 euros for a hardback version!  This YouTube clip gives you some idea of the format and the contents:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyAgOuQhUNM

Well worth buying.

Same old . . .

 New Lockdown: Day 3, Sunday

I gave up counting the number of people I passed on the paseo who were not wearing a mask, and the crowds of people suggest that we are having the usual number of domingueros in spite of governmental recommendations.  Castelldefels is in an invidious position: we need people to come to the city to spend to keep the place alive and we also need people not to come so that we can stay alive!  Like every place reliant on tourist money, our survival comes with a deadly cost.

     Still, what appeared to be an overcast early morning has now settled down into sunny day and with the sun, my “all is well in the world” approach returns.  The base line for my happiness is a lack of rain in Castelldefels.  I obviously welcome rain in the vicinity of our reservoirs and in all the hilly areas that feed the rivers, but around me all I want is sunshine.  Please!  I am more than prepared to tolerate, nay, welcome cold weather as long as it is not accompanied by rain: a crisp sunny autumn day is a delight and I can link it to my memory of the summer and I am content.

 

I can’t help myself.  I have ordered another watch.  That statement is not, in itself, surprising.  Given my predilection for timepieces and for Kickstarter-type blandishments, I am often in a state of pre-order/order/waiting for delivery.

     I had hoped that my latest acquisition, the Amazfit X, my lust would have been temporarily assuaged.  The “X” is a narrow band-like watch whose USP is that the screen is curved to the wrist.  It has no visible buttons and the information is set out on an excellent quality full colour display that is activated by the tilt of the wrist – and therein lies my dissatisfaction.

      From the time of my first purchase of a Pebble wristwatch (on Kickstarter) I have been used to an always-on display as well as decent battery life.  The Pebble was a brilliant little watch and did virtually everything that I expected from a smart watch, including the essential element of being swim proof.  Of course, as with all excellent items of this sort, they stopped making it, and they stopped supporting it with updated software.

     My hunt for a Pebble replacement spent its way through a number of watches, none of which truly replaced it.  Eventually, however, I ended up with the Amazfit which, in a number of its iterations seemed to be more than satisfactory.  Even as I type I am wearing the Amazfit watch that I discarded in favour of the “X”.

     The “X” does not have an always-on display.  I am sure that if I had realized that before my pre-purchase I would not have gone through with its acquisition.  I have made always-on a prerequisite for purchase (and as a way of limiting my spending) because otherwise excellent watches fall down at this step.  And, even if smartwatches do have the always-on facility, it means that the battery life becomes something of a joke.

     So, the pop-up advert for the new Amazfit GTR 2, hit home.  It is a sleeker version of previous Amazfit watches and it does have the facility to be always-on.  It also comes with a variety of features, many of which I frankly do not understand, but that does not mean that I do not desire them.  Obviously.  And I have bought it.  Which is not the same thing as saying that I have it in my hot little hands. 

     I really do feel that I have to trot out the “I do not smoke, therefore there is spare money to cover such things” justification as the old watch that I am now wearing does actually do everything that I need – but, see above for all those “extra features” and curved watch face cover glass, or something.  There is enough stuff that’s new to make its purchase essential.

 

Earlier this morning I read the paper sent to me by the site Academia.edu (free and excellent) by Louise Marshall entitled, “Getting Out of Jail Free, or, Purgatory and How to Escape it in Spanish Art” an essay that “analyses a number of early Spanish representations of purgatory, focusing on the devotional and intercessory concerns of makers and viewers.”  A thoroughly enjoyable and stimulating read that introduced me to two new words, or rather one new word and one new form of a word: psychopomp and salvific.  The first means “guide of souls” and the second you can work out, but it really doesn’t look quite right, and my word checking program didn’t even underline it, or indeed the other, which just shows how lacking my general vocabulary is!

     But on a serious note Academia.edu is worth checking out.  If only for two of my essays which are on file there!

 

My intention to have a Birthweek rather than Birthday this Covid ravaged year, was justified by a telephone call this afternoon, a week after the event perhaps, but welcome none the less!

     I will only end by saying that the phone had to be brought up to me on the third floor because Toni was unable to get me to respond because I was out on the terrace taking the late afternoon sun. 

     And people still ask me why I moved to Catalonia!