Things That Passed Through My Mind Today

The first thing was waking up with a song going round my head. This morning I woke and immediately started humming "I Feel Fine" by the Beatles. A bit of a random song seeing I can't remember the last time I heard it on the radio and I don't have it on any music in my collections. Apparently the term for this is an "earworm" and there are hypothesis for why this occurs. Here's a nice article about the subject at the Daily Mail, which explains in terms that even I understand what the issues are. For me, it is always the morning when I get that tune stuck in my head, so I guess it is something subconscious. So now all I have to do is start remembering my dreams. Which brings me to my next question

Why do only some people remember dreams? I have virtually no recollection of my dreams. I have often woken in fits of laughter and had no recollection of what I was dreaming about. It's a bit frustrating, while my wife, Caroline often remembers her dreams in vivid detail. To be fair, if my dreams are anything like hers, then I'm glad I can't remember them :D

This article has some pretty good explanations, and in the case of Caroline and I, she definitely wakes more during the night, whereas I tend to sleep solidly through so that part of the theory is borne out by our behaviour. I also like the part about dream recallers being more responsive to outside stimuli during wakefulness, like when their name is being called. It seems therefore only natural to me that husbands like me, who rarely respond to their name being spoken during wakefulness should not recall dreams much!

Maybe to recall dreams I need to drink more coffee, and drink it later in the day?

I have limited myself to coffee early in the day, and 2 coffee's a day (usually!). I was toying with the idea of buying a coffee machine, an espresso maker or cafetiere or something, but I realised that what I really like is having coffee at a cafe. I enjoy the Melbourne cafe culture (I enjoyed European cafe culture when I was living there) and sitting at a cafe, people watching, and reading a good book....actually, I don't mind whether the book is that good or not. I've recently started reading more than one book at a time and I very much enjoy this. It's a bit like following your favourite TV series week after week, and I dip into books as and when I feel like it. Besides books about chess, I'm currently reading a set of fantasy novels by Markus Heitz, "Perfect" by Rachel Joyce, the follow up to the magnificent "Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry", and "Narrow Road to the Deep North" by Richard Flanagan which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize a few days ago. They are very different books, which place different demands on their readers and I enjoy being able to pick a book up, or put one down as I fancy. I do find that at some stage in a novel there is a point where the book has to be finished to the end, while the others are left for a while. But this is ok, and I have no trouble picking up the books that have been left. Next on my reading list is the book with one of the best names I've seen for a long time:

I've just found a really nice blog which has a post on exactly the subject of reading more than one novel at a time. Check it out.

I wonder if reading before sleep will deter people from dreaming? I guess not, because Caroline also reads before sleep. The only other external factor that we don't share is a love of whiskey. Actually, Caroline does like single malts, but she doesn't drink much, whereas I....Well, I don't drink much, perhaps a shot or 2 a couple of times a week and I tend to drink more in the winter than in the summer. As I drink so little over the course of the year, I tend to treat myself to whiskey's that are quite expensive and that I enjoy. I have a copy of Ian Buxton's "100 Whiskey's to try Before You Die" on my bookshelf, and I'm surprised by how many I've already tasted. Today I went to look for a whiskey, and came away with one I'd never heard of, let alone tried before. According to Whiskey Exchange, Glen Moray 16 Year Old is "Sweet, full and exceptionally well rounded. The flavour is initially of toffee, progressing to mint humbugs and barley sugar and followed by a hint of smoke and peat flavours." I have to admit that I love the blurb on whiskey bottles, and can be tempted into buying a whiskey just based on the story and descriptions of their products. Try it. Go to any whiskey site and you'll find  no end of descriptive prose about their products and their history. One of my favourites is Laphroiag!

Glen Moray 16 Year Old with it's attractive case. 

It's getting a bit late here now, so I'd better try a shot to help me sleep! Now that I think about it, does alcohol help you sleep or not? I'll go find out and report back on whether this whiskey should be one of the 100 to try before dying in a later blog post.

Catch 22

I was thinking about books that I'd like to read or reread and Joseph Heller's amazing, absurdist novel, "Catch 22" came to my mind. I remember being about 17 or 18 years old when I first read the novel, and when I finished it, the first thing I did was start reading it again. Over the years I must have read it 4 or 5 times though I probably haven't read it for 15 years. So I went into my local bookshop today and bought it. It is such a unique work that it goes down as one of those things that you either love or hate, there is no middle ground with Catch 22. I personally love it, from the first line "It was love at first sight", through the bizarre characterizations and incidents which can be funny, tragic, absurd and shockingly close to the bone. I will be reading this again in the coming days. It was the 50th Anniversary edition of the novel and this brought a few things to my mind: words, catch 22's, and anniversaries.

