Dying with your boots on

I had this conversation recently with a family member. Neither of us has a pension pot worthy of the name, and we fell to speculating about those who had. Or rather, thought they had, until recently. The small print on all those adverts suddenly sprang to mind: "Prices can go down as well as up," or whatever the paraphrase was. Or perhaps, "Prices can go down as well as plummet." Many people only slightly older than myself are now looking at seriously reduced pensions, and contemplating working until their 70s simply because they can't afford not to.

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Shamash is smiling

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, which goes back to ancient times where legend and history cannot usefully be separated, there an evocative moment where the hero, Gilgamesh, rails in frustration before his god Shamash about his unfulfilled need to conquer the land of Humbaba. Here's what he says: "If this enterprise is not to be accomplished, why did you move me, Shamash, with the restless desire to perform it?"

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