About this Blog

Over many years I have jotted down things that were of interest to me and a few of these oddments are even of use. They are more likely, however, to be merely amusing; actually much more likely. Although I am sure you will find them interesting, useful and often hilarious, my purpose in providing them is largely self-serving. By iterating them here it is my faint hope that they might be better committed to my memory for future cocktail party use. Since your memory and social life are surely richer than mine, use them if you get a chance.
My intention, as well, is self-improvement, in that by setting down these jottings for a potential audience of two-or-three I will be forced into some coherence and strive to improve my vocabulary and sentence structures. Since that does not provide you with much incentive to carry on, remember that I said earlier that much of the information offered will be funny and the rest of tremendous value.

Apart from the utility and humour to be found in what is to follow, you are more likely to encounter information from the past than the present. Things are rather ghastly right now (c August, 2016) and, besides, you hardly need me to tell you what is going on. It is also likely to be rather arcane in some instances, but not in the complicated sense. Perhaps there will be simply things you may have overlooked or items which are not routinely found, although these days, not much remains lost. If I have been ‘scooped’ by Wikipedia, I will simply point you there, much in the way that those bespoke aggregator services provide links only to those things which you should, or must read.
The topics are most likely to involve: books; journals; articles and universities and libraries. More specifically and parochially they may also involve London, Ontario and Western University where I live and worked. Political commentary is kept to a minimum, unless the issues are frivolous and funny; I suppose that means there could be a fair amount.

To give you an idea of what to expect, let me include here one of my favorite book introductions. Given that you are an imaginative reader you will be able to edit it to apply to this blog. It is taken from Henry Wheatley’s work from 1893: Literary Blunders : A Chapter in the History of Human Error.

“This book has been written by the Authors, and printed by the Publishers, in the hope that it may be purchased by the Public. If it proves to be a failure, the responsibility must rest with the People who don't buy it.”