March 2020 – Jack Sanger

If we were more like eels

A while back I wrote an adoring blog about a meal I had in Paris which began with smoked eel, a rarer delicacy in England than France. Now I discover that the creature is, like too many species of animal, plant, fish and bird suffering huge losses in its numbers. What to do? My life… Know More
Read more: If we were more like eels
Mondo Cane: it’s a dog’s life

We keep two or three dogs in the compound here in Accra. They run freely, are well behaved and well trained. Everything they do (in the main) is in the best possible doggie taste. But, as you may remember from a recent blog, two died, leaving old Heracles, a grey muzzled Alsatian cross. He is… Know More
Read more: Mondo Cane: it’s a dog’s life
Gain without pain

Someone wrote to me the other day and said that I seem to have a hatred of believers. I suppose some of these blogs could be seen that way but the intention has never been to demean people, only try to understand why they believe. I certainly have a dislike for organised religion which seems… Know More
Read more: Gain without pain
Three Men in a Boat

Here is the image of the front cover of a new novel. It is also part of a tale of synchronicity. Three or four decades ago (my mind is sharp on image and blurry on time) you would have found three men with a modicum of middle age adorning their skin, sitting in an old… Know More
Read more: Three Men in a Boat
Sad but true

I am becoming a scholar of the early Catholic Church, a curious fact, given my distress and anger at what organised religion can and does get up to. Anyway, the latest fruit of my labours (apple shaped since it involves knowledge that the early orthodox Christians tried to place beyond mortal ken) is the Seven… Know More
Read more: Sad but true
God and the Fortune Tellers

Having just returned this weekend to Ghana, I watched a History Channel programme on Nostradamus and his modern equivalent, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita. Who is he? Well, heâ€™s a mathematician who has a futurological algorithm which suggests prediction of events involving humanity is possible. Paid handsomely by Fortune 500 and the State Department for his… Know More
Read more: God and the Fortune Tellers
Obituary for The Ancient Mariner

My friend Sean, poet and translator of the Greek into the Irish, sent me an email today regarding footballers who cross themselves at the beginning of matches. Sean wonders what gross perversion of morality has them praying for a hat trick rather than for the millions who will die from starvation in the oncoming months.… Know More
Read more: Obituary for The Ancient Mariner
Christians awake!

The other night I watched a Derren Brown special on demystifying magic and miracles. For anyone who does not know this entertainer, he produces illusions of consummate skill. Where others might saw a woman in half, Derren Brown would quarter her, where others might suspend themselves in shackles from a rope, he would do it… Know More
Read more: Christians awake!
Is God a Diagnostic Molecular Imager?

Well, He, She or It seems to be a prevailing theme for many of these blogs. God. Does He, She, It exist? How do we know? Does the knowledge liberate us or further constrain our paltry attempts to be free agents beyond the scheme of an all-seeing Fate? It’s a good week for God doubters.… Know More
Read more: Is God a Diagnostic Molecular Imager?
I Should Cocoa

When I wrote the title for this piece, it occurred to me that most of my readership (which is truly multi-national) would not understand its nuances. The phrase I should cocoa means that you are not going to do something, whatever someone has asked of you (see the following explanation). It is rhyming slang and… Know More
Read more: I Should Cocoa

Jack’s Blog