As a side hustle, I very much enjoy being a newspaper columnist. It’s a release for my creative juices whose needs are not met in other fashions, be it TikTok, Facebook or Instagram. I have a few rules however, with numero uno being never mention the day job in too much detail.
Last week I was in receipt of a new insult when I was called an ‘intellectual bulimic.’ Am I bothered? Honestly, I used to be, but having written columns for a couple of decades now, it is water off a duck's back. That is, until my kryptonite: When aspersions are cast upon my full-time job as I just don’t, and have never, got ‘it.
You do not have to prove your political leanings before entering a Weatherspoon’s and, if you did, no doubt they would be barren. My point is business and individuals all hold opinions that may or may not go against the grain and I am no different, except I have an outlet for mine and I am not afraid to share them.
No, teaching and writing are not natural bedfellows and are the work equivalent of Sam and Mick presenting the Brit awards. That said I will continue to blend only rarely the two, as I have today. Usually, I only marry them both when defending the current crop of teenagers who are a lot less troublesome that I was in my teenage years.