Column by David in The Times.
This week, I have been skiing. This is a problem for me, in my role here at The Times, of cultural commentator. Because of all activities known to humankind, skiing is surely the most culturally bereft. Think about it. What, culture-wise, can you do while you ski? You can’t read, you can’t watch a movie, you can’t write: you can’t really – certainly not at my level – even have very complex or interesting thoughts, because they are blocked out by your mind screaming either BRRRRRR or AAAAARGH. The one thing you can do is listen to music: but the only time I tried to do this – having spent ages rigging up my iPod into my ski jacket, and developing an easy-listening playlist to cope with my fear of the mountain, and buying snow-proof earplugs – it somehow messed up my inner ear, and I fell over before Karen Carpenter had even sung the why of “Why do birds … ?”