The Heart of The Matter

I was thinking of adding a rider to last night's post on agentic AI, but I think I'll leave that till later, as I've been kind of thrown into a little fugue on things past, prompted partly by memories raised from my mental depths by this afternoon's visit to the newly re-opened Tryfan [the pub formerly known as The Llangollen, or more usually just The Llan in days past], a reformed "boozer" that appears to be open for business with the rather sensible - to my mind - attitude that you have to be actually open for people to come in and buy drink and food - radical, eh? - and at predictable hours of the day and evening. It's early days yet, but they've started the Spring/Summer season by declaring themselves properly open from noon till late, seven days. They are also serving decent real ales alongside the usual trendy gassy stuff, to boot.

Long may it continue and spur on the competition to step up their game: let's get the High Street going again; Bethesda used to be such a vibrant social scene, and its erosion over the past two or three decades has been a source of great sadness to me [pictured, the current desert that is Bethesda High Street, such a flabby and pale reflection of its heyday(s)]. I know full well that I won't personally be going out on the lash again on a nightly basis at my age, but that's not the point: if we can get younger people off their bloody phones and their arses for an hour or three of an evening and generate some community spirit that truly exists offline and unmediated by social media - and yes, fuelled by a pint or four - then surely that can only be a good thing for all concerned. Remember, pub culture is an intrinsic part of our history in this archipelago of ours: it has always had an important place in our society and has bound communities together in a way that po-faced churchgoing alone never did nor could without its rather more secular support. Long may it be so...