writer's moll

There’s nothing like an unticked Christmas To Do list to push the mind’s panic button into finding a handy escape route and indulging in contemplation of total irrelevancies, such as the subject of punishment. Not the straightforward domestic, grounding the kids sort, or even the manacling of the town’s maniacs variety, but the sort we secretly reserve for those we believe have wronged us and the punishment we think ‘fits the crime’. Most of us like to believe that ‘what goes around, comes around’ but if that’s true, why doesn’t the greedy opportunist who treads on anyone to get what he wants end up penniless in a damp bedsit and the mean-spirited person, alone and friendless, instead of escaping scot-free? Well just maybe, these people get a much harsher punishment than anything we dream up for them, because they spend their entire lives never understanding the effect their actions have on others, or why they receive less than they think they deserve and bitter that respect and admiration always fall short of what they regard as their right.

Fascinating little piece of history and psychology rolled into one today on breakfast TV. The voice of the Speaking Clock has been changed – the cut glass accents of the females and the one of the authoritative Shakespearean male have gradually given way to this latest, much warmer, friendlier version. I don’t recall ever ringing the Speaking Clock and wondered who on earth did, but some research showed that it’s at two minutes to five in the afternoon, when all those office workers are preparing to clock off, that the largest number of calls are clocked up, making sure that no one has to take a long call before 5 0’clock ticks round.

Funny thing about blogs - my loved one noted that a blogger we know wrote better than he spoke! Of course, isn’t that one of the reasons for doing it?