Sunday, May 8, 2005

Anna at Self Winding has a couple of excellent links in recent posts.  The first is to a poem of unique dreadfulness by Scottish/Canadian poet James McIntyre. If I tell you that itís about cheese that should be sufficient incentive to you to hot-link your way over there right now.   The second is to the Spiked online site for a series of statements by the GreatíníGood of the scientific world in response to the question, ëIf you could teach the world just one thingÖí  To those of us currently grabbing at every passing meme-theme, this would seem to be the ultimate extreme-meme challengeÖ     9:28:25 PM    Mmm? []   Now, this oneís a real teaser.  I was totally stumped. I submit it to your scrutiny now in the hope that you can succeed where I failed. Do let me know.   The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation in which you will have to make a decision. Remember that your answer needs to be spontaneous & yet honest. Please scroll down slowly and give due consideration to each line as you reach it.  A successful determination of the test depends on this.   You are in Florida, Miami to be specific. There is chaos all around you caused by a hurricane with severe resultant flooding of biblical proportions. You are a photojournalist working for a major newspaper and you're caught in the middle of this epic disaster. The situation is next to hopeless. You're trying to shoot career-making photos; there are people, animals, possessions swirling around you, some disappearing under the raging waters; nature is unleashing all of its destructive fury.   Suddenly you see a man floundering in the water.  He is fighting for his life, trying not to be taken down with the heaving debris.  You move closer.  Somehow the man looks familiar. With an uprush of shock, you suddenly realize who it is: it's George W. Bush!  At the moment of realization you notice that the raging waters are about to take him under. You have two options - you can save the life of George. W. Bush, the President of the United States of America or you can shoot the most dramatic Pulitzer Prize winning photo of the 21st century, documenting the death of one of the world's most powerful men.   So here's the question, and please give an honest answer:   Would you select high contrast color film, or would you go with the classic simplicity of black and white?       2:11:00 PM    Mmm? [] Apologies for further churlish silence.  I'll respond to comments & visit my sidebar friends soon.     12:16:33 AM    Mmm? []   Emma & I were informed yesterday by our baffled solicitor that the couple selling us the house in Great Offley have just revealed that unless they are able to pay their building society (the body that manages the mortgage on the house) instalment arrears, the house will be re-possessed by the building society at 10.00 am on Friday. So we have four days within which to complete all business with the purchasers of Emmaís house in Hitchin or weíll lose the  Offley house. The standard procedure is that, following a re-possession, the building society puts the property back on the market at the highest price that it believes might be obtained.  So by the end of this coming week we might be right back at the beginning of the house sale/house purchase ordeal again.   #   Shining for me ëlike a good deed in a naughty worldí is the appearance of a poem of mine on Tom Montagís blog The Middlewesterner.  Small comfort, but definitely traceable on the emotional radarÖ   #   Back to rehearsing & marking tomorrow. Hasta la vista, babiesÖ   #   12:12:59 AM    Mmm? []

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