Debate

Long day which began sometime around the dawn chorus as I finished my piece on last night’s debate. You can read it over here.

I grabbed a few hours sleep but it’s been one of those difficult days, largely on account of yesterday being better.

Today was one of those days when we tried to adjust medication. I know. I know. Not a great idea. Yesterday, the meds made it a tolerable day but my mother doesn’t tolerate tolerable. She was grouchy because the anti-nausea tablet made her sleepy, as sedatives tend to do. So, this morning she decided to skip it. Bad idea. The nausea came back with a vengeance and it took an hour or so for it to settle. She’s now on proper anti-inflammatories (again it too a call to a private GP to get proper treatment) and I’m hoping a few days on them will improve matters.

If it weren’t for this damn pandemic, I could get this sorted properly. As it is, we’re waiting for appointments next week and in three week’s time…

I read a piece the other day about the life of carers working under the pandemic and I felt myself crumble as I saw myself in other people’s plight. I guess I’m currently working for less than a pound an hour (though, yes, I know I can’t really call this “work” since I feel it’s my duty) but, dear god, it’s hard. I’m also waiting on November and the deadline to pass for the DWP or whoever it is who handles my affairs to sort out the paperwork which I submitted back in June. I’ve been flying on vapour since April. The government doesn’t give a toss.

In my downtime, I managed to catch the new Borat, which fills me with all manner of guilt. How can I claim to be impoverished yet watching Amazon Prime? Well, not my account…

Anyway, it was enjoyable but not a patch on the original. A few of the jokes had been done too many times (I find the satire of antisemitism laboured and repellent). I also thought the Giuliani story wasn’t a story. I think he was indeed tucking his pants into his trousers. Not saying he didn’t come across as creepy old fool clearly willing to do anything the actress asked him to do. Just don’t think there was too much there to incriminate him.

The best thing in the film was the actress playing Borat’s daughter. If there’s a reason to watch it, it’s to see Maria Bakalova. Oddly, the Rudy scenes were the worst. Having done spoofs myself, I recognised how the took their foot off the pedal in order to land the big prize. I did it occasionally in my Stan days – my letter to Noriega was my least funny because I probably wanted the reply the most – and they did it there. They did too little to hint at the game they were playing, meaning he wasn’t so much fooled as merely deceived. There is a big difference. Tell somebody you’re a travel agent and you’re hardly fooling them (assuming, of course, you’re not a travel agent). Tell them you’re the world’s smallest giant and you’re twisting reality to see how far they’ll follow.

4 thoughts on “Debate”

  1. “And then he accuses Anthony Fauci of being a Democrat…” that’s always been trump’s problem. He just cant help himself. I take it you dont write your headlines? Weird one IMO. Barely relevant to the article and predicts the election results. Which you dont do in the piece.

    1. Nope. I almost never write my headlines but then most writers don’t. It’s one of those little bugbears that get to a lot of journalists, especially when people reply to the title not the content. As submitted, that piece had the title ‘The Night of The Interminable “Ten More Seconds”’.

      You’re absolutely right. Trump can’t help himself, which is why he’s interesting in terms of psychology rather than politics. I notice tonight he tried to ring Bibi and try to stir up some anti Biden hate, only for Netanyahu to give him the cold shoulder. Pretty predictable. Think the British gov did similar last week. Everybody knows where he’s heading and want to swing around behind the winner.

    1. Ah, cheers. Today was just her moving from one anti inflammatory tablet to another which works more slowly but better for long term use. I’m hoping it’s actually a good sign that we’re treating the right condition.

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Why Dunciad.com?

It’s a cool domain name and it was available. Yes, I know. Available. Crazy, isn’t it?

Really?

Yes. It also helps that it’s also my favourite satire written by Alexander Pope, one of the most metrically pure English poets who also knew his way around a crude insult or two. If you’ve not read it, you should give it a try.

So this is satire, right?

Can’t deny it. There will be some. But it’s also an experiment in writing and drawing, giving work away for free in order to see how many people are willing to support a writer doing his thing. It’s the weird stuff that I wouldn’t get published elsewhere in this word of diminishing demands and cookie-cutter tastes.