Conversational Muse

Apparently I have spent two weeks away from this place. I think I was doing extremely superficial things with textiles. However, I listened to a BBC Worldservice programme today: Masterpiece - The Art of Conversation. You have a week from two hours ago to listen again. I would strongly advise that. Or you can go straight to the Oxford muse.

The aim of this organisation is to get people to really talk to each other. So they organise dinners at which complete strangers are placed at tables for two. Then they are given a "menue" with topics to talk about, such as 'Who are you?' or 'What is your sixth sense' All this is in aid of talking about things that really matter and of creating real connections between people. According to the Oxford Muse this is - eventually - in aid of a more peaceful world. But for the time being it makes for much more interesting evenings.

Because I am so awfully superficial my answer to the first question will vary from day to day. Tuesday, March 1st it is: I sit in the dentist's chair. He has a new kind of x-ray machine. The dentist comes in, says hello and asks me what I'm looking at. I tell him I am shocked by the criminal boredom of a name such as dens-o-mat. Ah, March 1st is gone now. I hope I shan't be as freakish on March 2nd. But I'm happy to report that my dentist has a great sense of humour.

And my 6th sense? Well - the same as yours, of course! The sense of proprioperception tells you where your body parts are situated in space. That is why the humdrum, literal minded German language speaks of the 7th sense. I don't know what my 7th sense is, something to do with textiles I think. But check out Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim, his 6th/7th sense was universal boredom detection. The ghost of Lucky Jim tells me to stop writing this entry. NOW!