I’ve had a fairly stressful couple of weeks and it looks like that is a trend that is likely to continue for a while to come. So I was really delighted when I received a package this morning from Caroline. Thanks so much, old girl for Bowie at the Beeb [Change Amazon Prefs] – not only is it bloody good, but it’s a welcome change of pace from all the mope music that’s taken over my stereo…
I am a superstar. Go figure.
There is something wilfully perverse about posting a quiz based around finding the answer to the question: “Are you a liar?”. Nonetheless I’ve done it, and attempted to be honest:
“You scored 22
The truth is out there … not necessarily anywhere near you. You’re capable of being economical with the truth. You don’t like lying, but you’re not going to lose sleep over it.”
A stunningly savage Steve Bell cartoon [via linkmachinego] asks the question, Is the timing of this particular cull entirely appropriate?
In assembling odds and ends of my portfolio online, so that I have something to show potential employers, I’ve stumbled upon my little done-in-two-days from beginning to end Time Out: Festivals 2000 site.
I have a friend who is a Mason. In fact, if I think about it for a moment, I probably have a great many friends who are Masons. Or indeed perhaps I should say that I have a great many friends of friends who are Masons, because after all aren’t the Masons just one large group of friends, albeit with a rather more advanced sense of ritual?
I also have a number of friends who are not Masons, although when I say that they are not Masons, of course I could be completely mistaken. They could in fact merely be pretending not to be Masons. How would I tell? I have conversations with these ‘possibly-not-Masons’ in which we ponder the kind of person that would join them, what possible consequences membership would entail, whether it is a moral decision. One of my friends thinks that if you are a Mason you should certainly declare it. But then he might be a Mason and just be saying that to distract me. They could all be laughing about it behind my back, giggling about Enoch’s Royal Arch, Jah-Bul-On, and points of the compass pressed firmly into breasts.
I myself am not a Mason. A friend mentioned that I might like to be one once. I can’t remember what I said. Maybe I said ‘yes’, although that seems unlikely somehow.
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | PR to improve the freemason’s image
So what is the essence of freemasonry? Material self-advancement and sinister secrecy, say its critics. Fun, fellowship and a moral code, masons counter. Dewar, who hopes to reverse the decline that has seen membership in England and Wales fall to 320,000, intends to present them as “good, solid citizens with the right moral values who support all that is good in society”. But there are two other factors which must surely be considered – food and stamp collecting.
Here’s an interesting fact for you: Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip are both Great-Great Grandchildren of Queen Victoria. [Family Tree PDF]
Billy Dare: Boy Adventurer: “Isn’t your obsession with Mordu a convenient way of covering for your … latent homosexuality?
Excerpts from a Subterranean Diary: Note to self: it’s not necessarily a good idea for employers to have direct access to one’s inner thoughts and anxieties before you even get to interview. I thought I’d removed plasticbag.org from my CV, so I was startled when today I saw it there, in the hands of a potential employer, large as life. The situation has since been resolved. I could base my entire publicity regime for the site on the distribution of carefully concocted resumés…
Jesus Christ. Does absolutely everyone in the world have to have an online diary?