The threat of involuntary laughter – a release of tension or a weapon. Asked to define the issue in which a person laughs AT another person, or type of person, my AI Co-Pilot comes up with two categories, one a symptom of mental disturbance (katagelasticism) , the other a supposedly common emotional strategy for managing … More The threat of involuntary laughter – a release of tension or a weapon.
The meaning of the weather depends on what its changes mean to you, your community, your present and your future! This blog is about seeing the Opera North production of ‘Peter Grimes’ at the Theatre Royal Newcastle at 7.00 p.m Friday 20th March 2026. Theatre Royal. Awaiting the performance I prepared myself as always to … More The meaning of the weather depends on what its changes mean to you, your community, your present and your future. This blog is about seeing the Opera North production of ‘Peter Grimes’ at the Theatre Royal Newcastle at 7.00 p.m Friday 20th March 2026.
Ouroboros – the imagination becomes flesh In this position, you might think I eatmyself, up from my tail till mouth in mouthin one inward swallow no more competeto win. That kiss occurs at last due southof the imaginable, where all senseof orientation needs little lessof feeling till desire touches at the fencethat hides behind it … More The organ that marks itself Ouroboros
To tell truth, this question is one the many hoary interview questions that are prompts to elicit from their respondent a word they think makes them seem acceptable to the interviewer(s) and avoid those which can be predicted to make you seem unacceptable. Nothing is further from its purpose than to elicit truths, or even … More Long before this prompt became favoured as an interview question, Christians were told they had a ‘one-word’ answer to it. The word that describes each one of us is ‘sinner’.
I am fairly sure I have never received a ‘compliment’ in which I believed that formed itself in words and metaphors, for these things are essentially fictive and their truth at the same remove from simple belief as anything else significant that is still composed of fictions. We can’t live without fictions but we should … More And yet, in humans, I know my love as rare / As any they belied with false compare.
Each day I wish I could find the will to write things ‘technically harder’ than is the norm in order to give me significantly ‘better practice’ in writing. This blog examines as a case study Rupert Brooke’s one-act play: ‘Lithuania’ to show whether he could, as Maurice Bowra claims he wanted to in writing it, … More Each day I wish I could find the will to write things ‘technically harder’ than is the norm in order to give me significantly ‘better practice’ in writing. This blog examines as a case study Rupert Brooke’s one-act play: ‘Lithuania’ to show whether he could, as Maurice Bowra claims he wanted to in writing it, forefront ‘the expression of character, not of personal feeling, …’.
I wish for that ‘extent of subtleties’ Virginia Woolf discerned in Vita Sackville-West’s Passenger to Teheran: ‘the sly, brooding thinking, evading Vita. The whole book is full of nooks and crannies, the very intimate things one says in print’. [1] You glance at the photograph of Vita Sackville-West, taken on her own camera en route … More I wish for that ‘extent of subtleties’ Virginia Woolf discerned in Vita Sackville-West’s ‘Passenger to Teheran’: ‘the sly, brooding thinking, evading Vita. The whole book is full of nooks and crannies, the very intimate things one says in print’.
We think we have the right to travel long distances based on the convenience to ourselves alone of our choices, but to go ‘cross-country’ was also once a choice about how much we have a right to militate against the country in the interests of congregations of human self-interest represented by towns. Cross-country is now … More We think we have the right to travel long distances based on the convenience to ourselves alone of our choices, but to go ‘cross-country’ was also once a choice about how much we have a right to militate against the country in the interests of congregations of human self-interest represented by towns.
In Michael Clune’s 2025 novel Pan, the narrator sees that sometimes what we think of as negative, like the black ‘fly-tree’ he sees traced in a window pane’ and determines to be ‘Pan’s insight’, exists out there irrespective of our thoughts and strategies to deal with them, because, perhaps: “You can’t change the way you … More In Michael Clune’s 2025 novel ‘Pan’ the narrator sees that sometimes what we think of as negative, like the black ‘fly-tree’ he sees traced in a window pane’ and determines to be ‘Pan’s insight’, exists out there irrespective of our thoughts and strategies to deal with them, because, perhaps: “You can’t change the way you are”.
Why we look at a ‘two-dimensional’ picture but watch a picture that contains movement. The possible role of attentional features of vision. It seems entirely innocent to us to talk about ‘watching’ a film, TV or a ‘movie’ but we don’t often distinguish ‘watxhibg’ from a rather passive act of looking at or gazing at … More Why we look at a ‘two-dimensional’ picture but watch a picture that contains movement. The possible role of attentional features of vision.
Do I have enough confidence in my ability to rate how confident other people are? Confidence is another one of those slippery words as a noun. The adjective appearing to relate to it, as used in our prompt, appears less slippery but isn’t. When we name a person confident we usually mean, so much so that … More Do I have enough confidence in my ability to rate how confident other people are?
Unfortunately I, like most humans, continually find myself comparing myself, perhaps we do so because of the distinctive features of that animal we are, to a human animal only. However much the academy still sneers at the reductive in internet resourced explanations, these have a certain economy, though no doubt perhaps an economy of the … More Unfortunately I, like most humans, continually find myself comparing myself, perhaps we do so because of the distinctive features of that animal we are, to a human animal only.
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