Six Things, Volume 42

King Eider | Inventions | Purring | Floods | Monk | Hospitalithings

Thing 1 – King Eider

I wrote last week about the wonders of the everyday, the interest to be found in the mundane, the joy of examining small things.

Sometimes, though, what you want is something weird.

I’m not saying I’m going to travel across the world to see a King Eider (it is a bird of the high Arctic, and the very few that stray into British waters strangely enough don’t make it to West Norwood), but if one miraculously turned up on our local park pond I would have to be forcibly restrained from setting up camp there.

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Thing 2 – Inventions

Human ingenuity can be amazing. Not everything in Time’s list of 200 best inventions of 2023 will spark joy or wonder, and some might have you wondering whether the energies might constructively have been directed elsewhere, but there’s lots of fascinating stuff here, and a fair proportion of things that have the potential to do actual tangible good.

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Thing 3 – Purring

Cats purr. We know this. And we take it for granted, never questioning how they do it, or wondering how such small things can produce such comparatively deep sounds. And when I say ‘we’, you can take it as read that I mean ‘I’ – because I can’t speak for everyone, and for all I know these are questions that might easily have occupied your attention for years.

In any case, there may now be an answer. Or there may not. Depends who you believe.

With timing born of many years’ practice, our resident keyboard-sitter sensed that I was writing on this important subject and insisted his voice be heard. He was, it’s fair to say, unimpressed by both the content of the article and its conclusions.

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Thing 4 – Floods

Two journeys along the towpath in the riverside London suburb of Twickenham. One on foot, one in a kayak. Remarkable, not least for the editing.

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Thing 5 – Monk

Like many, I was previously unaware of this occasional series devoted to introducing people to the joys of jazz. Nice, then, that this one is devoted to the beguiling weirdness of Thelonious Monk.

“Fighting the fight against normalcy”

Here’s a personal favourite.

And if your interest is piqued, here’s the documentary of the same name.

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Thing 6 – Hospitalithings

It’s a deceptively simple project: photograph the same 11 things in every hotel you visit. The result is Hospitalithings, a strangely beguiling website documenting the extremely mundane.

The things, by the way, are:

1. Decoration

2. Door handle

3. Hair dryer

4. Keys

5. Lamp

6. Light switch

7. Personal hygiene

8. Remote control

9. Shower drain

10. Shower handle

11. Toilet roll holder

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