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CABINET OF CURIOSITIES (NEW CONCEPTS)
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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No way of knowing. I would guess not.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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My gas and leccy got shifted to someone recently and despite being guided twice through the process by their 'helpful staff' to the point of, "Thank you, Mr Harper, that will all go through now", twice my monthly standing orders have not gone through. That doesn't stop them getting shirty with me and threatening to cut me off so finally I opened my own account with them to pay them direct.

Imagine my astonishment to discover that, according to my account, I was in credit for both gas and electricity! Imagine my further astonishment when I discovered that when they say in credit they actually mean you owe us, you miserable cur. Not a word anywhere on their website about this linguistic reversal of fortune. I worry for the old folk, people who don't have my double first in Eng Lit and may get cut off for the lack of it.
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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I swear someday I will make a fortune selling a desk calendar of these posts of yours.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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What the world needs are dressing gowns with velcro attachments. What's the point of spending half the morning shuffling round your flat with your dressing gown constantly open because the cord is too short, now your stomach is too large, to be tied with a bow? A friend tells me.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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A New Wave of Black Women Playwrights Is Reinventing the Genre
Their work is, quite literally, changing the face of American theater

This would certainly be good news on various fronts but only if true. Drama is expensive to produce and it has a built-in objectivity measure, the number of bums on seats, so it should be plain sailing finding out.

In the past few years, another crop of great American playwrights, Black and female, has risen.

The first doubt creeps in. How about black, female and gay? Not really, no. In Cartman’s words, “The theatre is gay.”

Last October, Pendelton hosted a fall preview event with the goal of bringing attention to the number of Black playwrights being produced off-Broadway. More than half of the shows previewed that night were written by Black women.

Off-Broadway, the land of few bums on seats. I'm sure it's coming but maybe not quite yet.
https://zora.medium.com/a-new-wave-of-black-women-playwrights-is-reinventing-the-genre-2b3cedce571c
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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Here is news of an entire sector of society I knew nothing about. I wish it had existed when I was starting out because I am far too grand to avail myself now. It may though be useful to some of you lesser breeds https://medium.com/1-one-infinity/critique-partners-what-you-need-to-know-ba765484b8af
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Mick Harper
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I’m a big fan of lists though not of ‘life-style’ tips. But I did find this list of lifestyle tips was highly AE-istical. Twenty Things Most People Learn Too Late In Life by Nicholas Cole

1. Most people are scared of using their imagination
They’ve disconnected with their inner child. They don’t feel they are “creative.” They like things “just the way they are.”

We’re always railing about this. Not to be confused with the AE’s 'six-year-old’s test', it is what happens when you start formal education. It may be necessary for society but is a retrograde step for the budding AE-ist.

2. Your dream doesn’t really matter to anyone else
Some people might take interest. Some may support you in your quest. But at the end of the day, nobody cares, or will ever care about your dream as much as you
.

How true, how very true, if your quest happens to include overthrowing what everyone else believes.

3. Friends are relative to where you are in your life
Most friends only stay for a period of time — usually in reference to your current interest. But when you move on, or your priorities change, so too do the majority of your friends.

I’m not sure this is true. I think it’s more of a QWERTY situation but, hey, I'm a recluse, what do I know? more/
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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4. Your potential increases with age.
As people get older, they tend to think that they can do less and less — when in reality, they should be able to do more and more, because they have had time to soak up more knowledge. Being great at something is a daily habit. You aren’t just “born” that way.

I am truly astonished at how much better being old is vis à vis being young. I’m sure there will a price to be paid eventually but meanwhile it is important to retain a permanent sense of, “OK, that’s cleared the decks, let’s get down to it.”

5. Spontaneity is the sister of creativity.
If all you do is follow the exact same routine every day, you will never leave yourself open to moments of sudden discovery. Do you remember how spontaneous you were as a child? Anything could happen, at any moment!

This dude isn’t a créatif. If he were he would know that a rigid routine is essential because moments of sudden creativity are just that.

6. You forget the value of “touch” later on.
When was the last time you played in the rain? When was the last time you sat on a sidewalk and looked closely at the cracks, the rocks, the dirt, the one weed growing between the concrete and the grass nearby. Do that again. You will feel so connected to the playfulness of life
.

Modish soppy bollocks. Stay in, you know it makes sense. more/
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Boreades


In: finity and beyond
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But trust me on the sunscreen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI
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Boreades


In: finity and beyond
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Almost a candidate for a Darwin Award?

Two notebooks belonging to naturalist and Christ’s College alumni Charles Darwin have been reported stolen from the Cambridge University Library (UL) after they went missing 20 years ago. The library has said these notebooks are likely to be worth millions of pounds.

How come they've only just noticed?

