h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How terrible. What stands out most today from routine and chit chat is ...

The Chocolate Cake.

It arrived on a plate unsummonsed and unrequested at the desk. It was big, It was dense. It was dark, dark, brown verging on black. It was moist. It had dark cherry jam in the centre that was both tangy and sweet. It had a thick layer of chocolate on the top that was the icing on the cake.

Five glorious minutes later there were only chocolate smudges and sticky jam smears on the plate.

Two minutes after that here were no chocolate smudges and sticky jam smears on the plate.

Hours later the memory is mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

What stands out from today is an extremely ugly dog seen out walking in the Shropshire Hills. Probably a thankfully very rare breed. It was middle sized, stocky, blunt faced with an impression of being pink, hairless and wrinkled. Why would anyone deliberately breed hairlessness into a dog? But then what animal-loving humanity is there in breeding weak hips, hyperactivity, breathing problems or epilepsy into dogs?

Man has a capacity to educate itself into some very distorted and blinkered values. Show standards take the subjectivity out of judgement but have educated tastes for more and more extreme examples of those standards. Bigger, smaller, hairier, barer, squatter, longer, curlier or straighter. Recent moves to reign in the extremes for the sake of the animals' health will in theory produce boringly uniform specimens that can't be fairly separated. Can't win. Mongrels rule. Down with show standards. Definitely down with breeding programmes.

I think a disturbing proportion of our aesthetic values are educated ones. It's question worth asking - just exactly why do I like that, or why do I prefer that one to that one? Is it a good reason? Is it a value set I've aquired and if so, is it a set I want to have aquired? Is it an ignorantly uneducated appreciation?

I'm aware my appreciation of woodlands has changed as I've learned more about them. Is that good or bad? Aesthetic appreciation is now influenced by healthiness. Which is truly more beautiful - robustly growing or wildly neglected? I don't know. Or maybe I do, thinking about it. The rainforest, whether Welsh or Amazonian, which is both wild and robustly growing, wins hands down. There are no show standards for rainforest because it is entirely unman-made.

LL Waz, that was so painful to read You didn't say how big? Was there a special reason?

for the time I could have done the same without guilt.

Websailor

Oh it wasn't guilt free, it was just irrestible! It was one of those 2.5" high, 4" wedges of cake. I can't remember the reason, sometimes it's just leftover cake from meetings or events.

Had cake again today, S made it for my sister's visit and of course we have to finish it...

Of course These dark days are making the craving for goodies even worse!

Websailor

Deep-seated instincts to stock up to hibernate?

Absolutely. Especially as I seemed to spend most of my childhood feeling hungry, especially during the night

Websailor

Aww, Websailor, that's so sad to think of. Any particular reason?

Parents had their own business and were very hard up at times, sometimes for months on end. Large Companies still don't pay small businesses when they should, which was their problem then. Food was basic and minimal and I used to creep down in the night for sultanas - the only thing my Mum didn't seem to miss!! They were much older parents and probably didn't need as much food as a growing child so I was always hungry.

Websailor

I wish ... I could summons the Tardis, go back in time and leave that chocolate cake beside the sultanas for that little girl.

Ah, bless thank you, Sadly, I think she has made up for it since

Websailor