Old man of 2007

Pregnancy targets 'to be missed'

BBC reports,

'Teenage pregnancy rates in the UK are the highest in Western Europe

Ministers are to step up efforts to reduce teenage pregnancy rates after a report found the government was set to miss a target to halve them by 2010.

The Department of Health's annual report said teenage pregnancy rates had been cut by just 11.4% since 1999.

But ministers have said rates are at their lowest for 20 years and efforts are being "redoubled" to hit targets.

The Family Education Trust charity told the Sunday Telegraph the report showed the government's strategy was failing.

The problems...will never be solved so long as the government persists with its reliance on yet more contraception and sex education " says '"Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust, (who) told the Sunday Telegraph that the government had allowed the "systematic removal of every restraint that used to act as a disincentive to under-age sex".

"The problems associated with teenage pregnancy will never be solved so long as the government persists with its reliance on yet more contraception and sex education," he said. '

Well said Norman but I doubt if our immoral sex obsessed government is listening. How much does Durex and other contraceptive manufacturers donate to Labour? Not that Cameron's lot are any better .The politicians sleep around as do the NHS workers in the sex education industry. So they would be hypocrites to teach what is necessary, CHASTITY BEFORE MARRIAGE.

Gordon Brown's New Year message to the country.

BBC SAYS,

"For Britain, 2008 will be a year of real and serious changes.....

We will strengthen the democracy and unity of our country. Our priority at all times, our guiding purpose: One Britain of security and opportunity for all the British people.....

And in 2008, with firm conviction and resolve, we will make the case for the United Kingdom - standing up for the cause of the Union and against secession, showing people in all parts of the country that for so many of the challenges our country faces - from climate change to terrorism - there are no Wales-only, Scotland-only or England-only solutions."

So an end to devolution? No more regional talking shops in Edinburgh and Cardiff? A level UK playing field? Unless you do this ; Gordo,your promises are as empty as an Israel supporter's collecting box in Mecca. I'm not holding my breath. I don't trust you.

A Gentleman

I have heard a gentleman defined as a man with a long beard who wears a bow tie. Look and see if I qualify. Only one more day before new year, new beard. Watch this space!

Body Politics: Bimbos in the President’s Bed

From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Sat, 2007-12-29 17:14

"A quote from Sky News, 29 December 2007

The French president [Nicolas Sarkozy] has been enjoying a holiday [in Egypt] with Italian-born [Carla] Bruni ahead of an official visit which starts this weekend. But his romantic break – which has been followed by the world's media – has come in for criticism in the Islamic country. [...]

Independent Egyptian MP Gamal Zahran said in parliament that it was improper for Sarkozy, who recently made his relationship with Bruni public, to share a hotel room with her. He also criticised the Egyptian government for setting a bad example by welcoming them. He said it had given the impression that Egypt was “ready to accept official prostitution by heads of state”.

Under Islamic law and tradition, unmarried couples are not permitted to share a room, [...] Sarkozy was first seen with [nude] model-turned-singer Bruni earlier this month when he visited Disneyland Paris with her, just two months after his divorce from his wife of 11 years, Cecilia."

For once the Muslims are right.

In praise of Monarchy and Establishment

From a fascinating paper by IMO the best theologian bishop around.(Admittedly a field with very few competitors :-( ) Sample quotes below.

The New Testament offers a theology of rulers and authorities as appointed by God. This places a huge weight of responsibility on the authorities which many modern democratic rulers cheerfully ignore. What is striking about the British monarchy, and some others that still remain, is that they openly acknowledge and indeed celebrate this responsibility. N. T. Wright , GOD AND CAESAR, THEN AND NOW, Festschrift for Dr Wesley Carr, 2003, ,http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_God_Caesar.pdf

All human power-systems are subject to Christian critique. All power can become idolatrous. Every knee shall bow at Jesus' name, and we must never tire of saying so. But there is another side to the story. Today's cheap-and-chattering republicanism owes nothing to the Christian critique of human power, and everything to the sneer of the cynic, noting the price of everything but ignoring its value.- ibid

