pumpkinstrokemarrow

A bit further on, we came across a mother and baby deer. First deer I have seen on the Common for a while. BH says she often turns them up when on the Common with dogs in the late afternoon. The dogs liking to chase deer and the deer liking to come out for tea in the late afternoon.

A bit further on still, we came to the aspens, noticed on 7th May. And, for the first time, actually saw aspens trembling like aspens. When a light wind catches a branch in the right way, all its leaves do indeed tremble, giving the whole a very distinctive shimmering effect. Never seen anything like it before; but now really do understand where the phrase comes from. Do other trees do it?

Following my following of Boon, last mentioned on April 6th, I was pleased to read in this week's TLS that I can buy a book with title 'Mimesis and Science' and sub-title 'Empircal Research on Imitation and the Mimetic Theory of Culture and Religion' from the Michigan State University Press. 'This exciting compendium brings together some of the foremost scholars of ... mimetic theory ... foundational role of imitation in human life ... '. A snip at £21.95. Did Mr. Boon contribute? Will the Gorley Putt Professor of Poetry and Poetics in the Faculty of English at Cambridge University be as snooty about this offering as he was about Boon's?

And I am pleased also to be able to record that using 'Gorley Putt Professor of Poetry and Poetics in the Faculty of English at Cambridge University' as a search string, this very blog makes it to page 7 on the Google search results. I really do exist, on roughly the same page as the good professor.

Then for some reason I was moved to look up what a snob was, something that I get called from time to time, with surprising results. It first meant a cobbler or a cobbler's apprentice. It then became Cambridge slang for anyone who was not a member of the university. So, as it turns out, I do qualify. It then moved on to mean anyone who admires, copies or tries to pass themselves off as a person of higher standing than they actually are. To qualify one has to do it vulgarly; trying to better oneself in a dignified way is OK. But I deny the charge of vulgarity. Perhaps the point is that the true snob is not conscious of his or her crime. It is the lack of self-consciousness which makes the crime. I shall have to ponder further.

And lastly, carried on looking for my own trumpet by asking Mr. Google about 'Steinberg being a Pennsylvanian professor'. And I score hit 2 on page 1. Mr. Google clearly up to the mark on that one, my post being less than 24 hours old. The only disappointment was that hit 1 was all about an important Pennsylvanian dentist who happened to go to a Pennsylvanian university and who also happened to be called Steinberg. The nerve of the chap. Maybe I could get rid of him by enclosing the search string in quotes.