The end of the beginning (and a silly game)

Huzzah, I've finally gotten Britain ready to go to war! Have finished volume 1 of Churchill's six-volume history of World War II, which takes us through the fall of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Norway. I didn't even know Norway was involved (see, this is what happens when your study of history stops in 1685). The book closes on May 10, 1940 with old Winnie finally in charge, ready to kick butt and take names. It's not so much a proper history as a paean to Glorious Britain, not to mention the underlying theme of "If they'd only listened to me things would have been so much better." Nevertheless, it's fascinating to read the story as told by someone who was in the thick of it all pretty much from the beginning.

Before I hie myself off to bed I must recommend this series of free verse in the latest issue of The Wag's Review, created by typing beginning phrases like "Men should..." into a Google search box and seeing what it suggests as completions. Then of course you can go to Google and play the game yourself, which (fair warning) turns out to be rather addictive. I tried "my boss is" and got very amusing results, two of which were "a jewish carpenter" and "an austrian painter." I suppose that sums up the full spectrum of humanity right there.