Personal Blogs

My friend's a professor of late 19th century German philosophy. Bit of a Nietzsche position.
 

I just love Chinese dumplings. But they always leave me wonton more.

It's never too la

Q. How can you get rid of a dessert made from milk?

A. Junk it.

One fly was talking to another. He's like, "FLIT happens. Get over it."

Everyone loved the garden centre. Except for the mystery shopper.

He got pushed into a hopper.

My brother Simon took a lovely picture of a Little Owl.

There's a Greek saying, "Glavkes stin Athina" - "Owls to Athens". It's like "Coals to Newcastle". No need, they have plenty there already.

The Little Owl is the mascot or companion of Athene, goddess of wisdom (amongst the goddess' other titles). So owls are considered wise.

Perhaps the most famous coin ever is the silver four-drachma piece from the mint at Athens. These coins were so ubiquitous they were called "owls".

"How much do you want for that horse?"

"Five γλαυκες to you Φιλω."

I love the observation, sympathy and humour shown by the coin designer. I think the headlamp eyes are related to the owl's reputation as a bird of wisdom, and could be the origin.

Last night I heard one of these little birds calling in the night outside my house. Its cry is very evocative.

Image from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl_of_Athena

Frankly I don't trust the Moon

I caught him watching us again last night.

When it comes to crastination, I'm a pro.

Q. How do elderly aristocrats get about?

A. On nobility scooters!

Q. Why are plate spinners so healthy?

A.  Because they have a balanced diet!

Years ago I had a boss, a mentor really, who had a saying

"Every problem must have a solution."

I liked this; its optimistic note stuck a chord, and I've often trotted it out in the face of a challenging situation. It's worked well for me. Once, an organisation I worked for faced a really serious issue. Everyone who might be able to help avoid the crisis was summoned to a big room. Most people there were, at least metaphorically, clasping their hands to the sides of their heads and rocking slowly from side to side in a despairing manner.

"Every problem must have a solution", I chirped up brightly. "We must be able to solve it." (A bit Bob-the-builder-y. "Can we solve it? Yes we can!")

My colleagues perked up immediately and we got down to at looking what to do. Lots of hard work but we managed and it came right. I've always remembered it.

Luckily there was no logician in the room (I was holding by breath at the time). Otherwise they might have piped up: "Excuse me. It can't be true that every problem must have a solution. What about the problem of finding a problem with no solution? If every problem has a solution there must be a solution to the problem of finding a problem with no solution, so there must be a problem with no solution. It follows that not every problem has a solution, otherwise we reach a contradiction." This would have held things up a bit.

Who's that knocking at the gate?

If it's who I think

Tell him I'm not in.