Notebook 24 Pg 59

- The Notes-

• Life Gym - but not as we know it
• 'a place that only exists to avoid the embarrassment of leaving a large empty space on the map'
• Pablo Diego Jose Francisco De Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria De Los Angeles Remedios Cipriano de -la Santisma Trinidad Ruiz Picasso
• As mercurial as a crowd
• Braille mirror
• Joke - left brain, right brain meet
• M- Appeal /Emma Peel
• Von Stroheim Avengers
• Happy Day
• Faith and Science too busy bickering to remember us sobbing children on the staircase
• Cutting out salt reduces the risk of heart problems by removing all the excitement from your diet
• Plenty of variety but no choice

-The Commentary-

Life Gym - but not as we know it
I believe I was thinking about producing a mental equivalent to a sports facility branding it as a Life Gym. So did you see what I did there? Of course I was then too intellectually lazy to get off my arse and do it, another slice of irony pie anyone?

'place only exists to avoid the embarrassment of leaving a large empty space on the map'
A great quote and therefore bound not to be of my own devising.

Pablo Diego Jose Francisco De Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria De Los Angeles Remedios Cipriano de la Santisma Trinidad Ruiz Picasso
Yep, this really was Picasso's name - apparently any painting on which he hasn't signed using his full name is a fake.

As mercurial as a crowd
I made this up and whilst it was in my head it seemed like a great metaphor. Alas when it comes to good metaphors my head is like a shockingly built thing for rubbishly sifting out stuff.

Braille mirror
I can't get my head around this at all. I don't think I was being facetious, I think I may have thought of those pin sculptures you press against and they leave an outline - but even typing that out reveals to me what a piss poor edition of Tomorrows World that would have made.

Joke = left brain, right brain meet
I think this may be true - first you logicaly set up the premise and then you have an unexpected revelation etc. Though I have no evidence at hand to back it up. Proof that any discussion on what makes something funny endorses Mark Twain's observation that 'humo(u)r is like a frog, dissect it and it dies.'

M- Appeal /Emma Peel
I think the whole M-appeal/ Emma Peel thing may have been a much better play on words if I had any recollection of what exactly an M- Appeal was or is.

Von Stronheim Avengers
Okay so a quick wiki reminds me who he is and maybe his being the ultimate screen villain was somehow tied into this concept but why Avengers? Ah I just thought, 'Avengers! so maybe an idea for a TV series? Who knows? We shall never know.

'Happy Day'
I am glad it was but have no particular recall as to what marked it out as such

Faith and Science are far too busy bickering to remember us sobbing children on the staircase
A deliberately unsubtle swipe at the 'much heat but very little light' argument which rages on and on between these two sections of society who can't adhere to the maxim ' if you can't agree at least agree to be polite.'

Cutting out salt reduces the risk of heart problems by removing all the excitement from your diet
You can be pretty sure I've stolen this line off someone - it becomes ruefully more apposite the older I get.

Plenty of variety but no choice
Hey get me - distilling the whole of Chomsky's social critique into just six words. Tomorrow the whole of genetics in four letters ATCG.