The Sinner

I was brought up in an evangelical Christian household and spent my formative years in membership of the Salvation Army. The SA was founded in the east end of London in the middle of the 19th century, where the alleviation of poverty as its central social mission was fuelled by a deep hatred of alcoholism and other vices of the poor. So I had an instinctive understanding of the concept of Sin - the sins of drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco and much more were a fundamental part of the organisation's message and of the prohibitions of membership.

You can imagine the temptations this brought to an inquisitive and intelligent teenager; they were probably the origins of the rebel I became and arguably continue to be.

I pondered this when I started watching the Netflix series The Sinner. It's a psychological  drama covering four seasons, each of eight episodes. The central character, Harry Ambrose, is a detective who appears in all four seasons although the rest of the cast of characters changes for each season. In each case there is a murder and we know the perpetrator straight away. But Ambrose looks beneath the plain facts and seeks to understand the murderer's motivations, believing that there may be ameliorating circumstances which could affect the justice system's treatment of the case. With the perpetrator he acts as therapist as much as investigator.

As the seasons follow, the scenarios grow darker. Season one features a - on the face of it - perfectly normal wife and mother who unaccountably stabs someone to death on the beach. Season two gives us a glimpse into an ugly cult through the eyes of a young boy who poisons two of the cult members.

As things progress, we learn about Ambrose's own background and understand more of why he relates to these abused people whom he sees as victims (of their pasts) rather than offenders. It seems to me that he is the eponymous Sinner.

Season three for me just got too dark. A teacher, husband and father is involved in the death of someone whom he knew and was very close to. As we are shown flashbacks to their relationship we come to see that person as someone very destructive indeed. He came across to me as almost the personification of evil and I simply felt - halfway through episode four - that it was disturbing me too much and I should stop.

So I did.

I spent some time debating whether I should post this. But, if I'm going to describe movies and TV shows which I enjoy and think you might too, I felt a responsibility to mention those which I would dissuade anyone whose sensibilities are similar to mine from watching. It's fair to say that there has been a degree of critical acclaim for The Sinner and it has many good points. It's just that, for me, it went too far into the dark side.

Distinguished and Commemorable News

Johann Carolus' newsbook entitled Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien (Account of All Distinguished and Commemorable News) published in Strasbourg was the first European newspaper. Indeed the World Association of Newspapers recognises it as the world's first.

In fact it was more like a newsletter or court circular, listing who was where, why and what for. Carolus was a bookbinder and bookseller by trade and had begun writing newsletters, which had been popularised at the turn of the 16th/17th centuries. Relation was first published in 1605 and was such a success that it spawned not just copies but a whole new industry. Two new industries in fact, since the spread of news led to questioning about the veracity and provenance of the 'information' and very soon to a 'fake news' bandwagon. Robert Burton, an Oxford don, wrote in his Anatomy of Melancholy:

A vast confusion of vows, wishes, actions, edicts, petitions, lawsuits, pleas, laws, proclamations, complaints, grievances are daily brought to our ears. New books every day, pamphlets, corantoes, stories, whole catalogues of volumes of all sorts, new paradoxes, opinions, schisms, heresies, controversies in philosophy, religion, etc. Now come tidings of weddings, maskings, mummeries, entertainments, jubilees, embassies, tilts and tournaments, trophies, triumphs, revels, sports, plays ... treasons, cheating tricks, robberies, enormous villainies of all kinds, funerals, burials, deaths of princes, new discoveries, expeditions.

Robert was not a happy man, it's fair to say. Or maybe he was simply illustrating the melancholy of the title. BTW corantoes  "were early informational broadsheets, precursors to newspapers. Beginning around the 14th century" [Wikipedia].

All this I learned from the latest book from my reading list: TRUTH - subtitled A Brief History of Total Bullsh❌t. It's am amusing read although to be honest the central premise - that you should be very careful what you are being persuaded to believe - could have been expressed in perhaps half the book's 266 pages. The book describes misinformation, scams, politics and various amusing delusions. For instance, in August 1835 the New York Sun published a series of articles "describing" life on the Moon for the race of bat people who lived there. The Great Moon Hoax was presented by a new editor who wanted to boost circulation. It worked! You can read all about it on that great purveyor of truth, Wikipedia. Also: a 1614 pamphlet described a dragon living near Horsham in Surrey. Although, on reflection, maybe that was true; who knows?

TRUTH is a sequel to the author's HUMANS, also with a subtitle but one unsuitable for the sensitive and youthful eyes of my younger readers. Tom Phillips, the author, works as the editor of Full Fact, a charity which describes itself as "a team of independent fact checkers and campaigners who find, expose and counter the harm it does". Sounds like a noble pursuit.

If, like me, you are of a cynical disposition, you will find this grist to your mill. Although you will probably already be a member of the "don't believe anything you read" club. It's a depressing approach to human intercourse but the problem is alleviated in the book by the writer's wit and inclusion of many anecdotes illustrating the basic point.

Doesn't know his [] from his []

Boris in a hospital today. Checking out a large hi tech machine.

"Like something out of Star Wars, Rishi" (Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak was with him)

"Beam me up, Scottie"

Doesn't know his Star Wars from his Star Trek.

