In Eugène Ionesco’s one act play La Leçon, the Professor’s faithful housekeeper repeatedly warns him to stay away from broaching the seemingly safe and unthreatening subject of arithmetic because “l’arithmétique mène au pire” (“Arithmetic leads to the worst”). Quite what “the worst” is, we only find out at the end, by which time it’s far too late for the infuriatingly dim student.
Homeopathy is generally presented as safe and unthreatening (except of course to Big Pharma). It too can lead to the worst.
Today, we have two stories for you, split over two posts for ease of reading, and also because I expect to swear quite a lot in the second one.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.
