They have some amazing widgets, my parents, like the widget that enables their computer to photograph a surly beagle untimely plucked from 'neath his quilt.
It's 10.30. It's a Sunday morning. The valley is a low sea of fog and the hills have their heads in the clouds and everything outside is drippy and wet, and it's the shortest day of the year, and the black cockatoos are screeching like mad spirits, and why would any self-respecting dog be out of bed? I blame myself and my parents' amazing widgets.My Aged Pa - he of death-defying quadruple-bypass fame - is having a state-of-the-art all-synthetic hip joint installed on Wednesday. It's been on my list of ambitions for a while now, setting up a seniors' nightclub called Hip Joint (this is after I move to Tasmania and change my name to Charlotte), but now that the Aged P. is staring down the prospect of six months swiveling around on crutches, hip replacements aren't looking quite so festive.
Because I was examining a wee thesis yesterday, the Aged P. and I got to discussing the thesis he submitted in 1970 on economic determinants of urban form. I've stolidly resisted reading it for thirty years, but I started on it yesterday evening, and it's excellent, with lines like "the hinterland of today's cities is the whole world".
7 comments:
I am all in favour of wee thesi: meditating on micturating is a fine thing to do. Father H's thesis sounds splendid as well.
Also thinking of your (and our) relation's hip. xx
Hipsters aren't usually on crutches for 6 months these days - we used to have 'em up and dancing the limbo by day 3 or 4, depending on how groovy the surgeon got with their joint.
Love that line "the hinterland..." that sings!
That's not a beagle. That's P J O'Rourke. And I am going to have to take a screenshot of the word verifcation because you won't believe me otherwise.
I see the resemblance to P.J., but there's one important difference: Wilbur would never vote Republican. He's too disillusioned with laissez-faire capitalism.
"Honests" - that's quite the w.v. I'm staring right now at "swarrity". I'm starting to think that these are not just random concatenations of letters.
Timoth, I'll give you a dollar if you write a thesis on the cultural history of wee. A dollar, mind.
Thanks for that hopeful advice, Jayne. I dunno about the limbo dancing, but up and about sounds like a happy thing.
(You too, C.H. - thinking of you too.)
I must remember that 'Wilbur look'.
It has just the right amount of disinterest and disdain which is perfect for listening to politics.
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