My Commonplace Blog
A digital form of the sadly lost fashion for copying out memorable passages from texts. I kept losing my actual book.
Tuesday, 10 February 2026
This was very good advice but she still thought that living in a major city was key
P. Murray, The bee sting (2023), Loc. 800
Monday, 9 February 2026
This is not a time to speak, she says, but a time to keep silent
P. Lynch, Prophet song (2023), Loc. 589
Sunday, 8 February 2026
I have always found a good sherry sufficient for my needs, but I dare say these American beverages are not unpalatable
Saturday, 7 February 2026
What is the point of investing in a process of learning about the world if there is almost no time to put that information to use?
Once I knew this stage was coming, interacting with these animals, especially the friendly ones, became poignant. Their time was so short. This discovery also made the puzzle of their large brains even more acute. What is the point of building a large nervous system if your life is over in a year or two? The machinery of intelligence is expensive, both to build and to run. The usefulness of learning, which large brains make possible, seems dependent on lifespan. What is the point of investing in a process of learning about the world if there is almost no time to put that information to use?
Friday, 6 February 2026
Shells were the mollusks’ response to what looks like an abrupt change in the lives of animals: the invention of predation. There are various ways of dealing with the fact that you are suddenly surrounded by creatures who can see and would like to eat you, but one way, a molluscan specialty, is to grow a hard shell and live within or beneath it.
Thursday, 5 February 2026
Cephalopods are an island of mental complexity in the sea of invertebrate animals
Wednesday, 4 February 2026
Drink Less, Drink Better
In the decade of the 1990s, total French consumption of wine dropped just 2 percent, but the decline in the lower-quality wines that are drunk daily was much more severe, falling 19 percent. The number of French people drinking wine daily or almost daily fell from 46.9 percent in 1980 to 23.5 percent in 2000. And people in their early sixties are four times more likely to drink wine daily than those in their early thirties. Some wine officials try to find solace in the fact that on average the French are drinking better wines. Boire Moins, Boire Mieux (Drink Less, Drink Better) has become the mantra of French optimists who hope that the business can make up in quality what it is losing in quantity. The higher-quality wines governed by the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée system accounted for only 14 percent of domestic sales in 1950 but are nearly 50 percent today.
G. M. Taber, Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine (2005), 281