it’s a marlin, not a shark — on the anatomy of misreading The Old Man and the Sea
First published, 1st October 2018Hemingway’s swan song, The Old Man and the Sea, was more perfectly written than it has been read. I mean, it seems to me that those who have buzzed about it, like flies around some Faberjé egg, may have given the fable less thought than it deserves. The work is true to…
Beyond a blond/e joke
First published, 7th October 2018Here’s a blond/e joke: before the pleas are taken from the defendants at the Nuremberg Trials at the end of the Second World War, the president of the Tribunal, Lord Justice Colonel Sir Geoffrey Lawrence addresses the twenty four Nazis in the dock: “Before we begin, gentlemen, which one of you…
reality cheque — a triptych
First published, 15th October 2018What is potentially interesting about the Dunning-Kruger effect is not so much that there is a cognitive bias in those tested but between those at opposite ends of the intelligence spectrum, when perceiving each other. Intelligent individuals may well have a tendency to assume all are as intelligent as themselves. The…
Recent Posts
