Off Eggs Forever

I am currently reading "Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader" by Anne Fadiman. In an essay entitled The Literary Glutton, she mentioned how reading about eating can sometimes put you off food, and that reminded me of what happened when I read "Lazarillo De Tormes".
When I was in the upper sixth at school I was a prefect, and the prefects' common room was an old green wooden hut, stuck onto the end of the school building. At one end of the hut was a book storeroom, and the prefects used to use it as a private library, as there were novels scattered amongst the textbooks. So one day I happened to borrow "Lazarillo De Tormes", a Spanish picaresque novel, left over from the days when the school actually taught Spanish.

( egg-lovers beware )

Up until reading LdT, I liked eggs. I would often eat egg mayonnaise sandwiches, and eggs florentine (poached egg, spinach, cheese sauce) was one of my favourite meals. But after reading it I went totally off eggs. It took several years before I could eat an omelette or scrambled eggs, and I don't think I've ever eaten an egg mayonnaise sandwich since. I just felt nauseous at the sight of an egg, and even now I have to be in totally the right mood to face eating eggs and they have to look perfect or I'll leave them.

PS: I was trying unsuccessfully to find an English translation of LdT online so that I could quote the offending passage, when I came across this site, which has a library of Spanish literature for free download.

One Word: Container

Containers down at the docks, stacked higher and higher.
Who knows what is in them; you could fit the whole of your life into one container if you were emigrating.

Forteana

In the October edition of Fortean Times, was an article entitled "Twenty-Three Skidoo", about the mystical significance of the number 23. Right at the end of the article, it said that 'the number of felons and victims aged 23 is quite phenomenal'.
A few days after reading this, there was an follow-up item on the radio news about the port of Dover having been shut down because of weapons being found in a car coming in off a ferry, and all three suspects are aged 23 ! That's the first time I've noticed anything like that, but I'll be keeping an eye out for more strange occurrences of 23 from now on.