Hmmm...Why the Hype?

I've just finished "The Da Vinci Code", lured into doing so by the buzz about it. You have to admire the man for the sheer volume of the research that went into it. That being said, I found his prose like a dirty pane of glass--the view looks fascinating, but the flaws get in the way. The exposition on the first page is crammed with way too much information, too in-your-face. By the end I didn't give a rat's what happened to any of the protagonists, and was constantly reminded that John LeCarre would have done it so much better.

I've also read "Talk to the Hand", Lynne Truss's latest. "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" was hilarious, and I was hoping for more; this one is a lament for the passing of a considerate and compassionate society. It's witty, but too true to be comforting; starting lightheartedly, but gradually descending into a rant, rabbiting on in a way that will cause my nearest and dearest to have me put away if they catch me doing it when I'm a D.O.G. It probably started life as a single column in the Saturday "Lifestyle" section, and ends up as wonton soup--some good meaty bits, but overall pretty thin.

"Works of charity--almsgiving--are in effect a way for the rich to shirk their obligation to work for justice and a means for soothing their consciences, while preserving their own status and robbing the poor of their rights." Heavy stuff. It comes from Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, "God is Love", out this year. I'm poring over the dense prose; it's quite short, but full of good stuff, and some surprises. Who'd have thought a 79-year-old celibate could come up with some of this? More on that, later.

The Last Post

When the title, "The First Post", flashed up there on the screen my immediate thought was that this was a reference to my advancing age; it has a whiff suggestive of "Taps," or the Last Post, the bugle call played at the hauling down of flags, at the change of command and at funerals of dead warriors.

In the immortal words of Monty Python, "I'm not dead yet."

What Have We Done?

These words were whispered, famously, by the scientists observing the detonation of the A-bomb. I imagine Pandora had the same sentiments. Consider, then, the wisdom of setting up a blog for one's own mother, whose ramblings will be up there for all the world to see.
OK, that's a bit of hyperbole.
But it's a bit like giving Dick Cheney a shotgun.

Test Post

What a great birthday gift from Charlotte and Susie!

The first post

Juliet Gill is my mum, and she has a thing for domestic systems. She loves paperclips, boxes and containers, labelmakers, and products that come from Staples. She has three kids, and we love to tease her about her organizational fetishes. This is me:


My mum has been reading our blogs for many moons now, and I figured it was time she started wasting time doing her own. Oh yeah, and it's her birthday on February 16th. Happy birthday, mama!