Current mood:

okay

Doh!
Don't you think it's strange that certain concepts remain in the brainbox seemingly in perpetuity, whereas other, often more useful ones, such as French, leak out through the ears (earwax: the detritus of dead dreams and forgotten memory)? It is nevertheless disconcerting when you discover that one of these well remembered facts is just plain wrong. Worst still is the realisation that you never questioned it, despite it being unbelievably silly (in my noggin that's practically camouflage). The idea was, and please laugh not too loudly, I have feelings you know, that the zebra is far more closely related to the hippo than it is to the horse. I burn with shame as I type that. As far as I can make out, the idea was placed when I was about 6, and I think I treasured it because it revealed, what I thought to be, the stunning truth that the universe is less simple than it often appears. The topic up until Monday, had never been introduced into polite conversation, and I'd not bothered to check it---mostly because I trusted the person who told me (not a member of my immediate family I should add). Anyway, at coffee, on Monday, this, now tarnished, jem fitted neatly into some discourse. The rest of the table stared dumbfounded at me, and so I nodded my wise nod and smiled my wise smile, and they were convinced (well so was I!). Anyway, in brandishing the zebra-hippo duality, some saner part of my mind said "eh?!" and maybe even "stupid boy!" Following on from that, I thought I'd better check Wikipedia, and...

Here is some of my recent graffiti applied to Jie's whiteboard next door (Adrian having filled ours up with proper work, and mitched off for a few weeks). Jie is the lecturer in Fluid Mechanics who featured earlier in proceedings.