A Family Romance

Under the Steinway. My review of Marco Roth’s The Scientists in the LRB. Subscription or free 24 hour access.

A Cat Can Look At a Queen

I’ve just had the thought (let’s leave it at that for now) that the phrase ‘A cat can look at a queen’ might refer to the fact that female cats with kittens are called queens. So while a human looking at a queen might cause the cat to feel or behave threatened, a cat can look at a queen without that happening.

This is not only probably wrong, but also a completely pointless and uninteresting thought that I spent one and a half minutes of my life thinking about. When I come to the end of my life, and the list of things I haven’t thought about during my time as an entity scrolls before my eyes, I would not be in the slightest degree disturbed at finding this on the list.

So I am now thinking about the things that will remain on that list which has this morning shortened by one thought thought. I am rather panic-stricken.

Careless Talk

A new post by me on the LRB blog. Careless Talk.