Jakartass Home thoughts from abroad. Alien thoughts from home.

According to an article in the New Scientist which is being quoted widely by linguists, this Mundari word apparently means ‘the sensation of suddenly realising you can do something reprehensible and no-one is there to witness it‘.

If I were to write about all the corrupt politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats and police now being named and shamed – which I won’t because I really don’t have time to write another book – that would be a good title.

All I do have time for is to direct you to the results of the 2010 Bulwer-Lytton Contest.

Since 1982 the English Department at San Jose State University has sponsored the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.

The rule of this contest is simple: write a single sentence, preferably not more than 50 words, which is the opening paragraph of a novel.

This, my current favourite, has a hint of the rawa-dawa about it.

As Ethel arranged the list of company phone numbers under her clear plastic desk cover, perfectly aligning the lower right corner of the list with the lower right corner of the plastic, then swiveled her chair to file one more inter-office memorandum on trimming the budget, she considered how different her life might have been if her parents had named her Tiffany.