Authors and Names

Last night I dreamed that I had a pleasant, positive conversation with my brother Roger.

Could this be at all related to the fact that I'm rereading Roger Zelazny's Amber books, and yesterday evening read the part in The Hand of Oberon where Corwin has a positive conversation with Julian, who he never previously got on with? Probably. But it's part of a trend of dreamed positive conversations with people from my past who I've had conflict with. (One of them was another Roger, Roger Osbaldiston; another was Rachael, just the other night.)

The name Roger has cropped up a bit lately. It's the name of the guy who trained me as a hypnotherapist. It's also the name of an undisciplined child who contributed to Cityside's Easter service being very difficult for me (I was struggling at the time, ironically, with being "devoiced" by my family, so the fact that the child's parents were doing nothing to quiet him while he was speaking loudly across the people leading the litugy...)

And speaking of authors and names: In Terry Pratchett's Maskerade, the publisher of the Diskworld Almanack (and Nanny Ogg's suggestive cookbook, The Joye of Snackes) is a Mr Goatberger. I realized, of course, that this grasping, profiteering publisher was a satire directed against publishers Pratchett has had to deal with, but I only just got the name. Mumble it a bit. Put an extra "r" on the end. If you still haven't got it, reflect: The goat probably wishes it was a hedgehog. (And if you don't get that, read Maskerade - it's hilarious.)

Painting your wall with a hairbrush

Probably because I've recently mentioned my ill-fated experience with Campus Crusade on I-would-knife-fight-a-man, I dreamed last night that I was discussing the flaws of their "one approach for all situations" philosophy with Roger Osbaldiston, who trained with me and is now the NZ national director, and (for some reason) my friend Shane Gaughan from Swanson Primary School. After I woke up I thought of the phrase "painting your wall with a hairbrush".

By the way, Shane, if you come across this by some oddity, I'd like to know how you're getting on - leave a comment or sign up on OldFriends or something.