It's been a long time / now I'm / coming back home...
Some memorable crossword clues, for no reason other than that they're memorable:
Gegs (9, 4)
Scrambled eggs
Play Ankoolger (4, 4, 2, 5)
Look Back In Anger
Yogdaws (3, 5, 2, 10, 4)
God moves in mysterious ways
If you don't get them, you're probably a fan of the puerile American style quick crossword rather than the infinitely superior British cryptic one.
Entirely by the way, I have changed my anagrammed psuedonym from the wimpy "Albert Wire" to the enigmatic "Warble Rite" on medical advice. I reserve the right to make future changes.
I've been busy with not writing, but I have managed to put in some words on my China Journal blog. This writing thingummy is fun, but I need more discipline. Lots more discipline.
I had a bizarre experience the other day (Tuesday). My wife and I are getting some new life insurance and we have to undergo a battery of tests for that. In this convenient age, the doctor comes to you, rather than the other way around, and a doctor had visited me on Monday night to poke and probe my chest and stomach and tut-tut over my blood pressure and my weight. For my wife, a lady doctor was scheduled to visit us at 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday.
I was sitting comfortably in my living room, reading the morning newspaper when the lady doctor was announced. She came bounding into the room and without so much as a "Good morning," she cast a jovial eye in my direction and addressed me by my childhood nickname, which is a source of reasonable embarassment, like most childhood nicknames. As far as I was aware, I had never met the lady in my life, so I did the only possible thing: I gaped.
She gave me her name, which enlightened me not at all, and then proceeded to explain to my wife that I had been the absolutely cutest baby she had ever encountered in her life and that I continued to hold the title of cutest baby ever, as far as she was concerned. She gushed that she used to make it a point to visit our house each evening so that she could "pet me" - her words. Apparently she had grown up next door to us, and being a decade or so older, had been enamoured of my cuteness as a baby, and need a daily fix of "petting" yours truly.
Well, when you're middle-aged, balding and tending to flab, to be told that you were cute by a complete stranger and that neighborhood girls would fight to pet you on a daily basis is a tremendous boost. When the neighborhood girl is now a lady doctor and still remembers your sex appeal with wistful nostalgia... I now scoff at movie stars and rock musicians: their fan clubs have nothing on mine!