A catch 22 situation has become part of our everyday language, but before Heller's 1961 novel, it was an unknown term. The term Catch 22 describes a situation where the only logical solution is denied by something which is part of the problem. The novel's absurd principle sees the main character trying to get out of the war he is in by claiming to be insane. The catch for him is that the army doesn't accept that people who are insane can see that they are insane, therefore anyone claiming to be insane, must be sane!


We now use the term more broadly for a no win situation, or just a situation with no apparent solution. A simple example of a catch 22 situation is when we lock our keys in the car, or the house (yes, I'm sure this has happened to most of us!). The catch is that we need the keys to open the door to get to the keys, but the keys are behind the door that we can't get through because we don't have the keys....very frustrating!

I've recently written quite a bit about words and it interests me how languages develop, and keep developing. Some words are used forever, some become antiquated, some obsolete while new words and phrases are adopted into our vocabulary. It seems to me, for instance, that computer jargon has completely revolutionised our language, with people using acronyms, and textspeak in their daily conversations. However, it's all about communication and while I'm not a fan of some phases that I hear (lols...OMG, makes me want to barf!) I'm happy that our language is developing and not stagnating.

A similar phrase to catch 22 is a Hobson's Choice. This is a situation you are offered a choice with only one option. Apparently, it derives from a Thomas Hobson who owned a stables and offered his horses on the basis that anyone who wanted a horse had to have the one nearest the stable door, or none at all. Thomas Hobson was alive in the 16th and 17th centuries, and this was a phrase that was still used a fair bit in the south of England when I was growing up in the 1970's. Unfortunately, I haven't heard it much recently, so I guess it is falling into the rarely used, antiquated, or even obsolete categories.

One thing I do find odd is how quickly we adopt these words and phrases. I mean, 50 years isn't really that long in the scheme of things, yet the term Catch 22 seems somehow much older. There are 2 anniversaries coming up in my life soon. This year I will have been married to my beautiful Caroline for 20 years, and not long after that, it will be her 50th birthday. To me, there is an odd feeling about our relationship as I can't believe how quickly those 20 years have flown by, yet at the same time, it seems as if I have known Caroline for much longer. It is simply that time moves swiftly while feelings grow deeply.

While we were in the book shop today where I was buying Catch 22, Caroline bought me a present.

Knowing that I enjoy a snifter (see last Sunday's post for the meaning of snifter) of whisky once in a while, she bought me a little book on the subject. I've tried quite a few in the book, but still have some to go, and the book deals with whiskies from around the world, whereas I tend to go for Scottish single malts. I thought I'd have a quick look across the internet to see if there are any 50 year old Whiskies around, and of course, there are. For instance, a Master of Malt 1964 vintage will cost a mere $675 a bottle (not sure if that includes shipping). But I guess if you were really to go for it, then it would be a Dalmore 50 year old decanter, coming in at a cool $7,500 from whisky exchange.

And another anniversary coming up is 10 years of living in Australia. We arrived here in early 2005, so by this time next year, we'll be in our second decade of life in Melbourne. Again the time seems to have gone quickly, and perhaps the biggest change to my life has been the move from English publife to Melbourne Cafe culture. While I still enjoy a tipple of whisky once in a while, I now drink coffee daily. I have regular haunts that I love but I'm always on the look out for new places. I've found a cafe which seems to connect with me so I think I'm going to give it a try: Husband in South Yarra.

Sunday Musings

So what to muse about this fine Sunday in Melbourne? Let's start by musing about muses. During the week I joined in one of those annoying internet quizzes that starts with the question "What ____ are you?" The blank could be anything like "fictional detective", or "star wars character" or "historical leader". I tried a "What muse are you?" quiz and came up with Calliope which made me very happy. I'm not sure why it made me happy as I had no idea who Calliope was, or what their significance was. Then, when I thought about it, I realised I didn't really have much clue about who the muses were or their significance in Greek (err, was it Greek, Roman or some other culture?) mythology was. I guess my happiness was due to the fact that Calliope and Carl start with the same letters.

