Sunday, 18 February 2018

The Animal Trap.

I think it a useful faculty to know at least one Shakespeare play well because it will usually contain at least one quotation suitable for almost any circumstance. Today’s favourite is from Macbeth:

They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly

Feeling tethered, fretful, dispirited; waiting for the next time that I’ll be pushed inside a cage and dealt the benefit of medical procedures. And I continue to wonder whether there’s a man approaching with a shovel to hit me over the head and leave me out for the crows to feed on. I wish they could just give me a pill and set me free to scuttle back into my wildwood.

This was going to be yet another long and literate whinge full of metaphors and similes and references to freedom, just because I can and because the creation of descriptive and sometimes even lyrical pieces of writing eases the mental nausea. I decided to watch an episode of Inspector Lynley instead.

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I was wondering earlier where the term ‘piping hot’ comes from. I suppose it derives from the fact that certain foods whistle when air escapes during the cooking process. Isn’t there something in A Christmas Carol about the pudding singing in the copper? I expect that’s probably it.

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