Posts

Politically incorrect insects

On a walk last week, one sunny, humid day in late May, I noticed the annual abundance of ladybird larvae underneath the trees in my neighbourhood.  I’ve always loved these little critters; after all, who doesn’t like an insectoid that looks like a dinosaur/alien hybrid made out of cooling lava, right? It got me wondering, though.  What should these ladybirdlets be called?  Girlybirds?  Ladychicks?  Girlychicks?  Yeah, I see it too.  Strangely, we use ladybird every day without thinking anything of it, but I actually spent most of that dog walk thinking about what a baby ladybird could be called and couldn’t come up with anything that was a fun play on words that didn’t sound hugely sexist. Now, to put something in perspective before I go any further.  I’m not a militant feminist who believes women should rule the world.  I believe that everyone should be treated equally and with respect.  Personally, I don’t care if someone is male, female, somewhere in between, undisclosed, of any

Oh, hello...

Hi there.  Yes, the ubiquitous, awkward first post.  Quite what does one write?  Do you need to justify the starting of a blog, or is it OK to be self indulgent and have somewhere to throw all that stuff that swirls around in the depths of your mind?  Whatever, here it is.  It's said that everyone has a book in them.  I'm not sure about that, I'm not certain I have a book in me.  However much I consume the writings of others, and however much I babble on about a whole load of both something and nothing, there's not a whole book.  Hence a blog making a better platform, and hence the title.  Indefinite - often I'm not really sure what I'm on about, where the words will take me, or indeed quite what's going on... And definitely, I ramble.  I like words, and having a rather overactive imagination that likes to scrub around in all the strange recesses where brains don't usually bother looking for things - well, there's no knowing where we might end up.