Calliope (right) with her sister Urania, painted by Simon Vouet around 1635 (wikipedia)

The muses were the 9 Greek Goddesses of the arts. They were the daughters of Zeus and were the inspiration for pretty much al things creative whether it be poetry, music, science or art. Calliope was the muse of Epic Poetry and her emblem is a writing tablet. So while I make no claims to this blog being epic, or poetic, it's good to have chosen a muse whose concern was with writing. The other muses wh could have been appropriate for me to have been associated with were Clio (history - my college subject and a pet reading hobby, especially European 16th and 17th Century history) or Thalia (comedy - though when I think about it, my shady past in the world of entertainment only barely counts as comedic, and probably the biggest laugh is what I get now from thinking about the things I used to do). I deem it perfectly right that I was not associated with anything to do with music, dance or visual arts. I'm sure you could find the quiz in many places, but this is where I took it, so go check out which muse you are.

We have the Greek muses to thank for a number of words that we take for granted today: music (obviously), museum (buildings dedicated to the preservation of knowledge) while words such as amusement and bemused come from Old French though that language was no doubt influenced by earlier languages such as Roman and Greek. To be honest, after musing about the muses, I realised that my whole knowledge of classical mythology and history is pretty patchy. Now I know that isn't a crime, but we have been so influenced by the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome in the West that it seems a shame for someone who claims to have a love of history to know so little. I shall follow up on this in the future, but for now I'll talk about the Greek God of wine. If you're like me, you're probably thinking that this will be about Bacchus, and you would be completely wrong! Bacchus was the Roman God of wine, his Greek counterpart was Dionysius. There was a cult of Dionysius in ancient Greek times, and in Donna Tartt's novel "The Secret History", a brutal murder is carried out under the influence of Dionysian madness.

Donna Tartt's amazing novel with a touch of Dionysian madness (wikipedia) 

I mention the God of wine because yesterday was World Whisky Day (appropriately coming the day after Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day) and as I enjoy the odd snifter of Single Malt, I couldn't help but join the celebration. By the way, for those unfamiliar with the word 'snifter' it means a small alcoholic drink, usually of whisky. And snifter's tend to be the way I take my whisky nowadays, and the excesses of my youth have been left behind. I drink little alcohol, so I feel that when I do actually have some I can afford to get something a bit more expensive that I really like. So I've taken to drinking single malts which I acquired a taste for while back in the UK. I have a brother, Bob, who also likes to partake in a whisky or two, and we used to spend very pleasant evenings together with another friend we had, Mick, drinking single malts and talking through the night. Nowadays, I tend to just have a nightcap once in a while, but I must admit to often thinking back to those times when the whisky flowed a little more freely.

Laphroaig single malt, with snifter glass

I suppose there are a number of ways to judge the quality of a whisky, but my first criteria is always the peatiness of the drink. I have no problems with a smoky whisky, but I tend to prefer drinks that have more subtle flavours. My favourites are Highland Park and Auchentoshan but neither were on sale at the offie where I went to ('offie' = off licence, or for my Australian readers, bottle shop). So I ended up with a bottle of Laphroaig 10 year old single malt which is a decent flavoured Islay malt which means a fair degree of smokiness, but not enough to knock your taste buds out. I finished my evening yesterday with a snifter or two while reading some great quotes about whisky. Here's my favourite:

“I like my water on the rocks, and I like those rocks to be in a mountain stream. That’s how I like my coffee too, fresh from a glass of whiskey.
”
― Jarod Kintz, I Love Blue Ribbon Coffee

This blog post has made me think about words, how we use them and where they came from and have developed. This morning, my lovely wife Caroline heard a load of crows squawking loudly over something. It made us think of the collective noun for crows, a "murder". It's a very odd term for a collection of anything, so we looked up where it might have come from.  Well, it was first used around the mid 1400's, though the association between crows and death go back much longer. They are seem as ill omens, and harbingers of death, and as they are scavengers feeding off dead carcasses and covering the dead in black shrouds. So with all those links with death, I guess a murder of crows is as good a collective noun as anything else. I found a website that has loads of these collective nouns, and there are some that are even more bizarre than a murder of crows. Enjoy the site and use your imagination to work out some of the names before searching for the answer through encyclopedia. Why are starlings a 'murmuration', while herons are a 'siege'? What is a 'covey' which defines grouse, quail, and partridges? And why do owls have a 'parliament' while baboons a 'congress'?