Short Book Review: Changing the World is the Only Fit Work for a Man

Yeah. You should read it.

Howard Gossage would have hated that, telling you what to do. He seemed to really believe that advertising — while still being dishonest at its core — should have a conversation with the end consumer.

He also had a more ‘event’ idea of ‘advert’ than just print or short video. The stuff about St Kitts and Nevis independence movement and his proposed advert campaign is minted. Literally, since it included generating a currency and a flag..

Gossage died, quite cheerfully, on this day in 1969. His friends included anyone you ever thought was hip from around then. Anyone.

Short Book Review: WTF???[trunc]???? by Robert Peston

It’s alright. You should read it.

Short Book Review: The Music of the Primes by Marcus du Sautoy

It’s alright. You should read it. You can count on that.

Tyskie — Neighbourhood Beer Tour #7

Beer, the Daily Doom (for the puzzles and local news), and books-books-books (we raided the local library just before the big shutdown and are still catching up all these weeks later).

Tyskie … another Polish lager.  Functional without fanfare.  Next!

The Railway, Birmingham, West Midlands

Pub #2239:

“C’era un solo comma, ed era il comma 22.”

Published a couple of months after I was conceived, Catch-22 has followed me around all my life.  It was one of the first grown-up novels I ever read (and have done every couple of years for nearly the last 50).  The story was adapted for film by Buck Henry who also wrote The Graduate and who I still hope one day to find out was my real father (him or Bob Elliott, but either way).

A couple of months ago I decided to improve my reading comprehension in Italian and borrowed a copy of Elena Ferrante’s L’amica geniale (My Brilliant Friend) to force myself into more sophisticated vocabulary and syntax than I had yet mastered.  By the time I was forced to relinquish the book, I had only plowed through a couple dozen pages.

I needed something of my own and, since the Italian in L’amica geniale is fairly colloquial Neapolitan, more standard.  I ordered a copy of Comma 22 from Foyle’s and it arrived this week.  I ran into the city to pick it up and, as it was lunchtime, stopped across the road for a burger at The Railway, a perfect city centre boozer if ever I’ve seen one.

 

“The menu doesn’t say it, but is there mayonnaise on this?”  The bartender looked at the menu I was holding.

“I’m pretty sure it has mayonnaise.  Do you want me to tell them to add it, just in case?”

“No, I don’t want it.  If it comes with mayo, I’ll have to scrape it off.”

“So, do you want me to tell them not to put mayonnaise?”

“No, because if you put the word on the order, and it isn’t already part of the process, they may add it.”  We looked at each other like we were trying to decide if we were looking at our own reflection in a mirror but, instead, seeing a sweaty American bloke or a diminutive English woman looking back.  I added, “and, then I would have to scrape it off.”

“Catch-22,” she said, then asked if I’d like something to drink with the food.

“Did you just say, ‘Catch-22?'”

“Yes.  You know?  Damned if you do, damned if you don’t?”

I pulled the book out of my back pack and explained the situation about trying to read Italian better and using this book to force the issue.  And, that it is a translation of “Catch-22.”

“Oh, so it’s named after the saying.  That’s interesting.”

“No…the saying comes from the book.  It didn’t exist before this was published.”

I read a couple of pages and saw a lot of things I would need to look up when I had my dictionary handy.  She brought my burger, I scraped away the mayonnaise, ate — it was delicious, by the way — and headed for the door.  She spotted me and broke from another conversation and yelled over, “grazie! Ciao!”

I smiled and pulled my ear buds out, turning to her and the fellows she was with.  “Arrivaderci, bella! Ciao, ragazzi!”