Kevin's Watch

Memory is a tricky thing. Am I not correct in thinking that there is evidence that as 'holes' start to develop in ones memory (of events) as one ages, the brain has a trick of inventing new material to fill the holes with. Also this business of 'suggestion' can feature large in our deep personal memories. But memories of 'facts' is somewhat different - and here is where one does seem to have a finite capacity for recall.

I do sometimes wonder whether I'm actually remembering an event, or whether I'm remembering the pictures my brain invented as someone else told me about the event...

From Wikipedia.


Confabulation is a memory disturbance, defined as the production of fabricated, distorted or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world, without the conscious intention to deceive. Confabulation is distinguished from lying as there is no intent to deceive and the person is unaware the information is false. Although individuals can present blatantly false information, confabulation can also seem to be coherent, internally consistent, and relatively normal. Individuals who confabulate present incorrect memories ranging from "subtle alternations to bizarre fabrications", and are generally very confident about their recollections, despite contradictory evidence. Most known causes of confabulation are caused by brain damage or dementias, such as alcoholism, aneurysm or Alzheimer's disease.

Ah! I shall remember that word. At the end of the month I'm going to a reunion weekend - 40 years since I left college. There will be lots of "memories" flying about and I will do my best to accuse someone of "confabulating". As opposed to (damn, can't remember the bloody word! Means exaggerate but isn't - when you say there were thousands there meaning a lot). Just remembered - hyperbole. My memory is always doing this - I spend hours going through the thesaurus looking for words. I'll probably have forgotten confabulate by next weekend. Better write it down. Then I shall wonder why on earth I wrote that word down.

There has been a flurry of news media activity in the UK following a grubby scene outside a Mayfair restaurant in which an advertising mogul appearead to grab his wife, a popular tv chef, around the throat during the course of a domestic dispute. The incident was 'snapped' (probably on a mobile phone or some such) prior to the wife fleeing in distress; predictably the picture was seen on the front page of every newspaper the following day. The affair has brought starkly to light the very real down side of 'the cult of clebrity' - an arena you enter at no considerable risk. The violence of the situation is clear in the fear in the womans eyes and is to be condemned at every level. The sadness must be for an already painfull situation (for both participants) to be hauled in front of the media spotlight for scrutiny and comment by all (such as me) - let's hope some good can come from it.

Yes, like ol' whatsisname getting the book thrown at him.

--A

I think the guy has been cautioned by the police now - a good clear example that this type of behavior is a no-no.

Yesterday I was refused a parking permit in Tesco's after I had spent £10 because I said I was going to go into town to get my wife a birthday card. The car park was 3/4 empty and the two shreds of humanity on the desk were bullish and agressive - that sucks!

I think the Watch was bloody quiet yesterday...

--A

"A wilderness and a place of solitude" (not dissimilar to my garden really )

Avatar wrote:I think the Watch was bloody quiet yesterday...

Agreed. We're close to the longest day of the year up here , that might have something to do with it

u.

Yeah, historically the northerners tend to be more active in their winter than their summer.

--A

what of us northerners stuck in the bloody south where it is now 90 degrees by 9 am?

Truly a fate to be pitied Sarge!

Quick message to Mick Jagger if he happens to be on site today. Thanks for agreeing to let 1 hour of your show at Glatonbury be shown live on the BBC instead of the 4 songs you originally wanted. Just bear in mind that most of your fans who have been with you since the start are way beyond the age where they could stand the rigours of a four day tented festival, even if they coud get (or afford the £350) tickets which are like gold dust (and sold a year before the line-up is announced). Would it really hurt so much, be so bad for business, to allow this show to be televised as a thanks to all those whose support you've enjoyed for the past half century.

They just can't give no satisfaction!

Hashi Lebwohl wrote:I think people need to quit referring to the summer solstice as "the first day of summer". This is actually the middle of the summer if you examine the calendar from an agricultural/seasonal point of view. The actual first day of summer was 45 days ago on 7 May.

Well said Hashi. Exactly the same thing occured to me yesterday when two or three times I heard people say it was 'the first day of summer'. I hadn't realised it had become a 'convention' or anything like that - I just thought they had got it wrong. It began to grate a bit, but I had neither the energy or the inclination to set them straight.

peter wrote:

Hashi Lebwohl wrote:I think people need to quit referring to the summer solstice as "the first day of summer". This is actually the middle of the summer if you examine the calendar from an agricultural/seasonal point of view. The actual first day of summer was 45 days ago on 7 May.

Well said Hashi. Exactly the same thing occured to me yesterday when two or three times I heard people say it was 'the first day of summer'. I hadn't realised it had become a 'convention' or anything like that - I just thought they had got it wrong. It began to grate a bit, but I had neither the energy or the inclination to set them straight.

I never really thought about it till now.
I wonder how it came to be the "official" designation, though...because it is, AFAICT. [not officially official, I don't think...but who knows? our congress might have wasted time declaring official start of summer.]
I have 3 calendars in my house. Every single one of them says "Summer Begins" or some variation on it.
Almost every calendar I recall has said something similar.
I thought maybe it was cuz it's near when summer vacation begins, in much of U.S. for elem/secondary kids, so the two got melted together....but I'm not sure that applies to peter/u.k.

I was bothered by an analogous question about winter.
Why wasn't the shortest day of the year at the center of the season?
But I countered myself: winter, as we mark it on the calendar, is significantly colder than fall.

My husband answered me with two words: "thermal mass."

I had the same thoughts re the 'vacation period' (sort of) beginning around now Vraith - maybe that's where it stems from. I'm not sure of the top of my head but I don't even think the June 21 was the 'Summer Solstice' (day where the sun is at it's highest declination above the horizon) was it? [Are summer solstice and mid-summer day on the same day? Seems like they should be, but for some reason I always seem to struggle getting my head round all this eliptics and equinox's stuff].

On a different theme - we have a mgazine called 'Easy Living' in my shop [I don't know if the same magazine is available in the States] and this month's edition features a smug looking Michelle Obahma, beautifully attired and surrounded by the trappings of 'the good life'. Not the most subtle of images given the ever rising cost of living, increasing wealth gap and daily struggle to meet bills experienced by the vast bulk of people in both the US and the UK.

Vraith wrote:

peter wrote:

Hashi Lebwohl wrote:I think people need to quit referring to the summer solstice as "the first day of summer". This is actually the middle of the summer if you examine the calendar from an agricultural/seasonal point of view. The actual first day of summer was 45 days ago on 7 May.

Well said Hashi. Exactly the same thing occured to me yesterday when two or three times I heard people say it was 'the first day of summer'. I hadn't realised it had become a 'convention' or anything like that - I just thought they had got it wrong. It began to grate a bit, but I had neither the energy or the inclination to set them straight.

I never really thought about it till now.
I wonder how it came to be the "official" designation, though...because it is, AFAICT. [not officially official, I don't think...but who knows? our congress might have wasted time declaring official start of summer.]

I have my suspicions as to why this change happened even if I don't know exactly when; however, a discussion of that would probably be better suited to The Close because it involves attempting to kill pagan culture centuries ago by changing the definitions on the calendar. Either that or someone was simply stupid.
It didn't even really have anything to do with pagan culture in Northern Europe, anyway, because virtually every culture who kept track of solar and lunar cycles for agricultural reasons--which really means all of them--celebrated the same solstices and equinoxes. Those particular days are of more importance the farther you get from the equator because the disparity is so much noticeable.

Or maybe sometimes I simply have too much hipster snobbery for my own good.