pumpkinstrokemarrow

Two postings in the Guardian which caught my eye. First, the possible accession of an identical twin to the presidency of the United States. My belief is that the psychology of identical twins is apt to be unusual and that this will result in quirks of behaviour which a close observer, such as a psychoanalyst, would notice. Perhaps a more significant first in this respect than mixed race, although I dare say that too leaves its mark. Second, the appointment of a Bazalgette to the chairmanship of the Arts Council. Amusing to think that the man that bought us that sewer of the mind, Big Brother, might well be a not very distant descendant of the Bazalgette, celebrated with a tablet on the embankment, who brought us the sewer of the body. That is to say, the genuis underlying London's grand if aging network of sewers. It seems that other qualifications for the post include an active interest in the doings of the Royal Opera. But will he invite the Dame Trace to join him on the Council along with the the Dame Kiri Te?

And given some of the odd beliefs ascribed to some of yesterday's reshuffle promotions, perhaps this Bazalgette believes that Shakespeare, in addition to being the name of quite a decent brewer was also the nom de plume of the Duke of Wilde.

There have also been some interesting dreams. First point of interest is that quite a large proportion of my dreams are built around my time at the Treasury and placed in a version of what was then the grand and rambling old Treasury Chambers. OK (a locution which I recently learned came to England via the United States from West Africa), so I was there for quite a long time. Rather too long, I dare say. But why should my dream world deny all the time that I spent in other departments? Or indeed my life before or after the world of work? It is not as if I was anything at all grand at the Treasury, just a back office person. Second point of interest is that my dream last night, at least the one that I remember, was something of a parable, whereas Freud claimed that all dreams can be interpreted in terms of wish fulfillment. I dream of things I want to happen, probably in rather a wrapped up way. But this dream was more by way of a warning, expressed in two or three short stories, vaguely drawn from the IT world of the Treasury (in the days before it was flogged off to be farmed by Fujitsu). The warning being not to interfere in other peoples' practices and procedures. Never mind how dumb you think these people, practices and procedures are, they probably take account, in one way or another, of whatever it is that you are trying to fuss them about. So don't.

There have been a lot of reports recently about bad behaviour and worse by staff in care homes. So lastly, given that we have had recent occasion to interact with the staff at maybe half a dozen facilities offering services of one sort or another to our senior citizens, I should like to record that the front office people - all women as it happens - with whom we dealt struck us uniformly kind, decent and efficient. One would have no qualms about entrusting one's senior to any of them; their mercies really would be tender.