Spinning off

Communication has always had its pitfalls, dependent as it is on noises accepted as ways of passing on thoughts to others, plus the miracle of squiggly lines that crystallise them on stone, parchment, paper or screen. Just ponder how those squiggles can take you into the mind of someone you have never met and has been dead for a couple of centuries. Spooky.

Humanity owes a great debt to it, more than animals, which have a limited vocabulary, expressing themselves by non-verbal cues. We can also use these shortcuts by, say, flipping the bird at someone or frowning. A raised eyebrow while