C S Lewis – Deborah Makarios

November 7, 2026November 7, 2026

Floral Senescence, the State, and the Ond of the Alphabet

A bright orangey rose just beginning to unfurl, against a background of blurry green foliage.

The season of roses continues with the Westerland finally chipping in. As mentioned in my last post, its ambitions have lain more in the direction of elongated stems than flowers, but as it has topped the latest elongated stem with approximately 20 buds, that may be about to change. In the meantime, here is a bloom on a stem which didn’t get the skyscraper memo.

Interesting Times

Those born into slavery are seldom free to make their mark on history (except sometimes in bloody revolts, as with Spartacus or Toussaint L’Ouverture). An exception is Marcus Tullius Tiro – better known as Tiro, since the Marcus Tullius bit came from the man who owned and then freed him, Marcus Tullius Cicero (better known as Cicero, since it’s shorter and easier to remember).

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July 27, 2023July 27, 2023

Two and a Bit Books about Flatulence

Yes, you read that right. Today we are looking at books about farting. If, unlike C. S. Lewis, you retain the adolescent “fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up” then you may wish to look away here. Go and read Proust or something.

The “bit” is the title essay in the collection Fart Proudly, which is – believe it or not – a collection of the works of Benjamin Franklin. Yes, that Benjamin Franklin.

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February 8, 2017

The Economics of a Bad Egg

“I want to know why you have permitted this abominable and unnatural traffic in slaves to grow up here, contrary to the ancient custom and usage of our dominions.”
“Necessary, unavoidable,” said his Sufficiency. “An essential part of the economic development of the islands, I assure you. Our present burst of prosperity depends on it.”
….
“I do not see that it brings into the islands meat or bread or beer or wine or timber or cabbages or books or instruments of music or horses or armour or anything else worth having. But whether it does or not, it must be stopped.”
“But that would be putting the clock back,” gasped the governor. “Have you no idea of progress, of development?”
“I have seen them both in an egg,” said Caspian. “We call it ‘Going Bad’ in Narnia. This trade must stop.”

from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis