THE GREAT DUMMY DEBATE

Who's the dummy?
Whilst leafing idly through the newspaper I discover that childcare "professionals" are in disaray.

Apparently opinion among those who know what's best for us is greatly divided over the use by children of dummies. Apparently they are believed to delay speech development. From a certain daily paper it appears that tensions in the industry are rising.

I don't know about the science of it but I have never found this to be the case and I come from a long line of dummy users.

Certainly my own children didn't suffer from being allowed a dummy.

Surely common sense dictates that a contented and secure child will progress faster than a stressed one.

Will no one save us from these turbulent "experts"?

We suffer the same stupidity when it comes to learning to read. The old phonetic method was proven to work best as far back as 1950. I had suffered a year of "new method teaching" and learned nothing until the head teacher was replaced and the new one announced that she would have 95% of us reading within six months.

She delivered and most of us were reading red top papers by the age of eight.

Those who had genuine difficulty then had the benefit of more teaching time whilst the rest of us developed our rabble rousing abilities by reading election pamphlets or any other subversive material that we could find.

There seems to be a simple moral here: Ignore the qualified and listen to the experienced.

THE EFFECT OF MUSIC

I'm sitting here quietly typing away whilst listening to a CD of Swiss folk music.
On there are some pieces played on the Alpenhorn.

Why does this stately instrument have the same effect on me as the church organ i.e. goose pimples down the spine?

The sound is vaulting, overwhelming. It makes me want to look up at the sky.

Why? It is simply air under pressure being forced through a tube.

Another case of the whole being worth more than its component parts?

CONSPIRACY?

Perhaps our paranoia has been revitalised by the cash for honours enquiry.
We won £10 today with the outcome of this enquiry. The politicos have been chuntering on for ages about grabbing a few more millions of money, with which to fund their electioneering excesses. What does our shiny new PM come up with? Just that suggestion.
It's all over bar the shouting. The political hand will be in the till once again. This time in the interest of the great god "Transparency".
Definition of democracy? "Government of the people, by the people, in spite of the people".

A PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION

Here is a question which few people would ask themselves and even fewer would attempt to answer.
A taxi arrives to collect you. You are not quite ready, so ask him to "Hold on a minute", whilst you go inside to lock the back door, collect and don your coat or whatever.
Not wishing to be rude and to save time you leave the front door open with the driver standing there.
Have you been polite or have you unwittingly placed a burden on the driver? He may wish to go back down the garden path to prepare the car for you. e.g. open the passenger door, shake the mat and start the engine.
You have, however, given him the obligation to guard, on your behalf, the open drawbridge to your castle. Or have you?
I suppose it depends on the drivers and your own sense of obligation and responsibility.
Discuss.

THE NEW LEADER

We now have a shiny new PM. We are going to suspend our cynisism for a while.
The reason for this unprecedented generosity?
So far the signals are encouraging. Grandstanding seems to be out of the window. Our Home Secretary doesn't seem to be a headbanger like Reid was. Gordy hasn't yet shed one glycerine tear. He also wants government by cabinet rather than by lifestyle guru and various other hangers on. In fact I suspect that hangers on could be unhung quite quickly.
Our hand, however, is still hovering over the "Cynisism Acvtivate" button.

NATURAL SELECTION?

I came across an interesting snippet of information a while back.
It concerned recruitment for Far East posting by British institutions during the 1920's and 30's.
I am told by a very reliable source that those recruited for government posts were expected to hold a degree.
If however the applicant was being recruited for a business organisation the most important considerations were being good at team games, a public school background and the ability to mix well.
So much for the superiority of the private sector over the public.

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE

We are, no doubt all familiar with the European love of curry.
This is nothing new. Medieval Europeans were among the greatest curry eaters the world has ever known. No, there were not whole roads of Indian restaurants. The truth is much more down to earth.
Due to the cost of winter feed for their animals, the people used to kill them in the autumn and salt the meat.
If you have ever eaten salt beef, you will understand that after a few weeks it loses its appeal.
Enter the spices of the orient.
Suddenly salted meat was varied in flavour and quite pallatable.
All was made possible by a chance meeting between Vasco de Gama and the great arab seaman,
Ahmed Ibn Majid in the late 1490's.