The Maeander

Sometimes, the more often the better, posts here meander. You know what the word means but you may not know its origin.

The Büyük Menderes river, originally called the Maeander, does what it says on the label – it meanders.

The Büyük Menderes River.

In fact the Thames meanders more than the Maeander, something I didn’t appreciate until I saw EastEnders, and Homer didn’t know about the Thames when he wrote the Iliad: “And Nastes again led the Carians, uncouth of speech, who held Miletus and the mountain of Phthires, dense with its leafage, and the streams of Maeander, and the steep crests of Mycale”.

 

“I am a weak man, bring me a Negroni” I begged Rachid who pours the electric soup at my club. I told him I’d given up spirits but I have a will as weak as water and a Negroni is only 1/3 gin, although I suspect R puts in an extra dollop, knowing my weakness.

Addiction is a funny old thing. You either are or you aren’t – it’s binary. So I’m jolly lucky: I don’t gamble, don’t smoke, don’t do drugs (tried but it didn’t work for me). Now I have slipped. I was “clean” for six years but I’m a recidivist and have resumed writing letters to the FT.

If you are addicted to bopping – go for it!