What ho, world. Blessay or blissertation number three coming up in a moment. It has taken me a little longer than I had hoped to furnish the site with its third upload. There are reasons and I shall go through them quickly.
Why So Late? My first blog entry, Devices and Desires (see below) went some way towards expressing my extreme passion for things digital. It resulted in a very charming enquiry from the Guardian newspaper in London. Would I be interested in providing a weekly column on the subject of the gadget, the electronic doo-dad and the world of the gismoidal? I thought about this longish and hardish.
I wrote newspaper columns through much of the eighties and nineties, and enjoyed it greatly. But for all kinds of reasons I was more than happy to retire. Feeling stale, tiring of the deadlines, hating myself for manufacturing cheap, easy rants – the line of least resistance when you rack your brains for weekly copy is to think of something you hate. That way lies the death of the soul IM(not so)HO. All those feature columns with titles like J’Accuse, Bile, Spleen and so on. Nasty. Won’t Do. It all came to a head when an editor called me up and asked if I could do a “1200 word hate piece on Christmas”. Not a blush, not a murmur of apology. Time to reach for my hat and streak for the horizon, I felt. Plus, by this time I was pretty deeply into … ah, but wait, that’s for the main body of the blessay.
Anyway, the upshot of my longish and hardish thinking the other day was to reply with a ‘yes’. Five hundred or so words a week for the Saturday Guardian on the subject of geeky dorky toys, digital advances, lordly overviews of the online scene – just my bag. The ‘lead times’ for these magazines are bizarrely long, so I’ve had to provide a longer introductory article and the first two columns proper in advance. The writing of them has kept me from my blog table.
At the same time I have finished shooting the second series of Kingdom and now find myself in the United States of America on Day One of a great adventure: filming in every state of the union for a BBC documentary. My mode of transport of choice is a black London cab.
American Sunrise I was possibly the first person in America to see the sun this morning.
There’s a proud boast. I was standing on the harbour wall at Eastport, Maine staring out across the bay at a beautiful, beautiful sunrise. Eastport, Maine styles itself the easternmost city in America. The Lowestoft of the USA, if you will. There didn’t seem to be anyone else around so I allowed myself to believe that I was indeed the first to see the sun rise in America that day.
I took a picture to commemorate the event.
The land you see on the horizon there is actually Canada, where she twists round the topmost corner of Maine at Passamaquoddy Bay, so the picture is taken from as far east as you can go in the USA. Actually, that’s a moot point. Part of Alaskan territory (now water rather than ice) actually crosses the dateline or Antimeridian so in theory Alaska can be called the easternmost and westernmost state in America which is rather naughty of it, but there you are.
Meanwhile, back in Maine on the first day of my documentary filming, the Motel East, where the crew and I are staying, may be out of range of cellular phones but, mirabile dictu, it has wi-fi, so I am able to send this to my site. We start the actual filming this afternoon. I shall be hauling in lobster pots and looking stylish in a sou’wester. That’s the idea anyway. Probably heaving my guts up over the taff-rail, if they have such a thing.
I really enjoy making documentaries. Fearsome hard work, but deeply satisfying. After Manic Depression, HIV/AIDS and the life and work of Gutenberg (yet to be shown on BBC4 some time later in the year I think) a jaunt around every state of America may seem rather trivial or self-indulgent, but I hope that won’t be how it comes across. America is important. We have seen perhaps a little too much of British people going over to sneer at rednecks, laugh at freaks and wring their hands at nutters. The America I’ve visited (and I’ve crossed it before in traditional fashion; shiny red Mustang convertible, diner to diner, motel to motel. Very Bruce Dern) have always seemed to me to be more than ordinarily kind, friendly, hospitable, polite, thoughtful and honourable. Well, I’m visiting with an open mind but that has been my experience thus far. Maine for four nights, then New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York… you get the idea.
Canzonett – re: Finn Crisps – you know, I’ve found that Finns tend to make really addictive things. Crisps, gadgets, music… if they ever set their sights on world domination, we’re all doomed. -]
(What on earth is “nota ceterum melius”?)
Le quote:
“It’s possible I will live longer (but so possible too that I’ll keel over or be run over or stabbed or poisoned anyway and then what will have been the point of living the joyless life?)”
The point being that you would still have brought joy to so many. And I’m so excited to officially hear that you have stopped smoking. BRAVO!
