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ADOLESCENCE
The time when the body slowly grows to adulthood and the mind takes the immediate leap – or so they think.

ADULTHOOD
1. It doesn’t have to be miserable. The balanced adult retains an inner child. The secret is to know when to put him away.
2. As children we dreamt of silly things. As adults they get sillier.

AFRICA
The dark continent. Initially dark through lack of exploration, then made darker by the white man.

ART Here
ASTROLOGY Here

BEHAVIOURAL GENES
I find it interesting that as the individual rises, his ability to accept responsibility declines.

BERMUDA TRIANGLE Here
BUDDHISM Here

CARS
I’ve often wished Oppenheimer, when discussing the Atom Bomb, had said: ‘You can have it any colour as long as it’s black.’ That would have left Ford to say: ‘I am Death; destroyer of worlds.’

CELEBRITIES
1. Don’t we just love them. They parade in the media, eager for attention, eager for adoration, eager to refute their pointlessness. Celebrities. To paraphrase Wilde: the unspeakable in full pursuit of the trivial.
2. ‘Daddy, when I grow up I want to be a celebrity.’
‘No son, it’s got to be one or the other.’

CHARITY
Un-selfish giving of time or gift. Charity is one of the finest occupations of man. But be warned, the more charities a society has, the less charitable it really is. For a truly charitable society would not need them.

CHEFS
‘Heaven sends us good meat, but the Devil sends cooks.’ (Garrick, 1777). Quite true. Have you noticed that convenience meals rose as TV chefs became popular? We obviously needed the time to watch them.

CHRISTIANITY Here
CHURCHILL, WINSTON Here

COMPUTER
1. Hailed as the machine that would free us from work. Yet another bad prediction, it seems. But try my mantra: a computer is a tool, not a way of life.
2. The machine used to be an appendage of man. Has man now become the appendage of the machine?

CONSUMER
1. Furniture used to be bought made up. Shop assistants used to serve you. Garage attendants used to put the petrol in for you. Today we’re consumer conscious – obviously another term for sucker.
2. Consumers are said to have greater choice today. Only thing is, choice means going to lots of similar shops to buy the same product at the same price.
3. They used to say ‘the customer is always right’ – until they got the cash, at least. Now they say ‘the customer is always wrong.’ I guess they’re more truthful today.

DARWIN, CHARLES Here
DA VINCI, LEONARDO Here

DEBATE
To debate is no longer to change your opponent’s mind, but to lay the views before an audience. Empowerment through democracy and the individual mean stances are now too fundamental to be changed.

ENLIGHTENMENT Here
EVOLUTION Here
FIRST WORLD WAR Here

FRANCE
The country where drinking alcohol is a national pastime; where smoking remains endemic; where they eat the greasiest, most unhealthy food. France: the country with some of lowest heart and cancer rates. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

FREUD, SIGMUND Here

GANDHI
The man who showed us how to behave, but failed to teach us how to listen.

GHOSTS Here
GLOBAL WARMING Here
HINDUISM Here
HITLER, ADOLF Here
HOLY GRAIL Here

INDIA
The home of Hinduism, of Buddha. The exotic, mystical heart of the world. The place that built the Taj Mahal. And today? Bollywood. And they say Globalisation is a good thing.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Here
ISLAM Here
JACK THE RIPPER Here

KNOWLEDGE
To paraphrase Einstein: Humour without knowledge is lame, knowledge without humour is blind.

LIAR
The person who always tells the truth – or so he says.

LION
Magnificent beast but really a lazy predator. Hunts occasionally and then gorges itself. Then it sleeps for days. And they say the Chimpanzee is our closest relative.

LUTHER, MARTIN Here

MARX, KARL Here

MORALITY
Like love, it takes two. One to do and another to judge. After all, does anyone worry about
flatulence in an empty room?

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE Here

NEW
There is nothing new; just variations on the theme.

NEWTON, ISAAC Here

NOVEL
We read them. We love them. We descend into the writers’ world. We even believe them. The Novel. Fraud for the law-abiding.

PARENT
A fisherman with a kid on the end of the line, letting him play, letting him learn, letting him experience, but occasionally reeling him in.

PHILOSOPHY
All the philosophy in all the world is not worth the spilling of a drop of blood.

POLLUTION Here
POLTERGEIST Here
PREMONITION Here
PSYCHOKINESIS Here
QUANTUM THEORY Here

REALITY
Like time, it’s relative to the observer.

REINCARNATION Here
RENAISSANCE Here
ROBIN HOOD Here
SECOND WORLD WAR Here

SELF-HELP
We have a mania for self-help books. They tell you how to do this, or do that, and get over the other. But a thought: if we indulged in self-help, why do we need a book to help us?

SERIAL KILLERS Here

SEX
In the past, a literary world of expression allowed talk. New couples talked a lot before they had sex. Today, man and woman rarely talk when they get it on. They have sex straight away. Sex seems to be the means of communication before they re-learn how to talk.

SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM Here

SIN
Different things to different people. To the Christian west it is actions caused by devilish influences. In the east it is simply missing the mark. But maybe it is really the thing you’ve done once you’ve been caught.

SPIRITUALISM Here
TELEPATHY Here

VICTIM
A casualty who refuses to get over it.

VICTOR
The General who makes the fewest mistakes.

WITCHCRAFT Here

(c) Anthony North, 2007