The funniest little/literal/literary images stick in one's mind. Early one recent morning Paulette was telling me about a strange dream she had, possibly triggered by indigestion. "Maybe it's an undigested bit of beef?" I speculated. She picked up the allusion immediately, to a striking philosophical section of Charles Dickens's story A Christmas Carol:

"You don't believe in me, observed the Ghost.

"I don't, said Scrooge.

"What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?

"I don't know, said Scrooge.

"Why do you doubt your senses?

"Because, said Scrooge, "a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!

(cf. My Business (1999-05-30), ...) - ^z - 20080904

(correlates: My Business, NaturalPhilosophy, BasementWorries, ...)