Want someone to warm to you? Give them a mug of hot coffee to hold. That’s the message from a recent study published in the journal Science (Experiencing Physical Warmth Promotes Interpersonal Warmth. Lawrence E. Williams and John A. Bargh. Science 24 October 2008: 606-607).  Maybe we should entertain prospective girlfriends or boyfriends or clients with a mug of hot coffee rather than a glass of champers? I guess overall warmth might work equally well. She might be cold just because she is cold. After all, as Rudyard Kipling put it, ‘ What men call gallantry and gods adultery is much more common where the climate’s sultry’.

W. H. Davies

Leisure

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.