Sunday, April 15, 2012

Out Of The Fever Swamp

THERE is a lot to be said for heavy drinking. Unlike the misery perpetrated by microbes or some nasty little virus, when you wake up feeling like death you will know why. Kingsley Amis nailed the healthy, life-affirming variety of malady in Lucky Jim:
Dixon was alive again. Consciousness was upon him before he could get out of the way; not for him the slow, gracious wandering from the halls of sleep, but a summary, forcible ejection. He lay sprawled, too wicked to move, spewed up like a broken spider-crab on the tarry shingle of the morning. The light did him harm, but not as much as looking at things did; he resolved, having done it once, never to move his eyeballs again. A dusty thudding in his head made the scene before him beat like a pulse. His mouth has been used as a latrine by some small creature of the night, and then as its mausoleum. During the night, too, he’d somehow been on a cross-country run and then been expertly beaten up by a secret police. He felt bad.
When crook, however, it is a karmic mystery. Payback for depriving the cat of its latest mouse? Punishment for not caring all that much about whales?  There is no ready explanation except that life isn't fair.

Anyway, posting will be a little irregular over the next few days, as quite a few responsibilities had to be put off while the lurgy rampaged.

21 comments:

  1. Ah Prof....many years ago at a party was drinking orange juice because was also swallowing antibiotics...some cretin (later identified)spiked every glass with vodka. Next day I thought I must have been dead then when I found I wasn't hoped to.

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    1. Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.April 15, 2012 at 1:15 PM

      Good Mother G - I hope you didn't end up marrying him. We do some silly things in our early yoof, of which my early relationship history is proof enough.

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  2. Glad to see you are still with us.
    Stay well and don't forget the garlic.

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  3. Its a bloody Miacle! The first Cure of St Bob of the brown! He had to resign from his Good Job to accomplish it,still we Mugs will look after him and his "Mate " for life.good that you are feeling better,NB
    I did not say "Improvig"

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  4. Walter Plinge of Coffin BayApril 15, 2012 at 12:15 PM

    Lucky Jim: a fine novel and a great film. Worth watching if it turns up on Fox Classics.

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  5. Hope you're mending quickly, Prof.

    Tom Wolfe's hangover description in Bonfire of the Vanities is worth mentioning as well:

    “The telephone blasted Peter Fallow awake inside an egg with the shell peeled away and only the membranous sac holding it intact. Ah! The membranous sac was his head, and the right side of his head was on the pillow, and the yolk was as heavy as mercury, and it rolled like mercury, and it was pressing down on his right temple… If he tried to get up to answer the telephone, the yolk, the mercury, the poisoned mass, would shift and roll and rupture the sac, and his brains would fall out.”

    Unsurprisingly, the character being described was a journalist of the yellow press variety.

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  6. Check this from CNN today:

    Berlin (CNN) -- A German man sent to prison over an incestuous relationship with his sister has lost his case that the conviction violated his right to a private and family life at the European Court of Human Rights.

    Patrick Stuebing had a consensual sexual relationship with his sister after they first met when he was in his 20s and she was a teenager. They had four children, two of whom are disabled, the court said.

    Stuebing lodged his case with the European Court of Human Rights after being sent to prison in November 2005 by a Leipzig court and losing subsequent appeals against his conviction for incest.

    Why haven't Socialist Alternative been campaigning for marriage rights for siblings? Haven't they got rights, too? I'm unable to insert a hyperlink but here is the web address for the article...

    http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/13/world/europe/germany-incest-court/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

    Bill Thompson
    Southbank

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  7. Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.April 15, 2012 at 1:23 PM

    I hope Master Bunyip has been doing his sonly duty and keeping you stocked with supplies etc or that other helpers have been at hand, or are so now.

    Some lurgies are such knock-outs that all one can do is push the help button. Bad luck such a nasty one got you, Prof. Today's recycled robot word is 'vellist' and I hope you are feeling this way, i.e. on the up-and-up, soon.

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  8. Get well soon Prof. Always a bugger to log on and see that you have not posted. There are many fine things to write about once "inspiration" takes you.

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  9. Many people had begun to fret about your absence from the airwaves. Many people are glad to see signs of life at the Billabong this morning. Take as long as you need to get yourself right. Life is too short to foreshorten it further.

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  10. Well, if you can suffer from adenoids or haemorrhoids, it stands to reason you can fall ill from a surfeit of leftoids as well. Get well soon Professor.

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  11. This is just no good. Time to nurse you back to your hale and hearty self, Professor.

    I'll be over with the chicken soup post-haste!

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    1. While your about it, I also need some chick soup

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  12. Good to see that you are feeling a bit better, take care of yourself.

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  13. Know exactly how you feel - woke up on Tuesday feeling hung-over. Very annoying given I hadn't imbibed on Monday. Anyway Mrs D claimed the man-flu, while I knew I was dying.

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  14. Apropos the Lucky Jim quote. I once worked with a guy who was a pretty heavy drinker - he didn't drink all the time, he'd often go days or weeks, even months without a drink and then suddenly take off on a horrific bender which would last for anything up to a week.
    He was a very likeable cove, intelligent, witty and, when sober, very good company. I used to remonstrate with him about the booze. "Think about what you're doing to your liver, your brain cells", I'd say, "what if you have a stroke, doesn't it frighten you"? "Nope", he would say, "I only have one fear - that one day I will wake up with a hangover that never ever goes away, one that never ever gets better, that's the same, day in, day out."
    And, you know - when you think about it - that really is a very frightening thought.

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  15. Reality is an illusion fostered by the inadequate consumption of alcohol.

    Cheers

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  16. Prof, My old JIC recommended port wine and brandy with a rum chaser, repeated as often as required. If it didn't cure the wog, it gave you a reason for feeling like shit.

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  17. Minicapt,

    Or, as we often said to each in high school:

    Reality is for people who can't handle drugs.

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  18. Nice to see you're feeling somewhat better again.

    As the body is a temple, remember that there exists an example of humanity (by extension superhumanity) who tore it down and rebuilt it over three days. Good luck for what remains of your personal rebuilding.

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  19. Well, I've never been drunk, and I'm rather OLD, so cannot comment on what it's like

    However, the dreaded lurgy is pretty horrible and to be avoided if one can!

    Welcome back, Prof, I missed you!

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