Born Shouting

I enjoy a certain degree of irreverence to my superiors, keeps us all on our toes. I like this view of the class system from a character from the most recent work of one of my favourite authors…

Roundly insulting one’s superiors behind their backs was one of the perks of being an inferior…

Choubris, Matter, Iain M. Banks

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To paraphrase Sly, who infamously never said ‘Don’t push me‘ in First Blood (he said ‘Don’t push it‘ in various ways)…

Don’t count me!

As a person in a generation that has so many numbers surrounding and defining us (NHS number, National Insurance number, bank account number, annual income amount, number of shares this and that bank …) I fear that those numbers begin to become me.

I feel I need to heed the warnings of those who came before…(here comes Tamkin again…)

The money. They make a killing by fantasy. Now, counting any number is always a sadistic activity. Like Hitting. In the bible, the Jews wouldn’t allow you to count them. They knew it was sadistic.

Dr Tamkin in ‘Seize the Day (Penguin Modern Classics)‘ by Saul Bellow.

“You are Number Six.”
“I am not a number — I am a free man!”

The Prisoner

Sounds like medieval Wales was a great place to be a visitor …

Those who arrive in the morning are entertained till evening with
the conversation of young women, and the music of the harp; for
each house has its young women and harps allotted to this purpose.

…young women … allotted to this purpose… Wow…

…now where is that time machine?

Just heard the following quote on the Antiques Roadshow and have to say it strikes a chord…

Not What I Have But What I Do Is My Kingdom

The words were engraved on a box made by an old ladies’ mother in the early 1900′s with some connection to the suffragette movement. Wonderful…