Michael Fredman

I am on a quest.  I can't claim it has the profundity of a search for the Holy Grail or the philosopher's stone, but to my tongue and stomach, it is a quest of far greater importance.

It is the quest for the best sushi in London...

The Japanese food known to us as sushi is to some a strange and unappetising idea.

The idea of munching on raw fish makes their faces scrunch up in disgust, 'raw fish!' they exclaim, 'how frightful!' and then their monocle falls into their sherry.

But the 'fishy' taste that most people associate with our delicious, silvery, gilled aquatic friends, is actually caused by decay - fresh fish does not smell 'fishy'.

'Sushi' actually refers to the sticky vinegared rice that accompanies the variety of seafood.'Sashimi' is the sliced, fresh raw seafood.  And Sashimi is served very fresh, and expertly filleted.

There is also Bashimi, which is raw horsemeat, but I can't say that my tongue and stomach want to accompany me on that particular quest.

So, where is the best place to get sushi in the grubby, noisy, glittering city of London?

In 1994 I was fortunate enough to see, in the mountains of Rwanda and Uganda, a family of silverback Gorillas, before they were fully acclimatised to human contact.  I would like to avoid anthropomorphism, or unwarranted sentiment, but it was a very touching experience, my impression was that they were strikingly peaceful, beautiful creatures. I found their simplicity in direct contrast to us, their complex neighbours. Human beings had recently perpetrated a horrific genocide amongst themselves in Rwanda, and we, humans, have brought that genocide to the Gorillas too.

What can you do?

The New Scientist has some sound advice

Want to do your bit for the planet, and stop being irritated into the bargain? Then register for the Mailing Preference Service and stop junk mail.  You can also put a 'No junk mail' sticker on your mail box or lettebox.

There is also a Telephone Preference Service that can stop you rushing out of the bath to receive a call from a broken voiced teenager trying to sell you double glazing.

If you get annoyed by vague 'area the size of Wales' statistics then 'Without hot air' is well worth a read.  Professor David Mackay has done the calculations and provides detailed models for how Britain could become sustainable in terms of energy production and consumption. 

There is lots of useful information in the book, all of it with a practical and pragmatic perspective.

Don't kid yourself that you can stop at switching your phone charger off and think you are doing your bit for the environment, for instance:

"All the energy saved in switching off your charger for one day
is used up in one second of car-driving.

The energy saved in switching off the charger for one year is
equal to the energy in a single hot bath."

Read it online here

'I do not like spinach, and I am glad I don't - because if I liked it, I would eat it, and I can't stand it' - From Flaubert's Dictionary of received ideas

Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so

William Shakespeare, Hamlet

We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough.

Niels Bohr

To write in plain, vigorous language one has to think fearlessly, and if one thinks fearlessly one cannot be politically orthodox

George Orwell

We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.

George Orwell, 1939

If I wasn't Bob Dylan, I'd probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself.

Bob Dylan