Monarchy is a reminder that the justice and mercy which rulers must practice are not their possession, but come from elsewhere; they are part of the God-given created order. .- ibid

Dishonours

The BBC reports, 'Actor Sir Ian McKellen, 68, who also campaigns for gay rights, said after finding out that he was becoming a Companion of Honour: "It is particularly pleasing that 'equality' is included in my citation." '

So the government is now advising the Palace to promote the promoters of homosexuality? Last time it was a knighthood for the undeserving, ungrateful Rushdie. I am beginning to think the sytstem should be scrapped.
Parkinson knighted but not the greater Yorkshireman, Dickie Bird. Parky is too bland for a Tyke. I do though approve of the OBE for a great Yorkshire lad, Jason Robinson.

Pakistan

I was at work when we heard that Benazir Bhutto had been shot. My assistant from Pakistan was very upset. She says that today no-one can leave home in Pakistan for fear of unrest. All the Western reports lament the death of someone perceived as an ally. I hear if she had regained power she would have let the American forces pursue fugitives fleeing into her country. It is an ally but has also been responsible for the birth and nurture of the Taliban. It is a country where the Christian minority has a difficult time since the imposition of shari'a.

Proper Charlies?

The Today programme had a piece with two supposed experts discussing the future of the Monarchy. It seems as people mature they become more in favour. Well republics are for young nations :-) But what bugged me was both men referring to the future Charles III. AFAIK there will be no such person in the future. We are to have George VII, a much better kingly name of note.

The best bit about being Father Christmas

Have you any spare isotopes Mon Ami?

I recently talked with someone who had been hired to test the proposed Olympic sites for contamination. The French have a thriving nuclear industry. I wonder if they would like to dispose of some waste? We could have the waste and a site so contaminated that Paris could have the Olympics. Then my council tax would not go up to pay for it and I would be happier.

I object to paying extra tax for these games which are of no benefit to my part of London. The only other way is to offer to rent out our house for the games but She Who Must Be Obeyed does not want me to offer it on EBay :-(

Resolutions

I usually resolve only one thing each New Year: not to make resolutions. However, this year I am not only making resolutions, I am inviting suggestions. I do though retain the right of veto. So far vetoed are: stopping smoking my pipe and shaving off my beard. I accept so far the following.

1. Not to tread mud into the house. So shoes off at the door Korean style.

2. Lose weight. The target of two stone has been mentioned, 28 ibs or 12.7Kg.

Further resolutions are invited.

York should read the Bible

I have just heard the Archbishop of York say on the BBC Sunday programme that he has no Biblical basis to describe homosexual acts as evil. Has he read the Bible? Does he need new spectacles? St Paul wrote about seeing through a glass darkly. But Sentanmu does not see it at all. He can condemn Mugabe but not sodomy. Oh yes. He lives a long way from Zimbabwe now, in a communion that welcome perversion. To any reading this who think I am what you call a homophobe. I have no hatred of homosexuals, only abhorence of certain sexual acts. I can separate the two though you will not. In fact I do not even want to call you homosexual, merely homosexualist like the archbishop. i.e. one who is happy with homosexuality.

'It would encourage clear thinking on these matters if persons were not characterised as heterosexual or homosexual, but as individuals who have had certain amounts of heterosexual experience or homosexual experience. Instead of using these terms as substantives which stand for persons, or even as adjectives to describe persons, they may be better be used to describe the nature of the overt sexual relations, or of the stimuli to which an individual erotically responds.'
Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male Kinsey et al 1948 p617

Kinsey got something right after all.

The Archbishop and the Virgin

Dan Wooding, of ASSIST, reports, 'In an interview with Simon Mayo on BBC Five Live on Wednesday, December 19, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, cleared the confusion on some key details in the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, including his birth in a manger to the Virgin Mary.
When asked by Mayo, "the baby Jesus in a manger; historically and factually true?" the Archbishop replied, "I should think so.yes, he's born in poor circumstances, slightly out of the ordinary."''

Now there is a real piece of British understatement if ever there was one.

