Author Archives: Henry Gee

About Henry Gee

Henry Gee is an author, editor and recovering palaeontologist, who lives in Cromer, Norfolk, England, with his family and numerous pets, inasmuch as which the contents of this blog and any comments therein do not reflect the opinions of anyone but myself, as they don't know where they've been.

Scrabbungulate

Posted on 30 January 2021 by Henry Gee

I’m not sure whether either of you know that I am rather fond of Scrabble. I can be found haunting the Internet Scrabble Club under the name of zedwave, (playing Scrabble online with people you know only as nicknames is, … Continue reading →

Posted in addax, anoa, antelope, bok, cottaging, dibatag, dzho, dzo, eland, gaur, gnu, impala, kob, kudu, nilgai, nyala, okapi, oryx, ox, pudu, quagga, saiga, saola, scrabble, Silliness, topi, ungulate, Writing & Reading, yak, zebu, zo | Comments Off on Scrabbungulate

Distrokering

Posted on 26 January 2021 by Henry Gee

You’ll both be aware by now that I’ve been usefully spending time learning how to record music at home, time I’d usually have devoted to live music. I’ve an album-length collection under my belt, and have even started playing music … Continue reading →

Posted in Birdland, Heavy Weather, Lockd Down and Blue, Music, These Are Difficult Times, Weather Report | Comments Off on Distrokering

Brian G. Gardiner (1934-2021)

Posted on 22 January 2021 by Henry Gee

Just a quick post to announce the death of Professor Brian G. Gardiner (1934-2021), communicated to me just now by his son Nick. Brian was a specialist in the evolution of fishes. He was the last surviving member of the … Continue reading →

Posted in brian gardiner, cladistics, colin patterson, dick jefferies, donn rosen, hennig, natural history museum, peter forey, phylogenetic systematics | Comments Off on Brian G. Gardiner (1934-2021)

Passeportout

Posted on 22 January 2021 by Henry Gee

Notwithstanding inasmuch as which nobody can go really go anywhere much, even if they wanted to, which I don’t, I found – quel horreur! –  that my passport was about to expire, imminently, if not sooner, and that failure to … Continue reading →

Posted in Alfred Molina, Apparitions, Carlos the Jackal, legal tender, Omid Djalili, passports, Science - Has It Gone Too Far?, the Brown Queue, travel | Comments Off on Passeportout

Clichecollisional

Posted on 14 January 2021 by Henry Gee

Headline for this story, from the Daily Telegraph‘s landing page: BORIS JOHNSON PLEDGES TO RAMP UP VACCINATION ROLL OUT The italics are mine. Perhaps I am just unusually literal-minded, or oversensitive to cliche, but this seems to mix metaphors such … Continue reading →

Posted in cliche, duckspeak, ramp up, roll out, semantic bleaching, vaccination, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Clichecollisional

Bhooq

Posted on 12 January 2021 by Henry Gee

As I am sure you both know, I have been hard at work on a book. Refractory ‘t’s have yet to be crossed and the final recalcitrant ‘i’s dotted, but time waits for no-one, and as the remorseless schedules of … Continue reading →

Posted in a very short history of life on earth, Christmas 2021, winged horses (metaphorical), Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Bhooq

Studious

Posted on 9 January 2021 by Henry Gee

As you’ll both know by now, playing live music means a lot to me. I’ve been playing live since student days — before — and at times music has been the only thing that’s kept me going. Many of my … Continue reading →

Posted in blues, D C Wilson Band, flabbey road, friendship, home recording, Music, pandemic, voodoo sheiks | Comments Off on Studious

Microeuoi

Posted on 7 January 2021 by Henry Gee

Somewhere in Neal Stephenson‘s sprawling Baroque Cycle, two men are urinating against a wall — and remark on the simple joy of such an action. Both had undergone lithotomy, an operation to remove painful calculi, in their case, bladder stones. … Continue reading →

Posted in Baroque Cycle, bladder stones, COVID-19, diabetes, golden arches, i have spoken, it is the way, jelly babies, life always feels better after a big poo, lithotomy, Neal Stephenson, pandemic, poo-phoria, Samuel Pepys, SARS-CoV2, Science Is Vital, the mandalorian, urination, vagus nerve | Comments Off on Microeuoi

Mmxxery

Posted on 3 January 2021 by Henry Gee

Being the contrarian that I am, I shall defy convention by saying that 2020 has been a year that’ll stand in the anals annals tale of years as historical and transformative. True, millions have suffered, in all sorts of ways, … Continue reading →

Posted in a very short history of life on earth, Apparitions, christmas university challenge, Domesticrox, education, Leeds University, Lockdown, pandemic, Politicrox, SARS-CoV2, Science Is Vital, Science-fiction, vaccine | Comments Off on Mmxxery

Squintlepiece

Posted on 31 December 2020 by Henry Gee

The Turkey City Lexicon is a document from the SF Writers of America that offers advice to would-be authors of science fiction, pointing out the pitfalls that snare the unwary novice. A Pitfall for the Unwary Novice: from https://www.starwars.com/databank/sarlacc A … Continue reading →

Posted in abyss, Apparitions, apple podcasts, Barnaby Kay, brian aldiss, children of the stones, chimera, christopher lee, david wingrove, giant betentacled menace, howard phillips lovecraft, indigo, jana carpenter, joanne froggatt, jonathan forbes, kraken, molluscs of mass destruction, nicola walker, nucula, nyarlathotep, origin, podcast, podcasts, romola garai, royston vasey, sarlacc, science fiction writers of america, Science-fiction, squid on the mantelpice, stone circles, storyglass, tamzin outhwaite, the harrowing, the lovecraft investigations, the piper, tracks, trillion year spree, turkey city lexicon, vincent price, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Squintlepiece