reviewed interval
with its tale of eventless
monotonous days

Adapted from the passage:

He reviewed the short interval with its tale of eventless and monotonous days as he sat smoking a thoughtful pipe in the shady coco-nut grove that encompassed the hamlet, letting his thoughts travel back anon to a more distant and eventful past, and all the while keeping an attentive eye on a shabby-looking brigantine that was creeping up from the south. It was not, perhaps, a very thrilling spectacle, but yet Osmond watched the approaching vessel with lively interest. For though, on that deserted coast, ships may be seen to pass up and down on the rim of the horizon, two or three, perhaps, in a month, this was the first vessel that had headed for the land since the day on which he had become the owner of the factory and the sole representative of European civilization in Adaffia. It was natural, then, that he should watch her with interest and curiosity, not only as a visitor from the world which he had left, but as one with which he was personally concerned; for if her people had business ashore, that business was pretty certainly with him.

From A Certain Dr. Thorndyke by Richard Austin Freeman, Made and Printed in Great Britain for Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London, by Hasell, Watson & Viney, Ltd., London and Aylesbury, 1927

he wrote, never print
anything that a scrub-woman
cannot understand

‘no paper of mass appeal could afford to be without a staff astrologist or a palmist who could tell you how to improve your fortune’. ‘The space we devote to politics is a dead loss in circulation.’ He wrote ‘Never print anything that a scrub-woman in a skyscraper cannot understand’, a statement paralleled by R. D. Blumenfeld in England ‘never to forget the cabman’s wife’.

So said Emile Gauvreau in his book, My Last Million Readers (New York, 1941) as quoted by Harold Adams Innis in his book, The Press: A Neglected Factor in the Economic History of the Twentieth Century (Oxford University Press, London, 1949).

Mr. Innis writes: “In the intense competition for circulation and for advertising success was won by the use of reading matter and picture appeal in competition with the magazines and by the use of features which emphasized gossip about movie stars.“

That year again?

1949.

I took ideas people
understood, gave in way they
did not understand

“It was just something I wanted to do,.”

“It wasn’t anything thought out. It was just personal to me … I wanted to make sure I took ideas people understood and gave it to them in a way they just did not understand.”

So says designer Thom Browne in an article about him titled, Fashion designer Thom Browne: ‘Men should be able to wear anything’ by Edward Helmore in the Guardian.

The theme of his collection this year, according to the article is:

The theme of his collection this season is Moby-Dick, because he read it as a boy. It includes a dark green, below-the knee Harris tweed skirt for men. It’s a manifesto, something to wear to a corporate office. “I think we live in a world where men should be able to wear anything,” he says. “I don’t really care if anybody wants to wear it, but I think it looks good, and it’s an interesting proposition for anyone who does.”

Read that last bit over again.

It includes a dark green, below-the knee Harris tweed skirt for men.

“I think we live in a world where men should be able to wear anything.”

Well boy howdy if he wanted to take something I thought I understood and give it in a way I did not understand Mr. Browne achieved that with his skirt for men.

On the other hand, had he called it a kilt, it would only be about 1000 behind the times.

For some reason, the entire article brought this Calvin and Hobbs comic strip to mind.

Why do I write?

I think I can embrace both thoughts here.

I want to take ideas people understood and give it back to them in a way they just did not understand.

And …

I just want to make your day a little more surreal.

So remember this.

If you send a chocolate back in time just 15 minutes, it means that 15 minutes ago you had two chocolate bars.

Since you might have been in your lab messing around with time travel, and you got a chocolate bar when you already had one, you would know that in 15 minutes, you had to send that chocolate bar in time.

What happens if you eat that chocolate bar?

Or, consider this, if John Conner had been a woman, she could have been pregnant with herself.