A glimpse of the beach

This summer, driving back to Calais from our holiday in the Charente, we made a detour to visit Omaha Beach.

There wasn't much there: sea, sand, dunes, some children playing, a couple walking their dog - a peaceful summer's day.

The tide was in, so we just walked the margin. Mac took her shoes off and strolled in the water. "Hey, Hon!" I said, "Now you can say you waded ashore at Omaha Beach." She gave me a weak smile. I smiled too.

Up ahead, the boys were playing in the surf.

Beyond belief

From BBC News:

The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique has told the BBC he believes some European-made condoms are infected with HIV deliberately.

Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio claimed some anti-retroviral drugs were also infected "in order to finish quickly the African people".

Twisted logic

Norm Geras notes that The Columbia Coalition Against the War didn't protest against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia University on the grounds that to do so would be seen as pro-war.

It's not a position with which he has any sympathy:

The message in effect is: moderate or silence your criticisms of some reactionary theocrat and/or murderous thug, for otherwise you give aid and comfort to the warmongers of the right. Should you enquire of such experts in the intricacy of political positioning whether they ought, then, to moderate their criticisms of Bush, Cheney and co, so as not to make life more comfortable for the Ahmadinejads and Hezbollahs of this world, you would find them reeling in shock at so flagrant a misunderstanding of the nature of their democratic obligations.

Indeed.

Ancient freedoms

From "Rubicon, The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic" by Tom Holland:

Prior to the cataclysm of 146 [the destruction of Corinth in 146 BC] there had been some confusion among the Greeks as to the precise definition of "freedom". When the Romans claimed to be guaranteeing it, what did this mean? One could never be sure with barbarians, of course: their grasp of semantics was so woefully inadequate. All the same, it did not take a philosopher to point out that words might be slippery and dangerously dependent on perspective. And so it had proved. Roman and Greek interpretations of the word had indeed diverged. To the Romans, who tended to regard the Greeks as fractious children in need of the firm hand of a pater familias, 'freedom' had meant an opportunity for the city states to follow rules laid down by Roman commissioners. To the Greeks, it had meant the chance to fight each other.

Our local high street

"If you can't buy it on Gloucester Road, you probably don't need it."

Well, that's what I always say. Now, I learn from the Independent that Gloucester Road is "one of the last traditional high streets in Britain".

I always knew we were blessed.

Old school news

According to yesterday's Guardian, someone tried to blow up one of the teachers at my old school by planting a nail bomb in their car.

It exploded outside the Prep at the end of the school day. Luckily no-one was hurt.

Random quote

Religion is for people who don't like hard questions.

Spud (age 9)

Random picture

Health issues

A letter in yesterday's Times (not online) from Norman Simmons (Emeritus Consultant in Microbiology) suggests a novel way to reduce hospital-acquired infections:

Sir, All items of clothing worn in hospitals, including trousers,
carry bacteria. The Health Secretary's decision to banish long-sleeved white coats from hospitals (report, Sept 17) brings to mind work carried out by the Public Health Laboratory Service several years ago. Researchers found that the least spread of bacteria from surgeons occurred if they were naked and lightly oiled.

Culture schlock

When I was a kid I moved from Santa Monica to Liverpool.

In the Sixties, Santa Monica was full of color.



Liverpool was black and white.



But worse, much worse than the lack of color, there was no Gilligan's Island!

Achtung Deutsche

What's up with Blogger? Every time I publish a post I get the option to "Blog anzeigen (in einem neuen Fenster)".

And I do. Of course I do.

Busy doing nothing

Ok, I admit it, I've been taking it easy. Ever since we got back from France I've been enjoying myself doing not very much at all.

There has been the occasional crisis, of course, life is not without its little ups and downs. But, on the whole, all my problems have been small ones - which makes a change.

One of the small problems has been an infestation of Araneus diadematus [or should that be Araneus diadematii?]. They moved into the house while we were away and they're still all over the place.

We don't kill spiders - mosquitoes, fleas and clothes moths we'll happily do away with but most other things, well, it's live and let live. They don't bother us, we don't bother them.

Except in France: for some reason, every time the boys saw a creepy crawly over there, they wanted to gas it. The second night we were there the Big Fella found an insect in his room and got all overexcited. "Dad! Dad! Come quick! There's a bug in my room with more legs than sense!" I went and looked: "It's only a centipede. Leave it alone."

He wasn't entirely convinced - as far as he was concerned it looked far too exotic to be benign - but he let it be. Admirable self-restraint in a 12 year-old - when he was small he used to eat ants. They taste quite sour, reportedly.