Thursday, April 06, 2006

Words repeated, human resource, chorus

An old French cookery book La Veritable Cuisine de Famille by Tante Marie, which I unearthed yesterday, contains the following modest apology at the foot of the introduction: " With the aim of complete clarity in our recipes, we have not been afraid to repeat a word several times in the same sentence. Our readers will foregive the absence of style in a work which makes no claim to it".

"Human resources", is a management term which I have never liked and only partially understood. Until today that is, when the blackbird and the robin come as usual to join me while I am digging. As usual, they wait one (the robin) almost at my feet and the other (the blackbird) on the fence, until I turn over a clod, which reveals a live creature for them to eat, and down one of them swoops. It occurs to me that I am working for them, and that what I am to them can best be described as a human resource.

As distinct from last year, the black birds and other birds outside our window wake me early in the morning just now. I missed this chorus last year and wondered if the birds had deserted that side of the house, and now remember that the fault was probably mine as I had an ear infection, and had become temporarily deaf.

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