I was a little baffled when I learned that adults were queuing up to be diagnosed with autism. I know a number of parents want their children to be somehow special even if they are not - but adults? Then I found out that social media is telling folk that many of history's geniuses, your da Vincis and Einsteins, would almost certainly be diagnosed these days as being on the autism spectrum. Suddenly it all made sense. By the way, I do believe in autism but suspect that there have been some dodgy diagnoses made in the past.

It turned out that the reporters at the Edmonton Sun were paying for a management spy out of their own pockets. Every year there was a Story of the Year award. It was usually a team effort and the prize money was shared between the reporters involved. The winners usually included one guy who as far as I knew had contributed nothing. But I wasn't involved, so how would I know? Then there was a winning story I was involved in that I knew this guy had made no meaningful contribution. But around then the guy had blown his cover anyway. There was a leaving do at a pub at which it became clear that the reason for the departure was a certain boss. Many others at the pub that night had their own stories about this boss guy's incompetence and sexual harassment. Next day the big boss knew a lot about what was said in the pub. But the odd thing was he only knew what was said after a certain person arrived at the pub - you guessed it, the fellah who regularly shared in the prize money pot despite not working on the winning story of the year. It turned out one of the perks of being a management spy was being put on the list of prize winners for Story of the Year. If he hadn't been, then the real contributors would have one less person to split the prize money with.

When I was an underage drinker I was surprised that I wasn't challenged more by the bar staff. Maybe they simply didn't care. But as someone who is now legally classed as an adult I wonder how well a bar full of teenagers would do financially. We were not big spenders. I knew one guy who at 16 used to drink in the same pub as a lot of the teachers. They may even have had beers with him. I wish they could see how he turned out. Hanging out with the kind of guys who leach off kids in a pub isn't a good start in life. As I say, an older guy now, I wonder how we got away with it. I suspect it might have been that to adult most folk under 20 years old look 15 and you can't turn 'em all away. The thing is that teenagers like to be different - though not getting-picked-on different. Anyway they adopt bands and stuff like that as tribal totems. And if you recognise the band name on the Tshirt, or whatever, you can pretty work out how old a person is from their musical taste, or whatever. But a person over-21 and working in bar wouldn't be able to consistently spot the tells.

I shouldn't laugh, coz it's no laughing matter. You know some people used to think they drove better with a few drams in them? Well, this New Year gave me pause for thought. There was a lot of traffic on the roads after The Bells. The thing was that I had never seen everyone driving with much care and consideration. I suspect they were driving safely coz they didn't want involved in any accidents that might resulted in them being breath-tested. This morning things were back to normal with folk going through red lights, etc. Some of these folks are such good drivers they get in collisions with trains.  I say drinking and driving is no laughing matter coz it killed my grandpa's brother. Multiple millions of Germans had failed to finish him off when he went into action as paratrooper during the Second World War but one Yank did for him in 1957.

I forgot to run a teaser last week reminding you that the 2025 Book of the Year was being announced today. So, if you please, internal drumroll sound in your head. After a strong start to the year although the general quality of the books reviewed was good, the shortlist came down to only three titles. The first contender was SAS Operation Storm about the defence of the Omani fishing village of Mirbat in 1972. For an SAS book to make the shortlist is unusual because most are what I term War Porn. Co-author Roger Cole was there as an SAS trooper while Richard Belfield is a skilled writer. Between them they delved into a rich vein of information. The second contender was The Korean War by old favourite, and old soldier, Tim Carew. This book from 1967 was a joy to read with the often grim stories from the Commonwealth contingent brightened with sudden splashes of humour. Number Three in the running was Robert Kershaw's balanced and insightful look at the 1944 fighting in Arnhem through the prism of one street. At the end of the day it came down to Mirbat or Korea. The tie- breaker was a stupid claim that the Strikemaster jets at Mirabet were armed with submachine guns. So, Korea wins.