Spring-like

Loving the sunshine this week, almost Spring-like feel on my regular lunchtime walks - no doubt there's some kind of "beast" from the East lurking around the corner though so I'm not getting complacent, the brolly, scarf and gloves are still packed into the boot of my car every day.

Friday Smirk++

One for the software geeks among us, I will be using this put-down extensively..

Friday Smirk

J&M pointing out the obvious weirdness inherent in an apparent obsession with homosexuality while claiming to be straight. So many religious zealots and hucksters make their money from berating gay people and turn out to be closet homosexuals themselves that it's becoming like some kind of law of physics.

Faith vs Science

Excellent work by The Onion here.. It poses the question of what would happen if a Charles Darwin shaped stain was discovered on the wall of the courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee (scene of the famous "Scopes Monkey Trial") Would thousands of Biologists and Zoologists flock to the site to lay wreaths of flowers and hold candle-light vigils? Would the evangelical religious types claim that the stain was just a stain and nothing more, would the faithful flock argue over whether the stain might actually look more like Stephen J. Gould or perhaps Carl Sagan? No, we all know the answer, it's the same reason that Science and Religion aren't compatible, unless of course, your brain can cope with a huge quantity of cognitive dissonance, something most religious people seem to have no problem with, bless.

London Prices

Went up to London on business today for the first time this year, I noticed that the price of a day-return ticket has gone up to over £55 (it's only 35 miles away) and even then the train was 30 minutes late and I had to stand up for the whole journey, this does stick in the throat somewhat. I do worry sometimes that the cost of doing business in the South-East is getting out of hand and with Brexit, probably getting worse in the near future!

Monday Mirth

I read on the inter-webs that today is "National pun-day", any fully developed culture needs one of those of course, the preferred humour of embarrassing middle-aged Dads across the nation, in solidarity with their weakening bladder control, here's a little sprinkling..

- I got a date with a girl from the zoo, I think she's a keeper..
- Woman walked into my pub and asked for a sexual innuendo, so I gave her one..
- Had to close my origami shop, the business folded..

And the winner is...

Saintly wine

Went over to the French side last night, left a beef bourguignon slow cooking all day and then once the sun had set we cracked open this little beauty. It's from Bordeaux and made by the same people that make Leoville-las-Cases (a VERY expensive wine) This wine isn't in the same price league as it's bigger sibling but it's still on the pricey side (around £40), luckily I bought this many years ago for much less than this and it's been resting in it's wooden case alongside eleven of it's relatives ever since. I bought a case of the 2006 on the basis that it was supposed to be an exceptional year for this particular wine, my wife and I visited the chateaux in 2007 and the story they told us was that due to a bad year (weather-wise) quite a lot of the grapes normally destined for the grand-vin ended up in the Clos-du-Marquis. I always take these kinds of stories with a pinch of salt as, after all, the people telling them are usually trying to sell you wine but since I'm a big fan of this wine anyway, in for a penny etc. I'm pleased to confirm that this time the vinous tale seems to be true, the wine was superb. Inky, bursting with dark fruits, plum, raspberry, well integrated oak and a lengthy finish, totally the bees-knees with a hearty meat dish on a wet and windy evening.

Friday Smirk++

No need for cyborgs, all parents of teenage boys will recognise this..

Windy!

Went for my regular constitutional walk at lunchtime today, boy was it windy, I had to firmly grasp my umbrella with both hands and physically wrestle with it as the wind constantly shifted direction, sometimes trying to rip it out of my hands and the next moment trying to push it into my face. I got about half way around my normal route and the bloody thing snapped, a catastrophic failure in engineering speak. To be honest though I wasn't too upset, other than sitting at my desk right now with damp trousers, the umbrella was a freebie "hotel" one that I found one evening on a commuter train, to be honest I'm surprised it lasted the years that it has.

Friday Smirk

Excellent J&M (as usual) - pointing out the baloney that underpins the concept of an "inerrant holy book", everything in the world makes perfect sense if you accept that ALL books were authored by men, for men and from only the minds of men! (apart from the ones authored by Women of course)

Hollywood chimps with shoes..

Listening to radio 4 this morning on the drive to work and hearing about the distressing story of a nun that had been raped and abused by a Catholic priest. I suspect this is just the latest (Earthly) revelation  to emerge from that pitiful organisation and it will grow in volume over the coming months and no doubt we'll learn that the "problem" is systemic and has been known about for decades. Listening to the Women herself relay her story filled me with sorrow, for years she'd "accepted" her lot whilst under the spell of that cult, she'd convinced herself that "God" must have wanted her to be raped. This idea that the universe revolves around an individual or a particular "in-group" is central to many religions, "the chosen people" is often how you hear it expressed and anything bad that happens is dismissed as "mysterious ways". From the outside it looks and sounds very much like a mental illness.

You often see this same idea expressed in utterly trivial and asinine ways, for example as some deity being accredited with the winning of a particular sports team (see above) I often wonder what state of mind you must be in if you actually believe the creator of a universe of 100 billion galaxies each with a 100 billion stars most with planets orbiting them is concerned with the outcome of your particular amateur football league. If true, what would it say about that same deity's concern for starving children, can she not also fix that too? All of these behaviors, desires, randomness and evil actions are quite easily explained by evolution of course, after all, we're only half a chromosome removed from Chimpanzees all these base-hormonal urges (like lust, greed and a desire for vengeance) aren't buried that deep in any of us, just witness the confessions of a certain Hollywood star recently!