Saturday September 7th 2024 "Do you only put NICE pictures of yourself on YOUR dating site profile?"

Friends, do you only put 'nice' pictures of yourself on your internet Tinder dating profile, hoping to 'snare' a potential new partner with an absurdly idealised image of your physical qualities? 

A lot of us do, don't we. Not me, I hasten to add (!) - I don't think my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois would like it, and fair enough - we've been married now for 52 years, so to some, it might be seen as something of a betrayal, no less, and I can see that (!).

However, all of our single friends seem to do it, to put it mildly, like North Piddle-native Rajesh Jayaram, whose fraudulent little game was exposed this week by the local Onion News West Worcestershire Desk - did you see the headlines?

Poor Jayaram !!!!

Yes, I tend to feel a bit sorry for the poor guy - he's obviously never heard of "selfies" and so he had to rely on an occasion when a photographer was around, which must have hampered the creation of his misleading data profile no end. What a madness THAT was !!!

How much easier this kind of deception is with the invention of selfies, isn't it. Did you see the story on page 2 of the print edition featuring our old friend Katherine Wright from the lovely Worcestershire village of Nob End?

I myself rarely take selfies - I happen to attempt one on the morning walk Lois and I take in the lee of the 700-million-year-old Malvern Hills today. But that's simply to prove a philosophical point: that even hills as old as these can 'disappear' on a misty day, and the message? Don't take your 'old codger' friends for granted - they might just disappear suddenly too one day, perhaps simply to take a nap, although they'll probably be back the next time they want one of you young 'whippersnappers' to change a hard-to-reach light bulb for them - just saying (!).

our walk this morning over Poolbrook Common, a misty day

when even the 700-million-year-old Malvern Hills behind us

had vanished from view and we felt like the only people left in the world

- yikes !!!!

Yes, it was one of those eery days today on our walk over Poolbrook Common, when the mists were coming down, all the sounds we were making seemed muffled, and it felt like we were the only people in the world - "the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness", the poet John Keats called it. 

So savour that picture above, won't you, and keep a copy for your records. As I say, I don't tend to take many selfies, because I think it speaks of a personal vanity of the worst possible kind (!). [You really don't have very much self-awareness, do you Colin! - Ed]

Because of this I'm able to take a detached attitude to an article about 'selfies' that I read today in Lois' copy of "The Week" magazine, the "organ" that summarises the news from home and abroad over the past 7 days.

I showcase an article about selfies in Lois's copy of

"The Week" magazine - highlighting the 

"What the scientists are saying" section.

A team from Tel Aviv University has apparently figured out why those awful selfie-taking fanatics do what they do, and the team has published their findings this week in the journal 'Psychological Reports'.

An interesting thought, and it reminds me of an article on the quora website, postly recently, by one of my favourite quora pundits, MS Tulus (crazy name, crazy guy!), on the benefits of religion.

In his answer to the question, 'Tulus' comments as follows: "For many people, religion provides that same sense of hope. It gives comfort and a sense of purpose in a world that can feel overwhelming. That's one of the reasons it has endured for so long, it helps us cope." 

And he references the "drowning rat experiment", which I, for one, had never heard of, I have to admit. 

"Back in the 1950s", Tulus writes, "a scientist named Curt Richter put rats in buckets of water they couldn't escape, just to see how long they'd survive. It's a dark thought, but bear with me. These rats, even the strongest ones, would struggle for maybe 15 minutes before giving up and sinking to the bottom."

"But here's the crazy part", Tulus continues. "Richter would sometimes pull a rat out, right before it drowned, dry it off, and let it rest for a little while. Then, when he put the same rat back in the water, something amazing happened, the rat wouldn't just give up. It would swim for hours! A tiny bit of hope completely changed everything. Hope, however fleeting, is incredibly powerful."

Fascinating stuff, isn't it! 

And there's more fascinating stuff for Lois and me this evening, when we watch BBC presenter Amol Rajan's long-awaited interview of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In many ways, a predictable interview - after all, Blair has some genuinely great achievements to bask in, chiefly the settlement in Northern Ireland, but also political devolution for the 4 countries of the UK, and action against racism, homophobia etc. And on the minus side, you don't really expect politicians to admit they made any mistakes, do you - be fair!

Lois and I feel he is less than honest in his defence of the Iraq War, and his use of alleged evidence of Iraq's non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), which was used by the West to justify the decision to invade.

Oh really, Tony?

However we like Tony's assessment of most populist leaders, who he says, espouse popular grievances not because they care about them, but because they see them simply as a way to get themselves into positions of power. Donald Trump, Nigel Farage etc, please note (!) - you've been well and truly "rumbled": and your secret is out (!).

And we disagree with his assessment of Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Blair says he used to be a nice guy, but that he "changed" - hence his crazy invasion of Ukraine. Lois and I, no mean experts ourselves in international politics (!), feel that Putin was like that all along - he was just waiting for the confidence and the right moment to reveal his true nature. 

Call us a pair of awful old cynics if you like haha!

Tonight's interviewer, the BBC's Amol Rajan, recalls to Blair tonight that US Senator John McCain said, that when he looked into Putin's eyes, he saw 3 letters: a 'K', a 'G' and a 'B'. And he asks Blair what he used to see in Putin's eyes.

Oh really, Tony? I think Lois and I are with McCain on this one!

There's nothing that eats away at politicians of so many countries is there, as much as the feeling that their country has lost its mystical "greatness" that they believe it enjoyed in the past. Look at Hitler's reactions after the post-World War I Versailles Conference had cut Germany down to size. With Putin it's been a similar thing all along , smarting from the reduction of the former mighty USSR by the loss of Eastern Bloc countries etc, surrendered without a shot being fired, to, from Putin's perspective, an alien, quiet world of peace and democracy.

That's what Lois and I think. Call us a pair of old cynics if you like (!) haha. [You've started to repeat yourself again, Colin! - Ed]

But we'll see !

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!