09:00 We tumble out of the shower and come downstairs and through the day keep an eye on how the US Election is going.
Lois and I don't know much about the issues, but as impartial observers (oh yes we are!) we prefer Biden, on the grounds that he seems to be a decent man, who doesn't seem to us like a self-serving ruthless, megalomaniac bully: it'll be a relief if we can have a decent man at the helm, that's for sure - that's what we think, at least!
But it would have been nice to have known more about the issues over the last few months. Later in the day we hear this failure by the media confirmed on "Feedback" on Radio 4.
Mark Mardell, one of BBC Radio's senior foreign correspondents, who is shortly leaving the corporation, criticises the budget cuts the BBC has made, which has drastically restricted innovative reporting: Mardell is going early after 33 years because he can see, looking ahead, that there will be far less generous redundancy compensation packages on offer.
He believes BBC coverage of Trump and his supporters has been flawed by the corporation's unwillingness to fund reporters to go out and about and really find out what Trump's supporters believe. Above all there's been nobody very much trying to figure out why so many Americans still vote for Trump, despite his weird and unnerving personality traits. Mardell also thinks that Trump himself, though a strange and undoubtedly weird president, has only been reported on in terms of rather simple, knee-jerk reactions, with an exclamatory "Wow, isn't he a totally weird president!" or "Wasn't that a totally weird tweet for him to make!", rather than delving further into things and trying to explain a bit more the background to what's happening, and why it's happening.
Oh dear!
13:00 Lunch and then a curtailed nap because Lynda's U3A Middle English group is holding its monthly meeting at 2:30 pm on zoom, where we'll be reading through some of William Langland's poem "Piers Plowman", written in the 14th century.
The meeting lasts nearly 2 hours, and I feel totally exhausted by the end of it - my god!
Of the several interesting points I make [How do we know that's true? That's just assertion! - Ed], I admired my comment on the Anglo-Saxon word "erien" meaning 'to plough'; it seems to come rattling down the centuries from several thousand years ago: i.e. from the time of the original Indo-European language. And the word also came down in a very similar form to the Latin language of the Romans, where the equivalent verb was "arare" (also 'to plough') - and we get our English word 'arable' from this Latin source.
This is a very significant verb, I think. It's very much an echo of the fact that the Indo-European languages, first seen in Central Asia many thousands of years ago, eventually spread all over Europe, travelling on the back of the spread of agriculture, to which 'ploughing' was such a basic feature of this new way of life.
Isn't that just wonderful? [I don't think you've really proved that! To my mind the jury's still out on that one in my view! - Ed]
21:00 We settle down on the sofa to watch the weekly satirical news quiz, "Have I Got News For You".
A very funny edition, although we thought the guest presenter himself, Richard Ayoade, was perhaps a bit too funny for the show - and the banter descended into near-hysteria at times.
Richard Ayoyade - at times a bit too funny for the show?
Usually the humour comes out of the questions and the news items themselves, rather than from the general wise-cracks from the presenter, but I'm going to let that one slide. There were a few comments that did relate to this week's news also, to be fair.
also Trump's spiritual adviser, Paula White - at times a bit too funny also perhaps?
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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