'Regarding the accuracy of Mary being a virgin, Dr. Williams said, "The two gospels that tell the story have the story of the virgin birth and that's something I'm committed to as part of what I've inherited."...When asked by Mayo on Five Live just how important it was as a Christian to believe in the Virgin Birth, the Archbishop said it should not be regarded "as a kind of hurdle that people have to get over before they, you know, be signed up.""But I think quite a few people that as time goes on, they get a sense, a deeper sense of what the virgin birth is about," he added. "I would say that of myself. About thirty years ago I might have said I wasn't too fussed about it - now I see it much more as dovetailing with the rest of what I believe about the story and yes."'

How good to hear the liberal archbishop has become more biblical and grown to really believe the creed he has said since childhood.

'The story said that the Archbishop also remained untroubled by doubts over the use of the term 'virgin' to describe Mary at the time of the conception of Jesus, saying that it need not be regarded as a mistranslation.
"One of the gospels quotes a prophecy that a virgin will conceive a child," he explained. "Now the original Hebrew doesn't have the word virgin, it's just a young woman, but that's the prophecy that's quoted from the Old Testament in support of the story which is, in any case, about a birth without a human father, so it's not that it rests on mistranslation.St Matthew's gone to his Greek version of the Bible and said, 'Oh, "virgin"; sounds like the story I know," and put it in."'

Or perhaps Matthew knew that if unmarried girls in Israel were not virgins they would big in BIG trouble. In their culture,unlike ours, unmarried girl and virgon were the same thing.

Blair feared faith 'nutter' label

So reports the BBC.

'Mr Blair said politicians who talk about religion "get into trouble"
Tony Blair avoided talking about his religious views while in office for fear of being labelled "a nutter", the former prime minister has revealed.
In an interview for BBC One's The Blair Years, he said that his faith had been "hugely important" to his premiership.
During the interview, Mr Blair said having faith was a crucial component for him in having the character to take on the prime minister's job.
"For me having faith was an important part of being able to do that," he said.
But while it was commonplace in the US and elsewhere for politicians to talk about their religious convictions, he added, "you talk about it in our system and, frankly, people do think you're a nutter".'

Tony was not a follower of the Apostle who wrote, 2Cor. 12:10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it.

'British voters imagined that leaders who were informed by religion would "commune with the man upstairs and then come back and say 'Right, I've been told the answer and that's it'".
Mr Campbell's refusal to discuss his faith was not due to any opposition to his beliefs, but because "you always get into trouble talking about it", Mr Blair continued.
Mr Campbell added that the former prime minister always asked his aides to find him a church to attend, wherever he happened to be, each Sunday.
"Because he's pretty irreverent, he swears a fair bit, if he sees a very attractive woman his eye will wander and all that stuff, he doesn't look like your classic religious sort of guy," said Mr Campbell.
But he added: "I think his close circle always understood that there was a part of him that was really, really important. '

But not important enough for him to promote anything resembling Christian sexual ethics, only the opposite.

'"On that kind of spiritual level it did inform a lot of what he talked about, what he read... what he felt was important."
Mr Campbell said the UK electorate were "a bit wary of politicians who go on about God".
He had also been concerned that the Conservatives would accuse Labour of trying to claim faith as its own.
'Ethical values' "

No chance. The Conservatives are just as unethical and far from any Christian base.

'Peter Mandelson, a close confidant of Mr Blair, said: "He's not an exhibitionist when it comes to religion but deep inside him it is very, very important.
"This is a man who takes a Bible with him wherever he goes and last thing at night he will read from the Bible."
Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader, suggested that Mr Blair may not have been so politically successful had the relationship between his beliefs and his actions in office been better known.
"The public might have been less willing to give him the triumph of three consecutive general election victories if they'd known the extent to which ethical values would overshadow pragmatism," Sir Menzies said. '

But pragmatism seems to have totally overcome Christian values!

I do not judge Blai'sr state before God. I merely quote the Gospel.
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” - Mark 8:36-38

Today he says he has joined the Roman Catholics. Will they better inform him in practical Christianity?

