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This week I learned a new word: "paltering". It's the lie you tell when you want to avoid a difficult truth. Asked whether you drank the last beer, you may have answered: "I only drink wine after six." If in fact you drank the beer at five, that's paltering, right there. People have been paltering since the late 16th century, according to Google, although I suspect it's been going on a tad longer than that. But it's just one of a myriad of types of untruth we delved into when trying to get to grips with whether it's ok to lie to your children.
Of course, we're coming to that time of year when parents wrestle with the Santa Claus dilemma (although as anyone with an older sister like mine will tell you, a belief in a kindly old man with a beard who puts presents at the end of your bed if you are good is unlikely to last after the age of six). The best thing, our ethics expert concludes, is to err on the side of truth. You can still tell them Santa won't come if they are naughty – just come up with a palter to fudge things a little.
Just while we're on the topic of bad behaviour, the one memory everyone will have shared about the late John Prescott was the time he punched that feller who threw an egg at him. For most of us, an incident like this was priced in when it came to Prescott, part of the authenticity that earned him the affection of so many people, regardless of their political leanings. I'm no advocate for gratuitous violence, though, so let's just say: "Don't try this at home."
Whether Prescott was asked to kiss many babies' heads as he campaigned will no doubt emerge in the days and weeks to come. But medical science tells us it's a bad idea: babies' immune systems can take years to fully develop, and certainly newborn children are in no way strong enough to fight off that bit of a sniffle you may be suffering from. Stick to tickling their toes, perhaps.
This week, we also learned how the US experiment in liberalisation of cannabis laws has worked out. We marked 50 years since the Birmingham pub bombings and one of the worst miscarriages of justice in living memory (for families of the victims too, who still haven't been told the whole truth). And the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu and others involved in the ghastly conflict in Gaza.
We also offered up some stories about pop music that were right up my street. The Cure, whose early albums were the soundtrack to my late teens, have a new album out which recalls some of that past gothic glory. Bob Dylan is still touring and yet stll one of a kind (now there's a headline you could have read any time over the past few decades). And we have fresh insights into how Kate Bush set about producing her 1985 masterpiece,
Hounds of Love.
Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the discovery of "Lucy", the ancient hominin whose remains were found in Ethiopia and who for years offered us the oldest evidence of human evolution. Subsequently, Ethiopian paleontologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie was responsible for fossil discoveries that showed humans had been walking on two legs as long as 5 million years ago. In our weekly podcast, he talks with our Insights editor Mike Herd about why the story of ancient human origins is so western-centric, and what it's like to find the world's oldest human ancestor.
Finally, you'll have probably noticed that our Christmas donations campaign begun this week (I know – earlier every year). A huge thanks from us all to those readers who give monthly and those who have responded to our campaign. We're fiercely protective of the independence of our content, and proud that we're able to share our authors' expertise for free to ensure it can be read widely. But this model comes at a cost. Monthly donations are a crucial element of funding that makes our work possible. However much you're able to give, it all adds up and really makes a difference. If you value what The Conversation brings to your understanding of the world, please
donate today.
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