An Education in Itself... 

MANY years ago, when I was still in harness as a wage-slave, one of the Senior people in our Organisation had a brainwave. It was decided that every grade of post should fit certain criteria so that like could be compared like to like for pay and other benefits. In other words, a cost cutting measure – but I digress. 

As part of the process, they got everyone to produce a (very) detailed review/explanation of everything they did in their position (obviously because their managers didn’t know that information). At that time my job covered quite a bit of ground, and I was often tasked with things that other people simply didn’t want to do. My BIG boss, who I had a lot of time and respect for, would give me fiddly or difficult tasks knowing that I both liked that sort of thing – anything out of the ordinary – and would accomplish them in the most efficient way possible (I also suspect that at least at times she didn’t think I had enough to do). 

One of those tasks was disposal of old IT that had been accumulated over the years and had either become obsolete or had broken and been replaced. The resulting junk had been stuffed in cabinets and forgotten about. We did, being a LARGE organisation, have procedures for such things but no one knew who to ask or what to do, so it was given to me to sort out. Of course, one of the first things I needed to do was find out the size of the problem (HUGE it turned out) by asking people what they had that needed disposing of. The e-mails I got back were, to be honest, a mess. It seemed that people didn’t actually know what IT meant, so I had a variety of other kit – from phones to fax machines to coffeemakers on the lists I received back. This meant, naturally, that I’d have to separate the information I wanted from the rest – to separate the ‘wheat from the chaff’. This process is called WINNOWING. So, to finally get to my point, I put on my job description that a part of what I did was.... winnowing. This caused a problem. 

When my immediate boss received my requested job details for upward transmission, they asked what winnowing meant, so I told her. She suggested that I remove the word ‘because no one would know what it meant’ and I refused stating that the word was *exactly* what I did. So, after a few huffs she sent it on. Not long after I received a visit from HER boss asking about the word ‘winnowing’. Again, I explained what it meant and again I was requested to remove it and again I refused, explaining (again) that it was *exactly* the process I used. After a few more huffs it was sent on and I forgot about it. Until... 

About 4-6 weeks later my BIG boss – the Section Head – asked me for a chat. She had just returned from a ‘conference’ of Section Heads (about 60 of them) from across the Organisation to discuss the new regularised job descriptions. This was run by the BIG BIG boss and a panel of the upper echelons of the Organisation, so it was a fairly big affair. She was sitting next to another Section Head (who I also knew) when the discussion up-front turned to ‘unusual’ or unexpected elements of people’s job descriptions. The word ‘winnowing’ came up as the most unheard of and reference was made to the fact that they had to ‘look it up’. At this point the BIG boss turned to her friend, the other Section Head, and quietly said “that was [real name redacted]”. When she told me this later, I was just SO amused as well as more than a little disappointed that so few people knew what it meant. I mean, don’t people read 19th century countryside novels anymore? But, as I’ve said on more than one occasion, just being physically near me for any length of time is an education in itself. 

In related (but not as funny) news, another of the BIG bosses (Section Heads) told me (something I was unaware of at the time) that the local Organisation – of about 350 people – had a hierarchy of educational attainment that went from Level 1 to Level 5 (with 5 being the highest). I was the only person who had reached Level 4... Twice. My actual position in the organisation, which had quite a few levels (30 at least I think) was TWO levels up from the bottom. I think they heard me laughing in the next building....   

Happy Birthday: Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor. He has received various accolades, including a BAFTA TV Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and four Golden Globes. In 2014, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2015, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to performing arts and charity.

Cumberbatch studied drama at the Victoria University of Manchester and obtained a Master of Arts in classical acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He began acting in Shakespearean theatre productions before making his West End debut in Richard Eyre's revival of Hedda Gabler in 2005. Since then, he has starred in Royal National Theatre productions of After the Dance (2010) and Frankenstein (2011), winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for the latter. In 2015, he played the title role in Hamlet at the Barbican Theatre.

Cumberbatch's television work includes his performance as Stephen Hawking in the film Hawking (2004). He gained wide recognition for portraying Sherlock Holmes in the series Sherlock from 2010 to 2017, for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor. For playing the title role in the miniseries Patrick Melrose (2018), he won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor.

In films, Cumberbatch received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing Alan Turing in The Imitation Game (2014) and a volatile rancher in The Power of the Dog (2021). He has acted in several period dramas, including Amazing Grace (2006), Atonement (2007), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2013), The Current War (2017), 1917 (2019) and The Courier (2020). He has also starred in numerous blockbuster films portraying Smaug and Sauron in The Hobbit film series (2012–2014), Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and Dr. Stephen Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including in the films Doctor Strange (2016) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).