AxmxZ: *imagines Stephen on the run from “Cops”, legging it through backyards, tumbling over fences, being unceremoniously GLOMPED by strong, rugged policemen, handcuffed, sweaty, dirty, panting, hot.
Now I need a cigarette.
Fryphile, you insensitive, *insensitive* boy.
He’s just quit cigarettes, and here you are flaunting your indulgence. -}
Glad you’re enjoying yourself in Maine, O Stephen. I just want to ask – when you do your tour of New York, might you consider coming to Syracuse? It’s a good example of a small rust-belt city, and it is the perfect place to learn about an American oddity, the upstate-downstate rivalry. There are many students at the university (including myself) who come from the New York metropolitan area, quite unaware that this is only a small part of the state. But I wouldn’t be asking you to come to Syracuse for my own personal benefit. Oh no. How dare you accuse me of that. I would never. (ahem)
Well, we all know what Fryphile’s addiction is … My Finnish favourites are the more melancholy of Tove Jansson’s Moomin books (especially “Moominpappa at Sea”) and Toivo Kuula’s “Auringon noustessa” – http://vokalisten.ch/vocal/mp3/Toivo%20Kuula%20Auringon%20noustessa%20mp3%20P.mp3 . A sunrise sung by a choir.
“Ncm” – my weak and embarrassing attempt of imitating Cato the Elder in comparative mode.
I hope you like your stay in my home state of New Hampshire. It’s a generally quite, but genuinely nice place.
Very pretty song. I’m no connoisseur of chorals, though; my tastes run towards the melodically raucous. -]
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8NLjC2k96IM
I’ve never smoked a day in my life, but I do sort of enjoy the smell of a good cigar. Pipe smoke as well.
Being borderline asthmatic, these aren’t the best of pleasures. Then again, I don’t exactly seek them out; they nonetheless find me from time to time.
You need to find yourself a healthy addiction. Start hugging every person you meet. It’s not physically harmful, and you can amuse yourself with the quizzical looks you keep getting. Actually, you English tend to be so reserved I imagine it would be more funny over there than here in the USA… but you’re free to start while you’re here.
I’ll watch for the Frycab here in Illinois.
A delightfully real grasp of sugar enduced highs(something I’m glad to hear people aside from myslef have encountered as well). I must say I do rather wish I could dash over to the United States at just the right time to spot your cab Stephen, you are somewhat of a role model for me. As this is my first comment on your blog, I should also congratulate you on the wonderfull website.
I think you are in some way related to my wife. Like you, she is also no longer 15, and yet the sweetie habit remains. She has insisted on one of these for Christmas and thought you might like one too: http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/retro-sweet-hamper/inde
Queen Oblivia –
As a fellow Portlander, I couldn’t resist asking what company you are in. I have several friends in the theater scene in town.
Dear Stephen,
On behalf of the parsnip growers associations of Europe I would like to thank you for drawing the amazing possiblities of this lovely vegetable to the consumer’s attention at exactly the right moment, prior to the oncoming winter harvest. We expect your suggestions will augment sales of parsnips this winter by about 10%.
On behalf of the parsnip growers associations of Europe,
Yours sincerely
Penny in Amsterdam
I’ve just read your Grauniad piece. With regard to your readership expectations … You state:” If I had a grain of rice for every minute I have spent watching a progress bar over the years, I would be able to make you all a bowl of kedgeree.”
Well … I thought I’d work it out with the following assumptions:
(1) A bowl of kedgeree to contain 100g of rice (and therefore about 600 grains)
(2) 24 years looking at a progress bar (the total time since you bought a Mac)
You’ve got enough kedgeree for 21,038 readers… give or take the odd vegetarian.
It struck me that you deserve more readers than that. Or perhaps you meant that you would make a single bowl of kedgeree – and let us fight over it. That would be realistic, I suppose.
Thank you so much, Mr Stephen Fry, for reminding me of my passion for sweeties and cigarettes…I am currently raiding the kids’ reward jar as an advance on my completing my work before a deadline, sans cigarette. I applaud your resolve…and deplore my complete lack of it! Thank you for a lovely little collection of blessays…what a pleasant diversion in this space. Happy travels; stay well.
