Heredity

Tuesday 2:12 p.m.
Instead of opening at lunchtime yesterday, I locked the doors and curled up on the floor under my desk and took a wee nap. Knew I couldn't be right, so I called in with another disease today. Well, it's the same disease; it's just come back.

At the weekend I met this young man who was so phobic about dentists he was on the strong painkillers and awaiting a general anaesthetic for extractions ... in six weeks time.

You wouldn't want to be like that, Jack! What could be worse? Well, a lot of things, but you wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Before he was born, his old man was phobic about the dentists, but not quite as bad.

The kiddo bites her skin at the side of her nails. She only started doing this when she was about seventeen. I couldn't believe it. Her mother did the same thing at her age. Whenever the kiddo starts this in front of me, I tell her to go do it in the toilet. For a while, I thought her mother must have started biting his fingers again when I wasn't there, and thus the kiddo picked up this habit. But no. What a coincidence!

I saw this programme about identical twins once. These two had been parted as kids. They didn't like each other when they met up again; same dress sense, drove the same car; married to the same type of woman. What really drove one of them mad was the other one suddenly sneezing in the theatre, just before the curtain came up ... to startle the folk nearby. He'd already done this a lift and he did it on both occasions just before his identical twin, who also had this endearing wee habit.

Of course, we have to take responsibility for everything we do and are completely autonomous as regards will and all that. Oh, aye. Sometimes it seems as if we're living out bits of other people, dead ones at that.


What do you think, Jack? Well, Hotboy, if your head is jammed up your backside, how can you expect to be certain about anything?

I watched a documentary about the Thrilla in Manila last night, but they didn't show the whole fight. Ali was wanting his gloves cut off after the fourteenth round, but Smokin Joe's trainer called it off first. Joe Frazier couldn't see, but he was not wanting it stopped. His trainer had seen eight men killed in the ring and well done to him. He didn't regret it afterwards though Joe wouldn't speak to him. It is a bit difficult to justify men doing that kind of thing to each other, but when I get broadband I must see if I can download the whole fight. I'd love to watch it straight through. Something heroic.