Surely it isn't just me?

[Stephen Whiteside]

Surely it isn't just me? It creeps up on you slowly, and by time you realise you've got a problem on your hands, it's too late. Isn't there a name for it? Putting lobsters in a pot of cold water and turning the temperature up very slowly so that they don't notice it until they're almost cooked?

Of course, we're not lobsters, and we're not in a pot of water, but the principle still applies.

It needn't be heat, either. It could be cold. Getting colder and colder.

It might not be temperature either, but I think everybody knows what I mean, nonetheless.

Of course, it's easy to blame it all on modern technology, but the problem is really as old as Methuselah - who might have lived longer himself if he hadn't drifted off to sleep with the hot water running.

But that's a cheat, I know. I'm talking figuratively, not literally, and if the two happen to briefly co-incide that's nothing more than luck, and I shouldn't be looking to take advantage of it. (Still, you can't blame me for being tempted.)

Of course, it's only natural to look to the future at times like this, and wonder if those that follow will do any better. My suspicion, though, is that even a brand new colony living on Mars would fall into the same old traps.

I don't think it's an Abbott/Rudd thing, either. Or a Republican/Democrat thing. Or an NRL/AFL thing. And don't put it down to gender politics, either - or the generation gap. And I don't think the gay community manages it any better - though I'm not suggesting they do any worse, either - and I wonder if it's even fair to talk of a 'gay community', given the inevitable crossover between 'gay' and 'non-gay'. Not necessarily in bed - though I'm sure that happens too - but in the TV room, or the street. Of course, not all sexual activity takes place in the bed, but fortunately not too much takes place in the street, and I guess the TV room is somewhere in the middle - though whether the TV itself is on or off at the time I would not like to guess. Nor the channel.

All of which seems to have taken me some considerable way from my original proposition though, to be honest, I'm not sure I ever had one.

[Maureen K Clifford]

I think we agree on that last point Stephen

[william williams]

STEPHEN I hope you haven't been sampling the products or is it the booze.

Bill the old battler

[warooa]

but the problem is really as old as Methuselah - who might have lived longer himself if he hadn't drifted off to sleep with the hot water running.

Methuselah live to a very Bradmanesque age (wasn't it 969) so I'm sure nearly everything must of seemed to have crept up on him slowly . . even the hot water, but I'm sure if he had the strength to, he would have turned the hot tap off, even with his big gnarled up toes.

Apparently he was a pretty handy Centre Half Back for the Sumerian Colts. "Kick it to Metho!" they'd scream in the terraces.

Marty

ps. We used to freeze our Lobsters before cooking them, safe in the knowledge that at some point along the way they'd feel comfortable.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Wonder how many games he played. Assuming he retired at the age of - say - 300 (his knees would probably have been a big dodgy by then), he could have played about 6,000 games - assuming 20 odd games a season. Sort of pushes Michael Tuck and KB into the background a bit, doesn't it? Then again, there probably wasn't as much money in sport back then, and he might have only played a handful of games a year. Do you know much about his temperament? Would he have been likely to front the tribunal at all? You can miss a lot of games that way, too. Still, even six games a year for 200 years roughly triples the AFL record. Not a bad effort in anybody's book. Wonder if he held down a key position all that time. Wouldn't be surprised if he spent the last 100 years or so in a pocket.

[Neville Briggs]

As I understand it, Methuselah's name is means " when he is gone, it will be ' the year of his death signified the advent of the great flood.
Without arguing about facts or fiction, Methusela stands as a principle, that warning has been given, there is time to heed the warning, but the time to act on the warning is generously long but not endless, the day of reckoning will come.

[Stephen Whiteside]

So we need to solve the problem of climate change eventually? We can't put it off forever? It will take the wisdom of Solomon, surely. Sometimes I think we should just cut the Earth in half, and give one half to the climate change believers, and the other half to the deniers!

[Peter Mace]

Stephen,
Reading your wee story and it's reference to AFL reminded me of a conversation with the late John Dengate . When he was asked why he did not follow the AFL his answer was why bother to support a game that you can't beat the Poms at !!

[Stephen Whiteside]

Or the Irish!

[Neville Briggs]

We don't need to solve the problem of climate change if there is no problem. And we can't solve any problem if it moves to forces beyond our control.