The Afterburners of Recall

I was looking at photos of the first nights of Ramadan in the UK. It was in an urban area, I thought, for there were a lot of young working type blokes. It was somewhere in the UK; I forget where exactly; could have been London, but I think it was somewhere near the interior of the country.

OK. I checked everything. The photos were taken in the Islamic Centre of England; originally I read this as "the Islamic centre of England", which explains why I thought that everything was going on somewhere near Birmingham or Coventry nearer the geographical center of England.... but which does not explain why the Church of England had disappeared from the hinterland!

It was one of those quandary things brought on by odd writing. (It was exactly like those years when I fancied there existed a franchise of camp grounds named "Camp Fire Wood", based upon crudely written signs, which signs should have been rendered "Campfire Wood" instead.)

So, photos of Ramadan in the UK. All very interesting. I particularly noted the makeshift screens which served to separate the men from the women.

Incredibly fast I went like a jet to the novel Studs Lonigan, wherein there was a section ( I am sure! ) where Studs was sitting in the church during Mass, and he was surveying all the dolls, or his main doll at the time, perhaps. I thought of my own woolgathering and musings during various religious services, thinking you can't screen all distractions.

Then I thought Studs Terkel wrote Studs Lonigan, but that was one Studs too many, so I went back to William Something-something-something... no, it was James T. Farrell who wrote it back in 1932.

It was filled with impending Irish doom