that awful mess in the garden of the finzi-continis

check it out robin williamson speaking french (he seems to be doing ok). 

'every effect is determined by multiple causes, each of which has still another, numerous causes behind it' 

so italo calvino writes his introduction to that awful mess on via merulana. there was a film, there was even a film treatment by the author of the novel  carlo emilio gadda. the main joy of reading it for an italian, argues calvino in the introduction, is seeing the different dialects and registers of italian speech rendered - venetian upper class, roman semi-criminal etc. this of course this cannot be reliably be achieved in translation.

having started reading (way-hey!) horsemouth set it down to watch an undistinguished rome set giallo the fifth cord. horsemouth supposes that his giallo phase is similar to his french crime thriller phase of a few years ago (jacques brecker rather than dario argento). 

horsemouth continues to have a filthy cough, a dripping nose, and a headache. he guesses it's an actual cold rather than something more modern but he will test again in a bit to see. 

it looks like he does not have it (but then again he is never convinced he is testing himself correctly).

a cousin has gone blind in one eye as a result of a blood clot due to her covid vaccination. in some ways horsemouth sympathises with people resisting vaccine mandates (and in some ways he doesn't). 

people have a tendency to cherry-pick the events they view as significant. horsemouth includes himself in this. people want to return to normal (but normal may not be there to be had yet).  

'baissez le rideau, la farce est jouée'  (bring down the curtain, the farce is over)

a senoir tory quotes rabelais. 

other than the filthy cough horsemouth is reasonably pleased. he threw down yesterday in an attempt to bring the living room and the front garden back into use. of course only time will tell if good intentions are enough.