1. Alec and I step out into the wet afternoon sun, blinking in the glare and sneezing at the smell of wet pavements.
2. For supper, Nick has made a chicken pie; Bettany has made a watermelon basket.
3. On the MOOC I'm working through, they show newsreel footage of the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940. The suspension bridge deck ripples like a ribbon (as the voiceover says), and there is some cognitive dissonance in watching it, not to mention the apparently calm demeanour of the motorist who abandons his car halfway over and strolls towards the camera.