Friday 7 May 2010

Is it worth giving it a run?



Mary, who has been reading this blog a lot recently, when she should have been hard at work on her computer doing her job, has pointed out that eight of the last nine posts have been titled with a question.

Is that true?

Let me check – wow, yes and the only exception was the day I received a blog award from an Italian Hell’s Angel!

I confess that when Mary pointed this out the number was less than eight but I have been so obsessed by the idea that I have begun to consider it a worthwhile ongoing experiment.

Bitsnbobs tries, every now and again to organise itself around a theme, or challenge – the past has been home to the Improv Challenge, then a Coincidence month, No-Use-of The-Word-Time month, Incremental-isms and more recently The What Ifs.

I had been toying with the idea of making May another such experiment - a month of posts where May was the key word and topics to be include would have been May Day, May I sit and Stare at You For a While? May Fest, May Pole, Maybe, Mayflower, Maggie Mae, Mayonaise, Mayfly, Mayhem, Mayor, May Queen, Maze, Mae West and May You Never,

But my timing was casual and I missed May First because of the excitement surrounding the above mentioned award and the final What Ifs so, before it could even be announced, the “Maynitiative” hit the dust of half-assed creative ideas.

Maybe next year?

But as one idea shrivelled another took root – the Questionative.

What do you think – is it worth giving it a run?

1 comment:

popps said...

Mary said...
I'm smarting slightly from the public reprimand for reading B'sNB's in between bouts of work. Not my fault that your blog is so interesting and that each entry requires, quite rightly, that you read several others. Guilty as charged, though have to say that the Spring til the end of June is the most stressful period for my work, so coming across your blog and playing catch-up has been a kind of blessing in disguise.

The Questionative [you've got to love the dynamism of the English language -- new words at will!] sounds promising -- they've already started playing the game in Britain I think with the UN-results of the elections.

I watched the coverage on BBC Canada well into the wee hours. Canada is very used to 'hung', what we refer to as 'minority', governments. We've had one here for the last 4 years. They aren't much fun -- nothing gets done and everything is treated as a crisis. Still I am following the British situation with interest on the computer while I write this.

Will ANY work get done today?

Mx

7 MAY 2010 16:12
popps said...
It was a public leg pull, honest, not a reprimand,
You could have denied it?

7 MAY 2010 16:36
popps said...
ps. you say nothing gets done - that can be good, i don't remember Canada madly rushing off to war recently!

7 MAY 2010 17:12
Mary said...
[Had to shoe-horn in some work this morning -- having my lunch break right now. Proves that public humiliation (leg pulling) is motivating :-)]

While Canada did not "madly rush off into war", it did sleep walk its way into Afghanistan under our conservative minority government almost 4 years ago. Since then, we've lost 143 soldiers. I think by definition the words "mad" and "war" go together.

Canada is very used to minority governments - we've had them for probably half of my lifetime. They used to signal (forced) cooperation, now it's all just petty threats and posturing. The smaller the issue to trigger a NO CONFIDENCE VOTE the better. Most of our news is filled with predictions about when the next elections will be. We had 2 elections (almost 3) in a 16 month period -- both inconclusive. The third election was averted by a constitutional crisis and a 4th averted a Spring election this year using "pro-rogation" -- i.e., closing down Parliament for the Olympics.

Meanwhile, government budgets are frozen, or worse, are diverted to fund the military effort in Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, Canada is probably doomed to minority govts as we have 4 major parties, one of which (THE BLOC) exists only to bring about the separation of Quebec from Canada.

Hope Britain has better luck with it.

Still, let me say, Canada is a wonderful place, this spring in Toronto has been early by 3 weeks and gorgeous. Great to be alive. Politics and politicians can't take that away from us.

Mx

7 MAY 2010 18:33
Darlene said...
I just want to inform you that I posted the badge you so kindly gave me. If you want to see the entire post please go to darleneshodgepodge.blogspot.com/

I wish I knew the trick of making links in the comment column. Alas , it is one of the many things I have yet to learn.

Nonetheless, I do want to thank you for the award, Chris.

7 MAY 2010 20:59
popps said...
Darlene i'll be rushing over to have a look and check out all the blogs you have given the award too.
here is your link live.
http://darleneshodgepodge.blogspot.com/2010/05/e-mail-surprises.html