This will hurt me...

All of us. The living room, Geilston Bay. July 2013. As you know, the Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (and RSS feeds.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning... Re-examining ‘the Elephant Man’ : Nadja Durbach questions the extent to which Joseph Merrick, known as the Elephant Man, was exploited during his time in a Victorian ‘freakshow’, and asks if it wasn’t perhaps the medical establishment, often seen as his saviour, who really took advantage of Merrick and his condition. The industrial age is over, so why are we still punching in? Rethinking Work . Drowning mercy: why we fear the boats. Soviet-era erotic alphabet book from 1931. 5 Things Men Will Never Understand About Consoling a Woman . While the natural sciences have evolved – new fields, discoveries, methods – the social sciences have stagnated, answe...

Southern Cross SPENCER STREET railway station, Melbourne. April 2010. They can try all they like, it will always be Spencer Street to me... Morning , Deborah Ager You know how it is waking from a dream certain you can fly and that someone, long gone, returned and you are filled with longing, for a brief moment, to drive off the road and feel nothing or to see the loved one and feel everything. Perhaps one morning, taking brush to hair you'll wonder how much of your life you've spent at this task or signing your name or rising in fog in near darkness to ready for work. Day begins with other people's needs first and your thoughts disperse like breath. In the in-between hour, the solitary hour, before day begins all the world gradually reappears car by car.

If Jen, Henry and Ezra ever started a three piece post-punk combo - Jen drums, Ezra bass/vocals, Henry guitar/vocals - I'd use this photo for on the inner sleeve. Two questions remain though, what do I call the band? And, what is the album called?

We've FINALLY had a bit of sunshine. Here is the view of sunny Tranmere on Hobart's eastern shore as seen from Battery Point on Hobart's western shore. The general rule (that is, the rule I made up ) is " eastern shore, just add four [degrees Celsius] ". You don't say the "degrees Celsius" part aloud, as it totally ruins the metre of the saying. Time for Sunday Top Five ! My top five names vetoed by Jen for either son: 1: Frederick 2: Napoleon 3: Ludwig 4: Ulysses 5: Cersobleptes

Here is Henry checking out a ye olde shoppe in the ye olde towne of Richmond. It was kind of embarrassing, actually. He went in there and said something, and from what I could tell, there seemed to be a heated discussion of some sort. I went in to check it out and Henry was telling the old woman behind the counter what a nice shoppe it was, how it would be "a real shame" if there was "an accident" or something. Then he knocked some fine china off the shelf, and she started crying and I hustled him out of the joint. We're going to steer clear of Richmond for a little while. At least until the heat cools down a bit...

Of course, the reason that I like the name Ezra , and I think the reason that Jen likes it, is the result of a few things. One, it works well with 'Henry'; and two, it works well with 'McCracken'. This should not be discounted lightly, and awful lot of names were discarded for this very reason. Third, it is a real name, but is kind of different. I say 'kind of' different, because it is left field enough, without being so removed that people have never heard of it. Fourth, well, this is a subjective thing, and Ezra sounds like the name of a cowboy (think High Noon ), and cowboys are cool .

Of course, in a historical sense, Ezra was a fifth century BC Jewish priest, scholar, copyist, and historian who wrote the two Chronicles and the Book of Ezra (of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh) and began the compiling and cataloguing of the Old Testament. I whipped out the only Bible we have laying around the house, (the King James Version) and flicked to Ezra 7:6: This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him. From this, we can assume that Ezra had connections . Maybe our Ezra can snare some rub out of this. The fact that Ezra is regarded as a reasonably influential guy in the key texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam is also a plus for anyone hedging their bets in an ontological sense

I am going to drip feed some shots of Ezra today, along with a little about his name. The name appears to have caused some consternation on some quarters, but as ever, Jen, Henry and I all like it and anyone that doesn't can bugger off back to Sadsville, Kentucky or wherever it is that naysayers reside. One of the things that appears to have shocked people about this choice of name is the fact that it is quite correctly regarded as a biblical name, despite my lack of any religious faith, and Jen's shocking straying from the Catholic doctrine (don't blame me God, it happened long before I was on the scene). The other thing is that if people aren't aware of the name's biblical roots, they think that it is a "made up" name. The Hebrew term עֶזְרָא (Ezra) is probably an abbreviation of "Azaryahu" meaning "God helps". I have read other variations that include "helper", "salvation" or "help". Whatever the case, ...

With baby number two rapidly approaching [t minus 24 days and counting] , we have not appeared to have got much closer to determining a name agreeable to all. So again , I appeal to the wisdom of the crowd for assistance. The boundaries: first, replications of initials are problematic and best avoided which means that K, J and H are excluded. Second, it has to sit comfortably with “Henry Fitzgerald McCracken” which obviously further limits the choices. The short lists as they currently stand: Boys:   Otto, Ezra, Frederick, Levi, Isaak, Albert, Conrad. Girls: Clementine, Izetta, Audrey, Ivy, Violet, Astrid, Iris. Obviously I have my favourites, Jennifer has hers, and Henry definitely has his. The problem is reaching broad agreement. Seriously, the stalemate here makes Yalta look like a breeze. I am happy to take new suggestions or endorsements on any on offer above.

My wife and I have got another baby on the way (19 weeks on Thursday). Now last time, we both agreed within a reasonable period that Henry was a good name, and that it worked well with the last name, and also with taking my wife's surname as his middle name. Thus, our first born is Henry Fitzgerald McCracken. We're both pretty happy with that name, and everyone agrees he's a pretty good little bloke. Here he is looking slightly worried about the prospect of a challenger on the horizon. Here is the anxious little bloke So, my issue is that we've got to find a name the equal to Henry. I think that the bar is high, so the pressure is on. As with last time, we've gone our separate ways and compiled our own lists, with the intention of pruning them down and then merging them for the final master list. We can then 'test' the names to see how they go. I myself have already started testing names on dear little Henry (male and female), which - to be frank - is beginn...