Cashing in on ‘Thy sweet love remembered’:Some preliminary thoughts on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 before some historical reflection on its use in queer literary culture in the twentieth century

April 19, 2026

Sonnet 29 is used to provide the title, and is quoted in full as its message, by a non-binary character in prison named by inmates as ‘Mona’ (after Mona Lisa), of John Herbert’s Fortune and Men’s Eyes, an important if not a very good queer play, and in 1971 a minor film, no longer easily … More Cashing in on ‘Thy sweet love remembered’:Some preliminary thoughts on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 before some historical reflection on its use in queer literary culture in the twentieth century

‘Sleep’s a trouble, dreams pitch too persistent / the stresses of the day before that dawn / when truly come, promises that it’s sent /to build our worn self up, just less forlorn’. Verse written on assessing the aftermath of a day that’s made too many demands upon you!

April 19, 2026

The lines that hold the sails in tension now fret, or so the sounds they fake suggests, a keen low scream that might be just the gale that’s set to lengthen distance to safe harbour, seen Through gaps between each white wave peak as if security were not what vessels seek. A night at sea … More ‘Sleep’s a trouble, dreams pitch too persistent / the stresses of the day before that dawn / when truly come, promises that it’s sent /to build our worn self up, just less forlorn’. Verse written on assessing the aftermath of a day that’s made too many demands upon you!

‘Man measured his words like food and decided what was worth opening his mouth for’. Words and food in Derek Owusu (2026) ‘Hunger Pains’ for The Reading Agency Quick Reads.

April 18, 2026

‘Man measured his words like food and decided what was worth opening his mouth for’.[1] No-one measures his words like Derek Owusu, and no writer has pursued the link between food and the ‘matter’ that is, as in Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2, 204ff.), ‘Words, words, words’, (whether spoken or written) like him since Shakespeare. … More ‘Man measured his words like food and decided what was worth opening his mouth for’. Words and food in Derek Owusu (2026) ‘Hunger Pains’ for The Reading Agency Quick Reads.

I use ‘social media’ to imagine a void in which a mirror placed therein might be a window or vice-versa and wonder why I talk to what I cannot see in it.

April 17, 2026

I have addressed the cogent reasons for me to use social media in a blog on ‘Why I Blog!’, at this link. But following on from all that is difficult, like driving on through dark empty space and pretending that it can be named as ‘social media’ or some other name that hardly fits the … More I use ‘social media’ to imagine a void in which a mirror placed therein might be a window or vice-versa and wonder why I talk to what I cannot see in it.

Not to take action matters if you add to the ‘moral void’ around decisions about acknowledging atrocity or suffering. ‘Looking out for one’s personal advancement’ and the persistence of ‘the moral void’: this blog aims to look beyond, with the help of Stanley Cohen’s (2001) ‘States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering’, the conclusions of mid-twentieth century social science including those of Stanley Milgram and the studies of ‘passive bystanders’ prompted by the brutal murder of Kitty Genovese.

April 16, 2026

Not to take action matters if you add to the ‘moral void’ around decisions about acknowledging atrocity or suffering. ‘Looking out for one’s personal advancement’ and the persistence of ‘the moral void’: this blog aims to look beyond, with the help of Stanley Cohen’s (2001) States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering, the conclusions of … More Not to take action matters if you add to the ‘moral void’ around decisions about acknowledging atrocity or suffering. ‘Looking out for one’s personal advancement’ and the persistence of ‘the moral void’: this blog aims to look beyond, with the help of Stanley Cohen’s (2001) ‘States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering’, the conclusions of mid-twentieth century social science including those of Stanley Milgram and the studies of ‘passive bystanders’ prompted by the brutal murder of Kitty Genovese.

We should favour only what truly does what it says in its name – a restaurant should be able to ‘restore’ (‘”to give back,” also, “to build up again, repair; renew, re-establish; free from the effects of sin; bring back to a former and better state,” from Old French ‘restorer’, from Latin ‘restaurare’ {“repair, rebuild, renew”}) me

April 14, 2026

Etymology is a game surely for the past uses of a word mainly have no life in its heirs in contemporary language necessarily, but yet again even in contemporary language one word can signify different things to different people (even when they speak ‘only’ one language) for language use is also a thing of multiple … More We should favour only what truly does what it says in its name – a restaurant should be able to ‘restore’ (‘”to give back,” also, “to build up again, repair; renew, re-establish; free from the effects of sin; bring back to a former and better state,” from Old French ‘restorer’, from Latin ‘restaurare’ {“repair, rebuild, renew”}) me

‘Where do you see yourself in ten years?’: This stock question in job interviews is at the root of a society that has no other standards than narcissism and magical thinking.

April 13, 2026

‘Where do you see yourself in ten years?’: This stock question in job interviews is at the root of a society that has no other standards than narcissism and magical thinking. Karl Stevens’ response above to imagining the stock job interview questionin our prompt – though the version he uses features a shorter duration of … More ‘Where do you see yourself in ten years?’: This stock question in job interviews is at the root of a society that has no other standards than narcissism and magical thinking.

The idea of the exception that stands out from a plethora of forgettable random encounters should be now recognised as the trope of what we used to call the sexual revolution in the short term or the ‘Crisis of Faith’ in the longer term.

April 12, 2026

The idea of the exception that stands out from a plethora of forgettable random encounters should be now recognised as the trope of what we used to call the sexual revolution in the short term or the ‘Crisis of Faith’ in the longer term. This blog should, perhaps, be treated as an interim reader’s ‘report’ … More The idea of the exception that stands out from a plethora of forgettable random encounters should be now recognised as the trope of what we used to call the sexual revolution in the short term or the ‘Crisis of Faith’ in the longer term.

‘You’re in Denial!’… ‘I’m not!’ … ‘Now you’re denying you’re in Denial!’ With apologies to ‘The Golden Girls’ from which this exchange comes, let’s think about the struggle involved in learning always to ‘know’ things one ought to know.

April 11, 2026

You’re in Denial!’… ‘I’m not!’ … ‘Now you’re denying you’re in Denial!’ With apologies to ‘The Golden Girls‘ from which this exchange comes, let’s think about the struggle involved in learning always to ‘know’; things one ought to know. And make the decision I did: ‘Do not always trust denials, but do not always disbelieve … More ‘You’re in Denial!’… ‘I’m not!’ … ‘Now you’re denying you’re in Denial!’ With apologies to ‘The Golden Girls’ from which this exchange comes, let’s think about the struggle involved in learning always to ‘know’ things one ought to know.

I read this book and it changes you. This blog considers the short stories in Colm Tóibín (2026) ‘The News From Dublin’.

April 10, 2026

I read this book and it changes you. ‘In his preface to The Spoils of Poynton, Henry James talks about this idea of a “germ”, what he called “a mere floating particle in the stream of talk”, something that “has the virus of suggestion”. Life, as James would have it, is “all inclusion and confusion”, just as art is … More I read this book and it changes you. This blog considers the short stories in Colm Tóibín (2026) ‘The News From Dublin’.

Why do I blog?

April 9, 2026

I started blogging as a requirement of a course I studied with tbe Open University, an MA in Online and Digital Teaching and Learning. Now, having gained that qualification, used it (often in the teeth of opposition from that contradictory organisation where I taught Psychology and Foundation Neuroscience), and retired as a teacher and social worker, … More Why do I blog?