Just Finished Reading: In Praise of Walking – The New Science of How We Walk and Why It’s Good For Us by Shane O’Mara (FP: 2019) [183pp] 

I’ve walked everywhere all of my life. I guess that part of that was because neither of my parents had learnt to dive and getting anywhere meant on my own two legs. My father was also a great walker. On weekends he’d take my older brother and I on LONG walks (I have clear memories of us kids both complaining and my dad saying – just around the NEXT corner) just about everywhere we could get to. As I grew up poor (but unaware of how poor we were) it was a very cheap day out. I liked it much more than my brother did which is probably why he did learn to drive as soon as possible and bought a car the moment he could afford one. 

We are an unusual species in the way we get around. Whilst other primates CAN walk for short distances and for particular reasons, we can walk mile after mile almost as efficiently as you can get. Through millennia of human evolution we have been designed to walk with minimal effort, and it shows in almost every facet of the human body. Once we learnt to walk (as a species) there was little that could stop us ultimately populating the planet. Distance certainly wasn’t any object. At a slow family pace of just 5km a day can cover 1500km in less than a year. To walk from the west coast of Liberia to the eastern Pacific coast of China – a distance of around 13,590km – would take a mere 9 year amble. So, it's not surprising that we spread far and fast once we started walking. 

The brain is wired to talk and walk. It is just a matter of time before bum shuffling becomes standing with assistance as nonsense words become language. I’m constantly amused when I see new walkers out in the world. I LOVE how indignant they get when a parent scoops them up or tries to persuade them back into their pushchair. They way they look (and complain) says VERY clearly: I learnt to WALK damn it! I’m going to walk everywhere at a snail's pace until I can RUN away from everyone! One thing that did honestly amaze me about toddlers learning to walk is that, on average, they fall something like 17 times an hour! If I did that today, in any other task, I’d have given up a LONG time ago. Toddlers are committed walkers. They’re tenacious! 

Going in I had assumed that it was obvious (and in obvious ways) that walking was good for your general health – cardio and all that. But it doesn’t stop there. Walking is, apparently, important for improving and maintaining your cognitive skills. One of the experiments that stuck out was were two groups of students (as usual) had been given some puzzles to solve. One group sat at a desk whilst the others took the test standing up. The second group scored consistently higher. Get them to take tests whilst walking – any test – and the scores go up again. The old idea of solving a problem by going for a walk has an increasingly understood scientific basis. 

Oh, I almost forgot... There's some pretty cool stuff in here about how we navigate and how to do it better!

For such a thin book this is PACKED with information and insight into an activity I’m sure that most of us take for granted. If you’re a walker already it’ll confirm many of the positive ideas you already have. If you’re a reluctance pedestrian it might change your mind about this simple pleasure with a built-in health benefit. Definitely recommended. You can thank me later.   

OBVIOUSLY fake....! There are..... BOOKS on that trolly/golf cart thing!

Happy Birthday: Robert Arthur Moog (May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American electronics engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthesizer, which debuted in 1964. In 1970, Moog released a more portable model, the Minimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history. Among Moog's honors are a Technical Grammy Award, received in 2002, and an induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

By 1963, Moog had been designing and selling theremins for several years while working toward a PhD in engineering physics at Cornell University. He developed his synthesizer in response to demand for more practical and affordable electronic-music equipment, guided by suggestions and requests from composers. Moog's principal innovation was the voltage-controlled oscillator, which uses voltage to control pitch. He also introduced fundamental synthesizer concepts such as modularity, envelope generation and the pitch wheel. He is credited with introducing synthesizers to a wider audience and influencing the development of popular music.

Moog pursued his work as a hobby, and he is regarded as a poor businessman. His only patent was on his transistor ladder filter design; commentators have speculated that he would have become extremely wealthy had he patented his other innovations, but that their availability in the public domain helped the synthesizer industry flourish.

In 1971, Moog sold Moog Music to Norlin Musical Instruments, where he remained as a designer until 1977. In 1978, he founded the company Big Briar, and in 2002 he renamed it Moog Music after reacquiring the rights to the name. In later years, Moog taught at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and continued designing instruments for the revived Moog Music. He died at the age of 71 in Asheville from a brain tumor.

Just Finished Reading: The Mysterious Mr Quin by Agatha Christie (FP: 1930) [254pp] 

As my reading of Miss Marple’s books seems to have stalled (temporarily!) I was looking around my stacks for another (non-series) Christie to get my teeth into before actually BUYING the next Marple book. So... my gaze fell on this oddity, and ODD it was too! 

Comprising of 12 short stories this was a Christie that I’d never encountered before or was even aware of. The main protagonist in each tale was a Mr Satterthwaite who prided himself on noticing things that other people either missed or ignored. His great hobby was, therefore, watching people. Ever the outsider he compensated by being a consummate observer of humanity and human foibles. Then Christie added another element that was rather unexpected – the occult (for want of a better word) in the guise of Mr Quin. Mr Quin – indeed Mr Harley Quin – is... strange, other-worldly, mysterious. He shows up out of the blue and, without seeming to expend much energy, helps solve problems. These are not always crimes, although often they are or at least crime related. He doesn’t DIRECTLY solve, or indeed do, anything but restricts himself to asking questions and prompting both thought and action – especially from Mr Satterthwaite. I could help but think of Quin as a Dr Who type character – appearing and disappearing without anyone noticing, always in the right (or wrong) place and the right time and very hard to ignore. He makes a point of leading OTHERS to the right solution and never actually provides the answers others seek. One of the other (relatively) strange themes throughout the dozen stories is romance with Quin either bringing people together (who are fated to be such) or enabling those in bad relationships to find the right one. He’s even handed too with BOTH sides of a relationship eventually finding true (or lost) love as well as preventing people from committing suicide with The World’s End being a prime example of that. 

I think that my favourite story was The Man from the Sea which was a combination of lost love/suicide prevention and rather sweet to boot. Others, like The Sign in the Sky, were more normal detective stories revolving around things in plain sight that had been overlooked for some reason leading to the resolution of a mystery or solving of a crime. Overall, this was a fun read with the added spice of being a slice of Christie’s writing I was previously completely unaware of. Recommended for all Agatha Christie fans – but be warned... it can get a bit STRANGE!