….well you’ve tried to love her but she’s so contrary
like a chainsaw running through a dictionary
so take your mind
off the sweet behind
of our little angel…

Elvis Costello – King of America

I seem to remember remarking a few days ago that my new toy was giving me no end of ideas for my PotD for those days when life is just too dull to want to capture anything else. Today is one of those days.

It started badly with being woken at 5am by David who is beset by hayfever at the moment. He got up and I knew he wasn’t just going to the bathroom so I followed him to see what was wrong. He was feeling lousy. By the time I went back to bed half an hour later I was depressed not just through lack of sleep but by an email that had popped into my mailbox overnight and the upshot was no more sleep for Linda.

The day got progressively worse – rain and a whole host of other things that are too painful, I’m afraid, to go into reasons why. At lunchtime I popped out to spend a few moments in my sanctuary (the Oxfam Bookshop) and chose a few books to cheer me up. I love a bargain and I love to read so to be able to buy my books in an Oxfam shop meets both of those needs in me as well as making me feel that I have made a contribution to something important.

While I was browsing I saw this book – a Shorthand:English dictionary – how useless is that? In this modern day of electronic recording of the spoken word I don’t think I’ve seen a Dictaphone for fifteen years or more, let alone someone who can write in shorthand. It reminded me of one of my ideas from my week of listening to music on my new little hi-fi.

My favourite album of all time is Elvis Costello’s King of America. It contains the song ‘our little angel’ – this is the depiction of one of the lines in the song…as you can see. This sums up exactly why I love EC. How can anyone have thought of putting ‘dictionary’ into a song? He’s such a craftsman with words. How I long to have a skill like that.

The song has the most wonderful pathos and it really resonates with me tonight as I write.

I love music as I’ve said many times. (I’m about to upset my Mum here but I hope she’ll forgive me.) My buddy Claire and I used to say there are three types of music:

Music to dance to…..The Beat, any reggae or ska, Big Audio Dynamite, Wham, Aztec Camera, Blink 182, and a whole host of other things
Music to make love to…..well, let’s face it, anything by Otis Redding or Marvin Gaye, U2 (I know, not everyone’s cuppa but I think they’re very sexy), A Kiss In the Dreamhouse, Because the Night, Semisonic (?!)…..
Music to throw out of the window…..easy here – anything by Yes or Pink Floyd or any of those hairy 70s bands to be frank, the Jam or anything else by bloody Paul Weller etc etc.

Where does EC fit into that – well, it depends – sometimes into the dance thing – I always want to jump about to things like Oliver’s Army but something like Alison…..well, let’s just say I wouldn’t throw it out of the window.

Please don’t think I’d have been so cavalier with a real dictionary – I love words and I have the most fantastic, battered dictionary and thesaurus next to my desk and I refer to both of them EVERY day, either to check spellings or whether I’ve used a word correctly…..sometimes I even look up alternative words if I’ve already used the one I want in the paragraph I’m writing. Books are precious. Books are what feed my imagination and give strength to my soul. They educate me as well as make me laugh and cry. Their strength has no bounds as far as I am concerned. I feel better already from just thinking about books.

I do know this is a circular saw not a chain saw but I believe it’s the essence that matters. Oh and the saw is one of my best tools – it eats through timber like a hot knife through butter.