You’re right. My mind is elsewhere.

Half a century or half a millennium?

There were always people like that around, though, weren’t there.

Before the Internet they would rely on Chinese whispers.

You have these conversations with the missus? Give me a shout if she’s ever free.

Many of his novels are about forgeries, especially that old and notorious one, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

And just my gut feeling, but everything started to be a ‘conspiracy’ when people with 5 minutes worth of Googling knowledge try to pass on things as fact.

There are loads of fringe sites out there with a cult following and lots of pseudo-science that would easily fool the uncritical.

I mean honestly, I ran across the ‘Iraq had weapons of WMD was a lie’ one twice today already. Yet every major intelligence agency believed Iraq did have them, and Iraq used biological and chemical weapons against Iran in the Iran-Iraq war.

But everyone now pretends to know better because they get a few sentences from brainyquote.com or whatever.

Italy has created a virtual reality generated by TV programmes. Most successful Italian people, graduate and leave.

Just what I was saying to the missus…..ahem

Kif tista’ ma tidħaqx?

Italian culture = repeating the same things for 400 years

Italian food = cooking the same recipes for 200 years

Italian clothes = reworking the same five patterns for 50 years

Italian music = variations of Lucio Dalla for 40 years

Italian fiction = Andrea Camilleri is the best known outside Italy

Italian art = what went wrong?

And then when things don’t move forward they blame the Mafia.