Thursday 26 March 2020

Good advice, misinformation, jokes and memes – the internet.

I included “memes” and thought I would check what it actually means: apparently “Meme” was coined by the (often controversial) evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene. ... The Greek word “mimeme” he derives “meme” from comes from the Ancient Greek word, meaning “that which is imitated” / “something imitated” / “something copied”.

You learn something every day.  

Between crap so called advice (yes we have toilet paper thank you) the internet is flooded with jokes, photos and, memes.

Between Government advice, which in the UK is measured, evidence based and doesn’t pull its punches and wall-to-wall media coverage of all the awful things that are happening you must make time to connect with friends (thank you internet) and laugh.  

The most recent message I saw did make me laugh – wish I had thought of this when my children were small. “If you want to have a break tell your children that you are going to nap for half an hour and then you are all going to clean the house”.

There used to be a saying – their house is so clean you could eat off the floor. I never saw the point – fortunately I have never needed to eat off the floor. I have a fairly laissez faire attitude to house work.  Number One daughter once said that her friends liked coming to our house because it was a mess.  A cousin once told me that her abiding memory of staying at our house was Sunday morning with the newspapers all over the floor.  

Console yourself – if I stay in my pj’s, don’t put on make-up or make the bed – in Afrikaans – wie sal weet?  Who will know?

PS This does not apply to the kitchen and toilets that I do keep clean – even the floor! The latest hand-washing advice was wasted on me – wash, wash and wash again, especially in the kitchen. Cross contamination from raw meat and poultry to cooked foods can be lethal. Ah for those halcyon days when we used to go out to eat – the Food Standards Agency recommends you check the “Scores on the Doors” three out of five means that their hygiene leaves something to be desired anything below that is salmonella city.

More recipes tomorrow – too busy baking. 







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