What made you smile today?

Something like "How you doin, old boy?"

More like, "how ya doin old man?"

Wise energy.

That's for guffawing alex, not smiling.

Stay on topic eh?

Watching Bob Mankoff.

Sort of makes you stop and think, doesn't it?

http://www.ted.com/talks/bob_mankoff_anatomy_of_a_new_yorker_cartoon.html

Hah. I'm slightly in love with Bob Mankoff (he's taken though) so I should watch that Ted talk, Debacle. I follow his NYer blog.

You have to laugh if only to keep from crying.

Last evening I watched about ten minutes of an old Brtish B&W film on DVD which Mrs. D. had going on the telly. Something like Kind Hearts and Coronets, but it wasn't that. One scene was set in an old-fashioned counting house, similar to the one in which Bob Cratchit clerked.

The scene got me to thinking back to the years when I worked in a large accounting firm in Liverpool. I, along with 30 some fellow scribes, was assigned to the Trust Department, commonly referred to as the Morgue. For, unlike the situation in the firm's hustling and bustling departments, our clients were mostly dead. That is to say, they were all the way dead, for the most part. The Morgue staff, when talking among ourselves, referred to the clients by name only; not, for instance, "The Estate of Jonathan Wild, Deceased" but simply "John Wild." That held down on palaver and helped maintain the quietude the department was noted for. Generally one might have heard a beetle burp in there. But as with everything there were exceptions.

On one occasion, Mr. Rabelais (not his actual name, but the shoe fits) one of the three morgue managers, turned to his assistant: "I say, Margaret. Have you seen my John Thomas?" Margaret blanched and said, "I certainly have not!" and made as if to swipe the bowler hat from his head. We knew very well twas but a faux blanch 'n screech. Margaret was married to a Church of England vicar who was notorious for having been, along with three of his mates, chucked out of a strip club for making too much racket, and consequently from seminary for three days. We also knew there was no John Thomas in the Morgue; at least not the estate of such a deceased member of the clientude.

Beetles belch?

Finding out Julia has been dumped.

Finding out that some friends will be coming to support me at my first public gig. I have good friends and I appreciate that.

Not only beetles, Deb. Beatles also.

Horrible, putrid, ugly, nasty, stinky belches - kinda like armadillo feet. NASTY!

More like an earwig.


Just to put a bug in your ear.

you commit suicide from its inner head travels, then the good news, it went out the other ear only for it to turn around and go back in!

Right on, wack. They wuz Scouse belchers.

Aye, they're in an' out like a bloomin' yoyo. And dyin' for love.


What other ear?

The one on the other side of the head silly. It is a Somerset Maugham (I think) short story. I'll see if I can find it - back soon!

Yeap - "The Earwig", it was also a short Night Gallery film starring Laurence Harvey with changes. The earwig lays eggs.

Hey, thanks for explaining. Afraid I only knew one person from Somerset, a girl who also worked in the morgue. This Maugham was an entomologist, I guess, eh?

Oh, you found the book. OK, disregard the above.

The only Maugham book I've ever read is The Razor's Edge and there are no insects in it that I can recall. It's to do with some guy that cures headaches by handing around coins. It's a good read. Bill Murray was the guy in the film version and played a straight role, for once.

Also as I recall, I only ever saw Laurence Harvey in one film, Butterfield 8. Good film, but he wasn't as good looking as his co-star.

Earwig eggs, right ho, got it.

The Somerset Maugham book that comes to my mind straightaway is Ashenden, or the Secret Agent. (I know, I know -- not one of his best-sellers.) But inasmuch as all the action is set during the Great War (Or WW I as we call it now) there is no mention of one side's spies bugging the offices of the other side. Electronic surveillance had not yet progressed to that.