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This is a little exercise in creative writing.  The brief was to reimagine the Three Pigs from a different perspective.   The original is a parable about the virtues of forward thinking, providence and hard work, so that only the most abstemious pig survives the metaphorical wolf.  I thought it was a bit tough on the middle pig who is just trying to find a balance between work and play.   So here is my version:

 


 

I know it’s a bit alternative but I like my little wooden house.  It took next to no time to build and after all I just need a place to lay my head.  And our forest has lots of nuts to eat. Yes, I got plenty of nut'in; and the nut'ins plenty for me.
So what’s the point of a lock on the door when the things that I prize, like the stars in the skies, are all are free.

 

They call me Porky. My best sow and I have formed a duo: ‘Porky and Best’.  She and I perform/squeal Gersh-swine songs down at the Wallow, our local hangout frequented by the more laid-back porcine-Porsche crowd.

 

I got the sun; I got the moon; I got the shade of a tree.

I’m not like nerd-pig, my pseudo-intellectual brother, who’s got no time to dance and play and sing the night away. 

 “You call that a house,” he said. “It’s more like a pile of sticks.  You don’t need windows.  I can see right through the walls.”

Then he went on to speculate what would happen to it, and me, in a bushfire. “Smoked pork! Tinder ‘n Crackling!” he concluded. 

What a boar, always expecting the worst!  What happened to 'live for today'? 

But we both agreed, it's a palace compared to hippy-pig, our other brother’s place. 

As an alternative lifestyle in-activist he decided on straw-bales.  Some of his friends from the commune even contributed a load but after he smoked a bit, and chilled, it was all too hard. 

So, he just piled the bails in a sort of U and stretched the tarp, that came with the load, as a make-shift roof.  When he gets the munchies, he eats his house.

 

 

“Did you choose this spot deliberately?” asked nerd-pig meaningfully when we both went to see.  “Naw,” hippy-pig grunted: “That’s just where they fell off the truck.”

“As I thought,” said nerd-pig sarcastically, “Right in the watercourse down the hill.  You’ll drown in the first good storm.”

Nerd-pig really gets up my snout sometimes. He can be a real swine. His favourite saying is: “Two legs good, four legs better.”  As if we need to be better than birds.

He’s building a huge brick sty on top of the hill, complete with a fireplace in the kitchen.  He has no time for enjoyment.  But he has invited me around to dinner tonight, so he’s not all work and no play.

Speaking of birds, what did that little bird just say?  “Hippy-pig is gone - in a huff and a puff!”  Well, the puff is not unexpected. What’s that: “Big Bad Wolf blew in, no door, no roof!”     

Wait 'til I tell nerd-pig tonight. I’m longing to see his beady little eyes, when he finds out he was wrong about the drowning.

“Hey bro,” I squeal at his big oak door. “Can I come in?” 

“Yes of course,” he replies.  “You’re just in time for wolf, leek and potato stew.”

Well, that’s a surprise. Wasn’t I supposed to get eaten first? 

Obviously, the electric fence I put around my house worked as planned.  I'm not completely stupid, incompetent or helpless.  

 

 

Consequently, the shocked and disoriented Big Bad staggered up the hill; onto nerd-pig’s roof; and straight down the chimney into his cooking pot.

“What delicious swill bro,” I grunt piggishly, as I get my snout into his trough.  “This puts hairs on my chinny chin chin!”

 

 


 

 

 

 

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Travel

Europe 2022 - Part 1

 

 

In July and August 2022 Wendy and I travelled to Europe and to the United Kingdom (no longer in Europe - at least politically).

This, our first European trip since the Covid-19 pandemic, began in Berlin to visit my daughter Emily, her Partner Guido, and their children, Leander and Tilda, our grandchildren there.

Part 1 of this report touches on places in Germany then on a Baltic Cruise, landing in: Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Sweden and the Netherlands. Part 2 takes place in northern France; and Part 3, to come later, in England and Scotland.

Read more: Europe 2022 - Part 1

Fiction, Recollections & News

A Secret Agent

 If you have an e-book reader, a version of this story is available for download, below.

 

Chapter 1

 

 - news flash -

Body in River

Monday

 

The body of a man was found floating in the Iguazú river this morning by a tourist boat. Mary (name withheld) said it was terrible. "We were just approaching the falls when the body appeared bobbing in the foam directly in front of us. We almost ran over it. The driver swerved and circled back and the crew pulled him in. The poor man must have fallen - or perhaps he jumped?"

The body was discovered near the Brazilian side but was taken back to Argentina. Police are investigating and have not yet released details of the man's identity...

 

Iguazú Herald

 

Everywhere we look there's falling water. Down the track to the right is a lookout. Over the other side of the gorge is Brazil, where the cliff faces are covered by maybe a kilometre of falling curtains of white, windswept water. Here and there the curtains hang in gaps or are pushed aside by clumps of trees and bushes, like stagehands peeking out into a theatre before the performance.  

Read more: A Secret Agent

Opinions and Philosophy

Science, Magic and Religion

 

(UCLA History 2D Lectures 1 & 2)

 

Professor Courtenay Raia lectures on science and religion as historical phenomena that have evolved over time; starting in pre-history. She goes on to examine the pre-1700 mind-set when science encompassed elements of magic; how Western cosmologies became 'disenchanted'; and how magical traditions have been transformed into modern mysticisms.

The lectures raise a lot of interesting issues.  For example in Lecture 1, dealing with pre-history, it is convincingly argued that 'The Secret', promoted by Oprah, is not a secret at all, but is the natural primitive human belief position: that it is fundamentally an appeal to magic; the primitive 'default' position. 

But magic is suppressed by both religion and science.  So in our modern secular culture traditional magic has itself been transmogrified, magically transformed, into mysticism.

Read more: Science, Magic and Religion

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