Post no. 500

Where it all began.....

So I had to think up a name for my blog. I had no real plan of what I was even going to write about. I didn't want to cover just one subject ( like knitting or opera or football ) so the title would have to be non-specific but potentially interesting.....

I just gazed around the room and saw my 1955 edition of assorted GK Chesterton writings and thought "that'll do!" and then I wrote:

"OK, first ever blog. Breathe deeply, focus etc. So, why The Glass Walking-Stick? ( Why the long face? ) I got the title from a collection of essays by G.K. Chesterton, that sadly-neglected ex-titan of English literature. A crusty old bugger who could, and did, write wittily and deeply on any subject under the sun, G.K. is responsible for one of my favourite novels, The Man Who Was Thursday. He rocks! Well, he did: he died in 1936.

"In one of these essays, Chesterton bashes the rich for their snobbish attitudes and defends the poor: "The cultivated people go in for what is beautiful; but the un-cultivated for what is interesting.....One man had a walking-stick made of glass and filled with sweets. If there were children in the house, the preservation of that glass stick has something of the insane sublimity of a religion." It wouldn't last long in our house anyway.

"Glass walking-stick equals something interesting but bonkers? pointless? fun? It could be a metaphor for blogging or I could be talking out of my a***e. ( That's a** if you're American. )

"Anyway, the plan is to witter on about any old random rubbish, whenever I can get my act together. As you can see above."

...but I still haven't written anything about knitting. Or opera. Or football.

( Probably won't start now, to be honest. )