Happy New Year!

Arnold Bennett said pessimism was as enjoyable as optimism once you get used to it. But I am always an optimist. Here's to no more killing and no more war crimes in the Ukraine, the Middle East, Venezuela, Nigeria or anywhere else in 2026. 

Where did 26 years go? 

Did people in 1826 and 1926 ask themselves that? 

Possibly not. Unlike me they had lived through world wars.

Death on a lion. This sculpture was once a device on a bell in the choir of Heilsbronn Abbey. At the stroke of the hour, the "Grim Reaper" would strike the bell around the lion's neck with a bone to remind people of the brevity of the human condition. Height approx. 140 cm. c. 1513, Franconia, Germany. In the Bavarian State Museum.