is it still true?

You all know the experience to which I’m about to refer.

You hear news that is almost too surprising to believe. You gradually come to terms with its reality throughout the day. But then the disbelief is still present to a sufficient degree that you have to go through the surprise again the next day. Within a half hour or so of waking up, you remember the news, and think: “What? That really happened, or did I dream it?”

And so it was for me this morning (for the second straight morning): “What? Middlesex actually suspended Hallward and Osborne? They would do something that gratuitously heavy-handed?”

A few clicks on Google confirmed that, yes, it’s true.

This is the second time Middlesex has given me such an experience in the past month. The closure of Philosophy there still surprised me on 3 or 4 consecutive mornings whenever I thought about it.

That’s probably a useful measure of the degree of astonishment brought about by any piece of news: for how many mornings do you have to reassure yourself of its truth?