If you can write, you can drive

In order to get a driving licence in Honduras, you have to take, and pass, a simple written questionnaire and complete a medical check, eye exam and a blood test. That's it. No practical test. Tip for visitors to Honduras: don't rent a car, the locals haven't learned how to drive!

According to zuto.com, the UK has one of the longest driving theory tests in the world, at 50 questions. The world champion? Vietnam, with a whopping 450 questions. The majority of Vietnamese drivers are extremely old, because it takes so many years to complete the theory test. It's a lot easier in Uganda, where you only need to get 25% of the 30 questions right.

Until recently, the Egyptian driving test involved just a highly tricky "drive forwards six meters; then reverse six meters". Which meant the testers didn't need any test track greater than 6 meters in length. I haven't been able to confirm what percentage of people failed this. Recently the test has been made harder (it could hardly been made easier) by the addition of an S shaped track and a parking test.

The Philippines driving test lasts about 5 minutes and includes making right turns only. There is driving on the right in the country, so presumably all Philippine roads are circular, making it awkward to get from one coast to another. Maybe there's only one road in the country, making the North Circular look pathetically small. But good for an Indy 500 perhaps. In contrast, in India - where they drive on the left - you only have to  be able turn left in the driving test.

Meanwhile, here in the UK a new Highway Code, which is described by the Government as "essential reading for all road users, including pedestrians, mobility scooter users, cyclists, horse riders, drivers and motorcyclists", has been published. It includes a new "hierarchy of road users":

1. pedestrians, in particular children, older adults (yay!) and disabled people

2. cyclists

3. horse riders

4. motorcyclists

5. Motorised vehcles

which frankly sounds what already pertains.

There are countries which require first aid training for drivers, which sounds like a good idea.

Want to know the safest countries, based on road fatalities per capita? San Marino leads with just 0 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants (the UK is 10th with 3.5). Be careful in Libya (40.5), Venezuela 37.2) or Thailand (38.1).

I'm off to San Marino for my hols. Not driving, just walking in the streets.

First Neil Young then Joni Mitchell - who's next?

Neil Young and Joni Mitchell have apparently asked for their music to be deleted from Spotify's catalogue in a fit of pique about the inclusion of podcasts by someone called Joe Rogan, who commits the ultimate sin of interviewing (and by and large agreeing with) vaccine sceptics. I believe this is called self-cancel culture.

If you were to hazard a guess as to who would be next to jump on this particular bandwagon, who would it be?

Yep you've got it; it's Harry and Meghan. They are believed to be miffed that something has gone viral without their being included, liked, followed or even noticed.

Daniel Ek is reported to be mortified. Not.

I really have no idea who Neil Young is, or Joe Rogan, but I thought you should know.

You're probably right, Paul

Last July I went to my local furniture store to find a new mattress. I came out having ordered a full package of bed, mattress and headboard. Which says much for (a) their marketing tactics and (b) my gullibility. A few weeks later came the delivery, which was fine except ... no headboard . Fast forward a few months and the headboard arrived but unfortunately wasn't the correct one. Thence to November: another headboard which ... had the wrong screw holes. Today (nearly 7 months after my order) yet another replacement arrived and ... you've got it, it was the wrong colour. As it happens I don't think I would have noticed if the delivery guys hadn't pointed it out, so I said "that's fine; I'll take it".

Anyway, I'm not going to tell you about that, as this is a serious blog not a diary of the details of my unremarkable and mundane life. Instead I'm going to talk about Paul Keating who was born 2 days after me. The former Australian Prime Minister recently grandly announced his opinion that Britain “suffers delusions of grandeur and relevance deprivation”.

I think that's probably true. Further, I thought it long before he did. Not saying he's been influenced by my blog but you never know. If you're out there Paul give us a comment. Now Keating is a long-standing supporter of an Australian republic, so perhaps you'd expect that from him. On this occasion he was incensed by remarks by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss that China could engage in military aggression in the Pacific as "nothing short of demented".

"The reality is Britain does not add up to a row of beans when it comes to East Asia. Britain took its main battle fleet out of East Asia in 1904 and finally packed it in with its ‘East of Suez’ policy in the 1970s. And it has never been back."

The truth, of course, is that Britain has always been guilty of overreach. Post-Empire we are a small country with a much diminished military and a couple of big bang nukes which no sane Prime Minister would ever use. Perfidious Albion is the master of bluster and bluff. Vladimir Putin will be shaking in his boots.

Government ministers are terribly fond of saying that "Britain is the best ... the UK was the first ..." in a vain attempt to believe we are still important in the world. "Best soft power ... national health service which is the envy of the world ... the Premier League is the best in Europe ...  leading the way ..." It's embarrassing. And mostly incorrect. Most of all, it's patronising to the rest of the world.

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a disorder where people with this condition have an inflated idea of themselves and a need for lots of attention from other people. Sounds like us as a nation? No wonder no-one likes us ("bloody patronising poms"). Time to settle down, people, know our place and ... get rich. Like the Swiss.

I quite like my country; I'm happy living here, although I believe that, all other things being equal, I'd be just as happy in many of the world's countries. By any definition of a patriot, I am probably not one. The Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1913) wrote "I am willing to serve my country, but my worship I reserve for Right which is far greater than my country. To worship my country as a god is to bring a curse upon it."

Looking forward to sitting up against my headboard tonight, reading a book which I shall tell you about shortly.