Seeing double
Seeing double DM 4th October 2025 Twins come in two varieties: identical and fraternal. Some might put the distinction another way: annoying and really-annoying! Think of Lewis Caroll’s Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and J K Rowling’s George and Fred Weasley. (Actually there’s a third kind of twins – cojoined – which I guess lies more on […]
The Healing of Regrets
The Healing of Regrets DM 27th September 2025 Tolkien wrote some wonderful books. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit must take first and second place. But vying for third is surely his short work called Leaf: By Niggle, about a very ordinary man, an artist, called Niggle, whose life is full of procrastinations, […]
The First Sip
The First Sip DM 20th September 2025 My wife and I were sipping on our coffees on our day off, when her first sip drew the crème-art into a different configuration. She wondered aloud if a barista could achieve the skill of pouring the milk, but in such a way that the real picture is […]
Recitations
Recitations DM 13th September 2025 It was a regular Friday night ritual, that I loved and loathed. My grandparents would arrive, armed with sweets and treats. But not to be given to hungry children for free. To get them, you either had to recite some poetry, or read a page from a book, or sing […]
Finishing Unwell
Finishing Unwell (Encouragement to the dying) DM 6th September 2025 The quay was awash with them. Lithe and impressive-looking people, smiling and warmly gabbling in different tongues, and sporting silver medals around their necks. These were the athletes who the previous day had completed the Sydney marathon, and were now proudly wearing their spoils of […]
Perfect freedom
Perfect freedom DM 30th August 2025 There’s an interesting verse in the final Book of the Bible on the topic of heaven. In speaking about the city to come, it says, “On no day will its gates ever be shut”, with this reason attached, “for there will be no night there.” I’m not sure that […]
Faint praise
Faint praise DM 23rd August 2025 I knew that the smallest bone in the human body was located in the ear. In high-school biology, we called it the stirrup, but its anatomical name is stapes. And I knew that it was a clever bone, and critical to the function of hearing. But I’d never heard […]
The Wigtown Whistler
The Wigtown Whistler DM 16th August 2025 In a diary by the proprietor of The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland, irritating patrons are named and shamed, and I have just been convicted for the innocent crime of whistling. “Sadly this type… is a man (it is always a man) who is so blissfully ignorant of the […]
Patience with progress (& vice versa)
Patience with progress (& vice versa) DM 9th August 2025 A recent article in the Australian Geographic tackled the hot topic of fingernail growth, which admittedly, was rather nail-biting stuff! How fast do they grow? Answer: Slower than a snail. Slower even than a glacier; but faster than your toenails apparently. One tenth of a […]
Shelter
Shelter DM 2nd August 2025 You can find the story on youtube and meet the central characters – Theodore Malgorne the lighthouse-keeper and Jean Guichard the photographer. Just type in ‘La Jument Lighthouse’ and voila, the story will appear. In 1989, during a huge storm off the coast of Brittany, Jean Guichard chartered a helicopter […]