Would Bovine Tuberculosis Work For Humans Too? — I need to tell you a story. It’s about a troop of baboons, and what befell them long ago. And I want to talk to you about the violence that rules our lives. We consider it normal to shape our lives to avoid, constrain and placate the worst of men…

I Was 15, Going On 16 — There were three of us in Mrs McBride’s class, Alison Orr, Alison Smith and me. We weren’t friends exactly, but we were friendly enough. And at St Conval’s, where your enemies might try to tear the hair from your roots on a bad day, that was good enough for me. …

But Stop Trying To Make A Virtue Out Of Necessity — Trying To Make A Virtue Out Of Necessity One of Medium’s entirely forgettable content creators is claiming that anything over a 6-minute read is too long — while omitting the caveat “For me”. So a 7-minute read on Medium — which is equivalent to 3 minutes for actual readers — is overwhelming for this person. I didn’t try…

While the internet is currently aflame with shrieks of glee and wailing and gnashing of teeth over the story of two desperately unwell people who were once married to one another, I have instead been ruminating upon the Will Smith situation. Oh, you’d forgotten that already? That tracks. I apologise…

The Pimping and Normalisation of a Violent Industry — “He who controls the language controls the masses” — Saul Alinsky If you’ve read any of my comments over the years, you may have noticed that I always — without exception — refer to prostituted women and prostitutes, and avoid euphemisms. I’m generally careful when discussing serious subjects to use…

And A Brief Explanation of Why Image Captions May Affect Distribution — I’ve written a few articles with the intent of offering helpful advice to Medium writers. I’ve also recently updated some of these articles, and if you’re new to The Authentic Eclectic or Medium you might find them useful. I particularly want to remind you that making your comments “stories” is…

And a Genuine Thank You — It came to my attention today — because I finally remembered to connect my Stripe account — that your own cantankerous Celt’s Buy Me a Coffee account has reached the heady heights of $12.91. And they said I should give up on my dreams…

Mother had a number of favoured phrases. There’s another of your mum’s precious precepts, dad would say — though not usually within her hearing. “What’s for ye won’t go past ye”; “She could start a fight in an empty house, that one”; “If they’re talking about me they’re leaving someone…