I hovered between these two, decided to go with Sam Cooke, but in honour of @Craig‘s birthday, I will put the Proclaimers up as well.

All the best tracks came out on 45’s!

This, rather frighteningly, used to be a favourite of my son’s.  I choose to believe…[Read more]

Joe Jackson, anyone?

@Whisht    “Forever on my System”– that should be a song.

@purofilion    Well, it’s only Thursday morning in my world. You’re so advanced.  🙂 Everyone pour yourselves a glass of sparkling wine,  sit back, and get high-class.

Or, if you need something short and sweet, here’s the wonderful Donovan.…[Read more]

Curse this whole time zone thing. Puro used my first Wednesday choice (on Tuesday night in my world), and now I see that @JimTheFish has beaten me to John Lee Hooker. So, my third choice is from Canadian classic rockers The Guess Who.

This gets me Monday and Tuesday… sorry, cheap, I know.

@ichabod

Actually, the Chinese have the Monkey King as a trickster hero. I’m not familiar with his stories, but he is definitely their guy.

I agree that while there are definitely trickster elements in the Doctor, it’s not the whole story. I like @bluesqueakpip‘s Odysseus notion, and someone awhile back mentioned Robin Hood. @JimTheFish added…[Read more]

There have been some absolutely wonderful ideas, eloquently expressed, about the nature of the Doctor over the past few days!

@Craig   I’m pretty sure that Campbell’s writing has come up before in discussion here. I would agree that I find the mythic hero at the root of all the stories a more convincing connection between the Doctor and Chris…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

Oh, well done. Your drink is at the bar. 🙂

@Craig    What a wonderful experience that must have been! I have not meet McCall Smith, but I have heard him speak at a Writers’ Festival event here, and he was marvelous. Very funny, self-deprecating, and clearly absolutely at peace and content with his life, which is a wonderful thing to see in another person.

I enjoy all of his book se…[Read more]

@ichabod    I wasn’t a fan of the story arc construction in Series 6 and 7, and one of my wishes for Series 8 was that it would be a lot less arc-heavy. Interestingly, while watching, I really felt as if I was getting that wish; it’s only retrospectively that I realize that there has actually been lots of “arc” in this series. I think that the di…[Read more]

@BarbaraLefty   @Bluesqueakpip

Not as clever as the first two, but:

Three dimensional child, musing on his/her existence, thinks, “I am the centre of the universe!”

@ichabod

That sounds like Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale from the Canterbury Tales. The knight is sent out on a quest to learn what women want most, as a punishment for raping a woman. Wasn’t Chaucer impressively forward-thinking for a 14th-century guy?

River certainly had no problem recognizing Ten in the Library even though she had never…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip    plus one disastrous relationship that nonetheless saw ‘the promise’ as more important than ‘the emotion’.
And that’s what saves the world.       I love this, very elegant and absolutely true!

@purofilion    the social conservative -”give marriage a go and then stay or damn well die doing it”

Well, I’m reasonably far from a socon (I don’t know if you use that abbreviation in Aus?), but I tend to agree that most people don’t go into a marriage with the right attitude. People do seem to treat it like leasing a car nowadays, don’t they?…[Read more]

@BarbaraLefty     Thank you for your kind inclusion on a list of amazing people! And thanks to you to, for your lively and thoughtful contributions. There is a synergy on this site that is pretty unusual, in my experience. Many different approaches, interests, and personal styles create magic!

I admit to missing the acerbic comments of @PhaseShift…[Read more]

@ichabod   Do you remember the lovely scene from Fiddler on the Roof, when Tevye asks Golde, “Do you love me?” Her ultimate answer is: “For twenty-five years I’ve lived with him, fought with him, starved with him. for twenty-five years my bed is his: if that’s not love, what is?” Even as a teenager, I understood the truth in that, and loved it.…[Read more]

Further attempts to get caught up with all I’ve been missing around here! Random bits of music occur to me during the day. Earlier today I had reason to think about the phrygian mode (that’s the one that always sounds as if it’s ending on mi instead of do). I don’t think it gets nearly enough love- what do you think, @purofilion? So here as a be…[Read more]

@ichabod        That is so very sad. I agree with @purofilion, it is the worst kind of loss, to watch a loved one disappear, from you and from himself as well. I’m very sorry for what you are going through; you seem to be moving through it with grace.

“Love as a promise” rings very true to me right now. My little family is going through a diffic…[Read more]

@BarbaraLefty   Thirded! That is a fabulous description. And thanks for the link, I have just discovered yet another way to spend time I don’t have! It’s so rare to find people writing about DW who can actually write (which, of course, is why we enjoy this forum so much).

Regarding the “it’s not science” brigade, I confess that I can sympathize w…[Read more]

So much watching to get caught up on. Local Hero, a long-time favourite. The John and Yoko story, seen once long ago. The Love Child, completely unfamiliar to me. Fun! Not to mention my Series 8 rewatch, which I haven’t even started. But first, The Daemons, an old fave of mine.

After 6 weeks, Doctor Who in brilliant technicolour!   🙂  The Doct…[Read more]