Michael Ireland , ASSIST News Service, adds ' Bishop Nazir-Ali who was quoted by the BBC as saying, "I am sorry that Tony Blair feels he could not talk about his faith in case people thought he was a nutter. A Christian vision underlies all that is important about Britain: its laws, institutions and values. If Blair had been able to relate this vision to his policies, we would have had more constructive social policy at home and principled policies abroad.

Miss Widdicombe, who became a Catholic in 1993, told the BBC Mr Blair's move raised some questions.
"If you look at Tony Blair's voting record in the House of Commons, he's gone against Church teaching on more than one occasion. On things, for example, like abortion," she said. "My question would be, 'has he changed his mind on that?'"
The BBC reports there has never been a Roman Catholic prime minister of Britain, although there is no constitutional barrier to such a move. However, it had in the past been suggested that Mr Blair would wait until after leaving office, to avoid possible clashes such as over his role in appointing Church of England bishops.'
The BBC reported that Catherine Pepinster, editor of Catholic magazine The Tablet, said the news was not quite the same as if Mr Blair had changed Churches while still prime minister.'

So there is consistency for you. Blair did not have enough Christian principle to declare what sort of a Christian he professed to be. He was spin from first to last. But he want have Campbell to spin it to St, Peter at the pearly gates. Perhaps he hopes now to have the Pope as his PR man. Funnily enough, the guy in Rome does not support AB on the main thing that lost him public respect, Iraq. Guess what! That is one of the few issues where I was with Tony.

O little town of Bethlehem - 2007 version

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!
Your land's divided by a wall built up so very high.
Israel has put it there they say for their security
How sad we see the ancient place of Christ's nativity

Christians are moving from the place where their dear Lord was born.
Farmers cannot get to the fields. They cannot sow their corn.
Ten percent of Arab lands enclosed by Israel
For Palestinians, Holy Land is now a living hell

How silently, how silently, the West stays at this plight;
Of suffering oh so far away, well out of narrow sight
Of those who think that prophecy can justify the sin
Of stealing land, dividing folk from their own kith and kin.

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, bring peace on earth, injustice take away.
But first you must change hearts and minds, our Lord Emmanuel!
May Jews and Arabs live as one renewed by your Gospel.

--

Books read in December 2007 (10)

1. Evangelicalism in Britain, 1935-95: A Personal Sketch by Oliver R. Barclay

Barclay starts with,"In the late 1920s, Hensley Henson, the then Bishop of Durham, famously described evangelicals as 'an army of illiterates generalled by octogenarians'. ... In the 1990s the situation is clearly very different." Reading this modern historical study of 60 years of growth of evangelicalism is most encouraging. It is easy, from a decent distance in time, to have a good perspective on the history of centuries before one's time, but being close to the history of one's own time, a view with real depth of perspective is more difficult. Barclay manages this well . he writes with personal knowledge of the people involved. his perspective is English and Anglican so coverage of the other UK countries is thinner as are comments on the charismatic movement where Barclay was not so involved. Ten years after this book was published, things have moved on. here you will find no New Perspective on Paul nor Emerging Church, but you will have a superb overview of how evangelical Christianity has developed and grown in the U.K. since its low point in the 1920s and you will get to know more about the characters involved . Here also is wise counsel on the strengths and weaknesses of the older and the more modern developments in evangelical belief and life. For example,
"Evangelicals are not good at the compromises that are a necessary part of practical politics, because they tend to want to fight for a totally Christian solution, and therefore often get nothing. The nineteenth century reformer such as Wilberforce and Shaftesbury knew how to get something rather than nothing and then how to build on that progressively, even though they were sometimes misunderstood as compromisers by their contemporaries. They also knew how to pitch their campaigns so as to win the support of many who would not be in agreement doctrinally."
Barclay also shows how the academics are often behind the times. After WWI, society was disillusioned with the previous optimism about human progress but the academics still clung on to an optimistic liberal theology. Their students though were increasingly coming to an evangelical faith still scorned by the academics.


