the corner office

Tomorrow I will be donning the scarf and gloves. Pity I didn't today!

All the stuff going on in the world:

In the department of economy, an act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects. Of these effects, the first only is immediate; it manifests itself simultaneously with its cause - it is seen. The others unfold in succession - they are not seen.

That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen, Frederic Bastiat, 1850.

Too many nature/dinosaur books, or a certain parent letting the kid watch Zombie Lego on YouTube?

The scene: Saturday morning lie-in in bed, father wondering whether anyone'll notice if he drifts off again, mother getting ready to jab father in the ribs if he does, son with stuffed Ikea cats Didi and Joey.

"Joey's killed Didi"

Concerned mom: "why's Joey killed Didi?"

"Joey's not dead. Didi's dead. Joey killed him."

Concerned mother: "yes but why?"

"Joey's going to eat Didi."

*Joey pounces on Didi* *nom* *nom* *nom*

Indeed:

This is such a joyously unmodern, generous-spirited piece of advice that it automatically makes me trust everything Mr Biddulph says.

I think that if we all went around dispending unmodern, generous-spirited advice the world would be a happier place.

We're guilty of this, our belief (and observation) is that a bar of chocolate sends Leo bouncing off walls. But sugar doesn't make kids hyper (via):

Let's cut to the chase: sugar doesn't make kids hyper. There have been at least twelve trials of various diets investigating different levels of sugar in children's diets. That's more studies than are often done on drugs. None of them detected any differences in behavior between children who had eaten sugar and those who hadn't. These studies included sugar from candy, chocolate, and natural sources. Some of them were short-term, and some of them were long term. Some of them focused on children with ADHD. Some of them even included only children who were considered "sensitive" to sugar. In all of them, children did not behave differently after eating something full of sugar or something sugar-free.

...

Even when science shows time and again that it's not so, we continue to persist in believing that sugar causes our kids to be hyperactive. That's likely because there's an association. Times when kids get a lot of sugar are often times when they are predisposed to be a little excited. Halloween. Birthday parties. Holidays. We may even be causing the problem ourselves. Some parents are so restrictive about sugar and candy that when their kids finally get it they’re quite excited. Even hyper.

I'm not sure I want to accept it, but there it is.

We've been here for 5 years, and Her Majesty says we can stick around for a longer. Indefinitely longer.

I've had a knot in my stomach for weeks, which still hasn't gone away. I think it's going to take a while to sink in. But it's done.

This is cool: a new book of Tolkien's Hobbit artwork.

I've loved Tolkien's line drawings ever since I got my first copy of the Hobbit in Standard 6. Meticulous and detailed and intricate, I would try to emulate his style, and I can still smell cheap instant coffee and see the biscuit crumbs and rubbings on my desk as I sat drawing forests and mountains with wavy lines and clouds and sweeping vistas. Pure magic.

You know your musical exploration has taken you into the obscure when the bands you're discovering on YouTube haven't yet merited a page on Wikipedia.

(bonus sentence: I'm going to set up a music blog one of these days)

I have the sartorial sense of a rock, but I'm always fascinated to see what passes for dapper dressing in the City. I don't know much, but I'll offer this with certainty:

1. If you're going to splash out on a fine beeeespoke tailored suit, then tell the tailor to go easy on the shoulder pads.

2. if your face says you're 70, then having your hair dyed like you're 30 just Does Not Work.

Why is it when you order a book you don't really need just yet it arrives two days later, but when you're hard-up for something to read on the train, your book still hasn't arrived a week after it was supposedly shipped?