The Baillie Bugle

Good afternoon

Two offers of interesting work came through this morning, so I'll be spending today giving them both some thought and working up some initial attempts.

The weekend was one of champagne and work. To be honest, it was mostly work - I nipped out for an hour on Saturday evening to a friend's 30th birthday celebrations in town and had a half glass of champagne. Apart from that it was all work. But please don't feel sorry for me - for the most part my work is fun.

I'm reading Clive James' Unreliable Memoirs at the moment and thoroughly enjoying it. You know you have a good book when you find yourself reading it before going to sleep and then picking it up again as soon as you're awake. The Wendy Cook book was like that. I think it's Nova Swing or The Boy With the Stripey Pyjamas next, and I have high hopes for them too.

Mr James' latest offering over at the BBC is as witty and wise as always. (Although I have developed a new reading habit for this column - I skip the very first paragraph - I think it's called the 'leader', but I'm probably wrong - as it usually spoils a joke further down).

The BBC also celebrates 2000AD's 30th birthday this week by looking at how many of its 'predictions' have since come true.

It was once for children, now it's much loved by adults but the authors of legendary British comic 2000AD are shocked how many of their predictions have come to pass.

Steve Bell and Jonathan Jones take a look at William Hogarth's life and work over at The Guardian in a flashy video presentation.

Evan Davis Evanomics colum (also at the BBC!) tends to make for interesting reading. This week's especially so as he talked about queueing for free stuff versus rationing by price.

Suppose there is a water fountain in a park. It’s a hot day and lots of people want to drink from the fountain. Being awfully British and civilised, they form an orderly queue at the fountain.

Now, if the number of thirsty people strolling past the fountain is large enough, the rate at which people join the queue will exceed the rate at which people satisfy their thirst and leave the queue. So the queue will get longer and longer.

But at some point, thirsty people will reason to themselves that the displeasure of waiting in the queue is not worth the pleasure of the drink at the end. They’ll avoid the wait, and the queue will grow no longer.

So far so good. That’s how life works in many ways.

But this simple account has a devastating implication.