Welcome to the Colonies!! Please be careful in the Bible Belt, they don’t take intelligence laying down. I found something from someone else on my flist, and thought you would enjoy it.
http://www.freerice.com/index.php
It is highly addictive, and helps mankind.
Thanks for your posts, I like seeing things from the Frypoint of view.
Stephen,
I am in exactly the same place as you. Not Maine, actually, I’m in Indiana. But anyway, the same place addiction-wise.
Forty-seven years old and still at it. Starts with food, then cigarettes, booze, drugs, sex, shopping, in that order. Always, always starts and ends with food. Weight up and down all my life. Misery, tragedy, therapy, anti-depressants, relationships, 12-Step groups. And here I am again, with a new therapist, going over old ground. I’m not suicidal, but have “fantasies of non-existence” as the professionals call them. No more cigs, booze, or drugs. Sex with one partner for over a decade. Now the final devil is my first and best friend: food.
How DULL. How suburban. Next I’ll be wearing a sweatshirt with a kitty on it. I used to be this sexy, exciting, punk-rock rebel. Now I’m just a fat, middle-aged woman who eats too much.
Anyway, thank you for the writing. I have loved you awhile and continue to love you the more I learn about you. The more alike I find us, the less surprised I am at my immediate and intense affection for you the first time I saw “Fry and Laurie.”
Good luck on your American tour. If you plan to come to Indianapolis, send my husband an email (efinch@youngandlaramore.com) and he’ll send you his quirky “Things to do” list that will give you ideas on places to go that are more fun than the usual.
@AxmxZ: How about some ugly and disgusting fake Finns? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4eopRBtFdg
Otherwise try the robbers’ song from “Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=991Qfj7LpwI
Music can be powerful and highly addictive indeed, as can be literary texts. Think of Werther. Think of Dante’s Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta. Luckily, most of my personal addictions are only temporary and tend to fade after some weeks’ time. About a decade ago, I used to listen to Mendelssohn’s Elias in every spare minute. I still think I could spontaneously join any choir and sing it by heart, if so requested …
A wonderful blessay! It raised a smile not only because of the main theme but also because the mention of your black taxi reminded me of my little sister’s first trip to London. Having seen your episode of Who Do You Think You Are, she was convinced that every single black cab that passed us on the street must have been driven by you.
Just to qualify this, she has been born and raised in Bury St. Edmunds (in the shadow of the lofty silos and down wind of unholy stink of the Sugar Beet Factory) and as you well know Bury exists in it’s own lovely little picturesque bubble away from the world. She had no reason to think that a black cab in London could possibly be driven by anyone else!
Dear Sir,
It is the time of David Pogue to collect his personal effects as Stephen becomes my favourite tech journo (I just discovered with delight the Guardian column). Leo Laporte should be watching his back!
Thank you for ongoing illumination, chapeau ! Encore !
Ian
Mr. Fry
Beautiful Blessay,
i do not smoke, yet i see the affect on my friends and their pleasure from it, but since the age for selling cigarettes has gone up, i am now seeing their struggle in giving up. so i congratulate you wholesomely in giving up.
That sunrise is truly beautiful.
i can’t wait fro your next Blessay.
@Canzonett:
Re: R.I.P. ULI – oh, good Lord. =XD And I thought Russians tended to be cruel in their representations of Finno-Ugrics. (A popular spoof of Lord of the Rings turned Legolas Estonian and had him sttutteerr ovveerr evverry worrdd seevveerrall ttimmeess ovveerr.)
What on earth is “Ratiriti ralla” etc. supposed to mean, do you know? Or is it just gibberish?
Re: “Ronja, the Robber’s Daughterâ€: cute song, but as much as I like Swedish, it’s just not the same as hearing Finnish. (Although I do love silliness like Basshunter mixes, “Sommartider,” etc
I should re-read the book – it’s been ages since I read Lindgren.
>About a decade ago, I used to listen to Mendelssohn’s Elias in every spare minute. I still think I could spontaneously join any choir and sing it by heart, if so requested …
See, this is where I envy you; I can listen to anything any number of times and remember it well enough, but reproducing voice music is out of the question – couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket.
((We seem to have hijacked Mr. Fry’s thread. I hope he doesn’t mind.))
Mr Fry,
Thank you for yet another window into your soul. I always love your writing as it feels you are pouring your heart out for us to read.
