'Tis said that everybody has a book inside them!

In my case it was a copy of the Beano, at the age of 6.  Fortunately the staples were well down and the doctors didn't have to perform invasive procedures.  Now you know why Readers Digest was printed smaller and with the glued spine, suitable for a more mature audience.

What drives people to write down their experiences, thoughts and desires?  Blogs that vary from the insightful to the inane:  "Had Pizza for lunch."  "Might go down the shops later!"  Basically, tweets without the size limit.

Is it fanciful to think that, had Blogs been available to earlier generations, we might have had glimpses into the minds of some of individuals who shaped our cultures and histories?

Albert Einstein:  Had some exciting ideas about the structure of the atom.  Early days - don't want to get things blown up out of all proportion!

Ludwig van Beethoven:  Feeling a bit restless today, maybe there's a storm coming.

Franz Schubert:  I really must get round to finishing my new Symphony!

Alexandros of Antioch:  Got a commission to sculpt a life-size Venus today.  Customer happy so long as it doesn't cost an arm and a leg!

Alexander the Great:  I'm told Asia Minor is nice at this time of year.

Any suggestions to what famous (or lesser-known) characters in history would have published?  If so, post a reply.  I'm afraid these days we have our Great and Good tweeting and blogging in greater numbers than ever.  The usual question, though, is not so much "What are they thinking?" as "What were they thinking?"  Hey ho!

What a difference a character makes

As a newcomer to blogging, I can see how someone can get addicted to rambling on about odd subjects - I suppose that's what turns a single-posting BTwig into a real BLog.  And that got me thinking about a wonderful letter I saw published:

One individual's reaction to a certain fast-food-corporation's registering of the Mc prefix, thus separating the Real McCoy from those who are simply Coy, was to claim ownership of the letter 'e'.  He would make it available for personal and educational use free of charge, but otherwise any commercial use would attract a royalty of 0.001p per time.

My first reaction was to consider registering a proprietory interest in the B-prefix, but on reflection I would happily levy a fairly swinging charge on the use of the zero character for Bankers' bonuses, Lawyers' fees and MPs' expense claims, with a "rounding clause" to prevent the inevitable £9,999,999.99 that would creep in otherwise.  Not that all these are bad people - it's the 98% who give the rest a bad name!