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| Charles Schulz, November 4, 1964 |
Nearing the end of William Dalrymple’s City of Djinns, one of our read aloud books. It was far too good not to share but not the easiest book to read out loud because of the preponderance of double, triple, and quadruple Muslim and Indian names - like Ghiyas-ud-Din Tughluk. A silent reader would be more than tempted to do as Linus, of Peanuts fame, claimed to do while reading The Brothers Karamazov - bleep over them.
But there’s some fascinating reading. The son of Ghiyas-ud-Din Tughluk, facing rebellions in 1335, pursued the rebel governors “beheading one, flaying another alive, ordering a third to be cut to pieces by his war elephants”. Yes, times have changed, but hard not to imagine how excited the execrable Trump would be to be able to cry havoc and let loose the war elephants on his enemies.
Do have a washing machine although usually wash small things in a basin and, like most people here, hang them outside to dry, which they do pretty quickly. Pair of sweat pants are on the dividing line. They do fit in the larger plastic basin but it’s hard to wring them well enough by hand to guarantee that they will dry outside before one of the recent sporadic showers interferes. Hence the spin cycle on the washer called into play. Have never used it on its own, but have been wanting to because of its name. Like all the cycles on the washer it is labelled in Turkish. Sıkma - translates as squeeze. Which is much more to the point than spin would have been. And, admirably, does as advertised.
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