pumpkinstrokemarrow

A propos of my recent mention of the ancient Romans being up to speed, it seems that they were on the ball in diversity matters. I learn from Leerssen (see above) that our word virtue is derived from the Latin 'virtus'. He further reports that "the notion of virtus suggests far more machismo than a straightforward translation 'virtue' would suggest. The word indicates an ideal of masculinity (the first syllable is the same as in virile), and may be best translated as 'manliness': the strength of charecter, courage, resolve, self-abnegation and self-discipline that makes men superior to women, or children". To think that the University of Amsterdam allows its faculty members to say such things.

Making good progress on the Christmas jigsaw. Having thought that various key parts were missing and that the pack contained five corner peices, have now nearly completed the border and am slowly working in. The slow start can be excused to some extent by the picture on the box having been slightly trimmed, trimming off a rather distinctive peice of border. Took a little while to find the home for the corresponding peices. Bets are open for how long to completion and for how many peices turn out to be missing - being presently short at least three edge peices, diligent search having failed to unearth them.

I see from the DT that one can now be fined for leaving one's vehicle on the road with the engine running. It seems that one is being fined because of the risk of having one's vehicle stolen, not because of the risk that one's vehicle might charge off down the road without a driver. The fact that the vehicle might be state-of-the-art locked was not deemed to be relevant. On the face of it this seems a bit busy - but there was a suggestion that the owner was really being fined for rather forcefully telling the policeman concerned where to get off. So the line that the policeman concerned should have been chasing after real criminals rather than harrassing decent, law abiding citizens in their homes does not run quite as well as it might otherwise.

I also see that the French are about to cave in to the anti-smoking league with a ban only a bit less fierce than our own. I seem to recall that they tried this once before and that that law was more or less ignored - so we will see how they get on this time. On our recent visit to Paris, I was surprised how little smoking there was in the streets or anywhere else - although the one youth filled restaurant we visited one Saturday night was fairly smoker and smoke full. Maybe the French are no longer the great puffers they were cracked up to be.

And then there is the suggestion that all the cannabis horror stories floating around at the moment are covertly funded by the brewers who are concerned that consumption is displacing consumption of their products. Sounds far fetched, but who knows - tobacco companies go to considerable lengths to fight their corner.