Weekend

Saturday. My bike having become somewhat recalcitrant about changing gears, I spent some time oiling the chain and peering at thinks, but to no useful effect. After that into town to pay VED, didn't get distracted by shops too badly on the way back. Off to Simon's for B5 in the afternoon, including the episode with the teddy bear, which I seem to have managed to miss the first time round.

In the evening we went to E-J's birthday party, had a nice time talking to various people, spent some time in the spa which I'd not tried before. Wobbled home sometime late.

Sunday I have mostly been working from home, on account of deadlines looming early next week. I ought to do some of the tidying I've been putting off for weeks, but it doesn't seem very attractive...

Considering swimming on Monday evening. If I'm still coughing on Monday morning then probably not; I seem to be gradually getting better but it's not quite there yet.

Odd phrasing

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3100979.stm says:

The US State Department expressed its "full support" for Mrs Arroyo - a position echoed by Australia's foreign minister.

"We don't want to see presidents fall out of the barrel of a gun," Alexander Downer said.

A strange image...

(no subject)

Perhaps I should spend more time reading and less time fiddling with the formatting on my unread list.

Liberty And Slavery

The Penguin History Of The USA, Hugh Brogan, ISBN 014025255X

This book covers the history of the USA from prehistory to the end of the 80s, though the real detail starts with European colonization, giving about 400 years to cover in 700 pages.

The writing is clear and witty and the author does not hesitate to pass judgement on various events and structures. He regularly slips into the first person and gives his own opinion, giving the book a pleasant chatty feel. (If you prefer your history books to be dusty tomes, avoid this one like the plague.)

I would complain that, despite an evident appreciation of the value of numbers, there is an absence of tabulated statistics (or better, graphs) in this book. It is better supplied with maps though perhaps more detailed ones would not go amiss.

Anyway I took quite a while to read this but it made for an interesting background to a month or two, and has left me with a much better feeling for how the US has developed.

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