2. A Delicious Slice of Johnners by Brian Johnston

I know of only one book funnier than this one, "1066 and All That". This book is autobiography, history of the BBC, a compendium of cricket history and stories plus a treasure trove of humour which will serve as an good resource for all after dinner speakers or any one who loves to relate a good joke or cricket tale. Th author was an Eton and Oxford man, who on demobilisation from the army after WWII, found, through his old boy network, employment in BBC radio outside broadcasts. The delightful world of the old BBC radio is related before the author goes on to fame as a cricket commentator. He enjoyed a happy family life with five children and he movingly relates the arrival of a daughter with Downs Syndrome. He writes in glowing terms of his local parish church though he was but a seasonal attender. If you ant to laugh out loud, their are few better treats than A Slice of Johnners. If you want great cricketing memories read this.


3. Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity and Islam by Joseph Ratzinger and Marcello Pera

Pera is a philosopher and politician. He writes masterfully on Relaivism, Christianity and the West. He sees Europe as a culture demoralised by relativism. His critique is devastating. He sees little hope against a resurgent Islam. The Pope writes very well on The Spiritual Roots of Europe. Being who he is he is more restrained and certainly unlike, Pera, very quiet on Islam. Ratzinger shows a real understanding of Evangelicals and their message, much more so than the media critics of Bush. He would not agree with Pera on Iraq and later in the book disputes Pera's interesting idea of an established non-denominational Christianity as the civil religion of Europe. but then how could the Pope put his imprimatur on any church other than the Roman variety? After all is is the only true church is it not? Ratzinger gives a brilliant critique of secular muticulturalism and recalls Europe to Christian roots. He is a pope this Presbyterian can applaud.In the second half of the book the two men exchange one letter each. I wish it had been more and that an index had been added. An excellent book which should be read by all who care about the future of Europe.

4. Through Many Dangers: The Story of John Newton - Brian Edwards

I rarely pay a book the compliment of a second read but the opportunity to hear the author speak on Newton at Newton's old church in London prompted me to reread and i was not disappointed. This is not the up to date and scholarly work of Aitken but a good spiritual biography of a great and influential man whose life was turned around by that grace of God which newton praised in his famous hymn. The major shortcoming of this book is a lack of footnotes to source the quotes. Quotes are displayed in an unusual style and I did find one instance where they were opened and not closed. Minor factual criticism is over the contemporary use of tobacco. From Cowper's "Ode to TobaccO" which lauds its delights I cannot agree that Cowper considered pipe smoking as a foul practice or that he was derisive with his words, "Smoke-inhaling Bull". For two centuries Englishmen had enjoyed there pipes undisturbed except for the criticism of a certain king imported from Scotland. My only other dissent is a matter of taste over the architecture of St. Mary, Woolnoth. As Edwards is a pastor his biography does not give us the political depth of Aitken. But comparisons are odious. This is a biography written in a popular style which will be read to inform and will bless. I think you do get more of the words of Newton from this biographer.


5. Carey, Christ and Cultural Transformation by Ruth Mangalwadi, Vishal Mangalwadi

This brief excellent book is not so much a biography of Carey but rather a tribute to his vastly underestimated influence on modern India. It is all the better for being written by Indian Christians who share Carey's critique of Hinduism as the greatest problem which faces India. The book is as valuable for its explanation of Hinduism as for carey. I learned why this religion can have places for both pure wives and prostitutes, spirituality and sex manuals. This book is as much a critique of Hinduism as it is appreciation of the great missionary. Before I read this book I thought Carey the greatest missionary since Paul of Tarsus. This book confirms and strengthens my opinion. It starts with a quiz to bring out the wide effects of Carey's life and work. and earn him the accolade of the central character in the story of the modernization of India. His shortcomings are not glossed over both in the chapter about his first wife and the one describing him as a jar of clay. But this man plodded on despite all the adversities and trials which apart from physical torture and imprisonment, may exceed those of the great apostle himself. Carey is shown to be no mere preacher and translator but the man whose holistic view of the christian message did help transform India from the backward cash cow of the British Empire which it was on Carey's arrival. The copy I read was inscribed by the author, "For the regeneration of England". This tells how the Christian gospel, applied to all of life, is the only hope for real beneficial transformation in any culture. It also should squash any reader's appreciation of multiculturalism unless their view of this folly can encompass suttee and Juggernaut. I am left desiring more from the authors.

