A Bit of Fry and Laurie

This is a particularly pivotal blog. Not only is it my 200th blog entry (ignore 202 number, there are 2 private blogs that don’t count) but it is also one where I vow to self-educate and improve my lateral thinking. I was watching Stephen Fry on QI and later Friday Night with Jonathan Ross tonight, and found listening to him pontificate on the evolution of language like listening to an amazingly emotive piece of classical music. Although the man does seem to have a serious problem with taxonomy; tonight on QI he declared the definition of a species was a set of animals that can interbreed. Of course, we all know the qualifying statement he missed – a species is a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. A horse can breed with a donkey; the result is a mule. Mules are sterile, the only way to get one is to breed a horse to a donkey. A tiger and lion produce a liger.

Anyway – Stephen Fry’s endless thirst for knowledge and non-intellectual-snobbishness is something I want to attain. I miss being in pre-GCSE school and having a wide range of subjects offered to me on a plate in handy 45 minute chunks. I didn’t appriciate it then – now I miss it. I don’t want to only know about veterinary medicine, I want to know about language, it’s structure and history, the history of the world in general, the world in general, geography, sociology, other sciences, politics, the rules of cricket, everything. I want to go to a pub quiz and know the answers.

As for Laurie, if you haven’t yet watched House you have one more episode of this season left. Luckily there is a season 2. Dr House is a diagnostician with a skill for lateral thinking and quick thinking. My second personal aim – my academic/career aim if you like.

So there we go. I’ve not got a particular plan for how to go about introducing a bit of Fry and Laurie into my life, but the idea is now firmly there.

I’m rather pleased with the title of this blog and it’s relevance to the subject. Soupy twist!

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