After an emergency visit to a new dentist today - the current one's mini clinic is on holiday the whole week - I took my horsey-feeling jaw 'n lips home to have a quiet evening.

First, I decided to launch into the supermarket catch from yesterday. I only go on a hunt-with-trolley less than once a week, on average, and the days that follow are always great fun as I ravish a week's supply in, mostly, two days. Today I tried a long baguette for the first time, instead of ever more chemically tasting bread rolls, and with i.a. camembert & honey added, 't was a joy.

Then, I watched the rented DVD I picked up yesterday: Jacques Cousteau's first long film, LE MONDE DU SILENCE, and got the old warm feeling of remembering when I'd first seen these as a young teen. But only for about half an hour, until the Calypso crew started misbehaving with a group of sperm whales; perhaps my growing misgivings are explained by my admitting that these whales have been my favourite of all cetacean species since about a decade: First the ship rammed an adult, and, then, instead of being more careful, like slowing down & following them, they basically broke the back of a baby whale, finally harpooning (!) it, catching it by the tail, tying this to the side of the ship, "mercifully" (!) shooting the baby in the head and then watching it being torn apart by sharks, which they then also proceeded to spear/pummel/hook & generally mistreat. ("All men at sea hate sharks.") Perhaps I never saw this film?

But I finally found some respite in a book I'd started a while ago, and now want to finish by the weekend: Levithan's BOY MEETS BOY. An astounding entry in the U.S. American race for cutest or most romantic high-school "diary" novel! Written in a well-executed easy-going style, with memorable characters like Infinite Darlene, the school's best footballer. Astounding - because it's about a homosexual romance between the protagonist, a young guy surrounded by his best friends, like Darlene & (female hetero) Joni, and handsome/mysterious newcomer, Noah. And all written in a classic-laid-out suburban setting in an alternate USA. A decade-and-a-half old, almost, and currently highly relevant... Wow!

Gute Nacht.

Oops, December was too busy to post a monthly blog entry, so here goes a short duo to make it up...

OBAMA EXITS

"I say YES*, since he simply achieved a lot within the States, incl. for young afro-american & immigrant folk. And remained human - you noticed occasionally, that the job weighs one down, and he allowed that to be noticed. (Cool!) The "plusses" just barely weigh up the "minuses" - civil dead through drone attacks, wavering re Syria & Israel, & that he initially really seemed to believe he was the new Messiah, at least in the USA."

I will miss him!

LOSING THE NUCLEAR FOCUS

In the current issue of STERN magazine, the director of the Munich security conference said in an interview that both the US and Russia have not been adressing nuclear proliferation or even arms modernisation as they could have done to further de-escalate the possibility of using nukes in the near future.

An American ex-inspector of i.a. North Korean arms production/testing recently urgently called for talks with that country's leaders, a feat a new administration might attempt, he feels.

It seems to layman me, that the phase of my worst fears concerning the world, back in the Eighties, is resurfacing slowly but menacingly. One reason I've been saying that catastrophic climate change is not on the cards for me, since it's another vehicle for generating global fear (with a lot of bad conscience handed out for good measure, too).

This vehicle is one to be truly afraid of: Either a nuke strike nearby and rapid spiral into death, or a nuclear winter, where we have months to tearfully watch the sky get darker and darker, as fallout "snow" begins to fall.

Focus, folks! Don't let that Putin or any other insecure "Big Man" try another Hiroshima, even if it's only a small, "tactical" one! That way lies true, rapid catastrophe - it's not just a clay-footed pseudo-scientific prognosis if the fat boy bombs start to fall...

Instead of going political once again, and obsessing too much on the upsetting win of one of the nastiest constant liars in the US political sphere preparing to take over the nuclear soccer ball, or whatever, as well as whether Merkel meant it with the no Leader of the Free World for us*, or not... I'd rather report some new sensations of the physical world. Or conjecture on.

No, not sensations of the trump'eting kind. Bodily interactions with the everyday physical world, rather.

The other day, about a forthnight ago, I realised, that if I take a really hot bath in early winter, and most of my body is beneath the surface, but the parts of my legs around my knees aren't, my knees give off a thin smoke. Of their own! I.e. my legs were at an angle, knees up, the actual bath water not steaming too much and I saw... Okay, I knew within a second the "smoke" had to be just more steam, but the child in me - yes, still present after all dese long done years! - was impressed.

I'm the man with the occasional smokin' legs!

Today, after a bad dip into a lot-of-crazy-coughing 'flu for about a week, I realised that my food intake during sick leaves tends to be the exact thing I should be going for, when I'm not sick: Healthier (less finished food, more fruit, more tea than bottled water) and less of it. Only once I feel better, like now, do old unhealthy appetites return (mostly carbohydrates & salt - I love most salty stuff).

So I wondered: Was it only the diminished hunger caused by i.a. fever that had that effect? Could it be in part due to the often-closed nose, i.e. partial loss of smell?

Maybe I could do a lot for an effective new life diet, if I stoppered up my nose for one or more days each week...?

Well, have a good festive month!