Great books

Dot writes: Jake’s naming ceremony made me think what book one should give to mark such a significant event in his life. Perhaps we can get some reader comments on this one. If you had to choose a book that would be a cultural treasure, a source of mental and spiritual nourishment or imaginative delight, [...]

Hugh and his friends

Dot writes: now I’m back at work I haven’t had a chance to post much, resulting in a severe cuteness backlog. In an attempt to clear some of our arrears I here present a selection of pictures from the last week. I hope by dumping all this cuteness on the market I don’t depress the [...]

An Taoiseach vs The Taoiseach

Ken writes:
One occasionally reads sentences such as the following:
Introducing An Taoiseach to the conference delegates, The President of UCD, Dr Hugh Brady spoke of Mr Ahern’s achievements:… (excerpt)
(source)
(headline) Christmas Road Safety Message from An Taoiseach
(source)
One also sees sentences with ‘An taoiseach’ as the, or a, grammatical subject of the sentence.
The Lord Mayor of [...]

Milk emergency (updated)

Dot writes: help! I’ve lost a piece of my breast pump! It’s lunchtime, I’m in my office, and I need to pump off a future meal for Prawn lest I swell and swell and finally pop! (Or get mastitis, which is more likely.) What on earth can I have done with it? It’s bad enough [...]

Sex with Robots

Ken writes: This book has recently been released in paperback (review, review). David Levy believes we will all be having sex with robots in the future. He means there will be robots whose purpose is to fulfil our sexual needs, not that we’ll suddenly start trying to get the washing machine drunk. Well, I for [...]

Style

Dot writes: living the life of the mind as I do, surfing the great waves of intellect, it’s amazing how much time I actually spend untangling the seaweed from my toes in the awkwardly barnacled rock pool of academic style. I am doing another bout of editing and have just spent a considerable time pondering [...]

Photographic evidence

Dot writes: when I post pictures of Prawnly activities that have already been described in previous posts I feel as though I’m trying to back up my outlandish claims. Yes, the baby really did eat a biscuit, extraordinary though it seems! If you will forgive me being sentimental, watching one’s baby develop truly gives one [...]

Jaws

Dot writes: today Ken spotted, in the lower gum of our baby, the first tiny white protuberance of a tooth! After three months of drool and gnawing it has finally broken through.
At dinner, Prawn tackled a large piece of banana. Mostly he slimed it all over his face, his bowl and the table, but [...]

Betrayal

Dot writes: he’s been spending time with another woman. When we met again, he didn’t seem to want to look at me; later I bribed him back by offering my body, and he fell asleep in my arms. But all evening I could smell her perfume on his skin.
Hugh has had his first day with [...]

News in brief; or, news in a swim nappy

Dot writes: this is one of those posts where I jot down some of the things we’ve been doing in as economical a fashion as I can, because the world simply needs to know:-)
Mum is here and is suitably impressed by the size and excellence of her grandson, though he persists in his refusal [...]