I started balding when I was still a teenager. And yes, we were already familiar with the word teenager even in the 1950s. When my classmates learned of my career intentions they referred to me as “The Tonsure”. That is not a pseudonym I plan to use again in this blog. But at 82, comparing myself with my thinning male contemporaries (number, as well as hair), we have all ended up at a similar point on the hairline front.
The resulting exposure to the sun from an early age, and lack of awareness of the risks, have resulted in considerable difficulties with my skin. My GP calls it “solar keratosis”, my dermatologist “actinic keratoses”. The treatment is one of two three-letter acronyms, but neither the one that probably brought you to this GANTOB blog and associated book. Yesterday, I Destrukted my own copy of the GANTOB re-enactment, to use her terminology. I have since printed out the advance proof that she sent me hours before she was due to press the send button to self-publish the book (though ultimately that task fell to me).
But back to my skin (I am an old person after all – but not The Elderly Gentleman – so I am fuelled by health-related chat). Recently I have taken to wearing a dressing on a vulnerable area at the very top of my head which broke down a couple of weeks into applying the 5FU (despite following the instructions). So, returning to the point where yesterday’s blog (The Sting) left off, I was rather mystified as to how an insect could penetrate the gauze. Reaching up gingerly, my hand brushed against a piece of paper as it drifted towards the ground.
I reached to pick up the litter, that was mine now by association. I stuffed it in my suit jacket pocket. It was only when clearing out all the flyers that I had been handed by fringe promoters that I looked at it again.
Source: Independent
It was different to the other fringe materials. It was a plain piece of paper, of the poor quality now used to save the world’s resources, folded into a paper airplane. It was rather the worse for wear, clearly having been soaked in one of those Edinburgh Fringe flash floods, so the printed ink and the words handwritten in Sharpie scrawl were difficult to read. Nonetheless, I vowed to find out more.
THE BENEFAKTOR
Wednesday 27 September 2023
GANTOB blog 