I fear that I’ll be looking for a black cab now. I appreciate this documentary you are making about the US. I have watched as much BBC television as I can get ahold of over here and every time they come to America or portray Americans, it makes me sad the small portion of our society that is being represented.
I was watching an episode of Top Gear where they traveled from Miami to New Orleans. They were discribing Florida as being deep south and they ate road kill. I have lived in Florida all my life and Florida may be the southern most state in the continental US but it is not culturally southern. So many people come to Florida from all over the continent, not even the country as there are many Canadians that come down here to live, that Florida has its own unique culture that incorporates all the cultures of those that have come here.
I hope when you document Florida, you travel all around it. Because the culture that you experience will depend on what section of Florida you are in and what interstate you are near.
If you find yourself in Tampa, please stop by University of South Florida. There are at least a handful of students here who are huge fans.
Ah, now I’m almost scared I wont be able to write without the aid of a cliche
cig dried onto the corner of my mouth, hunching over a keyboard…
Maybe i can chew a pencil, much healthier i expect,
although there is always lead poisoning.
I wonder quietly to myself whether leaving a reply to every blog post has any point, since mine will be the 223rd so far and not even an unemployed, unaddicted, unfamous person (lame finish there, but I’m ready for bed and some lovely Fry-read Potter) would have the time or indeed the inclination to read every one. On the other hand, even a small mention of appreciation for the interactivity between blogger (or blessayist) and reader-responders sets me all aglow and causes me to feel good for adding my drop to the ocean.
As for addictions, reading about all that makes me desperate for a cup of tea. It occurs to me what enormous strength of mind it must take to kick an addiction, let alone several addictions. I, on a lesser scale, am a collector and seem to have a mild (very mild) addiction to surrounding myself with things. Particularly old things. I’ve never smoked (including cannabis), haven’t enjoyed sweets since I was about 12, wouldn’t go near coke (or Coke either, horrible stuff) and, aside from tea, don’t really get enough of a kick out of anything to make it worth being addicted to. Perhaps I wish I did.
I do tend to get intense obsessions. For two and a bit years I was obsessed with the Beatles. I get fixated on periods of history (Jeeves and Wooster started my 1920s phase, for example, and I wrote a novel-length daydream about going back in time to 1959, starting when I was 17). But my obsessions don’t seem to last. Two and a bit years is the longest one. For weeks or months they rule my life, one at a time, and drive almost everything I do. I become passionate about whatever it is at a given time, drive everybody mad, and then suddenly loose interest completely. Then life looses meaning a bit until the next obsession. It’s often, embarrassingly, actors. I’ve seen all but the two most obscure of Mel Gibson’s films (the one’s he’s in, of course, not those he’s ‘directed’). That was a big one too.
My question is this: how closely linked are my obsessions to addiction? Is it the same part of the brain that drives these things, or something?
Without an obsession, I tend to float around without focus, and without one of these meaningless, random purposes to life I just don’t feel as happy. And I tend to collect more, buy more, perhaps searching for my next obsession.
Mr Fry, is, in fact, the object of a small obsession at the moment. Small on the scale of my obsessions, that is. Perhaps thanks are due. I know what to get from the library, what to search for on YouTube, which films to seek out on DVD. I am inspired to brush up on languages, write more, read more. Without an obsession I would simply wander around and wonder what to do next.
So there you are, Stephen (may I call you Stephen? I don’t like to presume that because you’re famous we must automatically be on first name terms, though you may of course use mine (what a silly notion)). You, whose blessay on addiction has inspired mine on obsession, are the object of my current (and don’t worry – very mild) obsession and therefore responsible for giving my life it’s temporary but much-needed direction and focus, and for that I thank you.
And now everyone will think I’m a bit of a sad git for needing a celeb to chase around in order for my life to have meaning. I would think the same, were it not me. But hey. There you have it.
Afterword: actually, it’s not so much an obsession with Fry as with things Fry-related, Fry-connected, Fry-ish. A Fry-theme with which to decorate my current lifestyle. God, this is sounding worse and worse. I must stop and go to bed before I dig myself into a hole.
I searched for “Blog” on Google. Your blog was in the top 10, which is very good off such a keyword. I like the taxi, very cool that you have a black cab, in America.
I watch QI when it’s on ‘DAVE’ only in britain could you have a channel called ‘DAVE’. When the new ones are aired on BBC these get a watch also. I do think you give Alan a lot of stick but sometimes he deserves it so I can see why.