6. Manage Your Mood: Using Behavioural Activation to Manage Your Mood by David Veale , Rob Willson

Depression is a problem for many people. This book may well help. It gives good factual information on depression and how to help yourself overcome it. I only wish I could have read it more than thirty years ago. It tells you not to navel gaze when depressed. Do not seek to ascertain why you are depressed but instead do something to climb out of the slough of despond. if i have one criticism it would be that in doing so the authors fail to critique whether or not modern western society has wrong expectations of happiness. Some people need to start with the realisation that life is a bitch you have to live with. Doctors do not have panaceas to prescribe for all the trials of life. The help drugs may give, their limitations, problems and benefits are fairly related but what is strongly advocated is behavioral activation and cognitive behavioral therapy. Help is given to get the reader started. this is a book to give hope and help. If you are depressed, read and act. If you want to understand, help and counsel the depressed, this will be of benefit. The authors are not in any way religious but they have a holistic approach with a place for the spiritual. A professing Christian, skeptical of unbelieving psychiatry may read this book with benefit.

7. DICKIE BIRD: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY by DICKIE BIRD

When one considers the nonentities who now get top honours one is left wondering why this greatest living Yorkshire-man is not Lord Bird of Barnsley. This book alone should have earned him a knighthood. It is a million times a better read than Rushdie who unlike Bird has brought no joy to Bradford. Bird soars. He is the sublime Yorkshire-man, the eccentric Englishman to perfection. To read him is to love him. Our greatest ever umpire and now a best-selling author too. Eee by gum. There's none to match him. Cricket history and funny stories here abound, all mixed with Yorkshire grit and common sense, an attribute sadly in short supply in our PC mad world. Fair and funny, a Bird to enrich the garden of life is Dickie.

8. Schott's Almanac 2008 by Ben Schott

I asked for this on my Christmas present list on the strength of an appealing advertisement on Classic FM. I was not disappointed. It is a traditional almanac with reviews of the past year and calendar information for the coming year. But it's delight is the esoteric lists it gives from past and present. One significant omission is a table for tax free day in different countries. I would also like some information on birth rates according to etnicity. This book is a mine of useless information and will be a great help to anyone wanting to compose a trivia quiz. I love it and may but it on myCchristmas list for the 2009 edition.

9. Scottish Life and Society: A Compendium of Scottish Ethnology: Scotland's Domestic Life v. 6 (Scottish Life & Society 6) by Susan Storrier

I got this book by mistake from the local library. I asked for the volume on religion but was sent this instead. however it proved to be a fascinating read on all aspects of Scottish domestic life with the possible exceptions of alcohol and tobacco which I think deserve inclusion. There is a comprehensive history here of all things domestic which will add to anyone's learning. Fof example I learned of Cromwell's tax on soap and Christmas banned in Scotland long before England's Commonwealth.

10. Absurd Adverts - Tobar Ltd.

Humourous ads, some deliberate, some by miatake. A goood laugh.

--

From a troubled bear

I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me. But bothering me even more is this sad misunderstanding which has resulted in the ridiculous imprisonmnet of a teacher from my country, England, in Sudan, Darkest Africa.

I heard a spokesman from the Sudanese Embasy says that people should realise that in Sudan bears are not about bed time stories, they are fierce animals. A bit like your prohet Mo then? He has not seemed cuddly to me. More of a wild Tigger sort of fellow. I really do not feel in good company myself with such comparisos. Hey! I think we bears have been insulted by comparison wuth this Arab bloke. Who can I prosecute? Eeyore says best forget it. Wol says it is unwise to joke about people who take a dead man so seriously. Christopher Robin is very afraid I may provoke a bad reaction. Piglet sends his love to one and all.

Release our teacher! Respect for bears!

Love,
POOH


When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it. --A. A. Milne, _The House at Pooh Corner_

You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.- Alan Alexander Milne, 1882 - 1956

My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling, but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places. Winnie the Pooh, A. A. Milne

Pooh and Piglet walked home thoughtfully together in the golden evening, and for a long time they were silent. "When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?" "What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?" "I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said.-- A A Milne