A couple of free hours... I need a bath (etic) story!

Some free time to do some creative composition, at last! It's Labour Day, a good occasion to remember that in many areas of activity the number of working hours per day has increased, not decreased in the computer age. We now work faster, of course, but we need to check the messages in the internet and prepare materials during the weekend and, as we work in small supervised groups when teaching, we need to prepare more activities on line, not to mention research and personal and professional contacts. In the past the number of working hours was set in 40 per week. I know that now, both directly and indirectly -at home or in my office- I spend about 12 hours a day, not to mention the weekends. 60-70 hours, is it possible? Only in my case? Am I wrong?
I have spent three hours this afternoon-evening writing a short composition on some contemporary issues. Bathetic, satiric, ironic? I cannot tell. To me my compositions are a catharsis, a way to express some of my feelings and ideas about what is going on. Of course both the ideas and the humour are my responsibility, even though I think that I never reach the point of being either abusive or overconfident when stating my opinions. Of course, a joke always involves some risks....
I must confess that I miss the good old days in which some friends and me met to have dinner and talk about the way of the world during the weekend. Unfortunately Time never forgives and we all live very busy lives now. Besides, of course, there are different ways of socializing.
I have not uploaded anything in this blog for almost a month; unfortunately not much time, not even for bathetic humour! I should write something to refresh some old notions such as proposition, propositional attitude, irony, humour, effect, double meaning, pamphlet and so on. Grammar dry and boring? Impossible if you know how to apply it. It's a question of style! A touch of "class?"

Labour Day 1st May 2009

View more presentations from Eduardo Varela.

Main errata:
2.- "She was in charge...." Rewrite. Obscure.
on/in
3.- "Beating round the bush."
began/begin
6.- you/your