I thought you were splendid, or as I now say thanks to TV marketing “SPLENDIP,” in black adder goes fourth.
I read an article in Mac Format that you are a Mac buff yourself. I was wondering if you have upgraded to the new operating system, Leopard yet? It’s very cool, I upgraded when it came out on Friday. I’ve spent my weekend playing around with the new features, unfortunately I have the dreaded Man-flu it would seem so I’ve had no choice but to ‘nerd it large!’
Imagine… Being addicted to hitting yourself on the head with a parsnip! That’s the sort of rubbish, addiction that I’d get drawn into.
SPLENDIP!
Hi saw you speak in West Hampstead library about years ago – super top entertaining night thanks. Just wondered if you have made any investigation in to idea of promoting literacy via the internet? Am newly addicted Digital bod – looking fwd to your column in the Guardian – and and am also in total agreement with the point you made in West H about the importance of literature and the promotion of ideas. Given child and teenage uptake of messaging, facebook etc perhaps an opportunity to get them reading again??? Re. Digital addiction – am whiling away a wet Sun pm blogging Stephen Fry whilst listening to Bob Dylan DJ on his US radio show via Radio 6 download to my laptop. Bob has just quoted Dorothy Parker as an intro to playing David Bowie´s Rock and Roll Suicide. Does it GET any better than this???!!! Have a splendid day.
Do you think that there is any such thing as semi-bipolar disorder ?
Dearest Stephen,
So pleased was I to read your latest blog. You seem to have expressed very clearly through your ramblings on confectionary, something which my Dad coined ‘Fudgey Dribble’. When I first moved to University in London (The same university of which you are a chairman I am pleased to note), I was overcome with addictions. Particularly tea and cheesecake at the Ritz. I am informed that a cocaine habit would have less of an impact on my student loan, however in both cases I would eventually suffer some tooth decay and ill health, so I guess it is swings an roundabouts with any propensity.
I have not yet met any one with a leaning towards raspberries, or carrots. Maybe this is the true test of an addictive personality. Addictions to all things boring and healthy!
I also seem to remember you mentioning once that you would walk along the tops of buildings. For me too this became a sort of addiction, often doing this and other foolish behaviours when I felt like testing my limits. I am comforted that another in this world had the same inclinations. I think you should find some sort of solace in the fact that you are choosing to live frivolously than not at all.
As a bipolaroid myself, I must say a thousand congratulations on giving up the drugs! You are an inspiration Mr. Fry, if it is not too bold of me to say so (and I do hope these presciptions are giving you too many side effects).
Well done on the cigarettes- it’s twenty years now since the last Marlboro glowed for me- and still the passing scent of a newly lit cigarette turns my head. I also have given up sweets and chocolate in an attempt to keep my weigh in check… but I gave in the other day on seeing Wispa bars. The guilty pleasure! The joy! I wonder what the equivalent cigarette temptation would be- Passing Clouds or Black Russian perhaps. Ah well, here’s to another rice cake and a slim line tonic.
I wonder if you would do us a little favor and update us on your location in the US? (Personally, I’d like to hear when you’ll be in Maryland or Washington, DC.) But in any case, I’ll be looking out for you, just in case!
Though I feel it, there is no possibility of expressing emotional content in this medium, so I shall just mention that Washington DC is nice in the autumn, and has presently mounted a large Turner exhibition.
Good luck with the non smoking.
Please keep this blog up – just read your bit in the Guardian, and looking forward to the regular column.
For the record, I’m an IT professional, and I consider you and your column the ant’s ankles, as do all my friends. (We might even use our IT resources to get U.S. access to your admirable quiz show, would that not be wrong.) When the first essay came out, the link whizzed around the email loop with cries of “Look! Stephen Fry Gets It!”
Thank you for taking the time to write such intelligent and witty “blissertations”. They take a long time to do properly (“properly” does not begin to approach an adequate adverb for your “blessays”).
They are also much more personal that a newspaper column and you write about your personal life so openly. In these days of spin and focus groups, an honest, personal essay is a breath of fresh air.
Your efforts are much appreciated.
[...] I the last person to hear that Stephen Fry is filming a BBC series where he travels the U.S. and devotes each episode to a different state? If so, forgive me for a [...]
