Thursday, August 29, 2013

Morning, basil and losing face




































  Every morning we inspect the morning glories which vary from morning to morning. This morning  they are more glorious than on most mornings.

The greenhouse is overflowing with basil, the scent is spicy. I deliver pots to neighbours and still have sprays and sprays to cut for pesto. Tonight I will grate Parmesan and pecorino with crushed pine kernels olive oil and handfuls of  pounded basil leaves. The pasta? Trofie, the short, twisty worm-like pasta, designed to be coated to the maximum with the unctuous sauce.

I think to myself: Politicians, given the choice, will lose the wars that ensue from their  wrong decisions, rather than risk losing face.



3 comments:

Tom said...

Natural enough, Joe. Ego rules OK. When it's national ego at stake, so much the worse.

Roderick Robinson said...

Cameron startled me with his "I get that." In the context of a failed attempt to declare war - a solemn moment indeed - it seemed curiously slangy, the sort of argot a gangster might resort to, more appropriate to an argument about beer distribution during Prohibition. His expression when he said it was neutral as if he'd already issued orders to assemble a group of rough-necks armed with baseball bats. Something sordid and small scale. I thought about his background in PR and recalled how those often well-paid people had lied to me in the past. But smoothly and in a more emollient tone. Here was a PR man who appeared to have lost his PR skills. One Tory MP trying to put gloss on a gloss-resistant situation tried to praise Cameron for his frankness and willingness to accept Parliament's decision. Pitiful, really, and hardly frank, A barely disguised snarl in the playground.

Unknown said...

Tom What a mess? But aren't you glad that you are not in charge? It is easy enough to complain about those running the country. But what a terrible job it must be!

Robbie Setting aside deeper and more enduring matters, his superficial decisions since he became Prime Minister have been freqently wrong and forced him to retract and demonstrate his inability to think more than one move ahead. Would I recruit him as a PR? No sir.