Just Finished Reading: We Are What We Read – A Life Within and Without Books by Vybarr Cregan-Reid (FP: 2024) [271pp] 

After reading and enjoying a previous book by this author (on RUNNING indeed!) I snapped this up on a recent visit to my local Indie bookshop. The plus factor, I would’ve picked it up anyway, was the fact that it was on books and the importance of reading for personal growth. It turned out to be much more than that. 

Essentially the book was divided into three streams which met up, mixed and then separated throughout the text. The main thrust, as you might expect, was about books themselves and how reading them changes us in positive ways. The author pointed to several studies were reading serious (or ‘proper’) literature actually increased a person's empathy, not just at the time, not just for a short time afterwards, but (apparently) permanently by rewiring the brain itself. Presumably “Literature” was used, rather than ‘just’ standard novels because the tests would’ve been performed on Uni students and by educated and professional scientists who wouldn’t ‘stoop’ to using trashy novels that the rest of us read? [I think this is the only, very minor, irritation I had with the whole book – the emphasis on ‘literary’ novels rather than ‘popular’ (and, by implication, trash) ones. 

The vehicle used to showcase the power of books and reading, and their capacity to induce change, was the author’s own lived experience. Much like me, although he COULD read, he showed very little interest in reading until quite late in life. With me it was around the age of 14. With the author it was much later – in his 20’s - but it happened in much the same way. One day a friend (who worked at a publishing house) dropped a book in his lap and advised him to read it. Which he did – eventually – and it completely blew his mind. After that he was (again eventually) reading everything that author had produced, then similar things, then other things and on.... Eventually someone suggested he go to Uni and STUDY literature which, eventually he did, followed by a MA and a PhD and then a teaching job. 

The third, and probably least interesting, theme in the book was the LONG war by the UK government on the Humanities in general and English in particular because, supposedly, such studies are not ‘useful’ or ‘practical’. It always used to both annoy and amuse me whenever I was home that my mother would ask what I was doing my latest degree ‘for’, as if everything had to be work related or have immediate/practical application. Of course, Education in its broadest sense is MUCH more than that – and doubly so with the Humanities or English. 

Although this wasn’t QUITE what I was expecting – especially the author struggling with being a gay teenager in Britain in the 1980’s during the AIDS epidemic/panic - I still enjoyed it a great deal. It did twinge my deeply entrenched belief that I am nowhere near ‘well-read’ (whatever THAT means) a few times and prompt me to dig into my Classics pile looking for books he recommended, but I forgave him for that. Overall, this is a very personal ‘love-letter’ to books and reading as well as a plea for its continued place for study in the University. Recommended. 

Just Finished Reading: The Breakthrough by Daphne Du Maurier (FP: 1966) [58pp] 

It wasn’t a request he could easily turn down. Stephen Saunders enjoyed his job and wouldn’t do anything to jeopardise is position at the firm. Plus, it wasn’t all that onerous when you thought about it – a three-month assignment as an electronics engineer at an isolated research facility – it might even be interesting. Before he left, he’d discussed the (temporary) move with some friends. They’d heard of the director of the research lab – one James MacLean – and not all of it was positive. He was late on a government project and had apparently left his previous position under some kind of cloud. He was, one said, a known maverick and to be avoided. But he’d agreed to it now, there was no going back. On arrival a few days later Saunders was surprised, and not a little disappointed, to find the facility manned by a total of four people including the director. It quickly became obvious that the supposed government research was very much on the ‘back-burner’ and that MacLean was doing his own research with obsessive focus. He was, he said, on the verge of a breakthrough, something that would knock the whole scientific community off its feet. MacLean was looking into the process of death and in particular the bodily changes that occurred at the very moment of demise. But he needed an electronics expert to handle the bespoke machinery that would record everything... They already had a volunteer. One of the team had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. They only had to wait. It wouldn’t be long until they pushed scientific endeavour to breaking point. 

Dated as it was, this was an intriguing little tale from an author I’d heard a lot about but was new to me. Despite having a very 60’s ‘feel’ to it, this short tale of suspense had the right mix of realism and mystery/horror that gave it a definite edge. I’ve only recently discovered (in the last year or so) that the author penned ‘The Birds’ filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1963. This is one of my all-time favourite movies and I can see how the same mix of the mysterious and mundane worked its magic there too. This was an interesting example of a borderline scientific mystery/horror story (although much more creepy than horrific) that certainly made me want to read more by this author. The Penguin Modern Classics collection is definitely functioning as I’d hoped it would. More to come. Recommended.