I cannot wait for the show to be shown on TV, but until then we have to satisfy ourselves with his past shows. On our little blog we founded Stephen Fry Appreciation Day. Come check us out!
http://www.couchslobs.com/
Don’t try the butter!
When I visited Maine we went to a little lobster shack on the water. They gave us “fake butter” to dip our lobster in. Best avoided if possible (the “butter”, the lobster was fine, if a little undernourished).
Well, that looks a lot nicer than watching the sunrise at Lowestoft, which isn’t a particularly pleasant experience.
Also, congratulations on the best blog I’ve read in quite a while.
Well done for giving all that up! And I’m glad you didn’t use the “SuperSmoker”(.com), because they just look thoroughly rediculous and their ads are terrible.
So, well done, that’s all I wanted to say. Keep off the cigs and the drugs and good luck on the sugar thing. That’s one thing I’m never going to stop with. Well, I’m also not going to stop smoking and doing drugs, but that’s just because I’ve never started them…
Oh, and I love the word ‘blessay’, and will use it as much as possible in the future.
For those who haven’t found the Guardian column yet, here’s the link…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2198814,00.html
Per my previous comment,
http://stephenfry.com/blog/?p=21#comment-886
I think Stephen would enjoy using one of the new Sony Readers as he travels round the US/world. It saves so much WEIGHT in my bag, and its a digital device, so I can’t think why it wouldn’t appeal to him. I recommend he drop into a Borders, BestBuy or SonyStyle store to pick one up…
So, you’re gracing each and every state in the union with your presence, eh? Alaska? In winter?? In the bravery race you’re besting me by at least a short head. Wrap up warm and don’t forget the anti-freeze for the cab – a wealthy family friend once tried to ship a beautiful Rolls Royce across the pond to New York, neglected the anti-freeze, and failed to realise that the ship’s route took it through the Arctic Circle. Bye-bye engine block.
So, don’t be that guy and have a fun trip. This Englishman will keep a look out for the cab – camera at the ready – when you reach the Pacific Northwest!
hux
Ah, now I’m remembering those wonderful school field trips to the Hershey and Jelly Belly factories when I was a kid… what bliss.
A great book on chocolate and the rise of the American candy industry is Candyfreak by Steve Almond.
Hi
You currently have 229 comments to this entry, so I’m not kidding myself that you’re even going to read this, but a few things struck me after reading your “blessay” that I feel I have to say.
My first reaction to reading the above comments is what a sad state the world is in when every person offers such a similar and generic response. “Well done”. “Congratulations”. It seems that everyone has forgotten how to live. People seem so pleased that you’ve found a way to make your life a less fun place to be. As if there weren’t enough ways to get depressed as it is, we seem to be actively sucking the joy out of our existence. And you’re an artist. Forgive me if I seem naive here, but to me an artist is someone who defies convention; someone who doesn’t do things for the easy and dependable gratitude of the simple masses. Taking the route of quitting a “bad” habit might seem like the more difficult and arduous one, but when it’s over you live out the rest of your life floating along the surface with utter predictability. An artist – someone who thrives on the flair and spontaneity in life – surely cannot be happy with this kind of superficial existence.
It is easy to play the victim in life. So easy that some seem addicted to it. People will offer you their sympathy and congratulate you for being “strong”, for “pulling through” and spout endless tripe about the “moral highground”. Truth is that this life is just a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim. To keep acting as if something else is to blame – an attribute, a disease, an addiction – is just a failure to take responsibility for ones own actions.
I’m not trying to undermine your achievements. I’ve never tried to do some of the things you’ve achieved and your successes are too many to count. It sometimes seems, especially in (naturally) self-indulgent blogs such as this, that a little perspective is needed at times.