Staff at the UL originally thought that the notebooks, which contain Darwin’s highly influential 1837 Tree of Life sketch, had simply been mis-shelved. But after searching 210km worth of shelving several times, the library reported them as stolen to Cambridgeshire police on 20th October.

It could happen to anyone. Why, priceless books have been known to disappear from the library here at Château Boreades. Priceless because M'Lady cut the price tag off and gave them to visitors without telling. Anyway, at a rough count, we have 28 books per linear metre, so the UL's 210Km of shelves only contains something like 5,880,000 books to check.

Interpol has since been notified, and the investigation is ongoing, though there are currently no leads.

Presumably, Cambridgeshire police are looking into the empty space where it used to be.

If only it had happened in Oxford. Then, either of two things could happen.
(a) Inspector Morse could have found it in less than 60 minutes.
(b) I could have told them to look in the top-secret Bodleian Library archive (just off the A420 north of the Honda car factory)
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Mick Harper
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Now the whole world has been alerted there's a million or so to be made from old Darwinian notebooks we can expect a few coming on to the market. Not these particular ones -- that would be dealing in stolen property -- but others wot he wrote. And, forgers, don't worry about provenances -- just say they used to be in the Cambridge University Library. 'Dunno, guv, prolly sometime in the nineteenf century.'

It's survival of the ... no, I can't.
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Boreades


In: finity and beyond
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Mick Harper wrote:
Here is news of an entire sector of society I knew nothing about. I wish it had existed when I was starting out because I am far too grand to avail myself now. It may though be useful to some of you lesser breeds https://medium.com/1-one-infinity/critique-partners-what-you-need-to-know-ba765484b8af


Critique Partners?

I have to confess I find myself slightly afraid of looking for one. Is it like being married? I already have a wife, and she has jealously guarded the right to tell me what's wrong with everything I do. Often, and at length. I'm not I could cope with two of them. Critique Partners I mean, not wives.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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7. Most people don’t do what they love
It’s true. The “masses” are not the ones who live the lives they dreamed of living. And the reason is because they didn’t fight hard enough. They didn’t make it happen for themselves. And the older you get, and the more you look around, the easier it becomes to believe that you’ll end up the same. Don’t fall for the trap
.

I don't think it's a matter of fighting hard enough. This idea that everything is a matter of will has to be rejected by AE which understands that the individual has no chance against the siren calls of life. You have to work it out in your head and then work out in your head how you are going to get there which mainly involves a deliberate programme of counter-programming.

8. Many stop reading after college
Ask anyone you know the last good book they read, and I’ll bet most of them respond with, “Wow, I haven’t read a book in a long time.”

I doubt that applies to anyone here but in any case books are hopeless vehicles for learning anything. Much better to take advantage of being surrounded by media in which someone else has read the book and delivers it all in nice bite-sized chunks. Why spend a week reading about it when you can get it all from an hour-long documentary on the telly? Whoever it is has read several books on the subject.

9. People talk more than they listen
There is nothing more ridiculous to me than hearing two people talk “at” each other, neither one listening, but waiting for the other person to stop talking so they can start up again.

Well, yes, we do suffer from that here but it is mitigated by our house style and a consciousness that everyone can see you are telling the old, old story, over and over again. Not that that stops some of you. Minds may not be changed very often but the arguments move on with reasonable briskness. /more
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Mick Harper
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10. Creativity takes practice
It’s funny how much we as a society praise and value creativity, and yet seem to do as much as we can to prohibit and control creative expression unless it is in some way profitable. If you want to keep your creative muscle pumped and active, you have to practice it on your own.

This is hugely important. However, practising it on your own makes you go blind. It is much better to seek out unprofitable venues to practise on. The first thing is to take advantage of living in an email culture and make sure everything that goes out under your name is a polished artefact, complete with carefully chosen strapline where it says 'subject'. You'll be surprised at how this alone can make you into a mini-litterateur. I'm not a big fan of blogs (more like practising it on your own) but spending an hour a day on forum websites should get you up and kicking. Don't wait until you have something to say but say it elegantly.

11. “Success” is a relative term
As kids, we’re taught to “reach for success.” What does that really mean? Success to one person could mean the opposite for someone else. Define your own Success.

Even more important. It drives me mad that, say, academics can talk down to me because they have 'successfully' got a job teaching teenagers and I haven't. It doesn't occur to them that their success is, and ever will be, purchased at the price of intellectual independence. But above all, AEists must kiss goodbye to the notion of making money. You pay them to listen. Success is measured by whether anyone does. And that's important too. In my opinion, having the bright ideas is the easy part. /more
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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Mick Harper wrote:
But above all, AEists must kiss goodbye to the notion of making money.


There is hope for me after all.
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