I’m a great admirer of your work. Much love to you Mr Fry
Roman
x
PS
It greatly brightened up my day to read at the bottom of this page that “Stephen Fry is proudly powered by WordPress”. Is this another addiction perhaps? I wonder what you’d be like in the morning without your daily dose of WordPress.
x
Mr Fry, You’ve been such a good boy giving up smoking why not treat yourself to a few sweeties. They have chocolate cigarettes AND Spanish tobacco! (http://www.sweetieworld.co.uk)
Oh, the joy of drugs. (Which suddenly throws me of track a bit, I just remembered something that amused me somewhat. When I was a child I spent far too much time in the local library. It’s not as if my parents didn’t have books. Compared to other families I was already living in a library. But there was more at the library. On the left hand side was the children’s library. A dreadful place, filled with book about children endlessly eating. I don’t know what was wrong with Enid Blyton, but she certainly suffered from a literary form of bulimia. On the right hand side however – lo and behold; heaven on earth. Row after row of ugly bookcases filled to the brim with endless delights. Also books on boring subjects such as tax law and taxidermy but I wasn’t picky. In that library I found a book called “The joy of sex”. I must have been about 8 or possibly 9 and I had certainly seen naked people before. But not quite like this. And it just struck me that there should have been a “The joy of drugs”. I ended up reading my mother’s complete set of Castaneda instead which didn’t quite give me accurate idea of what to expect. But I digress. Obviously.)
What I was going to say was this; I have quit many things in my life. Some of them more than once, including smoking. Nothing was as hard as nicotine. (This is not quite accurate, I only tried methamphetamines once and I will never ever do that again because the experience afterwards was like the worst depression I have ever been through. A drug to stay well away from children. It is most certainly bad for you. Doing it once however does not qualify it here so I just mention it in passing. Right. On we go. Nothing more to see here.) Well, I still haven’t tried quiting caffeine and I dread the day when I will give it a go. Because I know I will. Everything good must at some point come to an end. Moderation is an interesting idea but excess is so much more interesting.
Your blog’s lovely, Mr. Fry. I had to pop by and tell you I absolutely love your book ‘The Ode Less Travelled,’ and also to apologize, in advance, if it results in any actual poetical output from me. I give you my earnest promise, I shall never tell anyone you influenced me. There now, your reputation is preserved.
Best,
Lisa
Hi
I have stumbled on this blog at a time when I am trying to give up a smoking habit of around 35 years. I have been thinking about giving up for a long while and have tried a couple of times with a total lack of success. A recent mild heart attack has gives me more motivation to give up and I am currently involved in a 7-10 day program based on the book ‘Overcoming Your Smoking Habit: A self-help guide using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques’ (now there’s a snappy title) by David F. Marks.
While it is clearly too early to judge my success, what appeals to me about the program is that there is nothing ‘magical’ about it – it explores the nature of addiction – and the smoking habit in particular – and offers a way of training yourself to not want or need to smoke: not relying on anyone else, but also not relying on willpower alone (indeed the book spends some time discussing why attempting to quit using willpower alone is quite likely to fail, even for fairly strong-willed people).
I hope that others trying to quit may find this book useful – it is available from popular online bookshops and the ISBN is 1-84529-067-4
Regards
Pete
PS I have very much enjoyed reading the blessays and the new guardian column.
Oh Stephen, dear boy, you’re not whingeing at all – you’ve just covered all of your readers, in many if not all stages of their lives.
I can relate to the tuckshop thing, for example. I used to have periods of about six weeks at a time when a particular sweet item was paramount; it might have been chocolate, then toffee; sherbet fruits (my current problem!) or mint imperials; I now need to suck when driving, having done the smoking thing too; whereas you had smoking and writing as soulmates, with me it was smoking and driving.
May I also, belatedly and boringly, offer my own thanks for such a wonderful opportunity to feel at least acquainted with someone who has, and does, provide so many happy moments of mirth and provoked thought. I too look forward to the two new series, and many more blessays. Will you perchance seek out the lesser speckled Laurie on your travels in the States? That would be an interesting interlude.
Lovely to “be in touch”, so to speak. Good health,
Andy
Maurinsky — Shady Glen! I remember that place! Now I want some fried cheese…
Stephen: I’m sure your through my, uh, lovely state of Connecticut by now, so I hope you enjoy your trip!
Thank you for the entry, it was, once again, wonderful.
Do you have a travel reading list? I’d be curious to know what’s on it.
As sweets are to you, toast is to me….
Aaaaaah lovely toast, with marmite, olive tapenade, blackberry jam, baked beans, tomatoes, cheese, tofutti, houmous or honey….
(never had all those at once I have to say)
Raise a toast to toast,
made with gorgeous hand crafted bread or with cheap sugary white sandwich loaf,
Toast is the food of the gods….
I’m off now to partake of a slice or two
from the staff of life to the heavenly host
whether light or well done
nothing beats toast!!! C xxx